Artillery Orders let a player fire their ship's cannons.
A player's Ship Board has three slots where Artillery Upgrades can be installed, and four Artillery Nodes in the On Deck area, where Crew members can be placed. In order to issue an Artillery Order, the following conditions must be met:
For example: if a player wishes to issue an Artillery Order to fire on a ship located two hexes straight ahead in the direction the player's ship is currently facing, there must an Artillery Upgrade in the Bow/Stern Artillery slot which has a target range that reaches the hex two steps ahead, and there must be a Crew member manning the Artillery Node in the ship's Bow.
If the conditions are fulfilled, the player can perform the attack by spending one Artillery Order token, rolling as many attack dice as the power of the attack, and inflicts as much damage on the target as indicated by the dice. Mark the damage on the Enemy ship by placing Trauma (red) gems on the Enemy ship's card.
Combat
Combat can occur in a few different ways, depending on whether it's combat between ships or not, and depending on whether the combat was triggered by a player or by an enemy.
Combat between ships can be triggered by players using Artillery Orders. In those cases, decide which Artillery Card to use, check the range indications on the card to confirm that the target is in range of the attack, confirm that there is Line of Sight, and check what dice value the attack has. Then roll that many Attack dice, and apply the results: the enemy ship gets one damage (use Trauma markers to track damage on the enemy ship's card). You can choose to spend any type of Fresh Order token to convert "Omen" outcomes on the dice to "Damage" (one token per die to convert).
Combat between ships can also be triggered by the enemy, when the enemy ships move in the Enemy Phase. In this case, collect Enemy dice equal to the enemy ship's dice value, and collect one Evasion die for each Crew member that is manning a Navigation Node on the player ship. Roll all the dice. For each successful Evasion dieroll, cancel one enemy damage, then apply the remaining Damage to the player ship. You can choose to spend any type of Fresh Order token to convert an "Omen" outcome on Evasion dierolls to "Evade" (one token per die to convert).
Note: when using the "optional advanced mechanics" described on page 34-35 in the rulebook, Boarding is available as an alternative way of attacking enemy ships.
When an enemy ship is destroyed, you collect loot by rolling the Fate Die and getting loot according to the Spoils table. Do this as many times as the current Act number; so for example, you roll twice if it's Act II. (The rulebook has a misprint in regard to this, suggesting the loot is described on the ship enemy card, but this is not the case. The game designer has confirmed that this is a mistake in the ruleebook, and that rolling for Spoils is the correct procedure.)
Combat between Crew members and On Deck enemies are called Frays, and work differently.
