All at Sea - Battle of Cape Ortegal or Strachan's Action, Devon Wargames Group

Sir Richard Strachan's 80-gun Caesar, flying his Commodore's pennant from the mainmast in pursuit of the French off Cape Ortegal 4th November 1805 - Francis Sartorius (RMG) 

This weekend I was at club running a new scenario that I wrote up for Kiss Me Hardy recreating the Battle of Cape Ortegal or Strachan's Action following the Battle of Trafalgar and fought on the 4th November 1805.

Battle of Cape Ortegal, 4th November 1805

This was the first opportunity I had to playtest things and the game seemed to play very well in a scenario where the cards are stacked against Rear-Admiral Dumonoir, as historically they were, but still allowing a really interesting game to develop during which the winter Biscay weather played its role in frustrating both sides plans of battle.

Not only that but in a game dominated by each sides line up of four third rates, each with a powerful 80-gunner leading each line, the frigates got to play a very important role, again just as they did in the historical fight.

The scenario uses many of the ideas I have incorporated into my write up of one-hundred single ship and squadron sized actions I covered in my previous post looking at the Capture of HMS Alexander, also play tested at the DWG, and I will look to make them both available nearer the time I get to finish this project with scenario number seventy eight completed this week.

If you would like to see how this particular game played out then just follow the link to the DWG club blog, below, where I have posted a full AAR of the game together with much of my thinking around its setup.

Devon Wargames Group - Battle of Cape Ortegal

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JJ