12-24-2008, 05:40 PM
Welcome again, officers of His Majesty's Glorious Imperial Navy, to the second volume of my work on naval tactics and strategy. The first of these concentrated chiefly on the art of boarding and thus capturing your foe's vessel. This volume, however, will tackle the key issue of singular ship vs ship combat. As the seas become more dangerous, and our superiors divert naval funds to undoubtedly more important means on land, one on one battles become more common as our old numerical advantage begins to dwindle. Thus it is vital to understand the factors and strategies required to win such an engagement.
i) Manouver
It is imperative in any naval engagement to have the advantage in both speed and position before engaging. This may be done in several ways. Firstly, the use of sails and oars in the right style with the right timing. For a sudden burst of speed may succeed in disorientating your opponent; and this confusion may prove a great Captain's key to victory. However, if your ship is obviously slower than your foe's, then it my be advantageous to try and guess his moves. A more unorthodox tactic is to play his overconfidence by feigning to be slower than you are - this may allow you to surprise an enemy with an unpredictable burst of speed. However this tactic is not be used lightly, as an experienced mariner is always wary of such strategies.
Secondly, the position you manouver yourself in is critical to the engagement. For if you are at a disadvantage once fire is exchanged, then there is less chance of overall victory. Several issues are key to a good position; wind, which justifies your chances of extra manouver, your opponent's chances of escape, and a man with the wind in his face is not as good at aiming; line of fire, which affects how much damage you can do to the enemy - a good captain knows to try and avoid his enemy's best projectile or magical weaponry while trying to utilise his own to their maximum potential. This latter issue is important in the overall engagement, as failure to take out your enemy's mast means less chance of overall success.
ii) Exchange of Fire
Once both or one combatant is in a favourable position, the exchange of fire may begin. Formal naval warfare is now conducted principally with the use of projectile(arrows and siege engines) and magic; however in more traditional regions it is not uncommon to find rams at the bow of the ship playing a part. It is also rumoured that an ancient mixture of a fire that burns on water only was once used by our ancestors, but these are but rumours and should not be heeded by any respectable Imperial Captain of the service. Magicks are used on occasion in crossfire, but as explained earlier in the series it is discouraged and even dishonourable to do so - however such matters are an inconvenience when fighting piracy and smuggling - battlemages should be used to the best of their ability in fighting such scum.
The targets of any ranged attack are simple; crew and structure. Crew refers to actively aiming your weaponry at your foe's crew - while effective with such magicks as paralysis and weapons such as arrows, it takes time and thus diverts attention away from crippling your enemy. Structure refers to disabling the enemy ship - whether her keel, sails, mast or weaponry. The latter two are most common, although the foremost of these is devastating in coastal waters, leading to many a shipwreck. New recruits are generally advised that firing of all armaments simultaneously, aiming at all parts of the ship, is easiest to train and effective against disorganised enemies. However, a strange tactic once employed by a fellow captain was to focus all firepower on a small part of the enemy vessel, hence sinking her if he was lucky, and at the very least crippling her. However this tactic myself tends to be inefficient unless the vessel is of similiar draught.
The draught of the vessel is a key factor to consider, as a larger ship has the obvious advantage of being able to fire downwards on your enemy. However this also makes it simpler for a foe to cripple the keel and hole the bottom hull - take care on an approach with heavily armed ships such as galleons when facing small, light galleys. Alas, that is all I have to write for this volume dear captains, in the next edition I shall reveal the arts of fleet engagements.
i) Manouver
It is imperative in any naval engagement to have the advantage in both speed and position before engaging. This may be done in several ways. Firstly, the use of sails and oars in the right style with the right timing. For a sudden burst of speed may succeed in disorientating your opponent; and this confusion may prove a great Captain's key to victory. However, if your ship is obviously slower than your foe's, then it my be advantageous to try and guess his moves. A more unorthodox tactic is to play his overconfidence by feigning to be slower than you are - this may allow you to surprise an enemy with an unpredictable burst of speed. However this tactic is not be used lightly, as an experienced mariner is always wary of such strategies.
Secondly, the position you manouver yourself in is critical to the engagement. For if you are at a disadvantage once fire is exchanged, then there is less chance of overall victory. Several issues are key to a good position; wind, which justifies your chances of extra manouver, your opponent's chances of escape, and a man with the wind in his face is not as good at aiming; line of fire, which affects how much damage you can do to the enemy - a good captain knows to try and avoid his enemy's best projectile or magical weaponry while trying to utilise his own to their maximum potential. This latter issue is important in the overall engagement, as failure to take out your enemy's mast means less chance of overall success.
ii) Exchange of Fire
Once both or one combatant is in a favourable position, the exchange of fire may begin. Formal naval warfare is now conducted principally with the use of projectile(arrows and siege engines) and magic; however in more traditional regions it is not uncommon to find rams at the bow of the ship playing a part. It is also rumoured that an ancient mixture of a fire that burns on water only was once used by our ancestors, but these are but rumours and should not be heeded by any respectable Imperial Captain of the service. Magicks are used on occasion in crossfire, but as explained earlier in the series it is discouraged and even dishonourable to do so - however such matters are an inconvenience when fighting piracy and smuggling - battlemages should be used to the best of their ability in fighting such scum.
The targets of any ranged attack are simple; crew and structure. Crew refers to actively aiming your weaponry at your foe's crew - while effective with such magicks as paralysis and weapons such as arrows, it takes time and thus diverts attention away from crippling your enemy. Structure refers to disabling the enemy ship - whether her keel, sails, mast or weaponry. The latter two are most common, although the foremost of these is devastating in coastal waters, leading to many a shipwreck. New recruits are generally advised that firing of all armaments simultaneously, aiming at all parts of the ship, is easiest to train and effective against disorganised enemies. However, a strange tactic once employed by a fellow captain was to focus all firepower on a small part of the enemy vessel, hence sinking her if he was lucky, and at the very least crippling her. However this tactic myself tends to be inefficient unless the vessel is of similiar draught.
The draught of the vessel is a key factor to consider, as a larger ship has the obvious advantage of being able to fire downwards on your enemy. However this also makes it simpler for a foe to cripple the keel and hole the bottom hull - take care on an approach with heavily armed ships such as galleons when facing small, light galleys. Alas, that is all I have to write for this volume dear captains, in the next edition I shall reveal the arts of fleet engagements.
Should have really done all that myself before I posted 
igh: thanks 
volume 3 is taking longer for me to get round to than I thought, would do it tonight but the new year beckons :bananarock: so an early happy new year to everyone, as I'll be too drunk to type it in 6 hours 