All at Sea - The Leeward Line using War by Sail, Solo Game Playthrough - Part Two

Picking up from where I left off last week, I've been messing about on the table with the 1:700 age of sail ship collection completing play of The Leeward Line scenario from turn three as the rest of Admiral Collingwood's leeward column of British ships closed to contact with the Allied line at Trafalgar.

Warlord Games - Trafalgar Leeward Line.pdf

A lot of die rolling ensued as the British ships barged their way through the forward line of Franco-Spanish ships to luff up alongside and begin the process of exchanging close range broadsides like two boxers mixing it on the ropes, and it seems produce a result very similar to the historical reality of the battle.

Wargame Vault - War by Sail

The pictures below are taken from the close of play and, I think, really capture why this scale of model  adds so much to the table-top impact of the game, which has provided lots of food for thought for staging something much bigger.

In the video I was keen to try and illustrate the damage sustained by the two fleets over a period of time that can represent up to two hours of fighting, and it is worth stressing, as pointed out in the video summary of the damage percentages, that the percentages represent the damage sustained to the ship's ability to fight, float and/or manoeuvre, not for example, a percentage of crew casualties sustained. 

I played the scenario to the actual events as much as possible so had the British ships reserving their first broadsides until within close range, and if the chits presented the opportunity, allowing them to make raking attacks as they passed through the Allied line.

Once the first broadsides were fired, War by Sail models the need to either take a whole turn not firing to reload or to reload and fire as the target bears, testing the individual gun crews to see if they are ready to open fire, with the better trained British crews more likely to get more of their guns ready to fire than the French or Spanish.

I will no doubt try this scenario again using 'Kiss Me Hardy' as a comparator, which, with the rules scaled at around 1:900, should work well as written for this scale of model. 

Santa Anna-112 guns exchanges greetings with Royal Sovereign which saw Admiral Colingwood and his officers come under fire.

Behind the Santa Anna, Le Fougueux 74-guns wallows in the swell, critically damaged and on fire, but with its crew determinedly hanging on and its colours flying

HMS Tonnant has just passed through the Combined Fleet line with the two French 74's, Le Pluton and L'Algeciras, Admiral Magon's flagship, having been saluted on the way through.

HMS Mars 74-guns (left centre) surrounded by enemy ships having contributed to the distress of the French 74's, Le Fougueux and Le Pluton in its wake crosses the bow of the Spanish Monarca 74-guns

HMS Tonnant's stern quarters can be seen as the British ship cuts through the Allied line

HMS Colossus cuts the line to the rear of the Spanish 74-gun Bahama as the stern quarters of HMS Bellerophon are seen further along the line crossing the bows of the Spanish ship, with Admiral Magon's French 74-gun L'Algeciras in the process  of hauling down her colours.

So if you would like to see how the scenario played out just click on the video links below, with the link to Part One first, for those that might have missed it followed by Part Two below:

Next up: More adventures in Vassal as Steve and I reacquainted ourselves with Columbia Games'  Richard III as we sat down between Xmas and New Year to play the Wars of the Roses Campaign game, and work is progressing to add another six French 74's to the age of sail collection.