Movement without using the Movement Decks

[Dobbs]

A while ago, Jonas was lamenting about not being able to sail really slow. It set me to thinking how do incorporate slower speeds in the game, and this is what I've come up with:

I made the assumption that a turn was one minute. I calculated in 1/1000 how far a ship would move in a minute at different speeds. I made the fastest speed (the G Deck) 6.5 knots, since historically ships fought with simple sail configurations to simplify sail handling and free up crew.

Instead of selecting cards, a player indicates on a Movement Plot the course and speed he wants to sail.

Here are two Amazons using the different movements side by side.





Here are two sloops that started out side by side.



The frigates turn to 2 points to starboard.





The frigates turn 4 points to starboard.





Of course, these are demonstrations of the maximum speeds, but with my system, a ship can sail as slow as 0.5 knots. Using the cards, 3.5 knots is about the slowest a ship can go.