Fire Ships: Ultimate Guide & Top Strategies for Oak & Iron

Fireships are a risky tactic in the game of Oak & Iron. Learn how to maximize your odds of sinking an enemy with a critical hit & how to defend your own fleet from them with our Fire Ship strategy guide.

What is a Fire Ship?

During the Age of Sail, a fire ship (or fireship), is a vessel that was intentionally filled with combustible materials or gunpowder and intentionally set on fire and sent into the ranks of an enemy fleet. Either by drifting or steering it was meant to ram enemy ships in order to ignite or destroy them in the process. It was also a great distraction and method to create panic and make the enemy fleets break formation. As they were destroyed in the process, they were often ships no longer fit for combat, retired vessels, merchant/fishing ships, or even recently claimed warship prizes.

Fire Ship Rules for Oak & Iron

When taking a fire ship, it’s meant to be a sacrificial lamb that after making an attack will ultimately result in its own death. The card can’t be stacked with additional upgrades so there is no strengthening the ship for additional damage or making it cheaper with downgrades like Unseasoned Timbers, Foul or Low Morale.

Fire Ships don’t make standard attacks. They immediately apply as if they are Critical Hit attacks. That means your enemy ignores a ship’s benefits of you having a high Fortitude score and it makes your ship easier to kill.

Your ultimate goal/hope of a fire ship is to get the blessing of 2 Skull Critical Hits in your Attack roll and resulting in the target suffering a magazine hit and being immediately Crippled.

Keep in mind that once you make your attack you are not immediately sunk — you are Out of Action. That means you still have to roll to Sink and if you don’t sink, you remain an obstacle on board.

Because you are spending so many points on an important attack, you should plan to use a Fortune Point when rolling your attack to try a second time for a Critical Hit

Positioning your Fire Ships during the Deployment Phase

• If you have a Fire Ship in your fleet, keep that in mind during the initial deployment phase. Try your best to be the attacker in the scenario. The defender has to place their ships on the board first so you will have the advantage of knowing where to position your ships to attack their most valuable target.
• If you get the opportunity take the Corners deployment zone card (Fig 1.). This maximizes your opportunity to get as close to your opponent as possible. You can also choose to split your force and make your opponent divide their attention between the fire ship (and escorts) and your main attack force.
• Using Terrain is a mixed blessing for a Fire Ships and its use will depend on a number of factors. On one hand, you can use it to create lanes and bottlenecks for your opponent to move through and channel them into position for you to optimize your attack. On the other hand, the terrain can also limit your own fleet’s movements and force your fire ship to have to navigate a specific path making it susceptible to enemy fire.
• When deploying, you likely want to push your ships as far forwards toward the enemy position as possible to ensure you can engage the enemy before they can disable your fire ship at range.
• If your enemy deployed first, figure out your primary target and their likely sailing path and deploy to shorten the distance as much as possible. It’s best to sail head to head rather than from behind/alongside the target to be able to close as quickly as possible.

What ships should you select for Fire Ships?

One may be quick to apply this upgrade card to the Sloop since it’s the cheapest, smallest ship option. However, you should first consider the Corvette or Brigantine as they both have the Fast attribute which can give you the ability to close with your intended target. The Brigantine may be a point more in cost, but it offers an additional point of Broadside which is doubled to two dice for the Fire Ship attack.

In a large 200 pt game, a Fluyt, Petite Frégate, or 6th Rate can be tempting. Like a Brigantine a Fluyt has a 4 Broadside, but it comes with High Freeboard so it’s more durable and can increase your odds of surviving against the largest Ships of the Line. It is also 60% more expensive than a Brigantine. Petite Frégates also give you the 8 Dice attack while allowing you to be fast and maneuverable getting you in the perfect position to strike your target. The 6th Rate focuses on the Damage output offering one of the highest options of the smaller ships

If you are playing the Pirates, a particularly bold captain may be willing to take the risk of turning the Revenge into a Fire Ship. This is a bit expensive and risky, but it grants you potential Critical Attack check with a devastating 10 dice! If successful, it is often enough to take out even the largest Ships of the Line. Such an attack is similar to sacrificing a knight or rook to take a queen in chess.

Fire Ship Damage Comparison Table

How to make sure your Fire Ship hits its target

As speed and closing with your target at the last minute are often important to a successful attack, spending an extra point for Swift to boost your speed or Sweeps to gain the Row Crew Action and gain an additional Move 1.

Secrecy and deception are important for a successful attack with a Fire Ship. If it’s revealed to your opponent early. they will move to avoid it or sink it early limiting its use. Movement strategies for your Fire Ship:

Fire Ship Attack Strategies

• If your opponent asks about your force makeup, tell them. Otherwise, keep your ship in formation and act “normal” to not tip off your surprise.
• Hide the fire ship behind another ship to deny your enemy Line of SIght, and being able to target it.
• Throw caution to the wind and charge in headfirst. It will draw the fire and attention of the enemy ships. Often causing them to place more emphasis on it than deserved. This distraction can allow you to maneuver your other ships into position. And since your opponent won’t want to be the target of a Collision, it will frequently cause them to break formation. This denies them their Broadside attack bonus and often disrupts many initiative card bonuses.
• It is entirely possible for your Fire Ship to collide with multiple targets at the same time, especially if your enemy is in Formation. MAKE IT HAPPEN! Wreak havoc on both targets and watch your opponent’s facial expression when they realize the mistake they’ve made.
• Make sure you save at least 1 Fortune Point for your attack roll with the Fire Ship. It’s an expensive attack, you want to give yourself every opportunity to succeed.
• Try to delay the movement of your Fire Ship until after your target ship has moved so you can move in an appropriate intercept course.
• You can’t make other attacks with a Fire Ship so you don’t have to stress over remaining in formation. And it’s probably safer to stay out of formation in case one of your other ships gets taken Out of Action and you risk a collision with it.

How to select the best Initiative cards with a Squadron Fire Ship

There are multiple initiative cards that allow for additional mobility or movement that can push the Fire Ship into position to make a collision. If you select them for your force, remember to pick them on the round prior to your attack. Let’s take a deeper look at the initiative cards best paired with Fire Ships.

Fire Ship Initiative Card Recommendations

• Careful Aim – This is THE CARD to take and play at the right time if you can. It lets you reroll any missed Critical Hits. It’s definitely going to give you the best opportunity to hit the enemy’s gunpowder magazine and send them to the depths below!
• Adjust Position – This is useful in multiple ways. You can use it to shift and deny the enemy line of sight, move into position to actually cause a collision, or set yourself up for the next round. Unfortunately, it requires you to be in formation, which isn’t always the best tactic for fire ships.
• Favorable Wind – Helps close on your enemy as quickly as possible.
• Fleet Maneuver  – This allows your ship to get a free turn.
• Seize the Opportunity (Dutch) – this adds 2 more Dice to your attack roll. Upon further review, this is invalid as the bonus. The card explicitly applies during the Attack Phase and a Fire Ship collision happens during the Movement Phase.
• Engage More Closely (English) – All the benefits and uses of Adjust Position above.
• Swift Vessels (French)
• Superior Firepower (French) – “Increase the broadside value of each ship in this squadron by 2 for the rest of this turn. Discard this Initiative Card instead of returning it to your hand during the end phase.” This one is a bit of a loophole. While you aren’t making a Broadside attack, this card increases your Broadside attack by 2 for the round. Thus it is granting your Fire Ship 4… Yes, 4 more dice. If you play Pirates and take this card, you can have the Revenge attack with an INSANE 14 dice Critical Attack. That equates to a 53.7% chance of blowing the target ship(s) magazine crippling it instantly.

How to Maximize the Critical Hit Success with Fire Ship

The goal for your fire ship attack is to get that coveted 2 Skull Critical Hits on your Attack roll and resulting in the target suffering a magazine hit and being immediately Crippled. For a Ship of the Line that can lead to a large number of points of a force disappearing in a hurry.

• Make sure you save a Fortune Point for the attack roll. Nothing is more depressing than losing to a bad dice roll. If at first you don’t succeed, roll, roll again!
• Skill Points. While it may be a little questionable to spend Skill Points on a single attack, they are an option. On an inexpensive ship this gives you 1 or 2 more chances to roll a Skull. Even if you hit and inflict damage, but don’t get a Skull, you may want to use your Skill in hopes of getting a Critical Hit.

Captain Upgrades

By the Fire Ship card rules, you cannot add an upgrade to the ship. However, it has been clarified that Captains DO NOT count as Ship Upgrades. There are two options I’d recommend:

• Strict Captain (1pt). Strict Captains allows you to take 2 points of Fatigue instead of using a Fortune point when making a reroll. This essentially allows you to buy a Fortune Point for 1 pt if you have to re-roll your Fire Ship attack.
• Bold Captain (1pt). This option allows you to re-roll up to 3 Dice AFTER making your attack. If any of the re-rolled dice fail to score a hit you take a point of Fatigue. However, since this is a fire ship, Fatigue doesn’t matter because after the attack you will automatically be Out of Action anyway. The ability to re-roll AFTER the attack is that it lets you keep the Skulls you have rolled and select any misses or non-Skull successes. And, based on order of events, if the Bold Captain rolls fail, you can then use a Fortune Point and try again… and use the Bold captain ability again. (pg. 24 “Re-rolls given by crew skill or other special rules may be used again after spending a Fortune Point.“)

How to Defend Yourself from Fire Ships

A fire ship can be a scary sight in an enemy force. In larger point games, it can be a game-changer if it manages to hit a larger ship. Don’t panic if they show up on the board. Take a second to keep your focus and develop a plan to defeat them. After playing multiple games with fire ships on the board, we’ve come up with a few suggestions to help you keep your cool and defeat an enemy’s incoming fireship.

Deployment Strategies & Tips to Defeat Fire Ships

• Keep your distance. Kind of a no-brainer, but obviously the best advice is to stay away from them. At the start of the game lower your speed to minimal sail or even anchored. Make them come to you instead of closing the distance allowing as much time as possible to pepper the ship with hits at range.
• Start at one edge of the board with the wind at your back and your opponent downwind. This forces the fireship to sail Windward which is typically a slower speed. This will give you an extra round or 2 to fire at range.
• Start as far back in your deployment zone as possible. Again this is to put as much distance between you and the fireship as possible.
• Don’t select fog and islands during the pregame deployment. Both of these make it harder to see your opponent and you need every possible opportunity to shoot the incoming ship.
• Take rocks and shoals. They limit movement and create firing lanes for you to shoot the target. If you get lucky enough, the ship might get stuck on a shoal or hit a rock.
• Deploy all terrain 100% in your deployment zone so you can then adjust their position. This can allow you to create a small “wall” to defend yourself or force the fire ship to take a longer path to get to you. Check out our Terrain strategy guide for tips.

Strategies & Tips to Defeat Fire Ships

• Sacrifice a pawn… Use your smallest/cheapest ship to ram into the Fire Ship before it can ram your more valuable assets. A fire ships power is immediately activated at the point it suffers a Collision. It’s much better to lose a cheaper ship than something worth more points. Hopefully, the sacrificial ship is worth the same or fewer points than the fireship and it will be a wash. Also, don’t be in a hurry to just ram the ship. You don’t have to initiate the Collision, just make it inevitable. A frustrated opponent makes mistakes.
• If you can’t trigger a Collision use a smaller ship to interrupt its path and push it away from the main fleet.
• Focus your fire. Have everyone shoot it till it’s dead.
• Ignore it. If you don’t have a big fat ship with a lot of points to use, just ignore it. You are better off focusing on the prime targets and letting what happens, happen. Fire ships can often be diversions meant to keep you from focusing on the more important things in a battle. If you waste your time sinking a 7-10 pt ship and ignore the rest of the enemies you may be at a Strike Point deficit. Fire ships also earn zero Strike Points, so the only benefit to sinking it is to avoid the risk of taking 1 Strike Point for your ship being Crippled.
• Target the ship’s rigging to slow it down or even force it to Anchored speed (see pg 25 for rules on TARGETTING RIGGING).

Additional Content Suggestions:

• The Revenge Oak & Iron Ship Review
• More Oak & Iron Strategy & Tactics Articles