Miniature gaming

Chuck Hammack, newly moved to West Richland, invited War Eagles over to christen his new game room. He gave us an American Civil War scenario with Regimental Fire and Fury as the rules. It's a beautiful table, with lots of eye candy, 15mm scale figures. Photos, as always are posted at full resolution, click to embiggen if you want a closer look.


The terrain represents a gap which the Union must take and clear of Confederate troops. A few Rebels are visible as the Union brigades deploy, but after completing their deployment, the remaining four regiments of the Rebel brigade appear on the far right of the Union forces.

The left brigade, four regiments of infantry under my command advanced without consideration of the sudden appearance. Shooting commenced.


The infantry fire on the left was inconclusive, but Union artillery shattered the Rebel arty's infantry supports:



(This is exaggerated, we miscalculated at first. Only three stands of the regiment rather than five of eight were destroyed by a single, well executed round of artillery fire, but still....)

In a move worthy of Phil Sheridan, the Rebel regiments (in open order!) charged the advancing Union lines. Successfully. The entire Union brigade was thrown back in some disarray.


While the Union brigade hauled itself back into order, the Rebels, playing only for time, fell back to their original positions. Meanwhile, the Union center brigade deployed to the right to face the ambush. The Rebels advanced into the woods, then fell back before the boys in blue, never intending to get into a fight there. The Union general (John Hayes) filtered the artillery's infantry support through the woods and pursued through the open fields with the center brigade. The artillery deployed forward after decimating the Confederate regiment manning the fence.

The rebels and the bluebellies had a lively time on the ridge line in the center above, while the Union batteries suppressed and destroyed the Confederate guns. That leftmost regiment surrendered some casualties to the rebel enfilade fire before the artillery could get into action, but were still a fighting unit when the Rebs took a stand.

Continuing the pattern of Rebel aggressiveness two regiments on the right charged the Union line with cold steel. In a flurry of die roll 10's, the furious charge was broken and then smashed to oblivion. I suspect that Gary expected (not unreasonably) the leftmost brigade (shown here only by their casualties} to last at least the turn. But, alas, the dice of death had other ideas today and by this time we had the calculations down....


Meanwhile, on the other flank, after a brief Rebel defense of the hillcrest, the Union brigade under my command has finally driven the rightmost regiment into headlong retreat while in another miraculous die roll, the single regiment facing the Confederate sharpshooters (off the picture to the left) has held their gap in the ridgeline....


The Union general has eleven game turns to clear the gap before dark. At the end of turn eight, the table looks like this:



(You may want to click on the photo to enlarge it to full size.) On the Union right, the gallant confederates are outnumbered and overlapped. In the center, the rebel artillery has been destroyed, a last section limping away. The regiment assigned to support it is hiding behind the terrain, spent in the first turn by massed artillery fire. On the left, one regiment is in headlong retreat, the other must either retreat or face Union troops from front and rear. The scattered Confederates can't consolidate and hold out and will inevitably be swept from the field. So I say. Y'all may think differently.... ;o)

La Bataille de la Moscowa, 10:00 AM

We have moved along to the 10:00 AM turn.

The story thus far:

The start, through 7:00 AM
Through 8:00 AM
Through 9:00 AM

Little of substance has changed since the 9:00 hour began. The Converged Grenadier Division is now nearly completely destroyed rather than two thirds destroyed, Eugene's assault on the salient to the right of the Great Redoubt has stalled in a massive firefight, Davout is now chewing up the division in the scrub brush that moved to extend the Converged Grenadiers flank.

Oh, you want it in pictures....

The situation for the Russian left wing is dismal. The French cavalry have taken and consolidated the fleche area, all but destroying the Converged Grenadiers.


(I could not get this photo to focus properly. The last remaining counter with the last two strength points of the Converged Grenadier Division is that blur in the middle.)

In a more general view of the situation, the French cavalry reserve owns the fleches. The 27th division is flanked and under fire from horse artillery hence in serious trouble, with only artillery support from behind them. Friant and Desaix continue to chew up the left end of the Russian line, taking a few casualties, but destroying a regiment or two of Russians a turn. The end is inevitable, and Davout's III Corps will still be a fighting unit at the end of it. This is bad news for Russia.


For the Russian artillery on the ridge behind Semenovska, it is a question of whether the infantry supports can reach them in time or Murat and the cavalry can overrun the remains of the 27th Division and get at them first.

On the Russian right, Platov and the Cossacks have crossed the Moscowa to give Eugene food for thought. The Russian 7th Division has also crossed to support them. Eugene has moved a third division (there are two assaulting the salient, I think) up to work another assault across the river, but those pesky Cossacks have forced the left end of it into square, making an admirable target for the artillery across the river.


And the Russian 12th Division has mounted a counterattack on Eugene, with some success, ejecting the rightmost regiment. It remains to be seen if this is a strategic error, depriving the center of needed infantry, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to envelop that flank.

I will add a casualty report when I get the data.

La Bataille de la Moscowa, Update - 9AM, Sept. 7, 1812

On Friday, July 29 (our time) Gary, Stacy and I got in two more turns to bring us to 8:40 AM, but I forgot the camera and there are no pictures. On the regular War Eagles session on August 6, Gary and I ran the 9:00 turn without Stacy, because we just couldn't resist and nobody else showed up to distract us. Since I forgot the camera again, I made a trip to the game room with the camera on Friday the 12th, with Gary at Dragonflight and Stacy off camping. So there are pictures at 9:00, but a lot happened in the earlier turns, so I will attempt to describe the action with photos of the end point.

You may recall from the photos at 8:00, the Converged Grenadier Division line was about to develop a hole, and the 2 Army West Curaissier were positioned to cover any attempted breakthrough. In due time, the two battalions evaporated and Gary threw the I Corps Cavalry into the hole and we had a great cavalry melee sequence with a stack of French cavalry charging a Curaissier regiment, another Curaissier regiment hammering the exhausted cavalry, another stack of French slamming into the now exhausted Curaissier and in turn being smacked by yet another Curaissier regiment. The I Corps Cavalry were ejected and Russian thoughts turned to counterattacking the infantry. So Major General Duka, commanding the Curaissier Division, took a regiment of cavalry through the opening between the fleches, forcing lots of French units into square and then getting trapped in the engagement when he was unable to break enough of them. The remainder of the division followed him up among the fleches to stay in command, facing toward the French. This failed to take into account the movement range of light cavalry and French light cavalry circled the fleches and hit the Curaissier regiments from behind, inflicting only light casualties, but routing them out of the area. General Duka followed with somewhat greater casualties from the artillery and infantry squares. The Division fell back behind Semenovskaya in disarray, but has reorganized and is still combat capable, though substantially weakened. The French I Corps cavalry is also resting and reorganizing but (oh God, oh God) here comes the entire French Cavalry Reserve under Murat.


On the far right, the Russian reserve has committed the Life Guard Division to cover the gap between the Great Redoubt and the 21st Division of Russian VI Corps. Meanwhile, Eugene has reorganized his forward divisions and (under Gary's command at 9:00) has thrown them en masse at the salient where 21st Division and the Life Guard meet. A VI Corps battery has been destroyed but the Life Guard has not budged.


This is going to turn into a meat grinder as both sides have reserves available. In addition, not visible for the French is Junot's VI Corps and for the Russians, 7th Division of VI Corps.


Meanwhile, Poniatowski and the V Corps have begun arriving on the Old Smolensk Road. The Cossack screen, not (small noise of disgust) commanded by Platov, failed to move to impede the V Corps cavalry on consecutive turns. Now they are looking at a heavy and a light brigade of regular cavalry and a flanking detachment of two light cavalry brigades with horse artillery. Fortunately the flanking detachment has been even more tardy than the Cossacks and has rough terrain to cover as well. They may get out of it yet....


UPDATE: Cumulative casualties as of 9:20 AM (includes casualties reported at 8:00 AM):

The French and Allied forces have lost 13 batteries of artillery, 6 battalions of infantry, 5 cavalry regiments and 5 officers.

The Russian forces have lost 6 foot batteries and a horse battery, a dragoon regiment, a jager regiment (2 battalions), a grenadier regiment (2 battalions) and 7 of the 11 battalions in the Converged Grenadier Division of VIII Corps. The rest of them are not long for this world.... Wasn't it Napoleon who said a division wouldn't last much more than an hour in combat?

There are many depleted regiments and battalions still in action, with the Russian infantry probably bearing more casualties than the French battalions. The Russian cavalry probably has as many casualties as the French, but they are spread among active units.

Next session is Saturday, August 20 starting at 5:00 PM. If you are following along, you are now up to speed and have no excuse for not participating....

La Battaile de la Moscowa, Update

The next session of the game, we ran another hour, or three game turns. Eugene finished brutally shoving the jagers out of Borodino, then spent the next two turns reorganizing those troops and bringing up another division to mass for an assault on the Russian line, covered by a few batteries on the hill above Borodino. Pot shots by the French batteries resulted in the odd casualty until the French batteries were put out of action by the Redoubt's counter battery fire. Here's the situation at 8:00 AM:


Meanwhile, Davout is filtering artillery into his front line and the Russian Reserve artillery are building grand batteries in the center. Left center are four batteries partially behind the Converged Grenadiers line, but as Davout's artillery destroys one battalion after another, more and more of this gun line has a field of fire. To the right are five more batteries on the ridge above Semanovskaya. One is completely obscured by friendly cavalry in the ravine (can't fire over the head of friendlies) and another can only support the Converged Grenadiers, blocked from supporting the Grenadier Division by the same cavalry.


Here's what it looks like to Davout and Ney, a frontal assault on tough troops and too much artillery:


It's not all that bad, while keeping the pressure on the Converged Grenadiers and Grenadier Divisions, Davout has moved Friant and Desaix's divisions around the CG's flank. In the meantime, the French artillery to the left of Desaix has just about punched a hole in the CG line, though the 2 Army West Curaissier Division has moved up to block any breakthrough by the French I Corps Cavalry Division. 'Oops' is a III Corps battalion accidentally swept up in the, uhmm, ....sweep to the right. UPDATE: Gary says that Girard and Morand have been detached to Eugene's IV Corps on the French left, so Davout's 1st Corps is deployed Compans (gold lower half of the counter) on the left with the Corps Artillery, Desaix (white lower half, grey-yellow-grey stripe) engaging the Converged Grenadier Division and stretching to the right with some Guard artillery, and Friant (grey lower half, yellow-green-yellow stripe) working around the flank. Desaix and Friant have become a bit intermingled during their attacks.


Part of the Russian III Corps 21st Division has moved forward through the brush to extend the flank, but in reaching for better ground have left themselves in for trouble. Davout's huge corps is still extending and will overlap them. Here's a look at the French extreme right at 8:00 AM


I have a casualty report as of the start of the 8:00 AM turn we see in these photos but do not have the notes with me. I will update this post when I get them in hand. The French have suffered much heavier casualties till now, but things may even out soon.

UPDATE: Casualties as of 8:00 AM, after 6 turns:

The French and Allied forces have lost 5 leaders, including two of Napoleon's Aides de Camp, Armand Caulaincourt and Louis-Alexandre Berthier. 4 artillery batteries have been put out of action, 2 infantry battalions and 4 small cavalry regiments have disintegrated.

The Russian forces have lost 2 officers (IV Cav and 12 Cav Brigadier), a 12 Cav regiment routed and still running (flippin' cowards), 2 batteries and 1 battalion.

La Battaile de la Moscowa

Gary played in a board game at a miniatures convention.... At Enfilade, the author of a rules upgrade for the venerable La Battaile series of tactical level Napoleonic board games, presented his newly published, gussied up version of La Battaile de la Moscowa. Gary played, it is gorgeous, and the rules worked very well, playing a massive board game to a conclusion in a single day of gaming. So, Gary went out and bought one (and he is at Dragonflight this weekend, playing with the author again). Completely independently, Stacy has also purchased a copy, so there was no other choice and we have dived in. Gary and I spent a weekend of gaming days just punching and clipping the counters, laying out the maps and deploying the troops. Yep. It's big.

Picture for you.


All pictures are posted at full resolution (2816 x 2112 pixels), so you can click on the picture above and make it bigger than your computer screen, then scroll about to see what's where. Generally, the French are to the upper right on both sides of the river. The Russians are to the left and down, all on the left side of the river except an outpost in the town of Borodino, about the middle of the map. The game runs in twenty minute, interactive turns and each counter is a battalion or regiment of infantry, regiment of cavalry or battery of guns. Interactive turns means it is not Igo/Ugo, instead at the beginning of each turn, players designate maneuver units (usually divisions but it is possible to move entire Corps if everything is just right, and you never, ever have enough MU to move everybody), throw chits in a cup for the maneuver units and some administrative actions, then draw chits and execute them. Who goes first or last, which always matters, is randomized over the field for more realistic command problems.

The first hour consumed our first game night. In random events at the start of each turn, the French Guard artillery and the Russian Artillery reserve were released, both unlikely, both having profound results on the game. Also having profound results on the history of our little cardboard world, in the first turn General and Aide de Camp to Napoleon Armand Caulaincourt became an incidental casualty of artillery fire. This will result in there being even more confusion about What Really Happened, since in our world Armand wrote one of the few eyewitness (and probably the single best) accounts of the battle from a command perspective.

The general plan of action in the cardboard world was the French I Corps, under Gary's command and the French III Corps under Stacy's orders launched the traditional advance on the Russian left, with Davout's I Corps moving at and to the left of the fleches (earthworks) in the Russian left center and Ney's III Corps moving on the Russian VIII Corps' Grenadier division in an advanced position. Eugene's IV Corps massed an assault on the Borodino toehold.

In the 6:40 AM turn, French maneuvers turned the ends of Russian positions. Stacy had two divisional assaults, one with Ney and one with Eugene on Borodino, both shown here. Off the picture to the left is Davout's I Corps extending around the Russian leftmost flank and assaulting the very end.


Closeup of Eugene's assault on Borodino. Notice the three little Russian Jager battalions about to get plowed under by French human waves from three sides.... "Not good. Very not good."



At the same time, Michel Ney's III Corps assaults the Grenadier Division wrapping around the Russian right. The Grenadier's are outnumbered about 2 to 1 and flanked. Not quite as bad as Borodino, but not too likely.


Here we see the right division of Davout's I Corps extending around the Russian extreme left which is anchored on a hill top in the heavy scrub brush.



The results of the Borodino assault were pretty much as you would expect. Two of the Russian jager battalions were punched out, routed and decimated and streaming to the rear in confusion. One lucky (?) battalion managed to disorder part of the assault on it's position and held the village with casualties. Next turn....

The Grenadier's and Ney's lead division had an inconclusive melee. Each side has one stack disordered, everybody took casualties, a few more French than Russian. The position held for now.

But this, is just ridiculous. Davout's assault on the far left, about 3 to 1 odds has been knocked back with substantial casualties in disarray. Even flanked and outnumbered, the Russian battalions waiting uphill in the brush have gobsmacked everyone. 'cause

Grenadiers!

Over here is the VIII Corps' Converged Grenadier Division. Bad dudes in the front line.... ;o)


All of this happened back on July 1, so this post is a bit late. I will update the game story as it unfolds and have two more game time hours to catch up....

Trafalgar, only more!

So, the latest War Eagles project was a continuation of our New Year's Day battle (chronicled here).

This year's scenario was a hypothetical wherein all available Spanish and French ships in the Mediterranean Sea attempt to break past a scraped up British blocking fleet in the Straits of Gibralter. The British have a large number of frigates and smaller ships, a few third rates and a couple of East India Men which the Spanish mistook for third rates and pounded to pieces....

The break out was to reinforce the Combined Spanish/French Fleet at Trafalgar. In order to create an even tougher problem for the British, Gary researched all available French and Spanish ships and inserted a Northern Reinforcement Division of seven SOL and a Frigate and the French Ghost Fleet, a well commanded, experienced, small but powerful fleet loose in the Atlantic at the time on a commerce raiding mission.

The map below was modified from a map available at Broadside, Home of Nelson's Navy...

a collection of pages describing life in Royal Navy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century

The original map and a description of the historical battle is here.

The scenario was designed using a similar map from "Nelson, The Commander" by Geoffrey Bennett, 1972. I believe some liberty's were taken with the order of ships in the original van, which became the rear division when the Combined Fleet reversed direction prior to the battle. I have made some adjustments to the map to allow for the actual location of our ships in our What If scenario, which begins a little later in time than the original map, as the Combined Fleet has had a bit more time to gather itself into a line of battle. By the time the British fleet approached the Combined Fleet, cohesive battle lines had been formed in both the lead and lagging divisions. The Northern Reinforcement, the Mediterranean Breakout and the Ghost Fleet all entered the table in line of battle. A number of frigates were present on both sides. They are shown on the original map, but in our re-fight, the frigates all withdrew before the battle, off table to the East and West respectively, so I removed them from the map below showing our starting positions. More or less. Unfortunately, I forgot my cameras the first day, so there are no photos. In the absence of photography, I spent a lot of time with Paint working on this map.

You can see the Africa, British 64, at the head of the Combined Fleet. Captained by Henry Digby, Africa had become separated from Nelson's column during the night. Liberally interpreting his orders to rejoin Nelson, Digby sailed down the line of battle toward Nelson's Victory at the head of the windward British column, exchanging broadsides with a number of French and Spanish ships. In our refight, he didn't quite make it to Nelson, striking his flag due to hull damage about two turns short....

As the British columns approached the Combined Fleet, all ships within range fired at the rigging of the ships at the head of the columns, Nelson's Victory and Collingwood's Royal Sovereign. Both ships were dismasted about 6 inches short of the line, disrupting the British lines of battle and ultimately preventing them from their goal of penetrating and enveloping the rear division of the Combined Fleet. The first night's action took up the first twelve turns. On our second evening's session, here is how things stood:

In the historical battle, Nelson struck the center of the Combined Fleet's line, penetrated it and initiated a general melee against the rear of the column, with a substantial advantage in numbers and quality. In the meantime, the lead division sailed on for a time and was too late in returning to the rear division which was overwhelmed. With the advantage of hindsight and reinforcements, the Combined Fleet tried a different approach. After Victory had been dismasted, the gigantic Santissima Trinidad, 130 followed by the San Justo, 74 turned to engage, paralleled by Admiral Villeneuve in the Bucentaurre, 80 followed by the Neptune, 74. With the Africa struck and a hazard to navigation immediately to windward of the Santissima, turning into the British line of battle created an unholy traffic jam. The Bucentaurre, hammered by Victory (mastless but still a gun platform) and other British ships, was forced to strike on turn 14. Neptune pulled out to pass to windward. The Santissima Trinidad, engaged by three British ships is being pounded and cannot last long. San Justo and other ships from the van are engaging the British ships pulling past the Santissima. Meanwhile, Victory has been attracting attention even though dismasted. On turn 15, after taking damage every turn, Victory finally is holed at the waterline by (FR) Redoubtable's final broadside before being forced to strike herself. Tonnant, British 84, adjacent to the east of Redoubtable, hammered by the full Northern Reinforcement line a few inches further east and pounded by Redoubtable's partner immediately ahead also struck but only after forcing Redoubtable out of the fight.

The Combined Fleet van turning immediately back into the fight plus the arrival of the Northern Reinforcement's battle line has created a substantial numerical advantage for the Spanish and French ships engaged with Nelson's column. Nelson's column is no longer a column and maneuvering is hampered by the many ships which have struck or sunk in the center and the sheer glut of ships in a small space. The Victory has struck and Nelson is transferring his flag to the Neptune, 98. It's a hard pounding for everybody and more Spanish and French ships are nearing the fight as the Mediterranean breakout and the Ghost fleet sailing upwind are nearing the leeward column.

The general situation at the end of the session:


One more session was needed to reach a conclusion. But the last session would start with a huge surprise on turn 17. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Obscured by the huge cloud of smoke, throwing flaming debris and splinters everywhere, the largest ship in the world, flagship of the Spanish Fleet, the Santissima Trinidad just blew up. Good photo op. This doesn't really change the battle, she would have been forced to strike in the next turn and probably would have done very little more damage, but wow, was it unexpected. Bucentaurre (already struck), San Justo, Neptuno and Mont Blanc all took friendly damage from the explosion, but Ajax, Orion and Conqueror adjacent to the explosion, lost masts, took hull hits and lost guns.

On turn 18, Royal Soveriegn finally succumbed to the fire of the line of battle sailing past her and Collingwood transferred his flag to Belleisle. In another surprise, at the tag end of the Van's line, Intrepide, French 74 and Spartiate, British 74 coughed final defiance at each other and both surrendered. Unfortunately, neither were able to successfully fight the fires started and burned to the waterline. Behind the Spartiate, you can see where the Minotaur, hulled numerous times while sailing the length of the Combined Fleet van, has quietly sunk beneath the waves.

The Africa, Minotaur, Spartiate, Mars and Collosus (?) all managed to prove a basic principle: Sailing down a column of ships that outnumber you will spread the damage you give out over multiple ships and they will survive, while you take all the damage from the enemy ships and don't.

On turn 19, the Mediterranean breakout fleet reached engagement range, with the lead three ships all firing on what I think was Thunderer, forcing it to strike in just two turns. On turn 20, with Thunderer struck, Ajax and Conqueror unable to sail into the wind due to masts lost in the explosion of the Santissima Trinidad, the hoped for superiority of the leeward column compromised by the loss of Thunderer, Mars and Colossus, the imminent arrival of the Ghost Fleet and the head and tail of the Combined Fleet's rear division turning on it, the minor success of forcing the Argonaute to strike just didn't seem to be enough to balance the bad news. Nelson signaled for a general withdrawal.
The Lee squadron ships engaging the Mediterranean fleet at the rear of the Combined Fleet can easily sail away to the west. Belleisle and Neptune along with the two ships engaging the Northern Reinforcement, plus Orion (able to sail only down wind, but already headed that way) and Conqueror backing out of the mess can withdraw to the west. Ajax is trapped in the mess and forced to surrender.

The battle has been fought in light winds, but gale winds are expected tonight. The fleets are just a few miles off a lee shore, and ships with compromised handling are liable to be driven onto the rocks and destroyed. A common result of critical hits has been to sever the anchor cables so for many ships, anchoring in shallow water before running aground is not an option.

The final tally:

Spanish losses: The Atlas (74), San Juan de Nepomuceno (74) and San Augustino (74) all forced to strike due to hull damage and without anchors were driven onto the shore by the gale and destroyed. The Neptuno, hulled below the waterline, sank outright. And, of course, the Santissima Trinidad. All other Spanish ships were either salvaged or made port on their own.

French losses: The Intrepide (74) burned to the waterline. The Redoubtable (74) sank during the battle. The Argonaute, sailing ability compromised and anchor cable severed, was driven onto rocks and broken to splinters.

British losses: The Minotaur (74), the Colossus (74), Ajax (74) and Britannia (100) were salvaged and brought to port as prizes by the Combined Fleet. Proper allocation of the prize money remains in dispute, will remain in dispute and owing to the two countries involved, will probably have a recrimination phase lasting for centuries if the legal disputes are ever settled.... Prize crews aboard the Tonnant (80), Mars (74) and Atlas (74) were unable to keep to windward of the Cape of Trafalgar and were taken off. Peasants living near the Cape have building materials for the next 10 years. Leviathan (74), Africa (64), Thunderer (74), Royal Sovereign (110) and the Victory (100) all sank before the gale winds could wreck them.

Nelson lives, but the luster of his name has been blemished, dulled, tarred, perhaps even eclipsed. Time will tell if he can redeem himself or if the Admiralty will even ever employ him again.

UPDATE: You may have noticed in the photos above, some of (especially) the British ships are named in more than one place. I am not at all confident of where specific ships went in our scenario, and especially in the Lee Division commanded by Collingwood. Mars, Colossus and Thunderer are all over the place. If anybody can correctly identify any ships, please let me know and I will redo the photos as needed.

ALSO: I completely neglected to document the singular success of the British Reinforcing Squadron...er, ship. The ship which was observing the port from which a large portion of the Spanish Northern Reinforcement issued was released to Nelson as a reinforcement. Operating alone, **** harassed the tail of the returning Combined Fleet van, forcing two ships to strike, even while backtracking to rescue a politically important midshipman who had fallen overboard.

2011 Annual War Eagles Wooden Ships and Iron Men

War Eagles has an annual Wooden Ships and Iron Men large miniatures scenario, hosted by Gary Swearingen on New Year's Day for many years now. Previous events are chronicled here and here.



As always, photos are posted at full resolution, click to embiggen....

This year's scenario was a hypothetical wherein all available Spanish and French ships in the Mediterranean Sea attempt to break past a scraped up British blocking fleet in the Straits of Gibralter. The British have a large number of frigates and smaller ships, a few third rates and a couple of East India Men which the Spanish mistook for third rates and pounded to pieces....

The Allied forces consisted of 19 Ships of the Line including two Spanish 110's, two newly built French 74's and a variety of older third rates with 9 frigates. More or less.

Present as Commanders were Mike Farley in overall command for the British, ably assisted by Karl Soderholz and John Hayes. The Spanish were commanded by Brian Swearingen, assisted by Steve Luksic. The French Admiral was Kim Harris (that would be me), with with two new French 74's and two old frigates, a Kingdom of Two Sicilies battle line of two 74's and four frigates, and a Spanish Battle line of two old 74's and two even older 60's. Order's to the Sicilian battle line were frequently altered by the merciless moderator, Gary Swearingen.

The Allied fleet was greatly aided by a following wind that never changed throughout the game. Wind change is diced for every third turn and changes in direction and/or intensity on a 1 on a die 6 roll. The game was completed in 19 turns and 9 hours.


The Spanish fleet on the right was generally able to brush past the few frigates on the left after taking some long range rakes and some closer fire that did negligible damage. They succeeded in smashing one East Indiaman mistaken for a third rate SOL and smashed another frigate trying to retire to the upper right corner.... We'll point out these sights of interest in later photos.

There was a lot more heated action on the left as the French feinted right, back to the left and then gave up and sailed into the middle of the British block. The wiggle:


Close Action:


The lead French 74 had taken a pounding moving forward and took it into his head to get a better ship so rammed one of the British frigates and formed boarding parties. Unfortunately, every British ship in the vicinity unloaded on her and while the boarding parties survived the hail of round shot, the last of 7 hull points at the beginning of the turn was marked off in fire, just before melee. They didn't explode, but were forced to strike with 20+ blocks of boarding crew all ready to go onto the 6 crew block frigate.... Oh well, would've been a bit crowded getting away, anyway. ;o) The Merciless Moderator has made boarding actions much more difficult, requiring a full turn to organize the boarding party (and the party takes double casualties while organizing) and then requiring multiple, very deadly, melee rounds in each turn. Boarding is seldom a good idea.


Meanwhile, the Sicilian Admiral is taking a pounding.

At this point, it's pretty much a settled affair. The French 74 is lost, a stern rake from the French Admiral on the white sailed frigate forced it to strike as the Admiral moves freely around the British right accompanied by a cloud of frigates. The Sicilian's, under the Merciless Moderator's command break to their left, the British right and, making for the African coast then back into the Mediterranean. The British admiral committed one SOL to a pursuit of the badly battered Sicilian Admiral's SOL and a second SOL and four frigates. I wouldn't say it was foolhardy, they are British, but still....

Meanwhile, back in the Spanish fleet


The main Spanish fleet has cleared the British line and has clear sailing. The rejoining Spanish column will have some trouble with the two British SOLs. The third ship in the line gets trapped by the two British SOL's and takes a considerable pounding.


But the Spanish fleet exits mostly unscathed, trailed by the Spaniard who is quite soggy. The MM has ruled that it will get overhauled and taken due to its considerable hull damage, exiting the table with just one remaining hull point.


Following the Spanish, the French Admiral and his two frigates make a break for the exit.


There is always a last hurrah! Two British frigates take a stern rake on the French Admiral as he exits the table last....


This action will carry forward into a Trafalgar hypothetical, reinforced by those ships which have survived the breakout. The British have two prizes, SOL which will require SOL to haul them to port. The merchantmen are too large for the frigates to tow to port, but the British commander has indicated willingness to abandon them. There were at least two and possibly more frigates that will also have to be towed to harbor. Tow ships may be too delayed to intervene at Trafalger, at least I am hoping so, otherwise, this may turn out to be an Allied debacle. The Allies succeeded in breaking eleven ships of the line into the Atlantic, including the two Spanish 110's and a new French 74 which will are powerful fighting vessels. The British will have a shiny new French 74 to rebuild and an ancient Spanish 60 that may not be worth the bother. If the tow ships are delayed, the British will have only one SOL to add to Nelson's battle line compared to the Allies eleven. If the tow ships are not delayed (the action takes place in the Straits of Gibralter, so it will be a short tow), there could be as many as five additional British ships of the line to reinforce Nelson. Historically, there were 27 British SOL to the Allies 33 at Trafalgar. This event would make it either 44 to 28 or possibly 44 to 32. Should be interesting to find out....

Desolation Con - November 20, 2010

Desolation Con 2010 has to rate as a general success. Lots of gamers had lots of fun, many playing new things. Gamemasters had new gamers and their tables were filled with joy.

Here's some pictures from the basement of the Richland Odd Fellows Lodge.

A crowdshot from the last session of the day.




Gearing up for Hordes of the Things. I ended up with eight players on four battle fields, some of them entirely new to even the notion of miniatures battles....



Best plane photo of the day....



Space: 1889 RPG "Rescue the Princess"



War Eagles presents Wooden Ships and Iron Men