1805: Sea of Glory

One of my quieter New Year’s resolutions was to play more wargames — alongside buying less and getting new shelves for all the games still living on the floor. I had owned 1805 for a while and, yes, I was a little afraid of it. Ioannis and I put in two or three days of serious reading, cleaned the plexiglass, trimmed the sails and loaded the cannons, aiming not to finish the full 7-9 hour game, but to play enough to sort out our rules questions. In Age of Sail games, of course, we also have the obvious division of roles: me, a known fan of the British navy; Giannis, a known snail-eater.

The first thing I should make clear is that the game is very good, but I would not quite call it a wargame. It is a simulation of a very specific situation, tied to historical what-if scenarios from the period. Its asymmetry is absolute: the British player begins with a fleet capable of crushing everything, yet their real enemy is often the weather rather than the French fleet. The French player, by contrast, is trying to overturn that naval supremacy and, with it, Britain’s imperial agenda.

This is not a game of huge naval battles or tactical duels. Everything runs through fog of war, port blockades and damage management: Britain tries to maintain the blockades, while France looks for an opening to slip out and force damage containment on its opponent. The “infinite annoyance” of the French described in the history books is represented here by the completely random system through which ports become unusable from round to round. The VPs follow the same asymmetric logic: the more easily Britain sinks the French, the more easily France can steal points if it manages to break the blockades.

We played around a third of the game, right before reaching the truly juicy part: the blockades were beginning to loosen and Portsmouth was filling up with battered British ships. What I saw convinced me that a second, full-game session lasting an entire day has plenty of meat on it and could become a thoroughly satisfying experience. I only hope we manage it before we completely forget the rules.