HOLF Players' Guild Forum

I have added the chance that ships that come out of a harbor to fight in coastal waters, lose, and desire to retreat to the harbor, will be unable to get back to the harbor and be forced to put to sea. While testing this I took the chance to run another set of naval combat tests. This one looks at the differences caused by combat orders (At range, close quarters, break line) and rigging/hull aim. These all seem fairly reasonable to me, but comments are welcome. The battles are all 10 French ships coming out of harbor against 6 British and 6 Dutch, with the British/Dutch having a quality edge. The French win 25-30% of the battles at close quarters (including broken lines) and about 35% of the battles at range (at close quarters the British/Dutch quality bonus is doubled). When the French win, all British/Dutch survivors go to sea; when the British/Dutch win, about 60% of the French ships get back to harbor and the other 40% are forced to sea. (Is this too high or too low?)

First, let's look at fighting at range, which should be relatively safe both in terms of not a lot of damage and relatively easy escape.

In French wins, at range with rigging fire, on average the French take 4.5 prizes (out of 12 enemy ships) and sink 0.1 enemy ships for the loss of 0.2 of their own. In French losses, they lose 4.2 prizes (out of 10 ships) and lose 0.3 of their ships for 0.1 enemy.
Change the aim to hull, and in French wins they take only 3.7 prizes, sinking 1.1 enemy ships for 0.8 of their own. In French losses, they lose 4.0 prizes and 1.3 sunk against 0.7 enemy ships sunk.

Now shift the tactics to close quarters but still line ahead.

In French wins, at close quarters with rigging fire, the French take 5.1 prizes, sunk 0.7 enemy ships and lose 0.3 of their own. In French losses, they lose 6.0 prizes and 0.6 sunk for 0.2 enemy ships sunk.
Change the aim to hull, and in French wins, they take 5.6 prizes and sink 1.4 enemy ships for the loss of 1.1 of their own. In French losses they lose 4.9 prizes and 1.7 sunk for 0.9 enemy ships sunk.

Now go to breaking lines. (Attempts to break, and for that matter attempt to close, always succeed in these battles since every ship on both sides have these orders, so success of these attempts if one side is trying to avoid them is not a factor in the outcomes.)

In French wins with broken lines, firing rigging, they take 7.9 prizes, sink 0.9 enemy ships for the loss of 0.1 of their own. In French losses they lose 7.8 prizes and 0.9 sunk for 0.2 enemy ships.
Change the aim to hull, and in wins they take 7.1 prizes, sinking 2.7 enemy for 1.0 of their own, and in losses they lose 6.3 prizes and 2.8 sunk for 1.1 enemy sunk.

I have not yet added capture chances depending on relative numbers, but that wouldn't change these results much because a 10 to 12 battle is fairly even numbers.

Any comments?

Steve