Ship yards of York (9): Audit and prep.

I have allocated the Forged in Battle ships, and re-allocated some of the Navwar ones (French 74s will become 80s to bring the number of them up). Each will nominally represent a named ship of one of the three nations: England, France and Spain. The numbers are really pleasing.

Ships organised into fleets, from left to right Spanish, English and French.

English

4 first rates 100–120 guns

2 second rates 98 guns

1 third rate 80 captured French (HMS Tonnant)

19 third rates 74 guns

4 third rates 64 guns

2 razee frigates

2 frigates

2 merchantmen

4 brigs

French

2 first rates 120 guns

5 third rates 80 guns (including Tonnant)

14 third rates 74 guns

2 frigates

1 merchantman

2 cutters

Spanish

1 first rate 130–136 guns (Santisima Trinidad)

2 first rates 112 guns

1 first rate 100 guns

2 third rates 80 guns

9 third rates 74 guns

1 third rate 64 guns

2 frigates

1 merchantman

2 cutters

I will need to re-flag some of the Spanish 74s as French for First of June/Prairial and some of the French first rates and 74s as Spanish for Cape St. Vincent. The Frigates will be swapped around a bit for various of the smaller actions. In the main though, the ships will be 'fixed' to their allocated nation, merely changing name according to the ships in a particular action.

Merveilleuse!

Ship yards of York (8): Arrival of 'Keith's ships'

The 1/3000 ships produced by Forged in Battle, that I was made aware of by Tim and Julian and then Keith *made* me buy, arrived today—and I could not be more pleased!

Ships and bases on a towel to dry after washing.

The models are excellent. They are robust, have a good amount of detail and an absolute minimum of flash—just a tiny amount on the bottom that I needed to trim to get them to sit flush on the stands. They are stable with a good weight to them once glued to the stand. In short, they look bloody marvellous!

Forged in Battle sent me a 'bonus' of an extra two 74s, which was most generous and a wonderful surprise. It is doubly good, since they are the most common ships of the line.

I received not 31, but 33 of these beauties!

The models are not as detailed as the Navwar ships, but there is sufficient for this scale.

The ships are a little smaller than those from Navwar, but it will hardly be apparent once they are painted and 'sailing' around a table-top ocean. Also, once mounted on the bases, which are thicker than the Navwar ones, they nearly the same height.

I was interested which were closer to a true 1/3000th scale, so did a comparison for Santisima Trinidad.

Comparison of the two Santisima Trinidads: Forged in Battle at left, Navwar at right.

I used the information about her from the Three Decks website. This records that the gun deck was 220' 6", which is 67.2084 m in modern measurements, or ~22.4 mm at 1/3000. The breadth is given as 58', 17.6784 m or 5.9 mm at 1/3000th. I measured the models, simply using a ruler, and the Forged in Battle version is closest with ~ 17 mm for the gun deck and around ~5 mm wide, compared with the Navwar version at ~19 mm and ~6 mm wide. So, I'll use the Navwar version as Santisima Trinidad and the Forged in Battle ship will represent a smaller 1st rate.

Ships on their bases ready for undercoating and painting.

Ship yards of York (7): Action Under Sail Play-test

It went really well. I am a happy chappy.

Before I could stage a game of "Action Under Sail", I needed to 'find' my table.  I moved everything to the far (left) end of the table, gave the now clear section a sweep and vacuum and then unrolled and laid about 1.2 x ~2 m of my recently purchased 'ocean' material.

I was applying off-white (Tamiya 'deck tan') to the sails of the Spanish ships when Julian arrived. He waited patiently while I completed that and then applied blue with a blue-grey wash/highlight to the bases, all the while making me feel good about how the painted ships looked. It's wonderful to have wargaming friends! :)

It also gave him a bit of time to look at a few aspects of the rules that I wanted his thoughts about. The delay was not too long and we were ready to sail.

Above, Spanish squadron, lead by Argonauta, followed by San Agustin, Santisima Trinidad (flag), Montañés and San Felipe Apóstal, with the frigate Ninfa protected by the ships of the line and positioned to relay signals.

English squadron, Zealous in the lead then Agamemnon (flag), Bellona with Adamant out of photo to left. Frigates Sybille and Phoebe on the Spanish side of the line.

Consistent with the first game using any new set of rules, it took us a while to get going and to get into a 'rhythm', but we were soon sailing away and finding that we'd made mistakes in the fleet and movement orders for our ships—player mistakes, not mistakes with the rules. For two reasonably experiences tabletop sailors, we were directing our mini charges in an amateur fashion!

Fleets on course to come to grips, Spanish nearest camera, Ninfa yet to be moved.
Note the good looking and useful wind direction and ship orientation tool that is provided with the rules, for printing and assembly.

The English squadron turned to intercept the Spanish...

and came on aggressively.

Sybille and Phoebe came too close, receiving broadsides from San Felipe Apóstal (at the former), Montañés and Santisima Trinidad (at the latter), while Argonauta (furthest from camera) fired at HMS Zealous in the lead of the English line.

The frigates HMSs Phoebe and Sybille sailing too close to the Spanish line drew the first broadsides of three of the ships, including the 'biggest ship in the world' Santisima Trinidad. Bonuses for initial broadside and the double-shot that I had loaded resulted in serious damage to the hulls of both frigates—damaging all of Phoebe's starboard guns, and killing some crew.

We had a fair bit of discussion about this result. Made some calculations, considered alterations and thought about a change. We then moved to the firing of Argonauta against HMS Zealous and decided against the change. Further firing over the next three turns confirmed us to stick with the rules as writ!

I was engrossed in the game and our discussion about the firing, so forgot to photograph a couple of turns—oops! The Spanish kept sailing on and it appeared that our inept sailing might result in a minor action. Argonauta had lost her main mast top gallant in turn five.

Ah, the admirals were not complete buffoons after all, turning their ships to engage.

The time that we had taken over the first seven turns now paid off. We were comfortable with orders, movement and firing, which was good since the next two turns were really involved. We pro-rated the movement of the ships to more easily determine which fired at which and when during the turn.

English ships of the line approach the turning Spanish.

Montañés fires a raking broadside on Zealous, while she in turn rakes San Felipe Apóstal. 

Half-way through the turn, Bellona got her turn at San Felipe Apóstal, taking out more guns and crew.

The English have élite crews, compared with the raw of the Spanish (on a three-level scale), enabling them to fire and reload more rapidly and so be able to fire at the beginning and end of a move. Zealous had this point-blank stern rake on Santisima Trinidad. She had fired previously part-way through the move, rather than at the beginning, so this shot should not have been allowed, but we wanted to see the effect. A shot at the hull damaged guns and killed some crew.

We both should probably have followed the more usual tactic of disable first (fire at rigging) and then move in to hammer (and board) the enemy ship, but, aside from this, the firing and damage seemed reasonable for single broadsides.

Both squadrons continued to turn. Spanish in line in centre of photo, frigate Ninfa off to the left (showing ill effects of my clumsy hand on the delicate mast). English frigate Sybille in the foreground (Phoebe out of photo behind her), while the four English ships of the line are coming around the Spanish.

At this point Argonauta and Zealous were positioned to exchange broadsides, but no. Zealous was unloaded on the starboard side due to that rake on Santisima Trinidad. Argonauta duly unloaded her port side guns on the English ship's hull.

We continued the ship's wearing.

It was Argonauta's turn to be unloaded (top of photo). She took fire from both Zealous and Agamemnon, adding losses of guns and crew to her previously 'felled' t'gallant. Sybille fired at the unloaded Montañés, while Phoebe (with the guns of her undamaged port-side batteries) and San Felipe Apóstal exchanged 'pleasantries'.

That was our lot. I had to rush into town before shops closed and Julian needed to leave, since he'll be heading to the airport today for his 'international man of mystery' work. 'Twas no matter. The aim was to try and to evaluate the rules. In nine turns we did and they were... pleasingly good. There have the detail that I am after, but it has been cleverly integrated and somewhat abstracted so as to streamline play without losing the flavour and challenges of trying to command and to move ships on a tabletop sea, to bring them to fire on your opponent's ships and in a state of readiness to be able to do so.

Most importantly, we'd had a good game. Lots of decisions and challenges as players, discussion of results, quick looking up to compare with general statistics, getting comfortable with the system and having an absolute ball. After all the weeks preparing these lovely, fiddly little ships it was so pleasing to have them 'sailing' around, getting contorted together and sharing the joy of it all with a fellow-traveller in the naval caper.

Thanks Steve Birnie. If you are still around, I hope that someone is able to bring to your attention this little game in which two wargamers who enjoy French Revolutionary-Napoleonic Naval 're-discovered' the rules that you wrote—some 47 years after the event—and spent a really enjoyable 4–5 hours doing so!

Next step 19th November 1791, 'Battle of Tellicherry'. English frigates HMS Phoenix and HMS Perseverance engaging the 'neutral' French frigate Résolue of 32 under capitaine Gallamand. I'll prepare a description of the historic action for reference and as a comparison with the action as played. In the meantime, the other ships need to be completed, rigging to be applied to them all and then the ships from Forged in Battle, which I expect to arrive any day now, will need to be done—interspersed with painting the now long-neglected land forces.

 'Tis a joy to have so many wonderful hobby 'jobs' to fit in! :)

Summary of the game

Rules: Action Under Sail, 2nd Edition by Steve Birnie, published November 1977 by Tabletop Games.

Scales: not stated, but presumably the rules were designed for 1/1200th scale ships, with a time scale of a few minutes per turn.

Ships: Navwar 1/3000th scale Napoleonic ships.

'Terrain': a roll of material for a blind or 'block out' purchased from Spotlight :)

Ship yards of York (6)—Filler, rant and planning for Tuesday's test game

Filler

I have not done much with the ships lately. A visit to Adelaide for me old Ma's 90th late last week, seeing sis', bro' and other family, then developing a bit of a lurgy for the first few days of this week has kept me out of my wargame shed. I got back to it yesterday and in doing so had an epiphany.

I think that I am at 'peak figures'.

Of course, even I am not this silly. I cannot recall whose blog I originally got this from. The link with the download file just has a generic blogspot address. Please let me know if you know. Most of the others have a similar 'provenance'.

Yes, that's right, it is my turn to say to myself that I have enough figures. Cue laughing, rolling of eyes and broad smirks. Still, not only is it true, but I think that I may even have realised it is.

I have not been like you other, sensible wargamers/bloggers out there who only buy a few figures at a time and try to paint them all, or at least most of them, before the next lot are added to the collection. Having been a bit restrained—but only a bit—for the first 50 years of my life, I have gone absolutely ballistic in the last 8–9, especially 2020*–2023 (I double-checked my records and I began going 'mad' in 2019). I don't have thousands of figures, I have tens of thousands. About 10% are painted to completion, probably another 5% in some stage towards that ultimate aim.

Of course, even I am not so naïve as to think that I am gonna stop purchasing figures.

I have the ships that Keith made me buy (you are all witnesses). These are on the way to me now—and I am really looking forward to them arriving. Then there will be around 400 or so Austrian Hungarian infantry that will be coming my way once Hat have shipped them to my 'supplier'. There a few early 18thC infantry in firing poses that Strelets are planning to release soon—despite the serious, existential challenges that they face in Ukraine. After that though, I reckon I may actually exhibit restraint and consider deeply before making any further purchases. Only something new and really special. And then only in small numbers.

I'll revisit this in a year or so, shall I?!!

Rant

One of the great things about getting older is the imprimatur to have a rant. Not strictly imprimatur, just a rolling of eyes and 'here goes the old man...'. In fact, this may not be new to me since I was given a 'soap box' as a funny, work, Chrissy-pressie one year. I was in my thirties. Not that I ranted then. I had important ideas to convey to others. All based on substantiated information. Plus the odd opinion.

Anyway, this rant is not even mine! It is Julian's. I just happen to agree and to have found myself agreeing more since he made it.

When did people begin to refer to wargame's rules as 'the game'?

So, rather than play a game of <<insert period>> with <<rules>> it seems to be increasingly referred to the game of <<rules>>.

What?! The rules are merely part of the game. In wargaming, especially historical stuff, the aim, is to have some semblance of an historical representation. The eternal quest is to find a set of rules that does this in a manner that is representative, enjoyable and playable. The 'game' involves the figures, terrain, opponents (or solo), cards/dice/no-dice, scale, scenario... oh yeah, and some set of rules that you have both/all decided to use for the purpose.

Of course, it is purely language and terminology and a tongue-in-cheek rant, but there is a bit of annoyance there...! 😁 

Preparation for test game of 'Action Under Sail'

I have made a bit of progress with the boating escapade.

Julian is available, so we are gonna have a test game on Tuesday using the rules 'Action Under Sail'. Or should I say, play a game of 'Action Under Sail', grrrrr!!!!

I have the second edition of the rules, circa 1977. Written by S. Birnie, they first came out in 1976. There was a third edition in 1984 and a fourth in 1993. I have seen extracts and reviews of the first and later editions and think that, for me, the second edition is the 'sweet spot'.

Julian gave them to me with a load of sets of rules for Napoleonic naval that he had decided he would not use. I just happened to flick through them after our test-game and rejection of 'It's Warm Work' and became more and more interested the more that I read. I then worked through some of the mechanics and really liked them.

They are detailed and involve calculations that are not 'de rigeur' for current wargames rules.

I think I got this beauty from Gary's Sgt Steiner blog.

Movement is simultaneous. Ships operate under broad 'fleet orders' and also have individual orders for each ship. The latter are noted simply using arrows, code letters (direction, tacking, loading broadsides) and numbers (for speed and distance of turning/wearing). The main classes of ships have a maximum speed for three strengths of wind (light, fresh and gale) according to one of three positions to the wind (aft, quartering and bow). Ships may speed up or slow down a given amount in a single turn, but not above the maximum (this is not stated directly, an example that Mr Birnie expects players to have common-sense and a spirit of playing). There are three classes of crew èlite, average and raw. Ships with èlite crews can sail closer to the wind (up to 45º), while the others can only get within 60º. Turning through the wind is a three-step process. There are rules for storms, gales, rowing and other such events that I have only skimmed so far.

Broadsides need to be loaded (and noted), with different load times required for single, double and triple shot, better crews doing the job faster. Each ships has a gunnery factor and, if present, a carronade factor. Examples are given for classes of ship, but the calculation is provided and straightforward—a third of the sum product of number and weight of guns divided by number of guns. The 'fudge factor' of 1/3 is included as the guns are divided into batteries of 3 guns (halves rounded up). Firing is then 'simply' gunnery factor + tactical factors + random factor multiplied by number of batteries in the broadside to give 'total damage points inflicted' (TDPI). The TDPI is compared with the defence value for the targeted area, hull or rigging, and damage is inflicted. Or not. Crew casualties also result.

Casualties to crew and levels of damage may result in a morale test for the crew. Damage to rigging leads to fallen sections or masts. Firing at the hull has a chance for further damage: rudder, wheel, lower mast, explosion.

I have not read the boarding rules in detail, but a proportion of the crew have muskets (usually solely the marines) and can be involved in such 'business'. There is also running aground, mooring, involvement with shore batteries, landing parties, but I have not bothered to read it all yet.

I was gonna simply begin with the first action of my 'going through all the naval actions of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars', but Julian had the good suggestion of using the same scenario that he devised for testing 'It's Warm Work'. Perfect. We'll have several ships, different sizes and armament, command and all that good stuff.

I knocked up this sheet to record orders, speed, loaded broadsides and damage. It is based on the example in the rules, plus a few more aspects added to make it, hopefully, an all in one.

Hopefully they will go as well as I envisage and the reason for Julian dismissing them—too detailed for a large, multi-player game—will not be a problem.

The English ships in the foreground are good enough to go. I'll add rigging if I get time, but need to focus on the Spanish ones at left rear, which have a bit more colour added since I took this photo yesterday arvo'.

Ship yards of York (5)—Thanks for sending me down a rabbit hole, Julian and Tim!

True, but not really. Actually extremely interesting and useful, so thank you to you both!

A bit of context.

Even before I have finished painting the ships that I have on the go, there has already been 'slippage'. I won't have enough ships! I'll be okay for the early actions involving one to a few per side, but once I get to May-June of 1794 I am gonna be a long way short. Sixteen ships of the line for the English and Franco-Spanish respectively will not be enough. Even with complete 're-flagging' of the latter two nation's ships.

If good sense prevailed the sensible approach would be to confined my 1/3000 ships to the small and smaller actions and to use Julian's expansive collection of 1/700 ships for the larger ones, beginning with 29th May to 1st June 1794.

Wargaming megalomania suggests doing and being able to do both. Use Julian's with fleet-scale rules and mine with a more detailed set. This could involve two goes at the same thing, or perhaps an historical re-fight with mine and an alternative history with Julian's. Or… one or more of the other permutations.

So, I am considering that I 'need' another 35 of these 1/3000 ships. This should allow enough, with some re-flagging of 74s, 80s and some of the smaller ships, for the biggest of the historic actions; Glorious First June/13 prairail, Cape St Vincent and Trafalgar. I am not ready to jump at the purchase yet, so will have a 'cooling off' period for a couple of months or so.

Enter Julian and Tim with their 'rabbit hole'.

Julian is catching up with his wargaming friends of 'forever', Tim and Nigel. On Friday he sent me an email in which he said:

Just before you 'launch' into Navwar 1/3000, Tim drew these to my attention. You may very well of course prefer the Navwar range, and enjoy the time spent building them, but I thought out of a sense of duty I would pass on the alternative just in case you might think otherwise. 

There was a link to some 1/3000 ships by 'Forged in Battle' being sold at Noble Knight games.

I had a look at them on the Noble Knight website. They said that they are cast in one piece and had pictures of the painted articles. I wondered if they are truly a single casting and what they looked like unpainted.

A quick search lead me to Forged in Battle's website. Turns out you can get these fleets for the Battle of the Nile from Noble Knight for the 'discount price' of £50.28 (plus postage), or go direct to the ‘Forged in Battle' in the UK and get them for £38.00 (plus postage)! The photos of the various fleet and squadron packs on the Forged in Battle website all depict the ships painted (of course), but I found an excellent review on this fellow's marvellous blog.

Naturellement!

If you want the impressions and opinion of a wargamer and information that is useful to wargamers, look on a wargames blog. In his post, 'Queen Catherine', the intriguing pseudonym under which he blogs, describes the ships and also provides some excellent photos of the unpainted models.

One of the excellent photos of the 1/3000 Forged in Battle' ships on 'Queen Catherine's' blog.

They look good. I really like the ‘puffed out’ sails. They are moulded as one piece, which is no problem to me as I construct and then paint the Navwar ships. The separate base looks thicker than the one provided with the Navwar models, but it would be easy to trim the lugs and to the metal base with plastic card. They are more expensive than Navwar, but not ridiculously. Detail is less than for the Navwar ships, but you get a bit more with each ship. Ratlines come with the model. These provide support for the mast, but they are solid, so some painting trickery would be required so that they don't stand out too much. A flag and pennant are also moulded with the model.

I am considering perhaps getting a ’squadron pack’ or two, to see what they are like and to mix up the look of my ships.

While searching for photos depicting unpainted versions of the Forged in Battle ships, I ‘discovered’ these:

Some of the ship pieces in the Victory II game. Photo from Board Game Geek.

They are playing pieces for an interesting looking boardgame called 'Victory II', that is a hybrid of ‘Risk' and 'Civilization’. Peter Morrison, the designer of the game, sells the pieces separately.

I am not sure what ’scale’ these plastic ships would be, but the photos of them and of the Forged in Battle ships give me inspiration to try to make my own. I reckon that I can do better than the plastics and perhaps get close to the Forged in Battle metals. While they won’t have the details of the Navwar ships, they will do and I will be happy as I will have made them—plus I’ll be able to include more sturdy masts and ‘puffy sails’!

So, at this stage, I’ll likely get a squadron pack or three of the Forged in Battle ships and will still get a pack or three (or more) of Navwar ships, but nothing like the full 35 that are ’needed’!

Meanwhile, the English fleet, as it currently stands, progresses.

Painting of English 'fleet' almost completed. While not good for military conformity, I am happy with the mix of colour schemes.

The eight 74s, with four 64s behind them.

It's not a good idea for me to photograph these too closely; they look pretty rough! The two 120-gun 1st rates closest to camera; nominally Royal George and Caledonia respectively. The yellow & black one in the next 'row' is one of the 98-104 gun 1st/2nd rates, nominally Victory.

My English ships need a bit more touching up, principally black and also a more gilt-gold to highlight the bronze-gold that I have used. I'll leave them for now though and focus on getting the Spanish and French ships to the same point. Then I can do the final touches of paint to them all before I move on to the rigging.

I have come to enjoy these Navwar ships more and more—a bit during 'building' (adding masts, bowsprits and sails)—but particularly during painting. It can be a bit of a love-hate relationship though, such as when a mast on one of the 1st/2nd rates broke this afternoon. Not a major problem though. I have had to several masts and bowsprits already, so now have a system.

I have lots of wire sitting around the place, a good store of which is in my wargames shed to use for flagpoles, pikes, lances and such. It is not needed in this case, since the staples that secure the plastic bags in which the ships arrive from Navwar are perfect for the task. How's that? They are provided with a spare mast as part of the packaging!

I almost missed it

 

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Ship yards of York (4)—I have crossed ocean

Caesar's army crossed scary 'ocean' for the first time in 55 BC to a hitherto unknown land (to them). On Friday, I crossed roads in Midland—already known, but still scary😀—in search of ocean. And I found some!

Some French ships, still in the same state as my previous post, crossing 'ocean'.

Some English ships, with a bit more paint applied than last time (mainly black!), also crossing 'ocean'.

My wife said, "It's not very blue." But that was what I was after.

Heavily influenced by Julian, I was looking for a grey-blue mottled look of the north Atlantic Ocean; on a good day!

For the actions that occurred in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean, or even Pacific, it will just have to be an imposing, grey day.

I think it is gonna work. We'll see once I lay it out and move some ships around. On the latter point, it is a nice, flat, slightly slippery surface, so fit for purpose.

If I want to add other splashes of colour, I can always practice my Pro Hart (R.I.P):

Ship yards of York (part 3)

I had completed building the English and Spanish ships a couple of weeks ago, prior to heading to Mt Barker for John's game of Laichling, but it has taken me a while to apply any paint to them. Now that has begun (slowly), it is time for a little update and to respond to previous comments and questions!

English ships, undercoated, with added dry-brushing. I started painting the 100-gun 1st/2nd rate on the right, but stopped as I looked for 'guides' of colour-schemes to use for each ship.

French ships. I had part-painted these years ago, but have now applied the grey and white dry brush—hence they look a real mess at present. I had wondered if I'd prefer the approach of undercoat, apply base coat, dry-brush and then highlight. Fortunately, I do not, so will use the easier and quicker method of undercoat, dry-brush and then colour (which will be the case for the English and Spanish ships).

Spanish ships, undercoated and dry-brushed. The 'mighty' Santisima Trinidad at the front and the strangely 'stumpy' Rayo behind her, then six 74s, frigates, merchant ship and brigs.

Ray, you asked about my intentions with painting the ships**. Apart from not very well(!), I am painting them using a modified 'Mitch method'. This involves my usual undercoat in Payne's grey, now followed by the 'Mitch magic' of a dry-brush with grey and then with white, before adding the appropriate colours as part paint, part highlight. Mitch uses inks (and is considering army painter), but I don't particularly like the brightness of inks and am not into 'new fangled' things like army painter (haha), so am sticking to simple acrylic paint. I'll leave the fancy stuff for the likes of you and Mitch, Ray! 

**Incidentally, I went to check exactly what you had said and asked and could not find your comment on my blog. I had seen it and read it via the email that I receive notifying me of a new comment; but it was not on the blog?! I went looking and, sure enough, there it was in the list of comments but marked as 'spam'. How rude of blogger!! This is the second time that it has happened with one of your comments. I have no idea why! Anyway, rectified now and your comment is posted.

I finished the undercoating and dry-brushing over the weekend and started the 'colouring in' last night. I did not get far though, part of one ship, before I hit a road-block. It's the same one that I get with non-uniform land units. What colours do I want to use? How can I make them all look different?

The ships can all be basically painted the same; most often some sort of brown, light or dark, but sometimes almost yellow, or red which is alternated, generally with black, for the decks/lines of guns and sections in-between. Alternatively they could be painted with the main body of the ship one colour and black (or other colour) for the lower hull and around the deck. Most ships had splashes of colour and often gold around the figure-head and the decorative galley/captain's cabin (rear).

There are quite a few options and I would like a bit of variety. Some way to discern between the look of the ships. So, I put down the brushes and went searching for pictures that showed variations of colour schemes for the first, second and third rate ships, frigates, sloops, brigs and cutters.

This took me several hours last night, and some more today, but I now have pictures of representative vessels for English, French and Spanish ships of each class to act as a painting guide or perhaps a 'library of inspiration'. It will be paints out again this arvo'/evening.

In response to my previous post about the ships, there was a bit of a 'discussion', via comments, about periods that we do not wargame. A few of you mentioned that Napoleonic naval is not one that 'grabs' you sufficiently. I can understand completely. It does not have the same visual appeal as large-scale land battles, there is the messy business of building the ships and the (real or potential) problem of all that rigging. Then, when you get them on the table, the wind messes with where you want your ships to go and you never get to engage with the enemy!

For me, Napoleonic naval follows a familiar wargaming story. I have always had an interest in this aspect of the French Revolutionary-Napoleonic period, but I am now in deeper and deeper, thanks to the process of constructing these fiddly little f#@$%!! ships, looking into colour schemes to use and, most importantly, what to do with them.

I had a bit of an epiphany regarding this last point.

I was looking at various, smaller actions, one here another there. Quick searches and then skimming entries on Wikipedia, was sufficient to produce a list of three or four. It was not a particularly structured and not really what I wanted. I wondered about a listing of all of the actions, so as to choose some to have a go at on the tabletop.

Like any encyclopaedia, Wikipedia is a useful, first pass to get an idea about a topic (battle). Generally, I am after more depth, so go looking elsewhere. If my books are lacking (as they are for naval), then I'll head to JStor, archive.org or look at the references listed under the entry in Wikipedia. In this case, it was the reference list for one of the actions that yielded some real 'gold'! Three tomes that have all the details that I am looking for:

• Batailles Navales de la France vol 1–4, by Troude,

• The naval history of Great Britain vols 1 to 6, by James,

• Biographie Maritime vol 1–3, by Hennequin.

These are all secondary sources, but were written and published soon after the events, so are almost a primary source. I was able to get the complete set of all three from the marvellous archive.org and Gallica BnF.

I now have a new and exciting (to me) 'cunning plan'. I'll do the lot.

All of the naval actions of the French Revolutionary-Napoleonic wars. I have begun to make my list, going through Troude and James. I am making a few notes about each action and page references for when I go back looking for the details. Most of the early encounters were small; ship to ship 'duels' or a few ships against one, or small numbers on each side. Predominantly involving frigates, sometimes even smaller craft.

The first action will be the 'Battle of Tellicherry', 19th November 1791 off the south-west coast of India. It was a peace-time attack by two English frigates on the French frigate Résolue. Perhaps 'phoney war' is a better description for the 'peace' of the time, as the French were escorting goods into Mangalore for the Kingdom of Mysore that was in conflict with the British East India company. Needless to say, the attack on a ship in peace-time caused quite a stir, but the burgeoning British Empire and naissant French Republic were soon at war.

Serendipitously, the fact that the actions were all small ones, prior to May-June 1794, makes them ideal for testing out the rules and developing an approach for handling larger affairs. It also means that, once they are painted, I can add rigging to the ships on an 'as needs' basis.

Fightin', drinkin' and mateship in Mt Barker

"Turn 1 saw the French win the initiative and add 6 ADCs."

(Caption from Steve's notes sent along with the photos)

Unter Laichling table-centre, nearest camera.

Well... a wargame and a few drinks; but the mateship bit is definitely accurate.

John provide venue and troops (aside from Mitch's limbers) and he used the Laichling scenario from Michael Hopper's 1809 scenario book, adapted where necessary for General d'Armée (second edition).

He and Steve (initially) and then Mitch (once he was able to get there) played out the first two turns the previous Thursday afternoon/evening, "...bringing the forces into contact for the proper fun" as Steve put it in an email that he sent along with photos from the first two turns. I have used his photos and notes here.

"Two of these were added to Gilly's 15th léger, in the woods on the French left (forwards tasking). Another was sent to Lorencz's skirmishers, commissioned with the attack on Unterlaichling. Mitch arrived as the French were moving or just before and took over rolling etc. for the Austrians. The French rolled 'snake-eyes' for their additional (forwards tasking) move, but still caused some panic in the Austrian lines"

"The Austrians got 5 ADCs and used a couple of these for artillery assault. Despite a re-roll, the Austrian cavalry brigade and their brigade holding Oberlaichling, hesitated. The French were successful with all of their activations."

"Turn 2 saw the French gain 11 ADCs (out of 9 dice), thanks to rolling 4 sixes. These were used for forward tasking Davout's Immortals, and continuing to rouse the skirmishers at Unterlaichling. The Austrians weren't so fortunate and subsequently suffered another one or two hesitant rolls. The Austrian ADCs were busy at the heavy battery on the hill behind Unterlaichling. Despite an embarrassment of ADCs the Bavarians also hesitated, having been fine the turn before without any interference from the brass hats."

"The Immortals surged forward (this time Gilly's brigade rolled a 3). The Terrible 57th added 18 cm (rolling an 8). The Austrians were checking rules for 'moving back'. Sounds like RETREAT! to me [Note back packs facing the enemy, JF]. Up on the hill the Austrians were trying to move forward but were struggling with congestion."

 

"The French began their fire phase. The only roll of note was the columns facing the Grenzers in the woods which scored two of three possible hits. Mitch shouldn't have worried. With his illegal blue dice in hand (these should be French) he delivered some devastating fire left and right. The French skirmishers at Unterlaichling suffered the brunt, losing a stand. However, with great rolls comes a reckoning. The Grenzers in the wood (near Unterlaichling) panicked and lost their fire discipline. Oooh. Mitch was right to worry."

This was where I joined in.

I left home on Thursday morning, arriving a little after midday. "Good timing," said John, "Steve and Mitch should be here around 1 pm."

That gave me a bit of time to see the table for real, to hear more about what had transpired and so be ready to 'leap in'. Steve arrived first and, realising that Mitch had been delayed, we made a start.

John had a 'wicked' plan for allocating commands. He wrote little cards for Austrian and French right and left and then we drew from those available. I got the French right, Steve the Austrian right, John the Austrian left, which would leave Mitch the French left once he joined us. For the time being, I was the sole French commander.

Steve had set-up an attack on the Grenzers in the small wood beside Unterlaichling, so I duly sent Lorencz's lead troops in under infantry assault (having rolled well for ADC availability).

With their lost 'fire discipline' (indicated by the smoke), the Grenzers inflicted minimal casualties,

... and were easily swept from the field. 

Overview of the centre of the table, from the French side, featuring Unterlaichling in the middle of the photo.

From the (roughly) northern end of the table, the independent brigade of the French 15th léger progressing towards the Austrian right flank, while the bulk of Gilly's men moved towards the Austrian line north of Oberlaichling. The French had also managed to bring on reinforcements—a small brigade of light infantry (top right of photo).

Mitch had arrived, so took over the French left, continuing the advance towards the Austrian defenders (above and below).

I tried to organise Lorencz's men for a feint against Unterlaichling, while the newly arrived reinforcements headed to support the French centre-left.

A successful roll to bring on the Bavarian cavalry bolstered the Franco-Bavarian right, while the Austrian light cavalry floundered in the heavy going (indicated by the areas of lichen) and due to hesitant brigade activation rolls.

Another particularly successful roll for ADCs—not quite matching Steve's record in the first turn, but a 'yield' of 10 was d@mned fine—allowed us to allocate infantry assault and forwards to 'The Terrible' 57e ligne.

Mitch's dice rolling did the rest. His blue dice now legally playing French! This was the beginning of too many poor rolls by Steve.

Clearly David Brown—or the Browns plural, since his son is now a co-author (which must be a huge buzz for David, I reckon)—likes the dice to feature heavily in his/their games. The random factor is given a large weighting in General d'Armée and its impacts are entirely random.

Brigades have a one in three chance of being hesitant. There is a one in six chance that a (non-élite) infantry unit will lose its fire discipline, or receive a fatigue casualty if artillery (increased from one in 12 in the first edition), and a one in 36 chance that an artillery battery will go low on ammunition or a unit will achieve a 'destiny' roll (bonus) when firing or charging.

This emphasis on the random factor has been increased in the second edition, since all combat modifiers are played out by adding or subtracting dice or re-rolling one or more die, rather than adding or subtracting factors.

The 2/57e ligne followed on and attacked the next Austrian battalion, but was not as successful this  time.

 Better rolling from Steve and much poorer by Mitch resulted in a bloody nose and a retreat.

Before Unterlaichling, Lorencz's men had copped a pasting from the Austrian guns on the high ground. John's rolling nearly as good as Mitch's.

Help was at had though as more Bavarians had arrived to bolster the Franco-Bavarian right.

A period of manoeuvre and less effective artillery fire affords these pictures featuring John's beautifully painted troops and Mitch's limbers.

Plenty of low rolls for infantry fire resulted in losses of fire discipline in the two main sectors of action (indicated by the 'smoke' markers).

A real mixed bag over on the French right. The battalion in line nearest camera incurred all nine hits in the one turn; thanks to two double-sixes for the Austrian artillery. In contrast, two of the six hits on the French battery were self-inflicted; rolls of four or less resulting in a 'fatigue casualty'.

We concluded the evening at that stage (end of turn 7).

The second part of John's 'wicked' plan came into effect the next day; our commands were re-allocated. This time John had the French left, Mitch the French right, Steve the Austrian left and me the Austrian right. Like the mercenary commanders of the previous age, or perhaps the emigré or even 'turn coat' commanders of the day, we would put our all into the service of our new 'lords'.

The pressure on the Austrian right had left brigades interpenetrated and unformed. A hesitant activation roll did not help matters.

John formed the 15e léger from the woods into l'ordre mixte ready for a big putsch,

...as did the remaining troops on the French right. 

Around Unterlaichling, Lorencz's weakened legions prepared to attack through the small wood.

The Bavarians advanced in force.

An overview of the battlefield from the (roughly) south.

On came the 15e léger.

Blunted by Austrian defensive fire of the 'helmut' boys.

More success for the French against my hesitant Austrian brigade beside Oberlaichling.

A clear shot for the battery from the recently arrived 'be-helmeted' brigade was wasted with a loss of fire discipline and fatigue casualty. 

The French light cavalry were intended to charge, assisted by a forwards command, but a real command blunder (by the French players) failed to estimate (or to measure*) the distance correctly, so they were unable to charge. The Austrians formed square in readiness for the next attempt.

*Pre-measuring is allowed in General d'Armée. We were slow to come to it as I don't think that any of us particularly like it, but it is in the rules as writ, so we began to do the 'sensible'(?), if 'gamey' thing and to check all distances during and prior to movement, more and more as the game progressed. 

On the French right, Mitch had the French and Bavarians ready for their big putsch.

On the subject of measurement. Steve used the imprimatur to the full to position two regiments of Austrian hussars, in the heavy going, at the appropriate distance to attack the Bavarian cavalry on the right flank of the Franco-Bavarian army.

Steve had to leave us at this point (end of Turn 9), leaving me as the sole Austrian commander. [He probably saw the writing on the wall, so filled his saddle-bags with the Emperor's gold and headed for greener pastures.]

Mitch was available for a bit longer, probably enough for two more turns.  It was time for some 'last turn' specials!

On came the 15e léger,

... into a mêlée,

... driving the 'helmut' heads from the table.

A little further south, their contemporaries proved a bit tougher.

The defenders around Unterlaichling blunted the Bavarian attack!

Perhaps Steve's parting gift of the cavalry poised to charge could tip the scales a bit in the Austrian's favour?

Time for some 'magic'. Two ADCs allocated to provide a C-in-C command of post of honour. Automatic activation of the brigade, recover of a casualty and a charge with glory!

Unfortunately, I had 'wasted' all of my good dice rolls on the infantry. Mitch's famed blue dice came through.
Being a cavalry mêlée, the four to one 'hits' was not completely devastating, resulting in a retreat for the unit in combat. Or should that be for both? We spent some time looking for the answer in the rules and had a long discussion about which made more sense, given the intention of a first round mêlée (or 'combat' as it is termed in the rules) in General d'Armée—which, surprisingly to us all, "... represents the psychological battle in the last stage of the Charge, where one unit would probably break before actual melee."

The rule book for General d'Armée second edition is generally clear and well written (and in a fairly large font size, so the Lardies know the demographic of their current clientele!). Still, improvements are always possible.

Rules for specific aspects are dotted throughout the chapters. There is an index and table of contents, but neither of these is sufficiently detailed to allow one to go to the precise page(s). To check a question such as 'what happens to the support unit(s) in a combat?' required us to check every page indicated in the index and then to go through the rules, chapter by chapter to try to find the answer. Either we missed it or it is not there. Being heavily invested in the rules, John was going to pose the question on the forum.

This long pause and discussion had two effects.

Firstly, I found more typos and grammatical errors. This was pretty frustrating and disappointing, given the length of time that had been taken to check the rules prior to publication (something well advertised by devotees of the system as well as the writers/designers). It's not the first time that I have considered that publishers need to ask an anal proof-reader like me to go through the text! 😀 [I am not meaning to 'blow my own trumpet', although it's good to have (small) skills (hahaha), but I reckon it is reasonable to expect such attention to detail, perhaps minute detail, isn't it?]

Secondly, we decided to call the game at that point (end of Turn 10). That was no matter as the Austrian position was weak to crumbling. More importantly, the intention of the session had been to give the rules a good 'work out' and, hopefully, to bring up so 'tricky' situations for us to work through.

What is more, we had a great time while doing so!

John is firming in his comfort and liking for the rules, so I reckon we'll be having another game at his place in the not too distant. That will be just beaut!

Thanks so much John for the game, for the sensational dinner that you provided us all on Thursday evening and to you and Vanessa for letting me stay chez vous.

A couple of final photos of the field at game's end.

The pressure on the Austrian positions is in clear evidence.

Some details of the game

Rules: General d'Armée second edition

Scenario: largely based on Michael Hopper's "Eagles Over Bavaria"

Figures: 1/72, mixture of Esci/Italeri, Hat and Zvezda, all painted by John (except Mitch's limbers which were Hat Austrian and 3D printed for the French).

Mat: vinyl material painted and flocked by John