Ship Combat

Taken from in part and in whole: High Seas Combat v 1.0 (http://members.ozemail.com.au/~iandl57/seacom.html) and modified in many places.

Attacker may fire a broadside against the front or rear of the target ship while the target ship may only fire it’s chasers or stern guns.

Attacking: Ship attacks are based on the rolls of the gunnery crew for every five (or less) guns on a side of a ship. Most gunnery crews are level two Brute Squads, but with the poor or good crew modifications that can change, and roll two dice to beat the target ship’s modified TN.

Base TN: Base TN is based on the aspect being presented by the other ship. In pursuit or if your ship is Crossing the T when only the fore or aft of the ship is presented the TN is 20, because there’s a lot less ship to hit. The other aspect when your facing the ship’s broadside, you have a much easier time hitting with a base TN of 10. From there you need to add range and weather into the equasion:

After that you need to consider size, where on the ship you’re aiming plus the skill of your master gunner into the final TN.

Extreme: Ships are spotted on clear days at this range but only those with keen senses or a telescope may be able to make identification.

Far Range: This is the normal sighting distance where ships are identified by sight but not yet able to be fired upon.

Long Range: Maximum distance you can fire from. On days with bad weather this becomes the distance ships are spotted at.

Medium Range: Middling distance a ship is able to fire at and the identification distance for bad weather and spotting distance on foggy ones.

Short Range: Shortest distance without contact that guns can be fired. Identification distance on foggy days.

Boarding/Ramming Range: Your ship is touching or all but touching the other ship.

Damage is done by the number of guns per side. For each gun on a particular side roll 1k1 and add the damage together for your total.

Hull – For every ten points of hull damage done, the ship loses one gun, and the gunnery crew is injured. When half of the ship’s hull points are lost the ship loses a handling die and has begun to take on water. When the ship loses all of its hull points it is beginning to sink and the crew has 1k1+1 personal turns to escape or be sucked down with it.

Rigging – For every five points of damage done to the rigging the one topsman is killed. When at half it’s starting points the ship loses half it’s sail and handling dice, and if it loses them all it’s crippled and becomes and can only circle at a minus five to it’s handling dice (unless this brings it below zero) at which point the attacking ship may subtract 5 from it’s TN for every missed shot until it hits (ranging fire) and can continue to hit at that new TN until the ship is sunk or the attacking ship moves.

Grapeshot – Damage done is the number of crewmen incapacitated by the fire and can only be used at short range or closer.

When two ships reach close range, one or both may attempt to grapple the other. This takes place before cannon fire, and a ship which has been grappled may only fire into the enemy Hull. An enemy who fails to grapple, however, may face the possibility of a broadside of grapeshot. The chance of grappling each turn is based on the relative sizes of the two ships.

Once an enemy ship has been grappled, boarders (usually lead by the Master-at-Arms or Quarter Master) may swarm aboard. At this point it is necessary to determine how many trained fighters there are in each crew, as shown below :

· All of a Ship's Officers, Major NPCs, and Player Characters are Trained Fighters

Each ship's boarding party and defense party may only be made up of trained Fighters.

At the start of boarding, divide the number of Trained Fighters by six to determine the number of six man Brute Squads that will participate in the boarding action. Combat will then take place using the combat rules from the 7th Sea Player's Guide (Alternately the quick combat rules from The Pirate Nations Book may be used).

Before melee combat begins, each side may fire its Pont guns (if so equipped and manned) at the enemy crew once before melee combat starts. Boarding melee combat is faught using the standard combat rules and turns for 7th Sea. A ship's Trained Fighters will normally be Threat Rating 2 Brute Squads, unless they are considered a green/poor quality crew (Ship has the Modification of "Poorly Trained Crew), in which case they are considered Threat Rating 1. If the ship has the Modification of "Well Trained Crew", then its Brute Squads are Threat Rating 3. All the ship's officers and one fifth of the Trained Fighters are considered to be armed with firearms in addition to their melee weapons. During any turn that an opposing crew's Trained Fighters are outnumbered by a factor of three or more to one odds, they will surrender.

Alternately, if the GM does not wish run long, drawn out battles, the following quick combat method may be used to resolve boarding melees between crews:

Divide the ship's Trained Fighting crew into Brute Squads. But instead of fighting out the melee with the 7th Sea Combat rules, have each side role a number of dice equal to the number of Brute Squads plus any manned Pont guns. Each result of 9 or 10 indicates that one enemy Brute squad is killed. (NOTE: If using this quick combat system, anyone leading the boarding party or the defense party who has the Roger's Pirate trick of "Over the Side" will modify the result so that an 8 or higher will result in a kill.)

Grappled ships fighting a boarding melee are effectively immobile and indefensible to other ships. Any ship circling nearby may loose a broadside on them with a -15 on the TN to hit, but must divide the damage equally between the grappled ships. Once a boarding melee has ended, either through surrender or other means, ships may be ungrappled (cut away) in one turn.

Special Circumstances

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 Points	Normal Garrison
Log Fort	12 Long Guns	35 - 42	4 Officers, 8 Marines
Earthworks	20 Long Guns	50 - 70	7 Officers, 16 Marines
Small Fort	24 Long Guns	60 - 84	8 Officers, 20 Marines
Medium Fort	36 Long Guns	80 - 120	12 Officers, 40 Marines
Large Fort	48 Long Guns	100 - 168	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).

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.

When a pirate or privateer successfully takes a ship or coastal town, there may be booty. Booty is split into shares for a ship's crew, according to the Articles or Charter of the ship.

Warships, pirates or privateers will normally carry little cargo. One ton on each ship will be taken up by supplies. Another one to three tons will be taken up by jolly boats. Half of what remains will be filled with powder and shot. On a roll of 7 or higher on one die, the ship will carry one type of cargo in the rest of the hold.

Merchantmen and Galleons will carry normal supplies, one to three jolly boats, and one to three tons of powder and shot. The rest of their holds are normally filled with two types of cargo. Roll two dice for each type of cargo on the table below:

Divide the number of empty cargo tons between the two types of cargo evenly. Cargo may be sold at pirate haven, for normal prices (See the section on Of Sea Trade).

Coastal towns which are raided or bombarded into surrender will have one to ten different types of cargo in town (roll one die), with one to ten tons of each type (roll one die), as well as 1K1 x 1,000 Guilders in ransom money. Add an additional 1,500 Guilders for each small fort defending the town; 3,000 Guilders for each medium fort; and 5,000 Guilders for each large fort. Forts which are destroyed or taken, may also be plundered for half of their guns, and 1K1 tons of powder and shot each.

	Evade	Circle	Bear Down
Evade	Both Escape	Your distance from the circling ship increases by one range category you may fire stern guns only.	Roll sail dice and if your roll wins by 10 you increase your distance by one range category.
Circle	Evading ship gains one range category of distance you may Cross the T if still in range to fire.	Range to target ship stays the same. You roll handling dice and if you beat target ship by 20pts you may Cross the T.	Roll handling if you win your ship may Cross the T.
Bear Down	Roll sail dice if your for every 10pts you win by decrease range category by one including ‘contact’ but only by choice.	Roll handling if your roll beats theirs you have an opportunity to fire a broadside or cross the T.	Range decreases by two categories you can only fire your chasers.

	Long	Medium	Short	Contact
Good Weather	+15	+10	+5	-10
Stormy Weather	Can’t fire	+15	+10	-10
Fog	-	-	+15	-10