Costal Batteries.

In my game this morning I came across a phenomenon not previously encountered and wonder if anyone can clear it up.
It is the first time that I have used a battery with multiple arcs of fire.

A. It would seem that if one arc is fired, and is being reloaded, there is no facility to fire the other arc on the next move as there is only one reloading set of boxes.

B. Are all arcs deemed to start the game loaded? Thus can fire whilst A is being reloaded.
C. Or do the crew load simultaneously like on a ship where a broadside can be loaded to port and starboard concurrently.
Rob.

I would play it as the arcs on a ship. If you fire the forward arc broadside on a ship you cannot fire anything else on that side of the ship until the guns are reloaded. So, if you fire the left arc battery the right arc battery cannot fire until the left is reloaded.

That being said it seems like House Rules could easily be inserted here if you don't like whatever version is considered 'official'?

You cannot order a broadside from a coastal battery. It doesn't make sense. A simultaneous firing of both left center and right batteries is nonsensical unless you have targets in all areas. I treat the left, center and right batteries as independent of each other and you can fire one or all on a given turn. The cannon on the left and right batteries of the only coastal battery with a center battery can not be trained to shoot in the same direction as the center battery because they would have to fire over the center battery. You will notice that on the batteries that have only two arcs of fire, there is no broadside middle number. That's the clue that each battery was not meant to fire in concert with the other. In actual practice, not all batteries were manned. They would activate a battery only when there was something to fire at. If the action shifted, the next battery in line would be activated. No use having guys standing around cannons that cannot be trained on the enemy, waiting for orders that will never come. Better to have those crews as backup to the active battery.

The problem is this. The fort has three batterys facing in different directions. Two ships were in range on consecutive moves. ie ship one was fired on by battery one. Reloading then started. On the next card a ship came in range of the battery facing the other side of the headland. It shares a card with its neighbour, so the card is saying guns unloaded. However the second battery could not have fired because it had nothing to fire at. Unlike ships the battery cards do not have two loading boxes just one. Hope that makes the problem more clear.
Rob.

If there's only one loading box per battery I would say you fire from one arc each round of fire. You choose the arc, but it cannot be two or three firing at the same time.

You could post the question on BoardGame Geek? Andrea checks in there much more than here.

A close re-reading of the rules seems to indicate that you can only man one battery arc per turn. You have to move your crew to the other arc and load the cannon each time you want to fire at a ship or island.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bligh

In my game this morning I came across a phenomenon not previously encountered and wonder if anyone can clear it up.
It is the first time that I have used a battery with multiple arcs of fire.

A. It would seem that if one arc is fired, and is being reloaded, there is no facility to fire the other arc on the next move as there is only one reloading set of boxes.

B. Are all arcs deemed to start the game loaded? Thus can fire whilst A is being reloaded.
C. Or do the crew load simultaneously like on a ship where a broadside can be loaded to port and starboard concurrently.
Rob.

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Sorry, I just had to comment on the title of this thread! As a former nurse it sounds to me like a battery in the ribs!!
Costal means relating to the ribs, Coastal is the edge of land.

You just brightened up my day...Thanks!

A slip of the keyboard can bring a smile to most peoples faces Richard.:happy:
Glad to be of service.:wink:
The annoying thing is that titles can't be amended unless you delete the whole thread.:shock:
Rob.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kentop

A close re-reading of the rules seems to indicate that you can only man one battery arc per turn. You have to move your crew to the other arc and load the cannon each time you want to fire at a ship or island.

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Thanks Ken/ Jim.

That is how I read it at first. I just could not believe that this was what it meant.
Rob.

Yes, I believe it's A. The battery's arcs are treated like the forward/full/stern arcs within a ship's broadside.

(i.e.: You can only fire one arc at a time; Firing any arc unloads all the guns; Reloading reloads all the guns)

You are correct that this seems a bit odd when the battery depiction indicates that there is no overlap between the guns. You could always house-rule it, by making each side of the fortress into its own battery.

Rob, you can edit the title of your posts, but only you or an admin can do so. Go to the original post, open "Edit" and then choose "Go Advanced". That should call up the entire original document/post and you can change the title there. Try it out and let me know if it works?

Whoo! - thats good to know! - I wish TMP would allow thread name changes too, I have made Faux Pas's more than once there! :wink:

It changed the title in the post O.K. but not the Thread title Jim. I think it is an Admin thing.

Rob.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bligh

It changed the title in the post O.K. but not the Thread title Jim. I think it is an Admin thing.

Rob.

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I think you're correct. If you right click on the thread title you can 'Inspect Element' and actually change the title there in the coding, but I don't see a 'save' option to keep it in place. Probably needs Administrative Rights to make the change permanent?

On the subject of coastal batteries, are they capable of raking shots? I was paying solitary and the HMS Meleager ended up turning to face straight into the firing arc of a fort she was targeting (I'm still very bad at maneuvering).

Hi Salem. On page 47, the rules imply that all fort firing arcs can rake a target vessel.

Thank you. I looked everywhere and just couldn't find it on my own.

Now, as for the discussion on battery firing arcs, I do agree that it feels a little unrealistic. However, it seems to make more sense when you look at it as a balance mechanic. Coming from Pirates of the Spanish Main, forts in that game were essentially stationary ships and shot using the same mechanics (shooting from the center point of a flag or mast, and if that flag/mast was eliminated its cannon couldn't shoot). It seems to me that Ares Games simply made a similar design decision, which makes sense, at least in my mind.

Yes Salem.
It gives the ability for a ship to approximate the movement it is making and for guns to fire as they bear.
Raking from a battery is sometimes devastating, especially if heated shot is used.
Rob.

Yes my '74 nearly came to grief in the Fire Ship Solo AAR due to being raked, twice I think.