Hi Chaps,
Thanks for your comments, and yes this game really needs a couple of days around the table to do it justice, with the British taking more time than usual to close on the enemy in a bow wind and develop their attacks.
That said I really like Kiss Me Hardy, for getting the balance between simulation/game and fun/not fun with me scoring them high on the fun/simulation spectrum of rules.
I guess my take on them is that the chit or card draw activation and the friction it creates is a real ‘Unique Selling Point’ and all the players enjoy the anticipation of getting that combination of a fire chit first giving them the potential drop on an opponent whether they move first or second.
The ship record cards needed some work to make them fit for purpose and the inclusion of all the stats for firing, moving and strike tests, really saves a lot of time referring to the QRS by having them in front of players when needed for that particular ship in any action.
I now have the template set up so that I can easily turn out the record card for any ship required and the Messing About in Boats article means ships can now be much more tailored rather than the vanilla ship stats in the original rule set.
The other key addition is the fleet preservation rule that decides through a test when individual squadrons and fleets have had enough punishment and will attempt to break off which with the test for who get away or not based on the damage they are carrying allows games to reach a conclusion with a result.
We, as a club, just need to play more often to get better at using them in our games and so I have a club campaign ready to start next month.
JJ