Fascist Game 8
Rules Section 3: Ships

Rules may be followed by a proposal number in parentheses indicating that the given rule was created, amended, or applied at that proposal. THS makes no guarantee that the listed values represent the most recent time a rule came into play. Rules that are considered part of the original ruleset are marked with (*). Rules that by their nature are constantly used are marked (now).

The Rules of Section 3: Ships

1. Every player shall start with a Ship, until 21 Ships total have been in use since the beginning of the game. (124)
2. Sufficient wood only exists to build and maintain 21 ships total, counting those already in use. Future wood sources may allow players to build a ship beyond this limit; until then, established players must convince other players to allow them to travel on their ships. For this purpose, any player may pick up another player who is at the same location, with mutual consent. New players are allowed a one-time-only enlistment on any ship they choose; the owning player cannot refuse them passage. The new player is instantly transported to that ship. If that ship does not have a name/color, the new player may supply them, and must do so to have proposals considered.

   Players are not considered to take up space on any ship they may be aboard. The highest-ranking individual on a ship issues the sailing orders for that ship, although the owner of the ship is considered two ranks higher than actual for this determination. Note, however, that Personnel on a ship are still considered to be under the sole command of whoever recruited them.

3. Ships are able to carry a maximum of 30 non-crew personnel.
4. A player who wishes to start a Colony faster may over-exploit the capabilities of their ship. By reducing the space available to each Colonist on the ship, a player may boost the capacity by up to 50% in people only (no Cannon may be included). However, these cramped conditions cause an additional risk. Namely, that for every 10% over capacity, there is a 5% chance per ten proposals at Sea, of mutiny by the Crew, locking the player in the Brig as if he were the captain of a captured ship.
5. Each player must select a name for any Ship s/he owns, (such as the initial one provided by Rule 3.1 above) and must also select a color for his Ship. Ship colors must be one of the following: for Citizens, Orange, Purple, or Green; for Pirates, Black, Yellow, or Red. Ship names, however, are only limited by the fact that each Ship must have a name different from all other Ships' and by common decency. A player who owns or is on board a Ship without name and color will find that every piece of email s/he sends in to the game will go unpublished and unjudged until s/he submits the information.
6. Two New Ships have been created, which can be Purchased at Atlantis for the listed number of Pieces of Eight:
   Merchant Ship: This ship is not designed to be able to carry Cannons or other Instruments of War. However, it has a base strength of 5 due to its large size and solid construction. A Merchant Ship can carry up to 50 Tons of Cargo(which can be either settlers, marines or cargo).
   Cost: 3,000 Pieces of Eight.

   Man O'War: This mighty warship has a base strength of only 4, but comes fully equipped with 6 Cannons! It can carry up to 20 Marines in addition(of which 12, remember, are required to operate the Cannons). It is not, however, capable of carrying any Cargo, and the Cannons can not be removed. It cannot carry Settlers either, as they complain about the smell of gunpowder, military rations and so on.
   Cost: 6,000 Pieces of Eight.

   A Player may only own one Ship at a time, due to the timber shortage. (If s/he previously owned a Ship, it is cannibalized for the wood for his new Ship and s/he gets a 500 discount.) Once the 21-ship limit has been reached, no player may purchase one of these ships without supplying timber, either fresh (which yields a 750 PoE discount) or as a trade-in.

7. Each ship shall be assigned a strength rating, with all players' ships starting at 3. For every 5 Marines/Buccaneers on board not engaged in firing cannons, the rating would increase by 1. Also, with the use of 3 units of colonist space, the ship may mount a cannon. Cannons require two Marines/Buccaneers to fire, and add 2 points of strength to the ship.
8. (a) Every time a Citizen's ship docks at Makal, a Pirate's ship docks at the Pirate Cove, or any ship docks at a colony controlled by the appropriate power that has been in operation for 15 proposals, that Player can load any number of Settlers and Marines/Buccaneers for free. However, the number of Marines/Buccaneers can never grow beyond 15 this way. These Personnel are deducted from those present in the area, so it is not possible to load more personnel than are present in an area. However, Makal and the Near Azores are considered to have unlimited personnel. (b) If Makal is reached overland, the same number and types of Personnel can be recruited; and they can follow the player on overland journeys. (154)
9. All ships shall initially be alotted 2 barrels of gunpowder for use on their ships. Each barrel takes up 1/2 of a space on a ship, and will supply enough gunpowder for 10 firings of 1 cannon. Thus, a ship with 2 barrels and 5 cannon, could participate in 4 battles and be able to fire all of its cannon, but any further, and she would not gain any further bonuses from their cannon. If a ship has gunpowder, but not enough for all of her cannon, then she could only fire cannon for which she had gunpowder. Barrels of gunpowder will sell in Atlantis for 120 pieces of eight, and will be bought for 100 pieces of eight. [Ships in existence when this rule was enacted received the allotment if and only if they had one cargo space available.]
10. A ship's basic strength (i.e., the strength without additions of marines and cannons etc.) can be improved by adding Struts, at 1 strength point per Strut. Each three struts or fraction thereof take up one ton of cargo space. Struts can be added at any friendly harbour, at a cost of 25 Po8 and 3 proposals of time each if current base strength is below 6, or 50 Po8 and six proposals otherwise. Removing a strut is free but takes the same amount of time as adding a strut.
11. A merchant on the isle of Takal is selling Casks of Greek Fire for 100 Pieces of Eight apiece. These may be purchased by any Citizen who sails to Takal. Anyone who is docked at a land controlled by pirates may sell them to the pirates for 500 Pieces of Eight apiece. A count is kept of all CGFs sold to the pirates.

    CGFs may be hurled from a catapult to inflict great damage upon enemy ships. (Attempting to fire a CGF from a cannon would, of course, be physically improbable, and rather dangerous to boot.) A catapult requires six units of colonist space and four Marines to tend it. Catapults, like cannon, may be acquired on request from Atlantis.

    During combat, each catapult on a ship which has a CGF for ammunition will contribute 4 points of strength. Catapults with no CGF supply a mere 1 point of strength. In the course of combat, any CGFs used to supply catapults are consumed. The commander of a ship may choose how many catapults he or she wishes to supply with CGFs in a battle, in order to conserve his supply of ammunition.

12. Ships may carry life rafts, which may be used by the ship's inhabitants in the unfortunate case that their ship is sunk. These life rafts take two cargo spaces each, and may carry four people, passengers, or prisoners (in admittedly cramped conditions) either back to Atlantis or forward to the original destination of the ship. The life raft, moving as it does only by tides and man-power, will take twice as long to reach its destination as a ship would have. Life rafts will be freely available in Sakal.
13. There is a ShipWright in TIE's Famous Naval yards who has Invented a Remarkable Modification to Imperial Ships. This Inventor has fashioned Large Wooden Ramming Plates, which may be Attached to Ships at No Cost. These Ramming Plates, while Large and Bulky, slowing your ship to Half of its Normal Speed, are very Helpful in Naval Battles, allowing you to attempt to Ram the Opponent Ship. This Ram attempt counts as an Attack, with your Ship having a strength for this attack of Five more than your Base Ship Strength (not counting Cannon or Marines). If the Ram attempt Succeeds, the Opponent's Ship is Split in Half and begins to Sink immediately. However, if the attempt Fails, your Ship is crushed by the Collision, and *your* Ship sinks.
14. Any player whose ship is equipped with a Gangplank may make any prisoner in the brig walk the plank at any time. This allows the prisoner 2 extra chances to take over the ship as detailed above, but if s/he does not, s/he is either eaten by sharks and killed (50% chance) or washes ashore at the nearest place.
15. Any player who owns a sextant (which can be bought at Atlantis, Makal, Sakal, Takal, or Near Azores for 50 Pieces of Eight) is able to reach their destination much faster, with every 2 proposals counting as 3 for purposes of time to reach a location. These instruments are very fragile, however, and any sextant on a ship involved in combat shall stand a 4 in 6 chance of breaking.
16. Any player having rank of Fourth Mate/Cabin Boy or higher may set sail to any part of TIE's Empire. Any player having rank of Second Mate/ Deck Hand or higher may set sail to any known land.
17. Players can set sail in a Squadron, consisting of several players' ships. Since every sensible pirate would think twice about attacking more than one ship, a pirate ship/Imperial Galleon who encounters a Squadron will flee if a fair die tossed by THS shows a number that is the same or lower than the size of the Squadron (in ships) divided by the number of pirate ships. If a group fights it fights as a unit, there is no way a ship in a group can be attacked and the other members are not.

    A Squadron is formed when (i) a player who declares to have formed one (the Leader) sends a list of other players (who must all be in the same location as the Leader) to the THS and (ii) all players on that list send a message to THS assenting to follow the Leader. All sailing orders the Leader submits (the orders must be allowed by law for the Leader, but not necessarily for the followers), the entire group follows. If a follower in the Squadron at any time submits any sailing orders, that player is no longer a member of the Squadron. If at any time the group consists of only a leader the group has fallen apart and so the Squadron is no more.

    The Leader of a Squadron may choose to lead her followers onto the land to explore or do battle. In this case, all normal rules for overland movement shall apply. Should a Squadron of n players achieve an objective which would accord a single player an m-step increase in Bravery or Rank, all members of the Squadron shall receive a floor(m / n) increase in the appropriate attribute. (78)

18. Each place has connected with it a distance, which is the sailingtime from Atlantis to that place. This distance must be an integer number. To go from one place to another takes a number of proposals, equal to L+0.5*S, where L is the larger of the distances, and S the smaller of the distances. This number, if not an integer, is rounded up. If a new land is created by a proposal, the proposer must specify a distance; if not, TIE/TPK chooses it. If a player sets out to discover a new land, IC selects its distance randomly from between 10 and 30.
19. All ships shall contain a room known as the brig. When a ship sinks another ship the captain of the winning ship may elect to take the captain (or commanding officer, if he be not of the rank Captain) of the other ship prisoner. For every ten proposals that the prisoner is held on the ship he has a 1 in 36 chance of escaping and taking over the ship, placing the old captain in the brig. The brig may hold more than one prisoner, but each has an independent chance of escape.

    Honorable prisoners shall be released upon landfall. Dishonorable prisoners (ie. opponents) shall be turned over to the Emperor's/Pirate King's guards. Not taking the captain of an honorable Ship of the Imperial Fleet prisoner shall be considered an Act of Cowardice, causing a one-step decrease in bravery.

20. There shall be a single prevailing Wind. This wind has two attributes: direction and strength. These attributes may change at most once every three proposals, as follows. Direction is any of the 8 major compass points, initially North; if any proposal since the last direction change uses the words "wind(s)," "windy," or "blow," the wind direction will change 1 or 2 headings clockwise or counterclockwise, at random. Strength is from 0 to 7 on the Beaufort scale, initially 3. When the strength is eligible to change, if the most recent proposal was Rejected, wind strength increases by 2; if it was Accepted with modification, wind strength decreases by 1; and if it was Accepted (without modification), wind strength increases by 1. Any other action the Emperor chooses to take in regard to a proposal will leave the strength unaffected. Normal sailing is impossible with wind strength 0 or 7; ships make no progress toward their current destinations and may not embark on new voyages. (now)
21. Wind strength 7 represents a hurricane. If there is a hurricane, a ship in port holds about a 1 in 6 chance of being caught in it. A ship at sea has a better chance of avoiding them, only 1 in 10. A ship which dedicates a Marine to the crows nest can usually spot the clouds on the horizon in time to flee the storm. A Marine in the crows nest cannot assist in combat in any way. A ship caught in a hurricane, will be tossed and thrown, and will lose strength points equal to the roll of a 6-sided die, divided by 2, and rounded down. A ship will not sink unless its combined strength (including Marines but not cannon) is reduced to zero.
22. A player whose ship is caught in a Hurricane shall suffer less damage from further Hurricanes. The roll of the 6-sided die determining damage shall be divided by 3 (rounded down). The player shall also gain the benefit of winds one step more favorable than the actual winds, in naval battles.
23. The Sea Serpent will have a 1 in 6 chance of appearing midway during the voyage every time a ship (not life raft) embarks on a voyage of length greater than or equal to 15. If the encountering player chooses to fight, the Serpent fights as a ship of strength 12; a tie or a loss means the player is sunk, whereas a victory only means that the Serpent swims away, unless the player has a legendary weapon that can slay the beast. If the player decides instead to flee (either back where s/he last came from or on to the current destination), the following rules apply: Every proposal following 1 die is rolled; on a 1 or 2 the serpent eats 1 die's worth of Crew, and sinks the ship if there aren't any crew left; on a 3 the ship moves one distance unit closer to its destination, on a 4 it moves two distance units closer to its destination, on a 5 it moves 3 distance units. On a 6 however the Serpent will simply swim away. It will also swim away as soon as the ship reaches within 5 distance units of land. Anyone who manages to defeat the serpent gains 2 levels of Bravery and a 500 Po8 bounty.