How to Play – Game Setup

Mission Overview

When you enter a new game, the first screen you see will be the mission overview screen. Here you will see the type of the mission, the mission objectives, and a small map displaying the game board and starting positions for all factions. Pay special attention to the position of islands and the starting wind direction, as they may play a factor in how you configure your fleet.

Captain Cards

Each player will be dealt six random Captain Cards, three of which you will need to discard at the start of the game. Captain Cards may be used during any of your game turns to the best of your advantage. Keep in mind what cards you’ve been dealt, as they may play a factor in how you configure your fleet.

Shipyard

The final setup screen is the Shipyard. Each mission you are given a specific number of fleet configuration points. You can spend these points to add ships to your fleet. You can also spend these points to add special equipment to individual ships, such as extra armor or cannon.

How to Play – Your Turn

As the commander of your fleet, each turn you will need to place movement and firing orders for your ships. In addition, you can change crew focuses, reload cannon, and play Captain Cards.

Ship Movement

To move your ships, select a ship by tapping on it. Valid movement positions will be highlighted; tap on a destination hex for where you want your ship to go. If arrow buttons appear, choose one of them to decide which direction you want to ship to face when it reaches the destination. Once your order is placed, a movement trail is drawn so you can see where the ship will travel.

Movement Points

At the start of each turn, each ship is assigned a number of movement points. The number of points is different per ship class and is related to the ship’s current heading related to the direction of the wind. It is advantageous to end your turn with your ships facing a good heading, as they will start the next turn with a good amount of movement points.

Movement Order

All ships are assigned a movement order at the start of each turn. The movement order is based on the current speed of the ship and whether it is in a line formation with friendly ships. The movement order is displayed in the black circle on the left side of your side. Pay special attention to movement order to avoid collisions with other ships.

Crew Focus

As the Commander of your fleet, you can choose to have your crew focus on different tasks. Should you send extra men into the sails, squeaking out an extra movement point? Or should they focus on gunnery?

Crew Focus: Sailing
+1 movement point, but decrease in cannon accuracy and damage
Crew Focus: Gunnery
-1 movement point, but an increase cannon accuracy and damage
Crew Focus: Repairs
-1 movement point, decrease in cannon accuracy and damage, but your crew will slowly repair your hull and sail damage

Reload Cannon

All of your gun decks start the game unloaded. Each turn your gun crews can reload one broadside’s cannons. To load a gun deck, select a ship on the map. In the ship details on the left, tap on one of the cannon buttons labeled “Unloaded”. An ammunition dialog will open, allowing you to choose the type of shot you’d like the gun crews to load. Choose a shot type and then choose “Reload”.

Round Shot
A single projectile capable of reaching long distances, round shot is the standard fare for busting timber at range.
Double Shot
Loading your cannons with double round shot may diminish accuracy and range, but nothing tears through hull better.
Bar Shot
Designed to maximize distance and devastation, bar shot is ideal for tearing through sails and rigging at range.
Chain Shot
While not capable of long range flight, the flexible chain shot is capable of completely devastating sails and rigging.
Grape Shot
A deadly anti-personel shot, grape shot is a sailor’s worst nightmare.

Fire Cannon

Once you have a loaded gun deck, your cannon arcs will be displayed on the hex map as red bordered squares. Your ship can fire on enemy ships in these target spaces. Your ship cannot fire through islands or other ships. To fire your cannons, tap on an enemy ship in a red bordered hex. A red target symbol will be displayed above the targeted ship.

Sail and Mast Damage

As a ship loses sail points, it will begin to lose movement points each turn. If a ship has less than 20% of its total sail points left, the masts will be damaged and the ship will be unable to move or turn until repairs can be made.

Play Captain Card

During your turn you can put into play any number of your available Captain Cards. All Captain Cards are put into play at the beginning of the turn, and their effect is enforced according to the description on the card. To put a card into play, press the card button in the upper right corner to open the cards display. You can then tap on a card to put it into play.

How to Play – Line Ships and Movement Order

As you can read below in “Forming a Line”, a battle line of ships can be a very successful tactic to employ in naval combat. When your ships are placed in a line formation (bow to stern, all facing the same way with only small gaps) then the movement order for all ships in the line will be calculated based on the movement points of the slowest ship in the line.

For example, lets say you have a battle line of two Vanguards (3rd rate Ship of the Line) and one Constance (a Frigate), such that the Constance is between the two Vanguards. Being the more maneuverable ship, the Constance starts the turn with 6 movement points, while the less maneuverable Vanguards start with only 4. Given the rules about movement order, the Constance would move before the Vanguards. However, this would be less than ideal when in a line formation, since the Constance cannot move anywhere being between the two Vanguards. This rule allows for ships in a line to move in the same movement order as the slowest ship, all ships there to move in order.

How to Play – Resolution of a Round

Each round of play is resolved as follows:

  • Captain Cards are played and take effect
  • Gun decks are reloaded, new crew focuses assigned
  • All ships fire their cannon
  • Ships damaged beyond repair will surrender
  • Ship movement is carried out in movement order
  • Ships repairs and possible wind changes

Note that you can choose one broadside to be reloaded for the beginning of the round. This allows you to fire, reload, and fire the same broadside over consecutive rounds. All ships get to fire their cannons before ships are removed from play.

How to Play – Crew, Crew Damage, and Boarding

Crew and Grape Shot

Your ship is manned by a crew of hearty sailors, more than the ship needs for basic functionality. As you ship comes under fire, either from round shot, double shot, or the more deadly grape shot, members of your crew will be slain or wounded. In your ship’s health display, there is a bar showing the minimum number of crew required for full control of your vessel. Whenever one of your crew members is wounded or slain, there is a small percentage chance that it will negatively affect your crew. For example, a broadside of grape my scatter your gun crews, causing their damage and accuracy to be reduced. In addition, if your vessel’s able-bodied crew total falls below that line, then all of the crew effects will be applied to your ship. The affects are as follows:

  • Officer Struck – This ship will be unable to benefit from Captain Cards played in the next turn
  • Sailor Injured – This ship’s crew focuses will be disabled for the next round, the crew focus reset to none
  • Gunnery Crew Shaken – This ship’s cannon fire will be less accurate, and do less damage, than normal

Raking Damage

The bow and the stern of a ship are particularly vulnerable; all crew damage inflicted when “raking” is doubled. A raking shot of grape can be devastating indeed!

Ship Boarding Action

Before ship board can occur, all of the following conditions must be met:

  • Damage masts – Reduce a ship’s sail points to less than 20%, immobilizing the ship
  • Be close – Ships in an adjacent hex to the immobilized ship can board
  • Have sufficient crew – Ships can only board if they currently have more than the minimum required crew

If all of the above conditions are met, your ship will be able to perform a boarding action on the target ship. If you choose to board, your ship cannot do anything else that turn: your ship cannot move, unload/reload cannon, or fire cannon during boarding combat.

During boarding combat, each crew member from each ship has a 50% chance of killing one member of the opposing crew. If the crew of either ship is reduced to zero, then the opposing ship has the chance to capture that ship. Capturing a ship will only occur if the opposing ship has excess crew (more crew than the minimum required crew for that ship). Be warned! This means that while boarding another ship you could lose your own ship! Boarding combat is a risky and chaotic business, so be careful. It is advisable to reduce the enemy crew first by using grapeshot, before sending your crew over the railing.

How to Play – Tactics

Forming a Line

One method for gaining a tactical advantage over your opponent is to have more of your ships able to concentrate fire on a single target then your opponent. As such, maneuvering your ships into a line is an ideal method for concentrating fire. However, both forming a line and maneuvering the line can be a challenging task to accomplish, especially with big, lumbering Ships of the Line.

Crossing the “T”

While a line of battle is an ideal formation to focus on targets to either side of your line, it is extremely vulnerable to ships that are on the head or tail of your line. A maneuver referred to as “Crossing the T” involves moving your ships in a line perpendicular to either the front or back of the enemy line. Once in this position, all of your ships have a firing arc on either the bow or stern of one of the opposing ships.

Dismantling Shot

In naval combat, positioning is key to victory. As such, degrading your opponents ability to maneuver can provide a key advantage to your own ships. Dismantling shot (bar or chain shot) is designed to damage a ships masts, rigging, and canvas. Doing enough damage to sails will cause a movement penalty on the ship.

Raking the stern

The stern of a ship is the most vulnerable side of a vessel. “Raking a stern” implies a close-range attack where your broadside cannons hits the stern of an enemy ship. When combines with double shot this form of attack will be devastating to the opposing ship. For attacks of this nature, all inflicted crew damage is doubled.