"Weapons of the Waves", Dragon 232

[Arsulon]

Well, I finally got my copy of Dragon Magazine #232 from Noble Knight games. Wow, what a great article! Rich Baker's "Weapons of the Waves: Seapower of Cerilia" really answered a lot of questions for me. Not only is there a ton of technical information but the historical essay on naval power ranging from Pre-Deismaar to Post-Imperial is invaluable (I have a much greater appreciation for the Masetians now.)

I don't have a scanner and I'm loathe to transcribe the entire article; however, in case anyone's interested, below are a few tidbits that touch on recent forum topics.

RAMMING ATTACKS

"Since ramming attacks weren't covered in the Birthright Naval Rules, here's a quick way to resolve them in a Naval War Card battle. The ramming ship must move into the same space as the target, and make an attack using the resolution cards. Just like a Grappling Check, the attack value depends on the relative movement allowances of the tow ships. If the result is "F" or "-" the target evades the ramming ship. A result of "H" inflicts 1d4-1 points of hull damage to the target +/-1 point per difference in ship size (as measured by hull point total), +2 if the ramming vessel is equipped with a ram, and +1 if the ramming vessel is moving at a Speed of 3 or better when it hits. A "D" result indicates that the rammed vessel suffers a mortal blow, and sinks after 1d4 rounds."

HELLPOWDER

Baker notes that "the most advanced regions of Cerilia are assumed to have a technology equivalent to the early 15th century. However, in the last 30 or 40 years Brecht and Khinasi alchemists have been experimenting with a substance commonly known as 'hellpowder' - the Cerilian equivalent for gunpowder." I

In applying hellpowder to naval combat he suggests that, while reliable cannon have not yet been invented, "Ships can fling petards - barrels of hellpowder with burning fuses - with the effect of doubling a ship's missle rating for War Card battles." He also makes provisions for arming ships with bombards, dragons and petards:

Bombard
Crew: 8, THACO: 15, ROF: 1/5, Range: 5/20/40, Damage: 2d10/3d10
- primitive cannon firing 60-90 pound stone ball
- 1d4-2 hull damage regardless of ship's defence rating
- 25% per hit that 1d6 random crew injured/killed
- 10,000gp+
- vessel can mount 1 per hull point
- ship fitted with bombards adds 2 to missle rating on War Card

Dragon
Crew: 3, THACO: 13, ROF: 1/3, Range: 8/16/24, Damage: 1d12/1d20
-small, primitive cannon mounted on ship's rails firing 2-4 pound lead ball
- if roll over ship's defence rating on d6, hull takes 1 point damage
- if ship mounting dragons, adds 1 to missle rating on War Card: cumulative with bombards, if mounted

Petard
Damage: 3d6/3d8, all other factors depend on launching device
- "In artillery statistics, a catapult or magonet flinging petards instead of stones doubles the dice rolled to determine damage. For example, a catapult normally rolls a d8 and compares the result to the target's defense rating. If the catapult flings a petard, two eight-sided dice are rolled, each of which may inflict one hull point of damage if it beats the ship's defense rating."
- petard equipped ships add 1 to missle rating on War Card

Interesting, huh? I guess you could use petards for ammunition in regular artillery untis as well. I really recommend ordering a copy of the magazine from www.nobleknight.com so you can read the rest of the article: I truly can't do it justice here, and if you have the magazine you get the full colour War Cards for three new vessels (drommonds, galleas, greatships!) Actually, the issue has a lot of other terrific material as well (new types of swords, firearms for fantasy campaigns, fencing schools/techniques) so its money well spent.

[Green Knight]

Hi

I`d suggest picking up the rest of the BR articles as well. The entire
Dragon 1-250 can be had at reasonable prices.

Bjorn

-----Original Message-----
From: Birthright Roleplaying Game Discussion
[mailto:BIRTHRIGHT-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM] On Behalf Of Arsulon
Sent: 9. januar 2003 00:46
To: BIRTHRIGHT-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM
Subject: "Weapons of the Waves", Dragon #232 [2#1198]

This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
You can view the entire thread at:
http://www.birthright.net/read.php?TID=1198

Arsulon wrote:
Well, I finally got my copy of Dragon Magazine #232 from Noble Knight
games. Wow, what a great article! Rich Baker`s "Weapons of the Waves:
Seapower of Cerilia" really answered a lot of questions for me. Not
only is there a ton of technical information but the historical essay on
naval power ranging from Pre-Deismaar to Post-Imperial is invaluable (I
have a much greater appreciation for the Masetians now.)

I don`t have a scanner and I`m loathe to transcribe the entire
article; however, in case anyone`s interested, below are a few tidbits
that touch on recent forum topics.

RAMMING ATTACKS

"Since ramming attacks weren`t covered in the Birthright Naval Rules,
here`s a quick way to resolve them in a Naval War Card battle. The
ramming ship must move into the same space as the target, and make an
attack using the resolution cards. Just like a Grappling Check, the
attack value depends on the relative movement allowances of the tow
ships. If the result is "F" or "-" the target evades the ramming
ship. A result of "H" inflicts 1d4-1 points of hull damage to the
target +/-1 point per difference in ship size (as measured by hull point
total), +2 if the ramming vessel is equipped with a ram, and +1 if the
ramming vessel is moving at a Speed of 3 or better when it hits. A
"D" result indicates that the rammed vessel suffers a mortal blow, and
sinks after 1d4 rounds."

HELLPOWDER

Baker notes that "the most advanced regions of Cerilia are assumed to
have a technology equivalent to the early 15th century. However, in the
last 30 or 40 years Brecht and Khinasi alchemists have been
experimenting with a substance commonly known as `hellpowder` - the
Cerilian equivalent for gunpowder." I

In applying hellpowder to naval combat he suggests that, while reliable
cannon have not yet been invented, "Ships can fling petards - barrels
of hellpowder with burning fuses - with the effect of doubling a ship`s
missle rating for War Card battles." He also makes provisions for
arming ships with bombards, dragons and petards:

Bombard
Crew: 8, THACO: 15, ROF: 1/5, Range: 5/20/40, Damage: 2d10/3d10
- primitive cannon firing 60-90 pound stone ball
- 1d4-2 hull damage regardless of ship`s defence rating
- 25% per hit that 1d6 random crew injured/killed
- 10,000gp+
- vessel can mount 1 per hull point
- ship fitted with bombards adds 2 to missle rating on War Card

Dragon
Crew: 3, THACO: 13, ROF: 1/3, Range: 8/16/24, Damage: 1d12/1d20
-small, primitive cannon mounted on ship`s rails firing 2-4 pound lead
ball
- if roll over ship`s defence rating on d6, hull takes 1 point damage
- if ship mounting dragons, adds 1 to missle rating on War Card:
cumulative with bombards, if mounted

Petard
Damage: 3d6/3d8, all other factors depend on launching device
- "In artillery statistics, a catapult or magonet flinging petards
instead of stones doubles the dice rolled to determine damage. For
example, a catapult normally rolls a d8 and compares the result to the
target`s defense rating. If the catapult flings a petard, two
eight-sided dice are rolled, each of which may inflict one hull point of
damage if it beats the ship`s defense rating."
- petard equipped ships add 1 to missle rating on War Card

Interesting, huh? I guess you could use petards for ammunition in
regular artillery untis as well. I really recommend ordering a copy of
the magazine from www.nobleknight.com so you can read the rest of the
article: I truly can`t do it justice here, and if you have the magazine
you get the full colour War Cards for three new vessels (drommonds,
galleas, greatships!) Actually, the issue has a lot of other terrific
material as well (new types of swords, firearms for fantasy campaigns,
fencing schools/techniques) so its money well spent.





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[Birthright-L]

On Thu, 9 Jan 2003, [iso-8859-1] Bjørn Eian Sørgjerd wrote:
> I`d suggest picking up the rest of the BR articles as well. The entire
> Dragon 1-250 can be had at reasonable prices.

Do you mean the 1-250 CD? Or buying them individually? I`ve been
pondering getting the CD, it looks like pretty good stuff.
--
Communication is possible only between equals.
Daniel McSorley- mcsorley@cis.ohio-state.edu

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[Beruin]

Daniel McSorley wrote:

>>I`ve been
pondering getting the CD, it looks like pretty good stuff.<<

I do have the CD, the contents is surely worth the money. However, the navigation could be better and the program frequently crashes on my computer.

With regard to BR, check out Dragon 220, one of my favourite issues, it`s full of ideas regarding political intrigue.
Christoph

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[ConjurerDragon]

Christoph Tiemann wrote:

>Daniel McSorley wrote:
>
>>>I`ve been
>>>
>pondering getting the CD, it looks like pretty good stuff.<<
>
>I do have the CD, the contents is surely worth the money. However, the navigation could be better and the program frequently crashes on my computer.
>
The program is horrible in my opinion too - I went so far to copy the
magazines on my hard drives and search and display what I need with
acrobat reader...
bye
Michael

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[ConjurerDragon]

Arsulon wrote:

>This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
> You can view the entire thread at: http://www.birthright.net/read.php?TID=1198
>RAMMING ATTACKS
>"Since ramming attacks weren`t covered in the Birthright Naval Rules, here`s a quick way to resolve them in a Naval War Card battle. The ramming ship must move into the same space as the target, and make an attack using the resolution cards. Just like a Grappling Check, the attack value depends on the relative movement allowances of the tow ships. If the result is "F" or "-" the target evades the ramming ship. A result of "H" inflicts 1d4-1 points of hull damage to the target +/-1 point per difference in ship size (as measured by hull point total), +2 if the ramming vessel is equipped with a ram, and +1 if the ramming vessel is moving at a Speed of 3 or better when it hits. A "D" result indicates that the rammed vessel suffers a mortal blow, and sinks after 1d4 rounds."
>
And don´t remember that the ramming vessel takes damage also - not only
the rammed vessel!
The rammer takes 1D4 -3 points of damage + 1 point per size difference -
1 point if the rammer posseses a ram + 1 if it struck at speed 3 or
higher. And this is only for oared vessels - sailing ships could not
back out of the wreckage and risk sinking with the rammed vessel...
bye
Michael

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[lord_arioch]

Is there any mention of fire ships? (Setting one of your own ships on fire and ramming it into an enemy ship). Does the article go into detail regarding fire aboard a ship?

[Arsulon]

Arioch,
Sorry to take so long getting back to you. While fire ships are not mentioned specifically, the article does state that if a ship attempts to grapple a burning ship the grappling vessel has a 50% chance per round of catching fire itself.

Fire-throwers are specifically designed to set ships on fire but you can also load catapults, mangonets and shot ballistas with incendiary shot. This kind of shot suffers a -2 penalty to hull damage rolls or a -1 penalty to its missle rating on the War Card.

That said, here's the excerpt dealing specifically with firing a ship:
"Whenever a ship suffers a hit from a fire thrower, incendiary shot, or cerain fiery spells such as fireball or produce fire, it may be set afire. The chance is 25%, plus 25% for each point of hull damage inflicted by the attack. For example, a ship that suffers no damage from the attack of a shot ballista firing a pitch pot has a 25% chance to be set afire, while another vessel that suffers 2 hull points of damage from a fire thrower has a 75% chance to be set afire. Once a ship is on fire, it loses 1 hull point per round until it sinks. There is a 10% chance per round that the crew can extinguish the flames before the ship suffers more damage, although some spells or magic items may be able to smother the flames automatically."

Pretty cool, huh?