The BrikWars Forums

I'm not talking about space battles, I'm referring to a good old battle on the high seas, brikwars is lacking rules for navel combat and ships, I'm trying to think up some rules for things like boarding and what not, as well as things like ships rolling over and sinking, ideas?

My army is ready.

I don't know if this will work well, my belly button cannot fit much Lego.

Edit: Fucking Tzan beat me to it.

It should work like microspace. Just add microwater.

There totally are rules for naval combat. I'll break em down:

First of all, the thrust mechanic is a really cool way to determine wind direction for sailing ships, or current direction if you decide one exists. See the rulebook for details.

Second, Boarding is as easy as just parking next to another ship and laying down a gangplank. Swinging over Errol-Flynn style with a grappling hook is pretty much just a ranged attack vs. a mast or something. See the rulebook for details.

Third, rolling ships over is actually covered under the charge rules. If a ship is forcibly moved sideways (from ramming, a strong current, etc.) further than it is wide (or frontways than it is long), then it's disrupted and tilts to it's side. if knocked twice this distance, then it capsizes entirely. See the rulebook for details.

As for actual sinking, that's about all that's not covered. I would say it's safe to assume take a number of turns to sink equal to their size in inches, or you could say that half of the remaining ship goes under in any given turn. A ship tilted on it's side would have minifigs risk being thrown overboard without necessarily sinking, but a capsized ship would sink assuredly. Knocking a hole in the hull with component damage would also initiate sinking.

Tzan wrote:My army is ready.

Silverdream wrote:I don't know if this will work well, my belly button cannot fit much Lego.

Edit: Fucking Tzan beat me to it.

DeltaV wrote:It should work like microspace. Just add microwater.

All of my reactions, all perfectly posted before I got here. I love you guys.

Just check out Scratch's ongoing forum battle You Can't Escape the Miles, Brikwars is applicable to naval combat as well.

Colette wrote:Just check out Scratch's ongoing forum battle You Can't Escape the Miles, Brikwars is applicable to naval combat as well.

Exactly. Brikwars is so flexible, you can use the rules to almost everything. Stmpnk also had the wargamer problem. He wanted rules for everything. And with this post i officialize use of the word stmpnk to describe a person who want rules for everything. This topic is stmpnk. And i'm pretty sure you won't use naval with your insanely huge army.

Maverick wrote:

Colette wrote:Just check out Scratch's ongoing forum battle You Can't Escape the Miles, Brikwars is applicable to naval combat as well.

Exactly. Brikwars is so flexible, you can use the rules to almost everything. Stmpnk also had the wargamer problem. He wanted rules for everything. And with this post i officialize use of the word stmpnk to describe a person who want rules for everything. This topic is stmpnk. And i'm pretty sure you won't use naval with your insanely huge army.

This, pretty much. If you need to board, maneuver your ship in range and slap a plank between the two. Don't bother with residual thrust speed and inertia, as it is generally accepted that if Physics and Awesome are two possible outcomes of an action, Physics can go and get bent. If you want to flip the boat over, then do so after the boat has taken an amount of damage that makes it seem likely it would turn over. If you want the boat to sink, then take the boat away, put the mast down, and make silly bubbling noises.

The only mandatory rule for naval battles, in my opinion, would have to be that all metal music normally played during Brikwars is replaced with pirate metal.

Maverick wrote:And with this post i officialize use of the word stmpnk to describe a person who want rules for everything. This topic is stmpnk.

I like this! I've used Anorak to describe the same thing, but this is still pretty different from anoraking, and stmpnk fits so much better thematically.

IVhorseman wrote:

Maverick wrote:And with this post i officialize use of the word stmpnk to describe a person who want rules for everything. This topic is stmpnk.

I like this! I've used Anorak to describe the same thing, but this is still pretty different from anoraking, and stmpnk fits so much better thematically.

Thanks! If we'll keep on saying it, it might get into a rulebook. Just like anorak.

It's just like regular combat, but with boats.

Maverick wrote:Brikwars is so flexible, you can use the rules to almost everything.

BrikWars already had the version with rules for almost everything. http://www.brikwars.com/rules/2001/2001-brikwars.pdf

DeltaV wrote:This, pretty much. If you need to board, maneuver your ship in range and slap a plank between the two. Don't bother with residual thrust speed and inertia, as it is generally accepted that if Physics and Awesome are two possible outcomes of an action, Physics can go and get bent. If you want to flip the boat over, then do so after the boat has taken an amount of damage that makes it seem likely it would turn over. If you want the boat to sink, then take the boat away, put the mast down, and make silly bubbling noises.

Different people have different ideas of what is awesome, so it's nice that you can adjust this on the fly. Personally, I think slapping a plank between the two ships and only finding out a turn later that the ships are going to smash into each other and squish anyone in between is pretty awesome by itself.

DeltaV wrote:The only mandatory rule for naval battles, in my opinion, would have to be that all metal music normally played during Brikwars is replaced with pirate metal.

I think we can all agree on this (and keelhaul anyone who doesn't).

Ahoy mateys, let us contemplate our navels.

IVhorseman wrote:There totally are rules for naval combat. I'll break em down:

Thank you for the break down IVhorseman. They're very helpful.

IVhorseman wrote:First of all, the thrust mechanic is a really cool way to determine wind direction for sailing ships, or current direction if you decide one exists. See the rulebook for details.

Is the 2001 or 2005 rulebook being utilized for this break down?

IVhorseman wrote: As for actual sinking, that's about all that's not covered. I would say it's safe to assume take a number of turns to sink equal to their size in inches, or you could say that half of the remaining ship goes under in any given turn. A ship tilted on it's side would have minifigs risk being thrown overboard without necessarily sinking, but a capsized ship would sink assuredly. Knocking a hole in the hull with component damage would also initiate sinking.

If it's a small leak, then on-board vessel pumps would be able to keep the vessel from sinking. I would say the hole should be larger before the vessel starts to sink, and ship sinks faster as the hole gets larger. In the Age of Sail, vessels very rarely sank during a battle. Cannon rounds typically skipped the top of the water and strike a vessel typically above the waterline or sometimes at the waterline. If they were damaged beyond repair, or sinking too rapidly, then they were emptied of their booty, crew, and guns to be sunk. Sinking of other ships didn't occur often until right before WWI or during WWI with the beginning of the dreadnought era.

I am pretty ignorant of the Brikwar rules, so this may already be implemented.
A thing to consider is that most hand weapons don't do any damage to a large dreadnought or ship-of-the-line. You could spend all day spaying a hull with rounds, and the ship itself won't be affected.