Players were a resourceful bunch, and Knife-in-the-Butt and the others aboard the Storm were no exception.
When they first boarded, they had been complete outsiders who knew next to nothing about sailing or warships, rookies whose cannon shots could miss by a mile.
But by the time the Storm and its small fleet of three large armed merchant ships and two fast reconnaissance sailing ships passed through the Storm Belt, their gunnery had begun to look respectable.
Their accuracy still left much to be desired. Against targets more than three hundred meters away, they had to make up for it with firepower density.
But at least, when Knife-in-the-Butt ordered a volley, the player gunners on all three gun decks could fire in rapid succession, sending their cannonballs in the same direction.
That was an excellent performance.
A warship's volley did not actually mean every cannon firing at once. Instead, the guns fired in rhythmic batches according to the ship's structure, the distribution of its guns, and tactical requirements.
Truly simultaneous volleys were extremely rare and generally discouraged in the age of wooden sailing warships, especially aboard large vessels with multiple gun decks.
Why?
The ship's structure could not withstand the recoil from so many cannons. Once or twice might be manageable, but repeated volleys would certainly tear it apart.
Even the steel battleships of World War II did not fire every gun aboard simultaneously. In actual combat, a volley usually meant "alternating fire by groups" or "volleys by deck."
The players aboard the Storm had learned one form of alternating group fire: firing from left to right in sequence, allowing fifty-two cannons to hurl half a ton of iron cannonballs within three seconds.
The accuracy of such fire remained uncertain, but the spectacle was magnificent and intimidating.
To achieve that