Ship-to-Ship Combat

When ships themselves become a part of a battle, combat becomes unusual. The following rules are not meant to accurately simulate all of the complexities of ship-toship combat; rather, they represent an attempt to strike a balance between verisimilitude and ease and speed of play during combat, and can be applied to a vessel of any size, from a simple dinghy to a multi-deck man-o’- war.

It is important to note that while ships can be attacked in combat, it is difficult to significantly damage such large vehicles. In addition, a captured ship is usually worth more as a prize to be towed or sailed home than sunk to the bottom of the sea. As a result, most ship-to-ship combat ends when the crew of one ship boards another to fight the enemy crew in hand-to-hand combat