All at Sea - Scourge vs Le Sans Culottes 13th March 1793

The British Brig-Sloop Suffisante chasing down the French Brig-Corvette Revanche 27th May 1796 - Derek Gardner
Ok I know it's not the Scourge and Sans Culottes, but I couldn't resist using this great rendition of two similar British and French brigs from one of my favourite marine artists.

This week I got to try out a new way of enjoying the hobby of table-top wargaming when I played my first remote game over Zoom, this following watching a really interesting YouTube chat between Richard Clarke of Too Fat Lardies in discussion with friends about Miniature Wargaming On-line - A Beginners Guide.

So after getting in contact with another fellow Lard enthusiast, my mate Bob Connor who manages the DWG Lardy Day, we got together to put Richard's recommendations to the test plus me shortening my learning curve because Bob has a few such games under his belt already.

Well I have to agree with Richard that, if I understand the comments of Guy Bowers and the chaps at Wargames Soldier and Strategy Magazine correctly, I think they might be a bit premature in their assessment of this way of gaming as we certainly enjoyed the evening pushing some model ships about the table using Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) to moderate play and I have put together a short video presentation of how are game turned out.

I should say that I had originally planned to present the game as a solo run affair, as per my previous effort covering The Leeward Line scenario from the Battle of Trafalgar, but with comments from Rich and the chaps about how well naval games and KMH can work with this way of playing I was more than ready to try it out and would encourage others toying with the idea to have a go.

So to set the scene, I quote William James' 'A Naval History of Great Britain Volume 1' covering the year 1793 and the start of the French Revolutionary War;

'On the 13th of March, the British 16-gun brig-sloop Scourge, Captain George Brisac (but mounting then only eight 6-pounders, with a crew of 70 out of her complement of 90 men and boys), being a few leagues to the westward of Scilly, fell in with, and after a three hours' action captured, the French privateer Sans-Culotte, of 12 guns (eight long 8-pounders, and four English carronades, 12-pounders), with a complement of 81 men; of whom nine were killed, and 20 wounded, the Scourge escaping with only one man killed, and one wounded.'

In my previous post I outlined my plan for this game using Gina Willis' Grand Tactical AI Wheel to bring the Sans Culottes onto the table and Narrow Seas to determine advantage and wind, and 'To Covet Glory to better modify KMH for small ship actions thus enabling me to complete the first two turns solo before Bob and I picked up the game from there, with Bob taking the Sans Culottes under command.

All at Sea - To Covet Glory in Narrow Seas

The table and cameras set up during play - the iPad gives Bob an overview of the table and the phone camera enables close ups for a more detailed look. Bob can be seen on the iPad and we were able to enjoy all the normal chat and banter as we rapidly played through the turns of play.

Thus with the iPad and mobile phone logged in on Zoom Bob and I played another five turns resulting in an equally fierce and decisive, if slightly shorter action as the Scourge and Le Sans Culottes went at it 'hammer and tong'.

Hopefully the video presentation of the game will help capture the key elements, so if you want to find out how it played, just follow the link to the video below.

Next up: Another report looking at another Peninsular War scenario from O'er the Hills and progress continues to add six French 3rd rates to the collection of Napoleonic ships. In addition adventures in the world of Vassal with a game of Richard III and all the fun of the Wars of the Roses or should that be 'The Cousins War'?

All at Sea - To Covet Glory in Narrow Seas!

HMS Scourge capturing the Sans Coulotte, 13th March 1793 - Thomas Yates

 

This time last year, having built a few models in the age of sail collection, I was working through some historical single ship actions, looking to develop those scenarios based around the concept of duels and chases to try a set up a framework around these games that better reflected what the commanders of these ships were trying to achieve when they ended up in the fights they did.

Very often these fights were a mismatch because the opposing commanders mistook the identity and fighting capability of their opponent before it was too late to alter course and escape and the ruses of flying false colours or shoddy handling of sail and rigging to add to the confusion only made things more difficult as most nations insisted on a positive identification to be made before engaging in combat, Barbary Corsairs excepted.

The other issue when refighting engagements between ships at the smaller end of the rating lists and below are that the rules have to cater for these lighter and more lightly armed fighting vessels, to allow the players to recreate the actions that could last for tens of minutes to several hours once the action became close.

Of course fighting these single ship engagements also presents added problems for the solo gamer in that representing the options available to an enemy commander of a ship desperately trying to outmanoeuvre ones own is problematic when you the player are trying to choose options for both ships, which is why I have focussed my attention of the larger ship engagements initially, where the line of battle tactics limit the options of the individual ship commanders on each side.

 

The basic components as supplied in Gina Willis' download, printed to paper and glued to thick card
https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/144002/acg-grand-tactical-ai-movement-wheel-and-table

That was until I saw a very interesting video presentation from Gina Willis who is the designer of a board game 'A Glorious Chance', hopefully soon to be published, covering the naval warfare on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812 for which she has designed a tactical simulation for those who would want to set up the engagements generated by the game on the table top.

In the video she demonstrates the use of her Grand Tactical AI Wheel which, by setting up the course of the AI ship in relation to the wind and the player's ship randomly generates some plausible course directions for the AI vessel, and I thought it might be fun to try on the table top to bring ships into close action or indeed have them run simply by taking an opposite course to that generated by the AI Wheel.

All the components  cut and made ready for assembly

Well that's the idea and so to test it I sat down at the weekend and put her design together, falling back on my old 'Blue Peter' skills (for non UK residents, a BBC TV kids show that taught you how to make models of Windsor Castle out of Cornflakes boxes and old washing up liquid bottles, back in the day when BBC made programs that people wanted to watch!) and with card, modelling knife and a Pritt stick made myself an AI Tactical Wheel that will generate my three numbers and help my AI vessel select a course to close with or run from the enemy.

Voila, one Grand Tactical AI Wheel for the use of!

The idea is, that the three numbers it generates is read off against a chart with six course options next to each set of three numbers, selected by rolling a D6. The ship will generally head towards the threat and my intention is that if the commander decides that he will run instead then that course option is simply reversed - 'simples!' as the Meer Cat said (Sorry another British TV thing).

To Covet Glory- Wargames Vault

The next idea was to choose a set of rules to marry with this idea and to further develop the thoughts around scenario set ups and small ship rules and that lead me to think about 'To Covet Glory' by Chris Stoesen, a small ship rules adaptation of Kiss Me Hardy together with a selection of some very interesting single small ship actions, with ideas around flying false colours and other such goodies.

Plenty of open sea for my little brigs to operate over

The other idea was to take some of the scenario design ideas from another publication available through Wargames Vault, 'Narrow Seas' by  Wargame Vault Curs'd-Captain Products, and their frigate war set of rules 'Enterprize' which sets up these smaller engagements within a framework around the ideas of chases and duels, designed to allow enough scope to tailor them to the rules you want to use.

Narrow Seas for Any Age of Sail-Game - Wargames Vault

So as usual I sat down and started to mess around with both these resources to come up with my own ideas hence the title of the post and above and below is my table set up to try them out.

The red markers indicate 'gates' that facilitate set up arrival points and possible escape routes should a chase develop

The scenario I chose to bring these ideas together was a simple action involving two brig-sloops that met 'a few leagues west of the Isles of Scilly on the 13th of March 1793' at the very start of the naval war of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic War or 'Great War' as it was known before the titanic struggles of the twentieth century eclipsed it.

The reason for selecting To Covet Glory is that it is tailor made for these small ship engagements using Kiss Me Hardy as its foundation, a rule set I am very familiar with and of course using the chit activation system that makes them very solo play friendly. That said, I'm halfway through Rich Clarke's video recording on best ways to run games via Zoom, so I might see if we can get some live opposition in future games.

Everything set up and ready to go, with the wind direction established and the AI course director set up

So to get things going I have set up the encounter between His Majesty's Brig-Sloop Scourge, nominally of sixteen guns but reported on the day of this encounter to have only mounted eight six-pounder long guns and with seventy men aboard, twenty men under strength, and under the able command of Captain George Brisac.

Commander George Brisac of His Majesty's Brig-Sloop Scourge
artwork courtesy of the old rule set Heart of Oak and Privateers & Gentlemen by Jon Williams and J.Andrew Keith, also available through Wargames Vault.

The very able Lieutenant Visage de Vache commanding the French privateer brig Le Sans Culottes

The opposition and the AI controlled ship is the French privateer brig Le Sans Culottes sporting a formidable armament of eight eight-pounder long guns and four twelve-pounder obusiers and with a crew of eighty-one souls, the commander unknown to history but out of due respect to Nick Skinner commanded by that 'devil may care', 'rash is my middle name', Lieutenant Visage de Vache.

  

 Attention ennemi en vue! Le Sans Culottes is still beating to quarters as Scourge turns towards her

Being a privateer merits the Sans Culottes as having a better than normal French crew, recognising their desire for prize money and volunteer status as 'Poor, Jolly Jack Tars', so this should make for a very interesting little fight.

Deck there, Sail one point off the starboard bow!

Table plan arrangement adapted from Narrow Seas

Gaining a slight advantage and surprise, Scourge makes sail having beaten to quarters

Fortunately or unfortunately this little action, one of the first in a very long war, only merits about six to eight lines in William James' history and so sea conditions, wind direction and details of the action are none at all, limited and/or concise, so I generated the wind direction based on prevailing westerlies off the Scilly Isles and used the Narrow Seas rules to generate the initial positions and preparedness for battle with the Frenchman being the slower off the mark to beat to quarters, and with both ships needing to confirm the identity of the other.

I shall record the proceedings as play develops and put together a presentation to follow.

More Anon

JJ

Kiss Me Hardy - Devon Wargames Group

Yesterday at our first club meeting for 2018 I took in the sailing ships and ran a Suffren v Hughes inspired scenario using Kiss Me Hardy from the Too Fat Lardies.

Devon Wargames Group - Kiss Me Hardy in the Indian Ocean

As mentioned in my annual review for 2017 I intend to do some work on my age of sail collection and the game gave me an opportunity to reassess KMH as a contender to use as a rule set for the larger games, twenty to thirty ships aside, that I have in mind.

That said I am not convinced that KHM are the most appropriate to use for that size of game and I intend to showcase an alternative option going forward but I think KMH are excellent for the smaller game with just a few ships involved and where the card play involved in KMH really comes to the fore.

Another aspect discussed in the DWG AAR was that of command and control, something I am keen to develop with the larger type of game and the added friction such additions could add.

As mentioned in the AAR I have put together a PDF of the scenario played yesterday and have posted it to My Scenarios library also available in the link below.

Kiss Me Hardy in the Indian Ocean - Scenario PDF

Lastly, thanks to Steve L we were able to play our game on his newly acquired Tiny Wargames Sea Mat, one of which I have on order as part of a club deal to equip members with the right kind of mats to add that bit extra to the kind of games we play. I think you will agree it looks pretty cool.

Battle of Sadras 1782 - Devon Wargames Group

Yesterday was spent having fun and laughs at my local club the Devon Wargames Group in Exeter.

Devon Wargames Group blog

I have put up a description of our game on the blog.

 

I had a lot of fun getting my Langton collection of Age of Sail naval ships out to refight the Battle of Sadras 1782. My collection of ships is built around the fleets of Hughes and Suffren as I find the history of these two well matched adversaries more compelling than the many one sided affairs of the later Napoleonic period.

 

Langton Miniatures

 

Over the years I have tried several rule sets starting with "Action under Sail" by S Birnie that we played all the time in the late 70's and early 80's. In the 90's I moved over to the computer using "Clear for Action" by Malcolm Smalley, which I have recently resurrected to play on my laptop with DOSBOX. These are great for smaller actions with an excellent level of detail.

 

Broadsides exchanged in the Indian Ocean

More recently I had moved to Too Fat Lardies and Kiss Me Hardy (KMH), really enjoying the freedom from order writing that card driven games bring togther with the unexpected.

However I recently came across a free App on the web called "Eight Bells"

Eight Bells Naval Rules App

This App offered the possibility of combining the fun aspects of card play with the game management of the computer. Having just recently acquired an Ipad for Xmas I was keen to try the rules out.

The pdf rules and scenarios are simple and straightforward and give an easy to follow structure for your game using the App to randomise movement, weather and wind, and combat. Entering ship data is simple and the game can be put down and come back to easily.
In addition, if like some, you prefer to roll your own dice, you can and by inputting the results on the App can use them to influence the system.

I immediately saw that the simple card play system that the rules come supplied with which are used to decide when each side can command their ships and conduct combat are easily adapted to more complex options that KMH has to offer, and yesterday I added in the Command Rules that KMH can use, which played very well.

We played the system for the first time yesterday with a good number of ships on each side and we quickly were running through the card play using the App. The system was flexible enough to allow us to adapt rule changes as we went along and the game was a lot of fun.

The ships come pre-loaded on the system offering options from 1st rate 130 gun vessels to unrated 10 gun cutters. The crew numbers are set at specific round numbers ie 50 to 1100 men. There are five crew ratings from Poor, Average, Good, Veterans and Elite. Once you have created a ship you can simply reproduce it in your "dry dock" giving each version its own name and for my game an identifying number.

When you want to create your game fleets you simply choose the ships required from your dry dock and place them in the fleet selected. This means that your creation is kept as built whist the copy is used by the game during your battle and will record casualties and damage.

Movement is governed by the system. You set the wind speed and direction. The system will remind you when this should be checked for changes. Each ship can set several (six or seven) sail settings from Let Fly to Full Sail which combined with the ships attitude to the wind and the score of three dice ends up giving you the option to move your model at the speed in cms of the single highest dice score or the sum of all three, with a bonus added to each according to the proceeding factors. This randomises movement enough to roughly predict what your ship will do under a particular sail set but still make it a challenge to sail several ships in company with each other. There are additional rules to customise your ships as poor or fast sailors by adding six cm to the score or only using two dice as the modifier. There is a suggested turning regimen of two points turned per move, however we simply used the KMH turning circles printed in cm moves with different radii for ship class.

All the gunnery options are included for pistol and musketry, ball, double shot, triple shot and chain, with suggested range restrictions as appropriate.

Damage is recorded by the system in percentage terms, thus your rigging, crew and hull start at 100% with damage degrading that figure as you play. The system automatically alerts you to any critical hits like shot up rudders, masts falling, captains killed or wounded, fires etc (the usual stuff!) Repairs are simply resolved by rolling a dice with a 4,5or 6 usually being required. The game master then updates the ship record manually to record the repair. Boarding requires your models to be locked together. You let the system know which side is attempting to board and depending which attempt this is, ie first second or third will determine what dice score on three d6 is required to succeed. The number of attempts being equal to the number of decks on the target vessel. When all decks are taken the target is deemed as captured. The score required often increases as the fight is carried below decks. If you make a mistake you can go into the ship record and correct any misplaced damage results, which is really good, as we all know mistakes can happen.

If I were to suggest improvements it would be to allow more options around the ship stats when creating the fleets, ie the crew numbers are fixed and standard to the nearest 100 men. Being able to vary those numbers together with adding in specific numbers of specialists like marines would be a good addition.

As a gamer for 40 years I think it's a brave person who predicts the future in wargaming. However with the advent of tablet computers and Apps that allow data to be easily computed and recorded through the game allowing the players to concentrate on the important stuff of commanding their toys, I would be surprised not to see more of these kind of aids appearing in our hobby in future.

These rules are great option for a large fleet action, and as a freebie, I think they are well worth a look. In addition complexity and detail are easily added in by the game master as required and I am going to try out some single ship actions with more cards added to control options as per the KMH suggestions.