© 1998 Battles for Empire Publications (version 2.4, 10 May 1999)
INTRODUCTION
Where we live, there were few historical miniatures gainers just two years ago. I have begun running a number of miniatures games where the fantasy gainers meet. In an effort to develop a game that would be easy to learn, fast playing, and aesthetically enticing, we hit upon the large 15mm Ironclads produced by Merrimack Miniatures. There are a number of excellent sets of rules that cover this Ironclad era of naval battles, but we wanted something more beer and pretzels, more in keeping with the toy-like appearance of the models. These rules and the boats have become very popular at local conventions and at a couple of the larger IfMGS conventions. Many of our play tests involved kids who were in elementary and junior high school. Those kids have found the game fun and interesting. In addition, the adults who have played the game have also found the rules fun. We hope that you enjoy playing them as much as we enjoyed developing them.
Remember that these rules were meant to be beer and pretzels (root beer for the minors). Unlike my other game development efforts, I made a conscious effort to learn little about the period, because I did not want to start adding things that would make the game more realistic at the expense of fun. Remember that the purpose of the rules was to present a fun experience in an effort to demonstrate that historically-based games could be just as much fun as other forms of the hobby.
COMMAND AND CONTROL
We threw u the command and control system to save money. Instead, each player writes the name of each of his ships on a 3x5" card. The game master (GM) then shuffles these together. As the turn progresses, the GM pulls one card and calls the name of the boat. The player controlling that boat conducts actions in the following order: move, firetreload, special actions. When the player is done, the GM draws the next card. When all boats have had a card, the deck is reshuffled and the game continues until one side has been sunk or surrenders.
MOVEMENT
Boats have a maximum movement distance and an acceleration. Boats can start the game at any speed the GM allows. When a player moves his boat, first he adjusts the speed. The speed of a boat can be in the range of the speed of the boat last turn plus or minus the acceleration of the boat. In other words, if a boat had a speed of 6 last turn, and it has an acceleration of 3, it could move as few as 3 and as many as 9 inches. A boat must move the entire amount of its movement allowance - even if this means ramming a buddy!
Turning is accomplished with the included turning gauge. The radius used depends on the speed of the boat. A boat can spend all or some of its movement allowance turning. The movement allowance of the boat does not change; you just move that many tick marks along the arc on the turning gauge. A boat can do any combination of turning and straight inches during a move.
If a boat passes over a shallow area (determined by the GM), it immediately rolls on the Running Aground chart. If the boat runs aground, it can use the same chart in subsequent turns to attempt to push off.
A boat must spend one turn stationary before it can change directions. In other words, if a boat wanted to move backward, it must decelerate to a speed of zero, spend one turn stationary, and then begin to accelerate backwards. Boats' maximum movement speed is half backwards of their forward speed.
FIRING
Firing is done in two steps, hit determination and hit resolution. You need to build five range sticks for the five basic sizes of guns (very light, light, medium, heavy, and very heavy). The range bands on these sticks should be:
| verylight | 4 | 8 | 12 |
| light | 6 | 12 | 18 |
| medium | 8 | 16 | 24 |
| heavy | 10 | 20 | 30 |
| very heavy | 12 | 24 | 36 |
The range stick is laid from the firing gun to the center of the target boat. The deflection and elevation gauge is laid under and perpendicular to the range stick twelve inches from the firing gun (regardless of gun size). The firing player rolls a six-sided die (1d6) and move the stick into the center of that box on the deflection and elevation gauge. Then the deflection and elevation gauge is laid along the range stick so that the 1 and 2 boxes are centered over the portion of the boat that the range stick crosses. The firing player rolls another d6 to determine the point of impact of the round. If this is in the water, the shot is a miss. If any part of the box touches the boat, the shot hit, and the player conducts hit resolution. Note, you use the shorter portion of the gauge for deflection and the longer portion of the gauge for elevation.
If the shot hit the boat, determine the weight of the round. If the point of impact of the round is in the short range band, it is considered to be the weight of the firing gun. If it is in medium range, it is one grade lower than the firing gun, and if it is in long range, it is two grades lower. For instance, if a medium gun hit a boat at long range, the weight of the round would be considered to be very light. Then determine the armor of the target boat. (The armor of a boat can be affected by hits.) Cross index the weight of the round and the armor of the target on the Damage and Penetration chart. Roll 1d20 and read off the damage. For instance, with a medium gun (at short range) against light armor, a roll of 10 would result in 2 hull hits, 1 crew hit, and 1 gun hit. These boxes are crossed out on the player's boat record sheet.
Effects of Crew Hits: When a boat has lost a whole crew section (the dark lines divide crew sections), it takes longer to reload. When all the crew boxes are gone, the boat cannot fire its guns, and if it is boarded it surrenders. It is important to note that these crew boxes denote the crewmen available to man the guns and participate in boarding actions. A boat with no crew boxes can still limp off the table.
Effects of Hull Hits: When a hull section is eliminated (the dark lines divide hull sections), the armor value of the boat is reduced by one (a boat with heavy armor would now have medium armor). In addition, the boat's maximum speed is cut in half.
Effects of Fires: The turn that a boat gets a fire result (either from critical hits or an F on the Damage and Penetration chart), it takes an additional 2 hull hits. It continues to take two more hull hits each turn until the fire is extinguished (see below).
Effects of Gun Hits: When a boat receives a gun hit, roll randomly to determine which gun (in that portion of the boat) was destroyed. That gun cannot fire for the remainder of the turn. Some of the more heavily armored ironclads have two gun boxes for each gun. The first hit is ignored. When both boxes are gone, the gun is destroyed.
Effects of Turret Hits: When a turret has no more turret boxes, it can no longer turn the turret. The guns can still fire, but the turret cannot move.
Some Notes: When a player decides to firing a gun that is in a turret, he can turn the turret once in any direction before firing. All guns in a turret that wish to fire must then fire at the same target. Not all guns in a turret must fire at the same time; in fact, we have found that it is better to fire each of the two guns every other turn so you can fire every turn.
Reloading: When a gun fires, place a cotton ball in front of it. To reload takes a turn. Next time the boat fires, the cotton balls can be removed. If the boat has lost a crew section and it takes two turns to reload, place two cotton balls in front of the gun. When both are removed, the gun can fire again.
Musketry: A player can crew boxes conduct musketry. These crew boxes cannot be used to operate cannons or fight fires. Roll on the Marines and Musketry chart to determine how many enemy crew boxes are hit. Muskets only have a four-inch range.
Firing Grape Shot: When an enemy boat is very close (within six inches), the firing player can elect to fire grape shot rather than ball. Use the Grape Shot chart to determine how many enemy crew boxes are hit. This election is done at the time of firing; you don't have to specify this when loading the guns.
SPECIAL ACTIONS
Special actions occur after firing, and they occur in the order indicated on the chart card.
Ramming: We found that there are lots of players who want to ram other boats as soon as they find out it is possible - even if they don't have ram-equipped boats. If a player wants to ram an enemy boat, he moves his boat so that it touches the target boat. Then he rolls to see if he successfully rams. For instance, a boat moving at 8 inches of movement would successfully ram on a roll of 1- 12. If the ramming boat fails, it slides along the side of the target boat. If the ramming boat succeeds, the player rolls the number of dice indicated on the ramming chart. For instance, a medium boat moving at 8" of speed this turn would roll 4 dice of hull damage on the boat it rammed. If the ramming boat is equipped with a ram, the ram box is crossed off on the boat's record sheet. If the ramming boat does not have a ram, it takes five times the roll on 1d6 as hull box hits. After ramming, the boats are considered to be grappled. If either boat sinks while they are grappled, the other boat takes five times the roll on 1d6 as hull box hits as the two boats are ripped apart.
Spar TorpedolMine: To use a spar torpedo, you first have to successfully ram the target boat. If successful, instead of rolling on the ramming chart, the torpedo boat rolls 1 d20 to see if the spar torpedo actually detonates. On a roll of 1- 16, the torpedo detonates. The torpedo is removed, and the target boat takes five times the roll on 1d6 as hull box hits.
Grappling and Ungrappling: As long as a boat has crew boxes, it can attempt to grapple with a boat it touches or ungrapple from a boat. The chances of succeeding are shown on the chart card.
Fire: The player whose boat is burning decides how many crew boxes to devote to fire fighting. For purposes of firing next turn, these are considered to be hits. In other words, crew boxes used to fight the fire cannot help reload the guns until the fire is put out. Each turn that the fire burns the player can change the number of crew boxes devoted to fire fighting. Then the player rolls 1d20. If this roll is less than the number of crew boxes allocated to fire fighting, the fire is extinguished; otherwise, it continues to burn, and the boat takes two more hull hits.
Boarding Actions: Boarding actions can only take place between two boats that are grappled (boats are automatically grappled after successful ramming). Boarding actions have three phases: boarding, clearing the decks, and capturing the boat. Both sides count up the number of crew boxes remaining on the boat. Each player rolls 1d 10 (1d20 but ignore any tens digits for a roll of 1 to 10). If one side has more crew than the other side, that player adds one to his die roll for each five men more he has. The two sides take crew hits as indicated on the chart card. The winner moves to the next phase of the boarding action. For instance a Confederate ironclad and a Union ironclad were fighting, and the Rebs win the first round of melee, they board the Yankee boat. If the Yanks win the next round (next time one of the two boats gets a card), the Rebs are thrown back onto their own boat. If, on the other hands, the Rebs win the next round, they clear the Yankee decks. This seesaw action continues until one side has no more crew or the third phase (capture the boat) is reached. In the event of a tie roll, both sides take 1d6 crew boxes, and the status of the action does not change.
BOAT SHEETs
We included two copies of the record sheet for each boat. One is blank, and the other is filled in with the values that we usually use.
Beer and Pretzels Ironclads: Record Sheets (extremely slow: 667K)
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© Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum
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