Naval Combat
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Naval Combat
by TLS Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:16 pm
Orders and Movement
Navies in this era do not have speedy and reliable long distance communications ability. They also do not have radar and air search or even particularly powerful optical instruments (spyglasses are still low powered). Therefore in the entire 200 years between 1700 and 1900 there was exactly one sizeable naval battle that was in what would be called oceanic waters, and it involved the interception of a major convoy (the Glorious First of June).
Fighting
Each warship has an attack value. That is how many 1d6 it can roll to attack another ship. Attacks cannot be split up, so a battleships with an attack of 4 must concentrate all of its fire on one target. A 6 on a 1d6 is a major hit, resulting in the enemy target losing 1 point of defense (until repaired). If it is reduced to 0, the ship cannot move or shoot and is abandoned and sinks (a lot of the crew will live). If a single attack reduces it to below 0 (say a battleship with 4 dice gets 4 hits on a 1 defense cruiser for example or two battleships attack and hit the same enemy battleship), the ship is a catastrophic loss and has negligible survivors.
In addition, if a 6 results in a hit, the referee rolls again. A second 6 means that the target has taken a catastrophic hit immediately and is utterly destroyed (think magazine hit).
A ship that takes more than half damage has its speed and attack value reduced by -1 for each hit taken at the 50% mark or more.
Blockades
A blockade is usually conducted by several frigates and brigs, which remain on station, while a supporting fleet of battleships remains nearby ready to react should a fleet attempt to carry out any mission against the blockading squadron or squadrons or in the sea area it is patrolling. It is always assumed that barring orders to the contrary, that a fleet that is blockaded waits until bad weather or night to attempt to break out.
Naval Geography
For game purposes sea zones are referred to as either 'open sea' or 'coastal waters' and will be so listed.
Names
For ship names, feel free to use historical names of any era, names from pop culture, or whatever else sounds reasonable. I am fairly flexible, but if a name irritates the hell out of me, that will be the ship whose number comes up when a random ship loss occurs.
Special Rules
fireships- navies may choose to attack ports and harbors that have shipping and warships in them using fireships. Several ships is stripped of crew, loaded with combustibles, powder, and given a minimum crew, and sent into a harbor. It is the special operations attack of the day, and generally rarely works. But when it does.. its spectacular.
Chances of success are 1 in 6 for each unit used up this way, which is destroyed no matter what. Tactical surprise is required, (which is the success roll), otherwise boarding parties from the defenders row up in boats and secure the ships and steer them somewhere harmless.
A success allows a fireship unit to destroy a random enemy warship or warship unit.
Great Captains
Although some of the monarchs of the day loved their navy, none of them commanded in battle. However some of the most brilliant admirals who ever commanded a fleet served during this era. Great Captains at sea improve the chance of tactical surprise, provide a bonus to combat, and also improve the chance of spotting the enemy (having an instinct for where the enemy will likely be). They are also prone to die in battle (Nelson).
Attrition
As it turns out, ship losses to fire, running aground, storms, rot, or just disappearing forever were pretty serious.
Each 5 years, remove 10% of your fleet in each category. You can choose whatever manner you like to do so (random or just because you don't like the name of a ship or what have you). We'll start this in 1790, and then every 5th year thereafter (1795, 1800, etc).
Those who abuse this may see a major hurricane catch their fleet at sea and reduce their fleet size appropriately
Forts vs warships
A forts has a combat value of 10 (meaning, it can take 10 hits before it is destroyed), and has 1 guaranteed hits each turn. It gets to fight every round until eliminated or the enemy withdraws. It is hard to reduce a fortress by sea attack. Note it is also pretty hard to batter into submission as it would take a large number of ships hammering at it to knock it down, while those ships are being hammered in return.
Captured vessels
Warships in this day and age do not fight to the death as a normal rule of thumb. Once sufficient damage has been inflicted and the ship is helpless, it will surrender. 30% of the time the damage will be too great and it will sink anyway, while another 10% of the time too much damage will be inflicted at once and the ship will burn or explode (rare, but catastrophic when it occurs). During combat, units accumulate damage and if their damage rating is met or exceeded they strike their colors and surrender (thus the term "strike" is used). A die roll is made to see if they are salvageable, and if so, they are then taken to the nearest friendly base by the victor and can be repaired and added to his navy. The victors also make a fortune when this occurs, but this has no game effect other than sometimes coloring the actions of your admirals who may chase prize money instead of acting strategically on many occasions.
Adding a captured warship to your fleet requires paying its maintenance cost, and takes one season. For game purposes it goes to one of your yards and sits there until the winter turn, when you allocate money to fix and crew it and it becomes available during the spring turn.
Laying up ships
This was common practice, but limited to Frigates and above (BB1s and BB2s), as the lighter ships simply rot away too quickly to make it worth while and are cheap to build.
Ships laid up have 10% maintenance cost. To activate costs double maintenance for that year. Maximum length a ship can be laid up is 20 years.
It takes 1 season to make them operational. This includes repairs and crewing them.
Communications
From America
2 weeks to the Caribbean
3 weeks to Mexico
4 weeks to Brazil/Spanish Main
5 weeks to Europe
6 weeks to the Rio de la Plata
12 weeks to Peru/Chile
16 weeks to India or California/New Mexico
20 weeks to the Far East
Transports
During wartime, you can transport units across by sea at a rate of .25 point per regiment/.05 per company (assume this is the cost of commissioning enough ships). You have to allocate naval units to escort them--or not, its your funeral.
Navies in this era do not have speedy and reliable long distance communications ability. They also do not have radar and air search or even particularly powerful optical instruments (spyglasses are still low powered). Therefore in the entire 200 years between 1700 and 1900 there was exactly one sizeable naval battle that was in what would be called oceanic waters, and it involved the interception of a major convoy (the Glorious First of June).
Fighting
Each warship has an attack value. That is how many 1d6 it can roll to attack another ship. Attacks cannot be split up, so a battleships with an attack of 4 must concentrate all of its fire on one target. A 6 on a 1d6 is a major hit, resulting in the enemy target losing 1 point of defense (until repaired). If it is reduced to 0, the ship cannot move or shoot and is abandoned and sinks (a lot of the crew will live). If a single attack reduces it to below 0 (say a battleship with 4 dice gets 4 hits on a 1 defense cruiser for example or two battleships attack and hit the same enemy battleship), the ship is a catastrophic loss and has negligible survivors.
In addition, if a 6 results in a hit, the referee rolls again. A second 6 means that the target has taken a catastrophic hit immediately and is utterly destroyed (think magazine hit).
A ship that takes more than half damage has its speed and attack value reduced by -1 for each hit taken at the 50% mark or more.
Blockades
A blockade is usually conducted by several frigates and brigs, which remain on station, while a supporting fleet of battleships remains nearby ready to react should a fleet attempt to carry out any mission against the blockading squadron or squadrons or in the sea area it is patrolling. It is always assumed that barring orders to the contrary, that a fleet that is blockaded waits until bad weather or night to attempt to break out.
Naval Geography
For game purposes sea zones are referred to as either 'open sea' or 'coastal waters' and will be so listed.
Names
For ship names, feel free to use historical names of any era, names from pop culture, or whatever else sounds reasonable. I am fairly flexible, but if a name irritates the hell out of me, that will be the ship whose number comes up when a random ship loss occurs.
Special Rules
fireships- navies may choose to attack ports and harbors that have shipping and warships in them using fireships. Several ships is stripped of crew, loaded with combustibles, powder, and given a minimum crew, and sent into a harbor. It is the special operations attack of the day, and generally rarely works. But when it does.. its spectacular.
Chances of success are 1 in 6 for each unit used up this way, which is destroyed no matter what. Tactical surprise is required, (which is the success roll), otherwise boarding parties from the defenders row up in boats and secure the ships and steer them somewhere harmless.
A success allows a fireship unit to destroy a random enemy warship or warship unit.
Great Captains
Although some of the monarchs of the day loved their navy, none of them commanded in battle. However some of the most brilliant admirals who ever commanded a fleet served during this era. Great Captains at sea improve the chance of tactical surprise, provide a bonus to combat, and also improve the chance of spotting the enemy (having an instinct for where the enemy will likely be). They are also prone to die in battle (Nelson).
Attrition
As it turns out, ship losses to fire, running aground, storms, rot, or just disappearing forever were pretty serious.
Each 5 years, remove 10% of your fleet in each category. You can choose whatever manner you like to do so (random or just because you don't like the name of a ship or what have you). We'll start this in 1790, and then every 5th year thereafter (1795, 1800, etc).
Those who abuse this may see a major hurricane catch their fleet at sea and reduce their fleet size appropriately
Forts vs warships
A forts has a combat value of 10 (meaning, it can take 10 hits before it is destroyed), and has 1 guaranteed hits each turn. It gets to fight every round until eliminated or the enemy withdraws. It is hard to reduce a fortress by sea attack. Note it is also pretty hard to batter into submission as it would take a large number of ships hammering at it to knock it down, while those ships are being hammered in return.
Captured vessels
Warships in this day and age do not fight to the death as a normal rule of thumb. Once sufficient damage has been inflicted and the ship is helpless, it will surrender. 30% of the time the damage will be too great and it will sink anyway, while another 10% of the time too much damage will be inflicted at once and the ship will burn or explode (rare, but catastrophic when it occurs). During combat, units accumulate damage and if their damage rating is met or exceeded they strike their colors and surrender (thus the term "strike" is used). A die roll is made to see if they are salvageable, and if so, they are then taken to the nearest friendly base by the victor and can be repaired and added to his navy. The victors also make a fortune when this occurs, but this has no game effect other than sometimes coloring the actions of your admirals who may chase prize money instead of acting strategically on many occasions.
Adding a captured warship to your fleet requires paying its maintenance cost, and takes one season. For game purposes it goes to one of your yards and sits there until the winter turn, when you allocate money to fix and crew it and it becomes available during the spring turn.
Laying up ships
This was common practice, but limited to Frigates and above (BB1s and BB2s), as the lighter ships simply rot away too quickly to make it worth while and are cheap to build.
Ships laid up have 10% maintenance cost. To activate costs double maintenance for that year. Maximum length a ship can be laid up is 20 years.
It takes 1 season to make them operational. This includes repairs and crewing them.
Communications
From America
2 weeks to the Caribbean
3 weeks to Mexico
4 weeks to Brazil/Spanish Main
5 weeks to Europe
6 weeks to the Rio de la Plata
12 weeks to Peru/Chile
16 weeks to India or California/New Mexico
20 weeks to the Far East
Transports
During wartime, you can transport units across by sea at a rate of .25 point per regiment/.05 per company (assume this is the cost of commissioning enough ships). You have to allocate naval units to escort them--or not, its your funeral.
TLS- Admin
- Posts : 731
Join date : 2017-09-19 -
Similar topics» Naval Combat
» Combat Rules
» Revised and Edited Ground combat rules
» Supply and Attrition
» Naval Units
» Combat Rules
» Revised and Edited Ground combat rules
» Supply and Attrition
» Naval Units
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