BoBS Needs your help brainstorming ship types!

[SkaForHire]

I am putting together a list of ship types for our new and upcoming pirates project, Brethren of the Brick Seas.

I thought that I might get some help from the general population while compiling this list and rating features of different types of vessels.

So, I am calling out to all your hard-nosed age of sail lovers to help me have the most complete list possible.

For each type of vessel, please give me the following: name of type, general size, crew size, general armament (if any), number of masts, speed, culture it belongs to, any special features of this type of vessel, and if possible a picture of a MOC that represents this style.

[Lego Dino 500]

Are they made up ones, or based off of real ship types? I have a pretty good idea.

Ship type: Reaper

Size: 75' - 250'

Crew Size: 25 - 75

Armaments: 50 - 150 cannons located located around the outer perimeter of the hull

Masts: 2 masts, located on the main hull of the vessel one in front of the other.

Speed: 25MPH to 45 MPH, depending on current and windspeed.

Culture of origin: Nordic

Special Features: Contains a main hull and a smaller stabilizer, similar to sea kayaks and catamarans. Being used a s a counterweight to keep the ship upright, it has additional storage space accessible from the hull. Has a flat front to the main hull and sharp angular sides to the shape of the ship.

[Dannylonglegs]

I believe SkaforHire is looking for real Ship types.

@SkaforHire: I'm sure some D&D book I pirated from the Internet has a good idea of Stats. I'll see if I can dig that up to help you. Otherwise I know very little about ships. Other than that the Cog was not contemporary to the Ironside.

~Insectoid Shipwright

[SkaForHire]

I believe SkaforHire is looking for real Ship types.

@SkaforHire: I'm sure some D&D book I pirated from the Internet has a good idea of Stats. I'll see if I can dig that up to help you. Otherwise I know very little about ships. Other than that the Cog was not contemporary to the Ironside.

~Insectoid Shipwright

Agreed I am looking for real ship types, but I appreciate the made up ones -- I should have clarified this. I am looking for things such as cog, sloop, war sloop, brig, snow, frigate, ship of the line.

[Captain Dee]

Ska, this is a good idea, but it could be tricky considering the variation between countries and time periods.

I'll give frigates a try. I'm fairly familiar but not an expert by any means, so this is condensed from Wiki...

Type: Frigate

- Name first applied based on warships built for speed and maneuverability; later adapted to ships similar in size (length) to larger warships but with lighter armament

Size: from 1740s on, typically 135' (41 m) or longer; by late 1700s typically similar length to ships-of-the line

Tons burthen: varied greatly, from several hundred (early frigates) to well over 1000 (later heavy frigates)

Crew size: varied significantly (I'll try to find some specifics)

Armament: varied by country; British rating of mid-1700s required at least 28 guns, up to 38, with a single continuous gun deck and others often mounted on the forecastle or quarterdeck; among all major naval powers, typically mid-20s to mid-30s although later (1797+) American "super-frigates" were rated for 44 and usually carried 50+

Number masts/type of rigging: 3 masts by most 17th-century definitions; always 3 by 18th century; square-rigged ("full-rigged") on all 3 masts.

Speed: similar to ships-of-the line but dependent on sail area, crew skill, discipline etc. French frigates from 1740s on travelled up to 14 knots (26 km/h or 16 mph).

Culture of origin: Mediteranean, 15th-century, referring to light galleass type employing oars, sails, and light armament, built for speed and maneuverability

- Classic frigate based on French designs from 1740s onward, heavily copied by other nations, similar in appearance to large line-of-battle ships but with substantially less armament, again built for speed and often deployed for tasks other than heavy fleet actions/engagements and often sailed alone or in small groups

The French "corvette" and British "post ship" were essentially smaller versions of the frigate classification and looked very similar. The British classification required at least 20 guns and most of the corvettes had 20 or more. These were typically the rank between frigates and the still-smaller sloop-of-war. Perhaps the best Lego corvette ever built was the white-hulled 20-gun "Beatrix" by Sebeus.

I don't have any pics handy but frigates are sailing all throughout the pages of the Pirates forum.

Hope this helps and someone please correct me if you see any mistakes.

Edited November 17, 2015 by Captain Dee

[kabel]

Find below in my signature links to a collection of ships until the 15th/beginning of the 16th century

[blackdeathgr]

Let me go home to brush off my ship links/databases etc and i will edit this comment adding ship types etc. Regarding age of sails vessels of any kind, we must notice that by meaning ship, we mean a specific type, much like snow, frigate etc. :-p Also that pirate vessels crew numbers differ hugely from civilian vessels of the same type and keep up more or less with military vessels crew numbers

EDIT: Oversimplified the following types of "ships" that used to sail "back then". The list is not full by any means

Sloop

General size: usually 20m

Crew size: varies (5-6 to sail and up to 75 when used as pirate or war vessel)

General armament: 0-14 guns

Number of masts: mainly 1

Speed: 12 knots

Culture it belongs to: French/Dutch, Bermuda and Jamaica later on

Special features: high speed, high maneuverability, able to use in shallow waters. Many were built in the Bermudas and Jamaica.

Cutter

A fast small one masted vessel with many similarities as a sloop, used mainly as a utility boat and thus usually carried no armament.

Snow / Brig

Many similarities and differences mainly at rigging

General size: 23-50m

Crew size: varies (12-16 to sail and up to 120 when used as pirate or war vessel)

General armament: 10-18 guns

Number of masts: 2

Speed: "fast and well sailing".

Culture it belongs to: Dutch named (snow) and Latin named (brig from brigantine) but used all over Europe and American colonies

Special features: Very maneuverable. Frequently used as small warship. (-) Required many hands on deck for its rigging.

(Full-rigged) Ship

Back then, any vessel with 3 masts was technically a "ship". Later on, to distinguish them, they got their names according to their use (Frigate, collier etc)

General size: see frigate (typically a frigate is a full-rigged ship)

Crew size: see frigate

General armament: 0 to (see frigate)

Number of masts: 3

Speed: see frigate

Culture it belongs to: North western European

Special features: Fast but needed many hands to operate

Edited November 12, 2015 by blackdeathgr

[Matthias]

The Kogge or Cog or Hansekogge

Is a shiptyp of the HANSE, the origion region was Friesland.

Build from 1100 till 1400

1 mast

1 scoure-rigged sail

often crow´s nest

Aftercastle and often forecastle

20 -30 m long

5-8 m broad

200 T load

sail area 200 m2

Speed 3,5 knot (normal weather)

Had sometimes cannons.

Advantages:

can load more than the most ships

has a small crew: 11

disadvantages:

can ´t really windward

Edited November 12, 2015 by Matthias

[Captain Dee]

Type: Carrack (also "nao" or "nau"; English sometimes called them "great ships")

Origin: Genoese, 15th century; rapidly adapted by Portuguese and Spanish for exploration and long sea voyages; eventually adapted throughout Europe as the forerunner to most large sailing ship designs; eventually replaced by the galleon by mid-to-late 16th century

Masts/Rigging: 3 or 4 masts, square rigged on the fore- and mainmast, lateen rigged on the mizzenmast and bonaventure mizzen (if present)

Size: Varied greatly, from approx. 30-50 m long and anywhere from several hundred to 1000+ tons burthen

Crew: varied by size and purpose (exploration, warship or trade) from less than 100 (exploration) to high triple digits (the largest warships); typically 200-500 for midsize warships

Armament: varied greatly and spanned the entire range in terms of numbers and shot weights, although some carried incredible numbers of guns (well over 100) of many different shot weights, often on several decks; the English "great ships" had similar firepower to the largest ships-of-the-line from the late 18th century

Distinguishing characteristics: high aftcastle, usually square stern, and very high forecastle that rose abruptly to a height similar to the stern; usually very tall ships and rather top-heavy compared to the longer, lower galleon; relatively slow and not quickly maneuvered due to their size and high wind resistance on the forecastle

Type: Galleon, direct descendant of the carrack

Origin: Venitian, early/mid-16th century; quickly adapted by Portuguese and throughout Europe and gradually replaced carracks by the early 17th century; most famous as Spanish treasure ships and warships of the 16th and 17th centuries

Masts/rigging: same as carrack; 3 or 4 masts, square rigged on the fore- and mainmast, lateen rigged on the mizzenmast and bonaventure mizzen (if present)

Size: similar to carrack; often 30-40 m long but some were substantially bigger; anywhere from several hundred tons burthen to 2000+ (the large Spanish galleons of the Manila trade route)

Crew: similar to carrack, often 250-500 on midsize warships with very high numbers on largest warships

Armament: similar to carrack, with many different numbers and shot weights; many prominent warships carried 40-60 guns but significantly higher numbers were possible; the largest were well over 2000 tons burthen and carried well over 100 guns

Distinguishing characteristics: high sloping aftcastle that often featured squared galleries, square tuck stern, much lower forecastle than a carrack, somewhat longer length for a given displacement compared to a carrack, head/snout/beak protruding from the bow below the forecastle, slightly higher speed and much better maneuverability than a carrack due to lower overall design and much less wind resistance on the forecastle

Edited November 12, 2015 by Captain Dee

[Capn Frank]

Oh boy, where to begin.

I would start with Sid Meier's Pirates! Ship Class Wiki. If you're missing anything or have questions, let me know. I likely have a maritime history book related to it.

The best book that may be helpful is:

Ship: The Epic Story of Maritime Adventure

It covers major vessels used for each century including the golden age of sail.

[kurigan]

I’ve been taking a break from the site. When I came back I didn’t want to portray the same public face which I get the feeling is perceived as a known-it-all, sour-puss and/or buzzkill. I just can’ let misinformation go through; it’s an anathema to me. So, here it goes:

*deep breath, heavy sigh*

In maritime terms a sloop and a cutter are variations on the same rig; a single mast baring a fore aft sails. The difference being the number of sails employed. A sloop carries only one head sail while a cutter has multiple (sometimes up to 4) head sails and often an exaggerated mainsail. There are also topsail cutters though the distinction is rarely made. These, as the name suggests, employ sails above the main of varying types (gaff, lug, stay or square). The subject is also complicated when ships boats are brought into the picture. Often the largest of a ship’s smaller support craft, this big rowboat can be temporally rigged in a similar fashion, thus the same term is applied.

Now in naval terms, though they are a bit anglocentric, a sloop is any commissioned vessel “under the rates” which therefore does not require a full “post captain” in command. The rating system was just a way of classifying ships by the number of guns. Other nations followed the same general standard but rarely referenced the RN’s rate structure. You see, the number of guns determines the number of crew that a ship requires. You might be surprised to find how few men, even a full rigged ship actually requires for sailing alone. Anything under 20 guns is going to have too few crewmen to warrant subdividing the command, thus nothing over a lieutenant is necessary. Once you cross that mark, you reach a point where the divisions of the crew are so numerous that multiple lieutenants under a captain are required to keep things in order.

The idea that frigates are necessarily faster than ships of the line is a common misconception. Though SotL rarely actually traveled at their full potential for the sake of staying in formation, they have the same potential, if not more, for forward speed as their miniature counter parts. Yes they are bigger and heavier, but their hull to canvas ratio is the same or greater. Plus the sails of a SotL are higher up in the faster, cleaner wind and hung from stouter stuff. (Meaning; the rigging, masts and spars are proportionally larger as well.) Though the larger number of crew would make it a complicated undertaking, with a good crew and competent officers, a SotL could be brought to sail just as swiftly as any frigate. Historically there are cases of SotLs running frigates down for the capture.

What you’ve asked for here is something of a promethean task in that it starts out with heroics and ends in eternal torture. Simply put, the need to catalog, classify and categorize everything is a (post) 20th century attitude. In their time, the people who incorporated this technology just understood how many factors were at play and didn’t care to have them all itemized. It wasn’t about what equipment you had, it was about what you did with it. Sure don’t expect a sloop to take a frigate on paper, but then go look up Speedy vs El Gamo. It’s exactly why RPGs based on sail driven naval combat rarely work out. There are just so many factors in question that these men had to be experts in multiple disciplines just to survive.

My best suggestion is to not worry about it. Come up with your best guess and go with it. If you seek clarification or worry about historical accuracy, ask for it thereafter. It’s just a game, it’s not really going to matter any way and likely best left to develop organically, just like it did in the real world. Besides, there’s talk of your universe involving magic, which take all this off the table once you can so enhance the performance of your equipment as such.

All that being said I know I’ll be brought to regret it through arguments, personal attacks, etc. I just can’t stand watching people fall victim to the same misconceptions over and over again. So weather or not you like/agree with me, there it is.

Edited November 12, 2015 by kurigan

[dr_spock]

I have no brains but the local public library can be a good source of books on the subject.

[Dannylonglegs]

@kurrigan: Thanks for your insight! Glad to have your input on the subject. I wish I knew half of what you did in relations to ships!

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[Captain Dee]

Kurigan, you raised some valid points, and I've modified my first post. To say that any class was faster than another is pretty vague and I was basing my frigate speed comments on the big Americans, which weren't exactly average frigates.

With regards to the game, I think a good basic description to aid shipbuilders would seem adequate. Every detail shouldn't be expected from everyone all the time, but having a basic reference will make it easier for shipbuilders who want to learn. It's complicated, but the game probably should be simplified for ease of use, right?

Oh, and don't be too hard on yourself. Knowing a lot about something isn't a bad thing.

[SkaForHire]

I’ve been taking a break from the site. When I came back I didn’t want to portray the same public face which I get the feeling is perceived as a known-it-all, sour-puss and/or buzzkill. I just can’ let misinformation go through; it’s an anathema to me. So, here it goes:

*deep breath, heavy sigh*

In maritime terms a sloop and a cutter are variations on the same rig; a single mast baring a fore aft sails. The difference being the number of sails employed. A sloop carries only one head sail while a cutter has multiple (sometimes up to 4) head sails and often an exaggerated mainsail. There are also topsail cutters though the distinction is rarely made. These, as the name suggests, employ sails above the main of varying types (gaff, lug, stay or square). The subject is also complicated when ships boats are brought into the picture. Often the largest of a ship’s smaller support craft, this big rowboat can be temporally rigged in a similar fashion, thus the same term is applied.

Now in naval terms, though they are a bit anglocentric, a sloop is any commissioned vessel “under the rates” which therefore does not require a full “post captain” in command. The rating system was just a way of classifying ships by the number of guns. Other nations followed the same general standard but rarely referenced the RN’s rate structure. You see, the number of guns determines the number of crew that a ship requires. You might be surprised to find how few men, even a full rigged ship actually requires for sailing alone. Anything under 20 guns is going to have too few crewmen to warrant subdividing the command, thus nothing over a lieutenant is necessary. Once you cross that mark, you reach a point where the divisions of the crew are so numerous that multiple lieutenants under a captain are required to keep things in order.

The idea that frigates are necessarily faster than ships of the line is a common misconception. Though SotL rarely actually traveled at their full potential for the sake of staying in formation, they have the same potential, if not more, for forward speed as their miniature counter parts. Yes they are bigger and heavier, but their hull to canvas ratio is the same or greater. Plus the sails of a SotL are higher up in the faster, cleaner wind and hung from stouter stuff. (Meaning; the rigging, masts and spars are proportionally larger as well.) Though the larger number of crew would make it a complicated undertaking, with a good crew and competent officers, a SotL could be brought to sail just as swiftly as any frigate. Historically there are cases of SotLs running frigates down for the capture.

What you’ve asked for here is something of a promethean task in that it starts out with heroics and ends in eternal torture. Simply put, the need to catalog, classify and categorize everything is a (post) 20th century attitude. In their time, the people who incorporated this technology just understood how many factors were at play and didn’t care to have them all itemized. It wasn’t about what equipment you had, it was about what you did with it. Sure don’t expect a sloop to take a frigate on paper, but then go look up Speedy vs El Gamo. It’s exactly why RPGs based on sail driven naval combat rarely work out. There are just so many factors in question that these men had to be experts in multiple disciplines just to survive.

My best suggestion is to not worry about it. Come up with your best guess and go with it. If you seek clarification or worry about historical accuracy, ask for it thereafter. It’s just a game, it’s not really going to matter any way and likely best left to develop organically, just like it did in the real world. Besides, there’s talk of your universe involving magic, which take all this off the table once you can so enhance the performance of your equipment as such.

All that being said I know I’ll be brought to regret it through arguments, personal attacks, etc. I just can’t stand watching people fall victim to the same misconceptions over and over again. So weather or not you like/agree with me, there it is.

No, thank you for this! I should probably state my intentions a little clearer, I actually know a lot about vessels during the Age of Sail, my research focus is more post 1750 though, but still, I have a good idea of most of what I am asking for and understand the very complicated factoring that goes into watercraft during this period. As you said, it is what you did with the vessel that mattered. It came down to design and crewing at times, but most ships of similar build could have drastic difference in characteristics. Although I will say that I had never thought about that 20 gun rule, but as I look back it makes total sense, did you pick that up from a source, or is that your own deduction? I would like to read up on any strategy that might have been written about this...

Anyway - so why did I set up this thread? Because I was looking for the perception of ships that the board has. What people might want to see in the game system that we are putting together. Also, it was a way to hype BoBS and let people start having a hand in it. As you said, games based on the age of sail rarely work well. Even in our game system here, the differences between ships are not going to be wide enough where the reality of a cog v. a ship of the line will be evident. In order to keep the game portion of the project balanced, a stat system will not have the proper range to replicate this. Although an 84 gun SOTL is most likely ALWAYS going to win against a 6 gun cog of the discovery era in the game mechanics (which are dice and formula based). Again, I am looking for perceptions here so that I include enough diversity in the initial list of ship types that one can buy and use in the system.

But, I really like that you took the time to set this conversation on a realistic footing.

[Captain Dee]

I agree that games based on the age of sail often don't work well, due to the various complications involved. When you have a long list of ship types with unique real-world characteristics and widely differing armaments, gameplay can be tricky.

Edited November 13, 2015 by Captain Dee

[blackdeathgr]

The best way i see it, is that one can build a desired ship based on masts (as we cannot fully replicate exact rigging) and gun numbers, call it whatever he wants (following guidlines stated above) an a board of forum ship experts can decide the outcome, using dices and their experience. It wouldnt be that tiring as frankly how many naval battles can we emulate?

Simplified will work better imo.

[Piratedave84]

Anyway - so why did I set up this thread? Because I was looking for the perception of ships that the board has. What people might want to see in the game system that we are putting together. Also, it was a way to hype BoBS and let people start having a hand in it. As you said, games based on the age of sail rarely work well. Even in our game system here, the differences between ships are not going to be wide enough where the reality of a cog v. a ship of the line will be evident. In order to keep the game portion of the project balanced, a stat system will not have the proper range to replicate this. Although an 84 gun SOTL is most likely ALWAYS going to win against a 6 gun cog of the discovery era in the game mechanics (which are dice and formula based). Again, I am looking for perceptions here so that I include enough diversity in the initial list of ship types that one can buy and use in the system.

But, I really like that you took the time to set this conversation on a realistic footing.

Do you mean which official set falls under which category?

Could we maybe divide classes by hull sections, mast counts or armament?

Hull sections could be a great way to simplify the rating of our ships:

1 section: sloop

2 sections: Schooner

3 sections: Brig

4 sections: Frigate

5 sections +: SOTL

or armamant-wise:

2-4 Cannons: sloop

5-8 Cannons: Schooner

9-16 Cannons: Brig

16-24 Cannons: Frigate

24 + Cannons: SOTL

Thoughts?

[Captain Nemo]

Interesting thread--and I'm excited to see we are sailing closer to BoBs starting.

I'll mention here that I do know of one successful sailing game which may be of use to BoBs, because it appears from comments that may be were the game is generally headed. I was obsessed with this a few years ago: WizKids Pirates Constructible Strategy game. It was essentially a card game where you built small ships from pieces of the plastic cards, sailed them around, collected gold, and attacked other ships. There were abilities, crew, etc. They don't make the game anymore, but it's concepts could be very useful to us (incidentally background stories too, which were included for all the hundreds of ships and named crew--I know I'll be plundering that for inspiration!).

The relevance here is the simple system that was devised for dealing with differences between ship's sizes and types. Like what Blackdeather suggested, this game too relied on dice rolls*. A ship's masts represented not only size--but the amount of cannons and the ship's health. So any three masted ship had three cannons, and four points of health (which included masts + the hull itself). Each mast had a dice amount allotted to it--whenever that ship fired on another ship, the owner would roll a dice: if the amount matched or exceeded the roll of the mast firing the shot was successful (any roll of 1 was a miss-fire). Likewise when a ship was hit, it lost a mast (health) and a cannon (attack) in the same process. To sink a three masted ship would require four hits--three for the masts and one for the hull.

The game was far more elaborate than that, and there were tons of exceptions, but in general I think some system like this one would be more beneficial than trying to label all the ships and determine their abilities. In Pirates, specific ship types were less important because there was more emphasis on the amount of masts and the "type" of cannons (obviously the best cannons were the ones with the lowest dice rating, because they had the highest likelihood of successfully hitting)--plus the abilities, speed, and cargo of the ship which did not often "match" what one would expect (For instance a considered "broken" card was a one mast ship with the speed of lightning and a cargo hold deeper than hell--that stuff was all over the place). However, that being said, ship types were sometimes described, but rather as abilities often associated with maneuvering--such as Schooner, Junk, Galley etc.

I think it would make more sense to follow a path such as this one rather than trying to make predetermined labels for potential ship types--because there's simply no way to make enough. Considering people will be building with all different styles and sizes (and apparently buying--what I'm assuming are fictitious ships for like a navy--as well), this would be an easier way to 'play' the game. In short, more generalization is what we need; I don't think records of specific tonnage or origin (considering we are not using real-life places) are essential.

Here's some links to the rules. They're from the most recent expansion however (I couldn't find the simplest original rules, but I could PDF them in a few days), so there's a lot more...less relevant stuff included.

Rules Front Side

Rules Back Side

*On Dice Rolls: Incidentally, BoBs could talk to Hinckley. Eurobricks is working on a Youtube channel, it might be interesting to get a third party/BoBs to roll dice for attacking player's ships real-time using video. It would be better than a just message of "oh, you just rolled a two, sorry". situations.

Thoughts?

I like this general set up--at least cannon wise, I like that's its a more determinate amount, not just ships having imaginary two dozen cannons somewhere. I think hull size should maybe go off of stud length though, because people may not be always be using prefab hulls. It would be more inclusive in that regard.

[Piratedave84]

I like this general set up--at least cannon wise, I like that's its a more determinate amount, not just ships having imaginary two dozen cannons somewhere. I think hull size should maybe go off of stud length though, because people may not be always be using prefab hulls. It would be more inclusive in that regard.

Agreed, sections were just an example; we know one section is 8 studs so we can easily convert this to stud lenght.

[Captain Nemo]

Agreed, sections were just an example; we know one section is 8 studs so we can easily convert this to stud lenght.

Exactly. We would only then have to watch out for people edging out an extra stud just to be classified as a battleship instead of a dinghy!

Incidentally, everyone please excuse my poor language at the end of my last post. Sometimes me be not be paying attention to me writing...

[Piratedave84]

Exactly. We would only then have to watch out for people edging out an extra stud just to be classified as a battleship instead of a dinghy!

Overhang will be normal, we can use the "top" of the hull sections to determine the lenght. Anyways, one stud will not really allow for the placement of an additional cannon so it may not be advantageous to do so.

[SkaForHire]

In general its going to be all dice rolling -- there may be more battles than one thinks.... but I don't want to give away why, because we don't plan to launch with this system at start, it will come shortly afterwards. (Think of it as something to do after everyone puts up their first adventures in a new world)

I am familiar with the pirates constructable card came from about 8 or 9 years ago we played it for a little bit. I had kind of forgotten about it! we probably can't get away with just taking those rules, but some of the concepts are worth thinking about.

We cant do stud or hull pieces because in some cases Microbuilds will be acceptable. What I am looking at is a series of classes that a builder can choose to build and represent, and kind of like Kurigan said, there were many different shapes and sizes that would fit one "class" of ship. We are trying to keep it as open as possible to build whatever you would like to build. This will all make more sense soon...

Perhaps this thread was a bad idea... lol

[Piratedave84]

In general its going to be all dice rolling -- there may be more battles than one thinks.... but I don't want to give away why, because we don't plan to launch with this system at start, it will come shortly afterwards. (Think of it as something to do after everyone puts up their first adventures in a new world)

I am familiar with the pirates constructable card came from about 8 or 9 years ago we played it for a little bit. I had kind of forgotten about it! we probably can't get away with just taking those rules, but some of the concepts are worth thinking about.

We cant do stud or hull pieces because in some cases Microbuilds will be acceptable. What I am looking at is a series of classes that a builder can choose to build and represent, and kind of like Kurigan said, there were many different shapes and sizes that would fit one "class" of ship. We are trying to keep it as open as possible to build whatever you would like to build. This will all make more sense soon...

Perhaps this thread was a bad idea... lol

Classes could randomly named, perhaps using names like Schooner, sloop, etc. and giving a few examples of previous builds to get a sense of what the ship can do/look like. Then you assign a value to this ship which is it's "strenght" and roll the dices!

You could just name the classes, assign strenght ratings and let builders loose in terms of what the ship looks like. The constant would be the rating and not the ship per say. This would allow you to pit a micro build against a 100 stud SOTL

[SkaForHire]

Classes could randomly named, perhaps using names like Schooner, sloop, etc. and giving a few examples of previous builds to get a sense of what the ship can do/look like. Then you assign a value to this ship which is it's "strenght" and roll the dices!

You could just name the classes, assign strenght ratings and let builders loose in terms of what the ship looks like. The constant would be the rating and not the ship per say. This would allow you to pit a micro build against a 100 stud SOTL

This is very similar to what I am doing, I think it provides for the most possibilities when building.