Battle of Old

please read this http://history.navy.mil/docs/war1812/const5.htm

get a feel for "old" naval battles. (What was Capt. Hull's first command
upon entering battle ?)

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for the Spelljammer campaign setting
[mailto:SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com]On Behalf Of David A Hart
Sent: Friday, June 02, 2000 2:08 PM
To: SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com
Subject: [SPELLJAMMER] Re SPEED OF THOUGHT


From: Buddy Murphy <buddy@????????????????.com>
Subject: Re: SPEED OF THOUGHT


in a space battle the best action would probably be to go into battle
with full sails to take advantage of the ships maneuverability. the more
men you lose on sails the less effective your ship can defend itself.


I didn't follow this.  And, no captain worth his salt would go into battle
with full sail
***********
Actualy any captain worth his salt would go into battle with full sail,
then try and maintain it.  I try and explain why, and I will be using
real life sailing experience.


 The more sail a vessel has flying (or in lubbers terms :>  having as much
sail as possible up, ie full sail)  the greater the speed the vessel  will
be able to achieve and its manouverability will increase as well.   In the
case of spelljamming having full sails does not affect the vessels speed
because it is propeled by the helm, or whatever system is in use.


But, the amount of sail up affects the vessel's manouverability.   This is
true if the vessel is a spelljammer or a windjammer :>   Even in Nelson's
battles all the sail was kept up, and a primary target in ship to ship
combat was the enemies sails and mast.   This will hope true in
spelljamming combat as well, because if you damage your enemies ability to
manouver you have a greater chance of winning the battle.

Even though you and your enemy are planning on destroying each others
sails, you still go in with full sails.   This is because you want to meet
the enemy under the conditions best for you.  This requires that you have
greater manouverbility afforded by having your sails up.

As for your players removing the lower sails to gain effective field of
fires, you don't need to do this with galleons or any square rigged ships
(ships that have square sails perpinducular to the keel)  as they won't
interfer with firing arcs of up to 45 degrees from the horizontal.  As
well this is really the maxium angle of fire a ship weapon should be able
to achieve without significant support structures.

As to spell effects wiping out the sails, well by that time you are in the
same hex as each other and should be preparing to launch boarding
parties.

Hoped I help explain why full sails are going to be flown by any Captain
worth the salt in beard and the rum in his hold.  If not I need to work on
my communications skills 8 )


Cheers, David

********************************************************************
The D&D; Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Welcome.asp
Find Local Players: http://nafsasp.wizards.com/Registries/TSR/Welcome.asp
To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@??????.???????.com
with UNSUB SPELLJAMMER-L in the body of the message.