Book Review - 1812: The Navy's War

With the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 coming up, I've been expecting to see a lot of new books covering this little remembered war. Here is my take on the new book from George C. Daughan, 1812: The Navy's War.

This book is sort of a follow-up to Daughan's previous book, "If By Sea," which covered the creation of the American navy from the Revolutionary War through the War of 1812. I say "sort of" because If By Sea did have some coverage of the War of 1812, while the new book is only about the War of 1812.

Based on the sub-title and the author's previous work, you might think that this book would only be about naval actions during the War of 1812. But Daughan also does a good job of providing information about the politics involved (on both sides), the overall strategic plans, and the land campaigns (even those that didn't have a naval component).

The book starts out explaining the causes of the war from the point of view of each side, but mostly from a naval angle (Daughan doesn't talk very much about the issues on the western frontier of the U.S.). On the sailor's rights issue, Daughan even goes into some detail about how if the Royal Navy would have treated its sailors better there would not have been as high of a desertion rate and it wouldn't have had to impress so American sailors. While this is provides some interesting insights into the Royal Navy, I don't think the Royal Navy was ready for the sort of reforms he points out.

One interesting thread that runs throughout the book is the idea that President Madison was taking the expected actions of Napoleon into account when starting and planning for the war. I don't think I've read any other books that play this up as Daughan does. I think that Madison and the other people pushing for war were hoping that England would be too involved fighting Napoleon to take major actions against the United States and would be willing to settle the war quickly. But I don't think they were really making plans based on Napoleon's actions.

After the war starts, the book goes on to describe the major land campaigns and naval actions, with pauses to talk about each side's plans and the political situations. Most of the land actions have enough information that you get a good idea of what happened, with only a few (such as the attack on Baltimore after the burning of Washington and the Battle of New Orleans) covered in extra detail. The book does cover some land actions that other War of 1812 books skim over, such as the actions in Michigan area and Andrew Jackson's actions against the Creeks. On the naval side, the book does a good job of covering the major battles during the war (the frigate actions, the Battle of Lake Erie, and Battle of Lake Champlain) along with lesser known actions by American sloops and privateers. There was also really good information on the U.S. Navy's involvement in the New Orleans campaign, which is often brushed over by most War of 1812 histories. In fact, I really liked the chapter on New Orleans. The book also gives some information about the U.S. Navy's post-war expedition against the Barbary States. I was a little disappointed that there wasn't more detail on the what was happening in Lake Ontario, but I have other books for that.

The book finishes with the post-war attitudes taken by each side and the importance of the war in changing the relationship between Britain and the United States.

Overall, 1812: The Navy's War is well written, informative, and I enjoyed reading it. The book does a good job of providing an overall view of the War of 1812, with a naval focus. From a wargaming point of view, the book should provide some ideas for land and naval scenarios for the War of 1812.

2011 Museum of Flight Game Day Recap

NHMGS had its annual game day at the Museum of Flight on Saturday November 12. We were set up under the museum's Blackbird (really a M-21 variant of the A-12 designed to carry an unmanned drone for intelligence gathering) in the main gallery with four gaming tables and an information table. We had a really good turnout of NHMGS members (around 25), along with museum goers that stopped off to view the games and ask questions. We had between 6 and 10 museum visitors that took the time to play in some of the games and there was at least that many that said they wished they had the time to sit and play.

NHMGS Information Table

Tables all set up under the Blackbird

The morning session had a Wings of War game (which seemed very popular), our home-brew Golden Age Air Racing game, a WWII skirmish game, and some DBA games.

Wings of War ready to play

Skirmish game set up

Air racing in progress

Several DBA games in progress

In the afternoon it there was a Check You Six Jets game, a robot gladiator game, more DBA, a continuation of the skirmish game, and an exclusive premier of the upcoming Wizard's of the Coast/Avalon Hill Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures game (more on this below).

Check Your Six Jets Israeli Phantoms

Robot gladiators

A pair of Axis & Allies Hurricanes

I spent the morning at the information table talking about gaming and generally making a nuisance of myself. After lunch I watched a game of the A & A Air Force Miniatures game and then took up a couple planes myself.

Some museum visitors looking in on the games

The game day is always a good opportunity to show off the hobby to the general public and play a few games. The museum is a really great forum for showing off games and the museum visitors are often interested in talking about the hobby. Everyone seemed to have a good time and our museum contact told us that they like having us there, so expect to be back again next year.

Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures game:
The game designer, Rich Baker, and some other members of the A & A Team showed up at the game day to show off their upcoming Axis & Allies Air Force Miniatures game. Here are my impressions of the game.

A Bf-109E and Spitfire from the Starter set

First off, a little about the planes. The planes are pre-painted 1/100 scale (15mm), so they are pretty big when compared to most air games, but are still pretty light. The stands are clear hex-shaped bases, with the numbers 1 – 6 printed on them to represent altitudes, and the post has ball top that fit in the socket of the plane. The Ball/Socket combination allows you to show climbing, diving, and banking (evading in game terms). The models I saw all looked pretty good, with some nice detail (you can see panel lines on the planes), and would be easy to repaint to change squadrons and markings.

A Bf-109E and Bf-110C (the largest plane in the initial release)

You can see how the planes can bank in this photo

The game is played on a hex grid with the planes facing the hex flat. The basic rules are pretty easy to pick up. Game turns have an Initiative, Movement, and Firing phases. Initiative is determined by competitive die rolls (there are some modifiers for these rolls), the side that wins initiative moves second and fire second. Planes are moved one a time, alternating movement between sides, but the side that won the initiative always gets to move last. During movement a plane can do basic turns (one hexside) or advanced maneuvers (tight turns, Split-S, Barrel Roll, etc.) and climb or dive. The basic turns can always be done, but to successfully complete the other maneuvers the player rolls two dice, adds modifiers based on plane type (there are some other modifiers too) and has to beat the maneuver number. Combat is similar to the War At Sea miniatures, with a plane rolling a number of D6s based on plane type and range. The base hit numbers are determined by the aircraft position. The number "hits" is compared to the planes Armor and Vital values. If you get more "hits" than the Armor rating, the plane is damaged and if you get the Vital rating the planes is shot down.

A FW-190 and Bf-109 getting into action

The game was fun and played quickly. There was enough differences between plane stats that you actually felt like you weren't just playing with generic fighters.

A P-40C in Flying Tigers colors

The initial release, called Angels 20, has a release date of February 2012. The Starter Set will have 6 planes (2 Hurricanes, 1 Spitfire, 2 Bf-109E, 1 Bf-110C) and boosters will have 3 random planes. There were 31 planes listed in the set, but some are duplicate aircraft with different stats. The first set will have British, German, Russian, Italian, Japanese, and American planes.

Starter Kit box front cover

Starter Kit box back cover

Building a Cairo Class Ironclad

In preparation for the American Civil War DANG 2011 game, I've started to get together the ships needed for the game. I'm going to be able to borrow most of the ships needed for the game from the local ironclads buffs (Kevin, George and David), but I still wanted to put together a ship for the game. I will have to assemble some terrain for the game, but I always like to have at least one ship that I painted up on the table. I was able to talk Kevin into loaning me one of his un-built Thoroughbred Figures Cairo ironclad gunboats, so that I would have something to put together for the game.

USS Mound City

First a little history. The Cairo class gunboats were ironclads used on the Mississippi River and its tributaries during the American Civil War. These are also sometimes referred to as City class gunboats, "Eads gunboats" or "Pook Turtles." The class was designed by James Buchanan Eads, a wealthy St. Louis industrialist who risked his fortune in support of the Union.

The seven gunboats in the class were named for cities on the Mississippi or its tributaries. They were: Cairo, Carondelet, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburg, and St. Louis (later renamed Baron De Kalb). The first four gunboats were built at the Carondelet Marine Ways (today part of St. Louis). This was a logical choice since the area had the dry dock facilities and was a machinery center and had a ready supply of skilled tradesmen to do the required work. Most importantly, since the gunboats were to be used on the Mississippi River, building them at St Louis meant that at completion, the boat could be quickly put into service. The three other gunboats were built at the Mound City Marine Railway & Shipyard facilities.

The Cairo class gunboats formed the core of the US Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla, which later was transferred to the US Navy and became the Mississippi River Squadron. The gunboats took part in almost every significant action on the upper Mississippi and its tributaries.

The Thoroughbred 1/600 scale Cairo class is a nice kit. Out of the box the kit has instructions, the main body for the boat, two smokestacks, four vents, three ship's boats (one large and two small), a brass wire for the flagpole and a paper flag. All the parts were cleanly cast and I didn't need to do much before starting assembly.

Thoroughbred Cairo Class parts

Putting the ship together was pretty easy (due to the limited number of parts), although I decided to leave the ship's boats off for the moment. The instruction sheet has some painting tips and lists the color bands used on the stacks to identify the different ships in the class. Here you can see my initial painting effort.

Cairo Class 3/4 view

Cairo side view

I was trying to get a lighter black on the hull (historically I believe those area were covered with creosote), but I think I might need to go back and dry-brush the hull with a grey or dark brown color to give it a more weathered look. The deck was painted a wood tan and the paddle box for the wheel was painted a dark brown. I touched up the guns with a deeper glossier black, but it is hard to see. I haven't decided if I will add the ship's boats or leave them off. My initial feeling is that the boats would have been left behind if the ship was expecting action (fewer things to cause splinters if hit or catch fire), so I'm leaning toward leaving them off. That way I won't have to worry about making davits for them.

3/4 view with the ship's boats and civilian pilothouse

I've also been thinking about adding a wooden "civilian pilothouse" on top of the armored one. There are several photos on the Navy History site that show ships of this class with the modification (the photo at the start of the blog is one of those). But, like the ship's boats, I wonder if it would have been in place if the ship was expecting action. If there is more than one Cairo class gunboat in the game, the wooden pilothouse would make this ship look a little different than others. But I guess that is what the stack color bands are for.

Side view with boats and pilothouse

Comments on if I should include the boats and pilothouse are welcome (general comments are welcome too). 

October Update

Over the past several weeks I haven't been working on much hobby stuff. I’ve mostly been helping my wife with outside chores to prepare for fall and winter, but here are a few updates on what is happening.

First off, I want to mention that the NHMGS (Northwest Historical Miniatures Gaming Society) Game Day at the Museum of Flight in Seattle is set for Saturday, November 12.

NHMGS has been running a game day at the museum on and off for the last ten years. It is always a good time and we are expecting around 20+ NHMGS members to be there to show the flag. If you are in the Seattle area on November 12, you might want to stop by the museum and have a look or even join in a game. You can find out more about getting to the museum at their website.

I haven’t got a list of all the games are being put on yet, but I think there will be some World War I air action and some DBA battles. As always, we will have an information table with reference books, rules, and miniatures on display.

Next, I am preparing for my yearly naval game: DANG (Dave's Annual Naval Game). This is DANG’s tenth year (you can see some recaps of previous DANGs here and last year’s game here) and we just completed voting for this year’s game.

This year’s game, titled Up the River, is an American Civil War riverine mini-campaign. The game is based on David Manley’s Red River Blues solo campaign system for his Iron and Fire rules, with a few of my own modifications. The game probably won’t end up anything like the Battle of Memphis pictured above, but there should be some good battles. The basic premise of the game is that Union naval forces have heard a rumor that the Confederates are building and ironclad on a nearby tributary of the Mississippi River. The Union players must organize a force to move up river and destroy the ironclad. The Union players will only have a general idea of the river course and not much information on enemy forces (the ironclad might not even be real). The Confederate players will have to organize their defenses as best they can with the spread-out forces that are on hand. We are planning to use the new Steam and Sail Navies rules (from Bay Area Yards) and 1/600 scale ships. Several of the DANG participants already have ships, so I might not need to buy any new ships for this year’s game.

That will leave me time (and money) to work on my Age of Sail stuff and missile boats. I’m currently cleaning up some old Minifigs sailors, that I got off eBay, and some Thoroughbred Figures Tripoli Pirates for painting.

Steam and Sail at Fix Bayonets

It has been a little while since I last updated my blog (sorry about that). Work and home life have kept me busy the last month and I haven't been doing much game stuff. But now that Fall is here, I'm hoping that will change. With that in mind I took at trip down to Ft. Steilacoom for the Fix Bayonets! one-day game event. Kevin was planning on running a American Civil War naval game with the recently purchased Sail and Steam Navies from Bay Area Yards and I was interested in seeing how these rules played out compared to the Ironclads rules that he normally uses.

Kevin brought out a hypothetical scenario he has run before, where a motley group of Confederate ships is attempting to escape to Cuba when it is intercepted by a Union group. The twist is that the interception happens right after a storm passed over the ships, so visibility and speed are initially limited by the stormy waters. Additionally, the Confederates had a little damage done to their ships by the storm.

The Confederate group was made up of the ironclad ram Stonewall, the commerce raider Tallahassee, the cruiser Texas (this ship was being built for the Confederacy by France, but never went into service, it is not the casemate ironclad of the same name), and the unarmed blockade runner Owl. I was running Texas and Owl.

Confederate force with Tallahassee (foreground), Stonewall, Owl, and Texas

On the Union side had the large screw-frigate Niagara, side-wheel steamer Vanderbilt, and screw-sloop Kearsarge.

Union forces with Vanderbilt (left), Kearsarge, and Niagara

The Union outgunned the Confederates, but the Confederates had the only ironclad. The victory conditions were pretty simple, the Confederates had to exit off the other side of the board (final victory would be determined by how many ships exited), while the Union had to stop them.

Since this was the first time any of the players had played with the Steam and Sail Navies rules, we spent a little time going over the rules and ship cards. There is no movement plotting with the rules, you just set your speed, and gunnery happens before movement, which is a little different than most games. Gunnery is sort of a mix of the common To Hit die roll and buckets of dice for damage. Basically the gun range determines the base To Hit number and the die roll is modified by different situations (crew quality, multiple guns in a group firing, etc.). A hit location die is rolled at the same time as the To Hit die to determine what section of the target is hit (if there is a hit). The armor for the location is compared to the penetration value of the gun. The difference is the number of dice the attacking player rolls for damage. The damage die rolls really only do damage is you roll an 8 or higher, but if you get three of the same number (assuming you are rolling three or more damage dice) you hit a gun or get a critical hit. After gunnery, ships move with one side moving all of their ships and then the other side moves. After that there are morale checks and damage repairs to finish the turn.

The game started out with both sides out of visual range (due to the storm) and moving slowly. As the storm passed the visibility increased and both sides sighted each other. The Union forces had Kearsarge in the center to stop a straight run by the Confederates, while Niagara and Vanderbilt work around the edges. Niagara got off some early shots at Texas that knocked out the bow pivot gun on the cruiser. On the next turn Niagara switched to firing shell and did some heavy damage to the cruiser, slowing it and damaging its steering. On the other side of the Confederate formation, Vanderbilt and Kearsarge were trading shots with Tallahassee and Stonewall, without much effect on either side. Owl was trying to make repair her engine (which were damaged in the storm) to get up to maximum speed.

Niagara continued to pound away on Texas, which was having trouble getting off any effective shots because of the suppressing effects of Niagara's guns. Additionally, Texas took some critical hits that slowed her down and eventually put her dead in the water.

Owl with the damaged Texas

Tallahassee and Vanderbilt traded broadsides in an uneven exchange, with little damage done to Vanderbilt while Tallahassee's magazine exploded leaving little of the ship behind. Meanwhile, Stonewall was able to use her 10" gun to inflict some heavy damage on Kearsarge, including a critical steering hit.

Kearsarge takes a hit

Owl finally repaired her engines and increased speed, leaving the other Confederate ships behind. Niagara closed in to finish off the wounded Texas.

Niagara moves to finish off Texas

Vanderbilt was turning to go chase down Stonewall, but didn't realize Kearsarge had steering damage and the cruiser collided with the side-wheel steamer. No damage was done to Vanderbilt, but Kearsarge took some hull damage as the steamer pushed by (I'm sure there will be a Court of Inquiry later to determine who was at fault here).

Kearsarge and Vanderbilt meet under less than ideal circumstances

With Kearsarge and Vanderbilt effectively out of the chase, Stonewall made her way off the board. Now that Texas was finished, Niagara turned to go after the speedy Owl. Niagara fired at the blockade runner, doing some damage and starting a fire, but the attacks failed to slow Owl. Owl was able to put out the fire and exit the board.

Owl escapes with only minor singes

Since Owl and Stonewall were able to exit with only minor damage, the Confederates were declared the winners.

The rules were interesting and I'm looking forward to playing them again. Niagara seemed like a monster (especially when compared to Kearsarge, Texas, and Tallahassee) and it caused a lot of hits and critical hits to Texas. But I don't think you will see that kind of damage in battles with ships with fewer guns.

The rest of Fix Bayonets! looked like it went well. There were a couple Sword and Flames games, a 25mm WWII skirmish game, a Sharp Practice game, and a Regimental Fire and Fury game. It was a nice little event. You can see pictures that others took here.

Looking at Rules: Kiss Me, Hardy

In my search for a good set of rules of rules for my 15mm Age of Sail ships (you can read about other rules here, here, and here), I finally decided pick up a copy Kiss Me, Hardy from Two Fat Lardies (TFL). The Lardies have a good reputation for their rules, so it seemed like a low risk purchase. With that in mind, here is my overview of the Kiss Me, Hardy rules (I should also note this overview is based on reading through the rules and some solo walkthroughs of a game).

Kiss Me, Hardy comes as a 50 page PDF file, but there is a lot of white space and partial pages so the rules aren't really that heavy. The rules are designed for use with 1/1200 scale ships, but the author says they can be used with other scales. However, I don't think he was thinking about the 15mm ships, which is what I am looking for. Ranges in the game are measured in cm (but I expect you could modify this if needed) and the game primarily uses D6s, but there are times you will need some other dice.

Like other TFL rules, there isn’t a set turn sequence; instead a deck of cards (you have to make these yourself) is used to determine what action is taken. There are cards for checking wind change, resolving boarding actions, and each squadron/formation has a Move card and Fire card. When a card is turned up that action is resolved. However, a player can hold back their Fire card for use later in the turn, but it must be played before the next turn.

For movement, each ship rate (based on the number of guns) has a base movement number ranging from 10 cm for 1st rates to 16 cm for small ships (sloops and cutters). The base movement is modified by die rolls (D6s) based on the wind position for the ship. Turning is handled through the use of a turning circle. There are special rules for tacking (turning through the wind), maintaining formation, and collisions. Overall, the movement rules are pretty easy to deal with.

For firing, the base number of dice (D6s) for broadside firepower is based on the number of guns on the ship, ranging from 14 dice for 120 gun ship to 2 dice for a ship with less than 20 guns. The base number of dice is modified by crew quality, if you are firing a full broadside, and a few other factors. The “To Hit” roll is based on range. In addition to the normal fire dice, you also roll a D10 for special damage. If the D10 roll is less than or equal to the number of hits rolled, special damage is checked on the target. When firing, the player declares if they are shooting at hull or rigging and each hit does 1 damage point. Ships hull hits are based on the number of guns they carry (a 74 gun ship has 74 Hull hits and a 36 gun frigate has 36 Hull hits). For rigging, ships have Primary and Secondary boxes based on their movement (there are three Secondary boxes in a Primary box). Most rigging hits mark off Primary boxes, but sometimes Secondary boxes are marked.

Once ships start taking damage, there will be times when the ship is required to make a Strike Test (basically a morale check). If the ship fails the test, it must retire from action or (in certain cases) will surrender to an enemy ship.

If two or more ships are locked together, they can fight a boarding action (when the appropriate card is turned). Each side rolls D6s (1 for every 10 remaining Hull hits) and adds them together, with the highest total winning the stage. This continues until all the decks on a ship are taken or the defenders throw the attackers back.

That covers the basic rules for the game, but there are also rules anchoring, running aground, small boats, galleys, fireships, bomb vessels, shore batteries, static defenses, and even land actions.

Another good rule (in my opinion) is the Ship and National Characteristics rule. This covers crew quality breaking crews into three groups (Jolly Jack Tars, Sans Culottes, and Landlubbers). Each group can further be broken down into Elite, Average, and Poor (exception, there are no Elite Landlubbers). I really like this rule since it gives eight basic crew levels without adding a lot of rule text. Another nice touch is the optional rule for modifying vessels, which allows for some further customization of ships.

The rules play pretty fast and should work well for large and small fleet actions.

Pros: Quick play, random turn sequence, different crew types, and lots of optional rules. Probably good for convention games.

Cons: Standardized ships and guns (this is okay for the scale used), PDF download (this can be a pro or con depending on your point of view).

Fighting Sail

What better way to commemorate the 99th anniversary of the victory by USS Constitution over HMS Guerriere than to play a sailing ship battle? Okay, I didn't really plan to play a game because of the anniversary, I was working with Mark Waddington to set up a game day and it just sort of worked out that way.

The primary reason for involving Mark was that he was supplying all the ships for the game. I think he started scratch-building the ships in mid-2010 and finished them up earlier this year. The 1/600 scale models are the ships available in 1812 and 1813 on Lake Ontario, which will covers the main battles on that lake during the War of 1812. Mark did a great job with these ships. The ships look really great and are very sturdy (the masts are brass tubing). For rules, I was introducing my own heavily modified version of the Prevailing Winds rules from Thoroughbred Miniatures. While I liked the gunnery in the original rules, I didn't like everything about the movement rules or very much of the boarding rules. So, I changed the things I didn't like and added some new stuff to come up with the rules.

The game was taking up a slot in the "Truants" gaming schedule (this is the group educators and other absconders that Kevin and Mark started to play games on Fridays during the summer, Kevin posts more about their games on his blog). I wasn't really sure how many people were going to show up for the game, so I had plans for a small scenario, with about 10 ships, and a large one with 16 ships (the Battle Off Burlington AKA the Burlington Races). We had 9 people show up for the game and because of all the players, everyone thought the bigger battle was the way to go, so we started setting up for that. Admittedly I had a few misgivings about going with the larger battle, since I didn't think that many of the players had experience with Age of Sail games, but I went ahead with what the crowd wanted (which may have been a mistake, but more about my mistakes later). After quickly going through the rules, we were ready to start the battle. 

The front portion of the British line. (L to R: Earl of Moira, Royal George, and Wolfe)

British center (L to R: Lord Melville and Earl of Moira)

The British force was made up of six ships; a pair of 20+ gun corvettes (Wolfe and Royal George), a 16 gun brig (Earl of Moira) and 14 gun brig (Lord Melville), and two 12 gun schooners (Sir Sidney Smith and Beresford). The British start the battle in a bad position. The do not have the weather gauge and while they have a heavier broadside, their ships are armed primarily with the shorter-ranged carronades.

The front of the American line (Gov. Tompkins in the foreground, with General Pike towing Asp)

The Americans had 10 ships, two 20+ gun corvettes (General Pike and Madison), one brig (Oneida), one large schooner (Slyph), and six smaller schooners (Governor Tompkins, Conquest, Ontario, Asp, Fair American, and Pert). Most of the American ships carried long-guns that could deal damage at long range, but since most of their ships were smaller, they wouldn't be able to take much damage. 

The American fleet ready for battle

The British plan was to continue sailing their current course, letting the Americans close, and then tacking to put themselves on an opposite course from the Americans. The Americans planned to put the wind to their back and close with the British. As the Americans closed, the General Pike, the American flagship, opened fire at long-range with her 24lb battery. The attack did only minor damage to the British flagship Wolfe, but it showed the British that they had a long way to go to get into gunnery range for their carronades. 

General Pike opens fire!

The British decided to change course, tacking to put themselves in a better position to fire at the oncoming Americans. Unfortunately, a couple of their ships failed the tacking rolls and ended up "In Irons" for several turns. The Americans continued to use their long-guns with great effectiveness, making the British situation that much worse. As the game progressed several of the smaller American ships came too close to the British and paid the price as the British carronades smashed their hulls. Just as things were starting to look better for the British, a critical hit dismasted their flagship. It was shortly after this that we called the game.


The action drawing to a close

The Americans lost the schooners Slyph and Gov. Tompkins, the brig Oneida was dismasted (by a critical hit), and several other small schooners were beat up. The British lost the schooner Beresford and the flagship Wolfe was dismasted. While this wasn't a decisive action, the victory edge seemed to swing in the Americans direction.

Overall, Mark's ships were a hit, the rules worked okay, and most people seemed to have a good time with the game. There are some items I need to revise/change in the rules, along with some minor corrections and cleaning up. Some of the major items are: I need to change how the order of movement is determined, make the turning rules clearer, clean up the crew rules, and tone down some of the critical hits. I also need to look at making the ship records a little easier to read. We didn't get a chance to try out the boarding rules, so I'm not sure if they work. But boarding was really meant for smaller actions (gunboats vs. gunboats and other small ships).

I did make several mistakes setting up and running this game. The first was going with the larger scenario. I think the smaller one would have been better since none of the players were familiar with the rules and some weren't familiar with Age of Sail games. The second was not going over the rules better with the players to make sure they understood how to move their ships (there seemed to be a lot of issues with turning and tacking in the game), how crew manning worked, and the various advantages/disadvantages of their ships. My other mistake was getting into a couple small tiffs with some players about the rules. This put me in a somewhat negative mood during and after the game, making the whole experience less enjoyable for me and probably the for the other players too.

The positives are that it seems like there are only small changes needed for the rules and the gunnery worked pretty well. Now I just need to get to work finishing my ships, so that I don't have to borrow Mark's!