Wizkids Pirates for naval combat?

[Silver Moon]

I'm planning something similar but on a much bigger scale as not only do I collect the Pirate Cards but my son and daughter do too, so we probably have a total of around 300 ships. Essentially a massive Pirate armada is forming to attack the continent so the continent's rulers have put together a force to counter it. While the fleet battles will be a major part of it the D&D group's main mission will be to simultaneously attack the Pirates' home base to force a retreat of their forces in order to protect their home.

Some of my players do not like wargaming, so I'm planning to stick close to D&D rules with adaptations for Naval combat from the Pirates RPG (which is a great product, I highly recommend it).

 

[ppz]

Not when high-level spellcasters are involved. Toss around enough "Fireball", "Lightning Bolt" and "Summon Water Elemental" spells and you can have some rather exciting ship combat.

That's what my group did. Fireball has a 400' range.

I also tried to lightning bolt the side of the hull just above the water line, but we were in hurricane-rough weather, and I failed my concentration check.

Once the ships got next to each other, everyone just boarded each other's ships and the melee combat ensued.

 

[Hussar]

Heh, a wand of enlarged fireballs has a range of 800 feet + 80 feet/level. About 1300 feet. Nothing like reaching out and touching someone a quarter of a mile away.

 

[phindar]

I think it might work if everyone in the group enjoyed the role-playing and the wargame aspects about equally. With my group, I know that about half would love it, and the other half would fall asleep during the battles.