Captain Skills - Cannon Last update 20th May 2001

 

This skill is a measure of your ability to command a gun crew effectively, and to command a complete decks guns effectively as a broadside. Generally a captain will not need this skill as she has gun captains to look after this job. However, as gun captains are also generated using these guidelines, here is the details:

All ship captains start with a skill rank of 1

All gun captains & fort captains start with a skill rank of 3 except those on new vessels just commissioned or captured. The skill progresses naturally to 3 after the first successful engagement (ie your ship lives through it)

Every regular sea going person starts with a skill of 0

Land lubbers (and zombies) may not captain a gun deck unless they are military officers, who have a skill rank of 0.

Any skill increases above this occur due to campaign progression for the crew

The rate of fire, and supposed accuracy of the cannon fire is dependant on the skill of the crew, and for the purposes of this game I have concentrated that into the skill of the gun captain. The higher her skill rank, the longer you can maintain your initial higher firing rate, and the higher your chances to hit and damage the opponent. The gun captain is a specialist job, and is not usually conducted by the ships captain except on smaller vessels such as baby sloops.

Skill Rank table

An increase in salvo rate of fire is only applicable if there is a skilled gun captain on duty who is capable of undertaking his duty. A severely wounded or unconscious gun captain has no impact, and is treated as though he had a skill of zero (ie you can at least keep shooting, but without any bonuses)

The damage table is circular from 1-100, so if the sum of your roll plus bonuses goes over 100, simply drop the hundred portion off the result and use the remainder on the table. Your target choice is in a cycle of 3. Where a description says to cycle the target, pick the next one in the target list. ie crew becomes hull becomes sail becomes crew. Imagine paper/rock/scissors and you get the idea. The table is broken into components based on the target type, nominally being crew 1-33, hull 34-67, sails 68-100. You decide what you are aiming at: crew, hull,or sails. To your roll add the modifier for that target, being crew +66 for sails +33, for hull +0.

There is also a damage modifier based on the ammunition you use. The types of shot are: round shot, double round shot, grape shot or chainshot. For the purpose of this game, round shot is your normal firing method. For technical details, refer the historical cannon section.

• Round Shot. Unless you mention otherwise your gun captain will be firing this type until the albatrosses come home to roost. It is the general purpose ship ammunition of the time, used against crew, hull or sail.
• Double round shot. A last ditch method used at close range against an opponents hull. Obviously it uses twice as much ammunition, but is NOT twice as effective. How effective I don't know historically, but I'll make it 60% more. I am also unsure if there should be any penalties associated with double shot. When aiming at the hull, your bonus is +/-5%, or +/-25% or +/-40%, whichever is most advantageous.
• Grape shot (or canister or shrapnel) is meant specifically for anti crew work, and is not very effective against hulls at all. It has some benefit against sails, but this is not where you will be aiming. I would assume this is not common ships ammunition. Grape shot is generally a specialist item, so can only be used if the gun captain is skill rank 3 or higher. A form of cannister shot can be made impromptu from nails, and scrap iron. When using this form of cannister, you receive no skill level bonuses irrespective of your level. Only naval ships carry this form of ammunition as standard. All ships may create 2 rounds worth of homemade cannister from ships scrap. When aiming at the crew your bonus is +/-8%
• Chain shot/bar shot. Specialist ammunition, I would guess in short supply in any vessel, even naval ships. Naval ships only carry this ammnuition as standard. Naval sloops have 2rounds worth of chain shot, larger vessels have a number of rounds equal to the number of cannons divided by eight, rounded up. ie A 40 gun ship has 5 rounds. You may NOT use chain shot unless your gun captain is skill rank 3 or higher. When aiming at the crew, your bonus is +/-15%. When aiming at sails, your bonus is +/-10%.

%chance To Hit Table

To resolve this table, name your target, name your ammunition, roll %dice, add skill level bonus. The tables result is applied to all cannon, as you only ever fire broadsides.