The Fletcher Pratt Wargame Pt 2

I could describe the FP rules in some detail but since these are covered in the references [1][2]. What I will discuss is the FP surface gunnery system and the ship points value.

The FP system uses a range estimation paradigm for gunnery. On the firing phase of a move a player places a firing arrow at the bow of their ship with one or more estimates of the target range. The umpire or one of their assistants then measures the firing distance along the direction indicated by the firing arrow and hits are determined using some rule giving where the shots fall with respect to the nominal aim-point. Once again I am not to concerned with the detail of how the splash points are distributed, just that they are set up to give an acceptable level of playability. The splash points of the shells which do not hit are indicated with some suitable marker as are those which do hit thus providing some feedback to the firing player on the accuracy of their gunnery.

Damage done by a hit is basically the weight of the projectile with modifications for hits that are unable to penetrate any armour (belt thickness is used for near broadside hits and deck armour thickness for near endon hits). Also commercial shipping and other vessels built to commercial standards sustain double damage.

Torpedoes operate in a similar manner with the placing of markers, but in this case indicating the spread of the torpedoes. Hits are determined by measuring out the weapon tracks on each move on which they are running and if these pass through a ship that is deemed a hit. The number of moves for which a torpedo runs is determined from its rand for the speed setting indicated on the firing arrow.

That is the outline of the gunnery system, which I give because it one of (if not the) main focus of the game.

Damage accrues incrementally and a ship loses capability proportionately with damage as a proportion of the ship points value (other than for hits specifically on turrets which may knock the turret out independently of the accrued damage - this is a whole other topic for discussion, but won't be pursued here). A warship's points value is given by the formula:

PV=[C_M²N_M+C_S²N_S+10N_TT+10T_B²+10T_T²+10T_D²+25N_AC+N_M][(V/2)+10]+D

Where:

C_M: Calibre of main armament in inches
N_M: Number of barrels of main armament
C_S: Calibre of secondary armament
N_S: Number of barrels of secondary armament
N_TT: Number of torpedo tubes
T_B: Thickness (max) of armoured belt in inches
T_T: Thickness (max) of main turret armour in inches
T_D: Thickness (Max/total?) of deck armour in inches
N_AC: Number of aircraft carried
N_M: Number of mines carried
V: Maximum speed in knots
D: Displacement (standard) in tons

That is all for this article, I will have more to say about both the gunnery system and the ship points value in future articles.

References
1. Curry J., Fletcher Pratt's Naval Wargame, History of Wargaming Project, 2011
2. Featherstone D. Naval War Games, Stanley Paul, London, 1965, ISBN 0-09-076581-8

EndNote: The difficulty of getting Blogger to represent simple mathematics is seriously tempting me to move this blog back to WordPress where there is built-in LaTeX.