This is an updated version of a game I wrote for wargaming with LEGO pirate ships. WOODEN SHIPS and PLASTIC MEN Copywrite 1993 by Mathew A. Clayson Permission to reproduce granted as long as it is done in whole and unmodified. For sugestions or comments contact: Mathew Clayson KA6EBS mathew.clayson@Eng.sun.com Work(415)336-2014 Home(510)651-5635 WOODEN SHIPS and PLASTIC MEN INTRODUCTION This game is intended to be played with toy pirate ships and and toy pirate figures. The only things that you well need other then this is a yard stick, six sided dice, and some paper and pencils. It is intended to be fun and it may not accurately depict Wooden sailing ship warfare. MEN Each player should start with the same number of figures and should have one captain per ship. Each figure normally represents 1 man, and each man has 1 life point. Each man may have one attack. In addition to regular men there are "heroes", a hero has 3 life points and gets a +1 on all attacks other then cannons. The captain of a ship, or commander of a fort are always heroes, also for every 10 men on a side other then captains and commanders one is a hero. So if you have 27 men on a ship other then the captain, 2 would be considered heroes. A figure may move up to 8 inches per turn, you must move before attacks. For each extra figure attacking one figure add +1 to the extra figures attack. If one figure attacks another in a turn, roll as normal. If a second figure attacks the same victim, the attacker gets a +1, if a third figure attacks the same figure, the third attacker gets a +2 to hit. To keep track of the number of life points per hero, put a number on the hat, and keep track on a piece of paper. A figure can jump in the water and try and swim. Every turn that the figure is in the water roll 1d6, if you roll a 1 the figure is eaten by shark, and the figure is removed from play. A figure can swim 4" per turn. WEAPONS Decide what weapons both players want to use in the game, this includes cannons, swivel guns, barrels and all hand weapons. Put all the weapons in a pile, then take turns picking one weapon at a time until they are all gone. Divide your weapons among your ships and crew. You may leave weapons in storage around the ship and pick them up as you need them, or pre place them with the crew. Projectile Range To Hit Damage Long Short | Long Short <2" | men ships/cannon/walls cannon 36 18 | 6* 5-6* 2-6 | 1d6 1d6 swivel gun 18 9 | 5-6 4-6 3-6 | 1d6 1pt mounted rifle 18 9 | 4-6 3-6 no hit | 1pt rifle 18 9 | 5-6 4-6 no hit | 1pt pistol 9 5 | 5-6 4-6 3-6 | 1pt spear 9 5 | 6 5-6 no hit | 1pt barrel 4 2 | 6 5-6 5-6 | 1d6 *(men, cannons, boats and gates are -1 to hit, +1 to hit against shortside of ships) Hand to hand: To Hit Damage swords 5-6 | 2pt axe 6 | 2pt halberd 5-6 | 2pt two handed Bayonet** 6 | 1pt two handed spear 5-6 | 1pt hands 6 | 1pt hook 5-6 | 1pt All hand weapons have a +1 to hit against unarmed opponents **(all rifles have a bayonet) Mark a 36 inch dowel with Cannon, swivel gun and rifle range on it. Mark a second 18 inch dowel with rifle, pistol and spear range on it. A cannon or swivel gun must by manned to be fired. Two or more men may fire a cannon once per turn, one man may fire once per two turns. If a cannon is on a rotating base, or wheels, it may be moved instead of fired, however a swivel gun can spin and fire in the same turn. A cannon must be directly pointed at its target. Cannons have 3 hit points, however the damage is not cumulative, any damage less then 3 in one attack is ignored. If you roll a damage of 5 or 6 subtract 1 point of damage from the target ship or cannon crew. A swivel gun has 1 hit point, if you roll a damage of 3-6 subtract 2 >from the target ship or swivel gun crew. You may not reload any gun or cannon if you are engaged in hand to hand combat. A figure may only use the weapons that it's carrying. A figure may pick up any hand weapon during thier movement, but may not fire a pistol or rifle in that turn. SHIPS A ship may not have more then 5 sections, and must have at least 2(bow and stern). One big ship is harder to sink then two medium size ships, so the cost is different then the hit points. Both sides should have the same number of ship cost points, and you should try and keep the number of ships about the same. SHIP Movement Hit Points Cost wide ships move 10" | 9pts per section | 6 + (9 per section) narrow ships move 12" | 6pts per section | 3 + (6 per section) small ships move 6", move 6" | 6pts to 12pts | 6 to 12 rafts move 3", move 3" | 3pts to 9pts | 3 to 9 sailboat move 4", move 4" | 3pts | 4 rowboat spin 4", move 4" | 3pts | 3 When moving a ship place the start of a ruler at the bow of the ship where it touches the water. Rotate the ruler up to 90 degrees left or right. Now spin the ship until it points at it's movement value or less on the ruler, then move the ship so that it touches the ruler. Most ships can do this twice per turn, work out all ship movement before attacking. When a ship or boat losses a third of its points it moves at half speed, small ships, rafts and boats remove 1 movement phase, larger ships cut their movement number in half. After a ship or boat losses 2/3 of its total it's dead in the water and can only spin, this is done at half of it's movement value also. Use the ruler to repoint the ship, but don't move it forward. If a ship or boat losses all of its points the it sinks, wait one complete turn before it sinks. The men on board may abandon ship and swim. If ships comes within 2" of each other figures may move from one to the other in a boarding party. The figures must be within their movement to the other ship to board it. You may also try to grapple another ship at this range, you succeed on a roll of 2-6. Ships stay grappled until figures makes two successful attacks with edged weapons against the grappled ship side. Figures may board other ships from the water, if the ships are stationarythey make it on a roll of 3-6, if the ship is moving at half speed they makeit on a roll of 4-6. If the ship is at full speed they make it on a roll of5-6. Ships may also ram each other, both ships sustain damage in a ram. A ship may also ram people or other objects. If a ship hits bow first add +1 to the damage it causes. The chart below shows the amount of damage different objects cause. Object Damage wide ships | d6 + 3pts narrow ships | d6 + 2pts small ships | d6 + 1pt rafts | d6 - 2pts sailboat | d6 - 4pts rowboat | d6 - 4pts rocks | d6 + 7pts walls | d6 + 4pts harbor | d6 + 2pts Two ships are stuck to each other if the ramming ship started the game with more damage points then the rammed ship has before ramming. Roll 1d6 on each players turn, on a roll of 6 the ships unstick. If a ship losses all of it's points in a ramming wait one turn before it sinks. If a ship sinks and it's stuck to a smaller ship, both ships sink. FORTS t. Gates have 3 hit points. Forts are damaged in the same way as ships, when trying to destroy a gate apply the excess damage as you would to a cannon, however the damage is cumulative. To scale the the walls or climb a to a higher level of a fort a figure must normally roll a 6 to succeed. Heroes get a +1 to all wall scaling rolls. When a fort losses 1/3 of its points a figure can scale the walls with a 4-6 die roll. When a fort losses 2/3 of it's points a figure can scale the wall on a die roll of 3-6. When a fort losses all of it's points the walls collapse, all figures must roll to see if they are crushed, heroes are crushed on a roll of 1 and all others are crushed on a roll of 1-2. Anyone may enter freely and all cannons and mounted weapons are lost. ANIMALS Unless you have a specific scenario, include animals in the weapons pile,or have them played by a referee. Monkeys can be trained to help fight for it's crew. Monkeys can only use hand to hand weapons, and hit at a -1. Monkeys have 1 life point. Carnivorous monkey are caged monsters, when they are released they well attack the first person they see. They still attack at -1, but they get two attacks. Parrots can't kill, but when a figure is attacked by one he cannot move or load a weapon until it leaves or is killed. Parrots have 1 life point. Falcons can can attack just like parrots, but they can also be used to fend off or kill parrots. Sea Dragons, these monsters are trained to destroy ships, they must have a human rider or they well attack whatever they want. Dragons get three attacks that do 1pt of damage. The two claw attacks are successful on a roll of 6, and teeth on a roll of 5-6. WIND If you want to include wind, try not to let it interfere with the level of fun. You can't head directly into the wind in a sail ship. You must tack at atleast 30 degrees to the wind. Also ships travel at half speed when tacking.All ships that are stopped drift 1d6 inches in the direction of the wind atthe beginning of the owners turn. You may stall another players ship, to do this you must pass your ship between his ship and the wind. If your ship is the same size or larger then the other ship is stopped. If the other ship is larger it moves at half speed on its next turn. The same can happen to you if you pass behind another ship on your turn. The following is a sample score sheet for the game: WOODEN SHIPS and PLASTIC MEN SHIPS and FORTS BOATS, RAFTS and GATES Full Mov.( )( )( )( )( ).( )( )( )( )( ).( )( )( )( )( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( )Full Strength Half Mov.( )( )( )( )( ).( )( )( )( )( ).( )( )( )( )( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( )Half Strength No Mov. ( )( )( )( )( ).( )( )( )( )( ).( )( )( )( )( ) | ( ) | ( ) | ( ) 1/3 Strength Sink! Collapse! SHIP Movement Hit Points Cost Ram wide ships move 10" | 9pts per section | 9 + (9 per section) | d6 + 3pts narrow ships move 12" | 6pts per section | 6 + (6 per section) | d6 + 2pts small ships move 6", move 6" | 6pts to 12pts | 6 to 12 | d6 + 1pt rafts move 3", move 3" | 3pts to 9pts | 3 to 9 | d6 - 2pts sailboat move 4", move 4" | 3pts | 4 | d6 - 4pts rowboat spin 4", move 4" | 3pts | 3 | d6 - 4pts rocks | d6 + 7pts walls | d6 + 4pts harbor | d6 + 2pts WEAPONS Projectiles Range To Hit Damage Long Short | Long Short <2" | men ships/cannon/walls cannon* 36 18 | 6* 5-6* 2-6 | 1d6 1d6 swivel gun* 18 9 | 5-6 4-6 3-6 | 1d6 1pt mounted rifle 18 9 | 4-6 3-6 no hit | 1pt rifle 18 9 | 5-6 4-6 no hit | 1pt pistol 9 5 | 5-6 4-6 3-6 | 1pt spear 9 5 | 6 5-6 no hit | 1pt barrel 4 2 | 6 5-6 5-6 | 1d6 *(men, cannons, boats and gates are -1 to hit, +1 to hit against shortside of ships) Hand to hand: To Hit Damage HEROES swords 5-6 | 2pt ___ ( ) ( ) ( ) axe 6 | 2pt ___ ( ) ( ) ( ) halberd 5-6 | 2pt two handed ___ ( ) ( ) ( ) Bayonets** 6 | 1pt two handed ___ ( ) ( ) ( ) spear 5-6 | 1pt ___ ( ) ( ) ( ) hands 6 | 1pt ___ ( ) ( ) ( ) hook 5-6 | 1pt All hand weapons have a +1 to hit against unarmed opponents **(all rifles have a bayonet)