Before we leap into the war, does anyone want to have a practice run with one of the canon scenarios?  See if we can get a few bugs out of the system before we hook in?

Sounds like a good idea. Maybe one ship apiece to see how combat flows?

In reply to GM (msg # 1):

Sounds good to me. I'm awful trying to read everything in here. I'm concerned I'm going to fall behind.

In reply to Michael Kramer (msg # 3):

It might look confusing when you first log in here but there are quite a few threads you don't need to worry too much about or can catch up on later.  If you think it's confusing for you guys, I can see ALL threads, you guys can only see the shared threads and the ones for your team :)

OK folks can I get a show of hands from everyone for a preferred method of resolving combat?

Robin and myself have put together a Roll20 game which is perfect for those of you who are available to schedule an online session.

For those of you who cannot take part in a real time format battle we will need to come up with a standard format for both sides to post their moves in a Battle thread here, and I should be able to use the Roll20 map to move the counters and then post screen shots here.

Or if anyone has another alternative, please let me know :)

A thread here can work but as you said it would take a lot of time and we would need to have a standard battle map and at the end of each turn a new map available for the other side to make their moves with.

Another option is to make sure we all have the ability to sketch on the map on Roll 20.  Then everyone can log on and draw out their ship routes when it is their turn.  Use a battle thread here to declare attacks and post resolutions, they you can update the map and switch to the new (half) turn.

I might be able to log on for a synchronous session some times, but it could also go days before I'd be free and having an asynchronous options, although slower might actually go faster. :-)

Agreed Tom, if players can use Roll20 but we can't synchronize a session then absolutely use Roll20 like an online bard game.  Making the ship counters manageable/editable by players is not a problem and I am pretty sure everyone has access to the paint tool.