Quote Originally Posted by 7eat51 View Post
To what degree does ramming have historical support in the age-of-sail? Such a question should determine if ramming is a legitimate option in SoG. I remember a similar discussion on the Aerodrome. If memory serves me correctly, there was some leaning towards ramming, at least by several members, due to historical precedent.
Depends on the period -- early in the period, when guns were neither numerous nor reliable, ram-and-board was still used; by the period the game covers, rams were few and far between, save for accidents or when someone figured a boarding action beat a gunfight (see the coverage of John Paul Jones's famous battle at Flamborough Head elseforum). Oddly, the advent of steam power allowed ramming to make a (brief) comeback, as one was no longer dependent upon being upwind; look at the naval battles of the American Civil War, and note how prominent ramming was in them (esp. note the infamous "Ellet's Brigade", which consisted of a brace of unarmed ram-equipped steamboats: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Ram_Fleet ).

Frankly, I see this rule as a serious, if not game-breaking, flaw.