Originally published at: http://statelyplay.com/2018/09/12/holy-focsle-have-you-seen-what-every-single-soldier-is-working-on/
iPad, PC, Tabletop •
I’m going to tell you a secret that will probably discredit my supposed love of all things hexmap, but I never really got into any of the war games from Every Single Soldier. Which games are those, you might ask. That would be the acclaimed and much-loved Vietnam '65 and the slightly less beloved follow-up, Afghanistan '11. I know, I’m ashamed of myself [this goes without saying and has nothing to do with either of those games-ed.]. I did manage to stumble onto a tweet from ESS today, however, and my jaw hit the floor. Perhaps this is old news, but it’s new to me and this is the ESS game that looks right up my alley. It’s called HMS and it’s coming for iPad, PC, and…wait for it…cardboard.
Yes, cardboard. HMS will be released as both a digital and tabletop release with the digital version playing in real time while the board game will handle the narrative via cards. You will play a Lieutenant in a fictional 18th-century Britain with the goal of becoming Admiral of the Fleet.
The primary objective of the game is to be promoted to Admiral of the Fleet, without having any mutiny nor losing the vessel.As the blurb states, the game can be played solo or multiplayer and multiplayer comes in both "somewhat-cooperative" and "in-your-face" flavors. In the cooperative game players will all be in the same navy competing to be the first one to win the Admiral title while in the head-to-head version, players will play as captains in different navies with the ability to cross the T and fire all cannons right in your best friend's stupid face.The player will receive tasks from the admiralty which will need to be executed in order to get the desired promotion.
Along the way, the player will be challenged with various tasks and tempted with targets of opportunity, whilst keeping the crew happy and not ending with a mutiny.
The game is set in a fictitious world, based largely on the Caribbean, with the player commanding a British ship of the line, the arch enemy being Spain. In addition, the neutral power of Holland is also present as well as the hostile Portuguese.
Features :
- Progress from captaining a Frigate all the way to a first rate Ship of the Line
- Outplay on Co-Op or Mutliplayer to become Admiral of the Fleet
- Fight the Spanish and Pirates on the high seas
- Real time ship and crew management
- Take Midshipmen onboard and make them Officers in the Royal Navy
- Train your crew and promote them to to increase effectiveness
- Keep the crew from mutiny and at the same time ensure your career is on track
- Raid towns, build forts and press gang new sailors into service
- Manage your stores of food, rum, gunpowder and gold
HMS has just left alpha and moved into beta, so we might not see it for a bit yet, but now that I know it’s a thing, I’ll be keeping my eyes out for any more info on this naval sim.
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Time to hit the hammock[/caption]
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You can almost hear the Jimmy Buffett playing in the background[/caption]
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Red sky at night…something something.[/caption]