Tel-El-Kebir using T&T, and boat rules.

[stefanov]

hello everyone,
we have played a very enjoyable colonial game using T&T. They play very well, you may find pictures here:
http://stefanov.no-ip.org/wiki/pages/78o6n6D/TelElKebir_Battle_Report.html
We have been using small boats to carry troops, and assimilated them to trucks. Maybe we did something wrong, but the egyptians did not manage to cause much damage to them, the hit table cause a maximum of one crew hit on them.
This is our first game using these rules, maybe we did something wrong!
If any fellow player has built stats on boats and ships please let us know!
cheers Stefano
PS: for viewing the photos, you just need an up-to-date browser, please upgrade!

[Hammers]

I am going to use this:

Activation
The ship and its operating crew will get its own unit card. The crew will be divided in sub-crews (watches, if you like) which will all have their own unit cards. The player will have the option of activating watches and vessels in which ever way the think is strategically suitable. I think this will work best since the ships will not only be competing to get to the end of the board first but also need to fight each other and get away from various obstacles on their way. Not all orders are available to the ship or work slightly different. Orders such as 'Cavalry Action' is obviously not relevant and 'Move and Shoot' involves no penalty.


Movement

All player begins the turn by plotting in pencil the route of he ship he or she controls on a provided sea chart before anyone moves.

As suggested, the ships will be navigating within speed intervals, and that's where the engine telegraph comes in. Each player will be given one flat cardboard telegraph per vessel which can be set for each activation. The indicated speed will remain till next activation because you can only change speed from one interval to the next one up or down. (Maybe it should be possible to to go between any speed interval in any direction but at the risk of damaging the ship. More about that below.).

So for example:

Ahead

Full 30cm + 2d6cm
Half 20cm + 1d6cm
Slow 10cm + 1d6cm
Standby Still in the water

Stop 5 cm astern (to account for river current)

Astern
Finished with Engines Still in water
Slow 10cm + 1d6cm
Half 15cm+ 2d6cm
Full 20cm + 2d6cm

Speeds will vary between types of crafts. The RN motor launches will obviously be faster than the steamer for example.


Combat

The fighting crews can move about the deck and shoot fight as per the regular rules. Fixed weapons, like deck guns, harpoon guns or rail guns and machine guns must be pointed out in the unit card and are fired as a part of the ships activation as long as they are manned according to the weapon's particular rules (more about the specifics later). The orders for the boat are basically always a 'Move and Shoot' without movement penalties (reduced gun crews will have an effect though).

Close Combat - Ramming and Boarding

Ramming is a bit tricky since the ships I am using for this games are not battle ships per se and not built for it. That said a heavier vessel ramming a smaller midships will obviously have its effects. The way the game will almost certainly mean that some collisions will not be planned and possibly quite bad for both parties. I plan to create a 1d10 damage table close similar to the T&T Vehicle Damage Table to use for ramming and collisions.

If two are within 1 inch/2cm/a miniatures base's breadth from each other the respective parties may board each other. This is where the Close Combat rules will kick in. There are some rules regarding Unit Coherency, ships breaking off from boarding action which I have not quite banged out yet.


Ship Damages

Since the ships are quite big I don't think I will go with the T&T Vehicle rules as they stand. I think a bar adding up accumulative damages is more appropriate. Consider a bar for each barky with a peg which is moved for each damage point taken by a ship. The bar has the traditional green-yellow-orange-red-black intervals where one at the end of each turn rolls for effects.

When the peg is in the:

Green pretty much nothing happens,
Yellow, small fires may break out or some small speed reduction is the result,
Orange can mean that steering is affected
Red an explosion or severe hull breaches,
Black the ship sinks, is permanently beached or blows up in a spectacular fashion.

The intervals will obviously be shorter for smaller crafts than for the larger.

Damage points can come from many sources. Being rammed should cause a certain number of points, hitting submersed logs or river banks also. All Ranged combat dice from handguns and which is not being absorbed by enemy ship crews should be re-rolled to see if they've hit the ship they on board.

[Driscoles]

Thanks for posting the report and pictures.
Looks like you had fun. 

[answer_is_42]

PS: for viewing the photos, you just need an up-to-date browser, please upgrade!

I want to see. Define 'up to date'.

[stefanov]

Dear All,
I just noticed that many people have viewed this post. First of all I would like to be sure that everybody managed to view the photos.
An up-to-date browser is needed, anything like Firefox or Safari or Explorer, just pick the latest version from internet.
cheers stefanov

[Colonel Tubby]

Great report - some lovely looking miniatures you have there.