My Version of Scenario Book

Hey Guys,

I still don't have my stuff, so I spent some time today whipping up the start of my own scenario compilation. I enjoy researching and reading about the historical engagements almost as much as playing most of the games I do play. When it comes to Napoleonic naval engagements, many are quite lop sided affairs in terms of ships involved, but I've done some work to ferret out some of the less lopsided ones. The one tricky thing is that we don't necessarily have all the classes available to us just yet to play all these, but once the next wave comes out, we should have pretty close to what we need. I'm also considering making some sheets for these ships, not sure yet.

Most of this is courtesy of Wikipedia, so I didn't create most of the text - just cleaned it up a bit and made it look a bit prettier. Any errors are probably my own, and I still have to go back and proofread them a few more times. I'm also planning to get a high res pick of my mats and ships when the do arrive and probably replace the graphics I have used at this point with better ones. Still a WIP.

Oh, and no copyright infringement is meant by any of this, just doing it for my own personal enjoyment and use (and anyone else who would get some enjoyment from it). The file section seems to be down, so this may not work and I may have to link this to somewhere else.

Attachment 8112

Very nice presentation Ryan, you might get a job at Ares!

Very nice job with great graphics!

Looks good Ryan. It will be interesting to see how this develops :happy;

Ryan, this is great work. You have a lot of talent. :salute:

Nice work on the scenarios Ryan. Scenario starting graphics look great. I'm sure I, and other members will be trying them out.

Thanks guys, appreciate the feedback. I think today I'm going to work on some campaign rules, I think I may start with the Atlantic Campaign of 1806 which is described as "one of the most important and complex naval campaigns of the post-TrafalgarNapoleonic Wars". It's pretty interesting as you've got five British squadrons and six French squadrons all cruising in the Atlantic, with different missions. Some with the charter to chase merchant convoys, other squadrons put to sea specifically to stop some of the other squadrons. The other nice thing is that the sizes of the squadrons aren't overly huge - anywhere from two to eight ships in most cases (a number of the squadrons had a compliment of eight ships) and the ships were all mixed sizes from first rates through to sloops and brigs.

My initial thought is to get an OOB together for each of the squadrons as a historical starting point, then, create an encounter chart (one French, one British) to allow you to take your squadron to sea and have some randomness to things so you never know what sort of engagement you'll get. In reading about the actions, one other aspect I want to include is that just because your squadron has eight ships, you may have a frigate and one SOL out scouting and further from the rest of the fleet when you run into a larger enemy fleet. So there will be some randomness on both sides in terms of the number of ships involved in any such engagement as this feels historically accurate. Lastly, I want to end with a repair chart to determine how well your ships can be repaired (or potentially scuttled and scratched from the roster) and an experience chart as well. I think if I can get all this into a similar format as what I've done thus far, I'll be pretty happy.

In my humble opinion, wave two really needs to come out to have the nice diversity of ships needed to make use of a good campaign system. The addition of a small sloop of war, some heavier frigates, along with ships than can fill the role of first and second rates really will add a lot. Then come the merchantmen hopefully, so by the time that comes around (assuming it's wave three), we'll have just about everything we need to be able to REALLY run what I'd like to think of as a historically based campaign.

Your work is very impressive and it looks like you have a well established level of expertise in graphics and layout design. :thumbsup:

The official manual has one solitaire scenario and folks like myself would certainly like to see more if you're ever so inclined? Keep up the great work!

Where abouts in Wisconsin are you Jim? I know there's a few people up there, and Eric has told me that theres a "somewhat" regular meeting of folks that play Ares games in the northern Illinois area. If I could get a group of people together for a once a month type game somewhere in northern Illinois/souther Wisconsin, I'd be up for running a campaign for a bunch of players and allow us to throw down some bigger battles.

Ryan, if you tell me which battles you're focusing on I'll try to expedite them in my "Historical Orders of Battle" series of threads.

The Atlantic Campaign of 1806 culminated in the Battle of San Domingo, which was the last true fleet action of the Napoleonic wars. Here's the OOB I have for that one:

Vice-Admiral Duckworth's squadron
Duckworth's division
Ship	Rate	Guns	Commander	Casualties			Notes
Killed	Wounded	Total
HMS Superb	Third rate	74	Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth Captain Richard Goodwin Keats	6	56	62	Lightly damaged
HMS Northumberland	Third rate	74	Rear-Admiral Alexander Cochrane Captain John Morrison	21	79	100	Mainmast collapsed and hull, rigging and remaining masts badly damaged
HMS Spencer	Third rate	74	Captain Robert Stopford	18	50	68	Severe damage to hull, but masts and rigging largely intact
HMS Agamemnon	Third rate	64	Captain Sir Edward Berry	1	13	14
Louis' division
HMS Canopus	Third rate	80	Rear-Admiral Thomas Louis Captain Francis Austen	8	22	30	Lightly damaged
HMS Donegal	Third rate	74	Captain Pulteney Malcolm	12	33	45	Foreyard shot away, otherwise lightly damaged
HMS Atlas	Third rate	74	Captain Samuel Pym	8	11	19	Bowspirit lost in collision with Canopus and tiller damaged by shot. Otherwise lightly damaged
Minor warships
HMS Acasta	Fifth rate	40	Captain Richard Dalling Dunn	0	0	0	Not engaged in the battle
HMS Magicienne	Fifth rate	32	Captain Adam Mackenzie	0	0	0	Not engaged in the battle
HMS Kingfisher	Brig	16	Commander Nathaniel Day Cochrane	0	0	0	Not engaged, sent to Britain with despatches after the battle
HMS Epervier	Brig	14	Lieutenant James Higginson	0	0	0	Not engaged in the battle
Total casualties: 74 killed, 264 wounded, 338 total

And for the battles looser (I mean the French)....

Contre-Admiral Leissègues' squadron
Ship	Rate	Guns	Commander	Casualties	Notes
Alexandre	Third rate	80	Captain Pierre-Elie Garreau	~300	Captured in a dismasted and sinking state with surviving crew. Repaired, but unfit for continued service and later broken up
Impérial	First rate	120	Vice-Admiral Corentin Urbain Leissegues Captain Julien-Gabriel Bigot	~500	Driven ashore and wrecked, subsequently burnt by a British boarding party on 8 February. Six men taken prisoner
Diomède	Third rate	74	Captain Jean-Baptiste Henry	~250	Driven ashore and wrecked, subsequently burnt by a British boarding party on 8 February. 150 men taken prisoner
Jupiter	Third rate	74	Captain Gaspard Laignel	~200	Captured with surviving crew. Later commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Maida
Brave	Third rate	74	Commodore Louis-Marie Coudé	~260	Captured with surviving crew. Foundered during journey back to Europe
Minor warships
Comète	Fifth rate	40		0	Not engaged in the battle, returned to France
Félicité	Fifth rate	40		0	Not engaged in the battle, returned to France
Diligente	Corvette	20	Captain Raymond Cocault	0	Not engaged in the battle, returned to France
Total casualties: 1,510

I haven't cross referenced it against my library of books yet, but will have to do that.

Otherwise, there were a few battles (mostly skirmishes) during the campaign - the next largest I could find was the Action of 25 September 1806, which had six British SOLs (really only three involved in the action) against about a half dozen French frigates. Wikipedia has an OOB, again, haven't been able to validate. Other than that, I need to do some digging on some of the smaller skirmishes.

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Originally Posted by The Mad Hatter

Where abouts in Wisconsin are you Jim? I know there's a few people up there, and Eric has told me that theres a "somewhat" regular meeting of folks that play Ares games in the northern Illinois area. If I could get a group of people together for a once a month type game somewhere in northern Illinois/souther Wisconsin, I'd be up for running a campaign for a bunch of players and allow us to throw down some bigger battles.

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Ryan, I'm up in Madison. I've not been able to make a scramble down in Loves Park, IL, which is the event Eric is probably talking about? I'd certainly be interested in attending a SoG campaign session. It would be great to play the game rather than just read other AAR's. Driving to Rockford would be pretty easy from Madison too. Thanks for the reply!

I threw a document into the Campaign Discussion section that is the beginnings of my 1806 Atlantic campaign. Hopefully I can make some additional progress on it this week.

Ryan, I really like the scenario setups and special rules, especially given the historical background that is provided. These will be most helpful. You set up the visuals and aesthetics quite nicely. Excellent and exciting work. :hatsoff:

You mentioned copyright infringement here and on another thread. One suggestion would be to include a footnote giving credit to where the text originated, especially since these will be publicly available.

I'm reading over these now, they look great at a glance! I would suggest that you make the background image much lighter so that they are easier to read though.

And I thought it was my eyes going bad.

Eric, thanks for that note, I may give that a try!

I just don't want people to think I'm taking credit for things that aren't of my own creation. I'm sure many people worked hard to compile that info, so want to give credit where credit is due so to speak (I'm not really that paranoid about someone suing me over something like this).

Hajj - I can do that. One thing I've done in the past is put a "bounding box" around the text that is very light and a single color - thereby making the text easier to read. On this one, I thought maybe something more parchment looking would create a greater effect.

Just finished reading them. Great stuff! another suggestion I have is to add an arrow to your compass rose showing the direction of the wind. You have it listed in the notes, but a yellow arrow pointing in the direction it is blowing (to) would be very helpful for quick reference. Also, a list of Ares minis that could be used would be helpful as well.

I would also suggest we think about breaking these (and future) scenarios down to only one per fire, classifying them as SoL or frigate (or both) engagements, and by number of ships involved. If we go this far now, a system could be setup in the Files section to place each scenario so that a year or so from now, it would be easy for a player to find the right scenario to play given his/her needs.

Great work Ryan - Thanks!

:thumbsup:

Eric

Wow, that looks professional. Ares needs to hire you for your content! Now I wish I had ordered more ships, although sixteen ships is still a lot. Thanks for you effort to providing us with more scenarios.:medal:

This is great looking document. I can't wait to see more!

How come I haven't seen it before?

It's great!

Very nice piece of work :thumbsup:, it is encouraging to see the amount of work and enthusiasm that the community is putting into this game. I think that it will all contribute to the success of SoG and give the game a long term future.

So, let's see... existing sculpts bolded.

Ocean 120 (Wave 2 SGN106)
-French: Imperial

Tonnant/Bucentaure 80 (unsculpted)
-British: Canopus
-French: Alexandre

Temeraire 74s (Wave 1 SGN102)
-British: Northumberland, Donegal, Superb
-French: Diomede, Jupiter, Brave

British one-off 74's (all unsculpted): HMS Spencer, HMS Atlas (razee from 1777 Duke 90)

Ardent 64 (unsculpted): HMS Agamemnon

one-off HMS Acasta 40 (unsculpted)
1794 Romaine 40 (unsculpted): Comete

ex-FR 1778 Magicienne 32 (likely to be reprint of SGN101 Concorde sculpt): HMS Magicienne
Felicite 32 (unsculpted, not sure if Concorde is close enough): Felicite

Diligente 20 corvette (unsculpted): Diligente
Merlin 18 ship-sloop: HMS Kingfisher
ex-FR Alcyon 16 brig: HMS Epervier

So, we need a Tonnant or Bucentaure sculpt (same basic design, just Bucentaure has some improvements), the nasty one-offs Spencer, razeed Atlas and Acasta, an Ardent 64, a Romaine 40, a Diligente 20, a Merlin 18 ship-sloop (slightly bigger than the Wave 2 Swans, which were built as 14's and soon uprated to 16's), and an Alcyon 16 gun-brig.

Excellent stuff Ryan thanks for this. Barrel of Rum for you old boy.

Well done, that man. Magnificent:)

Most Excellent work Ryan, keep it coming!! :hatsoff:

Just great :medal: Now please something to play solo :salute:

Hi Christophe,

Wellcome to the forum, maybe you should head over to the solo campaign. I'm relativly sure you could still join if you drop Eric a PM. If not, you could still play the scenario and have fun with it.

mmmhhh... just reminds me that I still have to play.

You are more than welcome to join, Christophe.

Ok I will try but I can have problems with write my feelings in English to ARR :wink:

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Originally Posted by C.F. de Galarza

Ok I will try but I can have problems with write my feelings in English to ARR :wink:

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We're more happy that you will join us an enjoy playing, but if you ever want to, feel free to PM one of us with English questions. We'll be happy to help in any way we can.

Make a roster of 8 officers, let me know what navy you want to sail for, and PM me with an email address. I will add you to the roster and send you an invite.

French fleet of course :swordright: I will send PM to You with my roster of 8 officers to next friday

The French are taking the lead as far as players. It must be popular to remain in port. :takecover:

Better to fly the Skull & Bones... MUCH more Target Rich Environment.

Now, back to figuring out how to take an SOL with a smaller ship... *cackle*

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 7eat51

The French are taking the lead as far as players. It must be popular to remain in port. :takecover:

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Think Eric said something just couldn't make it out, must have been the accent :shock:

Hiding in port keeps your pretty ships from getting messed up :happy:

Yeah. We are hiding in ports to comfort your women :singin: