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Black Seas is releasing any day now, Oak & Iron seems to be releasing soon.

Both games have the same theme(age of sail wargames), and more or less whitin the same timeframe if i understand it right, so i guess it boils down to the rules that i ofc have not seen, else i would not make this thread.
What are the differences in terms of gameplay between the two games??

Are there idealy any gamers here that have played both games and can provide some pointers, toughts or feedback on these two games?

not played, however - concerning just the rules

had a look at the rules read throughs for Black Seas and saw its either based on Cruel seas, or perhaps Cruel seas was based on this - from that alone I'm already not impressed, just doesn't play like an enjoyable game and this being Warlord how long/well it will be supported is anyones guess

Oak and Iron have a download of the rules which I grabbed, it looks a better game

but to be honest neither grab me, both seem to have reduced ships firepower to a single 'firepower' rating, or three such ratings which seems to lead to a lot of very generic ships with very generic speed bands. Oak & Iron appears to have a decent enough mechanic for wind facing

both are probably good for decent sized fleet actions though as a result of that, but suspect they may be a bit hollow for smaller actions where the rules will basically mean the first solid hit decides the game

the warlord plastics are ok though, not entirely sold on the rigging stuff (clear acetate sheet would have been better) and personally think actual plastic sails would have been better too (not as part of the mast, separate parts)

personally would prefer a much more detailed game

for Age of Sail, Post Captain by ODGW is my go to set, super great and realistic for small actions, even includes cutting out scenarios, etc. https://www.odgw.com/forums/store/product/73-post-captain-loose-leaf/

I know it's an older thread, but here is a newer article relevant to the question:

Oak & Iron and Black Seas are both naval combat, miniatures-based board games. How do you know which to choose? Get a comprehensive review to help you decide which one you should choose and why.

https://timberandsail.com/oak-and-iron-vs-black-seas

Yea i agree on the points.

As i saw it back then, O&I is less about the models and more about the game. This becomes a little bit more true when you actualy hold an O&I ship, they realy look like a kinderegg toy and the plastic they use is flexible meaning it can survive beeing dropped from the table, even if you glue the masts aslong as you dont do rigging.(these ships are not ment to be rigged and a few of the small ships you are forced to glue due to the design) Black Seas allso fockuses more on the later stages of age of sail with spesific named ships, O&I just uses the ships in a generic way in order to generaly represent all stages of age of sail.

For some, product avalibility and price matters more, and in that regards O&I overall is cheaper. Warlord is quite nicely avalible in both eu and u.s, but Firelock Games dont have mutch presence outside of u.s, meaning O&I is harder to get hold of in eu and skandi.