Wooden Ships, Iron Men! Old School Avalon Hill love!

[Zoatebix]

I just played this classic (1976) game by Avalon Hill for the first time last week, and wow! What a great ship to ship combat simulation!

We did a pretty simple starting scenario - no random wind changes, 2 sides to the combat, 3 ships of the exact same design per side, each ship captained by a different player, and one randomly selected admiral giving general orders per side. We had a great time.

Is there any more old-school Avalon Hill love out there? Any other games to recommend? Anyone think I'm mistaken about Wooden Ships, Iron Men being cool?
-George

 

[reapersaurus]

Just wanted to add -
Many people have mentioned how the new Pirates of the Spanish Main ships work fantastically with WSaIM.

As for Old School Avalon Hill, there's nothing better IMO than Titan, the Monster Slug-a-thon game.

 

[Zoatebix]

Are these old titles easy to find on Ebay?

Has anyone played this WizKids game? Is it the good?
-George

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Squad Leader is an awesome game can be purchased off eBay fairly cheaply.


Scott

 

[enrious]

We used to play it using tabletop miniatures and rulers. I'll have to see if I can dig up any of our old rules.

One thing I do remember is that the Admiral of the Fleet created a list of 10 simple commands before the game, such as this:

1) Act on own initiative
2) Fire at hull
3) Fire at rigging
4) Fire at crew
5) Form/Maintain Column
6) Form/Maintain Line Abreast
7) Board nearest ship
8) All Stop
9) Retreat
10) Engage the enemy more closely (my personal favorite).

The Admiral could issue one order from the list to each ship per turn, if he so chose. We did this to simulate the limited communications that the ships had historically.

 

[MonsterMash]

I haven't played WSaIM, but Squad Leader was brilliant and I still play my 20+ year old copy pretty regularly. Apart from those two I liked the Up Front card game, War and Peace and Flight Leader.

The Victory Games Ambushsolo was pretty good too, and buried in one of the numbered paragraphs was the cheat catcher text where a dragon rose up and ate your squad.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Some of my AH favorites:

Wooden Ships & Iron Men
Afrika Korps
Tobruk
MBT
Air Force
Squad Leader
Arab-Israeli Wars
Stellar Conquest
Diplomacy

(At least, I think the last two were AH.)

Another great tabletop game, a must for Trek fans: Star Fleet Battles.

 

[diaglo]

don't forget... Freedom in the Galaxy... a star wars knockoff


and Outdoor Survival. a must for OD&D

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

As for Old School Avalon Hill, there's nothing better IMO than Titan, the Monster Slug-a-thon game.

Have you played the computer-based version that's out on the 'net?

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

We used to play WS&IM multiplayer, with two teams, each person commanding a single ship-of-the-line. We didn't allow the players to coordinate their turns, so it really added an element of confusion and realism. Nothing more fun than watching one ship of your opponent's line break a turn early and get raked to death.

We'd also keep a ship's log, writing down our plans and thoughts each turn. We'd re-hash it after the battle, and laugh when we saw how badly we'd misread the situation or how overconfident someone had gotten.

*Woot -- 400th post *