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mdavis41
04-13-2014, 09:25
Would unrated vessels carry a pennant from the main masthead? In particular, what would a cutter or schooner carry, if not a commissioning pennant? Also, would they fly a Union Jack from the forestays like a rated ship at Traflagar or a red, white or blue ensign from the gaff to the boom as would a rated ship? I assume if they came into action, they would need to show their colours.

Has anyone tried to come up with rules or strengths for these smaller vessels? I have a few Langton Cutters and Schooners, more or less compatible with their larger rated brethren by Ares. Would they have their own tiny arcs of fire? Would they sit on a smaller plastic rectangle? Could play a modest role in carrying messages, cutting-out operations etc.

David Manley
04-13-2014, 23:37
Short answer - yes, they would fly a variety of pennants form a variety of locations, just as the larger ships did. Until the adoption of the white ensign as the single ensign of the RN they would fly a coloured ensign appropriate to the admiral under whom they were serving at the time (unattached ships would fly a red ensign - most of my 1/1200 models fly a red just to be on the safe side)

As to flying union flags (its technically only a "jack" when flown from a jackstaff, but everyone calls it the "Union Jack" anyway) - RN regs would have that flown only at anchor, although captains would sometimes fly them in action from jackstaffs, stays or wherever they thought was good for effect. Probably less likely on a smaller ship though - post captains probably felt they had more leeway in playing fast and loose with the rules and regs than their more junior brethren

As far as rules for smaller ships are concerned the issue here is the narrow spread of values in the stat range for the ships. So I'm working on a revised and much wider stat range when fighting purely frigate or smaller ship actions. I'd hoped t have had it done by now but other projects and real life ship issues have got in the way.

mdavis41
04-14-2014, 05:42
David

Thanks for the reply, very helpful. Good luck with the small ship actions rules.

Iron Outlaw
05-01-2014, 00:28
This might be the place to ask; if I were to rename a ship that was slightly different to the original, although they look similar and are rated the same, how do you determine which manoeuvre deck to use? Is their a guide of some sort? I have recently obtained a copy of Ships of Trafalgar so maybe the decks can be determined from data therein.

My reason for asking this is that I want to make up a 4 ship Squadron of Orion, Thunderer, Conqueror and Monarch. These ships were of different classes although all 3rd rate.

Hope that makes sense folks

Cheers

Brad