Longneck wrote:
Swanto wrote:
My main concern with "collisions" is how to pre-determine which ship will gain the disputed square...in a recent example my SOL, moving under full sail with a following wind (2) intentionally entered a square already occupied by a much lighter ship ( (a frigate)My thinking was that in the event the frigate did not move and a collision occured my SOL would displace the frigate because a) mine was the heavier ship and b0 my boat was moving at a faster pace. This did not happen with a fatal result. Is tghere any way to know in advance which ship will get the disouted space or should I assume there is no way for one ship to push another off a hex?
No, you can never push another ship out of its hex, even at ramming speed! A bow always wins over a stern entering the same hex at the same time. Other than that (if it's bow vs bow or stern vs stern), it's random.
This is in accordance with the original boardgame rules. It seems like a bigger ship should win couple minutes (I think), so that was probably an attempt to simulate the fact that any two ships wouldn't always enter the same "hex" at the exact same time.
Thanks as always for your prompt reply. Howverer, I have two further thoughts. One, at the risk of Apostasy, I might sugest that the original board game rules should not be regarded as SACRED. Second, in the example I used, there was no movement by the frigate at all so there is no question of two ships entering the same hex. If a smaller stationery object is hit by a larger moving object on a surface such as water, it should give way. If the object is re-create realism as much as possible, then more consideration might be given to what would have actually happened in real life even if this means IMPROVING on the original rules. Of course, I am glad to learn yet an other wrinkle that will help me in quest to reach mediocrity!

I'm not defending the original rules. I don't think anyone would argue they're always historically accurate, realistic and couldn't be improved. It's just that a decision was made years ago to stay true to them as much as possible, thus the collision rules.
It would be kind of cool to push a pesky little frigate out of the way. House rules would add a lot of fun options, but development seems to have come to a halt for the time being. Kind of like Britannia hitting Amphion.