It's becoming a bit of a quest of mine to find a good Age of Sail game - Napoleonic style naval warfare..
One that has a campaign, and more sail control than just furled, battle and full sails.
The games i'm aware of are
Age of Sail 1
Age of Sail 2
Age of pirates
Age of Pirates 2
Sea Dogs
Pirates of the Carrieban
Empire Total War
City of abandoneds ships
East India company
Man of War II
But theyre all very similar and most are too old now.
Does anyone know of a good one? Theres such a hole here in the market I'm amazed noone ever tried. Considering all the other niche sim-type games out there, rollercoaster, farm, train etc.
Have a look at the sailing model - look at those sails shiver! Wow... but still, i can't be distracted by eyecandy. I really want one that has more control over the sailing of the ship.
You can get very realistic sailing game like Virtual Skipper 4, but they have no cannons
I know someone who plays a sailing game called "Pirates of the Burning Sea", I haven't played it and it didn't really look like an age of sail simulation, it's a campaign-type MMO.
Probably not what your looking for.
Imperial Glory also had naval battles, but they're not better than ETW.
I agree that there seems to be a fairly solid and loyal (but small) market out there for an Age of Sail wargame or simulation. I think the problem is that devs see the market as too small and too niche. This is why, every time something like this comes along, the developer will hedge their bets and try to hit the kiddy market by bringing pirates into the title. Its always pirates this, pirates that, corsairs the other... No developer beyond Akella with AoS1 and AoS2 has ever made a fighting sail game whose focus was navies, and with that the political power projection that came with maritime strength. Its always just !!*%&^%$£&%$! pirates.
I'm heatily sick of pirate games, there seems to be dozens out there with all kinds of different slants but actual naval combat games aimed at fleets has only ever been done twice.
I would kill for a good AoS game with a campaign. In fact I'd kill and eat the dead bodies for it. There is huge scope in the period, from the early attempts at colonial positioning by Spain, Portugal, Holland and England in the mid to late 1500s; via the flowering of colonial trading and empire building in the 1600s through mid-1700s (when warship design finally began to get interesting) right up to the age of imperialism and political power projection and mercantilism in the late 1700s and early 1800s. There are so many corners of the globe where great games could be based - the East Indies, India, the Cape and West Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas, even Europe where fleets protected and destroyed trade and became the tools by which governments could seriously injure and coerce a land-bound enemy.
Its crying out for a good global or theatre-based campaign set around sea trade and the protection of it something like a Total War or East India Company game setting, but where land combat is very secondary to naval power but the home country's politics and status plays a big role. There could be a ship construction, design and technology tree sub-game built in, an economic and trading model and finally a really good ship combat sim that would also include fleet structure into squadrons and with screening and patrolling frigates.
I'm not fussed about a deck-level first person view. A high altitude isometric view is enough for me as its the squadron- and fleet level tactics that interest me.
The period of 1740 to about 1780 is my main focus of interest. After Nelson Britain had maritime power sown up, the struggle up to that point before the French Revolution is the interesting era for me. There were several instances where the Royal Navy was not all-powerful and the French, Spanish, Dutch and Americans all bested the British in limited areas and for limited timespans. That's the interesting period; it was also when ship design and technology was improving fast as well - coppering, carronades, wheels replacing whipstaffs, flintlock firing, sailing rigs developing... all kinds of interesting changes going on.
I've talked with Storm Eagle Studios about them doing such a game (they released naval combat games with campaigns for the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 and the North Sea theatre in WWI) but they don't seem that interested.
Given that I've waited since AoS1 came out and I was part of a big community (Sea Lords) who played AoS2 to death, and nothing has happened in the 10 years since, I seriously doubt we'll ever see such a game (that doesn't include bloody pirates!)
HITS & Couriers - a different and realistic way to play SoW MP.
Have to agree with all that - id love to explore uncharted coasts, navigate (and thats not that far-fetched a request - a Silent Hunter 5 mod had sextant and octant incuded for navigation).
But i refuse to believe that naval warfare is that niche of a market, it must be of interest! At the least its not nation-specific.
There's a game by shrapnel games called Salvo! They do fleet actions, automatic or user-led ships, ammunition selection (even double shotted) and crew selection (ex. 250 boarder, 130 port battery, 150 starboard battery) things like that. And the wind shifts! They also have campaigns and you can add ships, transfer crew, and even turn a ship into a fireship
