Black Seas: first try out

 I had a long overdue game with my friend Andrew last week and we decided to dig out my Napoleonic ships.  A while ago... actually nearly 4 years ago!!  I painted and rigged some of the Warlord Games ships that they produced for Black Seas.  These were mainly the freebie Frigates and Brigs that came with Wargames Illustrated but I'd added a few 3rd rate ships to bolster my fleet

Their last outing was about 3 years ago (I'm always amazed how time flies by... I'd assumed it was much more recent) when we tried out Post Captain.  These are a very detailed set of rules from ODGW who produce General Quarters.  I liked the rules but they are very detailed and not to everyone's taste.  A while ago I managed to pick up a very cheap starter set of Black Seas but hadn't had a chance to try them out.  So, it was time to hoist the sails, splice the mainbrace and swab a deck or 2.

I think naval rules are difficult to get right... either you go for a very detailed, granular approach like Post Captain, or a simplified but playable approach (and risk oversimplifying things and losing the flavour of the period).  A simpler approach is very much what Black Seas does.  It's very like the WW2 game Cruel Seas with ships making 1, 2 or 3 moves depending on their speed with simple turning and tacking rules.  Speed  is dependent on your angle to the wind and is indicated by a wake marker that sits under the model in a simple but effective way.

We went for an easy starter game with a Frigate and a Brig each and didn't add in the range of optional rules which are included... apart from fire, because setting a ship on fire is always fun!

In the first couple of turns I was able to concentrate both my ships fire on Andrew's unlucky Brig which took a battering and quickly struck its colours.  We made a mistake about when to test for morale here so it surrendered more quickly than it should have but we kept this consistent for the rest of the game so it didn't make a huge difference.

Damage in Black.Seas is handled very simply... heavy and light guns cause a fixed amount of damage while carronades cause a bit more but only at shorter ranges.  There are rules for different types of shot etc.  There's always the chance of a critical as well.  Despite losing his Brig, Andrew had been slowly causing hits on my Frigate, managing to cross my T at one point and inflicting extra raking damage.  In exchange I'd managed to cause a fire on his ship but annoyingly he quickly doused this.

Perfect raking fire

A lucky shot starts a fire on the French ship

Both of us were becoming increasingly damaged and some poor steering on my part led to a collision, and both ships struck their colours leaving my Brig to claim the honours.

Crunch!

A good game and I was very impressed with the rules... I think the strike a good balance between detail and playability