Making Rules for 1/72 scale ship combat

Well I was going to do this myself but I am struggling. Making rules is something I can do... when I have an outline to expand on but from scratch is hard. I have started making some rules for what I can small scale land combat, for which I am utilizing a heavily altered version of the modern combat rules I have. I have also requested a copy of Ion's (Archduke Piccolo) rules, he says he has a machine copy :-). But for naval combat I am not even going to bother looking for rules in 1/72 scale but create my own, with help. Wind, currents and weather all play a HUGE part in naval combat and so far I have avoided them. I have come up with a formulae for the turning circle though...

A Ship's tightest possible turning circle has a radius (in normal circumstances) of half its length. however of coarse that's not the main problem the problem is the formulae which of coarse is 0.5(2π x o.25L). L= length there are of coarse several modifiers that affect the distance.

• damaged rudder x1.8
• damaged hull x1.6
• damaged rigging/sails x1.7 (unless ore/steam powered)
• streamline hull x0.7
• bulky x1.2
• over loaded x1.2
• travelling at high speed x1.5
• travelling at reasonable speed x1.2
• travelling at a slow speed x0.9
• deep draft x1.5
• shallow draft x0.8
• contrary currents x1.9
• contrary wind direction x1.8
• Wind aids turn x0.7
• current aids turn x0.8
• Ship is using ores x0.5

Note that when more than one factor is effecting the ship that the decimals are added with the factors below 1.0 having the difference between the number and 1 used (i.e 0.9 becomes -o.1). So when a ship with a normal turning circle of 50cm is affected by contrary winds but is travelling at slow speeds turns as tightly as possible the turning circle is multiplied by 1.7 so the equation to find the distance it will cover becomes o.5(2π x(50 x 1.7)) the end result is that it will cover a distance of 267 cm! this of coarse is taken off the distance the ship can cover in that turn.
But the distance covered by a ship during a turn also depends of the weather, the amount of sails and their size the ship has, and also the speed of the ship the previous turn.
Now you may be wondering what I mean by reasonable speed, high speed and slow speed... High speed is the speed a ship travels when its at full sail and the winds are favouring it. Reasonable speed is when its using more than 1/2 its possible sail power and the winds are in its favour or the ship is using full sail but the winds are not giving it full power. Normal speed is when its either using around 1/2 its sail power and the winds are favourable or when its using a greater amount of sail but the winds are not favouring it. slow speed is when the ship is either using below 1/2 its sail power or the winds are contrary. The actual speeds them selves are determined by eye, how many sails and how big they are and the shape of the ship... if its wide then its slower and if its got lots of sails and their huge its very fast :-) nice and simple.
As for ore power, well I think that the number of ores must determine its speed. what that speed is I have no idea.

But there is still so much to figure out! and of coarse there is the factor of gun on the ship. BUT all crew and guns will be affected by complementary land rules... the other ones I am making.

whats on my workbench

so what is on the dinning room table workbench then? well its a scruffy disorganised chaos that somehow I manage to work in and regularly tidy away to allow for dinner, though because its summer I can leave the stuff out longer, :-). the following pictures may disturb some viewers who hate chaos and others who find the use of a dinning table for anything other than dinner a crime.

this is just part of the mess, projects I am working on

One Oronegrean supply house, you find these along the nations roads, this is a small one that is also designed to act as fortification if needed, hence the many windows on the ground floor providing 360 degree views, and the roof. which is removable.

this here is an collection of figures some Oronegrean soldiers the others are civilians

this here is the Willow a nice little cutter that will be either a transport or cargo ship

once again a look at the figs, this camera angle and lighting does not do them any favours, nor does their current stage in basing and painting, more on that later on.

and this scribbled and disorganised mess of words is an attempt to get on paper exactly how many people guns, wagons and horses are in an Oronegrean legion. the answer is 5000 humans, 50 guns, 500 wagons and 5000 horses. I will explain more once I sort out the mess into a nice chart. give me a few years, hours, months, days or weeks.

 And Now onto a little fun explanation on basing my figs... my new figs unlike my moderns will all have nice rectangular bases so that they can all be squashed together to form those rigid battle lines of the time... why I am also doing this for the civilians is beyond me. BUT whats so special is the materials I am using!!!!

I AM USING BLACK SAND AND PVA TO BASE MY FIGS!!!!

along this coast of New Zealand the beaches are made of black sand which makes them a feet frying strip of magnetic pain. (trust me it does burn your feet badly during the summer). this sand is very fine and like I said magnetic... SO the other day I went to the beach and got a bag full, then I had to dump half the sand and then put the bag inside 2 others because the load of sand was incredibly heavy. so I based my figs with the mixture of sand and PVA only to find the sand was so magnetic that even when done and flock applied a good magnet can still pull those figs around! I am now think how funny if would be to move my army from underneath the table by using a large magnet... I wonder if I could move them without my opponent noticing???

a bit of black sand on a pen which has a magnetic strip so it can live on the fridge.

OK cheating in a game aside and losing all my figs every time we go past a scrap yard I hope you are all having a great time... and one last important thing I forgot to attend to last post. My new Follower...

Hello to Abdul666 from emperor vs elector and MCristo by LaceW. welcome to the blog I know you have been unofficially here for quite some time and its really nice to officially welcome you here.

As Promised

Well, well here I go again... I have my first company of infantry on the painting desk along with a small group of civilians but I now really feel obliged to complete the two ships I planned to do in gratitude to those who gifted me figs before... namely Blue Willow (Matt) and Laurence Strong (Larry) to these men I owe these ships. The Willow and the Laurence, these two will either be naval ships or civilian. The Laurence has to be big as the Haul I received from Canada more than tripled my whole 18th century force!!!!! though I do not wish to make each ship comparative to the size of the gift Such generosity must be compensated with something BIG although not as big as the Abigail as I cannot fit another HUGE ship in my room.

SO WHAT TO BUILD????

One ship type I liked but was too large was the Batavia.

nice lines but way too big

Of coarse if I want to make a small version of this ship I will need to make some rather large alterations because naturally a smaller version would not have the same number of masts or same sail pattern... on the other hand perhaps there is a similar type of boat that can fit the role and look similar. My only problem now is what about the Willow, she will be smaller though smaller does not mean inferior or that she will be in anyway weaker than the larger Laurence.

the name Willow strikes me as a more passive one so I think the Willow should be a civilian/commercial vessel. This might be a good thing as then I can have some poor souls as a target for the Pirate sloop Abigail or perhaps even something to be defended by the naval ships.

WHAT SHIPS DO YOU LIKE??? is there a special type of boat you like or do you think that you would like another small ship... of coarse I can't build to many ships but a few more would be good some traders, passenger vessels, fishing boats and more pirates are all needed to represent a good maritime environment and I am always willing to take down ideas :-D