Sails of Glory takes you back to the Age of Sails from 1650 to 1815 and in to navel combat with Napoleon’s fleet. Here you will relive battles such as Trafalgar and the Battle of the Nile. For fans of Wings of Glory, formally known as Wings of War, you’ll be familiar with how the game play works. The game uses pre-painted highly detailed miniature ships (scaled 1/1000), which are pretty impressive. There is a special deck of manoeuvre cards that represent the different movement capabilities of each ship. 
There are 4 ships included in the Starter Set:
- HMS Terpsichore 1785, an Amazon class British frigate
- HMS Defence 1763, a Bellona class British ship-of-the line
- Le Courageuse 1778, a Concorde class French frigate
- Le Genereux 1785, a Temeraire class French ship-of-the-line
Each player controls a ship (can control more than one). There are 4 phrases to the gameplay and each of these are performed simultaneously with other players. Thus there is no waiting around for a player to take a turn and keeps up the pace of the game. These 4 phrases are:
- Planning – here each player assesses the attitude to the wind of the ship using an Attitude Measurer, where there are 4 attitudes – Taken Aback, Beating, Reaching & Running. Each player has their own Manoeuvre deck of cards, where they take a card – one of 2 colours. Depending on the attitude to the wind of the ship will influence what colour of card to take and the sail movement that can be taken.
- Movement – Once each player has planned their manoeuvre, they reveal their cards at the same time and move their ships accordingly to the movement line shown.
- Combat – Each player then checks to see if there any possible targets to fire on using the Firing Ruler, where there are 6 angles that can be checked. If there are ships within distance of this they can be potentially fired upon. However you may only fire if your ship is Loaded. If you have previously fired the last turn then you have to wait until Reloaded. If there are multiples targets either side of the ship, you can only choose one ship per side, even if within distance of more than one angle. The firepower of the ship is decided by the Ship’s log, which shows the capability of the class of ship in use and whether damage is affecting firing capability. Once fired, damaged is then accessed to those ships targeted and this damage is then logged. Once there is too much damage the ship then surrenders and is removed from the game.
- Reloading – once you have fired in the previous turn you can then decide to reload this turn. This enabling you to then be able to fire again on the next turn. Reloading takes place per side of the ship that has previously fired.
There are several scenarios that can be played that dictate how the game is won. This game is fast pace and should appeal to fans of naval war games, where it has brought together the realisms of sailing whilst combating enemies on the seas. It for 2 to 4 players from ages 13 upwards and can be played in approx. 30 to 45 mins. There are 3 sets of rules allowing you to further develop the game with friends over time; Standard to help quickly get to grips with the basics of the game, Advanced and Optional rules to add more realism and options to the mechanisms of sailing and naval combat.
The game was launched as a kickstarter project, where there are videos further explaining the mechanisms of the gameplay. If all goes well the game designers Andrea Angiolino and Andrea Mainini have plans to extend other historical periods of conflicts – Age of Discovery, the Middle Ages and ancient times. Let’s hope it does go well as it would be interesting to see how the game could be developed with these versions as well.
Do you have what it takes to take on Napoleon’s war fleet? Available to buy here
There are additional ship packs available allowing you to play with more ships. The game designers have further spiced up the gameplay here. During this time period in naval combat, ships were often captured by the enemy. Thus they have allowed one of the two variants included in the Ship Packs to be a captured version that can be used by the opposite navy – should make things further interesting!! Check out our selection here
Plus if this your type of game, you may also want to keep the manoeuvre cards protected with card sleeves to prolong the use of playing this game – available here
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