EIA:New Naval rules

WIP

Fleet markers

Ships are assigned to fleet markers as usual. Each fleet is based in a port, sea zone or enemy blockade box. Each fleet marker may take one action each turn, chosen from Naval Operations list below. However, if a fleet is based in a sea zone or an enemy blockade box, it may only choose Naval Superiority or Rebase as Naval Operation.

Naval Operations

Naval Superiority

Use your whole fleet to control major operations in the sea area.

• Allows interception of enemy actions within 1d6 steps using 1d6 + (Phase Number)d6 of ships.
• Costs 1$

Rebase

Move your fleet to a friendly port, any sea area or enemy blockade box within 7 steps.

Patrol

Send a detachment to maintain small presence in the sea area.

• Allows interception of enemy actions within 1d6 using (Phase Number)d6 of ships.

Protect Trade

Send a detachment to protect your and your allies trade.

• Select at most 7 sea zones extending from the starting port; if a friendly port is reached, then 7 others may be chosen again, repeating. Any trade ship passing through these areas is protected by the fleet.
• If protected trade ships are raided, (Phase Number)d6 ships protect them.

Transport

Move a corps from the port of origin to a friendly port within 6 steps. The transporting fleet may stay in the receiving port.

Invasion

Move a corps to a sea zone within 6 steps, from which it may land in the Land Phase. The transporting fleet may stay in the sea zone.

Raid

Send a detachment to disrupt enemy operations.

• Allows intercepting of enemy ships within 2d6 steps using (Phase Number)d3 ships.

Privateer

Send a single ship to capture enemy trade.

• Allows intercepting of enemy ships within 3d6 steps using 1 ship.

Supply

Send a fleet to trace sea supply.

• Can only be used by a fleet containing at least one transport.
• Select at most 7 sea zones extending from the starting port; if a friendly port is reached, then 7 others may be chosen again, repeating. The supply may reach a land zone bordering a sea zone if there is a friendly fleet with at least one transport present.

Idle

Have a fleet remain still, evading interception

• Can only be used by a fleet in a harbor

Declaring Operations

Naval Operations are declared one fleet at a time in accordance with the Naval Phase order with regards to combined movement. This means that,

• Britain may choose when to declare, and
• once every country has declared one fleet, it is time for each country to declare a second fleet (if available) etc.

Resolving Operations

• Naval Operations are resolved in order of revealing.
• When a Naval Operation is revealed, all of its effects come into being immediately.
  • Any enemy Naval Operations within range can be intercepted immediately. If the Operation has already been resolved, the results of it cannot be undone but fleets can still be intercepted on the Return to Base.
  • Interception can only be successfully done once. Once an Interception is done, the fleet is spent.
• If two countries at war with each other both choose Naval Superiority, a naval combat may happen between the newly revealed Naval Superiority fleet and any of the previously declared hostile Naval Superiority fleets. If the fleets are within 2d6 steps of each other, a combat is joined with both sides bringing their 2d6 ships to the combat.
  • If a fleet loses in a Naval Superiority combat, it may no longer intercept or take part in Naval Superiority contests.
  • If a fleet wins in a Naval Superiority combat, it still take part in Naval Superiority contests or intercept.

Interception

A fleet that is intercepting can attempt to catch enemy Naval Operations. When attempting to intercept an enemy action, a contested maneuver roll is first done.

• If the intercepting fleet wins, it gains 1d6 of interception range.
• If the intercepting fleet loses, it loses 1d6 of interception range.
• If the intercepting fleet consists of only frigates, it gains 1d6 of interception range.
• If the fleet being intercepted consists of only frigates, the intercepting fleet loses 1d6 of interception range.

These modifiers are added into the Intercepting Operations interception range dice. The dice are rolled and the result decides how far the intercepting fleet can intercept. If the range is enough to reach any sea zone in which the enemy fleet's Naval Operation passes through, then a battle is joined between the two fleets.

Combined Movement

When two or more nations are in combine movement, are based in the same port and choose the same operation are automatically assumed to be performing a joint operation. In this case, ships in the operation are chosen from the whole stack using above rules and proportional rules.

Trade Ships

For each $1 of trade a single trade ship is in taken to be moving along a route between the trade port and the receiving port, London for British trade and Offboard for American and Indian trade. The route can take detours in other friendly ports. If two routes join in a common ports, then the routes are taken to be singular and can be protected as one.

Spanish Gold Convoy

Spain no longer gets a '-2' penalty to Gold Convoy roll when at war with Britain. The Spanish Gold Convoy arrives as a normal trade route every September. The Gold Convoy roll is rolled at the beginning of the Naval Phase and as many trade ships as there is money incoming travel the trade route. Spain may elect to convert any number of these trade ships into escort ships (essentially Ships of the Line). These escort ships form a fleet that automatically performs a Protect Trade operation on the Gold Convoy route.

Naval Combat

When combat is joined, each side divides their ships into columns of at least one ship. All trade ships and troop carrying ships present must be in the same column. Ships are placed in columns according to the players wishes, except for carrying ships which must be placed last. Admiral present are then placed into columns. The initiative goes to the side with more columns; in case of tie a maneuver roll decides. The players then take turns choosing actions for their columns, one column at a time. Available actions are as follows.

• Attack enemy column:
  • A contest of tactical ratings of admirals in columns is first taken. The defender chooses whether he wants to gain first strike or evade combat, the attacker always goes for first strike. If one side wins, they get what they wanted. Otherwise firing is done simultaneously.
  • Ships in column fire upon enemy ships in the order at which they are placed in the column. They fire at an enemy ship at the same position in the enemy column as the ship firing. If no enemy ships are left in the column (that is there are more own ships firing than enemy ships to fired at), remaining ships are free to choose any enemy ship to fire at or save their ammo, unless the firing ship is carrying troops or trade. Carrying ships can only shoot at an enemy ship that has not yet been fired upon.
    • If a first stike is won, then the winner fires upon the enemy first and casualties are resolved. Only afterwards the loser shoots back.
    • If columns fire simultaneously, then casualties are resolved only after both sides have fired.
  • Each ship firing upon an enemy rolls a d6. A result of 6 sinks, a result of 5 damages the enemy ship. Other results are no result. Modifiers:
    • Heavy Ship: +1
    • Fregate: -1
    • Transport: -2
    • Carrying Ship: -1
    • Shooting on a Heavy Ship: -1
    • Shooting on a Fregate: +1
    • A roll of 6 continues upwards with a consequent result of 4 equaling +1, 5 equaling +2 and 6 equaling +3 and a new roll to continue upwards. These rolls are of course not needed if the result already has sunk the enemy.
  • Damaged ships may no longer fire.
  • If a ship that is damaged is damaged again, the ship is captured.
  • If a column that had already been attacked is attacked again, the ships in the column that had already fired in previous rounds may not fire anymore.
    • For each additional attack on a column a tactical rating roll is performed. On a success up to 5 ships may be reloaded.
• Protect own column:
  • The column does not attack and gains a +1 bonus to tactical rating against attackers.
• Protect fleet:
  • A column that chooses this option sets to protect the rest of the fleet. Any previous protecting fleets relinquish their protecting status.
  • When an enemy attacks any of your columns, a contested maneuver roll with the protecting column is rolled. If the attacker does not win, he must attack the protecting fleet.
    • If the protecting column gets destroyed in the defence, the attacking column may continue to attack the original target.

After all columns have acted, a contested maneuver roll is done. The winner can decide to retreat from the combat. In case of tie, roll d6 and add 1 to the result for each completed round of naval combat after the first. On a result of 7 the combat ends. This means that in case of tied maneuver roll, the combat can never end after the first round.

Naval Trivial Combat

A naval combat is considered as naval trivial combat, if any of following is true:

• Combat has less than 5 ships in total
• Either side of the combat is entirely composed of trade ships.
• Either side of the combat has superior number of ships (5 to 1 or more)
  • Trade ships do not count towards superiority

Following rules apply to combat:

• Leader strategic and/or tactic values have no effect
• Lasts one and only one combat round
• Both sides have a single column consisting all their ships
• Ships in their respective columns have their order determined by their value, where the most valuable goes first

Modifiers

• If a column only contains fregates, it gets a +1 to maneuver rolls.
• If a column contains less than 5 ships, it gets a +1 to maneuver rolls.
• If a column contains only 1 ship, it gets an additional +1 to maneuver rolls.
  • The above modifiers are also used when a defender tries to evade combat in column vs column attacks.