Battle of Cape Finisterre - 1805

The pressures on.

First it was on the ANF, principally Julian, to come up with a set of rules that would work for grand fleet actions and he has done just that, with the eponymously named Grand Fleet Actions in the Age of Sail set of rules by A and A Game Engineering.

Second and more harrowing, is on me to do justice to the grand game we played on Saturday with this blog post, which I fear is already late.  James got in first with his post here.

The only real challenge we faced, in what is a very large naval game, was ship identification.  There is not a lot of differentiation in the SoG models, but Julian had numbered his ships.  However this numbering was on the shiny black bottoms of the vessels in a shiny dark blue.  To read them required picking up and a lot of peering.  Some discussion was held about adding tiny, numbered pennants. I know for my SoG models that it can get fiddly, but adding flags certainly lifts the beauty of the models.

I still reckon the SoG ships are a sorry tale of missed opportunities.  Having seen how well Zvedza can manufacture things (and Kinder Surprise for that matter), it should have been possible to have removable masts with different sail settings and displaying damage etc.  Also the boxing with all the SoG paraphernalia is a mistake.  However I am sure there were some good business reasons for why things turned out as they did.  End of grumble.

Sadly I do not have the OOB and so I will be naming squadrons after the players, not the historical counterparts.

Each side had four squadrons.  

Julian had the lead French squadron followed by myself, 

then Mark B and finally James in command of the Spanish.

The British were lead by Olivier,

followed by Stephen and Mark W

with their fourth squadron hidden by the fog.

The battle was fought in fog and to reflect this command radius had been halved, which resulted in ships sailing in line astern (I think that is the proper naval term) to keep in command.

Also note, the paper next to each squadron was all that was required to keep records of damage etc. 

Just the British fleet, aiming to intercept and destroy their rivals.

The French fleet seeking to exit the the sea zone.

The French had the wind,

it is possible that this hampered the British,

but we'll see...

As Julian's squadron nears the enemy,

the forward two British squadrons start to open up like a set of jaws.

Julian's squadron gets first shot, against Olivier's ships.

But then it was time for Stephen's ships to come up,

and blast away at Julian's ships.

Olivier's ships get to return fire.

Julian's squadron is now heading down the throat of the British.

Mark W's squadron is coming up to close the trap.

Julian is doomed!

Stephen gets another set of broadsides in against Julian.

But now my squadron has come round to engage Olivier's ships,

which are trying to bear down on Julian's now somewhat fragmented squadron.

Julian is pulling away to port into the path of Mark W's four ships of the line.

However Olivier's ships are trapped between mine and Julian's tail.

Olivier's ships take a pounding.

Worse, his flag is lost in a failed boarding action.

Can it get any worse?

Yes.

Damned fine dice rolling by me causes one of Olivier's ships to explode!

Julian's ships are taking a battering from both Stephen and Mark W's squadrons.

But Mark B has now come up and will give Olivier some more heat.

Julian's two lead ships have been dispersed by Mark W's squadron

 which is now attempting to engage my squadron.

My ships return fire, carefully trying not to hit one of Julian's damaged ships.

Stephen has failed to seriously damage Julian's squadron

and is possible going to Olivier's rescue, or not...

Hopefully the labels make things a little clearer in the above image.

My squadron is the thin blue line, Julian's the slightly thicker line.

Mark B's squadron is now engaging both Olivier's and Stephen's squadron.

However Oliviers squadron is so wrecked and demoralised that it is no longer a real threat.

Olivier's ships struggle down the line, now coming under fire from the Spanish ships.

Mark W's ships have turned to come down on the rear of my squadron, 

but will not cause any serious damage.

Mark B's lead ships are engaged with Stephen's...

My squadron and Julian's have now broken free and 

even some of Julian's previously lost ships have regained their colours.

The British reserve squadron has now come up against Mark B's squadron 

which has broken through Stephen's ships.

(There is actually a bit of intermingling, but it would spoil the image to label it all up)

Olivier has sailed harmlessly past the Spanish who will now engage Mark W's squadron.

And there it came to an end, with Julian declaring he would fight on alone, if necessary.

Shiver me timbers

I have six Sails of Glory models. It seemed like a good idea at the time and they certainly do fill a need.

What I don't really understand is why they are so fragile...

 Both the foremast and the mizzen have broken at their respective bases.

When this happened to the Imperial, it was a clean break and I drilled out the deck, placed a hollow metal tube in the hole and reshaped the remaining mast and plugged it in (see this post).  I expected to do the same with this frigate.  I even noticed I had had a go at gluing/strengthen the mast before.

But the breaks weren't clean - as in the mast still had a little "connection" with the deck.  So I thought I would try gluing once more.  This time I first applied a dab of super glue and applied pressure to straighten and close the crack in the mast.

I'm not sure what I expected but it seemed to work.  Then I set to doing about half a dozen coats of PVA glue over the same number of days in a do-it-yourself decoupage, not décolletage, strengthening exercise although the latter term has merits.  I regularly use PVA glue in this way to strengthen bayonets, spears etc on my miniatures and believe it can be an excellent varnish (although it is cglossy and must be applied sparingly).

Repaired with the masts now standing proud and dare I say, perky.

Quick bit of Napoleonic Naval Action

The planned fleet level game using Darren's ships and the Galleys and Galleons rules had to be postponed till next week, which was just as good, as a simple practice game last night demonstrated that a few barnacles had adhered to my memory of the rules.  They were quickly removed and play commenced.

 The British cut across the French as they head out to see.

Stephen N, as first to arrive was given command of the French who were on a mission to the Americas to retrieve an errant family member of one of the political class.  Utmost discretion was required.

Mark B commanded the blockading Royal Navy.  Interception was a given, but could they put a stop to this French adventure?

 The French got in first, blasting up the lead British ship.

As this was a very simple game to get back into the rules, the Frigates were Q3 C3, the 3rd Rates Q3 C4 and the French Flagship, a 1st Rate at Q5 C5.  They all had chaser guns rated at C1 and either Master Gunner or Trained Gun Crew ability.  

Damage has been marked with cotton wool, as I'd left black dice at home and couldn't find my other markers that I would have used for this purpose.

 As sailing ships keep moving there is little room for maneuver, although the French did try a bit.

The perpetual movement produces lots of opportunities for collisions, but I ruled ships would veer away before crashing into another ship as they are not built for ramming and also really don't take up all the space represented by their model.

I need to give this a bit more thought and I'm tending to have damaged ships to be at risk of collision and/or fouling.

 The French are through.

The British fire had been abysmal.  I had forgotten to bring my dice and we were using Mark B's sea-sickness green dice and they served him abominably.

The French will escape.

Will there be a chase?

Will they encounter other Royal Navy patrols on the High Seas?

What about the return journey?

I did make use of the Sails of Glory counters.  I now think I best actually do an inventory of the counters and their meanings.  This requires more work, but an initial allocation matches well with the Critical Damage table.

 Captain hit

 Grappled

 Magazine explodes

 Fire

 Fouled

 Rigging damaged

 Sinking

 Rudder damage

 Taking on water

The Rules or the Models?

This is a variation on the question: "are you a gamer or a collector?"  It is also a bit of a chicken and egg question.

Another variant is wargame models or museum quality miniatures.

This all arose from an exchange of correspondence prior to receiving my Sails of Glory starter set.

Thickness of bases - thin for better table ascetics, or thick for ease of handling?

What I can say about the Sails of Glory miniatures is that they make excellent (as in hard wearing or playing) wargaming models. For the game you can use other miniatures and you can definitely use the Sails of  Glory models for other rules (maybe just with a change of base or no base at all).  Same goes for the planes.

So in that sense Sails of Glory (and Wings) is a double plus good investment.

I started this post in April 2014 and have let if fester since then.

Wings of Glory for WW1 is fine and great fun for a club night.  Unfortunately for WW2 it just doesn't work for me (which is not to say that WoG WW1 is perfect - handling of altitude, collisions and passing shots for example).  The search for WW2 air rules continues and I'm keen to try out some of the hex based systems.

Sails of Glory on the other hand has been surpassed by Galleys and Galleons.  Much simpler but very much more playable.  It is still early days in using G&G for Napoleonic naval and I am working with the ANF in their long search for the perfect Napoleonic naval rules.

Other related developments in my favourite wargame periods also touch on this subject - the models or the rules.

Ancients

Impetus has been a major success and has seen an expansion of my 15mm Tin Soldier collection which was already undergoing an expansion due to using Field of Glory.

Can do Saga in 28mm, but I prefer using the figures for Songs of Blades and Heroes.

Always ready to do a DBA game.

Galleys and Galleons has been great for Ancient Naval and I'm keen to see how things go with the Roman Seas paper boats.

ACW

Fire and Fury 15mm, nothing further to say.

That said, I wouldn't mind having some of those ACW ironclads...

Napoleonics

Napoleon's Battles 15mm works for me.  Songs of Drums and Shakos I enjoy for skirmish and as for naval, still searching (definitely G&G and maybe It's Warm Work).

WW2

Crossfire and Blitzkrieg Commander and Megablitz and 1/72nd or 1/76th and 15mm and really I'm all over the shop.  I just like the models.

Fantasy

Songs of Blades and Heroes and HotT.  More the former as I can just get away with single figures that take my fancy.  I will probably take my Barsoom project forward with the Songs rules.

Conclusion

For me I think it is the models first, then the rules.  Napoleon's Battles maybe the exception, and Fire and Fury as well, but that might just reflect my age.

Great hobby!

Heart of Oak

In the continuing quest with the ANF for the perfect Napoleonic wargaming rule set, yesterday we (Stephen N, Mark B and myself) ventured out to tackle Heart of Oak with the ANF crew.  Julian had put together the Glorious First of June as the test scenario for these rules.  While we had copies of the rules from Wargames Vault, I think it fair to say I was probably the only person who had been able to make a pass at reading them.  So while experienced miniature wargamers, with some knowledge and experience of naval wargaming, we were completely new and unknown to Heart of Oak.

All ship models are from Sails of Glory.  The game scale was 1 mm equals 1 metre, not very nautical but spot on for the model scale.  The wind was fixed at strength 3 and was from the SSW.  North is the left hand side of the table in the following picture.

The two fleets at set up, at extreme range (about 1.4m)

The French (on the left, downwind) are commanded by Julian with the Van, myself as CinC Centre and James with the Rear.  The British commanded by Mark W with the Van, Stephen as CinC Centre and Mark B with the Rear.

The British Van turns towards the French line.  The French were moving at 8, 12 or 16mm per turn.  A turn was a minute.  We completed eleven turns in seven or eight hours.

The French flagship.  We rolled ship and crew quality and had some strange mixes.  Smart ships with poor crews and Hookers with crack crews.  The French flagship was blessed with a green crew.

The British are now all turning towards the French.  The French line is getting messy as the ships travel at different speeds due to their quality (fair enough) and while only a few mm it soon adds up meaning keeping in formation becomes problematic.  My thought is that Hookers could be restricted to their speed, but Average ships could choose from the Hooker to the Average speed distance and for Smart ships they could select from the range Hooker to Smart.  Otherwise you'd have to fiddle with sail settings all the time.  However, maybe that was the idea. As we were giving battle we all had fighting sail set.

Some of the British ships.  After a few test shots at extreme range we waited until medium range (under 700mm) to start blasting.  Damage was impressive to start with, but soon tapered off, but not before lots of cries of alarm that the concentrated French fire was going to sink a British ship, something that never ever happened they cried.

The French Van did some tacking.  As a result one ship was demasted.

Heat and exhaustion set in and we called a halt.

I thought the rules were playing well.  The scale of the scenario was a challenge, but seemed to be working okay.

I did see an issue with the chance for critical, especially with a poor crew as it meant it was worth their while to blaze away even if there was little chance of creating damage, there was always a chance of a critical.  I would reserve criticals only for full broadsides or just reduce the chance to one percent for continuous fire.

Moving at mm isn't practical.  I find cm hard enough with Impetus.

Sailing when you specify the ship's heading (thanks to Kaptain Kobold for that tip) works a dream.

Spot the Difference

The out of the box Sails of Glory boats are a bit bland and benefit from some pimping.  Also allows for a bit of identity rigging.

Flagging the Fleet

I've finally finished detailing my Sails of Glory ships (all six of them) by painting the yards and masts and giving the sails a wash.  The final act was to replace the fixed flags with swappable flags so I sail as either...

British

French

My choice of flags and positions might not be historically accurate and I did run out of the Red Ensign, however I'm happy with the result and just love the top pennants fluttering in the breeze.

Fleet Review

This is a post so Julian can see the state of my Napoleonic fleet.  I'm still finishing tarting up some of the models and haven't completed replacing all the flags.  The plan with the flags is to be able to "flag" them as any nationality.

My unlucky paper boat.