Bob and Cleo Liebl hosted a scenario using Zartoli’s rules and 2-inch long ship models. I was assigned 4 Spanish ships, each with a ‘green’ crew. All British ships, some 4 of them, had ‘expert’ crews (the crew grade showed up in the firing procedures). As my Allies, Cleo handled about a dozen pirate brigs and dhows and rowboats and other teensie things, while yet another ally, Keith, had command of two French ships. We out-manned the Brits, whose mission it was to sail across the table, escorting a treasure ship back to England. What made it difficult for the Brits, was that in setting up the field, Bob had placed a huge area of shallow shoals in the middle of the table… good for the dhows and rowboats, but bad for the larger ships. Movement and direction were noted down at the beginning of a turn, and then all ships moved simultaneously. Each ship had a basic movement factor (my large ships had 2 inches), and to this was added a distance taken from the wind chart… if you ran with the wind, you added another 4 inches to your distance, while if you were against the wind, you added nothing. So far, so good, but now began the dice tosses for the firing phase. For example, my large ship, the Santa Wallio, had 74 guns aboard, 37 on each side. (a) For my first starboard volley, I divided the number of guns per broadside by 2, coming up with 37/2 or 18. This gave me 18 6-sided dice to toss. At short range - less than 12 inches - a 4,5,6 was a hit. At long range, out to 24 inches, a 5,6 was a hit. All ships seemed to reach out to the ranges noted, even the rowboats… the only difference seemed to be the number of guns they could fire (I must be wrong on this, and Bob will soon correct me). For a second and subsequent broadside, with my crew being ‘green’, I divided my existing guns by 5, hence threw only 7 dice. The British, with their ’expert’ crews, divided their subsequent volleys by a factor of 3. (b) Having tossed my hit dice, I noted the number of hits on the target ship. Then, for every hit, I picked up a die again, and tossed it to determine where I had hit the target… did I pop it in the sails, the hull, the guns or the crew. (c) Then I picked up the dice again, and this time, for every hit, I tossed to see if a fire was started aboard… a 6 started an inferno. (d) The commander who ran the target ship, then picked up a single die, and tried to put out one fire… other blazes had to wait until next turn. (e) Since every ship on the water fired simultaneously, the above procedures of Steps (a)-through-(d) had to be run through every turn for all ships within range (24 inches) There were no hull boxes, nor gun boxes, nor crew boxes… instead, each parameter had points. My ship had 37 gun points, 45 crew, 30 sail and 36 hull points. Now. you’ll all realize, mateys, that this is definitely not my kind of game. Ship games are, in my opinion, the pits, the bottom of the barrel. I like games where units ‘move’… perhaps 8 or 10 inches per bound… not this piddly-type of 2 or 3-inch incrementing and crawling along the table. But didn’t Chairman Mao say “Into every life a little rain must fall!” And so I moved my Spanish ships along the ocean surface and tossed my dice when appropriate. My intent was to steer clear of the shoals, I had no desire to run aground and be decapitated by the King of Spain. Most troubling to me were Cleo’s teeny-weenies, my allies. These pirate ships seemed to be everywhere, circling the Brits, firing away, boarding when they could, and in general, completely blocking my lines of fire. I was relieved when one of the British Men O’ War broke away and headed toward my command. Now I would show the Eengleesh how a man of Spain fights! Of my command of 4 ships, two were quite slow (the Santa Wallio being one), while two were faster. My small brig, the Bombolina, easily outdistanced my other ships to close with this unfortunate Brit. The heroic captain of the Bombolina, Senor Baja, had, I think, a broadside of around 10 guns. This initially gave him 5 hit dice to throw… and after this first whopping broadside, the Bombolina, in dividing its guns by 5, would thereafter toss only a single die. Did this deter Baja of the Bombolina? Certainly not! In he bore. My second fastest ship was a small frigate, La Petunia, and this captain, too, headed straight for the British ship. While the Bombolina diverted the Brit, the Petunia ran smack, head on, into the Brit. Crunch!… and our sails were fouled, halting the Brit and giving my Santa Wallio the opportunity to move up. Then there followed a flurry of dice tosses which I didn’t follow. Do you want to grapple? Yes. A die toss. Do you want to un-grapple? Yes. Another die toss. Do you want to un-foul? Yes. A die toss. Do you want to de-foul? Yes. Do you want to go to the men’s room? Yes. And so on. Apparently, I couldn’t get the Petunia’s crew to grapple with the British ship, while my sails remained caught up in its British foulness. Not to worry. Into range sailed the slow but stately Santa Wallio with her 18 gun broadside. It turned out that the British ship, the Defiant, had been somewhat knocked about by the pirates, and so wasn’t in too good a shape when I encountered her. A couple of Spanish broadsides, and WHAMMO!, down to the ocean floor went the Defiant. In the meantime, Bob had tried to sail the British treasure ship right through the shoal area and had gone aground. Thousands of pirates surrounded her, and she had at least 4 fires aboard. Each turn, a ship commander could toss a die to see if a single fire aboard his craft was put out. Then he tossed more dice for the remaining fires… and each die resulted in more fire damage. Sad to say, but the treasure ship sank to the bottom. Someday, I shall attempt to write the definitive naval game… How will I tell if I succeed? Because this will be a game in which every one at table-side wants to stay awake. Alas! This sojourn into deep water didn’t fill the bill. Back to PW Review July 2000 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Wally Simon This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com