Swivel guns or Patarero were small cannon that were mounted on swivels along the railing of a ship. They were mainly used against personnel on the deck of an enemy ship before boarding, or in a defensive role to repel boarders.
One patarero per 50 crew can be mounted on a ship. New patarero’s (from the shipwright or new hide out structure?)can only be mounted on flagships. When an attacking ship with a patarero loses the battle than the patarero’s on that ship will go to the winning party.

Effect:
the patarero is a close range small cannon and will shoot after the regular cannons (of both sides). It will reduce the crew with 2-5% and adds 1-3% extra damage. Crew reduction will not go below 15, when the ship has only 15 survivors it will lower her flag and be out of the fight even when it’s not destroyed.
When a ship is destroyed or surrendered because of the patarero and the fleet battle is also won than that ship pays an additional ransom of double the base price. When it cannot pay the ransom that ship is (also) captured.
Only a captured patarero can be sold on the shipmarket. All ships with more than 50 crew can carry a patarero.

-1, hates crew killings.

I like the idea, +1 from me.

Some discussion and work, perhaps adding MoW's as a national ship that can purchase these Patarero's, increasing the worth of the ship as it is.

Regardless, the concept of harming crew before boarding is one that should be considered and added in some fashion.

+1

Everyone with a "crew killing phobia" needs to s**k it up and stop being nansy pansy about the idea.

Disabling crew was a huge tactic in capturing ships, as you wanted to not have to repair a ship to much so you could sell it. Plus, some sort of "Killing Crew" is already in place. When ever you plunder a ship, the crew is gone and there is 99% dmg. To make it sail again, you have to repair and hire crew. This is already a game feature. I say expand on it to include weapons like this!

+1 would be nice to have.

My concern is that we are speaking about the wrong type of gun here, if it is to be so special and sought after : the swivel gun was common as muck and could be found widely on many types of ship : for small trade vessels it was likely to be the main armament and used to repel boarders as longer range fighting was well beyond their capabilities.
Far more valuable for close-range battles was the 'Carronade', developed for the Royal Navy, which was a brutal close-quarter weapon. Alas, it didnt come into service until later into the Age of Sail : to illustrate : the swivel gun threw about 3.5 pounds of shot or grape : the larger carronades went up to 64 pounds : when the average long gun came in at 24 pounds, this added firepower was significant. The downside was they were less effective than long guns over 1000yds but as the RN favored close-quarter battles they were readily adopted. But inside that range, they were a terrifyingly destructive force and when used with grape or canister shot, a real crew killer.

Shadowood wrote:Everyone with a "crew killing phobia" needs to s**k it up and stop being nansy pansy about the idea.

There is no way to easily rehire crews unlike getting damaged by Swarm of worms you can just use EC or RFA. Merchants like me need to go though each fleet one by one just to rehire?

Grimrock Litless wrote:

Shadowood wrote:Everyone with a "crew killing phobia" needs to s**k it up and stop being nansy pansy about the idea.

There is no way to easily rehire crews unlike getting damaged by Swarm of worms you can just use EC or RFA. Merchants like me need to go though each fleet one by one just to rehire?

Maybe you'll have to invest in a stronger fleet to beat this ship before your crew is killed

Grimrock Litless wrote:

Shadowood wrote:Everyone with a "crew killing phobia" needs to s**k it up and stop being nansy pansy about the idea.

There is no way to easily rehire crews unlike getting damaged by Swarm of worms you can just use EC or RFA. Merchants like me need to go though each fleet one by one just to rehire?

Oh the life of a merchant is so hard! Counting your gold coin all day makes it so stressful to do anything else does it?

chal wrote:

Grimrock Litless wrote:

Shadowood wrote:Everyone with a "crew killing phobia" needs to s**k it up and stop being nansy pansy about the idea.

There is no way to easily rehire crews unlike getting damaged by Swarm of worms you can just use EC or RFA. Merchants like me need to go though each fleet one by one just to rehire?

Maybe you'll have to invest in a stronger fleet to beat this ship before your crew is killed

And lose more? No thanks.