Trafalgar 220 - Naval Wargames Society Weekend (Preparations)

 

This week has been a bit busy which explains my lack of a post on the blog last weekend, as I had several projects on the go that I was keen to get finished, three of which will see some more new units to be showcased as part of my ongoing American War of Independence theme, 'The World Turned Upside Down'; and some final preparations for my attendance this weekend with friends at the Naval Wargames Society gathering at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, where I will be running out the Trafalgar collection of 1:700 models to refight the battle in commemoration of the 220th anniversary of this most famous naval battle. 

JJ's Wargames - The Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 - 2025, Legionary Exeter

It was back in May this year that I play tested the battle using Far Distant Ships, Fleet Action Rules written by David Manley at the Exeter Legionary Show, and with just one day to fight our way through six turns of battle equating to just one hour of the four and a half hours the real battle took to fight, our game was 'hotting-up' by Turns 5 & 6 as my AAR recorded:

Turn 5 - Game Time 12.25. 

Vice Admiral Collingwood mortally wounded by French sharpshooters aboard the French 74-gun Fougeaux.

The Spanish 74-gun Bahama strikes to HMS Bellerophon after a devastating close range broadside caused her to strike immediately

Turn 6 - Game Time 12.35

Six Allied ships struck in the following ten minutes of battle

The Spanish 74-gun Montanez strikes to HMS Bellerophon which had moved along the allied line after shattering the Bahama.

The Spanish 74-gun San Francisco de Asis strikes to HMS Temeraire after a stern rake.

The French 74-gun Algeciras

The French 74-gun Fougeaux

The French 74-gun Pluton

The Spanish 74-gun Monarca

Our team of players for Legionary Exeter this May with the fleets well and truly engaged.

The game was great fun to run and, despite a few admin errors of my own creation, went very well and I came away with quite a few tweaks to include for the game that is prepared for this weekend, which will give us two full days to play through as much of the battle as we can.

My plan for the game takes much inspiration from Mark Adkin's great book on the battle, 'The Trafalgar Companion' published for the bicentenary with a wealth of information that was able to include some of the latest research about the battle that helps the gamer to be better informed about it's 'choreography' or more precisely why the battle was fought in the way it was.

I have always taken a similar approach to setting up historical actions and battles in that I am always keen to present the player-commanders with a very similar set of issues that faced their historical counterparts, that explains why, in this battle, one commander was very keen on bringing on a battle of manoeuvre or as Nelson would have termed it 'a pell-mell' battle, whilst his adversary was most distinctly not.

To have the Combined Fleet setting about the approaching British Fleet in anything but an attempt at a line of battle is completely at odds to what convinced Villeneuve and his commanders not to attempt such a feat, and yet I have seen Trafalgar played like that, which in my humble opinion is not Trafalgar.

So my start point has been to focus on what Nelson and Villeneuve had to say about the tactics they intended to employ in the upcoming battle and to use that to inform the situation the players will need to work with and to see if they can improve on the outcome.

Nelson described his forthcoming battle tactics. 

‘No day can bring long enough to arrange a couple of fleets and fight a decisive battle according to the old system (i.e. in two long parallel lines). 

 . . . I shall form the fleet into three divisions in three lines. One division will be composed of twelve or fourteen of the fastest two decked ships, which I shall keep always to windward, or in a situation of advantage . . .

 I consider it will always be in my power to throw it into battle in any part I may choose . . .

 With the remaining part of the fleet formed in two lines I shall go at them at once, if I can, about one third of their line from the leading ship . . .

 I think it will surprise and confound the enemy. They won’t know what I am about. It will bring on a pell-mell battle, and that is what I want.’

As for Villeneuve, his fleet orders contain key pointers to his plans should he be forced to fight.

'. . . I by no means propose to seek out the enemy. I even wish to avoid him in order to proceed to my destination. But should we encounter him, let there be no ignominious manoeuvring; it would dishearten the crews and bring about our defeat.' 

The last sentence underlines how he appreciated the severe limitations under which his crews would sail and fight. 'No ignominious manoeuvring' put matters neatly. Unfortunately for Villeneuve he felt compelled to order his fleet to make such a manoeuvre (wearing) prior to battle. The fleet struggled to form anything like a line and the resultant loss of time and formation was indeed disheartening to his crews and their commanders

‘Any Captain commanding that is not under fire will not be at his post; and any whose next ahead or next astern is closer than he to the enemy will not be doing his duty and a signal recalling him will be a reflection on his honour.’

Here we see Villeneuve giving almost identical instructions as Nelson - 'no Captain can do very wrong if he places his ship along-side that of the Enemy.'

'If . . . the enemy appears to windward (as was the case) of us and exhibits the intention of attacking us, we shall await him in close-formed line of battle. It will be for the discretion and skill of the leading ship to make only such sail as is necessary and to keep the wind only as needful to assist the formation of this order.'

Here Villeneuve deals with the situation that occurred at Trafalgar. Being to the lee he accepts he must await an enemy attack and intends to do so in line. He stipulates a close line, that is one with gaps of perhaps 30 to 40 yards about 1.5 to 2 inches in 1:700 scale. Note the wide gaps in the line as arranged at Legionary at the top of the post illustrating the results of 'ignominious manoeuvring'.

'The enemy will not confine himself to forming on a line of battle parallel with our own and engaging us in an artillery duel, in which success lies frequently with the more skilful but always with the more fortunate; he will endeavour to envelop our rear, to break through our line and to direct his ships in groups upon such of ours as he shall have cut off, so as to surround them and defeat them. . . The formation being broken, every effort must be exerted to go to the assistance of the ship assailed and to close on the flagship.' 

Ten months before Trafalgar, Villeneuve is predicting almost precisely how Nelson would attack if he was to windward of the Combined Fleet. He foresaw a melee-type engagement where captains would be required to take their ships to the centre of the action without awaiting orders. A captain not under fire was not doing his duty.

The Battle of Trafalgar lasted well over five hours from the opening shots of the Fougeux at 11.45 a.m. to the surrender of the Intrepide at 5.15 p.m. with the battle roughly divided into three interrelated parts.

• Collingwood's and Nelson's almost simultaneous attacks
• The subsequent confrontations between various combinations of individual ships
• The belated attempt of Dumanoir's van to return to assist the centre

The most intense fighting occurred during the two hours after 12.30 p.m. Within the first 90 minutes Villeneuve had lost two ships (Redoutable and Fougeux) and Nelson was down (hit at about 1.15 p.m.). By 3 p.m. another nine of the Combined Fleet had struck (Bucentaure, Santa Ana, Santisima Trinidad, Algeciras, San Juan Nepomuceno, Bahama, Monarca, Aigle and Swiftsure) and a third of the fleet was out of action including three flagships (those of Villeneuve, Cisneros and Magon). By the time Nelson died at 4.30 p.m. three more had surrendered (San Augustin, San Ildefonso and Berwick) while the Achille had caught fire and exploded; altogether 16 enemy ships had been captured or destroyed, another 11 were in full flight for Cadiz and Dumanoir was escaping westward with four more. This left one Spanish ship, the Neptuno, and one French, the Intrepide still battling on. The Intrepide struck at 5.15 p.m., after a two and a half hour fight (15 game turns) that was arguably the most gallant of the entire battle, she being engaged by no fewer than seven British ships.

Thus we have the premise for our two day game set up by our two historical commanders, Nelson and Villeneuve and a blow by blow record of the historical five hour struggle to compare the outcome with that our player commanders can achieve.

I've prepared a simple game log to help keep a note of the events as they occur.

With that in mind we have a 'Battle Log' ready to record the critical events of the game with historical notes to compare.

Victory opens fire in our play test at Legionary in May this year

Finally one of the key points to come out of the Legionary game was to include a simple but effective way of deciding when Rear-Admiral Dumanoir will react to Villeneuve's signal and wear the Combined Fleet van squadron and come to the assistance of the centre, and that is now included in the new briefing.

I'm really looking forward to our game this Saturday and Sunday at the Fleet Air Arm Museum and the hall we are playing in is open for public access to come along and see the various naval games being played, so if you fancy coming along to see the game, and visit the museum, we will be glad to see you.

In addition to playing the game, I'm looking forward to sharing the results here on JJ's so as always, more anon.

JJ