Developer: Akella
Publisher: Talonsoft
The classic era of the fighting sail ships has been recreated numerous times for the PC but most of the resulting simulations truly deserve to be deep-sixed into oblivion. Avalon Hill's pontifical Wooden Ships and Iron Men proved that their boring board game could successfully be turned into a boring PC title; mostly due to the fact that this type of combat is about quick nerves and timing while the turn-based gameplay was about as exciting as watching your computer reboot. Strategy First relied on the logic that the best view for a naval simulation was from the deck of a warship and their Man of War series did do an excellent job of offering virtual captains a first-person perspective, but lacked just about anything else resembling gameplay.
There have been several pirate-themed games as well but even the best, Sid Meier's Pirates, wasn't really about tactical ship-to-ship combat; and more to the point these games focused on the golden age of piracy, not the great days of naval combat that followed. One title that did manage to stand out was Talonsoft's 1996 release Age of Sail, which ironically came out at about the same time as Wooden Ships and Iron Men and thus is usually either confused with that game or forgotten completely as the genre was often compared to a sinking fleet.
Now after nearly four years, the sequel, Age of Sail II, is about to take to the high seas in what could arguably be seen as the best naval simulation covering the era from the American Revolution through the end of the Napoleonic Wars. And just because the competition has been rather poor doesn't mean that you should lower your expectations for this new wargame, because it seems full of both compelling gameplay and features some really eye-catching graphics. Naval games usually get off easy when it comes to creating terrain, but Age of Sail has some excellently detailed ships with a nice assortment of textures for the land you do see. This reviewer was pleasantly surprised to even see a seaside town thrown into the mix, and while I couldn't actually bombard or attack the town – it couldn't return fire either – it was a satisfying addition to the normally flat terrain that we've come to associate with naval sims. The final game may promise to include fortified towns that can return fire, adding yet another unexpected element to Age of Sail II.
