A trip back to an alternate timeline as the group visited the flying ships of sail circling the Earth in Dave Murvihill’s Space 1799 at Fantasy Books and Games in O’Fallon, IL for a Wednesday Night treat. This dispatch arrived from the field so we will let it tell the story…..
From: HMSS Extremadura
To: 1st Baron James Gambier, 1st Naval Lord, Admiralty, London
Regret to report the loss of HMSS Enterprise in battle on 14 May 1799 to the French fleet. Captain Hansen bravely sailed into close Earth orbit against two ships and promptly forced the Spanish frigate Santa Isabel to strike after a devastating broadside. Unfortunately, during an exchange of broadsides with the French 2 deck La Rocher Noir the captain suffered a debilitating splinter to his pinky finger, preventing him from properly enjoying tea during the battle. He promptly struck so the surgeon on the French ship could remove the offending piece of wood. When one of his officers suggested using his own ship’s surgeon he replied cryptically “I’ll be damned if he’d let any Welshman within six feet of me with a pair of tweezers.”
Unfortunately the perfidious frigate raised the Spanish flag after clearing the battle site and returned to Madrid for repairs. On the other side of Earth HMSS Botany Bay exchanged broadsides with a French 3-deck ship of the line at long range, suffering minor damage.
Repectfully submitted,
David A. Murvihill, Captain
Game-master’s notes:
The magnetic vector pattern for this game was designed for a 6’*12′ table with more than twice the area of our gaming tables. This resulted in additional confusion to the usual learning curve navigating in three dimensions. Last game I put Earth on the board edge and only used 7 vectors, a much more comfortable arrangement. Everyone figured out the movement system after a few turns, but I must confess even I don’t fully understand how to maximize movement when dealing with the vector system. It didn’t help that I didn’t remember the tables right.
I‘m teasing Chuck above because his morale rolls were so poor, he actually did a good job, as did Ray. I must confess I found myself out of position trapped against the earth, leading to me doing pretty much nothing the whole game.
Thanks to Dave for running such a unique game with such spectacular terrain for the players to enjoy. Thanks also to Steve Lowry for providing the photo above and to the folks at Fantasy Books & Games for their continued support.
This looks excellent, and with terrific execution (but my double-vision seems to be messing with me today). :)))
Nice job guys!