I enjoyed wargames featuring random unit activations, usually by pulling chits from a blind draw, but in many of the wargames I played the matter of reinforcements and special events were still determined by die rolls on various charts and tables. I had noticed reference to card activation systems in tabletop wargames, and I figured they worked the same way, nothing too exciting, until I picked up Muskets & Tomahawks last year and played a game--sure, there is still several tables of random events tied to die rolls, but in addition to shuffling a deck of cards to determine the activation order for all the units on the table, there are also some special cards which determine the timing of special events. If only there was something more, I thought to myself.
Well, long story short, I started buying some PDF rules from Too Fat Lardies, and I really like their card activation system, particularly in Charlie Don't Surf--the randomized card deck not only determines the sequence of unit activations but critical hits on units, special events which are featured on the cards rather than referred to on a table, special effects which come into play after certain events are triggered with the relevant card shuffled into the deck--and I really liked what I saw. My subsequent thought--I wish this sort of card system could be applied to an age-of-sail naval game.
I soon discovered TFL had indeed published an age-of-sail naval game featuring a card activation system which also links events like wind direction and changing weather conditions into certain cards. It's a slightly older publication, compared to Charlie Don't Surf, and the card system is not so dynamic, but I already like what I've read so far, and I'm planning on my first game soon and writing up a full review of the rules on my blog.
Has anyone played a game with this set of rules?
