I have come up with a new combat mechanic for my pirate game and I want to get some feedback on it before I further delve into designing the actual cards. My original mechanic was a simple one using dice. Each player would roll a die for each cannon on their ship (2-5). Each 5 or 6 would hit. The player with the higher maneuver rating could add 1 to a die for each maneuver point he was higher than the opponent. The most hits won. While this was quick and simple it also seemed too boring and luck based. So this is my new system:
There is a common wind deck (for movement) a common cannon deck and a common maneuver deck. Each player keeps a hand of wind cards equal to the ships sail rating. When he wants to attack he plays a wind card to move into position and announces the attack. The attacker and defender each draw cards from the cannon deck and the maneuver deck equal to their ships cannon and maneuver rating. Each simultaneously plays one cannon card and maneuver card, compares them and applies damage (to the hull rating). If neither ship is defeated then the defender may try and escape by playing a wind card. The attacker may persue by playing a wind card matching or exceeding it. They would repeat this process until a ship is defeated, escapes, the attacker chooses not to persue or runs out of cannon cards.
The cannon and maneuver cards are divided in three sections port, center (steady), and starboard and have numbers 0 to 3 in each. For example, Some cards may have a 2 in the port section and 1 in the center and 0 in starboard. Some cards would affect the next wind card, or allow you to draw additional cannon, maneuver or wind cards or to make the opponent discard them.
Granted this system adds a lot of cards to the game but to me is a lot more interesting. So do you think this would be too complex or time consuming?
Thanks for your response. The goal of the game is to earn the moist victory points (or whatever I call them). This is mostly accompished by collecting resources and gold by trade or by piracy (stealing). Points can also be earned by completing missions or gaining rank. So ship battle would be a large part of piracy and a good portion of the missions and gaining rank. I really like the system but worry that it may create too much downtime in a 4-6 player game. I think I may need to streamline the player vs nonplayer battles and leave the player vs player battles longer and more epic. Alternatively I could adjust the hull ratings down to have the battle end sooner (on average).