A history of rulings I’ve had to make in games, so that they’re written down and can be referred to later. This is as of the 2.0 rules. These are not official rulings, except where mentioned; these are rulings I’ve made with my community of play at our tables. But I hope they’ll serve and be useful for you, too. - [[#Basic Rules|Basic Rules]] - [[#Basic Rules#Deployment|Deployment]] - [[#Basic Rules#Moving off the table|Moving off the table]] - [[#Basic Rules#Cut Free and what counts as immobile|Cut Free and what counts as immobile]] - [[#Basic Rules#Anchored and special movement|Anchored and special movement]] - [[#Basic Rules#Targeting rigging or crew|Targeting rigging or crew]] - [[#Targeting rigging or crew#Addendum: *Target Rigging* initiative card and Dismantling Shot|Addendum: *Target Rigging* initiative card and Dismantling Shot]] - [[#Targeting rigging or crew#Addendum: Targeting crew and *High Freeboard* or *Very High Freeboard*|Addendum: Targeting crew and *High Freeboard* or *Very High Freeboard*]] - [[#Targeting rigging or crew#Addendum: Skill and targeting crew or rigging|Addendum: Skill and targeting crew or rigging]] - [[#Targeting rigging or crew#Addendum: *Careful Aim* and targeting crew or rigging|Addendum: *Careful Aim* and targeting crew or rigging]] - [[#Targeting rigging or crew#Addendum: *Marines*, *Buccaneers*, and targeting crew or rigging|Addendum: *Marines*, *Buccaneers*, and targeting crew or rigging]] - [[#Terrain|Terrain]] - [[#Terrain#Shoals and movement|Shoals and movement]] - [[#Terrain#Fog and *Reduced Visibility*|Fog and *Reduced Visibility*]] - [[#Initiative Cards|Initiative Cards]] - [[#Initiative Cards#Cards and actions when Entangled|Cards and actions when Entangled]] - [[#Upgrades|Upgrades]] - [[#Upgrades#*Dispatch Ship* and cards allowing Attacks during Movement Phase|*Dispatch Ship* and cards allowing Attacks during Movement Phase]] - [[#Admiral & Captain traits|Admiral & Captain traits]] - [[#Admiral & Captain traits#*Persistent* & *Doughty*|*Persistent* & *Doughty*]] - [[#Admiral & Captain traits#*Bold*|*Bold*]] - [[#Admiral & Captain traits#*Bold*, *Lucky*, and re-rolling edge cases|*Bold*, *Lucky*, and re-rolling edge cases]] - [[#Scenarios|Scenarios]] - [[#Scenarios#Cut Off scenario|Cut Off scenario]] - [[#Scenarios#Spy scenario|Spy scenario]] ## Basic Rules ### Deployment The print rulebook (v2.0) says that when you deploy your squadron, they must be within Cannon shot of each other. The PDF rulebook does not have this constraint. **Ruling: you may deploy your squadron outside of Cannon shot,** as long as all ships are within your deployment zone and outside of Cannon shot of the enemy, of course. This allows more complex and interesting deployments, and the assumption is that PDFs get updated where print rulebooks cannot be, and therefore this is likely to be the more current version of this rule. ### Moving off the table Rules as written: > MOVING OFF THE TABLE: If a ship ends its move with part of its base off the table, it has drifted too far from the engagement and is removed from the game. Does a ship that moves off the table count as Out of Action or otherwise generate Strike Points? **Ruling: no.** A ship that moves off the table reduces the size of that player’s squadron, and if it was rendered crippled, that Strike Point remains, but it does not otherwise count as Out of Action. ### Cut Free and what counts as immobile Per the rules for the Cut Free action: > If successful, The ship moves Yard Arm distance Directly Away from any ships it was Entangled with. If this ship cannot move Yard Arm distance Directly Away, it cannot Cut Free and remains Entangled. So if a ship is Anchored or Aground, can it cut free? Well: > » Anchored: At this setting, the ship is carrying no sail at all and cannot move. A ship on this Sail Setting takes an Anchored token. > A ship in this state takes an Aground token and may not move until the Aground token is removed. **Clarification: no.** If you are anchored or aground, and need to cut free, you cannot. ### Anchored and special movement There are some cards that allow movement (*Swift Vessels*, *Engage More Closely*, *Adjust Position*, *Fleet Maneuver*) that explicitly exclude movement when Entangled, Aground, or in the case of *Swift Vessels*, In the Wind’s Eye. There’s also the Board action, which can cause ship movement. The question: can you benefit from these while Anchored? **Ruling: yes.** In the case of the four initiative cards above, they explicitly list certain prohibitive conditions, but omit Anchored. Since in reality, a ship that is Anchored is not firmly fixed in place, it is reasonable that it might move, either through currents, wind on the hull, warping, or something else. Further, while Anchored says “the ship […] cannot move”, the general principle is that specific special rules, such as on cards, override generic game rules. It is less clear that a ship can Board while Anchored; that action causes Entanglement and therefore almost always requires some ship movement. However, it seemed a natural extension of the above, and was easier to apply as a consistent rule. ### Targeting rigging or crew Rules as written: > To target a ship’s rigging, reduce the number of dice rolled during the Attack by half (round down, to a minimum of 1). and > To target a ship’s crew, reduce the number of dice rolled during the Attack by half (round down, to a minimum of 1). “Reduce by” and “round down” is a quite confusing way to phrase things, I think. Are you rounding the reduction or the remaining total dice? So, if you have a base Broadside of 7, do you roll 3 dice or 4? And more critically, if you have a base Broadside of 1, do you roll 1 die or zero dice? In the general case, rolling half (round up, because the _reduction_ is rounded down) is more advantageous. But because of the “minimum of 1” clause, in the specific case of a base Broadside of 1, that would mean the minimum reduction is 1, and that you’d be rolling zero, and that’s *less* advantageous. It is also _weirder_, which leads me to conclude that the intent of the phrasing is that you roll “half, round down” of your base Broadside value. **Ruling: roll half, round down, minimum one.** If you’re rolling 7 dice base, roll 3. If you’re rolling 1 die base, roll 1. #### Addendum: *Target Rigging* initiative card and Dismantling Shot What about the French initiative card *Target Rigging*? > Every ship in this Squadron must roll 1 more dice during Attacks made against rigging. Or the upgrade *Dismantling Shot*: > When targeting a ships rigging within Pistol [or musket; there are discrepancies] Shot, add an additional dice to the attack. The normal rule is that division of dice values happens last, but that might mean that this initiative card has _no effect_! If, say, you are rolling a base Broadside Attack of 6, and play this initiative card or have this upgrade, then both 6 and 7 would turn into 3 for an Attack targeting rigging. So, exceptionally, and counter to the rules as written, these cards apply *after* the division. A base Broadside of 6 or 7 is divided to get 3, and then *Target Rigging* adds one, allowing 4 dice to for the Attack. Do not presume that any TO will agree with this interpretation; this was just done to make these cards meaningful at our table. #### Addendum: Targeting crew and *High Freeboard* or *Very High Freeboard* While targeting rigging can never do Fatigue or Damage to a target ship, targeting crew can do Fatigue (though it, likewise, cannot do Damage). If the target ship has *High Freeboard* or *Very High Freeboard*, this means that the Attack must do 2 or 3 hits to even cause one Fatigue, as normal. However, an Attack targeting crew only hits on [sword] results, _and_ interprets them as though they were a critical confirmation. Therefore, if you target a ship with *High Freeboard* or *Very High Freeboard*: 1. One [sword] results in 1 Fatigue, because a critical would, even with those ship special rules. 2. Two or three [sword] results, as appropriate, would cause 1 Fatigue for a successful hit, plus 1 for being interpreted as a critical, for a total of 2 Fatigue. It will also trigger the rules for hitting the helm and any captain or admiral present. 3. If the Attack is a rake, it will cause a bonus point of Fatigue even if only 1 [sword] result is rolled. If it is a stern rake, then it will, as normal, ignore *High Freeboard* or *Very High Freeboard*. #### Addendum: Skill and targeting crew or rigging You can use skill to re-roll dice in an Attack targeting crew or rigging; while it is _interpreted_ as a critical, it is still an actual Attack roll. #### Addendum: *Careful Aim* and targeting crew or rigging *Careful Aim*: > When testing for critical damage, ships in this Squadron may re-roll any dice that fail to score [skull], [sword], or [sail] results. **Ruling: This applies when targeting crew or rigging.** You *can’t*, however, re-roll dice that *do* come up as [skull], [sword], or [sail], even if you needed a different type! #### Addendum: *Marines*, *Buccaneers*, and targeting crew or rigging *Buccaneers*: > MARKSMEN: When making an Attack at Musket Shot or closer (including Close Combat), roll an additional dice for each [musket] result. If any additional [musket] results are rolled, the attacked ship takes 1 Point of Fatigue. Any [muskets] rolled in the targeted Attack must be confirmed with a subsequent roll, exactly as described in the upgrade. *Marines*: > When checking for Critical Hits, if one or more [musket] results are rolled, the target ship takes 1 point of Fatigue. This ship adds +1 dice to all Close Combat actions. Since the targeted Attack roll is treated as a critical check, if there are any [musket] results, that will immediately trigger an extra Fatigue. Also: > A Note on Special Rules: When specific rules on cards contradict general rules expressed in this rulebook, follow the rule on the card. Therefore, *Buccaneers* and *Marines* can still trigger Fatigue even on shots that target rigging. ## Terrain ### Shoals and movement Rules as written: > »Shoals: If at any point of a ship’s move a part of the ship’s base moves over an area of Shoal Terrain, the ship must check to see if it has struck bottom. Complete the move, then roll a number of dice equal to its printed Fortitude value. If any [skull] results are rolled, the ship has struck the bottom and takes an Aground token. There are cards such as the French *Swift Vessels* that allow movement outside of the Movement phase. The question was: if you move off a shoal in the Initiative phase, do you still have to check for the shoal? **Ruling: yes.** Shoals don’t check just during the Movement phase, they check “all movement during a turn, once per shoal per turn”. (Yes, this means if you pass over of through three shoals in a turn, you have to make three separate rolls!) This applies to all kinds of other sources of movement, too, such as collisions or rotating from becoming Entangled. ### Fog and *Reduced Visibility* *Reduced Visibility* event: > Treat all ranges outside of Yard Arm as 1 range farther for the rest of this turn. Fog terrain: > Ships shooting into or through a Fog Bank treat the distance to their target as one range farther (e.g., two ships at Pistol Shot from each other are treated as if they were at Musket Shot instead). If this would cause the distance to be greater than Cannon Shot, the distance is still treated as Cannon Shot, but only [skull] results count as successful hits. Questions: - What if you’re firing through Fog while *Reduced Visibility* is in play? - Do these cards change range bands for rules like *Small* or English *Expert Gun Crew*, or initiative cards like *Lee Gauge Fire* or *Long Range Gunnery*? First: If you are firing through Fog while *Reduced Visibility* is in play, then ships physically at Cannon range are out of range, at Musket range they can only be hit on [skull] results, and at Pistol range they can only be hit on [skull] or [cannon] results. Once in yardarm, they can be hit on [skull], [cannon], or [musket] results. Second: *Small*, *Expert Gun Crew*, *Lee Gauge Fire*, *Long Range Gunnery*, and similar all refer to actual physical range bands, not modified to-hit requirements from Fog and *Reduced Visibility*. Therefore, *Long Range Gunnery* allows you to explode [cannon] results at Cannon range, but they still wont’ be hits through fog—though any resulting skulls will be. And *Lee Gauge Fire* allows you to hit on [skull] and [musket] results at physical Cannon range through the fog, but only [skull] and [cannon] results at physical Musket range through the same fog. Strange, perhaps, but that’s how we’ve interpreted it! ## Initiative Cards ### Cards and actions when Entangled Rules as written: > ENTANGLED: A ship that is Entangled is stuck to another ship and will not move during the Movement Phase as long as it remains Entangled. **Entangled ships may only take the Cut Free Action.** Opposing ships Entangled together may still make Attacks. (Emphasis mine.) > A Note on Special Rules: When specific rules on cards contradict general rules expressed in this rulebook, follow the rule on the card. So when an initiative card grants an extra use for an action, can you do that when Entangled? In the case of the French *Elan*, clearly yes: > During the Movement Phase, ships in this Squadron may spend an Action to make a Partial Fire Attack, or if Entangled, a Close Combat Attack. Roll 1 more dice during these Attacks. In the case of the Spanish *Heavy Musket Volley*: > Each ship in this Squadron may spend an Action to make a Partial Fire Attack during the Movement Phase. This attack cannot cause damage or critical hits to the target ship. Or *Rolling Broadsides*: > Each ship in this Squadron may spend an Action to make an Attack during the Movement Phase. Can they spend an action for the card’s effect? **Ruling: no.** While in general if a card contradicts the base rules, the card wins, in these two cases the contradiction is implicit, while for *Elan* it is explicit. The fact that one card is explicit and the other two are not implies that the other two _could_ be explicit if that was the intent, and their silence is dispositive. ## Upgrades ### *Dispatch Ship* and cards allowing Attacks during Movement Phase *Dispatch Ship*: > If this ship is within Musket Shot of this Squadron’s Flagship, all friendly ships within Musket Shot of this ship are considered to be in formation during the Initiative & Movement Phase. Combine this with initiative cards like *Rolling Broadsides*: > Each ship in this Squadron may spend an Action to make an Attack during the Movement Phase. (Or the similar cards *Elan*, *Heavy Musket Volley*, *Small Arms*, and *Fire as She Bears*.) Do you get the benefit of Formation (+1 to Broadside and Partial Fire Attacks) made during the Movement Phase when the *Dispatch Ship* lets you count as in-Formation much more flexibly? **Ruling: yes.** Your Attacks made during the Movement Phase carry the Formation bonus even if the Formation is only provided by the effect of a *Dispatch Ship*. Yes, this means that it’s easier to stack the *only two bonuses for Partial Fire in the whole game*, Formation and *Elan*. ## Admiral & Captain traits ### *Persistent* & *Doughty* > **Persistent:** This ship may remove 1 point of Fatigue each time its Squadron earns 1 or more Strike Points. When do you “earn”? How does “not tracked between turns” play into that? In other words, when exactly does this trigger, and is it just “Rally beast” once you’ve got one crippled ship? **Ruling: this triggers in the End Phase when Strike Points are tallied, and it only triggers if you have more Strike Points this end phase than you did in the previous one** (or, if you somehow gain Strike Points by the end phase of turn one, in which case I’m very sorry for your situation). > **Doughty:** If you earned any Strike Points in the previous turn, immediately remove 1 Fatigue from each ship in this Squadron. Same same. **Ruling: for this to trigger, you must have ended last turn with more Strike Points than you ended with _the turn before last_.** ### *Bold* > After making an Attack or Skill Test, you may re-roll up to 3 dice. If any of the re-rolled dice fail to score a hit during the Attack or if the Skill test is failed, this ship takes 1 Point of Fatigue. There was a question in the Firelock Discord about whether this is “you just need one of the three re-rolled dice to be a hit to avoid Fatigue” or “every rerolled die must be a hit to avoid a Fatigue”. **Ruling: when re-rolling dice for an Attack with Bold, every die must roll a hit to avoid a Fatigue. When re-rolling dice for a seamanship test, only one must be a hit to avoid a Fatigue.** This is asymmetrical, but in line with the text. Think of it less as “you get re-rolls, and might get a Fatigue” and more “you get re-rolls for a Fatigue, but if you’re really lucky and glorious, you don’t even have to pay the cost”. A *Bold Captain* is 1pt; each point of Skill is 2. There’s no way three dice of re-roll costs less than one Skill, without at least risking incurring a Fatigue cost. ### *Bold*, *Lucky*, and re-rolling edge cases Skill value: > SKILL VALUE: A ship’s Skill Value represents its sailing & fighting ability. Default Skill is 0, Skill 1 or 2 may be purchased as an upgrade on each ship. For each point of Skill a ship has, the ship may re-roll 1 dice during Skill Tests and Attacks. A dice re-rolled in this way can’t be re-rolled again, unless the further re-roll is made using a Fortune Point. Now, two contexts: *Bold*: > After making an Attack or Skill Test, you may re-roll up to 3 dice. If any of the re-rolled dice fail to score a hit during the Attack or if the Skill test is failed, this ship takes 1 Point of Fatigue. So it’s clear that if you have Skill 2 and only one die you want to reroll, you can only reroll that die once. But do the rerolls for Bold happen as part of the same bunch, or after? **Ruling: Bold rerolls are like Skill rerolls; a single die can only be rerolled once, whether through Skill or through Bold. Fortune, of course, scraps the entire roll and starts it over, resetting the whole matter.** Also, while we’re at it, if you spend Fortune, you don’t get the Fatigue from a Bold failure until and unless that second version of the roll is finished. *Lucky*: > You may spend a Fortune Point to force your opponent to re-roll an Attack made against this ship. Can both sides spend Fortune on a roll targeting a Lucky ship? If so, in what order? **Ruling: only one player may spend Fortune per roll, whether the attacker, or the defender with *Lucky*.** If the attacker has already rerolled via Fortune, *Lucky* cannot be used to reroll it. If the defender has forced a re-roll via *Lucky*, the attacker cannot retry it with their own Fortune. So what, then is the ordering? Rarely will it be contentious, but **the defender gets first refusal**. ## Scenarios ### Cut Off scenario The scenario as-written feels more like “defender gets a deployment advantage, bringing ships in on turn 2”. Directly as-written, the ships they bring in can be anywhere within musket shot of a board edge. This includes, say, directly athwart the stern of an attacker’s ship, ready to grapple and board. This does not feel sporting. Therefore, **ruling: your turn-two ship placements must be outside of musket shot of any enemy ship.** We consider this simply sporting behaviour. ### Spy scenario The beginning of the *Spy* scenario: > Starting with the defender, both players alternate placing 3 objective tokens on the table. Each token must be placed within the defender's deployment zone and within Cannon Shot from the table's center line. What is the centre line? There are two things it could be, and then it could also be the union or the intersection of those two things: 1. The line dividing the Starboard from Larboard deployment zones. 2. The line dividing the Weather Gauge from Leeward deployment zones. 3. The union: anywhere within cannon shot of _either_ of those, extending right to the board edges. 4. The intersection: anywhere within cannon shot of _both_ of those, in other words, the same as “within cannon shot of the table centre”. We can rule out 4; there’s another, simpler, clearer way to phrase it, _and_ it would be incompatible with the *Distant Approach* deployment card, which the defender could have! That leaves 1, 2, and 3. There is no basis on which to choose between 1 and 2, but 3 is clearly distinct; **that leaves 3 as a winner**. The only flaw is that the text says “center line” and not “either of the center lines”. This is an easy amendment. This also allows fully flexible placement of the objective tokens no matter what deployment card the defender takes. As a note, the scenario makes it nearly impossible for the attacker to _fail_ to pick up one of the objective tokens in the first turn or two. If you are defending, prepare to play the game one Strike Point down!