There were about 15 players at Tabletop Tuesdays Historical Gaming night and as we arrived there, we ventured into Phil Kilgor's store searching for that ultimate high we get from buying a new war-gaming magazine or game! They had the latest edition of "Miniatures Wargaming" and I bought one for a naval rules-set in it! We also did some trading - I traded my friend Alan a 1st Ed. "Krieg" game for a GMT "Barbarossa to Berlin" game and the "Alea" wargame mag. with the "Goose Green" Falklands battle game in it (the Alea mag is in Spanish but it came with a set of English rules too)!
Chad Gilbert announced the "weekly" moves and ending result positions for their DBA Campaign game and four or five players went off to play out the resulting "DBA battles" caused by the weekly moves!!
Also presented were Kenny Van Pelt’s new Napoleonic Naval rules-set : "Full Sail" based on the "As Per Margin" set and using Kenny’s "flats" Napoleonic sailing ships previously mentioned in "But Columbus, the world is flat" article. Kenny had set the battle-table up for "The Battle of Ushant" (based on the AH WSIM battle). The French fleet of 9 SOLs and 3 frigates were sailing along the coast toward the port of Ushant. The British fleet of 9 SOLs and 3 frigates were to seaward trying to cut the French ships from making port and forcing a battle in the open water!
The French fleet was divided into three squadrons of 3 SOLs (all 74s) and a frigate (for signaling) and I was assigned the van (front) squadron followed by the main and rear squadrons all in "line" formation with our 3 frigates off to our rights toward the coast. The British were running a parallel course in "line" formation about 3 feet (out of max. range - 2 ft.) from us to seaward on our left. Their frigates were on their left side to pass signals out of our visual range! The movement system was a throw of 2 dice (different colors) that determined which side "moves first" each move and which side moved second (determined by if your colored die was the higher number or the lower number)!
This was a good simple system. The wind was behind us and all ships could move the full "total" of both dice (against the wind - 1 die). All "unhurt" ships had to move at least the "lowest die" but could move the total of both. This system gives each side an equal chance at moving first/second and I like the fact that the English don’t dominate the initiative as in other rules-sets.
Our strategy (French) was to move full speed to the other side of the table where the port entry was and try to fight our way through before the damage was too great! I tried to follow this idea but keep the enemy fleet at maximum range (2 ft.) where their guns could only hit us on "6s"! This was possible as both fleets moved the same. Because of some turns by both fleets’ ships a couple gaps developed in both lines, especially between the van (lead) squadron and the main squadron of the English fleet! We French saw this as an opportunity to bunch our ships closer mass by slowing down our lead group (my ships) and letting our main group cut down our gap massing 6 of our SOLs against 3 SOLs of theirs (their lead group)!
The movement rules allowed frigates to move faster than SOLs by making their full moves then either making an additional turn (one extra turn) or rolling an additional movement die (plus up to 6 inches)! Frigates were like cruisers though not as heavily gunned and we got very adventurous with our frigates sending them out ahead of the battle-lines to place in the path of the advancing enemy line (slowing their progress) and making the enemy line turn out of formation (away from the port entry area).
Both sides sent their frigates out into the middle ground (between the fleets) where they could threaten and fire at the opposing lines hoping to draw fire from the opposing lines! The first-fire of each ship got double-dice (double hits?) but this was available for each ships sides guns (port/starboard) only once per game and if you could get the enemy to waste his first-fire advantages shooting at an expendable frigate, so much the better for your side later in the battle! My frigate met Alan’s frigate out in front of the port entry area and I was lucky enough to dismast him (with more mast hits) before he could destroy my guns (more gun hits)! He lost all control and drifted each turn with the wind!
Unfortunately for my frigate, the English’s first SOL in his van fouled my frigate (grappled) and in the hand-to-hand melee he took over my frigate as a prize and started sailing it away from the French coast!
About this time both van squadrons were in gun range (about 14") and we both first-fired our guns bearing! I was in position to fire two of my SOLs on one of his (2:1) and this helped a lot! Also we had gotten a few of the main (middle) group SOLs within long range (massing) to first-fire on the English van also! The English main (middle) group had held back out of range and the English rear group broke out of line and headed bow-on across the middle ground toward our rear group taking our rear groups first-fire in the process!
The English van group had reached a position where we were forced through a small gap along the coast to reach the port entry area. The battle was developing into two separate battles, one between the vans and the other between the main/rear groups of opposing ships!
In our battle of the vans we French got lucky about three moves in a row as the British were forced to move first each turn. This allowed the second moving French (in close) to move their ships to raking positions (front/rear of an enemy ship in close range where he cant fire back at you)! For raking fire you get double dice (double hits?) and I was able to dismast an English SOL. This SOL drifted on the next turn into another English SOL fouling him and neither English SOL could move till un-fouled by a die-roll! This gave me two turns where I could move past him to the port entry and to chase the frigate that I’d lost earlier! Two of my ships were hurt (half masts or less left) and could only move 1 dies-worth with the wind so going back to help in the big battle was out of the question, besides I was able to capture the British frigate that was drifting toward our port (a good excuse to be a coward and take a prize)!
In the main (big) battle to my rear (6 SOLs vs., 6 SOLs) both sides finally closed into a dis-organized melee of ships out of formation shooting and fouling (grapples) for boarding melees hand to hand! Two of the hand-to-hand battles developed and continued until one side or the other ran out of guns (crews). The French won the first one taking an English SOL as a prize and sailing it away from the battle, the second melee continued on as both sides took loses!
The French were ahead here in the middle 6 SOLs to 5 SOLs for the English and everybody was damaged to some extent! At this time the sun was setting (10PM real time) and the battle was over as darkness fell on the battle area! The only "sunken" ship was a French frigate but the opposing fleets had captured three of the frigates. The French had also captured the English SOL as a prize! The battle was determined to be a minor French victory!
We enjoyed playing this Napoleonic Sailing Battle game using Kenny Van Pelts "Full Sail" rules-set and ships (great looking flats!). As we helped Ken pick up he showed us his Roman/Greek Ramming Galley Fleets (again all "flats" - great looking)! Kenny had also brought his Ancient DBA figures he’d made (again great looking "flats") he’d gotten off the internet "http://users.skynet.be/gwindel/index.html
Kenny had some "Samurai Warriors" he’d made too (flats)! Kenny Van Pelts "Full Sails" rules-set is available from him, contact Kenny at his email at kenvanp@earthlink.net for $7 thru the mail or $5 in person (Kenny says hell be at both the Ft. Leavenworth Con and the Recruits-Con coming in the next few months!! By the way, Kenny is the author/editor of the "Penny Whistle" newsletter that’s available on Magweb.com if you’re interested!
We look forward to the Ft. Leavenworth Con at the Hunt Lodge (Feb. 20-21), the St. Louis Con in March at Grants Shelter, and the Recruits-Con March 27th at LSHS in south K.C.,Mo.! Good gaming all, Harold (Harold’s Old Games) Morgan in Gladstone Mo. (N.K.C.,Mo.)
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