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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paul Farquhar" data-source="post: 9777472" data-attributes="member: 6906155">I've tried the squad-as-swarms approach, but it felt too mechanical for me. Didn't suit the fiction. But I don't think you really need large numbers of combatants to do pirates. If you look at pirate movies there are rarely more than a dozen extras on either side, and the original pirate story - Treasure Island - only has that many, even without budget constraints.When I did the climactic battle for my short "Sky Raiders of Eberron" campaign, there were only the PCs on the (Millennium Falcon inspired) player ship, and around 25 combatants on the villain ship (mostly warrior nuns), plus a few NC crew who were too busy keeping the ship in the air. In the run up to that I did a chase sequence on a 100 ft. scale hex grid.If you look at the history, you go from a 9th century Viking longship with up to 30 warriors aboard, to a 16th century warship with 700 sailors and men-at-arms (not all of which would be in a position to join any fight aboard!).One thing to consider is that D&D deck plans often exaggerate the size of the ship, as authentically sized ships do not allow much room for maneuverer using 5 ft. grid squares.</blockquote>