Ill thought out rules that break a game!

[scrivs]

I've just had the most tedious game of Trafalgar ever, ruined through out by an ill thought out rule.

Matt and I played 1200pts a side, I took Royal Navy force of:

Rear Admiral
3rd Rate Large - Master Gunner, Marines, Sturdy Construction
3rd Rate Large - Boarding Nets, Sturdy Construction
3rd Rate Large - Grapeshot, Sturdy Construction
3rd Rate Large - Sturdy Construction
5th Rate Frigate - Sturdy Construction

Matt took a French force of:

Rear Admiral
3rd Rate Large - Streamlined Hull, Ships Physician, Red Hot Shot
3rd Rate Large - Streamlined Hull, Red Hot Shot
3rd Rate Large - Streamlined Hull,Red Hot Shot
3rd Rate Large - Streamlined Hull, Red Hot Shot
3rd Rate Large - Streamlined Hull

What a dull game of all my ships being on fire for nine turns and eventually becoming crippled or de-crewed. Was this ridiculous upgrade play-tested at all? On ships that even dismantled the ovens before action it was hardly advised to go sailing into battle with a forge on-board.

[Guy]

You should check out the captain's table yahoo group.

...

Oh and ban red hot shot.

...

Could have done with a tad more playtesting...

Guy

[Braveheart]

Paul,

I've found this on Utube; it may help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOErZuzZ ... re=related

You need sound

Ta

[aecurtis]

Sorry: wrong era of naval warfare. Arthur Brown was a civilian canteen assistant on HMS Queen Mary. Killed at Jutland; one of the 1245 of her crew tragically lost.

You should check out the captain's table yahoo group.

¿Por qué? Is it necessary now to have Yahoo groups to fix what was wrong when something was published? Better, I would have thought, to take the time and get it right the first time.

Allen

[aecurtis]

A TMP thread that may be of interest:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=168339

I'll reiterate this link I posted there:

http://forum.sailingnavies.com/viewtopic.php?t=1008

The USS Constitution is frequently cited as having a shot furnace in such authoritative souces as Wikipedia. The Sailing Navies thread may put that fact into perspective, as well as the French usage of heated shot.

Allen

[Guy]

¿Por qué? Is it necessary now to have Yahoo groups to fix what was wrong when something was published?

Isn't that the purpose of the WAB list and the WAB Forum?

...

The USS Constitution is frequently cited as having a shot furnace in such authoritative souces as Wikipedia. The Sailing Navies thread may put that fact into perspective, as well as the French usage of heated shot.

Thanks for the links Allen. So red hot shot was used occasionally but one thing becomes very obvious reading the accounts, the great difficulty and effort to heat up a single ball to such high temperatures - we are talking individual cannonballs, not some sort of production line capable of feeding an entire broadside battery 'ad infinitum'.

So a good house rule? Once per game! Or one of the broadside factors gets a special die for firing red hot shot. We will be looking at sheer folly if anyone believes they can feed an entire broadside of scores of guns with red hot shot.

Guy

[bamaswampmonster]

We will be looking at sheer folly if anyone believes they can feed an entire broadside of scores of guns with red hot shot.

Which, gamers being gamers, they will. It's not helped by Hollywood where every arrow, catapult missile, grenades, car crash is All Flames, All the Time.

Simplest thing to "put out this fire" is probably just not to use the option at all in games until it gets sorted out, maybe in errata or some such. It seems that the occasional use of pyrotechnic munitions is a small enough thing that it could be considered already in the rules with the normal chance to get set aflame.

[Guy]

Which, gamers being gamers, they will. It's not helped by Hollywood where every arrow, catapult missile, grenades, car crash is All Flames, All the Time.

True...

Simplest thing to "put out this fire" is probably just not to use the option at all in games until it gets sorted out, maybe in errata or some such. It seems that the occasional use of pyrotechnic munitions is a small enough thing that it could be considered already in the rules with the normal chance to get set aflame.

Yup. Or there should be some risk to the ship attempting to use red hot shot. As above, the numbers don't add it for it to be used with every broadside.

Guy

[peter fryer]

i agree,very very rearly would hot shot have been used, i think we will use it sometimes just with shore batterys or martello,s.
pete