THE BROADSIDES BOARD -- Post #1

When I heard that Privateer Press was planning to release a book called "Pirates of the Broken Coast" I started to plan out a game board that would simulate a ship to ship boarding action. I had the idea to take a 4x4 board and imagine it as being completely water. Then I could take two pieces of foam board and make two large sections of ships that would simulate two ships having completed a broadsides and now would begin the boarding assault.

Broadsides were quite different during older naval warfare, in the age of sail. An 18th century man of war like the HMS Victory had cannons that were only accurate at short range. The penetrating power of naval guns was mediocre; which meant that the thick hull of a well-built wooden ship could only be pierced at short ranges. These wooden ships sailed closer and closer towards each other until cannon fire would be effective. Each tried to be the first to fire a broadside, often giving one side a decisive headstart in the battle when it crippled the other ship.

Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion onto a ship's deck of people. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party. Boarding may be carried out during wartime by naval infantry in an attempt to seize and possibly destroy the vessel, or it may occur in peacetime by pirates and other criminals, or as a means of inspection by a nation's coast guard (or navy) to prevent piracy and smuggling.

Boarding is used in wartime as a way to seize a vessel without destroying it, or to remove its cargo (people or goods) before it is destroyed. It can also be used to aid in the collection of naval intelligence, as soldiers boarding a sinking, crippled, or surrendered vessel could possibly recover enemy plans, cipher codebooks or machines. For a boarding to be successful, it must occur without the knowledge of the crew of the defending ship, or the ship's defenses must be suppressed.

So you can see in the picture above that I have a piece of 4x4 plywood from Lowes and two sections of blue insullation foam board cut to size to represent sections of large ships. There will be a section of Deep Water between both ships. I will make boarding planks and cranes to allow from movement from ship to ship. Hopefully it will be cool when it is all finally finished.