Although a nice idea, there are some shortcomings with the ship cards included in the game. Many of these are fixed by the after market options available, my favourite being Battlewiki's ship trays. These look amazing and provide all the required functionality, but New Zealand is a long way from Europe and so I wanted to see what I could make myself.
Take me straight to the OneDrive Folder
Requirements
I want my ship cards to present all the required information for each ship that isn't already shown on the table, along with reference information to make the game friendly to new players. My main requirements are:
- Include sail state tracker.
- Be built with newer players in mind.
- Include information required for advance rules.
- Have room for upgrades and crew information.
- Minimise time spent looking stuff up.
- Be reusable.
Ship cards
The ship card for a 36 gun 5th Rate Frigate. The card sections are detailed below.
Manoeuvre
Top left of the card features movement information. The sail state marker replaces the wake markers supplied with the game, which look cool but can be fiddly to move and slow down play (basing ships does improve this, but even so make of the YouTube videos I've seen on play use alternative sail markers). The sail marker has been designed to use with a magnetic whiteboard pin with a second magnet on the back of the card (see gallery at the bottom of the page)
I've included the number of times the ship moves under each sail state as a reference for newer players.
At the bottom is the rate of knots for each player and the turn angle.
Combat
Shows the number and type of guns for each position is a similar way to the ship cards. I've used colour for the numbers to show the colour of dice used, to help new players quickly select and roll when shooting.
I've also included a visual reminder of the gun arcs using the same colours as the templates used with the game.
At the bottom is a box which is used to mark when the initial broadside is used. I've seen some after market card holders include markers for the port and starboard broadsides, suggesting each gets an initial broadside bonus, but only the first broadside fired gets the bonus so only a single box is needed.
Information
This area includes the ship class and a signal flag, which matches the 10 types of signal flag included in the game. I attach a single flag to each ship giving me 10 unique ships per model type. Allowing for duplicates of different sides (made unique by the nation flag) this should give enough unique ships for all but he biggest battles.
Below the class and flag is a space to write the ship name. For the famous, unique ships this is already filled in.
The large space below is to write or place upgrade tokens, with a maximum of four upgrades this should be plenty of room. For unique ships the special rules are included here.
At the bottom is space to write the crew quality, as well as the skill test number and boarding to-hit number for that level of crew. Although those numbers are included in the quick reference sheet, having them here can speed up play.
Damage
At the bottom of the card is the damage tracker, using the 'cross off the dots' style from Battle Tech. Damage should be crossed off left to right, top to bottom.
Ship points are split in into a top and bottom section to show when a ship has taken half damage. This is for the damaged ships advanced rule (the effect of the rule is included on the card as a reminder).
The ship points are also grouped into sets of ten, which makes it a bit clearer to read and is also useful when calculating the number of dice to roll in boarding combat (ship points divided by ten, rounded up)
The break vale of the ship is also marked in red. As soon as you cross off a red damage marker you must make a skill test to strike colours, and repeat at the start of each activation.
Finally, for ships with the sturdy upgrade 20 additional points are included on the right of the card (shown in blue). These should only be used when the ship has the upgrade and make it easy to track the additional ship points (break value is not effected and remains the same but the damage ships rule is effected and shown correctly).
Making the cards
You can download the ship card designs from my public OneDrive folder. I currently only have designs for A4 paper size but will add Letter size and more ship types when time allows.
Each PDF files includes cards for each of the 10 signal flags included in Black Seas.
[button-blue url="https://1drv.ms/u/s!AvmqbLkW8UIH59Yg-seC1KIyxg2wJg?e=2Tj1Hv" target="_blank" position="left"]Black Seas OneDrive folder[/button-blue]
There's loads of ways you can use these cards, but I did the following.
- Print out in colour.
- Laminate (using a home laminator)
- Glue to thick card using spray contact adhesive (this works really well on a laminated surface).
- Once dry cut out using a craft knife and ruler.
For the sail tracker I bought some magnetic notice board pins from Amazon and some 8mm x 2mm disk magnets with the card sandwiched between the two magnets. These stick really well but allow you to easily move the pin up and down the tracker.
Cards for named ships include specific rules in the upgrades section. I also use two signal flags for my named ships to make them stand out on the table top.
The above photo shows the HMS victory card in use, having taken 13 points of damage. Note how the dice rolls for crew actions are included on the card reducing the amount of time looking up values in the rulebook or QR sheet. I have also included the specific rules for the named ship in the section where upgrades would be added. As a named ship Victory can't have the sturdy upgrade so the blue ship points are not included on the card.
Alternatives
BattleKiwi card trays
If you've got the money BattleKiwi produce the best looking ship card trays I've seen. They contain all the important information and come with really neat features such as embedded magnets to clip each tray together for transport. Due to the exchange rate shipping isn't actually that bad, but you do want to buy everything you need in one go. I was very close to picking up the Admiral fleet command pack and a couple of fleet command trays for a total of 16 ships.
They also produce a really nice looking wind rose.
Black Seas | Battle Kiwi | Tabletop Wargaming Terrain and Accessories
Gallery
Close up view of the magnetic sail marker. A magnetic whiteboard pin is used on the front and the button magnet on the back holds it to the card. The pin easily slides up and down to change sail state. If the pin is slid off the card the magnet at the back snaps onto the pin so it's harder to loose the bits.
Alternative design for the ship markers. These are adhesive backed magnetic dots which the pin sticks to. This is an effective solution and allows the card to sit flat on the table. The downside is the additional cost of sticking four magnets to every card, and the cards take up more room when stacked for storage.
Alternative ship card design using magnet pins to track ship points. This would require up to three pins and I prefer the easy representation of half damage and break point of the dry erase design. It would be a good option for a black and white printer.
Hi, thanks for these handy game accessories. I was wonder if you would make a black seas ship card for first rates as well. I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Hi Jon, I’m glad you’re finding them useful. I’ve started with the ships I have models for but I will expand that out to include a complete set. As you’ve asked I’ll do first rates next.
There was a error with the number of 3rd rate cannons. Fixed pdf uploaded.
Good Afternoon. I printed out your card and flag set My son and I used them this weekend to replicate the opening scene from Master and Commander- The Far Side of the World. This is the first game we played where we did not have any issues with damage tracking. Thank you for taking the time and effort to help fellow naval gamers using this rule set through these cards.
I was wondering if you were going to do cards for small Merchant ships and for the Galleys?
Respectfully,
Pete.
Hi Pete,
Thank you for your message, it’s always great to hear someone is using and enjoying the cards.
I have created a set for the Small Merchant, Large, and Small Galley, you will find them in the OneDrive folder.
These are really great! Far better than the Warlord version. Is there any chance you can do the Santissima Trinidad and L’Orient if you have time?
Thank you! I should be able to do those for you next week. Twitter is the best place for updates @paulkingtiger otherwise check back mid next week.
Hi Adrian,
Sorry for the delay, both ships are now available in the Named Ships file.
Thank you for this! I’m starting with just the book and the free sprue of brigs off Wargames Illustrated and this gets us rolling before laying out for ship packs 🙂
I am sponsoring a Strategists Club at the Middle School where I teach and we will starting the year by refighting the Battle of Lake Eerie – September 10, 1813. Thanks to the 3D resin printer and cleaning/curing station I picked up over the summer, I can print the number of SOLs required to fight the big battles and your cards are just what I needed for the games! I am looking at recreating The Glorious First of June, Trafalgar, St. Vincent, Copenhagen and a campaign focused on Suffren and Hughes in the Indian Ocean 1782. If I may make a request for cards covering the other named ships such as HMS Speedy, HMS Agamemnon, HMS Colossus, HMS Naiad, and HMS Surprise for the Brits? You could also consider Tonnant, Formidable, Redoutable and L’Hermione for France.
I am glad they fixed USS Essex in the new “Hold Fast” supplement that reflects her actual War of 1812 armament of cannonades! That one error in the original rules set off my naval historian syndrome. 😛
Hi Mike, those are some big battles, they are going to look amazing on the tabletop! Please do share some photos if you are able!
I don’t have Hold Fast so can’t produce cards for the ships in the update without more information, but I will look at producing cards for the other British and French named ships in the core rules.
I highly recommend the Hold Fast Suppliment as it includes the Batavian Republic/Dutch, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Ottoman Empire, Portugal, and Barnary Pirates. It also updates the basic ship listing. If you like, I will be more than happy to relay the specs for the updated ships of renown.
On a side note, have you ever played “Wooden Ships & Iron Men” by Avalon Hill? I am pulling historical battles from the game, along with articles from “The General” and modifying them for Black Seas. Various General articles cover The Continental Navy (American Revolution), Russia vs. Sweden, Russia vs. Turkey, along with major actions from the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. I can supply pdf copies of the magazines with those scenarios if you like.
I had WS&IM way back in the day and loved it, I had a PDF of the rules with was a nice nostalgia trip.
I’m mostly playing Oak & Iron at the moment, which if you haven’t played I highly recommend checking out. It’s an earlier period than Black Seas and can seem a bit light, but is actually full of crunchy either / or decisions and dripping with age of sail theme. The models are not as good as Warlords, but with a bit of care can be made to look fantastic on the table.
I have actually played Oak & Iron a couple of times and enjoyed it for the earlier period. As a thank you to my buddy getting me back into wargaming, I ended up printing a HMS Sovereign of the Seas for him on my 3d Resin printer. I picked up “Black Seas” and “Cruel Seas” from my local hobby shop the first day they were allowed in-store customers during Covid. They looked like something my students would enjoy and I could finally use my White Ensign Royal Navy paints. I FINALLY found a use for “Mountbatten Pink” on a couple of Fairmile Bs! The students loved Cruel Seas and have gotten into Black Seas. So for now, I am focusing on Black Seas this year since I can print up the fleets at a reasonable cost. I highly recommend investing in a 3D Resin Printer as the prices are pretty reasonable (less than $200 in the states) and they pay for themselves after printing 10 ships. As for Oak & Iron, got to Wargames3D and look at the 1/600th scale ships (O&I scale). There are a number of Dutch and English subject from the Anglo Dutch Wars available. Fair warning, resin printing is addictive. Hence my printing enough ships to recreate the major battles of the Napoleonic Wars.
Paul, these are great. I’ll be playing my first game in a couple of days (both players will be new) and these should be really helpful.
Is there any chance you could do a Small Xebec please? I think that’s the only ship which I own and you’ve not got a card for.
Hi Paul,
Great ideas for the cards. A couple of things. What about attaching the cards to self adhesive magnetic sheets? This way you can use the magnetic tokens for the sail position.
Another question, would it be possible to have a card Generator? For example, I would like to have a Brig with just Carronades only. In effect, replacing the heavy cannons with just Carronades. (When I run my Brigs as Pirate ships, I announce that they have replaced their heavy cannon with them and when rolling dice I count the damage as for Carronades.
What would be an awesome ability is to create our own custom variants of a ship. An example with that is with the USS Essex, there was a time when that ship replaced all of her light guns with Carronades, and then eventually was fitted with only carronades.
I like what you have done here.
Hi Daniel, thanks for the comments 🙂
I had a look at magnetic sheets, what put me off is that they are quite expensive to cover the entire back of the card so I tried the little stickers shown in the gallary. In the end I prefered the magnet sandwich.
Having played a lot of Oak & Iron where everything is dry erase I would probably just do that for the ship cards as well (even when you change sails a lot it’s not much hassle to erase and update).
For the designer, I use Visio to create the templates and the way I’ve done it isn’t massivly user friendly but I have added the master template to the OneDrive Folder, feel free to make use of it.
Paul, really great format and well laid out. Very easy to see all at a glance. I have played a few different sailing type games and now just starting on Black Seas. I freely admit, I am not very good with software graphic design and very impressed with what you have done.
Looking forward to playing my first game in a week when Master and Commander starter set comes in.
Thank you for doing the hard work.