Re: Why Big ships?

>From:    Richard Myers <REMyers001@???.com>
>I always wanted to see a system that made ships harder to actually destroy.
>Ships were hardly ever sunk by firepower in the "old days."  Usually, it was
>excessive casualties that forced a ship to surrender, usually by boarding
>action.  This remained true up to advent of ships-of-the-line, and even with
>them.

Basically correct knowledge, but I think you apply it wrong:) Ships
were rarely sunk, true, at least by vessels of the same size and
power, but many, many ships were turned into flaming hulks (ie
destroyed for all practical purposes). And, if a schooner stumbled
into a ship of the line's broadside, she was toast! :)

On another note, since spelljammers exist within a very different
environment destruction of a spelljammer might be easier then getting
a wooden hulled vessel to sink.:)

So, would Armadas and Mammoths destroy each other or lose to boarding
first? The ogres would prefer boarding, of course, but magic changes
the equation and leads to the possibility of ship destruction first.

I bet fire would still be the big ship killer though! :)
--
"We sleep safely in our beds, only because rough men stand guard in
the night, ready to visit violence upon those who would do us harm."
H.G. Wells.

Paul Westermeyer,  westermeyer.3@???.edu
Phd Candidate, History, Ohio State University
Instructor, Humanities, Columbus State Community College