I used to play this (it was my second wargame) in my youth. It is long since out of print and Hasbro has placed the rules for play as a free download. I set up a web site that includes the counters, map, and log file as well at http://helios.acomp.usf.edu/~bmwillia/wsim_pub/home.html
Wooden Ships and Iron Men
- Thread starter Brian W
- Start date
sgtono
Member
Thanks for the site! Maybe I will look for it on e-bay.
I miss this game, also played it years back. At one time I heard there was plans for a VASSAL module.
Anyone know more about this?
Keith
I miss this game, also played it years back. At one time I heard there was plans for a VASSAL module.
Anyone know more about this?
Keith
Darkman
Member
Great resource Site
Thanks for gathering all that info in one place. I hanv't played it in over 20 years, but I remember some truly great battles! Nothing compares to the feeling of savoring the moment when you cross the T! I do have a copy I got off ebay last year, but the rules are in bad shape and I have no way of knowing (until now that is) if I got all the counters.
Thanks again.
Thanks for gathering all that info in one place. I hanv't played it in over 20 years, but I remember some truly great battles! Nothing compares to the feeling of savoring the moment when you cross the T! I do have a copy I got off ebay last year, but the rules are in bad shape and I have no way of knowing (until now that is) if I got all the counters.
Thanks again.
Anonymous
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dang, I love this game, also have not played it in 20 years. I remember playing some of the scenarios with Old Ironsides, the near invulnerability of this American frigate truly amazed me. It made my visit at the floating museum in Boston all that much enjoyable. 
Seriously, any of you guys ever seen a group set up the Battle of Trafalgar, Battle of the Nile or the Saints? What truly amazes me about this type of combat in this era was the ability to coordinate ships purely by flags at least before the furball.
Load up the chainshot!! :twisted:
Seriously, any of you guys ever seen a group set up the Battle of Trafalgar, Battle of the Nile or the Saints? What truly amazes me about this type of combat in this era was the ability to coordinate ships purely by flags at least before the furball.
Load up the chainshot!! :twisted:
Doughboy
Member
opps, Old Ironsides was me :roll:
Chris Milne
Member
There's definitely a VASSAL module in the works (http://www.vassalengine.org).
I downloaded it this morning with the intention of giving it a solitaire tryout (I never really got to grips with all the record keeping when I first played it and figured VASSAL would help). I don't think it's finalised yet, but give it a look and give the author some feedback!
I downloaded it this morning with the intention of giving it a solitaire tryout (I never really got to grips with all the record keeping when I first played it and figured VASSAL would help). I don't think it's finalised yet, but give it a look and give the author some feedback!
Loquitor
Senior Member
Great site Brian. My game of Wooden Ships is at my buddy's house in Maine. When I left Maine in 1992 I couldnt take everything with me so a couple of games stayed behind.
Ichibrothers
Member
I made the WS&IM module for VASSAL. You can get it here:
http://www.vassalengine.org/modules/WSIM.zip
I haven't got much feedback one way or the other on it, so for the time being, the mod is complete as stands (Doh! Actually I had recieved an emil from Brian with a new map included!!!). Here is the help file which for some reason or other refuses to show up in the mod:
"Getting Started:
Fire up VASSAL and load the WS&IM module. Choose new game and then select a player. If you are just trying it out yourself, select "Solo", otherwise you will not be able to access the other player logs as they are restricted to specific sides. First thing you should do is open a log window. Resize it so that you can drag the two counters down and have enough room to manipulate them. Right click the log to start entering information, name, id, etc. I know it is a tedious process, but once complete, you are home free. If you have several ships that have the same stats, simply complete the log once and clone it the number of times that you need it. As the game progresses, right click the log to enter in new information reflecting damage, etc. If you wish, you can drag the log onto the playing surface and leave it there. Drag it onto the map to reveal your move and then right click, choose "return to log", and have it sent back to the log window. Use it any way you are comfortable with, or don't use it at all if you have a better method for keeping track of the info and revealing it to your opponent. The smaller counter with the flag on it, was my first attempt at move plotting. You can right click it to enter your move, drag it on the map, and right click again to "unmask" it. Thus revealing your move. Again, just another option of handling movement.
Ships:
Grab a ship and drag it onto the map. Select the ship so that is "highlighted", and hit the hot key "Ctrl I" to change the id of the ship. First rates go from 01 to 30. Second rates from 01 to 35. Everything else goes from 01 to 10. For those of you who do not have the movement allowances memorized, right click and choose "Movement Allowance" to access the MA overlay....right click again to make it go away.
Merchantmen have three choices regarding MA, choose the one that is appropriate for the class of ship you wish to represent. Other than that, everything else is pretty straightforward. You'll notice that in order to make the ship fit in the hex properly, the graphic had to be twice the visible size. After a few playings, you'll get the hang of where to click to get the ship you want when there are many in close company.
The Map:
As most of the scenarios in WS&IM are open sea, I did not try to recreate the actual map. For one, it would have taken a considerable amount of time. Second, it would have been very large, thus making the module a 10mb download instead of 670 some odd kb. I felt that it just wasn't worth it for the amount of scenarios that use the variable depths. Besides, it can always be added later as an extension if anyone is up for the task.
That's it!!!
None of this would have been possible without Rodney's dedication to VASSAL! And now that it is open source, the other contributors have taken VASSAL to the next level. A huge thanks to all involved!!!!"
Look forward to any comments....positive or negative!
Enjoy,
Bill
BTW:
Brian,
The map you sent was great, but the hexes would need to be about 50% larger so that I would not have to redo all the ships! Also, VASSAL now supports (or perhaps the latest JAVA version now supports.?)other graphic formats. So a nice 256 color .jpeg would still be of relatively small size! Sorry I haven't gotten back to you after my last, but I have been working 6 and 7 day weeks of late...sigh!
http://www.vassalengine.org/modules/WSIM.zip
I haven't got much feedback one way or the other on it, so for the time being, the mod is complete as stands (Doh! Actually I had recieved an emil from Brian with a new map included!!!). Here is the help file which for some reason or other refuses to show up in the mod:
"Getting Started:
Fire up VASSAL and load the WS&IM module. Choose new game and then select a player. If you are just trying it out yourself, select "Solo", otherwise you will not be able to access the other player logs as they are restricted to specific sides. First thing you should do is open a log window. Resize it so that you can drag the two counters down and have enough room to manipulate them. Right click the log to start entering information, name, id, etc. I know it is a tedious process, but once complete, you are home free. If you have several ships that have the same stats, simply complete the log once and clone it the number of times that you need it. As the game progresses, right click the log to enter in new information reflecting damage, etc. If you wish, you can drag the log onto the playing surface and leave it there. Drag it onto the map to reveal your move and then right click, choose "return to log", and have it sent back to the log window. Use it any way you are comfortable with, or don't use it at all if you have a better method for keeping track of the info and revealing it to your opponent. The smaller counter with the flag on it, was my first attempt at move plotting. You can right click it to enter your move, drag it on the map, and right click again to "unmask" it. Thus revealing your move. Again, just another option of handling movement.
Ships:
Grab a ship and drag it onto the map. Select the ship so that is "highlighted", and hit the hot key "Ctrl I" to change the id of the ship. First rates go from 01 to 30. Second rates from 01 to 35. Everything else goes from 01 to 10. For those of you who do not have the movement allowances memorized, right click and choose "Movement Allowance" to access the MA overlay....right click again to make it go away.
Merchantmen have three choices regarding MA, choose the one that is appropriate for the class of ship you wish to represent. Other than that, everything else is pretty straightforward. You'll notice that in order to make the ship fit in the hex properly, the graphic had to be twice the visible size. After a few playings, you'll get the hang of where to click to get the ship you want when there are many in close company.
The Map:
As most of the scenarios in WS&IM are open sea, I did not try to recreate the actual map. For one, it would have taken a considerable amount of time. Second, it would have been very large, thus making the module a 10mb download instead of 670 some odd kb. I felt that it just wasn't worth it for the amount of scenarios that use the variable depths. Besides, it can always be added later as an extension if anyone is up for the task.
That's it!!!
None of this would have been possible without Rodney's dedication to VASSAL! And now that it is open source, the other contributors have taken VASSAL to the next level. A huge thanks to all involved!!!!"
Look forward to any comments....positive or negative!
Enjoy,
Bill
BTW:
Brian,
The map you sent was great, but the hexes would need to be about 50% larger so that I would not have to redo all the ships! Also, VASSAL now supports (or perhaps the latest JAVA version now supports.?)other graphic formats. So a nice 256 color .jpeg would still be of relatively small size! Sorry I haven't gotten back to you after my last, but I have been working 6 and 7 day weeks of late...sigh!
Anonymous
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Much thanks to Brian and Bill for this. I've never played WSIM but have always been fascinated with things naval!
And now, a plea for help. Does anyone have a scan of page 7 of the rules? The pdf file I downloaded from the Hasbro site is missing this page.
Thanks again,
Gary
And now, a plea for help. Does anyone have a scan of page 7 of the rules? The pdf file I downloaded from the Hasbro site is missing this page.
Thanks again,
Gary
g_young
Member
The above post was me....
Cheers
Gaz
Cheers
Gaz
Yes, having spent hours downloading the enormous file, with several aborts and crashes, page 7 is missing. Any information on this page from those in the know will be gratefully received.
Also, the scan is terrible, obviously given to the new trainee to do five minutes before home time :?
Also, the scan is terrible, obviously given to the new trainee to do five minutes before home time :?
I had not noticed that. I updated my website, so now there is available a copy of page 7 in pdf format on the rules downloads.Colonel K said:
The direct link is:
http://helios.acomp.usf.edu/~bmwillia/wsim_pub/pdf/page7.pdf
g_young
Member
Cheers for this Brian
g_young
Member
Cheers for this Brian
UXB
Member
WSIM on Sunday
Played a very enjoyable game of WS&IM on Sunday.
Wretched critical hits had me nervous, until one of my opponent's ships
exploded.
Great game. I think 8-10 ships a side are managable.
U
Played a very enjoyable game of WS&IM on Sunday.
Wretched critical hits had me nervous, until one of my opponent's ships
exploded.
Great game. I think 8-10 ships a side are managable.
U
Ichibrothers
Member
A "real" game or using the mod for VASSAL?
UXB
Member
WSIM ftf
We've been playing various games for almost 15 years. :!:
Live, face to face with real bear and pretzels :wink:Ichibrothers said:
We've been playing various games for almost 15 years. :!: