This weekend I will be starting my warm-up for a project to run the Battle of Trafalgar using Far Distant Ships, Fleet Action rules in this the 220th anniversary year of the great battle which will see a warm-up game at Exeter Legionary 10th May and culminate later this year in a two day running of the game at the NWS Meeting in Yeovilton on the 4th-5th October, within fifteen days of the day of the actual battle.
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| Far Distant Ships by David Manley are designed with large fleet actions in mind, principally for use with 1:2400 and 1:1200 models in mind which prompted me to adjust them to incorporate my preferred scale of 1:700, together with a few other tweaks that appeal to my way of playing. That said, I use the rules pretty much as written and really like the way they play. https://www.wargamevault.com/product/352181/Far-Distant-Ships |
The warm-up process sees me running a smaller scenario at the DWG club meeting this Saturday, very similar to previous run outs with the collection when we used Kiss Me Hardy, and running 'The Leeward Line' game this time using Far Distant Ships (FDS), a rule set purposefully designed for big fleet action games and the set of rules I used at last year's NWS Yeovilton meeting to run Camperdown.
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| The set-up for 'The Leeward Line' scenario, taking as it does a discreet part of the Battle of Trafalgar as its subject and the initial attack by Vice-Admiral Collingwood's Leeward Column on the centre of the Combined Fleet's line, provides an excellent small scenario to get to grips with the key processes of play using FDS. |
The Camperdown game, run last year at the NWS, was my first go using the rules with some fifty models on the table and ten players managing the respective fleets, and the play was very intuitive after just a couple of turns, with many of the players unfamiliar with them, quickly getting into the flow of play, enhanced by the non requirement for book keeping, that sees all damage states of ships indicated with markers placed on the bases of the models as required.
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| The Battle of Camperdown fought at last year's NWS gathering using Far Distant Ships, which worked very well and definitely had the effect of putting the players more in the role of admirals and division commanders rather than individual captains, without losing the granularity of the narrative of a big battle. JJ's Wargames Naval Wargames Society Weekend 2024 |
That said the plan this year is to put the seventy-three models required for the Trafalgar fight on the table and to play the battle over two days in October, close to the actual anniversary of the battle and I thought what better way to prepare for that game that to fly the flag of the Devon Wargames Group at this year's local wargame show in Exeter, 'Legionary 2025' on Saturday May 10th, by putting on a Trafalgar run through with the whole collection on show and to fight as much of the battle there using FDS to prepare for later in the year.
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| The last time the Trafalgar collection was out on the table was our two day refight in the aptly named village of Nelson, with the Penarth chaps back in 2023, using Kiss Me Hardy (KMH). JJ's Wargames - The Battle of Trafalgar 2023 |
Thus with the first run out of the whole Trafalgar collection set up for next month, I thought I would prepare for that game with a smaller effort at the DWG this weekend recreating a very discreet part of the larger battle namely Collingwood's attack on the centre of the Combined Fleet's line some thirty minutes before Nelson's Windward Column joined the action.
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| Admiral Collingwood's Royal Sovereign delivers a close in broadside against the Spanish flagship Santa Ana of Admiral Alava, in a previous playing of The Leeward Line, using KMH, this game using my LED markers on the broadsides to flash just as the lens shutter caught the picture. |
In previous posts from last year journaling the completion of the Camperdown Project I went through my reasons for switching to FDS from KMH for my big multi-model battles, primarily around the fact that FDS very much puts the player in the role of the naval commander rather than ship's captain, without losing the granularity of narrative so gloriously created by KMH that plays very well at the lower end of the model numbers size of game; and with a ten to fifteen minute move/turn scale in FDS as opposed to the two to five minute turn in KMH the ability to fight a three or four hour real time battle over a day or more becomes more of a possibility, for those of us who enjoy a big-game as well as the popular skirmish ones.
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| The Players Record Sheet for the Combined Fleet Ships in The Leeward Line scenario, showing the information for the players regarding the ability of each ship in the command, with Attack Factor (AF), Defence Factor (DF) Boarding Factor (BF) Carronade or Close Range Factor (CF) together with a Preservation Point Value (PPV), the latter used to determine when the force might have to test to break off due to casualties |
As with all endeavours, the 'Five P's' guide the process, namely Proper Preparation Prevents P-ss-Poor Presentation, definitely five not six as 'P-ss-Poor' is hyphenated so counts as just one P.
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| FDS relies on the use of markers to indicate actions and damage results during play and I have produced my own for these large games. |
So as well as the first playthrough of the rules this Saturday, I have ensured adequate markers, see above are prepared for the players to use in the game as well as range sticks, signal flags and chance cards to add yet more seasoning to an already spicy dish of a game.
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| A set of chance cards are prepared to be dealt out randomly to player commanders, to add a little more narrative and drama without distorting the play. |
With the markers I have prepared Order of Battle sheets for respective commanders so that all the various ship stats can be accessed at a glance as required and for the big game at Legionary I aim to have two new French brigs from Turner Miniatures that have replaced the generic versions from Warlord and that better capture the look of the 16-gun Argus and 18-gun Furet together with my new 3D printed ships boats and crews to mark the progress of boarding parties lowered to take possession of struck enemy ships, more anon on those new additions.
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| Victory leads the Weather Column ever closer with the 98-gun Temeraire close alongside, keeping station, still heading for the allied van at our big-game in 2023 to whet the appetite for fun in 2025. |
and the Naval Wargame Society Meeting, Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton on Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th October.
As always, more anon
JJ
Very interesting, will have to check these rules out! :)
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