A Battle of Titans
I've been way too busy with work to be posting (or reading) much recently, but in the odd half-hour here and there my son and I managed to play out a big SOL battle. It was a hoot! All told it probably took about 4 hours. Again I say--with basic rules you can play some serious battles!
Setup: The British are at the top. They have: HMS Defense, HMS Bellerophon, HMS Royal George, HMS Spartiate and HMS Britannia.
French are below. They have: Aquilon, Le Swiftsure, Fougueux, Austerlitz, Redoubtable and Dougay-Trouin
The wind is blowing from British to French.
Turn 1: The British aim to break the French line. They begin to turn in, trading partial broadsides vs. full for the French, at long range
Turn 2: The British are coming straight in now
Turn 3: The British switch back to a more oblique line, to avoid getting raked. There is another uneven exchange of gunfire, this time at B range. Arguably the British should have held his fire for when they break the line, but then in SGN it's usually better to shoot when you can...
Turn 4: The British break through, hitting the gaps between the French ships perfectly. This gives the British an unanswered shot, but they can't get the raking angles to make it a devastating one.
Turn 5: The British ships turn back to port, in order to form battle line again, now downwind of the French and blocking their escape.
In response to the aggressive British tactics, the French battleline starts maneuvering. The rear ships turn slightly to port to avoid collisions, and the front ships start a sharp wearing maneuver to starboard to get back into the fight.
Turn 6: Now the two lines are again parallel, British now to the right/bottom. The French van continues to wear, which gives them nice firing angles on the lead British ship. At this point the leading British ships, HMS Defense and HMS Bellerophon, and the trailing two French ships, Redoubtable and Dougay-Trouin, all surrender.
Turn 7: The French line continues to wear, moving around the disabled British ship (toward the right side). The remaining three British ships (at the bottom, toward the left) are in line moving to engage. The French first-rate (at the top of that middle column of three ships) is very low on crew, and hopes to escape up-board.
Turn 8: We shifted all the ships a ruler upwind, to give us more maneuver room.
Both fleets are still proceeding as before, except HMS Spartiate, has turned upwind. It looks like it is going to hit the disabled HMS Bellerophon...
Turn 9: HMS Spartiate turns a nifty tacking maneuver, avoids a collision, and lines up a beautiful long range stern-rake against Austerlitz. The French flagship strikes as a result of crew losses! Now both fleets have three ships.
The only problem was it threw the British line into disarray. The French ace in the hole is the still undamaged Aquilon, which now engages HMS Royal George. Aquilon is followed by Le Swiftsure and Fougeux, which are still wearing. Trailing far behind Royal George is HMS Britannia.
Turn 10: The picture angle is shifted slightly. HMS Spartiate is at the top left, out of battle for the moment. Aquilon and Le Swiftsure (middle, sailing right to left), followed by Fougueux now trade fire with HMS Royal George (bottom, sailing left to right) followed by HMS Britannia.
Turn 11: HMS Britannia and Aquilon collide, while exchanging partial broadsides. The trailing French ship, Fougueux gets a shot at HMS Royal George.
Turn 12: HMS Spartiate finally gets back into the battle, trading long-range fire with Le Swiftsure. Le Swiftsure also fires at HMS Britannia on the port broadside. Meanwhile HMS Royal George hits Fougueux, which had taken a lot of damage in the first British pass, and is now becoming critical.
Turn 13: Now it is Fougueux's turn to fire off both broadsides, against HMS Britannia and HMS Spartiate; but she takes a wicked shot from Britannia in return. Britannia is also tottering, in part thanks to some long range hits from Aquilon.
Turn 14: A final partial broadside from HMS Spartiate is enough to kill Fougeuex. The French are now down to two ships. But Spatiate takes some more damage from Le Swiftsure, and as the French ships again begin to wear, they are looking pretty spry compared to HMS Britannia, HMS Royal George and HMS Spartiate.
At this point we believe the French would probably win, due to fresher ships. But it is very close and could go either way. We decide to call a truce, declare a draw, and allow both ships to tow away their fallen comrades...
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Originally Posted by Kentop
yes. I was playing the French. We didn't do any "poor training" handicaps, but I did feel I should at least wear my "tentative French admiral" hat. When given the offer of a draw I felt in character I really should accept it 
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