AAR - March Nation v Nation. After the storm

[Hjl]

Royal Navy

HMS Brittania - Adm Hugh Gabriel
HMS Vanguard - Captain Henry Watson

French Navy

Montange 1st rate SOL
Generaux 3rd rate SOL
Courageus 5th rate Frigate


The french fleet have weathered a storm on the way to safe harbor. British spies have informed the fleet that they are damaged and that there is an opportunity to strike a blow at them before they reach safety.
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The French sight the British as they come around the cape. The wind is against the French fleet and so its going to be hard to get into the harbor. The Generaux captain decides to engage the British to give the others a chance to get home safely.
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The British ships approach the harbor mouth whilst staying out of range of the forts guns. Their plan is to anchor upwind of the French and rake them as they come around the island.
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The Britannia strikes its sails and drops anchor. The gun crews prepare themselves as the French move around the rock.
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The Britannia opens fire on the Montange. The Generaux catches the HMS Vanguard with a solid hit doing significant damage.
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The Britannia's gun crews hurry to load, double shot this time. The Vanguard retaliates with a broadside of its own on the Generaux. The damage is high but the Generaux is still in the fight.
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The Generaux returns fire on the Vanguard ripping the sails, bringing down a mast and setting her on fire.

The Montagne and the Courageus send boats out to try to tow the French ships through the oncoming wind.



The Britannia opens fire with a devastating double shot at point blank range. The Montange is heavily damage but limps on, determined to draw the fire away from the other ships.
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The damage so far
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The Montange fires on the Britannia. She has taken too much damage though and cannot bring enough guns to bear to hurt the British first rate too seriously.
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The Montange rounds the harbor wall but the Britannia opens fire once again, the damage is crippling.
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The Montange returns fire one last time, hoping to put off the Britannia enough to slip into the harbor. The Generaux simultaneously exchanges fire with the Britannia and comes off by far the worse with the 1st rate.


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The Britannia fires once again on the Montagne, this time the French ship strikes its colors. It is simply too damaged to continue. The Frigate slips behind the Montage, using it to shield itself from the British ships.

The Britannia adds sails to pull away so as not to be caught by the Generaux and moves away from the harbor mouth.

In so doing, the 2 remaining French ships slip into the harbor to safety.


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The damage





As you can see the French ships too a beating but two of them escaped to safety. The Britannia was almost undamaged and the Vanguard took some serious hits.

Another broadside on the Generaux from the Britannia might have been enough to stop it.

I think this might have gone differently if i had had the wind facing the opposite direction. I had to invent some rules for heading into the wind with a ship in a channel. I decided that a straight 5 with one sail was reasonable to act as a boat towing the ship. instead of front of the ship to the back of the ship for the move, i did front to front. Perhaps this was unfair on the French ships, but it was that or plow into an island and sink!

[Bligh]

A plucky action Captain Hugh.

To divide your force in the face of a superior enemy and still take a prize is good.
To be the first player to attempt the scenario is brave.
To give me an overview of how my scenario works or falls is invaluable.
To the victor the spoils.

Bligh.

[Hjl]

Thank you for the kind words! I must admit that I would like to repeat this at a later date. It was a lesson in how to manage more than one ship. I think 5 at once with the advanced rules would be more than my mind could take!

[Bligh]

Spot on Hugh.
It was the end of the first year's AARs before I tried the advanced rules with more than two ships.
Perfect one thing at a time, before you expand it.
Rob.

[KDz]

Grat battle
My next purchace will be Montagne, I thing. This ship looks superb.

[Hjl]

Its a beauty isnt it! I almost feel bad blowing holes in it.... almost!

Ps, I've always been quite taken with the HMS Britannia myself.

[Union Jack]

Well done Hugh. As soon as I'm back from Triples I'll get to to putting the results on the spreadsheet.

[Tordenskjold]

Well done Captain. That's a big Fleet to control with advanced rules, and your overview works just fine
Morten

[KDz]

Hugh, I admire maneuvering by the cliff, narrowly there

[Hjl]

I must admit I fudged some of the moves there to prevent the frenchies sinking themselves. More of a challenge.

[Bligh]

Grat battle
My next purchace will be Montagne, I thing. This ship looks superb.

Tried to get one today at Triples.
No trader was selling Ares ships.
Rob.

[Capn Duff]

Nice AAR, I hope to get this one done over Easter, three shows in 3 weekends has made this one slip for me

[Hjl]

One thing that i have noticed over a few games now is that the Montagne is significantly more powerful than the Britannia. I did a game today of 4v4 and found that the Ocean class French ships can take a lot more damage before losing their bite. I recommend getting one definitely. They make great games trying to hunt them down.

[Tordenskjold]

...I absolutely love this game. New challenges, new strategies, the experience creeps under the skin of any sailing enthusiasts captain
Morten

[Torrence]

Well done, you fought quite brave!

[Hjl]

Hugh Gabriel in the Britannia captured the montage.
Other two ships escaped.

[Comte de Brueys]

Nice battle and you caught the biggest fish, Hugh.

[Union Jack]

Still to catch up me thinks with the spreadsheet details.

[spiessbuerger]

I wondered how some of you can sail the ships more than one card against the wind within the channel.

I must admit I fudged some of the moves there to prevent the frenchies sinking themselves. More of a challenge.

But this seemed to be the answer.

[Hjl]

I wondered how some of you can sail the ships more than one card against the wind within the channel.



But this seemed to be the answer.

haha, exactly. I found out pretty quick that the French were just going to sink themselves if i didnt intervene. Where is the fun in fighting an enemy that destroys itself!

[Bligh]

It is always useful to use the I in AI unless it is an inevitability that they go aground or collide through circumstances like the ship in front hits another enemy ship and they entangle so your AI plays a genuine card and hits them anyway. That sort of thing. With AI only putting one card at a time down it should be pretty easy to avoid most incidents of this nature if you leave enough distance between the following ships.
Rob.

[spiessbuerger]

It is always useful to use the I in AI unless it is an inevitability that they go aground or collide through circumstances like the ship in front hits another enemy ship and they entangle so your AI plays a genuine card and hits them anyway. That sort of thing. With AI only putting one card at a time down it should be pretty easy to avoid most incidents of this nature if you leave enough distance between the following ships.
Rob.

Using the I in AI is one thing but sailing against the wind is another! For first I agree but second...? Hmmm
However. To have fun with the game is the most important. And if it needs some more or less fudge. Everyone decides for himself...

[Union Jack]

HMS Brittania - Adm Hugh Gabriel
REP+2: PRIZE +1
HMS Brittania: repairs 1 hull damage. Left -2 hull/-3 crew
HMS Vanguard - Captain Henry Watson
REP +1:PRIZE 0
HMS Vanguard: repairs 1 hull damage. Left -5 hull/-3 crew

HMS Defence repairs 1 hull and recruits 1 crew. (left in port)

[Bligh]

Using the I in AI is one thing but sailing against the wind is another! For first I agree but second...? Hmmm
However. To have fun with the game is the most important. And if it needs some more or less fudge. Everyone decides for himself...

I never actually activly suggested sailing against the wind Matt. I was talking about circumstances that you could probably forsee and avoid if you were not AI which they could not without a little help, For instance if you were captain you may have turned left to avoid a collision but the AI chart says turn right because the nearest ship is thee one directing your move and not the one you are going to hit.
I'm sorry if I was not clear enough in my attempt to explain shipmate.
Rob.

[Hjl]

It's all fine. We are after all playing a game against our selves here. If we bend a rule here or there to make things more exciting then it effects no body but ourselves. No harm, no foul.

[Bligh]

It's all fine. We are after all playing a game against our selves here. If we bend a rule here or there to make things more exciting then it effects no body but ourselves. No harm, no foul.

Good point Hugh.
The Dispatches we produce after each encounter often reflect a slant on the action anyway.
As long as the public enjoy their read as much as we enjoy playing the scenario, i suppose it is all fine and dandy.
Rob.

[Union Jack]

It's a work in process and as more play we can adjust/tweak the rules until we have it just about right.

[Bligh]

Great Neil, you tweak the rules, whilst I tweak the French by the nose.
Bligh.

[TexaS]

Grat battle
My next purchace will be Montagne, I thing. This ship looks superb.

But HMS Superb looked nothing like Montagne.

[Bligh]

But HMS Superb looked nothing like Montagne.

!Shame really Jonas, because I can't get a Montagne anywhere.
Rob.

[TexaS]

Well, mine is still dismasted.

http://sailsofglory.org/showthread.p...-Determination

[Bligh]

I'd settle for one without the masts.
Rob.

[Bligh]

Just checked out all my suppliers, and then low and behold our own Anchorage Store.
Keith has them in stock, so I ordered two.
Just a few Frigates not doubled ,and the Kickstarter doubles missing now.

Rob.

[TexaS]

I guess I'm less of a collector.

I only get what I could use for games even though I may have illusions of grandeur regarding what battles I'm aiming for...

[Bligh]

I did not know that I was a collector until IO started noticing the ships starting to disappear from the suppliers Jonas.
Then I started to think that I might need them for a show sometime or other, and that was it.
Rob.

[Hjl]

My plan was to have 1 ship of each rate for French and British. Then i decided 3 of each rate was what i really needed.... I think ill probably focus on making loads of terrain. Its cheaper :p

[Bligh]

I started with the notion of a small sized balanced Squadron sort of Commodore size. Say one First rate, three 74s, a couple of Frigates and a Sloop for each side. I would never be able to play more than that against my friends. Then the Spanish were released, so I did three 74s a couple of Frigates, and am still waiting for my First rate and Sloop. Then the Americans came along and the specials. A few people got me extra ships as Christmas/ b day presents. Before long I realized that I had nearly every model. so may as well get one of each released. Then repaints also crept in so I started buying duplicates. Well why not get one of each side of the card then. I am still four Frigates and Atlanta from reaching that extended goal.
Rob.