Hi,

It says in the rules that you can spend one of your attacks firing a cannon. But it also says in the beginning of the chapter that it costs 3 MP to man a station. What is correct? 3MP or one of your attacks? Or is it both?

AND... I have yet to play out a sea encounter. So I need someone to explain to me why the ambush positions are so great (for the OL) on the location cards. You're facing the heroes sideways, and there's a much shorter way to the other end of the map. What the strategy there for the OL? Drop anchor and fire with everything you got?

Cannons are not a station, they're a weapon. Manning a station is further described on pages 24-25, the stations that can be manned are anchor, captain's wheel, masts and ropes. So it doesn't cost any MP at all to fire a cannon.

Ambushes, I haven't played sea encounters yet either, but I guess that's the idea - and the heroes can't fire back either, since their cannons look sideways. I'm not sure whether ambushing makes a lot of sense on those maps where the heroes can just flee the encounter by leaving a side of the map - IIRC like a third of the maps only have enough obstacles at the sides of the hero ship's path to make that impossible.

I don't think the cannons are stations. The 3MPs is to man a station, and it looks like there are only 4 different stations: Anchor, Captains Wheel, Mast, and Rope. Cannons seem to be their own beast and just one of your attacks can be to fire the cannon (so if you Battle, you can fire a cannon twice, but keep overheating in mind).

-shnar

*high-five Haslo* We're on the same brainwave

-shnar

Wait a tick...a cannon can be fired multiple times in a turn?

Manning the Stations , Page 24

In order to direct the ship, the heroes (or monsters) aboard it must man the ship’s stations. A hero must spend 3 movement points while standing on a ship’s station to man it. The effects of manning a ship’s station vary depending on which station is being manned, as explained below. After a station has been manned during a turn (whether anything was accomplished or not) place a fatigue token on it. That station cannot be manned again that round. At the start of the next round, remove the fatigue markers from all ship’s stations.

Firing the Cannons , from Page 26:

Whether a cannon attack hits or not, place a fatigue token on the cannon like a ship’s station that has been manned. Remove
fatigue tokens from cannons at the same time they are removed from ship’s stations.

Is the fatigue counter just there to show whether or not it can cool off, or the fact that it has been "manned" and cannot be fired again?

The reason I point this out is that what would stop four heroes from using a battle action to fire a Coldsteel cannon (which never overheat) 8 times in a turn?

Fizz said:

The fatigue counter is there to indicate that the cannon has been fired and can't be fired again in the round.

Sorry, I was applying one piece of the rule to another without the full context, so I was wrong.

-shnar