How do you guys do it?

With a boat on water.

For their trip up the River Tuefel, I had the players assist the boatman (checking the sail, tightening ropes, keeping watch etc) with steering the boat by making various skill checks (Athletics, Coordination, Observation etc)...failed rolls and banes generated black dice for the boatmans check while boons and sigmars comets helped out his check with extra fortune dice and moved the progress token i had set up a little bit further up the track, bringing the closer to their destination. Chaos stars resulted in me rolling on a river disasters chart I had made up before hand. This could resulted in the boat either getting stuck on a sunken tree/rock, the boat running aground, or a swarm of Reik Eels attacking the ship. If the boatman failed his final check each round, the progress tracker token stayed put, though the time tracker token continued up the track. The later into the night the group traveled up the river, the higher their chances of encountering river pirates (which they luckily avoided at the last moment).

How's them apples?

"Get a hold of" the Man o War warhammer fantasy battles game supplement...

IMHO, sailing rivers is ridiculous considering all the winding that rivers make. Judicious use of canals, mule pulls and STEAM POWER will solve logistics issues on this.

jh

Story Mode unless it is combat oriented. Then I use a location card for the BOAT. I really look for the conditions I want to apply then say it is a boat for intensive purposes. Story Mode more and more resolves a lot of my technical problems to be frank. Is that lazy?

Example I think the Location card crumbling ruins h

as an effect (Chaos Star) PC suffers a point of damage, ignoring armor/soak. If the combat topside was during a storm, I use this location card to as a hazard. Unsure footing would be a negative effect that can be added to any dice pool.

Story mode, then encounter mode with location effects to simulate rough seas slippery deck and the simple fact that most characters wouldn't have sea legs.