The Rules state that a ship is pinned when its bow touches any non bow part of

an enemy ship, does this mean an enemy ship may move so that its side

touches the bow of an enemy ship and therefore pin it? Please help

That is correct, in a way. On the "pinned" ships turn it may fire, ram, and board on its turn, then it is pinned. Not a very good idea to intentionally block and pin a ship, unless you are the spoiler, blocking for time or similiar reason.

Actually I just read something else, and if you are intentionally pinned you may not be able to ram, since you do not have a move action, and in that case, you can't board as that occurs after a ram action. Sooooo...I have to say it looks like the pinned ship can only fire, and that is only with one cannon that will have LOF.

This actually sets up a bunch of broken combos....jeez off to the WK Pirates Rules forums.

Yeah, actually I believe they wrote pinning in with the intent of making it a useable tactic, like pulling in front of a car on the freeway and cutting them off. If you can maneuver your ship properly, you can set up situations where you can bring far more firepower to bear than your opponent. Or, you can just keep them from running away from you.

I've thought about taking my big fat ship and pinning my opponents ship with the boradside of my ship. After my movement of L+S+S, I shoot and damage most of the masts. If they hit me back, then I either finish them off or repair my damage.

I agree with the idea that a ship can be pinned by an enemy ship. This seems to be the only effective way to take out those ever so annoying pirate ships with 4 masts and L+S speed or worse.

@Pseudotheist

Yes it was intentional. This manuever was actually a navel tactic during this era. It was called 'Crossing the T'.

Piranha just ruled (see WK site) that the only way a ship can be pinned is if that ship has just executed a ram order and the target still has sails. You can't pin your enemy's ship just by making its bow touch your ship somewhere. Yes this is different from some previous rulings on the WK site. Hope the FAQ comes out tomorrow.

Better be careful barzillai, in that very same thread he changed his mind and reversed himself.

To be quite honest, I am becoming disenchanted with this game very quickly.

These last few posts answer exactly the question which I intended to ask, but I see that they are several months old. Are the rules still as barzillai describes, such that I can not bring the side of my ship into contact with my opponants bow and pin the enemy ship?

Also, if I have Skyme the Monkey, can I bring two ships together side by side and let the monkey steal something without either ship being pinned?

Geoff

Back to the original question: YES, you can do that. You can move your ship so that the enemy is pinned. But you cannot move until the enemy ship moves away.

Another tactic that's popular is using your bow to touch the opponents bow. Both ships are pinned. The only way to move is to sink either of the ships. This is a great tactic when you need to stall a large fearsome enemy gunboat.

Use something small like the Zephyr. They need at least 2 turns to sink you as the angle is such that they can only hit you with the front cannon.

Actually, if you read the definition of "pinned" closely, you'll note that your baw has to be against a "non-bow" part of an opponent's ship.

Regarding Skyme--yes, so long as your ship is touching, you can jack a treasure from them. In fact, you can jack a tresure on your turn and again on their turn before they move, because it doesn't specify either player's turn.

Any time when your bow touches any non-bow part of their ship, you become pinned. The ram is exectuted as a free action for the player who pinned themself. Since your opponent pinned you, there is no ram. The board is a free action after a ram has been executed. Since there was no ram, no board can occur either. You can only fire the next turn (with that ship). You cannot move unless your opponent moves away or becomes derelict. When a ship is derelict, you are no longer pinned and cannot be pinned with the derelict ship, but you cannot move through the ship either.

These are the rules to the best of my knowledge.

Strategies: The larger the ship pinning an enemy, the easier it will be for them to fire on, but it can also take more damage. Smaller ships will be difficult to fire on, but may be derelict too easily. Take the first two cannons on your opponent's ship into account, as they will be the cannons most easily used.
If your opponent derelicts your ship pinning them, but you use a shipwright on your turn, they're pinned again.
Shipwright & Calico Cat/Myngs/Castro:two masts repaired in one turn, to make it that much more difficult them to take you out.

Pseudotheist, check your PM's please. :)

That has changed. If you download the latest rules from WK, it says that a ship is pinned when its bow is in contact with ANY part of the enemy ship. The pinned ship can't move until the other ship moves away or is derelict.

Going back to my earlier post, a good strategy to stall an opponents ship is to use your bow to touch the opponents bow, effective PINNING both ships. If you do so at a correct angle, they can only fire upon you with one gun.

If you have a shipwright on the ship, you repair each turn and they're stuck for pretty much the whole game unless they have another ship to save the pinned one.

Great tactic against single uber gunboat fleets. Especially effective with small ships like the Zephyr.