Broadside (1962)

Broadside is an American Heritage game from the "Command Decision" series published by Milton Bradley circa 1962. Players take turns maneuvering their frigates and other ships to gain position so as to fire their cannons and destroy the masts on the enemy ships. Not for hardcore gamers, Broadside is an introductory wargame of early naval combat on the high seas. Some ports are guarded by land based cannons and players risk losing ships by straying too close. Rules are easy to learn and like "Dogfight" the game includes some great plastic miniatures to play with.

The American Navy has an advantage in this game if they use the light 1 sail cutters to maintain a "Cutter Patrol" on each of the lanes that encompass the harbor. Simply move one cutter per turn into each of the four lanes and spend subsequent turns moving them to the edges of the lanes in secure areas that cannot be "Broadsided" by invading British vessels. Then when a British ship invades you automatically will be in positon to "cross the T" in front of or in back of the invader. If you then back up losses with Brigs and place a Frigate in front of each of your merchant vessels it will greatly reduce the chances of the British getting at even one merchant ship. The five sail British advantage is greatly reduced by this strategy in combination with expected losses of harbor guns perhaps reducing the advantage by one or two sails. This strategy uses the weakest vessels first in defense and gradually increases the strength up to the three sailed frigates.