The Sable Straits — tutorial
Press Take a command. Choose one of three waters and how heavy an enemy you want, then buy a fleet in the dockyard and press Weigh anchor. If you would rather see the game first, Let the yard choose buys you a sound fleet in one click.
Every harbour you hold pays its value into your score at the end of every turn. A harbour taken on turn four is worth seven times the same harbour taken on turn twenty-five. Sinking a ship pays you what it cost to build. Nothing else scores at all, so the fleet is a means of holding water rather than the point of holding it. The harbour pennants and the running score trace on the tote board are the only scoreboard you need.
You move first, every turn. Order as many of your ships as you like in whatever sequence suits you, then end the turn; the enemy moves, harbours change hands, both sides are paid, and the next turn begins. The gold dot on a ship means she still has orders left, and the hint line under the chart counts how many ships are waiting on you.
Each ship has steam for a number of hexes a turn, shown as steam left in her panel. Damage costs speed as well as gunnery. Ships cannot pass through one another and cannot enter land. Battleships and heavy cruisers draw too much water for the pale shoal hexes, so the light ships have roads the battle line does not. A harbour falls the moment one of your ships steams into it, provided its battery has already been silenced.
A ship may fire once a turn, and firing ends her turn, so move first and shoot last. Damage falls off with range, armour soaks part of every hit, and fast light hulls are hard for heavy guns to hit at all. Torpedoes — carried by destroyers and submarines — bite armour hard, but only at one hex. Anything you engage that can reach you fires back at reduced effect, so picking the fight you want is most of the skill.
A garrisoned harbour shows its value and its battery, as 5/2. Reduce the battery by bombarding it from range, or bring a transport alongside and put the landing party ashore, which silences up to three points of battery in one stroke. A transport takes on another party at one of your own harbours.
You see only what your ships and harbours can see. A submarine is invisible until she comes within one hex of anything of yours, or two hexes of a hull with sonar; firing shows her periscope until her next turn. Only destroyers and escort cutters can engage a submerged boat or sweep a minefield.
A damaged ship that lies still in one of your own harbours, without firing, makes good part of her hull overnight. Use the Lie still and refit order.
| Class | Cost | Move | Gun | Range | Hull | Armour | Sight | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FS | Flagship | free | 4 | 8 | 3 | 26 | 4 | 5 | flagship, rallies friends within two hexes |
| BB | Battleship | 26 | 3 | 11 | 3 | 30 | 5 | 3 | limit 2 |
| CA | Heavy cruiser | 17 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 20 | 3 | 4 | limit 3 |
| CL | Light cruiser | 10 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 15 | 2 | 5 | limit 4 |
| DD | Destroyer | 7 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 5 | sonar, sweeps mines, works the shoals, torpedoes, limit 6 |
| PC | Escort cutter | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 4 | sonar, sweeps mines, works the shoals, limit 6 |
| SS | Submarine | 10 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 4 | runs submerged, torpedoes, limit 3 |
| ML | Minelayer | 8 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 3 | sweeps mines, works the shoals, 6 mines, limit 2 |
| AP | Transport | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 3 | works the shoals, landing party of 3, limit 3 |
| Water | Size | Harbours | Purse | Turns | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sable Straits | 25 x 19 | 11 | 110 | 30 | A long channel between two crowded coasts. Every road to the enemy runs past somebody's guns. |
| Kesteven Narrows | 21 x 15 | 9 | 90 | 26 | Close water, heavy islands, short sight lines. Torpedo country, and the shoals matter more than the belt. |
| Verrin Deep | 27 x 21 | 13 | 130 | 34 | Open ocean with scattered anchorages. Speed and gun range decide it; there is nowhere to hide a slow fleet. |
When the season closes, the higher score wins. If one fleet is destroyed outright the action ends there and the survivor is paid for the turns remaining, so annihilation is a way of winning but a slow one. The margin between the scores decides the rank you are given at the close, from the beached post captain up to Lord of the Sable Straits — and the lowest rank of all is the one the game is named for.
Each difficulty layer changes the enemy purse and the hand that spends it. The last column is the measured win rate for a competent player, machine against machine, over thirty-four seasons a layer.
| Layer | Enemy purse | Enemy hand | You win | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quiet water | 86% | novice | 82% | The enemy sails with a thin purse and a nervous hand. |
| Contested sea | 97% | adept | 53% | Equal purses. An even fight decided by seamanship. |
| Fleet action | 102% | veteran | 32% | They outbuild you and they know their business. |
| A lost cause | 113% | ace | 18% | A heavier fleet, handled well. Hold what you can and make them pay. |
The action is written to browser storage after every order. Close the tab and the opening screen will offer Resume the action when you come back. Only one action is kept at a time: starting a new command replaces it, and finishing one clears it. Another command on the closing screen takes you straight back to the setup screen for a fresh season.