Napoleonic Naval encounter 1/1200. Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls.

[Jabba]

Friday's game at New Buckenham was a Napoleonic naval affair using Alan Abbey's rule set Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls.

The encounter was set up to mimic Trafalgar but on a much smaller scale, to act as a rules reminder and test game for the clubs full size Trafalgar to be played later this year. The ships are 1/1200 and a mix of Langton and Skytrex miniatures.

Initial positions

The mixed Spanish/French fleet awaits at the top of the table with the French leading, whilst the Royal Navy approach in line, with the wind from the bottom. The wind was from the bottom right in this photo diagonally across the table.Each side was split into three commands and I got the third and fourth ships in the British line. HMS Temeraire, a 98 gun second rate, and HMS Victory, a 104 gun first rate. No pressure then.

For those that don't know the rule set is card driven with different phases of play drawn randomly, these being for each nation, Sailing, Repair and Firing. Hits are determined by D6 rolls based on range etc whilst the damage, recorded on a ship control board, is determined by a card draw from a normal playing card deck with each card relating to a set amount and type of damage in the rule book.

Initially only the lead French elements were under sail the remainder drifting with the wind, content to await the British while presenting their broadsides. The British split into three columns, the lead taking on the rearmost Spanish ships, the centre moving left with our largest ships to engage the leading French ships which contained their largest ship, and the rear three ships carrying straight on to engage anything left that presented itself as a target.

The two big RN ships with the rear division leader following


RN lead ship vs Spanish

The leading French ships managed to manoeuvre just in time to give rise to a passing engagement with my two ships. Whilst HMS Temeraire escaped relatively unharmed, Victory suffered mightily from the 118 gun L'Orient with several intense fires breaking out, high casualties among her crew, a mast down and rudder damage.

HMS Victory ablaze

Several gunnery battles now started as more and more ships became engaged with the RN rearmost ships moving amongst the now under sail Spanish ships. Victory suffered more damage from L'Orient and her escorts before she put the final nail in the french ship Peuple Souverain's coffin after she was bow raked twice by Temeraire.

The melee


Peuple Souverain about to meet her end

After this the Spanish rammed and boarded both Temeraire and Victory and after fierce fighting captured them both. Even the late capture of a Spanish 3rd rate galleon could not save the day for the Royal Navy.

All in all another great age of sail game.

More on my blog at Jabba's Wargaming

[OSHIROmodels]

Ships look lovely and I like the additions of the fire 

[Admiral Hawke]

You had some very nicely painted and rigged ships there. I'm fond of the old Skytrex 1/1200 ships: they paint up nicely.

I'm fascinated by your report, which I really enjoyed, and I'm looking for good age of sail rules.

A British squadron in 1805 'ought' to beat a comparably sized French or Franco-Spanish squadron. The British won all three battles that year: off Cape Finisterre in July, off Cape Trafalgar in October, and off Cape Ortegal in November. So I'm curious how the British lost in your game.

L'Orient smashing the Victory seems real enough: the Bellerophon was shattered by L'Orient at the Nile in 1798. So too does the Peuple Souverain striking her colours after being raked by the Temeraire. But being boarded by Spanish ships in a fleet action seems most unusual for the age of sail.

I realize it's only a game played for fun, not a simulation. :-) I hope you don't mind me asking, but did your British squadron lose because:
a) The French and Spanish ships were stonger or had stronger crews than historically?
b) The British commanders made tactical mistakes in your game, such as by attacking all the Allied ships at once?
c) Some quirks in the rules hindered the British or helped the Franco-Spanish ships?
d) Sheer bad luck?
Obviously it's a better game if the British aren't set up to win. :-)

[Jabba]

I realize it's only a game played for fun, not a simulation. :-) I hope you don't mind me asking, but did your British squadron lose because:
a) The French and Spanish ships were stonger or had stronger crews than historically?
b) The British commanders made tactical mistakes in your game, such as by attacking all the Allied ships at once?
c) Some quirks in the rules hindered the British or helped the Franco-Spanish ships?
d) Sheer bad luck?
Obviously it's a better game if the British aren't set up to win. :-)

a) As far as I'm aware historical strengths.
b) A few mistakes were made, but not too many.
c) Each nationality has special quirks, for example the British can fire in their repair phase if they wish to represent the better British gunnery. The biggest random factor is the playing card draw for damage received from hits. You don't know what you will get and then have to prioritise repairs accordingly.
d) A lot of bad luck, Victory got dealt both jokers in the first hits from L'Orient, one of these gives, I think, nine addition cards of damage. We also had some poor die rolls when fighting boarding actions.

We all agreed that in real life no ship would have got anywhere near Victory, given the severity of her fires, let alone pulled alongside to board her.

To be fair the Spanish boarding actions were towards the end of the evening and were close run things.

We have played the Battle of the Nile with these rules and got a very good game with more historical results, but yes either side can win if you control your fleets well and get a bit of luck.

Tony.

[Admiral Hawke]

Thank you for the enjoyable report, inspiration and answers to my questions. :-)

It's always great to understand how rules play out.

I look forward to your next Napoleonic reports. :-)