All at Sea - Far Distant Ships, Rule Additions and Changes for 1:700 Scale Games.

 

Following requests for access to the rule additions and changes I made to David Manley's Fleet Action rules for the age of sail, Far Distant Ships (FDS) that were used to run our 1:700 scale games of the Battle of Camperdown, Battle of Trafalgar, and Battle of Cape Ferrol (Calder's Action), I have finally gotten around to pulling the materials together for those folks who would like to do something similar.

Far Distant Ships - Long Face Games | Wargame Vault

Please note, I'm in the habit of supporting the creative talents we have in the hobby and so my compilation of rule changes and additions are designed to compliment David's original work and so you will need a copy of Far Distant Ships to use my materials, link above for the rules.

The Battle of Camperdown in the opening stages, and fought at the NWS Yeovilton Meeting in 2024 using Far Distant Ships for 1:700.

The sixteen page compilation includes the necessary scale changes of movement, spacing and gunnery ranges to facilitate the battles featured here on JJ's, together with additional sections to the markers we used, changes to turning the models, additional Senior Command Modifier, and additional reminders added to the Turn Sequence and Command Phase.

Samples of the counters we used for our games of FDS, relieving the game of tedious book keeping and allowing the play to keep on flowing.

As regular readers of the blog will know I am an inveterate rule changer and adapter, and with my many years of reading various rule ideas I am a bit of a magpie collector, but all this fed into my changes, and so I have incorporated some signalling ideas from Rod Langton's rules, Fleet Morale from Albert Parker, and Tactical Cohesion from David's other rule set, 'Form Line of Battle'

An example of the Squadron Command Cards we used and included in the update.

So with the Fleet Morale rules I have included copies of the Squadron Command Cards that helped simply record Command Points available each turn and the Fleet Preservation Points for a particular squadron, marked on the card with dice, with the dice turned as the command points were used or the preservation level reduced by ships being lost or captured.

The opening moves of Trafalgar, run at last year's NWS gathering at Yeovilton, again using FDS 1:700

One aspect I was keen to model cleanly in our games was the signalling arrangements for the various Fleet and Squadron Commanders so that orders could be changed as battle circumstances dictated, and so I came up with my own set of flags that could be used as numbers or a specific phrase or word depending on how the flags were presented by the commander.

A section of the 'Others' signal book, using different flag combinations than the British equivalent. The flag counters are included in the pack for printing out with a # symbol on one side to indicate the flag is a number and blank with just the flag symbol that would indicate it is representing the phrase listed in the signal book. 

The signals worked particularly well in the latter stages of the Trafalgar game as the Combined Fleet tried to organise a rearguard as their morale started to collapse threatening a rout amid ever more arriving British ships amid their lines, which saw much hasty signalling to Rear Admiral Dumanoir to turn the van and come to the assistance of the centre.

My 'Fleet Log' included in the update with examples of how signals might be constructed as a guide to my commanders.

The change I borrowed from Rod Langton for my signalling rules was the use of a specific group of signals known as 'General Orders'.

General Orders include the following:

General Chase
Engage to Leeward
Engage to Windward
Engage Enemy More Closely
Engage Opposite Numbers
Engage Enemy Squadron
Engage the Enemy Van
Engage the Enemy Centre
Engage the Enemy Rear
Pass Through Enemy Line
Delay Signals

These signals are a requirement for a commander to fly if he wants his captains to do things they ordinarily wouldn't do unless so ordered.

A Spanish commander signals to close the line up as the British emerge out of the fog in our El Ferrol game run at Yeovilton last year. This illustrates how we use our signal flags in our games of FDS. Note also the damage markers illustrated above used here on the bases of two of the models

For example ships captains used to fighting in line of battle would not normally engage closer than medium range, turning their ships away accordingly to open fire, thus any requirement for them to close with the enemy would necessitate the appropriate signal to make that happen, and obviously a British admiral seeking to get his captains to pass through an enemy line, would require a close engagement order as well as to pass through the enemy line, with a likely test to see if the captains would comply as ordered.

The British attack on the Batavian-Dutch line in our Camperdown game with some captains refusing to pass through the enemy line, whilst others happily complied with orders, dishing out raking fire as they closed with the enemy.

By the time of Trafalgar in 1805 British captains were very familiar with the idea and advantages of breaking an enemy line, however at the time of Camperdown in 1797 the idea was not so readily accepted, and so in our recreation of Camperdown the test to pass through the Dutch line was more problematic than it was in our Trafalgar game.

So the idea behind the slight rule change is that signals such as “Engage Enemy more More Closely’ and ‘Pass Through Enemy Line’ must be given to enable captains to move to short range, but a test will still be required to see if a captain is prepared to manoeuvre between enemy ships, or simply turn away broadside to broadside.

Fighting up close and personal in the fog off El Ferrol using Far Distant Ships at the Devon Wargames Group Meeting at Yeovilton last year.

All this is easily modelled with Far Distant Ships and from the games I have played with them makes them my turn-to set of rules for playing large or multiple squadron big-battle games.

JJ's Wargames: All at Sea - Far Distant Ships, Chance Cards

These rule additions and changes have all been play tested over the last four years in some very big-battle games so I know they work and offer them up for others to use should they want to, alongside the FDS Chance Cards I published back in March and available in my downloads section alongside this update.

The FDS 700 Rule Additions are available as a download request through me in My Resources and Downloads when this post is published. Please don't repost this FDS update on other forums file sections as they are made to be freely available here for all to use with the caveat that you already own a copy of Far Distant Ships.

If you request the file from my Resources link I will give you access to a zip file containing the sixteen page update, the game markers, flag signal markers, command record cards and QRS.

I hope you have as much fun playing FDS as I have had and as always more anon

JJ