I am surprised no one so far has mentioned "Wooden Ships & Iron Men". I greatly enjoyed this as a seemingly well-researched and well-regarded board game from Avalon Hill. It is pretty playable without getting too complicated, while still handling things like wind and tacking in maneuvering.



It's long out of print, but I think the rules are available online, and since it was popular at the time, it doesn't seem too hard to get copies on Ebay or similar. I think these are the original rules.

https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/7090001.PDF

Quote from: Svenhelgrim on September 15, 2024, 11:52:56 AMAre you going to use a grid for ship combat? 

Hex or square?

One thing to remember is that ships cannot sail directly into the wind.  So determining wind direction before a ship encounter is paramount. 

Ships can row into the wind but not for very long, and not at great speed. 

The Adventure Galley was capable of being rowed. 

One game I like to reference for ship combat is Sid Meier's Pirates.  Both the 1987, and the 2004 versions.  The instruction booklets are available for free online and can give you an idea of the various types of ships that you might see in the Caribbean, ans well as their characteristics, although it is from the 1600's and not the 1700's. 


Good luck!

I'm going with a hex grid and allowing ships to occupy lines between the hexes, so there's 12 possible directions of movement at 30 degree intervals.  Not only can ships not sail directly into the wind for any amount of time, their speed varies greatly depending on which direction the wind's coming from.  Polar plots are available for modern sailboats, but I couldn't find anything historical, hence the sim we were discussing above.  I'll check out the Sid Meijers game, thanks for the headsup

Quote from: jhkim on September 15, 2024, 06:32:27 PMI am surprised no one so far has mentioned "Wooden Ships & Iron Men". I greatly enjoyed this as a seemingly well-researched and well-regarded board game from Avalon Hill. It is pretty playable without getting too complicated, while still handling things like wind and tacking in maneuvering.



It's long out of print, but I think the rules are available online, and since it was popular at the time, it doesn't seem too hard to get copies on Ebay or similar. I think these are the original rules.

https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/7090001.PDF

Thanks for pointing that out, I found a pdf online.  This is the type of resource I like to look at to make sure I haven't missed anything interesting in my mechanics, so I'll give it a look.

As a side note, "not too complicated" is what I'm really trying to do as well.  Essentially I'm trying to insert a sailing ship travel and combat minigame in my RPG in a way that complements, not upstages the main action. 

There's also FGU's Heart of Oak.

ICE's Sea Law does a decent job of hex based maneuvering. How it does the rest of combat is a matter of taste but it is compatible with War Law because of course it is.

Now, if you want miniatures you can do a pretty decent job with just tongue depressors, a sanding block, and some of the smaller bamboo skewers.  Make a stack of tongue depressors and sand the front and back to shape.  Drill in holes for the masts and bowsprit and insert sections of skewers.  Drill a little hole at the top of the masts for a thread so you can mount the beams.  You can use paper or thin fabric for the sails.  If you want railings you can glue a thin strip of screen door mesh around the top of the hull but it's pretty fiddly work.

There was a computer game of Wooden Ships and Iron Men made in 1996. I remember running across it back in the day but can't say how close it is to the board game.