Putting together a ship for Solo Campaign scenarios, would appreciate advice

[Diamondback]

So, with Rob's HEIC Nottingham conversion, I've been toying with the idea of a similar custom "what-if" ship.

First thought: Rebuild my old War Frigate from the Sid Meier's Pirates! PC game as an SGN ship. (With full crew and upgrades, the original Reaper was scary-overpowered--when you take the most powerful pirate in the game's ship out from under him, the rest is Easy Mode. LOL)

The inspiration: privateer Oregon from Clive Cussler's novels. While Oregon disguises as a tramp freighter and my P/V Reaper will either try to blend in with the sea around her or make no effort at disguise at all (haven't decided which--the figurehead of Death would be a dead giveaway though), the parallel is in a single, privately owned and operated hull packed with the most advanced weapons and technologies available.

Base ship: SGN202.

The backstory: A privately-constructed prototype Humphreys superfrigate, testing the basic design before United States's launch, then various refinements, and then overhauled in 1813 to apply the lessons learned from the 1812 battles and test refinements for Doughty's second-generation superfrigates Guerriere and Java. Reaper first put to sea as a 44 in the Quasi-War with France in the 1790s, and scavenging guns off her prizes indicated that the Humphreys hull could be up-gunned to 60 (hence the nominal "44s" we know being closer to 58's). While American based and flagged, the ship is a private contractor, available for hire by anyone with hard currency or useful technology not at war with the United States. I envision her operating from British ports during the Quasi War, trading combat support for resupply, repairs and whatever upgrades may have been offered for transfer...

Would appreciate whatever ideas y'all can offer between keeping background plausible as a What If, stats and colors/markings--better to go camo for ambush and if so how would you camo a sailing vessel, or just go for maximum intimidation through coal-black with maybe blood-red accents?

[Naharaht]

Could you have a ship with custom masts which enable the crew to switch them between square and schooner rigging or a mixture of the two as camouflage?

[Bligh]

A lot could be done by using wooden framework and painted canvass to alter the profile of a ship, and turn it into anything you wanted the enemy to see from a distance. This could easily be removed whilst clearing for action. Gunports could also be disguised by fitting stoppers similar to the way the Hawser hole was sealed.
Masts are more difficult as time is needed to set up a mast properly, unless you wanted to leave the ship looking like another even during the action.
Plenty of scope for deception, and interesting scenarios though.
Rob.

[Nightmoss]

A plausible 'what if' approach implies a higher degree of historical accuracy than I'd probably put into pirate solo scenarios? Let me think some more on that aspect.

If I were going to do pirate themed solo scenarios I might use the pirates featured in the recent video game by Naughty Dog. Loosely based on historical pirates the bottom line of this game is the discovery of "Libertalia", a pirate utopia founded in Madagascar. More here if you're so inclined.

http://www.zam.com/article/539/the-p...-4s-libertalia

[Diamondback]

Ah, but Reaper isn't a pirate... she's a Private Military Contractor--in the time's vernacular, more a "privateer" like Thorn, though with a little more latitude in accepting third-party contracts. :)

[Bligh]

So do you think that my deception policy might work for you DB?
Rob.

[Diamondback]

More advanced than I'd be up for modeling, but a "Q-Ship, 125 Years Ahead Of Schedule edition" would be a very interesting Special Rule option for a scenario or a "unique special ability." One part of me wants to take this ship in a "stealth and deception" direction, another to go all-in on such heavy psychological intimidation and fear that even small SOL's would turn and run... and my *first* challenge is how to balance them.

How often would a lone merchantman be deemed "beneath notice"? I figure a Frog Hunt in the Indian Ocean around 1795 might merit some measure of tolerance if not support from HEIC despite being an "interloper"... could be fun to do a "friendly wager" between Reaper and Nottingham's captains about who can score more prize-money from French captures.

[Bligh]

That sounds a very keen idea DB.
There would be no problem your running down French ships as a Private Captain. The HEIC Directors at Bombay and the Government Officials at Madras and Calcutta were often at logger heads, and as RN ships frequently impressed 7% of Indiamen's crews there was no love lost there either. The Heic and Bombay Marine often worked in cahoots with other ships or hired them for special opperations so really the world is your oyster as long as you don't upset the Portuguese,or Dutch colonies at times when they and of course Spain happened to be on our side.
Rob.

[Diamondback]

Given that the US's major adversaries were France, Britain during 1812-15 and Barbary Pirates I don't think Portuguese, Dutch or Spanish would be on the target list. (Heck, I could see Barbaries being discount-rate hits as a "public service"...)

Hmmm... if you strip a prize of its guns and mount 'em on your own hull, given that they'd probably be replaced by the RN as part of the refit anyway, how would that impact prize payout? (Thinking this beast may end up a flush-deck "pocket 64," albeit at frigate-weight guns instead of an SOL battery, particularly if those big 42's are replaced by Royal Navy-surplus 24# carronades. Do we have comparative ballistic data on the RN 24 vs. US 42?)

Hmmm...
Early 1790's: completion and launch
1795: Quasi-War
late 1812-early 1813: drydocked, incorporating improvements derived from sisters' combat performance and other changes intended for Doughty superfrigates
1815: After the Hundred Days and end of War of 1812, prowling Mediterranean and West African waters between Barbary Pirate and slave-trade suppression ops

[Bligh]

Given that the US's major adversaries were France, Britain during 1812-15 and Barbary Pirates I don't think Portuguese, Dutch or Spanish would be on the target list. (Heck, I could see Barbaries being discount-rate hits as a "public service"...)


Hmmm...
Early 1790's: completion and launch
1795: Quasi-War
late 1812-early 1813: drydocked, incorporating improvements derived from sisters' combat performance and other changes intended for Doughty superfrigates
1815: After the Hundred Days and end of War of 1812, prowling Mediterranean and West African waters between Barbary Pirate and slave-trade suppression ops

Sorry DB. I did not realize you were looking at that timeline, nor that you were not sailing freelance.
A Private vessel under a flag of convenience as it were.
Rob.

[Diamondback]

You know how Sandline International had certain limits on who they could accept contracts from? Similar deal where "as long as your enemies are our country's enemies too, your money's as good as ours." Heck, nothing rules out hunting Frogs again as soon as the Treaty of Ghent is signed, after all ridding the world of that era's Global Megalomaniac Dictator Wannabe would be doing *everyone* a favor... :) (OTOH, I'm not sure how welcome an American "baby-SOL" would be in a British port right after ending the War, even if her skipper publicly proclaimed his intention of delivering Boney's head on a pike for all London to see.)

Realistic freelancing has to have some limits, as those are what separate a marquee or privateer from a pirate or terrorist, right? After all, as Billy Breckenridge once said, "we got to have SOME law..."

[Bligh]

Point taken DB.
Rob.

[csadn]

As discussed elsewhere: The main problem I have with this is closing speeds -- if the rig's anything like the Humphreys monsters, as soon as folks see "5 up and 3 wide" on the horizon, they are going to be running like hell, and/or pitching anything valuable over the side. Even if the rig's not a dead giveaway, it's still going to take long enough for the privateer to close for the victim to offload anything valuable to Davy Jones. So unless this beast is planning to force Lloyd's of London into bankruptcy via paying out insurance claims from ships being scuttled....

Then there's the crew-quality issue -- let's face it: Dead Men Spend No Plunder; this is why pirates tried to intimidate prey, and would lay off in the face of any kind of serious organized resistance. This means the crew is likely to be very bad at gunnery (less so at sailing), unless someone is paying them a boatload to practice. And a Humphreys frigate was a manpower-eater (450 on a 44; 340 on a 38); most privateers carried fewer.

As to prospective targets: Portugal, save for brief intervals, was always on Britain's side; Spain was on the side of whoever hadn't hacked them off most recently (the arguments which led up to Trafalgar, for ex., show that alliance wasn't long for the world); the Netherlands were pretty-much screwed, as they had no defenses besides "open the floodgates". Then there's the Baltic nations, who were constantly wavering between "Britain controls the seas" and "France can walk here".