I'm going to design a Lego Pirate tabletop game.

[Chiles]

Here's my Lego warship tabletop game rules. This is lengthy, but it may be some fun. Here it goes, pics included!

REQUIREMENTS:

One or more ships.

At least two players [you may have as many as you want]

All cannons must have at least one infantry unit on them.

Each ship MUST have an Admiral.

HEALTH:

Ships have different varieties of health rising in increments of 10. A ship's health goes up by 10 for each centerpiece it has.

0-1 Center Sections = 10HP

2 Center Sections = 20 HP

3 Center Sections = 30 HP

4 Center Sections = 40 HP

5 Center Sections = 50 HP

My ship has 3 center sections, so it has a total of 30 HP.

I would like to leave the limit at 50 HP because ships may become ridiculous after a while. The limit of ships in a game depends on however many the players agree on, preferably something to keep the game fair and even.

INFANTRY:

All ship's have infantry. All infantry units have a range of 6 inches, and they may only fire upon enemy infantry. Their firing range is measured from the side of the ship:

.

Killing enemy infantry is useful for CAPTURING ships, which is further explained below. Infantry deal damage in the same way cannons do, roll a 4,5, or 6 on a fair die to HIT the target infantry. Roll a 5 or 6 to KILL said target.

A ship's infantry can look like this:

MOVEMENT:

Like any tabletop game, movement is essential for strategy and combat. All ships move a limited distance of one foot or less, and they can either choose to move first and fire, or not move and fire. You cannot simply attack and THEN move away, that's for COWARDS.

To move, your ruler must touch the front of the ship and move that distance, see pictures for an idea as to how to move:

COMBAT:

The point of this game is to capture or sink the enemy ships.

SINKING SHIPS-To sink the ships, their health must be brought down to zero. There are no limits to how many cannons one ship has. Ideally, the ship should have some cannons that pivot in any direction so that way they can have a chance to defend themselves.

As you can see, my ship has 4 cannons per side. For a cannon to be able to be used, the enemy ship must be within ten degrees of where the cannon is pointing in either direction, giving a stationary cannon a 20 degree field of vision. If an enemy ship falls out of these degrees, the cannon cannot be used. As you can see, a homemade protractor is used to check and see if the cannon may be used.

CANNONS DEAL -2HP DAMAGE EACH!

Cannons do not have unlimited range, their range is limited to 1 foot. This may be changed if the two (or more) players wish to alter the rules slightly.

For a cannon to hit its mark, dice are rolled. To HIT the ship, one must roll a 4, 5, or 6 on a fair die. To deal DAMAGE, you re-roll and must land on a 5 or a 6 to do damage. So for each cannon, dice are rolled twice. [it helps to have alot of dice!]

Cannons may be used to fire upon enemy infantry, but they must roll a 5 or a 6 to HIT and land on a 6 to kill.

YOU MUST CALL ON WHAT YOUR TARGET IS!

EITHER THE SHIP ITSELF OR THE INFANTRY!

IF AN ENEMY INFANTRY UNIT IS KILLED WHILE ON A CANNON, THAT CANNON MAY NO LONGER BE USED!

COUNTERING: When the firing stage is complete, the enemy ship can counterattack. The enemy can only counter with cannons that are still usable and provided the cannons are within the range and degree of firing.

To COUNTER, you must roll a 5 or a 6 to HIT and a 6 to DAMAGE.

A counter cannot be used against infantry, it only applies to damaging the ship's overall health.

If an infantry was attacked but not killed, they may counter but they can only hit other infantry provided they're within firing range.

CAPTURING SHIPS

To capture a ship, at least 70% of the enemy's infantry must be killed with the Admiral still being alive.

If the Admiral is killed, then you must only kill 40% of the infantry.

If an infantry unit is on a cannon, and that unit is killed, the cannon may no longer be used.

When a ship is taken over, all of the cannons and infantry ma be used.

Ships may be taken back by their original owners, but they must take them over in the same manner.

If a ship meets any of the two requirements to be captured, you must move in and be at least three inches from said ship.

The ship will be yours the next turn.

WINNING:

A game is won when all enemy ships are captured, destroyed, or any combination of the two.

What do you guys think?

Edited June 25, 2009 by Chiles

[Hound Knight]

I've been thinking this up recently. It seems there's so many ships and they don't exactly see battle. I was thinking up rules for a tabletop game recently and I'm going to type them onto this thread later on, what do you guys think?

Also, keep looking on this thread, I'll edit this message into the rules.

There is a game that's similar to what you're talking about, Evil Stevie's Pirate Game, I've played it a little, it's quite fun.

[Captain Blackmoor]

It has something to do with LOTR and Warhammer games.

Great idea, I've considered it myself too.

But how many HP will a ship with 7 or 8 midsections have?

[Chiles]

It has something to do with LOTR and Warhammer games.

Great idea, I've considered it myself too.

But how many HP will a ship with 7 or 8 midsections have?

In the rules I want to leave it at 50HP, but if the two players want to alter the rules to add more health, such as 7 = 70HP or 8 = 80HP, then it can be done.

And I've played Warhammer, I used the rules from above, or some variation. (those warhammer books were....rediculous)

[Captain Blackmoor]

I've never played Warhammer with all that small figures to paint. They are extremely expensive too for a plastic model.

But it is stunning to see large armies of these on a table.

I think I'm going to play this game against a friend of me, YnyklY... :pir-skull:

I'm a big fan of strategy games too. I'm thinking on someting like Stratego for LEGO Pirates.

[Chiles]

I've never played Warhammer with all that small figures to paint. They are extremely expensive too for a plastic model.

But it is stunning to see large armies of these on a table.

I think I'm going to play this game against a friend of me, YnyklY... :pir-skull:

I'm a big fan of strategy games too. I'm thinking on someting like Stratego for LEGO Pirates.

PLEASE Tell me what you honestly think when you play my game, I really want to know how it turns out and hold back no constructive criticism, I want to hear all your opinions. And I just collected ad made up warhammer rules anyway, I never made large armies. I'm also tryng to make a land version, but I want to get all my pieces done first, so it may take a while.

[Lego_Warlord_8]

It has something to do with LOTR and Warhammer games.

Great idea, I've considered it myself too.

But how many HP will a ship with 7 or 8 midsections have?

Yes, it does remind me of LOTR SBG. Great idea!

I've never played Warhammer with all that small figures to paint. They are extremely expensive too for a plastic model.

But it is stunning to see large armies of these on a table.

I think I'm going to play this game against a friend of me, YnyklY... :pir-skull:

I'm a big fan of strategy games too. I'm thinking on someting like Stratego for LEGO Pirates.

I LOVE TO PAINT THOSE LITTLE GUYS! they rock! but yes, they are REALLY expensive .

Edited July 2, 2009 by Lego_Warlord_8

[Ratshot]

I Admiral Woodhouse and myself already made a game like that. We call it "Conscripts" as we like to use all the minifigs we can lay our hand on, which tend to get upwards of 8 and 9 hundred.

[Chiles]

I Admiral Woodhouse and myself already made a game like that. We call it "Conscripts" as we like to use all the minifigs we can lay our hand on, which tend to get upwards of 8 and 9 hundred.

Oh, well I just decided to try my hand at it..

[Ratshot]

Oh, well I just decided to try my hand at it..

Its really fun. Some times it gets a little too hepatic though

Edited June 26, 2009 by Broadside

[Chiles]

Its really fun. Some times it gets a little too hepatic though

Lol I'm sure.

[Captain Blackmoor]

PLEASE Tell me what you honestly think when you play my game, I really want to know how it turns out and hold back no constructive criticism, I want to hear all your opinions. And I just collected ad made up warhammer rules anyway, I never made large armies. I'm also tryng to make a land version, but I want to get all my pieces done first, so it may take a while.

I'm not lying or something, it looks like a very cool game but also very time consuming. I don't know how long it takes when you have several ships.

1 ship vs 1 ship should be awesome. I have to test it soon. But the ships have to be finished of course.

[Chiles]

I'm not lying or something, it looks like a very cool game but also very time consuming. I don't know how long it takes when you have several ships.

1 ship vs 1 ship should be awesome. I have to test it soon. But the ships have to be finished of course.

Yeah that's the only thing, its meant for small fleets, but you can always control more than one ship per turn.

[AhabDarab]

I myself am a fan of Evil Stevie's Pirate Game (link posted earlier in this thread). Evil Stevie is in reality Steve Jackson, world famous game designer. His rules are available for free (for this game at least ) .

Ahab out.........

Edited June 26, 2009 by AhabDarab

[Mixwizzard The Terrible]

Can we use Rafts and make our own ships?

[Chiles]

Can we use Rafts and make our own ships?

Yes

[ikensall]

Yeah it does look like evil stevies pirate game.I'm currently designing some smaller than minifig scale warships generaly based on slyowls design but also using galleys and schooners and junks with different designs i also have more different types of vessel.

[Diamondback]

Let me guess: another former WizKids Pirates player? (I used to GM, and a lot of your mechanics look like upscaled WK--it was a simple but decent game-engine until the powercreep ruined it.)

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[legoman960]

I don't really like the whole concept with how the cannons work. IMO the cannons should use a blast template similiar to warhammer 40k and that everything in that radius would take damage, but how much damage they take will depend on how close they are to the center of the template.