Crew of a galleon

[AndrewTall]

>

No mechanic attribute except the explicite rule that those special "marines" are *a unit of irregulars* (which existed as a war card unit)?

But no different when fighting on board ships, etc - I would have thought that in ship:ship boarding actions the marines should have some mechanics advantage - galleon marines raiding a longship of sea-sick irregulars get no benefit from hours of training to fight on board ship? I'd put them as the equivalent of infantry in boarding, or raiding a seaport possibly, and as equal irregulars on land or some such if using the old rules.

[rarier]

When dismounted for a land action the marines counted as 'Irregulars', a vast underestimation IMO since most were trained at least as well as regular infantry... but I digress.

The biggest advantage of marines in Cerilia is that they are the only unit in the 2nd Ed setting that could fight as part of a naval action. Troops on board as passengers were just that... weapons racked, armor stowed and horses penned below... so they were useless. Marines could fight and -then- debark to join a raid... leaving the pure crew to sail away once things were finished. Of course using them left the ship without such troops and less able to handle boarding actions.

At least that's what I remember from the last campaign I ran... and that's been nearly a decade now. Gearing up for a new one though, by player demand the thing is back!!!

[irdeggman]

> irdeggman wrote:

No mechanic attribute except the explicite rule that those special "marines" are *a unit of irregulars* (which existed as a war card unit)?

But that is like saying they are anuirean irregulars or the like.

Other than the label they had no "special" abilities. They couldn't land and move and were subject to all of the same restrictions any other unit had when disembarking - that is what I mean.

[kgauck]

When dismounted for a land action the marines counted as 'Irregulars', a vast underestimation IMO since most were trained at least as well as regular infantry

The warcard was supposed to represent something in the ballpark of 200 men. The numbers of marines on ships often numbered a dozen or several dozen on large ships. The unit of irregulars represents sailors sent off ship stiffened by marines and under the command of the captain of marines. Ships could be loaded with regular military units, so the number of actual marine infantry would always be relatively small compared to a war-card. What makes up the balance and how good is this balance?

An irregular unit seems about right for a body of sailors on land, even if they do have a dozen or two of marines in their number.

[ConjurerDragon]

AndrewTall schrieb:
> This post was generated by the Birthright.net message forum.
> You can view the entire thread at:
> http://www.birthright.net/forums/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=3932
> AndrewTall wrote:
> ------------ QUOTE ----------
>
>
> No mechanic attribute except the explicite rule that those special "marines" are *a unit of irregulars* (which existed as a war card unit)?
> -----------------------------
>
>
>
> But no different when fighting on board ships, etc - I would have thought that in ship:ship boarding actions the marines should have some mechanics advantage - galleon marines raiding a longship of sea-sick irregulars get no benefit from hours of training to fight on board ship? I`d put them as the equivalent of infantry in boarding, or raiding a seaport possibly, and as equal irregulars on land or some such if using the old rules.
>
Those "marines" (NOT Marines - those are an existing warcard unit!) are
not fighting as an additional warcard of irregulars in a sea-sea battle.
In such a battle (in 2E) the "marines" were the normal inherent
"boarding value" of the galleon/roundship/zebec.
"Marines" destroyed in land battle --> boarding value 0 until replenished.
Additional warcard units added to that boarding value depending on what
type of unit it was but not the irregulars that were the ships fighting
complement to begin with.