Storms of War at Sea

I did a little Age of Sail experimentation today. I didn't bother recording all the action, but I'll give you a brief synopsis.

First was a moderate sized (for me at least) battle with 4 ships a side. One Blue (bottom, with a white marker on it) and two Red ships (also with white markers) were forced to strike.

The I tried a smaller action to see if my rules would be too simplistic with few ships. I thought they worked fine. Here we say one Red frigate (bottom right) trying to overhaul two Blue merchants. One of the merchants is trying a long range shot (it missed).

 Eventually, the frigate caught one of the merchants and severely damaged it, although it took some damage too. The other merchant would escape.

I used the rules as-is for the frigate (i.e. 2D6 in combat). Obviously, a frigate does not have the same firepower as a ship of the line, but I essentially adjusted the scale accordingly. The merchants fired with a single die.

All-in-all, I have been pleased with the rules. Here is the latest incarnation.

One issue is that collisions were very frequent when one ship tried to cross another's T. The target ship had to move forward 1 space, crashing into the enemy. I may allow the target a chance to turn before movement.