VI. Of special situations

The following special situations may present themselves in normal ship combat:

FORTS:

Commonly, coastal towns are protected from enemy raiders and bombardments by forts and fortresses bristling with guns. Forts are dealt with in ship combat assuming they are immobile, and may fire their full battery every turn. To be destroyed, a fort must be reduced to 0 Structure Points. Statistics for normal forts are provided below:

Type Gun Battery Structure Pts Normal Garrison

Log Fort 12 Long Guns 35 42 Gunnery

4 Officers

8 Marines

Earthworks 20 Long Guns 50 70 Gunnery

7 Officers

16 Marines

Small Fort 24 Long Guns 60 84 Gunnery

8 Officers

20 Marines

Medium Fort 36 Long Guns 80 120 Gunnery

12 Officers

40 Marines

Large Fort 48 Long Guns 100 168 Gunnery

16 Officers

60 Marines

All garrison occupants are considered to be Trained Fighters for melee purposes.

Only ships with shallow drafts may approach within short or close range of a fort. A fort may be automatically “boarded” when a ship comes within close range. All shots aimed at a fort get two Raises to hit (due to the size and immobility of forts), but shots from a fort get one free Raise to hit as well (due to the relative stability of fort gun platforms).

BOMBARDMENTS:

Ships at sea may bombard defenseless towns for ransoms. This is a common practice of Pirates and Privateers who want a town’s booty, but do not want to fight a land engagement. A coastal town will nearly always be guarded by a fort. Once this is destroyed, the town may by freely bombarded. Shot directed at a town will always hit (a whole town is an easy target). After 200 points of damage have been caused by bombardment, the town will surrender, and give up its wealth. A town of average size may have one or two cannon itself, which will fire back at the attackers in the harbor, at the equivalent of medium range, until the town surrenders.

LARGE BATTLES:

Battles between more than three ships may be difficult for the Game Master to handle. In order to run a large ship combat situation, use the following rules and guidelines:

1. If possible, split the battle into a number of smaller combats, which may be played out normally.

2. Keep track of each ship’s distance from each other ship. Remember that the Evade tactic is directed against all other ships (i.e. an evading ship is trying to escape from everyone) whereas the Bear Down tactic is directed against one particular ship (i.e. a ship Bearing Down is closing on a specific target). The Circle tactic may be used against two enemy ships at most.

3. A ship must remain within sighting distance of at least one other ship involved in the combat to stay in the battle. A ship out of sighting range of one ship may “catch up” to sighting range with any other ship in the combat in one turn. For example, a Corsair which has lost sight of a Merchantman (i.e. has moved past extreme range) could still catch up to extreme range in one turn, provided she is still within sighting range of another ship that is nearby the Merchantman (i.e. within sighting range).

HEROIC ACTIONS IN MELEE

In boarding melee, player character heroes should not be subject to the normal brawl and chaos, and should not be counted among those killed by cannon or gun fire or random melee actions. Player characters should be forced to wade through a few Brute Squads and then fight the enemy NPCs and or Villains. In addition to engaging the enemy NPCs, players may attempt to perform Heroic Actions, such as these listed below (NOTE if the GM wishes, Villains may perform these actions against the Hero’s ship as well):

1. Cut the Sails and Rigging: A Hero may climb up into the rigging (TNs will vary) and cut down various sails and pieces of rigging to crush enemy crewmen and further confuse the boarding action. To get a likely sail, the character must spend two Actions climbing up, and must fight a Brute Squad. Once the hero gets past the Brute Squad, he/she must roll against their Panache with a TN of 10. If successful, two Brute Squads (randomly determined by the GM) are crushed and enveloped in the falling canvas. If the roll fails, one Brute Squad on each side will be crushed.

2. Light the Ship’s Powder Magazine: In a desperate boarding action, a Hero may go below decks to light the ship’s powder magazine to blow up the ship, or to douse it if lit by someone else. The character must fight through at least one Brute Squad on deck, and then at least one more below decks before reaching the magazine. Once past the Brute Squads, the Hero to will need to spend two Actions in order to get to the magazine and light a fuse or to douse it). Once the fuse is lit, returning to the deck and abandoning the ship will take at least three Actions (more if something goes wrong). A fuse can be set to burn at various lengths, ranging from one to ten Actions. When it explodes, each ton of powder and shot in the magazine will do 2K2 points of damage to the Hull of the ship, and 1K1 points of damage to the Hulls of any other ships grappled to her.

3. Ungrapple: In the middle of a boarding melee, a player character may attempt to cut the grapples holding the two ships together. The Hero must move into the thick of the fight, and must fight through or maneuver around at least two Brute Squad and or NPCs (GM’s call) to get to and cut each grappling rope. Once three ropes have been cut, the ships will start to drift apart. The enemy ship may make one attempt to regrapple before the ships drift to short range. Enemy boarders aboard either ship when the ships are ungrappled remain where they are, unless they try to swim back to their ship if the fight turns against them.

Performing a Heroic Action successfully will earn the player character an extra share of the booty (aboard a Pirate or Privateer vessel) or a bonus reward of 1K1 x 20 Guilders (aboard a Merchantman or Warship) is the hero’s side wins.