LotHS

Legends of the High Seas

Legends of the High Seas cover

Legends of the High Seas was the game that introduced me to historical wargaming in general and it sparked my love for pirate wargaming in particular. While me and my group were playing the game actively, we came up with a couple of additional rules and scenarios which are available below.

Crew Reference Sheet
A handy reference sheet with an overview of the characters and crews.
Download

Random Happenings
Inspired by the fantastic Random Happenings rules for Mordheim, we used these rules in our pirate games.
Download

Scenario: Mine, all Mine!
A non-fantastic adaption of the Horrors of the Underground scenario that I originally wrote for the Border Town Burning Mordheim supplement.
Download

Scenario: Dock Raid
Download

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

This is a list of errata, clarifications, questions and answers I compiled for Warhammer Historical's Legends of the High Seas game. It contains official answers by the author Tim Kulinski and the Moderators from the LotHS Yahoo Group. Many thanks to Tim who sent me his notes and list of errata to add to the FAQ.
Update: This FAQ used to be also hosted on the Warhammer Historical website. Since the end of WHH it is no longer available.

Control Zones

Q. Does line-of-sight to an opposing model play into a model's ability to generate a Control Zone?

A. Controls Zones do not block line of sight, only actual models.
Q. Does a prone model exert a Control Zone?

A. No.

Obstacles - Barriers and Gaps

Swimming (page 19):

The first entry of the Swimming Table should read:

"1 Sinks - the Sailor is overcome by exhaustion or injuries and drowns. Remove the model as a casualty. Do not roll on the injury table, the Crewman is visiting Davey Jones."

Rolling to Hit

Jamming and Reloading (page 22): The second paragraph should read: "Whenever a model rolls a 1 to hit, the weapon has jammed or misfired. The weapon may not be fired this turn until the jammed weapon has been cleared. This causes an additional turn to Slow Reloads. So instead of firing the next turn you must now wait two turns to be able to shoot - once for the Slow Reload and one more shooting phase to clear the jammed weapon" You may clear any and all jams on all weapons that require it in a single shooting phase. So if a Captain has two pistols that are unloaded, he may reload both in one shooting phase, but may do nothing else in that phase but reload the weapons. If he is engaged in hand-to-hand fighting, he may not reload any weapons.

Trapped Sailors

The first paragraph on page 25 should read:

"If a defeated Sailor can't back away from his opponent because of friends blocking his path, then these friends can move up to 1" in order to make room as long as they are not engaged in a combat. This is called 'Making Way for Friends'. ..."

The Armoury

Swivel Guns (page 33):

The following should clarify how the swivel gun is supposed to be used.

Swivel guns are part of the ship's equipment just like cannons, boats, etc. This means that in the Price Chart (page 74) they should be listed under the "Ship Mounted Guns", rather than the "Guns" category. They cannot be used during scenarios on shore. While the Crew is aboard their ship they can use the Swivel gun similar to a blunderbuss. If you wish to move a Swivel gun it may be done. You would move it by having a Sailor pick it up in the movement phase and move to the new location. If the model does not have enough movement than he will be carrying it for another turn until he reaches the new location. Once at the new location, it will then take the entire shooting phase to secure the weapon to the railing. So the Sailor setting it up would not be allowed to fire it (giving up his shooting phase). If another crewmen is next to the spot and did not carry the weapon, he may fire the Swivel gun. Note that you may not fire the Swivel gun while carrying it due to it requiring a stable platform like a railing, to be able to fire. The whole intention behind these rules is to not allow the Swivel gun to be carried and fired like a musket, blunderbuss or pistol. The difference between a normal weapon of a Sailor and a swivel gun is that it does not belong to any particular Sailor (it belongs to the boat, just like cannons). This means that if a Sailor who is carrying a Swivel gun around is taken out of action, the Swivel gun does not disappear with the eliminated model but is placed on the ship instead, so that the next Sailor can use it (even enemy Sailors!).

Recruiting the Crew

Captain Archetypes (page 49): The third paragraph should read:

"This must be a completely different Archetype than that of the former Captain." - dropping the "or it may be the same".


Gentleman (page 50): The 2 doubloon discount does not apply to recruiting the Captain.



Weapons (page 51):

Q. In the book it says "Any Sailors you recruit may be armed with up to two melee weapons and possibly more than one missile weapon". What exactly does this say about the total number of missile weapons?

A. Sailors may be equipped with any number of missile weapons. However, each type of missile weapon (e.g. Blunderbuss, Musket, etc.) may be chosen once only. Note that Pistols explicitly are an excpetion to this - they may be chosen up to three times by Heroes.



Captains (pages 52, 54, 56):

Q. Each of the three different types of Captain starts with 8 Experience Points. Is this just for the Infamy calculation, or can I do anything with these points? If I crossed off eight boxes on the roster I'd be entitled to four advances right from the start - this can't be right, can it?

A. The 8 points are the starting points and you do not roll for any skills with these. This represents the knowledge and the leadership ability of the captain. Sorry no advances. You just cross off the boxes and start gaining from there.

Privateer Crews

Q. Do Hired Hands in Privateer crews get the same benefit as the henchmen of only dying on a roll of 1 when they are taken out of action?

A. No, Hired Hands are treated as if they were normal Henchmen if they are taken out of action in a game. The Letter of Marque rule does not pertain to them, this benifit is only granted to Privateer henchmen.

High Seas Campaigns

Infamy Rating (page 64): Add the following sentence to the first paragraph:

"Hired Hands add their Experience and their individual Infamy rating to the Crew's total Infamy rating."

Skill Lists

Swordsman (page 71):

Delete the "tied" in the last sentence of the skill describtion so that it reads: "When using a sword, he may re-roll one of the dice to decide who wins a fight."

Special Equipment Rules

Monkey (page 75):

The following should clarify how the monkey is supposed to act in games.

The monkey is moved as an individual model like any other Sailor of the Crew (i.e. he has a Control Zone, makes 'Hit the deck' tests, etc.), with the following exceptions: It automatically passes all Jumping, Climbing and Swinging tests. It cannot make charges. It can be attacked like normal Sailors in combat. It then rolls a dice to defend itself but it will not strike to cause wounds if it wins a combat. When in base contact with its owner it adds one dice to its owner's Attacks in combat (similar to a spear wielding supporter). It has a special Dodge skill that allows avoiding blows on a 5-6 (instead of 6 like the normal skill). If it suffers a wound (in ranged or close combat), it is not only immediately taken out of action, it is also struck from the roster. The monkey is an item and so neither gains experience nor counts towards the maximum Crew size.

Earning Experience

Kills (pages 78ff.):

Every on shore scenario grants Heroes 1 Experience point for every enemy model they personally put out of action. As described under Multiple Combats (page 26) if the multiple side wins a fight, each model strikes against the loser. If the multiple side includes one or more Heroes that successfully wound and take out an enemy, the player may choose which of them is granted the Experience point for the kill.
Example:

A Pirate Captain and a Rogue win the fight against a Marine so both models are allowed to strike. If the Captain wounds and the Rogue does not wound, the Captain gains 1 Experience point. If the Captain fails his to wound roll but the Rogue wounds successfully, the Captain obviously gains no Experience. If both models wound the Marine, the Captain still gains 1 Experience point.

Now if the Rogue was a Quartermaster (i.e. Hero) instead and both the Captain and the Quartermaster wound the Mariner, the player may choose which one of the wounding Heroes gets the Experience point.
Alternatively you can circumvent this by allocating strikes individually. In that case you would have the Hero, who you wish to get the Experience point, strike first and proceed with the next model if he fails his to wound rolls.

Hired Hands

On page 106, in the second paragraph replace the clause about "...nor may they ever gain income in the same way as Heroes" with "...nor may they ever search for Rare items in the same way as Heroes".

Quick Reference

3. Shooting Phase (page 141): This page should have the Missile Weapons Chart from page 34 on it instead of the Melee Chart.