Quote Originally Posted by Diamondback View Post
Jim, I'm with David on "scrolling" as being appropriate unless there's a hard edge like coastline. :) Close wins and close losses prove the AI rules are just about right--if we saw a trend of blowouts either way there'd be a problem.
Here's how it ended up. After 26 turns the Egmont struck. I ended up scrolling the ships 4 times, but this is how you work the opponent when you know they can't shoot at A Range and you can. Even so, I had terrible chit draws so the Egmont lasted fairly long all things considered. The AI consistently tried to close with the Bellona, but it's not difficult to keep distance unless you run into issues with the wind. That might have been the major problem for the AI as it got taken aback several turns running (I used the basic rules for taken aback so the 2 "hourglass" moves are the only ones you can use).

The Bellona only took 1 crew damage towards the end when I decided to close to B Range to see what would happen. The Egmont only had one hull space left so the B Range Double Shot was 1 crew (A chit) and a zero (B chit) from a forward arc broadside. The Bellona simultaneously hit with a full broadside or 6 "B" chits (5/4c/3/2c/2/0), which was a pretty devastating conclusion to the battle.

Using the Standard or Advanced rules would most likely change the battle, but I can't recall pulling a lot of special damage tokens that the AI would have had to contend with?

I could also try switching to play the Egmont and have the AI play the Bellona, but I suspect that would be a short battle as the AI does close quickly and at B Range the Double Shot would be incredible. Perhaps we really need two live players to test further?

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to try out.