Quickfire Optional Rules

GENERAL RULES

101 - Extra Gunnery Phases

In some games - especially those with numerous slow-firing vessels - players may want to add one or more gunnery phases to each turn. This increases the overall rate of firing for the battle. This can even be done mid-game, after some of the faster firing vessels (in cases of mixed squadrons) have slowed down a bit due to battle damage.

MOVEMENT

201 - Higher Move Rates

Players may accomodate larger playing areas by increasing ship's speeds by 50-100%. The existing rules were written to accomodate small table areas and also to increase effects of gunnery per unit of movement.

GUNNERY & TORPEDOES

301 - Range Guessing

A popular and traditional method of recreating the feel for period gunnery is for player to guess the ranges from their ships to the enemy ships in order to score hits. It is a fun and interesting way to conduct gunnery and also reflects - albeit abstractly - the influence of personal skill on the effectiveness of gunnery.    

To incorporate range guessing into Quickfire, players estimate ranges between firing vessels and their declared targets before the gunnery dice are rolled (as with the rest of the rules, measurements are taken from/between forward funnels). The proximity of the guessed range point modifies the ROF die roll and is measured in "cables," which is listed as a range increment in the rules (a cable equals 1/10th of a nautical mile). There are two possible ways to apply the ranging modifiers; Method A and Method B, with the second method being more forgiving of range-guessing skills:

A) For range guesses that "land" directly on the ship model, subtract one point (-1) from the ROF die roll. For range guesses that land within a one-cable distance of the ship model, no additional ranging guessing modifier applies. For each additional cable of distance error, add one point (+1) to the ROF die roll.This last modifier in cumulative. For example, if players are using the Small game scale where one-cable equals 1" and the guessed range misses by three and a half inches, the firing player suffers a plus-three (+3) to the ROF die roll.     

B) All range guesses within one cable give the player a minus-one (-1) on the ROF die roll. Range guesses within one to two cables have no modifier either way, and each additional cable of ranging error beyond two adds one point (+1) to the ROF die roll. For both methods, ships may not conduct gunnery if the targets are beyond the maximum allowable firing range (i.e., they cannot fire anyway and use their "short" range-guessed distance as an ROF modifier as if the shell fire had been incorrectly ranged).

Players can use the Battlefleet 1900 Range Log for recording range estimates. Make "pointers" out of card stock to help clarify which ships are being targeted for ranging (not used for aiming per-se). Range guess may also be recorded on the bottom side of the target pointers.

Ranging Shots - As part of the range guessing system, players may make ranging shots out to one nautical mile beyond maximum normal (long) gunnery range. The ranging shots are recorded on the range log and measured normally, but they result in no gunnery die roll and can inflict no damage. They do not count as a First Fire.

302 - The 6-6 Exception

Any vessel which began the game with ROF ratings of 6 - 6 will suffer a light G hit in addition to every heavy G hit. This is due to unusually homogenous medium level armament such as 6" and 8" guns.

303 - Cumulative ROF Bonus

Using this rule, ships which miss their ROF roll gain a minus one (-1) on the ROF die roll for each phase they miss it (instead of just a single non-cumulative modifier). This means that if a ship misses their roll for four phases (Both 1st and 2nd gunnery phases for two full turns) they would have a minus four (-4) bonus on their next ROF roll. Eventually they would get that gun loaded!

Historical Side Note: Contemporary accounts state that even after the Spanish-American War, the old USS Iowa's rate of fire was on the order of five-minutes loading time per gun for her main 12" armament, this despite the gun mounting's theoretically better capabilites. Only after 1900 did new training and methods bring those numbers up to better levels.

304 - Split Light Gunnery

At point blank range, a vessel may split its light fire gunnery points amongst multiple targets (this in addition to being able to fire both heavy and light values simultaneously). This can only be done after the normal ROF fire check to see if the ship fired its light rating at all. This rule makes it possible for a vessel with a heavy secondary armament to set-up a "curtain of fire" for purposes of torpedo-boat/destroyer defense. Smallest point packets allowed per base gunnery value are as follows: 1-6 points may split down to one-point packets, 7+ point base gunnery value may split down to two-point packets.

Splitting fire must be done as evenly as possible, so for example a ship with a 12 light gunnery value could split its fire as x2 attacks at 6 each, or x4 attacks at 3 each, but not x2 attacks with one at a 2 and one at a 10.

305 - Open Barbettes

Ships with open barbette main armament are more vulnerable to having their guns taken out of action by light gunnery. This can be represented in the game as follows:

For the ships listed below, place a "<" symbol between the Heavy and Light ROF values instead of the standard "-" dash symbol. This indicates that once the Light ROF value reaches zero, future G hits are taken off of the Heavy ROF value next, instead of T hits as would happen normally. Once the Heavy ROF hits are depleted, then any further G hits would convert according to the normal sequence of T hit, R hit, etc.

A list of open barbette ships includes (but not limited to): Royal Sovereign, Benbow, Camperdown, Collingwood, Amiral Baudin, Admiral Nakhimov, Kronprinzessen Erzherzogin Steffani, Italia, Andrea Doria, Ting Yuen (with hoods removed).

DAMAGE

501 - Heavy G Hits Amidships

The general game mechanics pre-suppose that heavy fire will primarily affect related systems on board target vessels. With this rule, heavy G hits impact both heavy and light ROF ratings simultaneously. There are actually two possible levels of application for this rule, with Option A being rather modest and Option B being more extreme:

Option A) For heavy G hit die results of 2 (snake eyes), reduce one point each from both the heavy and light ROF ratings for the target vessel.
Option B) On all heavy G hits, reduce one point each from both the heavy and light ROF ratings for the target vessel.

502 - Torpedo Induced List

If four or more speed boxes are lost to permanent flooding due to a single torpedo hit, four unrepairable G hits are also inflicted (evenly balanced as possible between heavy and light gunnery values). This reflects the degrading of gunnery efficiency due to the heavy list suffered by the ship.