Cannon, Cross and Crescent game and houserules

Another Battle of Cannon, Cross and Crescent (available from Wargames Vault), with a few more houserules used.

First off with the activation cards, we used a deck with a card for each squadron (so 3 cards each in this game), and the deck is shuffled and squadrons activate when you draw their card. Also we added two jokers to the deck, one for each side, and when these are drawn you roll to see if your wrecked ships sink (on a 6), and also you move or set fire to any captured ships. Once all cards are drawn we shuffle the deck and start again for the next turn.

Squadrons only arrive on the table on a roll of 3+ when they draw their activation card, rolling to see whether this is left (1-2), centre (3-4), or right (5-6) table third.

We used slightly modified factors for the ships, the main one being gunnery. Heavy guns roll to reload at the start of each squadrons activation provided they are not in contact with enemy. Heavy guns roll to reload on a 6 for Ottomans and 5-6 for Venetians. We also gave Venetians a longer range for their heavy guns - 900 rather than the 600 the Ottomans have.

We didn't include this rule for the game, but in future games we think we will also make light guns only 200p range, and only firing if not in contact (i.e. effect assumed to be subsumed into melee ).

Here's a photo midway through the battle, my Galliots have been sunk or captured by two squadrons of Venetian Galleys on the left, who have only lost one galley in return, and my three Laternas (largest galley class) on my right were damaged early on by Venetian heavy guns. However I've overwhelmed the Venetian squadron on my right with shear number of galleys and boats.

End of game, I've wrecked or captured all of the Venetian Squadron on my right, and captured four more galleys from the Venetian fleet. One of these was lost when it tried to board and capture another captured Venetian ship and ended up being captured itself! This last galley lost in ignoble fashion meant half the Venetian fleet was lost so that was end of game.

Counters we have been using. Grey for heavy guns fired and needing to be reloaded, blue for wrecked (and chance to sink), brown for ship damaged, and black for crew casualties. Two black for captured.  My three Laternas spent most of the game unsuccessfully trying to repair so ended up taking no part in the action!

Houserules seem to work well for us, and reduce the predictability of when you will be able to activate your squadrons and fire heavy guns!