southernskies wrote:


actually 5 hexes seems rather over generous

while there dont seem to be a lot discussion on game scales and such which seems kind of suspect to me...maximum gunnery range is 10 hexes

now i suppose this would be considered EFFECTIVE gunnery range...not simply how far a gun can throw a ball...also since the size of the gun is not really reflected in the range limitations except as gunnery factors it is very difficult to arrive at any kind of determination as to how big a hex actually is
it is possible to extrapolate that since the ships themselves take up two hexes the we could assume that a hex is perhaps one cable in width
(200 yards)...this would account nicely for normal station keeping practices of following at distances of one cable...
making this assumption of course casts a lot of doubt on the fouling rules as presented in WSIM but that is another topic entirely
so if we assume that a hex is one cable across...then that will equate to an effective gunnery range of about 2000 yards which is about right for some of the bigger guns...18, 24 and 32 pounders...raking fire effectiveness dropped off dramatically as the range increased much beyond two cables...so in that context a rake should only be effective at ranges of two hexes or less...not 5 hexes and certainly not 10