New Campaign: The War

[ranstu5417]

Hi all, this is my first attempt with Sails of Glory in making up a campaign. I am developing a campaign that uses a lot of ships, has solo options, and a theme of a war between England and France with Spain and American involvement.

I have attached it to this email. I hope that is the best way to do it.

I have developed and played the first 2 scenario's of this campaign with more to come. When the campaign is all done I envision, at this time, about 6-10 scenario's with the final one being a big map armada battle.

Please check it out and give feedback so I can improve it.

Thanks

Randy

[Hjl]

Im reading it now. It looks exciting.

[Hjl]

I think ill start playing this asap. I will have to edit the ship lists though as i dont have nearly enough 1st rates. Im very happy that it includes a good set of missions for solo play.

[Bligh]

I am certainly going to give this a look over Randy.
Some of us with more ships may wish to expand on your idea, but on the face of it looks very interesting.
Rob.

[ranstu5417]

Yeah, just send me your ideas and thoughts as I look at this as for the community. More heads the better as they say. I'll be posting additional scenario's as I develop them. Eventually, it will be a whole campaign.
:)

[ranstu5417]

Ok, I just played through the first 2 scenario's of the War Campaign. The first scenario I played 3 times, needed to get the rules down a little better. But the report for the first scenario went like this: I played it solo with me only moving the French but attacking as one should for both. The French came in and did accomplish their first broadside option. They were trying a sweeping maneuver from the right to the left. The Aquilon led the charge with the Courageous following up. Big hits on the British as they laid in bay asleep, but the quickly woke up and fired back. The first in the line on the attack against the British was the HMS Meleager with the HMS Defence 2nd in the line of attack. It turned into some fun carnage with a boarding action taking place after a collision between the HMS Defence and the Aquilon. Swooping in and trying to swoop out to line up for another run at the British was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. The HMS Defence took the Aquilon with some good ball shot from the front and then the boarding action finished them off. After a good pounding and a sunk HMS Meleager, the Courageous managed to limp back out to sea to fight another day. Final tally: The HMS Meleager sunk for 69 Victory Points for the French, but the HMS Defence took the Aquilon for 143 Victory Points for the British.

The 2nd Scenario went like this: The 4 British ships came across the map while the French started to line up some attacks. I used the solo rules for movement from the manual for the British which worked very well. Since the objective for the British was to get off the map to the right, these automatic movements were perfect. The French came in from the top and the bottom mid point on the mat, and one ship from the bottom turned sharp right to line up some port shots, while the other ship tried to cross the tee on the on coming British. This seemed to work fine but with only 1 mat things got quite crowded, but two mats would be too much. So I added a house rule that you can't run into friendly ships. You just stop short if a collision is going to happen. No damage as I figure friendly ships would have no reason to collide for damage, so they would do everything to prevent it. Anyway, a monster battle developed and after the first run through with the French, the British had to make the run for the mat edge. I think one should watch their planning on lining up attacks on the British because if they survive the initial battles it can be easy for the British to escape. Final results: HMS Queen Charlotte (lead ship in the line) got sunk, and the HMS Cleopatra (2nd ship in the line) got sunk. Nothing got sunk with the French but the ship of the line for the French came very very close to. I was thinking of going back to finish her off, but that was not the mission, so 2 British ships escaped and earned 100 Victory Points each. After 2 scenarios, the French have 337 Victory Points and the British have 343 Victory Points.

So far the campaign seems fair and a close one so far. Now on to the 3rd scenario.

Randy

[Bligh]

Interesting synopsis of your rules in use Randy.
Seems pretty even so far.
I have always been worried about the collision rules. Seems to me that they are back to front.
Rob.

[ranstu5417]

Yeah I have wrestled with the collision rules too. I think it comes down to whether you want to lean towards a heavy damage ramming influence, ala Greek and Roman battles, or more of a cannon ball boarding influence. I decided on the cannon ball boarding influence as I truly think, even with the pirates, ramming other ships was a stupid thing to do. With the exception of fire ships, which isn't simulated in this game. I like the battles with the cannons and the boarding action as something more akin to reality for that time.

So I use someone's adjusted rules, which is compare burden's of the ships, subtract the difference and that difference is the damage done to the lower burden ship, but as a minimum each ship will get at least 1 damage counter, even if the burdens are the same. I found this works best for my influence.

[Bligh]

Seems a very equitable way of sorting it out Randy.
There is a discussion about this somewhere on here, but simple is good foe me as they keep on saying use the Kiss method.
Rob.

[ranstu5417]

I have moved this Campaign and Battle Reports to the Napoleon section in the files section.