According to my copy of the rules,
1) you must be Beating to start the Wearing (sailing with the nose toward the wind – you can't be Reaching or with the Wind Astern, when you start Wearing)
2) You can keep Wearing until you are Beating on the other tack, so you can keep wearing from Wind Astern (as you cross the wind direction) through the Quarter Reach and the Broad Reach.
3) Or you can stop wearing at any point before that, with no penalty.
4) If you Heave To, your crew have backed the sails (physically moved them around to catch the wind to stop you). Then the wind on your side pushes the nose around until it is blowing across you from side to side, while your crew keeps the sails in position to stop you from moving. That is a Broad Reach, but your sails are stopping you. When you want to move, they retrim the sails and you sail off at full Broad Reach speed for whatever Sail Setting you have.
5) If you Strike, you surrendered, so you lower your flag, stop shooting, lower most sails (go to Setting 2, and let the attacker decide how they can seize your vessel (unless they have boarding parties on your ship. If there are enemy boarders when you strike, they have captured your vessel).
The rules say that if a ship strikes, it will reduce sail setting, turn one point towards Wind Astern each turn and sail off with Wind Astern.
It is up to the attackers to go seize the Struck ship… The Struck vessel does not have to wait to be boarded, and it doesn't have to follow orders from the attacker. The attacker has to get crew onboard the Struck ship to seize it. Your playtest vessel did the right thing.
And, if the Struck vessel gets 1000mm away from any attacker vessel, it can raise its flag and sail away. It cannot return to fight or fire its guns, but it can escape.
6) Guns don't need to be crewed to reload, but must be crewed (3/long gun or 1/carronade) WHEN YOU FIRE. So if you want to fire continuous broadsides, you must man every gun factor in your continuous broadside each turn so you can fire.
7) Chasers only shoot hoping to get critical hits. They don't score hull damage, and they must be reloaded between each shot (no continuous firing for chasers). I don't see any factors for chasers, but they must be long guns, so I assume it is 1 factor so 3 crew to fire your bow chasers and/or 3 to fire stern chasers. This based on the fact that gunboats that were designed to fire long guns forward only get 1 factor… the warships should be no more effective shooting forward than the gunboats.
8) You are correct, once the first broadside is fired as a fully loaded broadside, ships did (and should) just keep firing continuous broadsides as fast as they can. The Fully Loaded Broadside is a BONUS for having it all ready to fire when you start.
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
