jesmith29 wrote:
After playing a few games, I've become extremely frustated with the way raking works in this game. After reading thru this thread I tend to agree with the max range of effectiveness on rakes and also whether the rake is from the bow or stern. Has there been any thought to possibly changing the way raking works?????
The heart of the problem appears to be that whoever wrote the rake rule at Avalon Hill simply had no meaningful concept of how such things worked in a historical setting. The extent of the knowledge appears to be in the order of; "shooting down the length of a ship was a very good thing, so it should get a big bonus" and so is such a limited view point that it is incorrect in the vast majority of cases. The rules fail to differentiate between a bow rake (good) and a stern rake (significantly better, except in the case of later Napoleonic period French ships with horseshoe sterns). They also fail to recognize that the rake was a very limited maneuver, and that its effectiveness dropped off quickly as range increased, to the point that a raking position over a few hundred yards from a target was actually a determent to hitting.
The extent of the historical discrepancies between the rules and reality with regard to rakes is most evident in that rakes may occur at any range, and that often the only way in play to achieve a hit upon a distant target is to be in a raking position – something which is exactly the opposite of the historical fact.
At the moment the site is still working to implement a significant portion of the rules of WSIM as written. Therefore, in my opinion, it is unlikely that any effort will be devoted to correcting historical inaccuracies, no matter how glaring. As I have said in the past, WSIM is effectively a fantasy game with a historical theme. If one is going to play it, this simply must be accepted.
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