[skymandr]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing!

[skymandr]

You are very welcome!

Cool pictures! I like the sinking ship! Did you make it yourself?

[skymandr]

Hi Jorge!

Happy to see that you are still sailing!

In the English version of the rules (Black Seas, 3rd printing, page 28; “Additional Rule: Strike the Colours”) it says:

As soon as a ship drops below its Break Value, for whatever reason, and every time it activates after that, make a Skill Test. If this fails, the ship will Strike the Colours and surrender.

So immediately after the damage has bean received, taking the 3rd Rate below the break value, the ship has to make a Skill Test. If the test passes, the ship can Fire as she Bears as usual, but she has to take a Skill Test again when activating. If the first test fails, the ship Strikes her Colours directly, before she has a chance to activate, and cannot Fire as she Bears.

I hope that helps!

[skymandr]

Great work so far! 🙂

[skymandr]

I am sorry. I will try to use simple English, so that the translation works well. English isn’t my first language either. 🙂

1.The boarding occurs after passing the skill test.

Yes.

2 dice are thrown with the bonus of plus 1 the one that tackles the first time.

Yes.

3 what happens next?, because one had more damage. Nothing else? Let’s remember that the boarder intends to take over the ship, he gains absolutely nothing for winning that round?

The winner gets nothing. The loser may have to surrender, but only if their ship has lost too many Ship Points:

• Less than half of Ship Points left: skill test to see if the ship surrenders
• Less than the Break Value left: the ship surrenders automatically

4 next turn and activation. The activated ship can make a skill test to retreat. Suppose that when the boarded ship is activated, it fails its skill test. and when fighting, it has more damage again. Does it continue like this, until the boarded ship manages to retreat with a skill test still losing in each round of dice?

Yes. It continues like this until one of the ships is successful in leaving or has surrendered. The bonus for the attacker is just for the first round. None of the ships gets a bonus on the following rounds. When the ship has surrendered, that ship will just sit there and cannot do anything. The winner is free to leave without a skill test. (There are some scenarios that have special rules that let the winner take control of the surrendered vessel.)

That is what the English rules say, but if you want to make boarding a more important part of your game by giving the attacker a bonus, I say: go for it! 🙂

Also have a look at the rules for capturing ships. That may be exciting to use. See the Special Rules of Scenario 3 (Chance Encounter, page 40 in the English rule book) for an example. There is a more complete example in the “Hold Fast!” book in the Additional Rules (page 86 in the English version of “Hold Fast!”).

[skymandr]

Hi again! In the English rules it says

Immediately after the initial grapple, and at the next activation of every grappled ship, battle rages!

The word “rages” in English does not imply “intensifies”, just that the battle is fierce and ongoing. In fact, the first round seems to be the deadliest, because the attacker gets a bonus for that round. At any following  activation of one of the involved (“grappled”) ships

[that] grappled ship, when activated, may attempt to repel boarders by performing an attack (as describe on page 24), or it may attempt to disengage from the boarding action instead.

Note that both the attacker and defender are “grappled ships”. If the player choses not to try to disengage, but to “repel boarders”, this starts a new round of battle. After every round of battle, including the first,

[t]he ship that took the least amount of damage is considered to be the winner of this round of fighting.

If the loser (the ship that took the most damage) has less than half of its original full Ship Points left, it has to take a skill test to see if it surrenders. If it drops below its break value, it surrenders without a skill test (unless special rules for the ship or captain say otherwise). If a ship ever reaches 0 Ship Points it is dead in the water. It doesn’t sink, but it it hasn’t surrendered, and can therefore not be activated again by special rules that may let you reactivate surrendered ships – all the crew are either dead, disabled or captured. If playing a scenario where you can capture ships, I would say that the winner can still capture the ship with 0 Ship Points, following the normal rules for that, since it has not sunk, but the rules are not clear on this.

I think this last rule (0 Ship Points) applies to both winner and loser, but the first two (below half Ship Points or below Break Value) only to the loser. In addition, I would say that in the rare case that the ship that took the least damage, and should therefore be the winner, reaches 0 Ship Points, it is not the winner (no-one left to celebrate the victory!). In this case I would declare the surviving ship the winner instead, but the rules are not clear on this either.

So if I board you, we fight, and I get a bonus. One of us will be the winner, and the other person may have to take a skill test. When one of the ships activates next time it doesn’t matter if it was the original attacker or not: both follow the same rules and may either try to disengage and flee, or to fight. If we fight, we again check who won, and the loser may have to surrender after a skill test, or because the ship dropped below its Break Value. This means that two ships can fight twice in the same turn, once for each ship’s activation, if both players decide that they want to fight. This continues across turns until one ship i successful in disengaging, surrenders or is disabled because it reaches 0 Ship Points (all crew dead, disabled or captured).

Hope this helps!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by skymandr.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by skymandr.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by skymandr.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 7 months ago by skymandr.

[skymandr]

I can’t find the rule you are referring to in my Black Seas rule book. What version of the book do you have? (Mine is the 3rd printing.)

In the book I have, there is no three turn limit. The only thing that is different on different turns is that in the first turn, the activated ship gets a bonus when fighting. On page 25, under Repel Boarders/Disengage it says:

A grappled ship, when activated, may attempt to repel boarders by performing an attack (as describe on page 24), or it may attempt to disengage from the boarding action instead.

No mention is made of this not being an option on later turns.

If no ship manages to disengage, the fighting continues until one ship surrenders or all crew on one ship are dead or disabled. The winning ship may then move away without a skill check, but does not otherwise win anything in particular, unless the scenario says otherwise.

Hope this helps!

[skymandr]

Thanks, but no, not on FB, sorry. Hope your fleet gets salted before the storms of winter!

[skymandr]

I would also like to know this. 🙂

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