Let me start off by stating up front I do like the rules that are provided with both VAS and AoD books. I currently own VaS, oob and AoD. I bought them when I was deployed and had some time to read while I was considering a new Naval Mini rule set.
At that point my naval gaming experience had been WoTC War at Sea at simplistic end of the spectrum and something called "In Harms Way" at the other end of the spectrum. I mostly game with my young sons who love WaS (which we have extensively modified with some houserules). My thinking was soon they will be ready for a bit more , but the other rule sets are a little more complex than what they are interested in/willing to devote time to in order to appease dear old dad.
VaS seemed like a good alternative while allowing us to use our huge collection of WoTC Minis or the large collection of 1/6000 I had started to build. I picked up AoD at the time as well as I always dreamed of venturing into WWI.
As mentioned I liked the rules in general. I am by no means an experienced player as I have only played a few times and that was with the benefit of an experienced group.
The reason I am not an experienced player and may have never actaully played at all is a few issues that I would like to address to possibly improve this game for the future. I have heard these from other potential players as well that have not tried the game as a result our outright trashed it in other forums.
1. The books are a bit difficult to reference as some things seem out of place. This can be fixed with a good player aid which I found via other players and has helped greatly with the flow of the game and speeding things up. I strongly feel Mongoose should provide this as a pull out on card stock with every book sold or at least as a free PDF download here.
2. Lack of useable ship data sheets. The ship data provided in the books gives the basic information, but IMO is not useable for game purposes. Mongoose again relys on the community to produce their own. Fortunately for a new player like me there are some great ones out there if you are motivated to look and ask that people are willing to share. This is not the case for AoD so far. My thought is that Mongoose should provide a standardized format along with pre-made data sheets for every class that is curremtly in the game if not every ship in that class. My suggestion would be to provide these as a download. preferably for free, but I would even be willing to pay an modest fee if it came with free updates as new material is added.
If Mongoose did these two things I think it would transform these from good games to Great games. As it is now it is very difficult for a new player who may already have fleets assembeld t just pick up the rules and start playing without first creating/finding the forms to support play.
I was recently encouraged to check out a set of rules called Naval Thunder which are available for download purchase only for about half the price as the hard cover books for VAS and AoD.
Since I was not committed to AoD I decided to check out the WWI version. The rules are OK, but do not include anything for on board aircraft or subs. The one thing they do provide is an excellent ship data base that is pre-formated for easy printing to be used again and again. It comes in a PDF as well as an excel work book. In the excel format can literally type in the code for the ship(not just the class) you want and the data pops up in a printable 3 to a page format for easy use.
If Mongoose was able to replicate this file with VAS and AoD data sheets I think they would blow away all competition and turn VaS and AoD into a great set of rules not only for the old salts, but for those newer to Naval gaming as well.
Before Mongoose invest any more time in creating new data I would like to see the existing data released in a new format. I truly think this would benefit and grow the community as a whole.
Anyway, that is my $.02 from the consumer perspective.
