Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls

[pauld]

Just a quick note to share the latest thing to grab my butterfly mind.

B,B and I B from Pen and Sword is a set of Age of Sail rules that ended up in my Christmas Stocking (great name for a rule set, eh)



I read the rules and thought they looked like giving a pretty good game so I set up what I had to hand (some teeny board game ships I had painted ages ago, a bit of blue card and same modular hills from the wargame table to acts as landfall) and set to with a 3 vs 3 tussle to check out the mechanics.

This small footprint makes it ideal to set up on my hobby desk.





I am glad I did as they turn out to be a lot of fun.

Each side has a sailing, firing and repair phase in a turn which is controlled by a card draw so the fog of war friction makes them quite solo-able (which is how I was playing).

Gun fire is straight forward and damage is variable according to another card draw from a standard playing card deck.

Sailing and the wind are an integral part of gameplay and lead to some tense moments when tacking across the wind to gain a better position but the movement (although a little fiddly at such a small scale) is easy enough with the wind and sail templates provided.

Models have ratings for Hull, Canvas and Gun damage (which can be repaired during battle) and neat crew stats for Command, Jack Tars, Sailing Masters, Carpenters, Gun Masters, Marines and Steerage.

Simple but still meaty enough to be a lot of  fun.  The juggling of repair points, positioning and  anticipation is quite balanced and damage can be varied and flavourful.  I can almost see repair crews scurrying about the ship to keep the next most vital aspect working and hoping to get to the next emergency next phase ... maybe.

I like these rules a lot and would highly recommended them (unless you are after a full simulation rather than a period character game)

Unfortunately I can see some Langton ships on the horizon - my poor wallet 

[Stavros Banjo]

Looks like a fun game, thanks for the info. I'm tempted to try this one out for myself, especially now the rulebook is on sale at the minute for only £8! Sounds like a bargain for a 144pg hardback 

http://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Blood-Bilge-and-Iron-Balls/p/3130/