Sea Soldiers: Marines in Flashing Blades

MARINE
A Marine is a Soldier in the Royal Marines Regiment. Marines are trained to fight at sea, and are stationed onboard warships and important government ships. Being a Marine is quite dangerous, especially since French Marines were expected to learn by experience. They had their initial training on land, although expected to serve at sea. Characters with this background are assumed to have spent enough time on ships to have 'learned the ropes.' Characters from other backgrounds who join the Royal Marines will always start as Recruits (not Troopers) and will be expected to fight at sea. Characters with Marine background are allowed to determine starting rank normally (just as Soldiers in Flashing Blades). The Royal Marines are recruited in both France and the Colonies. - High Seas, 2.2 NEW BACKGROUNDS & SKILL CHOICES, p. 1

The piracy supplement High Seas gives us French Royal Marines as a character background and career path, along with a very good colonial "small wars" adaptation of the original military campaign minigame in the Flashing Blades core rules. Established in 1622 by Cardinal Richelieu - who was sincerely dedicated to improving France's presence as a marine power - as les compagnies ordinaire de la mer, the first royal marines were composed of independent companies commanded by naval officers to patrol the docks and man the ships of the nascent royal navy. By 1626, the independent companies were first organized as a regiment, le régiment de La Marine, and through various reformations and renamings through the rest of the 17th century, French marines would remain a fixture of the Royal Navy, though not without challenges, such as a succession of ministers of war appropriating the various marine regiments for service in the Royal Army.

A Marine's duties are described in High Seas as follows (4.2.3 Marine Duty, p. 8).

Marines may be stationed either on land (as additional garrison troops for forts) or at sea. For every two months served aboard ships, a Marine may spend one month at a colonial port. While garrisoned in the colonies, Marines determine Colonial Campaigns in the same way as Colonial Soldiers. Marine troops are added to the French total in Colonial Campaigns, but are usually stationed only in small numbers (twenty or forty).

At sea, Marines are assigned to serve as boarding and defensive troops on French Warships and Merchantmen. On a small or medium sized ship (such as a Corsair, Merchantman, or Small Warship) a squad of twenty Marines will be stationed. Larger vessels may have forty or sixty Marines (two or three squads). Warships rnay carry large numbers of Marines for raids.

On board Merchantmen, Marines are only defensive. Roll for normal encounters for the ship (as detailed in section 6.2.3). If a hostile encounter occurs, use the rules in section 6.4 to determine the outcome.

On Warships, Marines rnay participate in Naval Battles (as boarders), or in land raids on foreign colonies'(as raiders). The design and use of naval battles are up to the discretion of the Gamemaster. If the High Seas players are familiar with wargaming, the Gamemaster may wish to use some advanced rules for naval battles (see the beginning of section 6.4 for a list of good ship-to-ship wargaming rules). Otherwise, the rules in section 6.4 may be adapted for small naval battles.

Marine raids on foreign colonies should be handled as detailed in section 4.2.2. Marine raiders, however, may face varying numbers of defenders, depending upon the colony and the situation (as determined by the Gamemaster). After successfully taking a foreign port, Marines may roll twice for Booty.

So, good enough as far as it goes. Can it be more?

First, in 17th century France, another option for characters wishing to serve as sea soldiers is a military Order, the Knights of Saint John, based on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Sergents, lay brothers of the order, served as marines aboard the knights' galleys, and later roundships, in their ceaseless war with the Barbary corsairs and the Sublime Porte. Sergents can also be found at commanderies - abbeys - of the order in France. A campaign of player character knights, sergents, and sailors aboard a ship of the order could be a lot of fun.

Second, does a character with the Marine background have to be a marine at all? Looking at the skills available to Sailors/Pirates and Marines in High Seas (2.2 New Backgrounds & Skill Choices, p. 2), both backgrounds offer the following skills: Acrobatics, Captaincy, Seamanship (which Sailors/Pirates receive automatically), and Strategy. Both backgrounds may take the Gunnery martial skill as well. The main differences are in bonus skills between the two backgrounds - Marines get Captaincy and Strategy, Sailors/Pirates get Acrobatics - the presence of Pilot on the Sailor/Pirate's skill list, and martial skills, with Marines getting three and Sailors/Pirates only two.

With this in mind, a character with the Marine background could take the necessary skills to be eligible to sign on for a Sail or Gunnery position aboard ship from their own background skills. This effectively makes a "marine" simply a sailor who is better trained at fighting than his shipmates.

So is a "trained fighter" really a thing in High Seas? Well, as a matter of fact . . .

Once an enemy ship has been grappled, boarders (led by the ship's Master-at-Arms) may swarm aboard. At this point it is necessary to determine how many Trained Fighters are in each crew, as shown below:

• 1/4 of a Merchantman Crew are Trained Fighters
• 1/3 of a Navy Ship or Privateer Crew are Trained Fighters
• 1/2 of any English or Dutch Crew are Trained Fighters
• All Pirates are Trained Fighters
• All Marines are Trained Fighters
• All of a Ship's Officers are Trained Fighters

A boarding party may only be made up of Trained Fighters. (6.4.7 Grappling and Boarding Melee, p. 20)

So, a "Marine" then could be a Royal Marine, a sergent of the Knights of Saint John, or simply a sailor or pirate who's a bit more badass in a fight and serves in boarding actions.

My current campaign includes one more option for service as a sea soldier: the marine militia. Members of the city militia may also serve aboard the chamber of commerce-owned privateer galleys as "marines" and are treated as Trained Fighters.