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View Full Version : Reflections on Xebec stats.



Bligh
07-02-2020, 03:12
From my research it would seem tha a Xebec carried a much larger crew than other ships of its equivalent. This was to enable vastly overwhelming boarding parties and to provide crews for prizes.

To this end I reflected on what would be the result in the ships abilities to fight.:question:

:pistole:Would the numbers mean that small arms results would be better than a regular ships Marines?
I felt that the numbers of less well trained musketeers would allow about the same fire as a smaller trained body, so left that as it is on the cards.
:minis:As Dobbs pointed out, the Xebec hulls were known to be less robust than other warships, so I reduced the hull strength by one.
:takecover: Casualty rate was more of a conundrum. More men on deck croweded together would suggest a greater attrition rate than a warship with the crew spread throughout the ship, and yet if too many were removed it would prevent the boarding advantage. I looked at a 50 gun ship card which had a crew of 350 as the nearest approximation and saw that it actually differed very little from a 36 Frigate. Crew actions being reduced pretty much in the same way, and crew attrition also similar excepting near the end where the 50 held out a bit longer where it dropped from 3 to two actions. So I decided to leave things alone and go with a regular Frigate's card, but give an extra chit to the Xebec for boarding :swordright:except after it lost more than half its crew when it reverts to an ordinary number of chits.

Any comments on this will be taken onboard for consideration. However, I do favour the Kiss method when working out the stats.

Rob.