Dave was interested in these sailing age naval rules, so I picked up my set, and typed up a general overview of them:
A D20, or D20's is/are used to determine hits and damage, as well as critical hits.
The sailing template provided appears to be based on actual sailing vessels' abilities to maneuver upwind, e.g. not as liberal as in some rules.
There are both hull and rigging boxes for the vessels, and boxes for the mast as well, to be marked off as damage occurs to various things, e.g. bowsprit, main, fore, etc. There are also boxes for the rudder.
In addition, there are boxes for the guns, and for the captain, officers, sailors, marines, and sharpshooters.
Various types of shot are provide for, in limited quantities: chain, grape, and cannister. Other standard shot isn't tracked, e.g. solid, and doubleshot.
There are captain and crew ratings, and morale.
Some stats for smaller vessels are not provided, so I have estimated them for smaller and larger guns, e.g. 6 Pdrs., 4 Pdrs., and 3 Pdrs., as well as 42 Pdrs.
I'm working on stats for smaller vessels, e.g. 4 – 8 gun sloops, and a 10 – 12 gun brig.
As near as I can tell from the Ship values in the rules, since I am not sure I have definitive data on vessel tonnages, sail info, crew sizes, etc., I came up with the following values to design ships from scratch (based upon numbers I found on the internet for the above – these can vary wildly, however):
Crew Points = 1/3 to 1/4 of the Actual Crew size, for the hull boxes, e.g. 100 man crew would equal 25 – 33 crew boxes. These will also need to be split between officers, marines, sailors, sharpshooters, etc., but you can use the vessels provided as a rough guide, unless you can find more historical, or definitive data.
Hull Points = 40% – 45% of the vessels tonnage (not sure if this is laden tonnage, or empty)
Sails = 60% – 65% of Hull Points, or approx. 30% of the Tonnage
Vessel Speed = Not sure how the vessel speeds were derived, so that will need to be researched for various other boats and ships you want to use (speeds are listed in knots), and the type of rigging is included in order to determine their sailing angle abilities against the wind
Size = ?
Not sure how to relate this, since the size of the vessels are all small, by Napoleonic standards, e.g. 20 – 28 gun sloops and corvettes are classed as Medium size. A 17 gun Brig is listed as small, as are 6 and 8 gun Schooners. 1 and 2 gun vessels are classed as Very Small.
Perhaps 4+, or 6+ guns = Small
Fewer guns = Very Small
20+, or 22+ guns = Medium
30+, or 32+ = Large
If creating vessels for both sides, there is less of an issue, since by using the values above, the ships should end up appropriately balanced, assuming you have good data on the size and numbers of guns, and the crew figures are reasonably accurate. I suggest using data from the same source, or sources (multiple ones are better), if possible,
in order to lessen the chance of deviation.
Not included in the rules, but I think should be:
Draught = use reported values, in feet (especially needed for close, inshore actions between smaller vessels), where there might be a chance of grounding. Note, I don't believe that is included in the rules, but should be easy enough to institute with a house rule, or rules.
There are various rules for:
weather and wind changes;
"sending signals" = planning what they will do in a turn – time limited to 5 minutes/turn;
fighting fires;
fire damage;
checking for ship striking/morale;
changing sails;
extra movement;
gunnery;
ship's boats;
small arms fire;
grappling;
boarding actions;
forts (very simplistic rules – basically treat as unsinkable ships, with no rigging, that are able to use hotshot, if desired)
rowing boats, and towing;
repairing damage, etc.
Three Quick Reference Sheets are included with the rules, as well as vessel stat sheets for the War of 1812 boats that come with them. These can and should be photocopied, prior to gameplay.
There are not really any rules for land actions.
If anyone is interested, I can share my stats for the guns, and for some of the vessels, and would be interested in seeing any you may have created as well.
I'm also interested in good sources of data for ship and boat speeds, crew sizes, etc.
All in all, I think these rules are very nicely produced, easy to learn, and provide a good basis for a fun game, at a very reasonable price.
The only shortcomings I see are the lack of additional vessel stats, and/or how to compute them (but you now have my take on that), and the lack of rules for land actions. Of course, you can use the small arms, and melee rules, but will need to come up with movement rates for the troops, etc. That is probably easy enough to do.
I recommend them highly, for fun age of sail naval battles.
I hope that helps.
Best regards,
Rob