Form on Admiral's Wake is a quick-playing miniatures game of fleet naval battle during the age of sailing warships. It allows for the play of larger naval battles with a small number of players who will each control one or more squadrons of ships. The game is typically played with miniatures on a hex grid.
The game system uses an action deck to determine which ships can activate and what actions they can perform. The action cards have limitations based on a ship's fleet, sail state, wind orientation, crew quality, and damage level. The more favorable the condition and status of a ship, the more cards it will activate on.
One card is flipped each turn and ships that meet the requirements of the card may perform actions as indicated in the instructions. The actions allowed vary by card, but include moving one hex, sideslipping one hex, turning in a hex, and reloading cannons. Once fired, cannons require two actions to reload.
After all actions from the flip of a card are completed, all ships with loaded cannons may fire simultaneously. As a ship takes damage, its status reduces from undamaged to disabled to crippled. As the status changes, the ship will have less chances to activate.
Additional rules cover critical hits, grappling, fires, forts, anchoring, and fire ships.