On My Table: Set Sails for Glory! - A Solitaire Game of Naval Adventure during the Age of Nelson

On My Table: Set Sails for Glory! - A Solitaire Game of Naval Adventure during the Age of Nelson

Recently, I've been playing through Set Sails for Glory, a narrative wargame from Berserker Games following a player character through the Napoleonic Wars.

I got lucky with my first posting - an officer (starting as a 3rd LT.) on a 2nd-rate ship-of-the-line. While I wasn't in command, being on a larger ship put us in position to take more aggressive actions. The highlight of this (so far! I'm still not too far along in the game) was overtaking and capturing an enemy sloop. After delivering it back to Portsmouth, I collected my merit points and was assigned command of my own ship - a small sloop-of-war.

 

Set Sails for Glory

In the image above, my ship (on the left) encountered a French 5th Rate Frigate. I was able to escape, but it was tense as I was far overpowered.

As a solo print and play game, there's some assembly required though it isn't too bad. Counters and sheets are designed to minimize the amount of printing, cutting, and taping. If you're looking to pick up this game, you'll need a solid number of dice. You'll need multiple d8, d10, and d12, and a lot of d6. You can get by with fewer dice, but having many d6 is helpful as I've had to roll 20 at a time for a broadside. I also use mini d6 to track cannon and structural points on ships - the instructions say to cut tabs into ship sheets and fold them (see the picture above), but I prefer to just place a die on the appropriate box. 

Overall, I'm really enjoying Set Sails for Glory. It wonderfully captures the feelings of adventure from the Horatio Hornblower or Jack Aubrey novels and is light enough to pick up and play a few turns of without committing an entire afternoon. 

 

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