Northstar Miniatures: On The Seven Seas Nickstarter Launch Date

[cacofold]

It was for sale there? Gah! I would have not preordered and had someone pick up a copy for me....grrrrr

Give details! Table sizes, crew sizes for games, overview of mechanics, building crews (point based? weapon add points?)....love to hear more than the generic crap on the website....give me a direction to start working on my figs while I wait for the book,

Table size: They briefly mention that the standard 4x6 is suitable, but for ship combat the "bigger the better". There's no scenarios, so pretty much anything goes as far as table size I guess.

Crew size and building crews: First, generally a paragraph of description of the crew history. Followed by a sentence saying something like "The basic faction consists of a captain, 1 mate and 13 crew figures." Then a paragraph of weapon ratios like "Up to so and so of the crew can have muskets." Then a short list of three to 6 upgrades the crew can take. These are generally a personality for your captain and some special crew members, and buying additional crew.

The basic faction has no "points", just the upgrades. So I'm guessing if you wanted to informally balance crews, you'd say something like "start with the basic faction and add 25 points of upgrades." Indeed, the basic campaign starts crews there. There's also some general list information at the beginning of the section about adding mates and armaments to ships. If you're using the northstar figures, none of the packs meet the "basic faction" model counts, you'll have to add the 18th century sailors.

Overview of mechanics: really really light skirmish rules. Having just got back from Historicon, this reminds me a lot of the various "fast play" con style skirmish rules. Hand to hand is basically: move a model into an enemey model. Both throw a d10. Add any modifiers from the list of 6. Compare the scores, a difference of 4 of more means someone got killed, 2-3 and they fall back, less and they stay in contact. The Fear and Greed mechanic is pretty interesting, but it's pretty much just a slightly fancier morale. Shooting is really hard. Roll a D10 to shoot, a 10 or more is a hit. Your muskets aren't going to be hitting often. If the target is in cover or is an officer or giant they can make a save on a 7+. If they fail the save or aren't entitles to one, they just die.

I'd like to know more about the rules too before jumping on board. I am especially interested in the ship to ship combat rules and am somewhat skeptical about the multiple man to figure ratio concept.  What would be the ideal size for ship combat using just the basic crews? Sloop?

Multiple figure ratio: they mention it, but it's never brought up mechanically. A figure is treated as a individual like in any skirmish game.  At the start they briefly mention you can only fit so many figures on a ship, and ships historically had many more crew, so there's some sort of de-facto figure ratio going on.

Ship Combat: 4 types of vessel. Boats, Galleys, Sloops, and Ships. Boats and Galleys are pretty small and I guess would be more used in scenarios. Sloops are defined as single decked with one or two masts. Ships are anything bigger than that. Sloops can carry up to 20 figures, 8 swivel guns and 4 light cannons. Ships can carry up to 60 figures, 12 swivel guns, and 12 light or heavy cannons. Cannons work like so: Roll a d10 to hit. It's a lower number if you are closer, but anything over 8 inches needs a 9+ to hit. If you hit roll a d10 and consult the damage chart. 1-7 are pretty minor damage to either the crew or guns, 8 is dismasted, 9 is sunk in a few turns, and 10 is a chance of a powder explosion. Light cannons subtract 2 to damage.

So, combining all of the above, sloops can't sink each other, just dismast themselves or dismount all the cannons.

I haven't been playing wargames too long (5 years?) but I've noticed that there's generally two types of rules sets. The type that provides lists, point values, scenarios and other aids so that players can do pick up games. These games can be played in campaigns too, but the pick up game part serves to draw people in to collect and paint the figures for their warband/buntai/gang. The point values and basic scenarios also serve as gauges for creating your own custom events. I'd include games like In Her Majesty's Name, Ronin, and Bolt Action in this category. The other type of rules are meant for custom drafted scenarios or historical recreations. Stuff like Black Powder: you have the rules you need to create a cool one off game/event or campaign but there's nothing out of the box so to speak.

I'd include On the Seven Seas in this latter category. There are no scenarios, not even a basic "2 crews meet and fight". The campaign rules are very basic. The lists are really just ratios of weapons, as there's no mechanical difference between a pirate and a royal marine if they both have a musket (unless you upgraded your marine to be a sharpshooter). If I was going to run a con event for 10 pirate crews on ships, this ruleset would be right up my alley. But I was hoping for something I could bring to my informal game group where everyone could collect a crew and customize a ship and run some sort of campaign. Don't get me wrong, this is still possible using this book as a base, but there'd have to be a whole lot of work involved, it isn't "out of the box."

[Hu Rhu]

Thanks for the review. They sound a little light especially on scenario's and campaign rules.  I will stick to my own home brew set.

[axabrax]

Yes, thanks for the review. I have to say they sound pretty disappointing. It's too bad as I really like the figures and was hoping for something akin to Ronin or IHMN for pirates.

[LaserDreamWorks]

I was hoping for much more from the Seven Seas rules set as well.  I guess that gives me more motivation to experiment further with the set we are working on and get it out to the public.

[coggon]

Thanks from me too for the review.   It sounds as if they fall into the "toolkit" type of rules, which is my preference (I'm an ornery fellow and hate being told what to do ).  And it appears Amazon will have them for Kindle for $10 in August-I think I can afford that.

[Barry S]

Well, I know one pack I will be buying - Lichfield Tony, famed ex-smuggler from the Cornish coast with his faithful dog Baz.

I've had more than a few friends tell me how much the miniature looks like me, one asking if I was a descendant of his (I know he is fictional...). As it happens I have Cornish Heritage. Even the fact that his dog is named Baz is amusing. Several of them call me Baz.

Cheers,

Barry S

 

[axabrax]

I never heard that expression before. I take it those are rules that you can modify heavily to your own purposes? I generally prefer rules that are actually good right out-of-the-box.

Thanks from me too for the review.   It sounds as if they fall into the "toolkit" type of rules, which is my preference (I'm an ornery fellow and hate being told what to do ).  And it appears Amazon will have them for Kindle for $10 in August-I think I can afford that.

[coggon]

  I take it those are rules that you can modify heavily to your own purposes? I 

Not so much "modify" but more open-ended. "Tool Kits"  lack army lists, point systems, and don't contain phrases like "must have X number of X, or "limited to X number of X"  Savage Worlds is one of my favorite examples.  And they are not to everyone's taste either.

And I much rather read up on a period an research it than have it all presented/potted in one spot and limited to one author's view.  But that's just me-this is a large hobby that's supposed to be fun and there is room for many approaches to it. 

[axabrax]

Anyone have any opinions on the Aintsy vs the Old Glory resin ships?

[Captain Goode]

I have a set, and quite like the look of them. I confess that I was hoping for a little more on the How To Sail Your Pirate Ship front. There is a differnce in points of sale for the different types of ship, and indicators of turning throughthe wind and wearing round. Barbary Pirate Galleys look quite handy.  Wearing a ship around looks as if it is going to take a deal of sea/table room. But that will mean that the smaller lighter craft will have a chance to do damage and survive. It will though make ship to ship engagements a little ponderous, but then close and board is likely what the author has in mind.  Nothing that a little experimenting wont solve though.

What I would like to see are some piratical crew persons actually crewing a ship just to make that crew deduction during manouvres.

Graham

[Van-Helsing]

Mine Arrived today!

The Miniatures are Lovely, the Rulebook is Pretty, though as was expected the rules are a little 'basic' - and the cover is weird, the picture looks like its been printed 'wrong' - there's too much Blue about it to be frank.

No miscasts that I can see (so far LoL).

[Smith]

Rest assured that the cover is printed 'right' - the original artwork from Steve Noon is quite blue - it's atmosphere, not a mistake! 

[Hitman]

I picked my copy of the rules up at H-Con in July on the Sunday for $10 cash at Osprey. They were practically giving their books away on Sunday. I learned that from a year ago.
Regards,
Hitman
 

[Van-Helsing]

Rest assured that the cover is printed 'right' - the original artwork from Steve Noon is quite blue - it's atmosphere, not a mistake! 

Thats good to know, but it made my eyes feel weird it was THAT blue LoL!

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

I'm kind of interested in these rules, but am curious to know what folks feel OTSS has to offer over LOTHS?

My main complaint with LOTHS is that it's lacking in variety, as far as the playable factions go.  I like the rule system just fine, and the campaign system seems like decent fun.  The ship rules seem like they could use to be fleshed out a bit, but admittedly I'm primarily interested in men fighting each other more than in ship combat.

I don't mind a light rule set, I'm a huge fan of the "Songs of..." series of games, and I'd say most of the skirmish gaming I do is pretty rules-light anyways.  If OTSS is too light, to the point that one crew is hardly discernible from the next, then I'll probably give them a skip, but if they do a decent job of giving each its own flavor I might be tempted (a good campaign system is an added bonus!).

I like the minis, but it just so happens that I purchased almost the entire Crusader line of pirates on the cheap at my LGS just before seeing any announcement on this.  Still might grab some of the pirates at some future point, but regrettably I can't really justify them at the moment - love all of the figures except for the rather ridiculous Anne Bonny, but that's wargames miniatures for you!