Oak and Iron: Shopping Guide, Online Play and a Spoiler!

Since the lockdown, many of us have been busy painting our ships and we look forward to the time we can once again play with our boats with our fellow gamers (more on this later). From reading the posts on Facebook a lot of gamers have wondered about which boxes they should pick up to fill out their fleets and the best answer is that “it depends”. This article will help you understand the three different points levels the game is played and what ships will most likely fill your fleet at those point levels.

The Core Box
Right now, in order to play the game, you need the core box which comes with six ships; the Sloop, Petite Frigate, Corvette, Fluyt, Light Galleon, and Brigantine. These ships are also in the Merchant Men and Gentlemen of Fortune box sets. These six ships really give you a lot of choices for the standard 50-point game, with 3 of the ships costing you seven or eight points, so you have a lot of room for upgrades. The high end is the Light Galleon (17 points) and the Petite Frigate (13 points) and I feel the Frigate will be one of the most popular ships in the lower pointed games.

The frigate is a fast and maneuverable ship that has a decent punch and will not accumulate damage as fast as the lower pointed ships. I have been playing Oak and Iron online (I said later..) and I like running 3 frigates with the extra guns upgrade and just a few upgrades via the cards. The only problem with this configuration is that when we break quarantine, I will need more Frigates unless I get a few more Gentlemen of Fortune box sets. As for the Merchant Men box, I think I am good, none of the ships really appeal to me at this time.

The Expansions

The one box I feel every player needs to consider is the Men of War set, it contains the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Rate ships that will give you a lot of options. As stated above I plan to run multiple Frigates in the 50-point Patrol game and the 6th Rate which costs the same as the Petite Frigate.

With the Sixth Rate, you lose a little maneuverability but you gain firepower. If you wanted to retain some of the speed of the Frigate the Sixth Rate has some upgrades that can help you out. The 16-point Fifth Rate is also a ship that I think players will use a lot, it still has decent mobility and can dole out some damage. The main problem with these two ships is that they have a Hull Rating of 2, so every two hits will cause you to take damage on your hull, and upgrading these ships with the Stout upgrade adds 3 hull points to your ships but are very pricey.

If bigger games interest you may want to try out the game at the “Skirmish” level which uses 4-8 ships at 100 points. With the extra 50 points over the Patrol game, you would think this is where the bigger ships hit the table however with ships like the 3rd Rate starting at 37 points you would find it tough to get a well-balanced list with a minimum of four ships.

Remember shots from multiple platforms put fatigue on your enemy a 100-point list made up of big ships would find the smaller and faster ships in the game laying multiple shots each turn on your man of war. Since keeping ships in formation or nearby helps you with gunnery and some initiative card special actions you want to keep your battle line filled with ships of the same speed and firepower. The best way to do this in my landlubber estimate is to make two small squadrons of two ships of the same type, so a list of two 4th Rates and two 5th Rates may be the right list for your since you need at least two ships to make a formation.

If you wish to create a major sea battle, the 200-point Engagement game is just what you want to play. These games use 5-10 ships, and this is where the First, Second, and Third Rate ships are needed since with the smaller ships you will find it tough to make a competitive list. Here is where the fact Firelock sold the 3rd Rate separately helps the gamer out. I have four of these ships, and when upgraded, they form a very powerful battle line that I cannot wait to play. At this level is also where the Pirate faction goes big or goes home since they cannot use ships of the line (First through Fourth Rates) their fleets end up being huge.

The last expansion box is the Black Beard’s Revenge which comes with two ships that are only available to the Pirate faction. These are fun ships and are a little bit better than the average Frigate and Sloop.

What to Get
Now let’s get back to what you should buy and the answer is “it depends”. If you got into the game to play major engagements then the Ships of the Line box is a must, probably two of them. You also may want to get a bunch of the 3rd Rates which are sold singularly, I feel that in larger games you can max out on them and they are perfect for Engagement and Skirmish sized games.

If you want to stick with smaller Patrol/Skirmish sized games I would recommend getting a box or two of the Men of War. I feel that the ships in this box will get a lot of use in games of all sizes especially the Fifth and Sixth Rate ships. If you wish to raise the black, the Black Beard’s Revenge is also a must buy and can augment that pirate fleet for those 200 point games.

Online Play

With the lockdown the folks from Firelock ported the game online and can be played with the program Tabletop Simulator which is available on Steam. You will need to download the Oak and Iron Core Box and Starter Set the Workshop and then you can roam the seas from your home.

Mike Tunez gave me a demo and I was able to teach someone else to play the game the very next day. I recommend printing a copy of the rules and having them handy when you play. It is a great port of the game and you can practice your naval tactics before you play someone face to face.

Spoilers He Said
If you read this far, I am sure you want to know about those spoilers mentioned in the title. After talking to Mike, he informed me of some new ships coming out in the future for Oak and Iron; Galley Frigate, Galleon, Urca (very large Fluyt) and the Merchantman are all being worked on as we speak and the release date is still TBD.

An even better spoiler is that new sculpts for the line ships are also being worked on. They will be based on actual national designs, so if you want a 1st Rate that looks like an English designed ship you will be in luck. I am very excited about this despite the fact I could not tell a French ship from a Spanish ship. The new sculpts can be played for any faction, so the rivet counters who want a fleet to look a certain way will be happy.