A Wargamer in Cyprus: Carracks, Cogs and Nefs

Medieval Naval Game

Carracks, Cogs and Nefs

Having been unable to find any medieval naval rules that did what I wanted them to I decided to write my own. Naval combat of the period was not as is often claimed, simply land warfare fought at sea, but there are some similarities. In essence missile weapons are bows, and rocks dropped from fore and aft castles into the gun whales of enemy ships. Fighting was by boarding, and closing to do that risked damaging your own ship.

Form

I use a grid 10 by 6. My fleets are small with up to six per side. Depending on the scenario battles can occur either length wise or width wise on the grid. The tabletop includes 2d6 pieces of terrain. These are determined by rolling a d6 on thr terrain list and then located on table by rolling a d10 and d6 to find the square.

Fleet commanders get one command point token for each vessel in the force.

Ships in the same square risk collision and must roll on the "risk to the ship" table.

Terrain

1. Sea mist. A fog bank that reduces movement within to one square per turn.

2. A current. The current drags any vessel within this area one square towards the nearest table edge.

3. An eddy turns the ship one square towards the furthest way table edge.

4. A Rock. D6 on entering. Roll a one and your ship strikes the rock. Dice on risk to the ship table.

5. Sand bar. D6 on entering. Roll a one or two and your ship is stuck on the sand. May not move again until the tide turns, hours later.

6. Shoal. A real ship killing zone. Roll d6 on entering or leaving. Roll 1-4 and you ground, and remain, on the rocks. Roll on the risk to the ship table.

Movement

Moving a ship costs 1 command point.

Sailing = 2 squares, not towards or diagonally towards the wind direction.

Galley under oars = 1 square any direction 2 away from wind.

Ship under oars = 1 square any direction.

Most early ships would have sweeps and the ability to move the ship at a slow crawl under oars.

Attacking an enemy ship costs 1 Command Point. An additional command point may be exchanged for an additional attack dice.

Fighting.

Aggression (Roll this number of dice in attack +/- mods)

Protection (Needs this number or over to hit)

Crew (Remove one crew point for each hit.)

Carrack, Aggression 5, Protection 5, Crew 5.

Cog Aggression 4, Protection 4, Crew 4

Nef Aggression 3, Protection 3 Crew 3

In reality a "Nef" was an earlier type of ship, replaced by the Cog. I use the term here to represent smaller vessels or those not strengthened with fore and aft castles. A Carrack was a larger type of ship that typically carried more than one mast, and here I use the term to represent "great ships.," typically the larger command vessels.

A Carrack will carry three Archers and two groups of Men at Arms

A Cog carries two archers, and a Men at Arms.

A Nef carries two groups of Archers, either bow or crossbowmen.

+1 if ship moves into contact this turn (may apply to units on both sides in multiple unit combat)

+ LPs (up to +3)

+1 for every supporting ship (up to +3)

+2 if Men at arms aboard

–2 if attacking a target on your own flank or rear

If hits are inflicted but Crew remains above 0, note the new Crew scores for each vessel, which applies until more hits are taken.

1. Both units roll a number of dice equal to their Aggression, adding extra dice as shown:

+2 if attacking a ship in its flank or rear (see Risk of sinking test)

2. The target number is the enemy’s Protection.

3. Both ships count the number of dice rolled equal to or higher than their Protection score. CP's set aside to cancel out hits before the dice were rolled may now be used to cancel out hits inflicted during this combat on a one-for-one exchange, up to a maximum of 3 per turn (no dice rolls required). Any outstanding hits are immediately removed from the target’s Cohesion. Any LPs set aside for hits that do not get used remain unspent and are usable later in the turn if morale tests are required.

4. If a vessel is reduced to one crew point it barely has sufficient men to crew the ship it will attempt to disengage and flee the battle.

5. If either unit is reduced to 0 Crew, it surrenders and drifts downwind 1 square each turn unless grappled. Reduce the players command points by 1 and vessels adjacent must take morale tests at the end of the turn.

Ships in combat remain locked together until one side is the victor, or until one player attempts to cut the grapples and back water, note that this costs two command points. If a vessel is captured a prize crew goes aboard costing one command point. The victorious vessel must still pay two CPs to free itself and continue the battle.

Ships of this period could suffer relatively little damage to the hull itself, the object of an attack being to kill the crew and capture the ship. There would however be occasions when the ship would spring its timbers in a collision and sink, such as Edwards III's Thomas striking a larger Castilian vessel at Winchelsea,

Risk of sinking test

A vessel contacted in the flank or side must dice

D6 for risk to the ship.

1. No damage, we have a well found vessel
2. The vessel is well shaped and fashioned3. The timbers shiver but the ship floats

4. The timbers have sprung. D6 turns remain afloat

5. The ship is holed. D6 turns afloat remain.

6. The hull collapses. The ship goes down immediately

Shooting

Each ship may shoot with its bowmen at no CP cost. Vessels carry groups of bow armed crew and these shoot with 1d6 each. Roll against the protection value of the target. His are calculated as normal.

A Quick Game

Defrocked French Priest turned pirate, Eustace the Monk, has finall left his safe haven in Boulogne, he approaches the English coast. William of Rye comes out to meet the French at sea.

Since I only had four ships painted up for this game (another six have been built since this game) the resulting encounter is small. The crew parties have also been added since this game and I used a paper record.