The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn), 4th March 1653, using General at Sea and the Fireships in action.

The Naval Battle of Livorno, 4th March 1653 - Attributed to Anonymous

Last December I posted 'Fireships for Xmas!' looking at some of Barry Hilton's 1/1200 model fireships that I put together for my friend and fellow age of sail enthusiast, Captain Steve to go with his Anglo-Dutch collection of models that he has been looking to get back on the table, and this week he sent me some pictures of the game he is running using the ruleset, 'General at Sea' (GaS), plus some close ups of the fireships doing their stuff, which I thought I would share here on the blog.

https://pikeandshotsociety.org.uk/store-2/?model_number=-General-At-Sea

The game Steve is solo playing, is the first scenario in the rule book, The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn), 4th March 1653, fought during the First Anglo-Dutch War, near Leghorn (Livorno), Italy; and was a victory for the Dutch squadron under Commodore Johan van Galen over an English squadron under Captain Henry Appleton. 

Livorno is on the Mediterranean coast of beautiful Tuscany, Italy.

Afterwards, another English squadron under Captain Richard Badiley, which Appleton had been trying to join up with, reached the scene in time to observe the capture of the last ships of Appleton's squadron, but was outnumbered and forced to return to Porto Longone, later quitting the Mediterranean and returning to England.

Map of Livorno Fortress (17th century), Tuscany, Italy.

Appleton's squadron of six ships (including four hired merchantmen) was trapped in Leghorn by a blockading Dutch fleet of sixteen ships, while Richard Badiley's of eight (also including four hired merchantmen) was at Elba.

The scenario setup in General at Sea assumes the more timely arrival of Badiley's squadron and a more discreet Appleton happily sitting tight in the Livorno harbour until his compatriot's arrival.

General at Sea (GaS) is written by Iain Stainford and published by the Pike & Shot Society, and is designed for the large sea battles that were a feature of the naval wars fought between 1640 and 1721 which they are specifically for, using models scaled between 1/2400, 1/3000 or 1/1200 as seen here.

Steve's translation of the setup to the table, with Badiley's English squadron nearest to camera and the Dutch blockading squadron ahead on the approaches to the fortified harbour at Livorno. The mat is from Tiny Wargames.

The game scale is 1cm to 100 yards or 20cm to one nautical mile and works around a tactical move equating to 15 minutes, with a speed of 5cm equating to one knot, with this scale producing an 'Engagement Distance' of 15cm, that allows unengaged commands to double their movement allowance whilst remaining out of engagement distance, and those within 15cm to engage in combat, with a long gunnery range of 7cm and close of 2cm.

Appleton's squadron trapped in Leghorn harbour prepares to make sail. The buildings and fortifications are from a Spanish company, Hispania Sails.
https://hispaniasails.com/en/

To cope with the potential size of fleet actions of this period GaS equates one model ship on a specified base measurement as representing anything from three to four rated vessels (sometimes increased to five or rarely six vessels in some of the pre 1660 battles) and four to six galleys, with each rate given a combat value (CV) which, when combined, gives the CV value for the model representing that group of ships.

An example given would be one First Rate at 10 CV, one third rate at 6 CV and two fourth rates at 4 CV giving a Stand CV of 24.

The blockading Dutch fleet under Commodore Johan van Galen of sixteen ships, represented by the four Dutch models.

The rules and their mechanisms for movement and combat remind me of Far Distant Ships (FDS) that I have been using recently for my own large age of sail battles of the later 18th and early 19th century periods, all be it with those rules, one model ship represents one actual fighting ship.

Steve's more detailed order of battle for the English fleet, using the optional ship stats for the advanced combat system.

Steve is solo playing this scenario, and as at the end of Turn Two, the English squadron under Badiley continue to beat up against the offshore breeze, Wind Strength 3, whilst the Dutch under Van Galen remain at anchor watching developments.

The Dutch Fleet similarly detailed as above.

To reflect the historical impulsiveness or perhaps stupidity of Appleton, at anchor in Livorno, Steve is running a control test to see if he continues to obey orders or sallies forth to do battle, passing his test in Turn One, but failing the following turn and so he will begin to weigh anchor and leave the harbour in single file on Turn Three.

Jan van Galen - Jacob Houbraken

Will Badiley arrive in time to save the day and alter history or will Van Galen prove the superior commander and perhaps survive the encounter?

Johan van Galen becomes mortally wounded during battle and taken to the ship's hold where the ship's doctor is bandaging the commander's shattered leg. He would die of his wounds on the 13th March 1653.

As well as the game report above, Steve sent me some pictures of the fire ships I worked on for him last Xmas and I have also included some pictures of them that he sent me. 

JJ's Wargames - Fireships for Xmas!

As you can see, with some added smoke effects from Steve, and suitably positioned going up against a lovely model of the English flagship, these models can look excellent for doing a fleet action of the period, when fireships were at their peak as a weapon of terror and destruction.

One of the fireships I put together last December with added smoke effects by Steve, looks great going up against the British flagship.

Next up, I have been working on my new project to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by my 'tax-dodging' cousins across the pond, rebelling against their lawful monarch, as we celebrate our joint Anglo-American history, and seeing the newly designated AWI cabinet start to fill up with some of the models I picked up at Partizan last month.

JJ's AWI cabinet is starting to fill up with some of the newly created units.

This current work sees me hosting a warm up game of 'Rise and Fight Again' as we get our combined heads around the AWI version of the Napoleonic rule set Over the Hills and I will post an AAR of our game later this weekend coming, as well as some new unit showcase posts here on JJ's.

So, as always, more anon.

JJ