Fortune of War: A game of Napoleonic era Naval Life

In Fortune of War, you are the captain of a British Navy “ship of the line” during the Napoleonic Wars. You need to fight (and possibly capture!) enemy ships, but your mission goes beyond that, as you are asked to move from port to port over the course of the war. At the end of the game, your goal is to have the most gold, glory, and recognition for “service to the crown” so you can peacefully retire - if you live that long.

Notes:

Fortune of War is designed to mirror the elements of life in the Royal Navy during the period of the Napoleonic War as depicted in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey and Maturin series. While sea battles are certainly a big part of the novels,the novels focus much more on the day to day life of a ship at sea, including meals, cleaning the deck, sewing sails, training new sailors, and dealing with petty disagreements. Jack Aubrey’s own success seems to have little to do with his training or cleverness and just as much to do with luck and politics within the navy … and without. This game tries to capture many of the highlights of the novels, including Aubrey’s clever war moves (the Fortune of War cards) and the effect of other people on Aubrey and Maturin’s life (such as Diana Villiers, represented by “The Most Beautiful Woman I Ever Saw” card). I hope it inspires you to pick up this rich series of books.

Materials

One board, decks of cards, movement markers (I recommend using the punch-out paper boats for the Sails of Glory game), a minimum of two six sided dice, tokens to represent gold, glory, and service to the crown, and a set of “pies” and colored slices from a Trivial Pursuit game to represent the six destination ports (stack the slices next to the ports so the players can pick them up as they reach the ports).