“For whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself”
- Sir Walter Raleigh
Welcome friend, to the page that asks, "Rome or Geneva, or Wittenburg"?
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Contact us
The Perfect Captain
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A complete system of warfare for 16th Century Europe
Including Large & Small scale land warfare modules, one for
Naval warfare, a Campaign, a Siege Game, and piracy in the Caribbean!
Spanish Fury, Sail!
Our game of naval warfare of the late Sixteenth century, covering the Armada as well as Lepanto, enabling players to fight on the sea from Cyprus to the Baltic.
Don't forget, Sail! is part of the Spanish Fury system- that means it can be used with SF:Voyage (Caribbean Campaign) and even SF:Siege!
What's it about?
We were after something more than fast play, but much less than complexity. These rules were originally meant for each model to represent more than one ship, and you can still play it that way. However at one-to-one it works best. As is our way, we wanted players to feel like they were playing their favorite navies. The tactics of one fleet will not work for another.
How about some background on the period?
The New Economy
The sixteenth century saw a great economic shift in Europe, mostly brought about by the opening of new products and markets of the New World and the Pacific. The growing middle class' desire for exotic goods made the Italian city states rich as carriers of trade from the east. Spices, silks and other treasures were dragged overland from China to Levantine ports, for distrubution in Europe at such commercial centers as Barcelona and Antwerp. The prices were exorbitant and those involved in the trade were soon wielding
political power through loans to impoverished Kings and Princes.All of this changed with the voyages of men such as Columbus, Cabot, and Magellan in and around the Americas.
Earlier, the Captains of Portugal's Henry the Navigator began the African trade. Now it was governments as much as merchants who were controlling the flow of the new wealth, and began to increasingly depend on it. The rivalry was serious, as so much was at stake. Spanish, Portugese, English and French expeditions were sent to explore possibilities and stake claims. While the French and the English were half hearted at best, being distracted in Europe, the Spanish and Portugese divided the world between them, even ratifying
this reality with the Pope by the treaty of Tordesillas, giving Portugal Brazil, Africa and the Pacific, while Spain took the rest. After the Spanish conquest of Portugal in 1580 they controlled the greatest empire in history.
When a single ship could carry wealth equal to the revenues of a small country in its holds, even fishermen turned their hands to piracy. Soon the great trading empires began to convoy their ships and even build warships to guarantee their safety. Government began to fund private actions against trade by issuing licenses to shipowners. These "Privateers" soon infested known trade routes and sought to discover secret ones. Often using flimsy excuses of "reprisals" for unfair trade practices, government owned warships
were used to sweep the rich shipping lanes of anything that could be converted to cash, and many bars of Spanish silver went to pay for troops and ships that would eventually bring the Spanish empire to its knees. The Spanish/Portugese warships, built mainly for defense, led other nations to build navies in self-defense, out of fear.
The growth of the middle class also lead to a greater degree of centralization- the educated sons of merchants became a bureaucracy, which led to more effecient taxation. This enabled government to begin to invest militarily in projects of a less limited nature than before. Spain's standing army was well beyond 100,000 men; fighting men at that. The Tudors, starting with the fortune saved by Henry VII could bring a permanent fleet into being, so that by the 1580's it was unrivalled in the world. This prompted a more extensive building program in Portugal and Spain. Even France tried a hand at putting a standing fleet together under Francis I, but this came to nothing through the negligence of his successors and the civil wars.
The New Design
Now that ships were being built regularly for military purposes, designs began to reflect this. Carrying capacity was no longer the main concern. The deeper, rounder Carrack made way for the Galleon- longer, narrower, faster, even with different sail configurations. These ships could remain on station for long periods, and could handle difficult weather to a greater degree than previous merchant ships. They still retained high fore and
aftercastles to give advantages in boarding actions.
The New Tactics
The shape of ships was also changing to reflect new technologies and tactics. Relatively Light brass cannon of large caliber were not only available on land. These were mounted on ships, and now had the power to smash timbers to matchwood. Mid-century military thinkers still believed that the principle naval tactic should revolve around boarding, as it was in the more-common galley warfare of the Mediterranean theatre. Guns added the new dimension of softening up the target before boarding, but were not considered
sufficiently powerful enough to sink the great carracks of the day. It was the English who began to standardize types of guns and ammunition on the Queens ships, who introduced truck-carriages which enabled them to fire and load faster that their opponents. John Hawkins, secretary of the Navy in the 1570's and 80's revolutionized warfare with his race-built Galleons. Lower, faster, more manouvrable and better armed that anything else afloat, they were designed for gun battles, not boarding. It was these ships and tactics that defeated the "Invincible" Armada in 1588.
After the Armada
The Armada campaign and subsequent actions by the English navy convinced every nation, even Spain, that the future lay with gunnery and nimble ships. The designs of the 1590's and into the 17th century show how complete the evolution was. Every maritime nation that could afford it began a military ship-building program, and by the middle of the century impressed merchant ships were an anachronism. Modern navies were born.
Which nations are represented?
We have the Spanish/Portugese, English and Dutch navies, as well as Turkish and Venetian. French and Hansards are provided for to a lesser extent. Other navies, particularly Danish and Swedish, will be the subjects of later supplements.
How many ships can you play a side?
You can have from one ship per side up to forty, and still have a good time. As you'll see below, the game is intriguingly uncomplicated without being "fast play", meaning no engagement is too small, and the larger battles can still be played without overly bogging down. We suggest each player control no more than 15-20 ships each, so with several players per side (and a big enough board) you could refight the whole Armada campaign!
Does it take long to play?
We finished a game with 15 ships per side in less than 90 minutes. Yet we do not consider these rules "fast play" (in other words, sacrificing too much realism for speed)
Do I have to write anything down?
Now you know how the Captain feels about record keeping..... Pen and paper are not required.
Movement
The real killer in these games is simulating sails and wind. Gunnery is easy. Boarding is easy. Naval rules rise and fall on how movement works. Our system is highly visual- there's no checking sail settings, wind magnitude and direction on separate, complicated, text-based tables. Now everything is colour coded and and simple. Let's look at this Ship card for example:
Take a look at the circle near the top. The whole card should be mounted on heavier stock after printing, while the white part in the center with the little ships diagram is supposed to be cut out. During play, to find out everything you need to know about the ship, lay the card over the model on the tabletop (if there's room) or hold it above it for a second. Your done! Everything you need to know about moving your ship has been figured out!
Checking the wind direction in relation to your bow will tell you if your ship is "Beating" (moving close to the wind, in the YELLOW range), "Running" (wind behind you, but not in the optimum position, in the BLUE range), or in the "Quarter Reach" (optimum position for catching the most wind, and hence the fastest movement, in the GREEN range). Once you've got the right colour, you suddenly have a ruler on the sides of the card telling you how far you will move! If you are in the GREEN range, knowing the winds are currently "Fresh" in this battle, you see how far you must move. Also shown are up to four graduations showing the current damage level (0-4) of your ship (if any), marked by one of the Perfect Captain's spiffy little counters beside your ship.
It should take you above 5 seconds to know how far your ship will move in a turn. Since each ship is part of a division (several ships brigaded together), our station keeping rules will probably require you to only check one ship per division (maximum of about 5 divisions in play). That makes a turn go by pretty quick!
You can use miniatures or the paper counters provided
Manouvre
Each turn is broken down into two "legs" or moves. Depending on the quality of the crew (all ships of each fleet have the same quality each scenario) each ship will have to make its turn either at the end of each leg (inexperienced crews) or at the beginning of each leg (experienced). Note that experienced crews will always see which way the enemy is planning to move each turn. Where crews are the same quality, the fleets who's
commanders strategy rating is high than the others (modified by a die roll) will have the advantage.
Gunnery and Damage
Here's another spot where rules can fall to the ground. Gunnery charts shouldn't be too hard to do. We've put the ships gunnery rating at the two ranges, long and short, on the Ship card itself. Gunnery rating at a particular range targets structure rating subtracted for the fire column on the gunnery chart. No problem, very easy. Damage can be complicated in some games. Ships in our system start with a damage rating of zero, but can be knocked down level by level (1-4) until reduced to a useless Hulk. Everything on a ship degrades on damaged ships. Notice on the card above, even the ship's structure drops. This is shown, as mentioned above, with a discreet damage counter placed behind the ship.
Grappling and Boarding
Boarding! Everyone wants to do it, whether they admit it or not! The Spaniards certainly wanted to do it in 1588, but couldn't. In our rules, grappling an opponent who doesn't want to be grappled isn't easy, especially if you are in a lumbering, crank ship, and he isn't. Your ship's handling number tells you how nimble your ship is. The better handling, the easier to escape or bring on a boarding action. Once aboard, however, its the most and toughest marines that are going to carry the day, capturing ships and officers, and planting prize crews!
Terrain??!?!
Yes, there is often terrain which effects sea battles. Often it is a land mass such as a coast or an island. It can also be shallows and reefs. Further, islands and ports often had castles, forts, and gun platforms defending them, and a large number of famous battles of this period (both Cadiz invasions) involved running the gauntlet of shore defenses.
Command
This period was famous for great naval figures, but not as often for their great battle tactics as later periods would be, with the likes of Nelson. However, plans were often laid before battle which dictated the way battle would be fought. Our rules brigade ships together in divisions. These divisions are commanded by Captains, with the fleet commanded by an Admiral. Although the ability to change orders is limited, these officers
still have an important part to play.
DOWNLOAD EXTRAS?
The sidebar (right) has Lanterna (Mediterranean Galley Warfare supplement), little flags to tag your ships, a set of scenarios for the Portuguese in East Africa as well as some new ships for the Caribbean! Also, when you download the rules there is a historical breakdown of the Navies and their tactics.
