Inflicting Damages to Ships
Health Levels of Ships
Let's start with the version of Health Levels adapted to Ships:
| Health / Damage Level | Typical effects | |
|---|---|---|
| (Fluctuat Nec Mergitur) | ||
| - | No significant Damage | Nothing to report and, it goes without saying, luckily! The blow gently ricocheted on the Hull or passed over; at any rate, nothing serious and by the way one can wonder why we talk about it! |
| 1 | « Splinter Railings » | Typically, the Ship's Rail flew into pieces under the shock and there is a risk to be hurt by splinter or to be on the trajectory of the Cannonball but the Ship suffered no significant Damage, so to speak. |
| 2 | « Got the Bull in the Eye » | The Cannonball hit right in the Hull under the main Deck (or somewhere else in the structure of the Ship). There is however not yet any danger to sink, except by extremely foul weather. |
| 3 | « Major Damage » | A Mast or the Steering got a severe blow, or the Hull is destroyed near the waterline. It is difficult to go on navigating with the Ship and a worsening of the weather could have dramatic consequences. |
| 4 | « Hit… Sunk! » | If the Ship possesses several Levels in « Hit… Sunk! » and actually still has some, the taken Damage is, though not fatal, terrible and the Ship must practically be abandoned. In case of foul weather, the Ship hasn't got for long anymore before sinking. When the last Skull of that Level is checked, it means that the last shot leads to wreckage in a few minutes, the Hull being for instance heavily damaged under the waterline… |
Types of Ships and their Architecture
Let's now have a look at the main Types of Ships, in function of their Architecture:
| Types of Ships | |
|---|---|
| (Equivalences Constitution – Architecture) | |
| 1-2 | Fisherman's Barque, Curry-Bean Dugout, Launch / Lifeboat |
| 3-4 | Coaster, Shooner, Ketch, Yawl, Brigantine |
| 5-6 | Brick, Clipper, Frigate, Corvette, Three-Master |
| 7-9 | Galleon, Liner, Four-Master, Five-Master |
| 10 | Trireme, Dromon, Six-Master, Battleship |
Fluctuat Nec Mergitur
The following table is similar to that of the Health Levels of Characters applied to Ships. It is called Levels of Fluctuat Nec Mergitur. One can find here the number of Skulls of Fluctuat Nec Mergitur of a Ship in function of her Architecture.
| Archi- tecture | « Splinter Railings » | « Got the Bull in the Eye » | « Major Damage » | « Hit… Sunk! » | |
| 1 |   | | | | |
| 2 | | | | | |
| 3-4 | | | | | |
| 5-6 | | | | | |
| 7 | | | | | |
| 8-9 | | | | | |
| 10 | | | | | |
Chart of inflicted Damages
At last and for your comfort, we give here again the table for the case of Encounters between two individual Opponents, since it will be applied exactly in the same way for Ships, in function of the respective Successes or Failures of the Gunners to their Rolls versus (Nimbleness + Powder & Cannonballs) during the first phase of a Boarding. One needs only make one Roll per Ship, not per Cannon, to make the whole thing manageable: Damages are thus applied as many times as the Cannons could fire… Things can thus go very, very quickly even if, as already mentioned, the aim is rarely to sink the Ennemy Ship, well at least usually…
The numbers are used to lighten the text and correspond to the change in the Level of inflicted Damage:
| Level of inflicted Damage | Roll for Attack or Defence of the Opponent no. 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roll for Attack or Defence of the Opponent no. 2 | Success Level of the Roll | Critical Failure | Normal Failure | Normal Success | Critical Success |
| Critical Failure | - / - | - / 1 | - / 2 | - / 4 | |
| Normal Failure | 1 / - | - / - | - / 1 | - / 3 | |
| Normal Success | 2 / - | 1 / - | 1 / 1 | 1 / 2 | |
| Critical Success | 4 / - | 3 / - | 2 / 1 | 2 / 2 | |
Types of Guns
Detailed below are the Characteristics of common Cannons to be found quite commonly on any Ship of the Known World. It goes without saying that some powerful Pirates or Navies of great Kingdoms can have more developped weapons. Moreover, some Ships have a reinforced Hull, which reduces the Level of Damage by for instance one unit…
| Weapon | Modification of the Damage Level * | Increase in the Quantity of Damages ** |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Cannon | - | - |
| Chase Canon | -1 | - |
| Big Mouth | +1 | - |
| Sea Fire | - | +1 |
* If the modificators lead to a Damage of 5 or more, one should consider that the blow is equivalent to a complete removal of all the remaining Skulls in the « Hit… Sunk! » Health Level: all what remains for the Crew Members to be done is to put on the swimming bikinis and the snorkeling equipment.
** That is the increase in the number of Skulls to be checked after one taken Cannon Shot.
In case of a Boarding technique based on the use of double Cannonballs linked by a chain to destroy the Ennemy's Mast, one should rather consider the Damage Levels of a Chase Cannon. In that case, if the Damage Level « Major Damage » is reached, one of the Masts of the Ship is torn out. « Got the Bull in the Eye » is either just like it is meant by the expression (try to understand what it means then!) or actually well shot on the Mast with the consequence that it is slightly bent at the most. Some Crew Members could also well have been heavily wounded by the chain at any rate…
Maritim Fire
As we just saw in the above chart, Maritim Fires can have destructive effects and that even more if the fire then propagates.
However, Damages are not considered as taken immediately and if the attacked Ship's Crew Members have the possibility, they can try to extinguish the fire or cancel the one or several affected Sails off to the Sea. That will require Rolls for a Lead or Coordinated Action of course but in case of Success, only one Damage will have been taken or even none in case of a Critical Success.
It won't be so nice in case of Failure to extingish the starting fire (or of impossibility to react in any sort of way - remember that the Ship is right in the middle of a Boardig action. In that case, not only will the full Damages of the Sea Fire will be incured but, moreover, from the next Sequence on, the propagating fire, a further Damage is inflicted on the Ship automatically as long as the fire burns.
The Ship does not necessarily burn off until complete wreckage due to Maritim Fire; it is up to you, Game Master, to determine what corresponds best to the situation but, in any case, the Deck usually will be completely burnt (and most of the Crew with it) if nothing is done against it, all the more since Sea Fire consists in a sort of asphalt paste which, while burning, sticks to all obstacles, making no difference for persons…