"Blood & Plunder Questions - Ships and guns" Topic

Just to confirm –

A ship like a Galleon has as many as 30 cannon. My assumption as that the crew on the decks still have to be the ones to reload those below deck cannon? No crew assumed to be below deck.

Swivel guns do not cause Lucky or Critical Hits on ships and buildings?

Because of limit on turn radius in any one action, a ship is going to take more than one move to tack all the way around to the other windward side? If it fails while in the process at any point, it will go directly into the wind?

Also, any suggestion of what size the non-swivel guns on ships should be – light, medium?

The guys reloading the below deck cannons have to be below deck; that's surely just common sense.

I'm like
Dexter, I assume artillery crew below decks who can be brought up for other purposes. Unlike naval vessels pirates didn't usually go in for sustained gunnery duels. Once the guns were loaded and run out it only took 1 man to fire. The idea was to overawe or cripple the victim's rigging and board. Most merchant ships had minimal crews and would not fight vigorously. There were exceptions of course, until they saw Blackbeard's terrifying visage!

Well, yes, the guys below deck can come up – they are not chained to the guns. But if they want to fire and load the cannons they have to go below decks.
We usually have a piece of card the size of the ship just off table where below decks guns and crew can be placed, then there is no doubt about who s doing what.
Also useful if there is a boarding action which spreads below decks.