The world is as much water as land. Every region has a coastline, the interior is threaded with channels, and seven of the thirteen regions cannot be reached by an army any other way.
Six hulls, from a rowboat to a galley, by way of the keelboat, the longship, the sailing ship and the warship. A ship moves a number of sea tiles a turn set by its hull, its crew's Sailing skill, the wind and the weather.
Speed is not the same as distance. Anything under sail runs the clock all day. Anything that depends on muscle stops when the muscle does, so the galley is the fastest thing afloat and still covers no more ground in a day than a sailing ship at half its speed. A galley wins a chase and loses a voyage.
Cargo is a war-against-trade trade-off rather than a size ranking. A warship carries a fraction of what a merchantman of the same displacement does, because the rest of the hull is armament and marines. The sailing ship out-carries the warship that outguns it.
Every hull costs upkeep every day it exists, whether or not you sail it. Ships are their own kind of property: they can be captured as prizes rather than simply looted.
Sea fights run in two layers. A sea map, where you manoeuvre for position and choose or refuse the fight, and a combat map, where ships close, exchange fire and board. There is no gunpowder in this world; what flies is magic, arrows and enchanted siege engines.
Turn order is ship by ship. Every vessel on the board is its own unit, which is what lets one Admiral run a whole fleet through a single fight.
You can aim to sink a ship or to cripple and capture it. Capture is worth more and is harder. Damage lands on specific parts of a ship, and each has its own failure:
| Hit | What it costs you | If it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Hull | water, a list, and speed | the ship sinks |
| Masts and sails | sail capacity | you are down to muscle or adrift |
| Crew | fewer actions, weaker fire and boarding | you cannot fight or sail |
The water itself is deadly. A sunk crew swims for it, and heavy armour drowns you. A ship's crew carries its own training and its captain their own skill, both separate from the hull they are standing on.
Admirals command ships into squadrons and squadrons into fleets. A strong enough naval power can lock down a sea and set the laws of the sea on it: tolls, passage, and the rules everyone else sails by.
A blockade is an economic siege in water. The open sea is shared and contested, and raiding, ship theft, blockade and every kind of naval diplomacy are all available on it.
Working harbours are high-value assets held under charter. The seafaring life has three classes of its own: the free Sailor, who is a merchantman, a corsair or a pirate depending on the week; the Shipwright, who builds and repairs; and the Admiral, who commands. See Classes.
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