Message text If we measure ranges on the maps by the size of the ships, you are probably correct. However, on the map, small frigates and heavy man o' wars cover the same number of hexes, which isn't all that realistic.
Also, guns during this period could regularly fire 1500m, and even up to 2000m. The carronades, which have a 2-hex range in the game, often were used in the 500m range. My 10 hexes = 1000m estimate was probably a little conservative since the heavy ships with long guns could probably fire nearly twice that far. (On calm seas, ricochet shots could travel half again as far as standard shots.) This website gives some good estimates of actual gun ranges:
http://www.geocities.com/cptblood_1999/weaponry.html#Carronade
Understandably, the game puts the gun range and ship length out-of-proportion in order to keep the map size reasonable.
That guns were firing at these ranges is even more reason why the long-range rake modifer needs to be eliminated. By the trajectory required to lob a long shot at another ship, it simply wasn't possible to "rake" a ship at 1000m or more. |
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