NPC captains: decision points
Where an NPC captain changes what it does: the ranges, odds and times at which it decides. The numbers are the game’s own, read from the captains’ data, and each is a guess set by play, so it may move. How they fight between these points is on How NPC captains fight.
Looking round
| Decision | At | What it does |
|---|
| Decides again | every 1 s to 5 s | how often it looks round and decides: the best captain every second, the poorest every few |
| Changes target | nearer than 60% of the range | it keeps its target unless another enemy comes this much nearer than the one it has |
| Temper by the odds | 77% or 130% of your men | a clearly smaller ship than yours, by the first, closes and rakes; otherwise, with fewer men aboard than the first it skirmishes, with more than the second it brawls; between, its own temper decides |
Closing
| Decision | At | What it does |
|---|
| Mans the side | 2,500 m | clears for action on the side an enemy will bear on, long before the guns do |
| Shortens sail | 1,000 m | full sail to close; inside this, the sail its men allow (see Crew) |
| Stops chasing | 700 m | beyond this it only closes; inside it fights by its temper |
| Tacks or wears | 3 kn | it tacks with at least this much way on; slower, it wears |
| Gives up a tack | 240 s | a tack not round in this long has hung in stays: it gives it up and pays her off |
In action
| Decision | At | What it does |
|---|
| Skirmisher’s range | 400 m | it keeps you abeam about here |
| Skirmisher closes | beyond 600 m | it puts you a little ahead of its beam, closing as it fires |
| Skirmisher opens | inside 240 m | it puts you a little abaft its beam, opening the range |
| Brawler’s range | 150 m | close action, where it works for the rake |
| Brawler closes | beyond 225 m | as the skirmisher, nearer in |
| Brawler opens | inside 90 m | as the skirmisher, nearer in |
| Judges the rake | 10 s to 30 s ahead | a brawler weighs each course by where it leaves the two of you this long on, by its competence |
Crew and shot
| Decision | At | What it does |
|---|
| Full sail in action | 50% of the guns’ crews | it keeps full sail while its manned sides have at least this; fewer, topsails |
| Loads double | 250 m | inside this, double shot |
| Fires chain | 80% of chain’s reach | a skirmisher fires chain inside this share of its chain’s greatest range |
| Back to ball | 30% of your drive gone | a skirmisher stops firing chain once your rig has lost this much: your men are the better target |
| Holds its shot | 50 m past an edge | it changes shot only this far past each range’s edge, so it doesn’t flip |
Keeping clear
| Decision | At | What it does |
|---|
| Looks ahead for ships | 60 s | it checks each course this far ahead, assuming every other ship holds hers |
| Gap from other ships | 30 m | it won’t take a course that brings it nearer than this, beyond the two hulls |
| Gap from your ship | 120 m | an ally aims to keep this wide of you; boxed in, it comes nearer |
| Looks ahead for shoals | 60 s of sailing, and 150 m | further the faster it sails, and this far even when barely moving |
| Water under the keel | its draught and 2 m | it turns away from anything shallower |
Prizes
| Decision | At | What it does |
|---|
| Goes for a prize | 1,500 m | a struck enemy this near, with no enemy still fighting this near |
| Heaves to | 150 m | it rounds up into the wind, topsails aback; once all but stopped it lowers its boat |
Under your signals
| Decision | At | What it does |
|---|
| Answers a signal | 10 s, and 30 s a kilometre | beside the flagship it answers this soon; further off, later |
| Line interval | 200 m | the gap between ships in a line |
| On station | within 60 m | it carries the flagship’s sail; further behind its station it sets more, ahead of it less |
