All at Sea - Battle of Camperdown, Game Planning.

 

As I sat down to compose this post it struck me that I have been wargaming for fifty years this year, and I should add that my interest and enjoyment of the hobby has been consistent in that fifty years in that I have never been in and out of it as I have observed with others who have had time away, only to find the itch reassert itself and themselves completely diverted by a particular theme that suddenly grabbed the enthusiasm causing them to restart all over again; no my love affair has never waned, but I can say it has matured and evolved in those five decades and aspects that originally enthralled me in my salad-days are less compelling now, replaced in part by other aspects that have grown in preference. 

The drama unfolds in the Kiss Me, Hardy, Trafalgar game from 2023.

One of those aspects is the pleasure to be had in planning and running games, which has certainly taken a preference in my own hobby enjoyment to say playing. 

Don't get me wrong when I say that I can still thoroughly enjoy immersing myself in a role as a player within a game and the pleasure of taking part in an unfolding narrative; but rather like certain actors that have developed in their careers to become directors, the move from on-stage to back-stage and the pleasure derived from creating the structure of the drama and seeing how the actors take on their parts to create the drama within the structure, for me, far exceeds that of actually playing; with another aspect that has grown in my passion for the hobby, namely to be able to record and relate that drama back to others after the event, just like the historical greats such as Oman and James have done with the historical record.

Game preparation and planning for the 225th anniversary of Cape St Vincent 1797
JJ's Wargames - The Planning and Preparation for the 225th Anniversary Game of Cape St Vincent (Part II)

When an historical game is able to capture the drama of the theme it seeks to replicate with the struggle that faced its real-life actors posed to the players representing them in the game, then I feel we gain something extra from it, namely an insight into that event that eludes the historical record of written down reported events.

Of course to work at developing the skills of 'a director' is a bit of trial and error, but made far easier with a long record of experience being a player/actor to draw on, that hopefully having some knowledge from that experience of what tends to work and what definitely doesn't, helps to reduce the learning curve, and in that vein I offer some thoughts on my way of going about things.

Game preparation and planning for the 225th anniversary of Cape St Vincent 1797
JJ's Wargames - The Planning and Preparation for the 225th Anniversary Game of Cape St Vincent (Part II)

A key component to game planning in my experience is to have some basic concepts in mind throughout the process, such as the 'KISS Principle' or (Keep It Simple Stupid), and that failure to plan is planning to fail, or as I had it drummed into me in a previous professional lifetime, 'The Five P's', 'Proper Preparation Prevents P-ss-Poor Presentation', the hyphenated word counting as a single 'P', and thank-you Geoff!

Of course as a director you have your success and not so successful outcomes, but it is important to review both results to gain further learning as you go and definitely the latter in the spirit of having discovered how not to do that in future.

My Cape St Vincent game is a game that springs to mind, where the constraints on the players to those of their historical counterparts was not sufficiently built into the scenario and the setup plan, needed to allow all players to get involved in the game within the playing time constraints of it, but was not sufficiently allowed for - sorry John! But I now know how not to play Cape St Vincent and what I would plan to do differently, and can take pleasure in the aspects of the game that really worked well.

The drama of our KMH, Cape St Vincent game unfolding at our 225th Anniversary replay of the battle at the Devon Wargames Group in 2022
JJ's Wargames - Battle of Cape St Vincent 14th February 1794 - 225th Anniversary Game at the DWG

Size as they often say is important as well, and the bigger the battle, the bigger are the likely issues and challenges that the game will present in its management and design, with rules suitability to allow for a smooth and relatively fast turnover of play possible, that are intuitive enough for players of varying familiarity to quickly get attuned to, but ideally without too great a compromise on the simulation properties of that all important rule test formula 'simulation/game' and 'fun/not fun' play balance, where I'm looking for that 'Goldilocks' optimum of simulation/fun combination.

I won't make any claims for my abilities at game/scenario designing, but it is a skill that I am getting better at with each and every game and so it is always with much anticipation that I look forward to planning a new project once a collection is completed and ready to take the table, and so Camperdown has been on the planning table this week with thoughts turning to the NWS at Yeovilton in September.

The revised battle map for Camperdown at 1:700 scale with the fleets positioned at about 12.00 midday on the 11th October 1797, using Far Distant Ships.

Begin with the end in mind is another key principle, or in the case of an historical battle, begin with the situation that caused the end in mind in reality, with the structure of the game and the rules being used there to facilitate the differences in outcome that might happen once players get involved, which I guess leads me to my disclaimer.

I come at historical battle wargames, be it on land, sea or in the air from the standpoint of putting the players in the situation their historical counterparts found themselves presented with, and for them to work within those constraints to compare and contrast their results with the historical outcome, rather than as some games I have seen, that have the set up and then leave the players free of any historical constraints to make it up as they go along, even if they have started from a similar start point of the battle portrayed, but leaving me somewhat unsatisfied with a game that bear's little resemblance to the facts.

I will be using Far Distant Ships, at the NWS, Yeovilton, written by David Manley, and adjusted by me for 1:700, together with a few additions. The rules are designed for big-battle games, having a ten-minute move sequence, no book keeping requirements and a signalling command and control process to better facilitate lots of ships fighting over several hours. We found they played well in our playtest game and I'm looking forward to a reacquaintance next month.

JJ's Wargames - Battle of Camperdown - The Leeward Division Attacks, Far Distant Ships

I have, and occasionally do, play historical scenarios that have been arranged to create a game around the history, with one, The Battle of Salamanca, in 28mm, played at a holiday centre many years ago, with glorious terrain and figures but with a set up that ignored the surprise effect for the French as they were attacked from the flank and front simultaneously whilst on the march. Without that element and constraint, it is obvious that any French commander is going to ignore the fact that he has been ordered to march and get strung out and immediately form a firm defence line with a plan to counterattack at the first opportunity, which is how our game evolved. It was a game with bones getting rolled and plenty of banter, but it certainly wasn't Salamanca and as I say somewhat unsatisfying.

The constraints that faced Admiral Villeneuve at Trafalgar and those that faced De Winter at Camperdown were similar in that their fleets lacked sailing experience and they were facing an enemy likely better at the ability to manoeuvre and fire to a lesser or greater extent and therefore organised their respective fleets to attempt to play to its strengths; that is no fancy manoeuvres, to allow their captains and crews to shoot as straight and as quickly as they could, and to so damage their opponents before they could come back with a response.

The Dutch line set up to help visualise the plan above.

In Villeneuve's situation, there was hope that his superior crew sizes would win any boarding actions and that his firing plan aimed at British rigging would allow the bulk of his fleet to escape to fight another day. In De Winter's, a similar hope that he could badly damage the British in their hulls, and kill their crews, and draw any British pursuit into the Dutch coastal shallows where their grounding would seal their fate to capture or destruction. Both fleets adopted the classical leeward set up, allowing them the opportunity to wear with the wind to simplify breaking off and escape.

Thus with Camperdown, the situational set up for the battle has already been decided by Admirals de Winter and Duncan and therefore I find my structure starts with that foundation, namely a clear idea of where my two fleets are starting from, at what time-stage of the battle, and the scope of the battle site required to enable the fleets involved to have sufficient room to manoeuvre.

The raking fire of breaking the line precedes the pell-mell as depicted in our playtest game.

Thus the option for either the Combined Franco-Spanish or the Batavian Dutch fleet to simply leave the line and mix it with the enemy in a general confused melee, avoiding being raked in their line but leaving each ship vulnerable and unsupported, was not even countenanced, not until it was forced on them by the pell-mell created by the British attack and the raking fire they suffered in the breaking of their lines; but I have certainly seen the former played that way, and whatever floats-your-boat is fine by me, but that seems to ignore the constraints that made these famous battles what they were, and fails to offer the players the opportunity to try and outperform their historical counterparts, irrespective of the winning or losing.

If the simulation is thought through the player representing Admiral Villeneuve can still win even if the Combined Fleet loose, a concept some find very hard to understand, but one well illustrated in our refight of Trafalgar in 2023 with the Combined Fleet, fighting the battle to Villeneuve's plan, clearly loosing the battle at the close, but seeing them cause one British ship to strike, though likely to rehoist her colours, and the Royal Sovereign engulfed in flames later to explode, after taking a severe battering in her fight with three enemy ships a much improved performance than that achieved on the day.

The set up of the Dutch van confirmed the length of the Dutch line and the table space required for our game.

Naval battles in the age of sail often involve lines of battle which tend to determine the amount of real-estate or seascape needed and so with Camperdown and the Dutch fleet organised into line of battle, I start with them to give an idea of the table size requirement and based on the relative positions of the British columns of echelon where they will be at at any given start time, knowing that in reality the first British ship to pass through the line was Monarch, at about 12.45, and thus with ten minute moves it is easy to work back from that to see where Monarch would be at 12.00 midday as in the plan above

For me, I find there is no substitute to planning a big game, other than getting the toys out on the table to help me visualise the set up and thus you see the Dutch line so arranged with battle line spacing between vessels and the required distance between the line of battle and the light ships based on the historical account, with the few exceptions that saw a distinct gap between Haarlem and Jupiter at the rear that facilitated Onslow’s breaking of the line.

This set up will also be tested at the start of play to see if other vessels have not quite positioned themselves appropriately with a die roll against the 'Tactical Cohesion table', on each to confirm the situation. As can be seen, the Dutch inexperience at manoeuvring at sea because of being blockaded is revealed by the intermixed blue and red squadron set ups and the rear white squadron not being as tightly drawn up as they should have been.

A large ruler comes in handy for setting up a line of battle appropriately spaced. Note, the light ships take their position from the recorded accounts and relative to the forward battle line.

Wargamers knowing one side is capable and intent on cutting their line would tend to position their fleet in such a way as to prevent any such manoeuvre, but unfortunately such tactics were  not practical for historic admirals and captains, which is replicated in Far Distant Ships (FDS) by having fleets able to be in 'Tight', 'Fighting' or 'Open' spacing, and then testing for being out of position.

Mark Adkin in his Trafalgar Companion suggests;

'A common distance between ships was one to two cables (200 - 400 yards). A fleet of thirteen ships would cover a distance of 2,750 to 5,500 yards.' 

That's about 1.5 to 3 miles. These sorts of distances would equate to an Open formation designed to avoid collisions and enable easier station keeping. The Fighting formation depicted above envisages a separation of just 70 to 150 yards or about a half to one cable, with the Dutch fleet of fifteen ships of the line occupying about 2,800 yards in their line of battle, with this formation still offering a determined enemy an opportunity to force their way through, but only after testing for success in the attempt, replicating the fact that only about half the British ships successfully managed to break the line, and situations such as Staaten Generaal frustrating Venerable's attempt to pass and rake the Vrijheid, forcing the British flagship to veer away only to later get raked herself, as Venerable went astern of the Dutch 74- gunner in response.

The Leeward Division Attacks scenario run back in February gives an impression of the approach of Vice-Admiral Onslow's division, showing here Monarch out ahead.
JJ's Wargames - Battle of Camperdown - The Leeward Division Attacks, Far Distant Ships

With the Dutch fleet sailing on a bow wind from the NNW, relative to their heading NE, their progress will be relatively slow, enhancing their firing but slowing their progress towards their base in the Texel.

The British on the other hand with a heading of ESE are filling their tail coats as they barrel on towards the Dutch line, rapidly covering the setup position in about four moves or forty minutes of battle time.

No record keeping in FDS, with all information recorded on markers placed on the ship bases, and thus speeding play management, these being my own design for the game.

The battle lasted about three hours, which equates to eighteen turns plus four turns added for the approach to battle, hopefully eleven turns before lunch and eleven after. FDS is designed to encourage commanders to manage a battle through their fleet and squadrons rather than individual ships, and turns roll through much quicker than a ship/captain focussed set with no book keeping required having all combat and morale results indicated by markers placed on the ship bases and with the opposing admirals focussed on damage control, signalling before and after battle, and then managing the dogfight action as ships close. 

Battle Management Displays for each commander, this for the Blue Centre Squadron, allows them to keep tabs on how many command and preservation points they have in hand, indicated by dice, with the former used to spend on signalling and damage repairs and the latter for squadron and fleet morale.

As well as a simplified battle management, the ship stats for each squadron and the fleet as a whole are kept by the respective commanders as an aide memoire when resolving firing, melee and morale with individual ships and their relevant details easily referred to in one squadron or fleet display card.

The squadron or divisional display for Onslow's command detailing his ships, their pennant number, command quality modifier (CQM), base speed in centimetres subject to modification by wind aspect and sail setting, Attack Factor (0-6), higher being better, Defence Factor (0-5), similar to the AF, Boarding Factor (-2 to +2) BF usually 0 but flexible if circumstances require, such as extra marines or infantry aboard, Carronade Factor (1-2) if so equipped and Preservation Point Value PPV, or the value of the vessel to the overall morale of the squadron or fleet.

FDS is very much about command and control with signalling designed to enable commanders to set their commands up prior to and after battle and to a lesser extent during it. I have slightly modified the signalling process by identifying certain signals that will bring ships into close combat range, during which individual ships manoeuvre under direction from their captains in compliance with the last signal received until countermanded or they themselves have struck or been sunk.

A section of one of the signal books - Note General order signals are special in that they authorise captains with the term 'Engage', to bring their ships to close range and act as required when fighting their ships. Captains will otherwise come no closer than medium range unless signalled otherwise.

Signalling is not a complex matter with commanders simply noting the combination of flags they wish to fly in their respective log with the time it was sent. The flags can be positioned next to the flagship in the command segment of a turn when the test is made for receipt, which if successful compels the ships affected to operate to those new instructions, be that a new course heading, combat orders or other required actions which remain in force until annulled or a new signal is made in another turn. The signal flag combination can be used as a signal number with its attached meaning or simply as that number for use when signalling an individual ship. 

Vice Admiral Onslow's flagship Monarch, flying signal number (#4) during our play test game earlier this year. if the signal was for ship No.4 the counter is simply turned about showing (4) without the # and followed by the signal for the action required.

A nice touch is that if a signal would result in a captain causing risk to his ship without a logical reason, for example a course ordered would result in him going aground, as with close-combat situations where the risk to the ship would be likely very great, he would be at liberty to take avoiding action as he saw fit, up to medium range from the point of likely disaster, it being assumed he would signal for new orders after doing so.

Special rules and other additional mechanics will also be included in an endeavour to introduce an element of friction or circumstances that relate to the history of this battle.

The use of chance cards is not a new idea but one that can reduce a level of certainty and increase the drama, without being overly game changing, for example with the one illustrated above which might bring a bit of a surprise in a close range gunnery contest.

Similarly game and scenario specific rules can bring the flavour of a given battle to the table with  performance of Captain John Williamson of HMS Agincourt which suffered no casualties in the battle, after which he was brought to court-martial at Sheerness lasting from the 4th December until the 1st January 1798, charged with cowardice, negligence and disaffection, being subsequently cleared of the former and latter charges but found guilty of disobeying signals and not getting into action.

He was sentenced to being placed at the bottom of the captains list and rendered incapable of ever serving onboard a ship of the Royal Navy, effectively ending his naval career and appearing to have broken him, with his death later that year, on the 27th October 1798 at his lodgings in London following a short illness and death put down to 'an inflammation of the liver and bowels' suggesting he might have drunk himself to death. 

HMS Agincourt exchanging broadsides at medium range whilst her compatriots get stuck in in the background, during our test game from February.

Thus Agincourt is not allowed to voluntarily close within close range of any enemy ship of the line, apart from those that have struck.

Finally with the end very much in mind, I'm very much hoping that FDS will present an opportunity to test the rules around one fleet breaking off the action and any attempt by the opposition to turn a retreat into a rout, with the interesting aspect about Camperdown being its close proximity to the Dutch shoaling coastline, represented in the game by having such waters start just 30cms or a foot from the table edge nearest to the Dutch light ship line at which British third-rate vessels would start to test for grounding.

Of course any such action to pursue an enemy breaking off due to morale failure which is automatic and does not require any signalling would require any pursuit to be organised via signals which might add another element to our game.

In addition to Far Distant Ships, I have also turned my attention to Kiss Me, Hardy with our annual club organised 'Clotted Lard' running next month and for which I have offered to run 'Nailing the Colours - Battle of Vanguards recreating the fighting at the head of the Dutch line and in particular the battle between the two opposing flagships, Venerable and Vrijheid.

The scenario has gone through a similar planning process that has enabled a table plan to be drawn up as illustrated, which I would intend playing on my usual 10' x 5' table.

KMH takes a little more preparation in that I needed to sort out all the Ship Record Cards for the fleets as a whole.

So over my playing KMH quite a bit in the last three years I have developed my own format for the ship record system that aims to bring everything the player commanding a ship will need together in one place to resolve, morale, gunnery, boarding actions and damage without constant reference to the crib sheets, with factors relating to any given circumstance shown on the cards before referencing the appropriate table to determine the result of the required die rolls.

HMS Venerable 74-guns, Admiral Adam Duncan's flagship commanding the North Sea Squadron

In addition all my ship cards are laminated so as to make use of wipe clean pens that leave the cards marked up at the end of a battle, after which I can photograph them and wipe clean ready for the next time, whilst also providing the detail to the narrative in the following game AAR, better able to illustrate the consequences for any given ship during the action reported.

Each card has a backing side to enable a level of secrecy as to how badly affected a given ship is at any time by simply turning the details face down and if required easily kept out of sight in games where both sides are attempting to spot the other and determine exactly what they are up against.

Batavian-Dutch 74-gun Vrijheid, flagship of Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter commanding the Dutch fleet at Camperdown.

One aspect from the standard KMH rules is to rate the Batavian Dutch as Average Sans Culottes, similar to their French allies, which in my humble opinion doesn't quite reflect Dutch gunnery abilities and their preference in waiting to open fire at the hull at close range rather that blazing away at enemy rigging at extreme or long range as reflected in the added benefits to doing this with the Sans Culottes rating.

Thus I have modified my Dutch Sans Culottes by removing the long range rigging fire effects and compensating my Dutch by raising their firing benefits one grade, thus seeing the bulk of the fleet who are average, firing as veterans and encouraging the holding of their fire till the whites of British eyes are prevalent. Of course this doesn't add to Vryheid's firing capabilities as she is rated veteran anyway, but she of course is more likely to keep on dishing it out for longer given her advantages in morale (-30%) overall against failing a test, as a flagship with De Winter aboard, egging everyone on.

So I hope this insight into the preparation for my upcoming Camperdown games proves useful for those looking to do a similar project and I look forward to posting the AAR of the games generated here on the blog and perhaps with a bit of YouTube coverage following which I will look to make the scenario  briefs and materials produced available here on JJ's as a download.

More anon

JJ