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he last quarter of 1996 was a dream come true for fighting sail enthusiasts. After a long lull, several games dealing with the bloody sailing conflicts of the past arrived almost simultaneously. TalonSoft’s Age of Sail was arguably the pick of the litter. As with the very best strategy games, the lessons that history taught are the best foundation to build upon when developing winning game plans.

The following suggestions are based on using the historically accurate reload time of approximately five minutes. This setting is ideal for appreciating the elegant maneuvering needed to bring a loading broadside to bear against a moving target.

Basic seamanship
Those who fought under sail had one predominant factor to consider: the wind. Those who took best advantage of the direction and speed of the wind were the victors in battle. In Age of Sail, it is usually better to be upwind from an opponent than downwind. The vessel upwind has a myriad of options in maneuvering. The unfortunate ship downwind is often limited to creeping close-hauled into the wind at pitiful speeds. Their opponent meanwhile will be merrily setting up raking broadsides. Time spent at the beginning of an encounter to gain this advantage will pay off handsomely. This is especially true because tacking (the ability to turn a ship across the wind without severe loss of momentum) has not been implemented in the game.

Speed of the wind is another prime consideration. A lighter wind may allow a target to stay in a ship’s firing arc long enough to achieve a second broadside. A strong gusting wind may carry a target away from your loading guns or allow a ship to close quickly. Trimming sails (back sailing), represented in the game by the incremental speed setting bar, is an important way of slowing ship speed to allow the most optimal positioning.

A classic example of this occurs when two opponents have been sailing relatively parallel to each other, happily exchanging broadsides. One sly captain may trim sails by half or more while simultaneously executing a 45- or 90-degree turn to come across the stern of his opponent, setting up a perfect rake. John Paul Jones employed such a tactic with the Bonhomme Richard in his famous encounter with the Serapis.
When is a cannon not a cannon?
When it’s a carronade, of course! Carronades were shorter than cannons and almost two-thirds lighter. This allowed smaller ships to carry formidable firepower, but the trade-off was range.

Know the main armament of your ships and plan accordingly. Right clicking on the unit list will bring up detailed information on each separate ship. Carronades are designated by a “c” after their listed weight. Do not rely on the range field, it will still display cannon firing arcs, despite the presence of carronades. In Age of Sail carronades are the most devastating at under 200 yards and suffer declining effectiveness to 400 yards. At 500 yards, they are all but useless. If you are fortunate enough to be armed primarily with cannons, it’s always wise to maintain an initial firing distance beyond 500 yards until the armament of the enemy can be determined (you are playing with “fog-of-war” enabled, right?). If your opponent has the bad luck to be on a carronade vessel, then careful maintenance of this range will all but ensure a victory.

Lock and load
The uses of the different types of shot are clearly defined in the game’s docs. There are two features, though, which may be overlooked. When using round shot, hold down the ctrl key as you right click over a ship to target its sails. In addition, if you want to only load a particular type of shot for a specific side, it’s necessary to hold the “P,” “L” or “Z” keys for a port (left) broadside or the “S” “R” or “X” keys when loading a starboard (right) broadside. Otherwise, both sides will reload with the type of shot being selected.

Often engagements in Age of Sail become long circling affairs. The same broadsides will fire repeatedly at each other. The broadside which is facing away from the action is ripe for loading with one of the special shots of chain, grape, or double. I prefer chain, as it has the longest range of the special shots and the reload time isn’t much greater than round shot.

This tactic of loading the hot side with standard round and the cold side with a special load is very effective during encounters which involve one ship versus multiple attackers. These types of battles are common in the campaign game. Faced with such odds, it’s necessary to cripple one or more vessels quickly. Opportunities for firing both broadsides in quick succession are frequent in such engagements when the enemy’s line passes by, offering multiple targets. A close-raking broadside with a special load will often put a smaller ship out of action. A current failing of the game, which can be used to advantage, is that dual broadsides reload at almost the same rate as solo broadsides. This is not historically accurate, as all the available gun crews were needed to reload one side of a ship.

In Age of Sail the game applies a raking bonus to the classic T-crossing maneuver of bringing a ship’s guns to bear on an opponent’s bow or stern. This raking bonus is largest at under 100 yards, and it declines out to 500 yards. Beyond 500 yards, the raking bonus is not applied. This can be valuable to consider when attempting to close toward an enemy. One can often effectively do so at only moderate risk until nearing the 500-yard mark.
Line ahead formations and Horatio Nelson
In Age of Sail, Nelson’s battles serve as textbook examples of fleet tactics. Whenever possible, seek chances to break an opponent’s line, or double an enemy’s line by surrounding his formation on each side. This allows concentrated fire on a smaller portion of the enemy’s fleet, often inflicting crippling damage before the remainder of an opponent’s forces can join the fight. In Trafalgar, Nelson went to the extreme measure of dividing his force into two columns and drove straight into the lesser-trained French/Spanish fleet with devastating results. In the Battle of the Nile, Nelson had the good fortune (thanks to an alert subordinate captain and an anchored French fleet) to surround the French van and center with a column of ships on either side.

One of Age of Sail’s strengths is that its use of squadron orders makes commanding large fleets manageable. This allows the player to focus on maneuvering and firing. Though the targeting AI is competent, players will do better by manual control of the first several ships of a battle line. Concentrate on one or two targets, while the rest of the fleet is given free fire-at-will orders. Make sure to enable the “Can Fire” option to provide reminders of which ships have a broadside ready to discharge. Remember, almost all orders may be executed while the game is paused. Make use of this option if things become too chaotic in a fleet action.

Glory and prestige
Glory and prestige are to be found in the campaign games. Rising through the ranks can be accelerated by keeping two points in mind. Running away when on the losing end of a battle does not seriously affect your standing. If your forces have lost 50ull or sail integrity while still taking a pounding, it’s time to execute the better part of valor. Don’t be dismayed either if your best speed is slower than your adversaries. One of the quirks of the game is that speed differences of almost half a knot seem to make no difference in extended chases. If you can hold out for 30 simulated minutes without cannon fire the game will offer to end the scenario and most likely declare a draw.

The other point is that capturing a ship offers the most prestige. Inflicting damage to lower a ship’s hull integrity to around 200r sail integrity to 10ill effectively put the vessel dead in the water. Raking broadsides of grapeshot will then eventually force surrender. Note, though, that when firing on much smaller vessels even grapeshot can cause enough hull damage to sink a ship. In such a case, try grape broadsides delivered from maximum range.

Boarding is another alternative with capturing ships. Boarding, however, is highly unpredictable (as it was historically), and not recommended unless there’s a clear qualitative and quantitative superiority. I’ve had very little success with boarding using anything less than an A-rated crew.

Age of Sail provides rich opportunities to employ historical tactics and develop new ones. For additional insight into this era I recommend Nelson’s Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization by Brian Lavery from Naval Institute Press, 1989. This and many other related titles may be found at The Armchair Sailor Bookstore, www.seabooks.com.

mmorphon00@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Mon Feb 28, 2000 8:25pm EST