Ramming ruination

[Crankey]

Greetings,

Captain  Henry d'Esterre Darby got it right.  Most (if not all) the ramming ships masts would go.  "Rolling the masts out" in a storm was common in those days.  (No wire cable and all that good stuff we have today.  Just old fiber line, probably half rotted from wear and months of exposure?).    

 

On the other hand,  If a little guy rams you, "Away boarders!"   An SOL has 800 to 1000 men.  Little guys have what?- 120?   Then re-board your own ship.  When the developers get to it, you might just have won a valuable "prize".

 

Aye, 

 

Tried that boarding situation, victory to a snow and back again. my Victory crew was reduced to the snow maximum.... Garrrrr

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Do you have to press X to capture?  You shouldn't have to transfer over - the other player has been defeated and is no longer in control.

[Hugh Latham]

One thing related to ramming defense would be the force of receiving a broadside on approach. There is energy in the broadside based upon the number of hits that could stagger a small ship so that it would lose speed suddenly and possibly sustain some mast damage, sort of like striking a reef. Another mechanism related to ship size disparity would be the number of marines on an SOL, for example, compared to the crew on a cutter or snow. I would imagine the marines would place a devisting fire down on the deck of the snow which would dramatically reduce the snow's sailing abilities (killing helmsmen and rigging crew).

[SYN_Bloody-Bandy]

Actually, most of them.  ...  Sure, it's not all of them, but it's probably enough to put you out of action if the leak is serious enough.

 

I disagree with "most of them" considering how many crew are on board, hundreds in some cases, but don't have any first hand or book knowledge.

 

That said, how many men can man the pumps at one time?  Sure they would handle them in shifts, but men are not going to be waiting around while others are doing it.  How many men can physically be present and deep under the decks to patch leaks?  Not most of them, there isn't room for most of the crew down there, and they would only get in the way.

 

There would be damage parties that would not consist of "most of the crew".  But not going to push my opinion around, just stating IMHO.  I'm sure there are historical accounts out there, so would be interesting to see...

[Yankee jack]

Captain Crankey,

 

OOPS?   Forgot the boarding and back stuff.  Yeah, losing most of your crew to a "crankey" game glitch is not fun.  Hopefully the developers will address the boarding issues?  A minimum "prize crew" would be nice.

 

Also, seems to me that any ramming ship risks catastrophic mast damage at anything over "steerage-way"?  That would help solve the gaming problem?

[greybuscat]

You have reached your quota of positive votes for the day

 

That's actually something to be slightly proud of, when you think about it.