Having written several sets of naval rules over the years it was perhaps inevitable that Steve Blease and Matthew Hartley would ask me to come up with a set of rules to bring naval vessels into the Aeronef "universe". The rules can be used at two levels of complexity, with the differences centred on the management of gunnery and damage. The first is a basic system, similar in style to the original Aeronef. The second is more detailed, following my "Warlords of the Skies" expansion. More traditional naval wargamers might like to give these rules a try as, without the more fantastic aerial elements, they are eminently suitable for pure naval actions.

Last updated 14/11/99

1. Ship Descriptions

Warships come in 5 basic classes as follows. Merchants are treated as a generic single class.

Class	Type	Speed*	Turns	Hull Points	Armour Value	Hvy Guns	Med. Guns	Lt. Guns	Gun Dice
1	Battleship	7	1	20	1	4	6	6	16
2	Armoured Cruiser	8	2	16	2	0-2	8	6	12
3	Protected Cruiser	9	2	12	3	-	4	4	8
4	Light Cruiser,	11	2	8	4	-	2	4	6
4	Heavy Destroyer	11	3	6	5	-	-	4	4
5	Torpedo Boat	12	3	2-4	5	-	-	2	2
1-5	Merchant	3-12	1-3	1-10	5	-	-	-	-

• Gun Dice are only used in the Basic Game
• Speed is absed on actual speed in knots divided by 3.
• Heavy, Medium and Light guns, and Armour value, are only used in the Advanced game.

Note: The number of turns a ship can make are not reduced by general hull damage. A ship may be reduced in its ability to turn by taking rudder damage (advanced game).

2. Firing

a) Basic Game

Roll the number of gun dice indicated. Each 6 scores a hit, reducing the target's Hull Points by 1. Speed and Gun Dice are reduced proportionally as in the basic Aeronef rules. Reroll sixes for additional hits as in the normal Aeronef rules

b) Advanced Game

The guns of each ship are rolled, grouped by type (e.g. a battleship rolls 4 dice for its heavy guns, then 6 for its medium guns). Maximum ranges and armour penetration for each gun type are as follows:

Gun	Max range	Armour penetration
Heavy	60cm	All
Medium	45cm	2-5
Light	30cm	3-5
Bomb	-	All

Each 6 rolled scores a hit. Reroll sixes for additional hits as in the normal Aeronef rules.

For each hit scored roll another d6. This is to determine where the shells have hit.

Die Roll	Location
1-4	Hull - Reduce hull points by the number shown in the table below
5	Gun - knock out one gun at random. Armour must be penetrated if it is Medium or Heavy
6	Special Hit - roll a d6 (must penetrate armour for hits 1-3) 1: Turret destroyed, or lose 2 guns if in individual mounts 2: Flood - lose 1 hull point per turn until a 5 or 6 is rolled on a d6 3: Steering jammed - no course change until a 5 or 6 is rolled on a d6, then reduce number of turns by 1 (but never below 1) 4: Bridge hit - no course or speed changes next turn 5: Funnel hit - reduce speed by 2 6: Fire - Roll a d6 per turn:  1  explosion, ship sinks,  2-4  lose 1 hull point  5-6  fire out

If a Hull Hit is scored refer to the table below to see how much damage is caused by each gun type against different targets.

Gun	Size Class
	1	2	3	4	5	Merchant
Heavy	3	3	2	2	1	2
Medium	1	2	3	2	2	3
Light	0	0	1	1	1	1
Bomb (pre1880)	2	2	2	2	2	3
Bomb (post 1880)	1	1	1	1	1	3

So a heavy gun hitting a destroyer (Class 5) causes 1 points of damage (it probably goes straight through without exploding), whilst a Light gun hitting a battleship does no damage at all (it bounces off, or does very little damage to such a big ship).

3. A Word about Armour

Armour must be penetrated to to knock out guns, or to cause Turret, Flooding and Steering special hits. In most cases the armour value of a ship will be the same as its class. However, there may be some variation in designs (for example, an Italian battleship may have thinner armour in return for some additional speed). Players seeking a bit more fidelity in the game can assign different armour values to locations on a ship. For example a battleship normally has an armour value of 1 but a particular design may have topped barbette mounted guns which have an armour value of 2, and its medium guns in an enclosed battery with an armour value of 3.

4. Anti Aircraft Fire

Ships are able to fire any Light Guns they have at aerial targets within 30cm. AA fire is conducted as if it were normal fire between aerial craft.

5. Aerial Fire at Ships

The guns carried by aeronefs and digs are treated as Light guns. Guns carried by fighters have no effect against ships.

6. Bombing Ships

Since the guns carried by aerial craft are useless against all but the smallest of ships the best way to despatch them is by bombing. Use the normal Aeronef rules to determine how many hits are scored, then treat as hits from gunfire, using the "bomb" rows on the table above for hull hits. Note that pre and post 1880 refers to the date the ship was designed - before 1880 the threat from aerial craft was not appreciated; after 1880 the naval architects began to incorporate better protection against bombs

7. Torpedoes

Torpedoes of the period were short running and very unreliable. Destroyers, torpedo boats and some cruisers may fire one spread of torpedoes per game at a target within 20cm. Roll 2 d6 - a hit is scored on a roll of 11+. If a hit is scored the target loses 1d6 hull points and begins to flood (treat as special hit number 4).

8. Aerial Torpedoes

An aeronef or dig may be armed with torpedoes. To launch them it must move over the target ship or end its move within 10cm of the ship and be pointing towards it. If it survives gunfire it may fire a spread of torpedoes using the same rules as above.

9. Sample Ship Stats

The following tables give examples of actual ships from the period.

Name	Type	Class	Speed	Turns	Hull Points	Armour Value	Heavy Guns	Medium Guns	Light Guns	Gun Dice
London	Battleship	1	18	1	20	1	4	6	6	20
Trafalgar	Battleship	1	18	1	20	1	4	5	5	16
Powerful	Armoured Cruiser	2	22	2	16	2	-	8	8	12
Hermes	Protected Cruiser	3	20	2	12	3	-	5	4	8
Amethyst	Light Cruiser	4	24	2	8	4	-	-	4	6
Derwent	Heavy Destroyer	5	28	3	6	5	-	-	4	3
Republique	Battleship	1	18	1	20	1	4	9	7	16
Gloire	Armoured Cruiser	2	21	2	16	2	-	4	6	10
Descartes	Protected Cruiser	3	20	2	12	3	-	2	5	7
Jean Bart	Light Cruiser	4	20	2	8	4	-	3	2	6
Typhon	Torpedo Boat	5	24	3	4	5	-	-	2	2

10. Non- Standard Ship Values

As can be seen above, players can alter the number of Gun Dice in the basic game to better reflect the actual number of guns carried by a ship. There are no hard and fast rules about how to do this - the key is to look for relative strengths (so if you have a game where a powerful battlship and a lweaker battlship are taking part the former could have 17 or 18 dice, the latter 14 or 15 insteadof the normal 16.)

Where a number of dice is used that is not divisible by 4, use the following table to determine the actual number of dice thrown for each level of damage (you can also use this to determine "cut offs" for damage where hull points are adjusted as well)

Number of Dice	100%	75%	50%	25%
1	1	1	1	0
2	2	2	1	1
3	3	2	2	1
4	4	3	2	1
5	5	4	3	1
6	6	5	3	2
7	7	5	4	2
8	8	6	4	2
9	9	7	5	2
10	10	8	5	3
11	11	8	6	3
12	12	9	6	3
13	13	10	7	3
14	14	11	7	4
15	15	11	8	4
16	16	12	8	4
17	17	13	9	4
18	18	14	9	5
19	19	14	10	5
20	20	15	10	5
21	21	16	11	5
22	22	17	11	6
23	23	17	12	6
24	24	18	12	6

For example a ship has 14 hull points and 11 gun dice in its undamaged state. It comes under fire and loses 5 hull points, reducing it to 9. Running across the "14" row above we find that it has less than 11 hull but more than 8, so it is in the 75% intact category. Running up the 75% column to the "11" row we find the number 8, so the ship rolls 8 Gun Dice.