On November 10 and 11, I took the ships and Post Captain rules to MillenniumCon in
Austin. While there, I ran two games
using the rules, one with only a single ship per side, and a scenario with 10
ships and 8 players in total. Although I
took more photos of the second game, both games were quite interesting albeit
for different reasons.
In the first game, I simply pitted a British 74 Large (HMS Northumberland) against a French 74
(Cassard, of the Cassard/Temeraire class).
The two players very quickly understood the rules, and both played their
ships as one might expect. The French
player had the wind gauge, and at first stayed outside the 400-yard range so he
could move first. He would duck inside
400 yards to fire during one impulse of the turn, and then move out again in
the next impulse. He kept firing high
and getting rigging hits, but the British player was lucky, and kept repairing
them. The British player fired low, and
kept chewing away at the Cassard’s guns
and hull. He did get a critical that
destroyed the pumps, but the French player wasn’t yet concerned about that
damage. Finally though, the Frenchman
managed to get a critical that broke the Northumberland’s
fore topyard and that gave Cassard a
slight speed advantage. Now, the Cassard started closing the range to
utilize her advantage. As she approached
the Englishman at an angle, it was clear that she was going to use her speed
advantage to pull ahead. Then, once she
had the initiative she would turn and deliver a bow rake on Northumberland. Instead, the British player got a critical
hit with his starboard boardside and shot away Cassard’s wheel. With the
Frenchman forced to go straight, Northumberland
could turn and deliver a devastating (6 hits, 12 damage rolls) stern rake at
about 50 yards with the previously unengaged larboard broadside. When the smoke cleared, Cassard had the following damage, including what was inflicted in
previous turns:
- Captain dead,
- 4 Crew hits and 3 Marine hits,
- 5 Rigging hits,
- Mizzen topgallant mast fallen,
- Main topgallant mast sprung,
- 7 Gun box hits (out of 26 total),
- 5 Hull hits,
- Pumps out,
- Wheel smashed and
- One boat smashed.
At this point, the French player agreed to strike his
colors. By contrast, Northumberland had taken only:
- 2 crew hits and 1 Marine hit,
- 1 Gun box hit,
- 2 boats smashed and
- Fore topsail yard broken
There were also 3 Rigging hits, but they were repaired
during the battle. Both players said
that they enjoyed the game. More
importantly, I overheard the losing player describing the game to his friends
afterwards and he was both enthusiastic about it and very complimentary.
On Saturday, I ran a scenario entitled “Imperial Issues”
that dealt with a ‘what-if’ scenario off the island of Tortola in 1806. In the scenario, a French squadron of 6 ships
attacks a British squadron of 4 ships, attempting to drive them away so that
the French can attack the Jamaica Convoy that is set to arrive soon, albeit
after the game itself. While the French
squadron has more ships, they are hobbled by the fact that they have been at
sea for 6 months and are low on supplies to repair their ships. So, if any of them lose a mast (defined here
as at least a topmast) they must withdraw.
Also, the captain of one of the ships is Jerome Bonaparte and if he is
captured or killed the French cannot win. Unfortunately for the French Admiral, Jerome has a different set of
victory conditions and does not have to obey any orders from his superior. For the British, Antigua is only a couple of
days away so they are not worried about ship damage. However, this squadron is also the convoy
escort and there are no other ships available.
Consequently, if any of their ships are heavily damaged or disabled,
they must withdraw and thereby lose the scenario.
The picture below shows the beginning of the scenario. The wind is from the South (left side of the
photo), so the French have the wind gauge and the British are pointing.
The North edge of the map are rocky areas off the island,
and anyone exiting that edge will run aground.
The other edges are sea room.
The French ships came on in a mad rush, and as soon as the
leading ship was within 400 yards, turned to bring her guns to bear.
The shooting started right after this picture was taken, and
for some reason both sides decided to shoot high throughout the game. There wasn’t much damage being done at the
longer ranges though, and so the French fleet closed in again while the British
continued in their line ahead.
The French didn’t have everything their own way though, as
the British fired broadsides right into the teeth of their oncoming enemies.
This didn’t stop the French from getting so close that Veteran sideswiped and fouled Northumberland, locking both ships
together and breaking Northumberland’s
bowsprit. Because everyone kept firing
high, now the rigging damage was starting to pile up.
Since the French attacked without first forming a line, this
left all their captains free to pick their targets as they saw fit. One of the French ships had even hoisted more
sail and was working his way to the far side of the British squadron to double
it. Seeing that the British rear was in
danger of being overwhelmed, the two leading British ships (Canada and Elephant) decided to tack and come back down to assist their
comrades. Unfortunately, Canada went into irons while Elephant was successful and started to
come back towards the battle.
Canada drifted
onto the other tack and started back toward the battle, but by then time was
almost up. We decided to play through
the blue phase of the turn we were in, and then roll for rigging checks and
everything else. After that, I would
determine the winner. Now this is where
things got interesting!
Northumberland was
the most heavily damaged British ship, as she had NO rigging boxes left. That sent the mizzen topgallant mast over the
side. She also had a broken bowsprit,
and almost every yard was shattered thanks to a combination of critical hits
and the sideswipe with Veteran. She was, however, still capable of fighting as
she had only 2 gun and 2 hull hits along with some other insignificant
damage. Agamemnon lost her upper top and topgallant sails, 2 hull and 6
rigging boxes but still had all her guns.
Elephant lost 3 light and one
medium gun boxes and 4 rigging boxes but was otherwise intact. Canada
lost her fore topgallant sail, 4 rigging and 1 medium gun boxes, but were otherwise
undamaged.
While the above sounds pretty bad for the British, the
French were truly not much better off.
While Eole was completely
undamaged and Foudroyant had lost her
mizzen topgallant, the other ships were pretty beat up. Cassard
had a sprung mizzen topmast and was missing 8 rigging boxes, Veteran had only 5 rigging boxes
damaged, but also had a sprung foremast along with some other damage. Impetueux
also had 5 rigging boxes damaged, along with a heavy gun. Patriote,
however, was in serious trouble. She had
8 rigging boxes missing and that sprung her mizzen topgallant. Unfortunately for her, the wheel had been smashed
and she was heading towards the edge of the board that would cause her to run
aground on the rocks if the wheel was not repaired. So, while I called the scenario a draw at
that point, had it gone on for another turn or two, Patriote would have hit the rocks (unless she repaired her wheel,
of course, which I don’t think she would have had time to do). That would have required the French to
withdraw, and thereby give the victory to the British.
As an aside, how eager were the French captains to engage their British counterpoints? Well, this eager:
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| Patriote fires on both the British flagship Northumberland (right side), AND her comrade Veteran. |
