Naval Playtest 2

What should you do on one of the hottest days of the year.  Well, Steve and I stayed cool and met online to do a second playtest of my naval rules for my 17th Century ships that might otherwise rest unloved in a box in my cellar. 

Today's outing was really about testing the rules with more than one ship per side.  

The basic idea of the rules is to assume a lot of things happen of their own accord and just deal with the action and excitement.  For those who like to do tests for running up the main sail or shoot differing types of ammo, this is not for you.  The intention is quick and fun.

The mechanic that runs throughout is that a six on a d6 does something.  Each rating of ship starts with a set number of d6, for example a First Rate carrying 100 guns would start with 10 d6, a Fourth Rate with 56 guns might have 7 d6.  These dice are used during a turn to shoot, reload, repair and to interrupt another player's move.  There are only two modifiers, both on shooting, one for close range and one for raking.  

The ship that's been activated can perform its actions in any order.  Everything except moving requires a six to perform it.  The number of d6 rolled to get the six is decided on by the player.  So, if the Fourth Rater spends 4 dice reloading, it only has 3 dice left for shooting... if the reloading dice successfully produced a six!

A ship degrades during a battle.  Each hit is the loss of one of the ship's d6.  In a way, the rules takes a resource management approach.  The player has to allocate dice to different jobs.  However, as the number of dice (resources) reduces due to hits, the management of the resources become more critical. Thus, more decision points for the player.

That's enough blah, blah!

So, with three ships each we set about it.

With the wind rolled for, Steve was going to enjoy the early advantage of being windward.

Steve made sure that he kept the wind. Meanwhile, I was forced to tack into it.

Very quickly, Steve was positioning his ships to profit from the elements.

And so Steve manoeuvred nicely to bring raking fire. 

His ship, Le Saint Phillipe had 8 dice.  All of which he brought to bear.  Being close range and raking, that gave him a +2 on the dice.  Effectively now needing 4-6 to hit.  Which he rolled with devastating effect.  A consequence was the need to roll for critical damage. In this case my vessel was holed beneath the waterline and likely to sink if not repaired.

The raking shot that devastated my ship of the line.

Not content, Steve then brought a broadside against the same ship.

Steve would now board. With the crew decimated, it was easily captured.

Steve then used the weather gauge to sail into position to rake a second of my squadron.

However, with my 2 remaining ships, I gave a broadside and cut their line.

I will freely admit that I my knowledge of naval conflict in the age of sail is extremely limited.  However, I recall something from somewhere that gunnery fire from these ships required execution at the optimal point as the ship rolled.  I think that was to ensure the shot didn't end up being fired into the sea and killing sharks!  So, in a situation above with a double broadside the allocated dice are equally divided.  This is to abstract that the gunnery may not be at it's best on either side due to having to fire despite the roll of the vessel.  Nonetheless, even with reduced dice, was I still rolling with a 50% chance of doing damage.

But, this would be too little and too late.  

Steve lets rip with his cannons.

With that blow, my squadron has had enough and decides to try and put as much ocean between them the Steve's ships as possible.

I tested a morale/exhaustion threshold for the squadrons.  Essentially, a squadron would decide to withdraw once it had suffered hits equal to 50% of the starting total of ship dice.  My three ships started with a total of 21 dice.  So, I set the threshold at suffering 11 hits before withdrawing... which I did.

The final positions at the point my squadron decided that it need to get away.

Afterthoughts.
That was a lot of fun.  To reiterate a phrase from the first playtest, it was "fast and furious".  Exactly what I want.

• Whilst it played quickly, there were a lot of decision points throughout the game.  As the game allows for interrupts, the non-phasing player really needs to pay attention and is therefore fully involved.
• The game worked well with multiple ships per side.  One on one gave a good game.  Three on three was equally entertaining.
• We had a good discussion and quickly ironed out some creases with the boarding and recrewing rules.
• The "resource management" of the dice made the game zip along nicely.  Plus, we did not get bogged down in what mast was hit or how many guns out of action etc.  The abstraction with the number of dice meant that we could concentrate on sailing and action.
• There were critical hits during the game.  This occurs when shooting produces more than 50% hits on a ship.  This did not happen often, but was fun when it did.
• Steve and I had a good chat about turning.  Whilst the game worked, we both felt that a little tweak to calm some turns was required.  This I have now looked at and await an opportunity to test the changes out.
• I am, so far, pleased that the tweaks mentioned above keep to my design principles and maintain the simplicity of the rules.
• Lastly, the exhaustion/morale threshold produced a good end to the game and a decision on a winner.  Plus, the state of my squadron at the point that it was reached felt like the moment an admiral might want to extricate himself.

All in all, the game felt right and seemed plausible in its outcome.  I finish here feeling quite pleased.