Part battery fire.

[Bligh]

During a couple of short games today Captain Kiwi and I decided to try out a new idea for firing forward and rear arc batteries. We have been debating for some time that independent fire should be possible as it was often done in sections on naval ships. To that end we decided that fore and aft may still fire even if the other one had been used rather than wait for a complete reload of the guns used. Captain Kiwi soon came into action using his forrard battery at half the strength of the full guns. He then turned away and in the next card used his stern guns, also at half strength. Then all were reloaded as normal. The result was rather unexpected as I will show as soon as i get time to load the pictures of today's battle. we are now debating weather when the full gun broadside is an odd number such as five, weather to round up the half battery fire or round it down.
Rob.

[Bligh]

A short game whilst we were on a break from First aid Duty at Mrs Bligh's Regional Embroiderers day.
This was a trial of our new gunnery rule for part battery fire.

43912
The set up.

43913
The two ships approach.

43915
Agamemnon gets off her forrard battery with double shot and first time bonus.


43917

The ships do not entangle but musket exchanges are carried out.

On the next card Agamemnon is enabled to use her aft guns and sets a double fire upon Artesien.
43918

Now fate takes a hand. Due to the simultaneous double fires an explosion draw is made and in failing it the Artesien explodes and sinks.

43919

Not a very satisfactory result for our first trial run.
It is the first time that I have ever been sunk after two cards in contact with the enemy.

43920

43921

Rob.

[Naharaht]

You will need some extra action chits for reloading half-batteries.

Where there is an odd number for the full gun broadside you could subtract the number fired in the half battery from the full battery to give the number of damage chits from the other half battery.

[Bligh]

No need with our system Dave.
We have the smoke markers from the anchorage for each ship. White with the smoke curls in black, soon to have slight flame added on the fire side. If you don't place them on the ship stand you don't get to fire. When fired you turn them over to the side I have painted swirling grey whilst you reload. For fore and aft batteries we have cut down versions so you can see at any time what state a ships guns have just been fired.

Rob.

[MWBell]

During a couple of short games today Captain Kiwi and I decided to try out a new idea for firing forward and rear arc batteries. We have been debating for some time that independent fire should be possible as it was often done in sections on naval ships. To that end we decided that fore and aft may still fire even if the other one had been used rather than wait for a complete reload of the guns used. Captain Kiwi soon came into action using his forrard battery at half the strength of the full guns. He then turned away and in the next card used his stern guns, also at half strength. Then all were reloaded as normal. The result was rather unexpected as I will show as soon as i get time to load the pictures of today's battle. we are now debating weather when the full gun broadside is an odd number such as five, weather to round up the half battery fire or round it down.
Rob.

I know I'm coming into this rather late, but as far as the rounding up or down of a ship's odd numbered strength is concerned, I'd round down for forward batteries and up for the after guns ... if for no other reason than that's generally how the battery strengths are usually placed due to ship curvature. Just sayin'...

Beyond that, this looks like a neat little house rule. I've used the Continuous Fire rule (as well as my Fire as they Bear house rule) extensively but see the merit of adding this one to my game. Thanks for sharing!

[Bligh]

I take your point Michael, and see its justification as regards curvature. Weighting at short range also might fit the distribution of more Carronades aft as well to emphasize your observation.
Thanks for that.
Rob.

[MWBell]

You will need some extra action chits for reloading half-batteries.

Where there is an odd number for the full gun broadside you could subtract the number fired in the half battery from the full battery to give the number of damage chits from the other half battery.

For what it's worth, I'm thinking one could use the Firing Broadside (crew activity) and Ammo chits to signify the ship's Half Fired status as follows:

If the Aft batteries had fired, place the crew's Firing Broadside chit in the appropriate Broadside Space and place the existing face-up Ammo chit overlapping both the Firing Broadside chit and the Ammo Storage space; if the Forward guns had fired, place the Ammo chit overlapping the upper portion of the Firing Broadside chit. This will signify both the crew's AND ammo commitment to a given broadside.

And, most importantly, any "First Fire" (Reloading chit) marker would be stacked with the Firing Broadside chit as well to ensure that "unfired" battery's First Fire bonus entitlement.

The previously fired guns could utilize continuous fire at 1/4 their strength (i.e., half of their original half).

Needless to say, in either case, one allowable Planned Action space must be left blank to compensate for the displaced Firing Broadside chit.

[Bligh]

As we never had the First Broadside problem because it had already been used before the half batteries came into action the problem of remembering if there was a bonus owing did not occur in our game. However, the idea of using the chits for larger actions where you can't remember the status of each ship seems an excellent one to me.
Thanks for the innovation Michael.
Rob.

[MWBell]

As we never had the First Broadside problem because it had already been used before the half batteries came into action the problem of remembering if there was a bonus owing did not occur in our game. However, the idea of using the chits for larger actions where you can't remember the status of each ship seems an excellent one to me.
Thanks for the innovation Michael.
Rob.

You're welcome, Rob.

I just thought that a ship's First Fire was the most important factor in preserving the second battery's firing benefits.