USS Constitution Versus HMS Guerriere (HMS Sybille)
Guerriere V Constitution or David V Goliath
I’ve just played out the fight between these 2 ships and gave Guerriere the handicap of having me as the Captain versus Constitution using Dobbs A.I. system. It’s the first time I’ve used his system and I had some teething troubles understanding bits of it but eventually I think I got it sorted and from that point on the game went quickly and you will see how well the two Captains did.
I’m going to go into a dry, detailed, description of the game to show how I used the AI and how the fight went, don’t worry it was only 5 moves long so the AAR is quite short.
I used the 1812 stats for Constitution so the best from the American point of view.
TURN 1
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...4&d=1587739061
Guerriere is on the right and Constitution on the left, I got confused with the wording in the AI instructions but the move that I thought was suggested seemed reasonable, which was a gentle turn towards the Guerriere. My intention was to out sail Constitution and get upwind of her, ideally crossing her bow and getting a raking shot. I was playing 2 cards for the Guerriere and creating a new one each move for the Constitution.
The AI instructions are in 4 parts, two that give you the chart to use and two to determine the results on that chart.
1) Determine what tack is the solo play ship on, which side is the wind coming from, wind coming over the starboard side so a starboard tack.
2) Determine whether the solo ship is in the red, yellow, or green arc. This is what confused me most because it didn’t say relative to what! Is it the enemy ship relative to the solo ship or the solo ship to the enemy ship. At this point they were both in the yellow arc relative to each other so Yellow.
This gives the table to use.
I am now fairly certain that the arc referred to, is the arc that the wind comes from relative to the solo ship. I.E. Yellow – is Astern or Port and Starboard beam forward of amidships. Green is Port and Starboard Quarter and Red over the Bows. Dobbs please could you confirm I got this right in the end.
3) Using the Bearing Template, determine in which arc the closest player ship is relative to the solo play ship. I didn’t have the Bearing Template – Humm There is a diagram that shows an 8 sided hexagon and from that and the results tables I deduced that Ahead is 45’ to Port and 45’ to Starboard of the bow, ie 315’ through to 45’ Port Beam 45’ through to 135’, astern 135’ through 225’ and Starboard Beam 225’ through 315’. So the Guerriere is on the Starboard Beam. I’ve just this minute found the Bearing Template and I was slightly out in my assumption but very little, the template makes it obvious.
4) Determine which direction the closest player ship is moving relative to the solo play ship. There is a diagram and this was fairly straight forward to understand. There are 4 choices, Parallel, Port, Starboard, Reciprocal. Guerriere is moving to Port. I used the wind gauge as a compass to determine angles but that’s hardly necessary.
TURN 2
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...5&d=1587739081
This is when I realised I was wrong about the second step because I had one ship in the red arc from the other and nothing made any sense on the tables but as soon as I used the colour denoted by the wind over the ship it all fell into place. I changed the wind gauge for a home made protractor.
Constitution on the Starboard Tack, wind in the green arc so use Green Table page 1 Guerriere is now Ahead of Constitution and heading to Port. I rolled a 1 minus 4 because they are over long range = -3 Result = card 5-S. After moving they are in range but the AI rule says Constitution will only fire a full broadside as her first salvo, unless fired upon, in which case she will return fire. I am still hoping for a raking shot and so hold my fire.
TURN 3
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...6&d=1587739091
Constitution on the Starboard Tack, wind in the green arc so use Green Chart page 1 Guerriere is still Ahead of Constitution and still heading to Port. I rolled a 6 Result = 5-S. (a 5 or 6 gives this result, 1 to 4 would be a turn to Starboard)
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...7&d=1587739103
I fire my broadside but unfortunately don’t get the raking shot I was hoping for, if I’d continued in a straight line on my previous move I would have got it, :takecover:. Constitution returns fire from her Starboard Bow Battery. We both fired at 4 + 2 for 1st broadside. Guerriere is devastated.
For some reason at this stage I had expected Constitution to turn to port and the card I had already put down to play next was a hard turn to Port for Guerriere to catch Constitution with my starboard battery and take no return fire. You can see I have a lot to learn.
GUERRIERE
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...8&d=1587739111
CONSTITUTION
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...9&d=1587739121
TURN 4
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...0&d=1587739134
Note this is after the move, I missed a photo.
Constitution was still on the Starboard Tack, wind in the green arc so use Green Chart page 1. Guerriere was still Ahead of Constitution and still heading to Port. I rolled a 5 Result = 0 (This was a mistake, I read from the wrong line on the table it should have been a 5-S again not 0 and I should have added +4 for close range which would have given = 9 which would have been a hard turn to starboard.
As it was my result of 0 is a hard turn to port, Dobbs has a very sensible proviso in the rules that if an AI ships move would result in a collision chose the nearest card that will not result in a collision, in this case it was straight on which meant Constitution could fire her port stern battery, which was at 3 +1 for 1st broadside. I lost out on the musketry as well.
GUERRIERE
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...1&d=1587739145
I’m taking a right beating, and just keeping pace with the inflow of water through the hole in the hull.
CONSTITUTION
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...2&d=1587739157
All I can hope is Constitution burns to the waterline but the crew are fighting the fire.
TURN 5
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...3&d=1587739166
Again the picture is after the move, so you need to imagine where we were prior to this for the move resolution to make sense.
Constitution was still on the Starboard Tack, wind still in the green arc so use Green Chart page 1. Guerriere was now Astern of Constitution and on a reciprocal course (moving away). I rolled a 5, Result = 10 this was a hard turn to starboard. This allowed the Constitution to fire her recently loaded Starboard Quarter battery, causing more damage but fortunately nothing too serious.
A roll of 1,2 or 3 would have been hard to port and 4,5,or 6 hard to starboard, either would have been a good move except I don’t understand how Dobbs knew in advance that his port battery had just fired and was reloading but his starboard battery was ready to go. A very cunning move for an AI system.:wink:
GUERRIERE
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...4&d=1587739179
I realized this is a fight I’m not going to win and so set all sails and head for the sunset. The hole in my ship is just about to be plugged. I was lucky not to lose a mast as happened in the real fight or I would have been in as much trouble as Captain Dacres was.
CONSTITUTION
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...5&d=1587739188
The fire has been extinguished although it’s done more damage to her than my guns have.
She has also set all sails and I did consider using Dobbs chase rules to see if Constitution would catch Guerriere but decided I didn’t want to take a further beating.
It’s difficult to tell after just one use and with my limited experience with these ships but it all seemed pretty good to me and I’ll definitely be using these AI rules again.
Cheers :beer::salute:
