Shiver Your Mainbrace - LAW going Nautical

[Paul]

I've been looking at the 'Kiss me Hardy' rules by TFL they seem to be pretty good, although i've never played them. Of all the ones i've looked at over the last couple of days they're the ones which seem to cover all the interesting bits!

[World2dave]

That's the route I keep meaning to go down, but I haven't picked up a copy yet. Do they cater for small actions with small vessels too?

[grizzlymc]

They're really for larger actions, ships are generic and they move quickly. I'd loomk at post captain for little fights and Kiss me Hardy for bigger ones.

[Paul]

I thought that they give a lot of flavour detail and look good for small ship actions. I've bought them twice over the years, once in 2008 and once in 2010 because the old system of purchasing didn't give you life long access to download stuff if your PC went belly up
Over the next week I have hospital appointments, a summer house to build and the car to take in to the machanics! But after that i'll print some ship silouettes out and have a go.

[World2dave]

Slacker!

[Paul]

It sounds like there are about 6 people interested in this? The other benefit of keeping any campaign elements abstract is that no one has to opt out to be 'umpire'.

[World2dave]

Absolutely. We keep the campaign management to a minimum and concentrate on the gaming!

[Paul]

If we're going to have any sort of land element (amphibious landing etc....) I have uncovered a few packs of 3mm figures I bought last year before committing to 6mm. Probably got enough for any needs we might have but happy to get a few more as F15's are selling up there O8 ranges at a discount!

[Timmo]

It's worth taking a look at the the old classic Avalon Hills, Wooden Ships & Iron Men. It works very well at all types of actions and in spite of it's board game origins it is really a miniatures game. If you can get a hex mat with 5 – 6cm hexes (ships fill two hexes) it makes manoeuvre much easier. With six of you you can do small ship actions, each with a ship or two per player or a big battle with each taking 4 – 6 ships each. If you don't allow talking tactics between players then you could communicate only using signal flags to those in visual range. It's a great set of rules that is easy to learn. If you want to use card activation then the Kiss Me Hardy system will slot in with the advantage that the sailing and combat mechanics of WS&IM are more streamlined and faster than KMH. With a hex mat the impact of wind direction is very easy to understand.

[Paul]

I used to play WS&IM about thirty years ago.
It is very much meant for one ir two ships a player or it gets 'unweildy' (Although it may be the mists of time or impatience of youth that makes me think that?)
I think AH or maybe someone else later published a hexless version for miniatures but I never played that as my interests had moved on.
I love the idea of making players wave signal flags to each other