Can you tell me about the rules and how to play this board game please?

Sounds like you need a full explanation of the game, rather than certain rules. If you like you may join one of our sessions or I can go over the rules with you personally in a room if you'd prefer that just send me a friend request.

So how does this game work in terms of players / player count?
The Workshop page says "4+ players". Does that mean 1 GM plus 3 or more people working together?
I don't have Tabletop Simulator (yet), so I can't just download it and take a look myself.

I need to know how many of my friends I need to 'convince' to give this a try.

As a GM it is possible to play with Possible 1 or 2 Players as a Ship if you're able to balance the encounters around it but it will be quite difficult to do so. You'd need a GM and atleast 3 players for a decent squad of Ship-Girls. Again of course it's possible to do 2 players or even 1 player controlling ship-girls if you have good use of NPC and balancing encounters but it's built around atleast 3 Ship-girl players or more.

I'm in the same boat (hehe) as Ownsin, I'm interested in the game but need a full explaination of the rules. Could you maybe link to a .pdf or something that could explain it?

If you click Menu and Rules there are .pdf with rules in there and some explanations. There's quite alot of books however the two linked are the basic ones needed. However I can also give an explanation on things in a private room as well.

So. I checked to see your 'menu and rules' for the .pdf But i couldnt find the it, unless i have to go into the files itself to find this? I really want to learn how to do this and potentially even dm it. So finding out the rules myself so i can give them out is a major factor

The rules are in an external PDF. You can find the links here!

You should read the PDF once or twice, after that you don't really need the PDF while playing as all the rules you need to play are in-game.
The PDF just does a better job of explaining everything.

Originally posted by Seiseki:

The rules are in an external PDF. You can find the links here!

You should read the PDF once or twice, after that you don't really need the PDF while playing as all the rules you need to play are in-game.
The PDF just does a better job of explaining everything.

Yeah. I ended up googling them and finding the long pdf. Thanks, though.

I think I got most of the rules, but I can't seem to understand the formations. Each player picks a number secretly and then show everyone to be placed in that spot, the higher numbers go first, ok. But it says that more than one PC can be in the same spot, and they'd decide who goes first. Is there a reason for everyone not to pick the highest number, such as enemy aggro or something?

Originally posted by Luemery:

I think I got most of the rules, but I can't seem to understand the formations. Each player picks a number secretly and then show everyone to be placed in that spot, the higher numbers go first, ok. But it says that more than one PC can be in the same spot, and they'd decide who goes first. Is there a reason for everyone not to pick the highest number, such as enemy aggro or something?

The way picking formation goes is lowest number goes first, so 1 - 6. It says who can pick first is because if multiple players are in the same turn with the same range they can decide amongst themselves. There are many reasons for not picking the first turn. For starters Range effects who goes first, as Opening Torpedos > Aerial Comat > Extreme range > Long range > Medium Range> Short range.

So basically even if you're in turn one it doesn't matter if you have Medium range and someone in turn six has extreme range. That turn six player is going to fire first. It goes Turn Placement + Range. To see who's firing. Another reason why you shouldn't stock up one slot is it affects the Abyssal in multiple ways, for example if an Abyssal unit has no one contesting the slot infront of them that enemy is going to gain +2 Firepower and the ability to fire at anyone he wants rather than what's infront of him. This becomes more drastic when fighting elites, flagships and bosses as not only are they much stronger, the +2 isn't the only thing they gain as they also gain the ability to attack all ships atleast once if not contested. That can be devastating to a team if something with such firepower can attack everyone. So formations is very very important.

Also take in account Recon, you wouldn't want your team to constantly be discovered by Recon.

Anyway I hoped this helped.

So the priorities when choosing the formation would be getting the shipgirls with the most evasion and/or skills that can help stay alive in front of the most dangerous enemies, followed by trying to get the shipgirls with the most range attacking as early as possible? Or is there something else I didn't notice? Btw, can there be gaps in the formation (for the PCs as well as the NPCs) or there has to be a character in slot 2 to open up slot 3?

Originally posted by Luemery:

So the priorities when choosing the formation would be getting the shipgirls with the most evasion and/or skills that can help stay alive in front of the most dangerous enemies, followed by trying to get the shipgirls with the most range attacking as early as possible? Or is there something else I didn't notice? Btw, can there be gaps in the formation (for the PCs as well as the NPCs) or there has to be a character in slot 2 to open up slot 3?

Players and NPCs can go in any slot they wish, you do not need to occupied the former slot in order to unlock the next one. Having the most range attack as early as possible is a decent way to look at it, but not many weapons with extreme range exist so it shouldn't really matter, covering points where you think tough enemies are located would probably be a better idea. This is why reconing is important cause you don't really know where the enemies are. Depends on what the team wants to tank though something with more armor or evasion. Cause a DD usually has the most evasion but if they get hit by something like a battleship it's lights out ya know?

It all makes sense now, thanks for the quick answers. Gj with the mod!

I've been perplexed about how energy works with the abyssals. Since energy is used for rerolls, does that mean they get rerolls too? If not, what in earth do abyssals use energy for?

I've been ignoring the abyssal energy factor because the idea of forcing a boat girl to reroll her attempt at dodging is imo annoying for the player, and the back and forth energy usage to reroll becomes a slog until one or the other tires out.