Complete naval combat rules for 4th edition - seeking feedback

[RangerWickett]

Well, the goal is to sink ships if you get a solid hit. Maybe reduce it to 20 damage per square? Your goal is to wait for just the right moment, and then bam! Even if you reduce the ship to 0 hp, it takes a while for it to sink, and airships don't plummet; they descend 10 ft. every round that the ship fails a 'death save'.

If the ship gets reduced to negative bloodied, it's destroyed, and then it drops.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I think what I am seeing is the disparity in the one shot kill against the normal vessels, but against a top of the line gargantuan warship {with 1,000 hps}, the effect if minimal. Then there is the disparity between the number of hps the PCs have vs the NPCs, as this zone would kill/KO all the crew {mobs} it hits. So even if the small ship is uparmored and survives to float another day, its crew is toast.

I think the only way to reconcile these disparities is to:
- change the scaling for hps per size and the increase for 'durable' builds
- have the weapon deal HT and CT hits {as per the skirmish rules} in order to seperate the ship rending damage from the kill the crew damage. Or just a 'the vessel in the zone takes X damage and Y crew are lost and named characters take x damage' sort of splitting damage.


All that being said.. yes, I like the idea of a big ship destroying weapon and think your execution is spot on as it will be a challenge to ensure that the target vessel ends up in the zone at the right time.