Naval Wargames Society Weekend 2023 - Fleet Air Arm Museum Yeovilton.

 

A few weeks ago I took the 'All at Sea' collection of ships up to the Naval Wargames Society Weekend Meeting at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton in Somerset to play the Bantry Bay-1796 Scenario that I've been working on with Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) in recent months, and was joined by Captain Steve, Mr Steve, Jack and Glyn on the Sunday.

JJ's Wargames - Naval Wargames Society Weekend

I first attended the show last year where Captain Steve, Glyn and the Penarth boys joined me to play the Leeward Line Scenario, link above, and we really enjoyed our day and so I put a note in the calendar to come along again this year. 

As well as just relaxing and enjoying our game of Kiss Me Hardy it was fun to chat with other game organisers and grab some pictures from the day of a few of the games as I always like to garner ideas from other folks whilst perhaps sharing a few of my own and chatting over the games is a great way to do just that.

This is by no means a complete look at all the games, but some that grabbed my attention, and illustrates well the NWS coverage of naval warfare throughout the ages of oars, sails and steam turbines.

The Pola Incident - Cranwell Wargames Club 'the old dirigibles'

Late Victorian 1/2400,

Regional tension bubbles over in this hypothetical engagement between the Italian and Austrian navies. Set in 1908 using using an adaption of David Manley's Broadside and Salvo Rules.

Battle of Brest - Ian Armstrong

Tudor Hose and Feathery hat action

1513 saw Henry VIII's admiral sent out with the Royal Navy to find and take the French fleet to task. Will the cutting edge of Tudor naval technology and valorous commanders be able to defeat France's impressed fleet, supported by a squadron of 'Le Roi's' galleys? 

ACW Ironclads - David Manley

David had his lovely ACW printed model collection on show for this game and the models together with the level of detail he has achieved was quite remarkable and shows how this aspect of the hobby is only likely to become more important as time goes on.

Battle of Djerba 1560 - Simon Stokes

Renaissance fleet action off the North African coast, 1:2400 scale.

Ottoman galley fleet versus Christian Alliance galley fleet fighting for control of the fortified island of Djerba.

Bantry Bay-1796

A 'What-if Scenario' that sees a French squadron under Commodore Bedout, with eight warships attempting to escort four troop transports into the anchorage in Bantry Bay opposed by Sir Edward Pellew's Inshore Squadron and supported by Sir James Samaurez and the Fast Division from the Channel Fleet, fought in 1:700 scale using Kiss Me, Hardy.

The set up for the game using a 6 x 4 foot layout, which we increased on the day to give us a bit more sea room for setting up, but the planned table will work just as well as both sides are likely to have to contend with a bow wind from the north to contend with at some stage in the game.

The table seen below, interprets the map above, with us making good use of a larger table to give us more sea-room to set up the opposing forces.

This would be the fourth play-through of this scenario, and would produce a different game yet again to those that preceded it.

Bantry Bay 1796 - Kiss Me Hardy Scenario & Ship Record Sheets

That may have something to do with me continuing to try out different ideas in each game, and so the final scenario briefing I have composed, together with the attached ship sheets, reflects the benefit of that experience and I have put a link in 'My Scenarios'  and also above where you can request a pdf copy, should you fancy having a go with this game.

The ship record cards include everything you need to know about an individual ship, together with some stats at the bottom illustrating the historical vessel it represents. Additionally each vessel has a pennant number next to the ensign and its name so you can easily number the model on the table should you wish for easier identification.

Above and below are examples of how the ship record sheets look in the scenario brief, and I thought I should include a brief description of how I produce and use them.

Here seen in a previous games are the record cards in their laminate pouches

So once printed out on heavy stock paper, I simply take a steel ruler, cutting mat and sharp modelling knife and remove the long edges to each page by cutting slightly inside of the line. I then gently run my knife along the centre line separating the record sheet at the bottom from the seemingly upside-down card back, with the name and rating of the ship on it. Don't press so hard that you cause a cut, this is simply to allow you to fold the record sheet back on itself to have the two sides of the record, so you can keep the information of damage etc discreet, should you choose.

Likewise here you can see the cards being used face down to preserve some 'fog-of-war' by not having the damage status easily seen by the opposition

I then cut down the centre line to separate the two record cards and trim the bottom edge of the card, once it is folded back on itself, just for neatness, before laminating it, with examples of the cards being used by the chaps in the close-ups seen above. 

The illustration above, shows how we use the cards to record damage status, provide a quick reference for abilities that add dice to gunnery or inform on morale checks

 

 

So this game produced a really tense climax with the French getting a transport over the line into Bear Haven and seeing the British dismissing getting a result from the game within the first six turns, as the French barrelled along in the prevailing head wind and looked well set to force an entry into the anchorage.

This French map of the Bantry Bay anchorage at Bear Haven illustrates the imagined area for our battle, somewhere in the approaches to the bay between Black Bull Point and Sheep's Head.

Unlike any of the previous games, the wind stayed persistently from the north and the sea refused to 'Get Choppy', thus ensuring the fighting up close became quite brutal as the third-rates unleased their full firing potential.

The game also illustrated the learning I was able to outline to the respective players, gleaned from the previous games, which is the importance for both sides to deploy in a way that will enable them to progress towards their objective in the quickest, shortest way, not easy with the prevailing wind, probably requiring tacking and wearing to get into a good position.

Thus the French need to deploy as close to the wind as possible and to head obliquely for the entrance to Bear Haven, focussed entirely on getting their transports over the line and not with too much concern over their escort ships, which just need to do the job of protecting the transports from the British long enough, that is before any likely loss of morale caused to the squadron by losses in ships.

 

Likewise the British need to get across the table using a quartering wind to stop the French progress and to either get at the transports by skilful manoeuvre, likely forcing them onto a bow wind at times, or to get stuck into the escorts and hope to cause a break off that causes the whole French force to run for it.

In this game I allowed the British to set up anywhere along the table edge other than on the same entry point and the subsequent deployment by Samaurez left the frigates under Pellew unsupported for much of the game and forced to fight the lead French third-rates, with the Indefatigable able to soak up a lot of French fire before withdrawing under the cover of Samaurez finally coming up in support.

The stout fight put up by Pellew's razee allowed the other two British frigates to slip through the French cordon and get at the transports, causing three of them to strike, joined by a French third rate battered in the fight with Pellew, that caused the French to break off after their lead transport made it into the anchorage.

The consistent outcome of the setup is to see the scrum of a ship battle right in the mouth of the entrance to the Bear Haven anchorage, with French commanders trying to hold off the British assault as they shepherd in the transports, not at all easy but great fun.

The only aspect I haven't tried with the game is to have French shore batteries set up on both or one of the headlands to give the British something else to think about, and these could be set up in ambush, so not revealed until they open fire, which would add to the uncertainty caused by possible wind changes and sea conditions.

Once again we had a very enjoyable day with the NWS and the Fleet Air Arm Museum and were able to chat to some visitors to the museum who took the opportunity to find out what wargaming is all about.

The size of the hall and the tables available would seem to be an excellent venue for staging something a bit bigger, over the two days of the show - now that's something to think about!

Thank you to Jack, Capt. Steve, Mr Steve and Glyn for providing all the fun of our game, and to all the NWS team and the folks at the Fleet Air Arm Museum for enabling a very enjoyable day. I look forward to next year.

Next up: I have some British 64-gun third rates for Camperdown to showcase, and some battlefield walking adventures and Tolkien related stuff with Mr Steve to report, plus another future project has fired the imagination.

More anon 

JJ