All at Sea - The Leeward Line using War by Sail, Solo Game Playthrough - Part Two

Picking up from where I left off last week, I've been messing about on the table with the 1:700 age of sail ship collection completing play of The Leeward Line scenario from turn three as the rest of Admiral Collingwood's leeward column of British ships closed to contact with the Allied line at Trafalgar.

Warlord Games - Trafalgar Leeward Line.pdf

A lot of die rolling ensued as the British ships barged their way through the forward line of Franco-Spanish ships to luff up alongside and begin the process of exchanging close range broadsides like two boxers mixing it on the ropes, and it seems produce a result very similar to the historical reality of the battle.

Wargame Vault - War by Sail

The pictures below are taken from the close of play and, I think, really capture why this scale of model  adds so much to the table-top impact of the game, which has provided lots of food for thought for staging something much bigger.

In the video I was keen to try and illustrate the damage sustained by the two fleets over a period of time that can represent up to two hours of fighting, and it is worth stressing, as pointed out in the video summary of the damage percentages, that the percentages represent the damage sustained to the ship's ability to fight, float and/or manoeuvre, not for example, a percentage of crew casualties sustained. 

I played the scenario to the actual events as much as possible so had the British ships reserving their first broadsides until within close range, and if the chits presented the opportunity, allowing them to make raking attacks as they passed through the Allied line.

Once the first broadsides were fired, War by Sail models the need to either take a whole turn not firing to reload or to reload and fire as the target bears, testing the individual gun crews to see if they are ready to open fire, with the better trained British crews more likely to get more of their guns ready to fire than the French or Spanish.

I will no doubt try this scenario again using 'Kiss Me Hardy' as a comparator, which, with the rules scaled at around 1:900, should work well as written for this scale of model. 

Santa Anna-112 guns exchanges greetings with Royal Sovereign which saw Admiral Colingwood and his officers come under fire.

Behind the Santa Anna, Le Fougueux 74-guns wallows in the swell, critically damaged and on fire, but with its crew determinedly hanging on and its colours flying

HMS Tonnant has just passed through the Combined Fleet line with the two French 74's, Le Pluton and L'Algeciras, Admiral Magon's flagship, having been saluted on the way through.

HMS Mars 74-guns (left centre) surrounded by enemy ships having contributed to the distress of the French 74's, Le Fougueux and Le Pluton in its wake crosses the bow of the Spanish Monarca 74-guns

HMS Tonnant's stern quarters can be seen as the British ship cuts through the Allied line

HMS Colossus cuts the line to the rear of the Spanish 74-gun Bahama as the stern quarters of HMS Bellerophon are seen further along the line crossing the bows of the Spanish ship, with Admiral Magon's French 74-gun L'Algeciras in the process  of hauling down her colours.

So if you would like to see how the scenario played out just click on the video links below, with the link to Part One first, for those that might have missed it followed by Part Two below:

Next up: More adventures in Vassal as Steve and I reacquainted ourselves with Columbia Games'  Richard III as we sat down between Xmas and New Year to play the Wars of the Roses Campaign game, and work is progressing to add another six French 74's to the age of sail collection.

All at Sea - The Leeward Line using War by Sail, Solo Game Playthrough

This time last year, the world was a very different place and I was looking forward to developing the 1:700th Age of Sail collection of ships and working up a set of rules and scenarios to play them with which saw me post a couple of games played with Jack, Bob and David, 

JJ's Wargames - War by Sail

as we set about some single ship and later multi-ship games using War by Sail, written by Tom Jensen and available through Wargames Vault in the link below.

Wargame Vault - War by Sail

Like most others faced with social distancing and lockdown, my tabletop wargaming has gone on the 'backburner' as I turned my attention to the painting, modelling and reading side of this particular project, however the desire to get some toys out on the table and start to enjoy the models in the way they were created to be enjoyed became rather overwhelming and so I decided to contemplate the idea of doing some solo games to help further develop some rule ideas I have had and to have some fun fitting them around an historical scenario.

Warlord Games - Trafalgar Leeward Line.pdf

As mentioned in my JJ's Wargames - Year End Review 2020 Plan, perhaps the worst case secret ever rolled out on the blog, was the plan to finish off the current collection with a view to producing the Battle of Trafalgar as a very big game, and so it seemed to me that a Trafalgar based scenario would fit the bill perfectly for playing through some ideas I have for the larger game whilst demonstrating those ideas as well as how practical 'chit draw activation' games are as a vehicle for solo play.

Thus I have started to work my way through The Leeward Line scenario from Warlord Games as a free pdf, see link above, to play solo with some added modifications based on the detail contained in Mark Adkins - The Trafalgar Companion and put together a video compilation of the game as it progresses.

Close Action! - Things hot up in the first video recording as HMS Royal Sovereign smashes her way through the line of the Combined Fleet at Trafalgar

One of the best aspects of having a dedicated room and table is that I can leave the game set up between play and carry on the other aspects of the project, namely building the models and researching the theme whilst working through the game mechanisms that I collated from the earlier games plus a few others that might be practical going forward but that needed testing.

So the game I am presenting is very much a development play through and some of the rules I have added to the original set might get changed in time and bearing in mind I haven't played for twelve months, some might get omitted through error, but then that's what happens in most games anyway! 

This still from the game captured Collingwood's Royal Sovereign battering Alava's Santa Anna as the two large first rates drew up broadside to broadside with my gun-flash markers adding to the effect.

If you want to see the first part of the play, where I start with the approach of the British Leeward column as it attempts to penetrate the line of the Combined Fleet under fire, then just click on the video link below; the next part of play will follow in due course and I hope you enjoy the presentation.

Next up: I have a Vassal game report to post looking at Steve and I playing the full campaign game for Rommel in the Desert, plus six French third rates are on the stocks in JJ's Shipyard and I am starting to read my way through some new books that Santa brought me for Xmas, so book reviews are on the list.

All at Sea - Cape Ortegal, 4th November 1805, Dumenoir's Opportunity

Picking up where Jack and I left off from last month with our play-testing of War by Sail from Ostfront Publishing.

The rules are available through Wargames Vault, in the link below, on which you can see a short video showing the rules in action to get an idea of the basic mechanics. Our principle change has been to add a chit driven activation system, taken directly from Kiss Me Hardy rather than the dice driven activation as illustrated in the video, together with combining turning and sailing straight into one complete action.

https://www.wargamevault.com/product/290486/War-by-Sail

https://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2020/01/all-at-sea-first-games-new-rules.html

We continued adopting, adapting and improving, this time joined by Bob and David and playing a set-piece engagement where both parties were looking to fight for very different reasons.

As explained in the first post we were focused on developing some chase scenarios where one party could gain victory points by escaping and or causing damage to the pursuer equally as well as just damaging the pursuer enough to turn from the hunted into the hunter by finishing off the wounded opponent. I aim to do some more of these type of games to better hone the set up for them.

French commander at the Battle of Cape Ortegal,
Vice Admiral Count Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley

In this scenario we set out to play the game where both parties were offering battle and for this game I chose the action that occurred on the 4th of November off Cape Ortegal on the northwest corner of Spain that juts out into the Bay of Biscay, during which Sir Richard Strachan engaged four French survivors from the Battle of Trafalgar the month previous, under the command of Vice Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley, who had also commanded his squadron in the van at Trafalgar.

Battle of Cape Ortegal

I say both parties offering a fight, which was not at first the case, as Dumanoir had at first considered returning home with his surviving squadron, then thought better of it by deciding to make a nuisance of himself in the Bay of Biscay, only to find himself challenged and pursued by Sir Richard Strachan's four third raters and three frigates, which gradually gained on the retreating French squadron.

Realising running was not an option, the French admiral was forced to offer battle, and by the time he made the decision to turn and fight, he had forgone the chance of turning to offer battle with a more favourable wind, which had now shifted against him.

The set up for our game

I know some gamers turn away from eras or periods where one side in a conflict greatly outperforms their enemy for one reason or another, declaring the engagements it offers as uninteresting games, because victory so often favours one side.

This has never been something that has bothered me for I have always thought that these games are more of an intellectual challenge in considering how the weaker side and its commander could have done better and by rewarding the player for identifying the ways to improve the outcome in the action over and above their historical predecessor.

Thus it comes down to how you decide to describe 'victory' in your scenario and thus weighting the objectives for both sides appropriately.

The set up sees both sides approach each other with a bow wind blowing left to right, with the British 36 gun, 18 pounder frigates Phoeinix and Santa Margarita out ahead of the British column, now with HMS Hero out of position and missing HMS Namur because of the chase it has been performing.

In the historical battle, the four French third rates were battered by their equivalent British opponents, easily allowing the accompanying British frigates and the remaining fightable British third rates to take command of the situation and complete the capture of all four French ships who seeing the situation they now faced struck rapidly.

Thus any British player should be expected to do a better job or match that of Sir Richard Strachan by taking all four French third rates.

For Dumanoir's performance it would seem reasonable that any outcome the other side of an outright British victory would seem like a good performance on the part of the French player.

The French squadron, to right is led by Duguay Trouin, followed by Dumanoir's flagship, Formidable, followed by Mont Blanc and Scipion, the British 74 HMS Hero is seen out of position after the chase, at the rear of the British column opposite, led by Strachan's flagship HMS Caesar.

To make the scenario more interesting, our set up differed from the historical event in that we assumed Dumanoir was more decisive in his decision making that he actually was, by assuming that the decision to turn on the British pursuit was taken earlier while the wind was still blowing ESE instead of from the SE to which it veered by the time he made the decision to turn.

This was an interesting component to our game as it meant both sides approached each other at half speed contending with a bow wind, and that during the course of our game the wind did indeed veer to the south east by the end of play, which allowed the French to keep the wind to their advantage.

The 1:700th models really lend themselves to the 'dolphin eye' view of the camera, over and above what you can do with the smaller scale models, allowing you to create pictures straight from the National Maritime Museum collection.

HMS Caesar, leads HMS Courageaux, with Dumanoir's squadron in sight ahead 

Having Bob and David join us allowed for two more minds to input on the changes Jack and I had made during our first play-throughs of the rules and the addition of more ships, activation chits to draw, instead of cards to shuffle and more players, would test the ability of the game to flow along and all of us still getting to grips with the mechanisms of play.

Thus Bob took command of the heavy British squadron, Strachan's ships of the line, and David took the two British frigates, whilst Jack assumed the role of Vice Admiral Dumenoir.

The view of the French squadron from the British 36 gun frigate HMS Santa Margarita

The latest addition to my collection is the Bucentaure, nearest to camera, standing in as the 80 gun Formidable, Dumenoir's flagship

The steady approach forced on both sides by the prevailing wind meant that the first opportunity to open fire with their long eighteen pounders was offered to David's two frigates as he closed on the French column.

We played the game to the code of the era, not allowing the French to open fire on the smaller fifth rates until fired upon, and David kept his powder dry as he continued to manoeuvre towards the rear of the French column as it advanced on the three British third rates.

Likewise, particularly given the French position of looking to disable their pursuers to make good their escape, we had the French firing on the uproll looking to shred their opposites rigging whilst Strachan's boys were doing their utmost to put as many holes in French hulls as they could in the shortest amount of time possible.

Both main columns looked to increase their speed of approach by turning with the wind, that saw the lead French ship pull slightly ahead of the column and draw close enough to Strachan's HMS Caesar to attempt a disabling broadside against the British flagships rigging.

The resulting barrage missed the upper area and crashed in among the top deck causing the first crew casualty marker, easily shrugged off by the British 80 gunner.

As the British column turned likewise with the wind, the return fire from the lead British third rates proved decisive and a resultant fire on the Duguay Trouin from the early exchanges brought a devastating end to the first contact as the French 74 was rent apart by a massive explosion as the fire got quickly out of control.

Jack opens fire at long range with the Duguay Trouin on HMS Caesar, aiming for the rigging with his lower deck 32-pounders, as David looks on

Duguay Trouin opens fire on HMS Caesar and HMS Phoenix, a British frigate out of camera , that has just fires at the French 74.

The exchange of fire at the front of the French column was quickly followed by an exchange of fire at the rear of it as the British frigate HMS Phoenix turned across the stern of the Scipion to deliver a crashing stern rake into the French 74, only to be replied to with an equally crashing return broadside as she crossed the rear of the French ship,taking down two masts on the frigate and effectively taking it out of the action.

HMS Santa Margarita, the remaining frigate, wisely kept its distance for the remaining parts of the game as the heavy ships set about each other in earnest.

The action commences as the opposing columns make contact and with British frigates feeling out the rear of the French column

Suddenly the Dugauy Trouin, with a fire amidships is torn apart by a massive explosion amid the smoke of gunfire

The French were keen to keep the wind and thus steered along the length of the table as the British not looking to tack so close to the enemy mirrored their move by wearing around to run a parallel course.

These few moves to get their respective columns into position for the next exchanges saw the wind gradually move towards the south east as the ten turn way point was reached, after which the game would end by a variable die roll, that would see an addition three turns added.

The French turn towards the British line as the wind veers to their advantage allowing a rapid approach to close range

The French now had the wind up their skirts and with Jack compelled to leave before the game end, David took over the final French manoeuvres as their ships bore down on the British line, in a very Nelsonesque approach to deliver their broadsides close in accompanied by exchanges of small arms fire from the opposing marines.

The new wind is indicted from the south east as the French column moves into the attack

As the two columns drew near, the opposing lines of ships opened fire as the targets presented, with the French needing to draw blood to offset the loss of the Duguay Trouin which held the scenario in the realms of an outright British victory with the fifteen points to nil it generated.

As expected the last two turns was close up and bloody with the British just as keen to maintain their fifteen point advantage by equally mauling the remaining French ships.

However it is difficult to control events when 32 and 24 pounder gun decks start pouring on the hurt at musket range and with the last round of play determined as turn thirteen it was not entirely clear who had come out on top amid the smoke and damage markers, not to mention two fires.

The exchanges of broadsides are now close up and personal as two of the French ships move into musket range and with ships on both sides showing fires braking out

Once all the morale checks and fire checks were concluded we set about totting up the final scores, which showed one French third rate sunk, one struck giving the British commander twenty-five victory points.

However two of the British third rates were now totally dismasted and drifting, one a bloodbath through lost casualties and one with heavy casualties awarding the French commander twenty-six victory points, resulting in an 'Indecisive' result.

The little marker tokens amid the smoke and flames denote the damage that is occurring from the multiple hits on both British and French alike, giving the appearance of the flotsam and jetsam that would litter the surface of the water in battles of this era as bits of rigging and hull was blasted overboard.

The French had improved their result over the historical outcome achieved by Dumenoir, even though the remaining two French third rates, now damaged but still able to fight would have to deal with HMS Namur 74 and three British frigates closing on the scene of battle, with the outcome of that encounter by no means certain to favour the French.

The game rattled along through the day, playing as we did thirteen turns from about 11am to 5.30pm and a hour for lunch.

The use of chits rather than card shuffling was much better and helped speed play and the inclusion of the KMH wind change mechanism worked like a dream producing an historical outcome.

The gem of the War by Sail rules is as commented previously, the gunnery mechanism that allows the players to use the guns that each ship carried with all the pros and cons that the different armament arrangements offered the historical captains.

Bringing Home the Prizes - Sir Richard Stachan's HMS Caesar 80, tows home the captured Formidable back from Ortegal

There is much more period feel when you grab fourteen d6 to roll for hitting with fourteen lower deck 32 pounders, then an equal number of mid deck 18 or 24 pounders, then finishing off with upper deck 8 or 9 pounders and hopefully a few 32 or 18 pounder carronades, range permitting, totting up the damage points and finding the result caused by all those hits or not as the case may be.

That period feel is not the same as with other age of sail games I have played where you are simply rolling a die generated factor based on those different gunnery load outs, and the points of damage totting up really captures the battering the target ship is taking during a particular combat - great fun.

Thank you to Bob, David and Jack for indulging me in a day of just playing with model ships, such fun to add to the pleasure of putting these models together.

I look forward to doing some more of these game reports as the collection grows and looking to further develop scenario set ups with War by Sail.

All at Sea - First Games, New Rules

HMS Unicorn  32 in action with Tribune 36 8th June 1796. It was during this action, 50 miles west of the Isles of Scilly, that HMS Santa Margarita 36 successfully engaged Tamise 32, the set up for our first scenario

This week I finally got around to arranging with fellow Age of Sail enthusiast Jack to get together to try out some rules with the new collection of 1:700th ships.

I am very much in the process of deciding what rules to use with this collection and have pretty much come to the conclusion that it will be two distinct sets, given that I am planning to do same big battle games as the collection grows; but initially I am quite keen to set up some single and small group engagements which will require a more granular set to capture the individuality and differences between the ships involved.

One set of rules that caught my attention as I have looked at alternatives to my usual turn to set, Kiss Me Hardy was War By Sail written by Thomas Jensen at Ostfront Publishing.

http://www.ostfrontpublishing.com/games/warbysail/

The aspect that really caught my eye was that the rules incorporate the types and number of each type of gun carried by the ships ranging from 1550 through to 1815 and are designed to allow the gamer to model that precise set of guns carried by its historic predecessor, which might not necessarily be the standard armament for its type.

That said, there are other aspects of the rules that were not quite as I would want them, but as I have always subscribed to the policy of changing parts of any rules to fit my own requirements, long before the modern trend of rule writers to include that suggestion within their rules, I simply decided to give these a go incorporating some initial changes and getting Jack's input as we played through three scenarios to test out the ideas.

The principle adjustments were to change the initiative based sequence of play to one of using cards as per Kiss Me Hardy to determine when specific actions such as moving, firing and boarding could occur, together with player held cards for pre-setting what the ship/ships would do once their move card appeared, namely Starboard/Port turn, Straight Ahead and Tack. The changes also included incorporating turning into movement as a whole rather than, as the rules are written, with movement straight ahead, separate from turning decisions.

We also added in a d6/d3 variable to the movement rates for the models to make that slightly less predictable, with the better trained ships crews, British, getting the choice from rolling two die.

The other main aspect was the setting up of the games, all chase scenarios, with a pursued and pursuer, with still some work needed to get the distances between them balanced from the start, as we were using the ten move variable end system outlined in the rules to decide when the scenario came to an end.

The first scenario we played featured a Spanish built frigate captured in 1779 during the American War of Independence and renamed HMS Santa Margarita, seen here in 1782 cutting adrift the French prize Amazone

Thus said, the result of each game was not really the point, but more, how it played as regards testing the changes we made. In that our games developed as we moved from one to the next, with notes made on the crib sheets as we went, to capture what worked well and cross out what didn't.

So for our day of simply playing with the model ships, I selected three historical scenarios, mapping out where the engagements occurred, using the headings and wind as detailed in the accounts to set up and with the ships stats based as closely to those of the ships that took part rather than any generic setup.

The French frigate Tamise, in our first scenario, had three years previously been His Majesty's Ship Thames, 32 gun frigate, as seen above, until its capture by Uranie on the 24th October 1793

The first two engagements were between a French and a British frigate with two years separating them but with the British captain, Thomas Byam Martin the same in both actions but captaining two very different ships, reflecting the change in the size of frigates and the armament carried as the French Revolutionary War progressed.

Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Thomas Byam Martin in 1849
https://prints.rmg.co.uk/products/sir-thomas-byam-martin-gcb-admiral-of-the-fleet-1849-a2585

The final scenario saw the tables turned and us getting out the big ships with three French 74's in pursuit of HMS Alexander 74 in 1794 and a rare occasion when a British 74 was captured during the Revolutionary/Napoleonic conflict.

I have illustrated each scenario with a map showing where the actions occurred, together with an account of it from William James' 'Naval History of Great Britain', together with an account of how each game played out

The first of our three scenarios took place about 50 miles west of the Scilly Isles in 1796 between HMS Santa Margarita, a former Spanish built frigate captured during the American War of Independence and Tamise the former British frigate HMS Thames

'On the 8th of June, at 2 a.m., Scilly bearing east half-south distant 17 leagues, the British 18-pounder 32-gun frigate Unicorn, Captain Thomas Williams, and 12-pounder 36-gun frigate Santa-Margarita, Captain Thomas Byam Martin, discovered, about three miles on their lee beam, three strange ships of war; which, on being neared in chase, were ascertained to be two frigates and a ship-corvette. 

They were, in fact, the French 36-gun frigates Tribune, Commodore Jean Moulston, and Tamise (late British Thames), Captain Jean-Baptiste-Alexis Fradin, and 18-gun corvette Legere, Lieutenant Jean-Martin-Michel Carpentier. These ships had sailed from Brest on the 4th, in company with the 40-gun frigate Proserpine, Captain Etienne Pevrieux, who had since parted from them in a fog.

..... At 4 p.m. the Tamise bore round up, both to avoid the fire of the Unicorn, and to pour a broadside into the bow of the Santa Margarita; but the latter judiciously evaded the salute, by laying herself close alongside her opponent. This pair of combatants now went off by themselves, engaging with great spirit during 20 minutes; at the end of which the Tamise, having sustained considerable damage in hull, sails, and rigging, struck her colours.'

HMS Santa Margarita in pursuit of Tamise, our first scenario for the day

I chose this action to try out two relatively well matched combatants with two frigates illustrating the lighter caliber guns carried by these types, namely a main deck of 12 pounders and the upper decks using 6 pounders and the odd 36/32 pounder carronade.

The French frigate kept on running with the wind under her skirt

This game proved to be most instructive on how we needed to change some of the original ideas with the chase well modelled but the set up distances needing to be altered to better suit the ten to fifteen move scenario plan, and the need to move away from War by Sails, fixed movement rates and to include a variable element to them to stop each move being too predictable.

Then Tamis pulls off a surprise turn to deliver a broadside against her tormentor firing 6 pounder bow chasers in the pursuit 

The lighter cannon and there less destructive capability at the longer range gave a clue as to the need to better arrange the start positions of a scenario where one side is attempting to evade the other.

That said, the card play that randomises movement works really well in these kind of games where the pursuit vessel is keen to close on the target but has to be wary in case the hunted turns hunter as in our game where I ordered the French ship to turn broadside on to Jack's ship that charged straight on only to find itself facing a bow rake, which due to combination of poor French gunnery, range and light guns only managed to inflict a crew casualty and not the rigging damage I was hoping for.

Tamis about to escape having caused a few casualties to Santa Margarita during their chase action

The variable end to the scenario added another four moves to the ten turn end point, that saw the Frenchman escape with light damage to her rigging and a few crew casualties to HMS Santa Margarita, principally down I think to the ships being to far apart at the start. Another play test needed.

The gunnery section of the rules lived up to my expectations and I was looking forward to the next scenarios to see the difference using bigger and heavier armed ships and the card activation was as good as ever, but I would like to move towards using chits instead of shuffling cards each turn.

On to the second scenario with HMS Fisgard's encounter with Immortalité west of Brest in 1798 which saw Captain Martin now commanding the 38 gun, 18 pounder armed frigate Fisgard with 9 pounders and eight 32 pounder carronades on the top deck up against Immortalité armed with 24 pounders and 8 pounders together with four 36 pounder carronades up top.

HMS Fisgard 38, in pursuit of Immortalité 36, as depicted by Derek Gardner, 20th October 1798

William James sets the scene for this action;

'On the 20th of October, at 8 a. m., in latitude 48° 23' north, and longitude 7° west, the British 38-gun frigate Fisgard, Captain Thomas Byam Martin, while standing on the larboard tack with the wind at west-south-west, saw a strange sail due west, on the opposite tack, steering free. At 8 h. 45 m. A. M. the Fisgard tacked in chase, and gained on the stranger; who was no other than the Immortalite, pursuing her course to Brest, and which port, but for this to her unlucky encounter, she would very soon have reached. 

At 11 A.M. the Immortalite hoisted French colours, and commenced firing her stern-chasers. At 11h. 30m. a.m. the Fisgard hoisted English colours, and opened a fire in return with her bow-guns, still, with a fine moderate breeze on the quarter, coming up with the object of her pursuit. At half-past noon the Fisgard got close alongside her opponent, and a spirited action commenced.

So effectual, however, was the Immortality's fire, that, in 25 minutes, the Fisgard was rendered quite ungovernable, having her bowlines, braces, top sail-ties, back-stays, and the whole of her running rigging, cut to pieces. The Fisgard, in consequence, dropped astern; and the Immortalite, profiting by the occasion, crowded sail to escape. 

At 1 h. 30 p.m., by the active exertions of her crew, the Fisgard was again alongside her opponent; and a cannonade now commenced, more furious than the first. At the end of half an hour the Fisgard had received some shots so low in the hull, as to have six feet water in the hold. Still her resolute crew persevered; and at 3 p.m., after nearly an hour and a half's close engagement, the Immortalite, then nearly in a sinking state from the Fisgard's shot, and having her mizenmast gone close to the deck, and her fore and mam masts, and all her other spars, as well as rigging and sails, much cut; and having, besides, lost her captain and first lieutenant, hauled down her colours.'

This proved to be another great chase scenario, where I again took the role of the French captain in this case Jean Francois Legrand, with a 330 man crew and 250 soldiers aboard my 36 gun frigate and with Jack taking the role of Captain Martin and 281 man crew aboard Fisgard.

Immortalité and Fisgard go broadside to broadside

Again I was content to play down the turns by running, but always looking for an opportunity to turn and bring my 24 pounder main battery to bear with its slightly better range over the British ship, and the strategy worked up until the closing stages of the chase when the Fisgard got close enough to turn to port and deliver a crashing broadside as I prepared to escape; that completely dismasted the Immortalité and together with a morale check from the additional crew casualty added to losses from a previous strike saw the Frenchman haul down his colours, right on the last turn.

HMS Fisgard lets loose a powerful broadside just as Immortalité looked set to escape, dismasting the French frigate and seeing her strike

Following our messing about with the small boats together with a quick lunch, Jack and I set up the final game for the day pitting the 74s of the Royal Navy and the Marine National with the historic clash between Admiral Nielly and Captain Richard Bligh.

This is how William James described the encounter between the two sides in 1794;

'In the latter end of October, or beginning of November, Rear admiral Nielly, with the five 74-gun ships, Marat, Tigre, Droits de 1'Homme, Pelletier, and Jean-Bart, the Charente, Fraternite, and Gentille frigates, and Papillon brig-corvette, sailed from Brest on a cruise to the westward, and, as it was understood, to endeavour to intercept the homeward-bound Lisbon and Oporto fleet. 

On the 6th of November, at 2 h. 30 m. a.m., latitude 48° 25' north, longitude (from Greenwich) 7° 53' west, this squadron fell in with the two British 74-gun ships Alexander, Captain Richard Rodney Bligh, and Canada, Captain Charles Powell Hamilton, returning to England after having escorted the Lisbon and Mediterranean convoys to a safe latitude.

The two British ships, when first seen, were to leeward of the French squadron, steering north-east, with the wind at west. The Alexander and Canada immediately hauled upon the wind, on the larboard tack, and, at a little before 4 a.m., passed the strange ships, the nearest distant about half a mile, but without being able to ascertain their national character. Shortly after wards the two British ships kept a little free, letting out the reefs of their topsails, and setting studding-sails. At 5 a.m. it was discovered by the night-glasses that the strangers were standing after the British ships; whereupon the latter crowded all sail, and hauled more to the eastward. At about daybreak the Canada passed the Alexander, and, steering a more northerly course, brought herself on the latter's larboard bow. 

Two ships of the line, one bearing a rear-admiral's flag, and two frigates, now went in chase of the Canada; and the remaining three ships, one with a commodore's pendant, and one frigate, pursued the Alexander.

..... The Alexander continued firing her stern-chase guns until early 11 a.m.; when the advanced ship of the three in chase of her (believed to have been the Jean-Bart) ran up and brought the British ship to close action. So well-directed a fire in return was opened by the Alexander, that, in half an hour, the French 74 was compelled to sheer off and call a frigate to her assistance.

The French commodore, in the Tigre, next advanced, but would not come fairly alongside: notwithstanding which, the Alexander, in about half an hour, shot away the head of the Tigre's main topmast, her main yard in the slings, and her mizen topmast. A third ship now took the latter's place, and used her endeavours to compel the Alexander to surrender.

This unequal conflict the British 74 sustained until some minutes past 1 p.m.; by which time she had her main yard, spanker-boom, and three topgallant yards shot away, her three lower masts shot through in many places, all the other masts and yards more or less wounded, nearly the whole of the standing and running rigging cut to pieces, her sails torn into ribands, her hull shattered, and on fire in several places, and her hold nearly filled with water. 

The French 74 , Droits de l'Homme in pursuit of HMS Alexander, 6th November 1794

The other ships, also, which had quitted her consort, were rapidly advancing, and the French admiral already threw his shot over her. Captain Bligh, therefore, justly deemed any further efforts as a needless waste of lives, and ordered the colours of the Alexander to be hauled down.

As far as could be ascertained, the Alexander's loss amounted to about 40 men in killed and wounded; including, among the latter, one lieutenant of marines, the boatswain, and pilot. The Canada, owing to the high firing of the French, sustained very little damage and no loss, and reached a home-port in safety.

According to the French papers, the Alexander's two principal opponents were very much disabled, and sustained between them a loss in killed and wounded amounting to 450 officers and men.'

For this scenario we had the French coming on in a general chase, with each successive French ship one move behind the one in front.

Again the variable movement helped upset any plans of the French arriving en mass with the lead 74 Droits de l'Homme pulling away from the other two looking to slow down the Alexander to allow her consorts to come up and finish the fight.

With the wind up their skirts the two opposing 74s are set up for our final game

The initial contact saw both opposing 74s exchanging broadsides with the Frenchman getting slightly the better of the exchange.

Then in the next move the card play took a hand with the French ship attempting to get across the bows of the British 74 thwarted by the Alexander getting in a combination of moving and firing before the French ship could reply, by which time it could only bring half its broadside to bear.

HMS Alexander running as best she can but giving away a slight speed advantage to the French

The close range cannonade and the difference in weight of shot delivered bore its inevitable fruit with the French 74 taking a pounding and three crew casualties and a fire creating a 'bloodbath' and a morale failure that caused the Frenchman to strike.

However the British victor was in no place to follow up his success with the other two French 74s bearing down on him but not at the speed that would have stopped the eventual disengagement that saw the British 3rd rate make good its escape.

Droits de l'Homme led the French pursuit with the flagship Marat following, followed herself by Jean Bart.

So that was it in terms of games played and Jack and I had plenty to talk through afterwards with these three chase scenarios.

What worked well?
Being both confirmed Lardy enthusiasts, I think we both found the card play randomising when specific events occurred a more satisfying way to play rather than the sequenced play outlined in the rules. Unless resorting to writing down your planned move ahead of doing it, which is a tiresome way of playing, this method of play is a great alternative, although the card shuffling between turns is to my mind annoying and I would prefer using tokens in future.

The first exchange of fire as Alexander turns to engage Droits de l'Homme in an effort to blunt the French pursuit

The gunnery rules are really good and perhaps the stand out feature in War by Sail with each type of gun having its own stats in terms of range and damage causing ability. Those aspects combined with rolling for each gun fired in an attack to hit and then cause that damage makes the fire exchange really interesting in these small scale battles.

Alongside the modeling of the ships guns lies the decision points in the game for the respective commanders such as ceasing fire to make a dedicated reload of all the guns or just firing as she bears with each gun rolling a crew test to see if it is loaded in time to fire again. Likewise deciding on fighting fires, or fighting the ship, manoeuvring to contact, and the use of bow and stern chasers to target rigging to slow down a pursuer or chaser are there in the rules.

The British 74 gets the better of the exchange with Droits de l'Homme struck and on fire, but with Captain Bligh pulling away to escape the other two pursuing French ships. The counters are part of War by Sail designed to easily note damage, but can be recorded on paper instead if preferred.

The Lardy ethos also influenced the decision to use the movement rates as written but to add in a small randomised component of d3 or d6 inches additional or reduced according to the ships attitude to the wind. This again took away certainty that the players could look at the table and know definitely that after both sides had moved the distance between them would be a given one to the exact inch.

The time limited variable end to the scenario as taken straight from War by Sail really works well and with some slight modification could be added to to better reward certain outcomes in different scenarios such as a chase or a duel.

HMS Alexander making good its escape after dealing with Droits de l'Homme

What still needs work?

I am keen to create a collection of what I would describe as Chase and Duel scenarios based upon these historical engagements together with a tabletop set up for a generic fictional option recreating both types.

By chase and duel, I am simply catagorising these fights into ones where one side was looking to avoid action and thus being chased by the opponent to bring it on or where both sides were looking for a fight thinking that they had a good opportunity of winning.

The set up for the chase is still not quite right and I am planning to play some more games to get it to that right balance point where both sides have a good chance of getting a result in their favour. The duel set up should be simpler and with little change needed to the basic rules.

One other factor discussed was the element of better sailing attributes for better crews, able to get the most from their ship compared with less able opponents, but I think this will need more thought to see if the factor can be modelled without distorting the play balance too much.

Thanks to Jack for a very enjoyable day immersed in the Age of Sail and his input to working through these games. The plan is to get together again next month to run through the rules again in the light of the changes we arrived at, together with some new scenarios and some additional ideas we had, to test them with.

Next up - New ships have been added to the collection and work commences on the French fleet box set together with HMS Victory.

More anon

JJ