Originally Posted by
Vagabond
The essence of the game will be that Captain Jack Snapcase operating out of the British base of Mahon in Menorca has been given a 30 day cruise between the area of Barcelona and Gibraltar, his orders are to disrupt enemy shipping, either capturing or sinking enemy merchantmen. Le Compte d’Emfour will be commanding a French Frigate or something larger and will be charged with defending the same area, maybe with 1, 2 or 3 ships under his command. Suggestions welcome for the number and reasons. I'm not after a straight fight, basically if the French find the British ship I want it to run away if it can but if caught and has to fight I want it to have some chance of success.
I am working on a system of devising how many ships you are up against for my Solo Missions this year. My idea was dice base but could also have an effect on your getting support from your own side as well. Maybe not appropriate if your Captain Snapchase is working alone, but you can have a look see what I'm doing when I post later this week.
This will happen in real time i.e. 1 day equals 1 day, I shall look at the weather forecast for the current day and this will be the weather in the campaign for that day, giving the wind speed and direction for the area that the ships are.
The things I need to determine are
Cruising sailing speed - Relative to the Wind Speed and Direction and Relative to the Type and Size of the Vessel.
Probably something for Dobbs or Texas to answer.
Encounter Table - things like - Fishing vessels, small, medium and large Merchant Ships, Men of War – French or British (I don’t have any Spanish ships) Pirate/Privateer, Moorish Galley (unlikely as I don’t have any) Anything else? Did they use convoys in the Med? I shall use Dobbs Sail Ho cards to determine if a ship is sighted, I will doctor the deck depending on the likelyhood of meeting another ship.
The British certainly did, but the size and strength of the escort was a very movable feast.
Line of sight – Distance to actually see - Mast to mast, mast to hull.
- Distance to recognize – Ship size, Nationality of ship build, Are they flying a flag as a Ruse de Guerre and if so what distance is this determined.
Moot point. Some were practically muzzle to muzzle before they raised their true colours, but were I a British Captain I would have a few up my own sleeve if they were that close and maybe cut their bow or stern as they came up depending on weather gauge and the approach angle. Always a good ploy to suddenly do the unexpected if you suspect a trap. It can fluster an opponent, and you may even avoid a double shotted side and just exchange your ready prepared double shotted side for their single shotted one. From my reading it seemed as if most signals Officers, if they had a good Dolland Glass, and the wind was in a suitable direction. ie. not streaming the signal away from the reader, would be readable as soon as the ships were hull up.
Taking into account Robs thoughts on making your number and getting the correct response. However I know there were a number of Court Martial’s for Captains who fired on friendly ships because they thought they might not be friendly. The interesting thing was that very often they were acquitted because a proper sailor could interpret a ships intentions by the way it was sailed and how it was manoeuvring so if the other Captain was unsure of your ship he would be looking to fire the first broadside which would be considered aggressive.
Some sailors could judge a national ship by the rake angle of its masts and the set of its sails. Also the way that they were pieced together from the bolt of cloth. the French seemed to have a distinctly different method to ours. Of course the ship you are viewing could be a prize! Tough one that Cap'n.
Gradual Reduction of crew - due to sending off Prize crews, should I take 1 crew chit or maybe ½ a crew chit to sail each prize?
Depends on prize. Privateer large crews, need one chit hands, and one Marines to quell them and prevent them retaking the ship later if you are sending it home. If accompanying your warship maybe fewer men needed, unless you anticipate a storm! You may be separated. My rule of thumb is small ships one chit for ease of reckoning on your part. I always count one boat model = I chit of men. In a larger action there was often no time to secure prizes until after the battle. A lot then depended on the honour of the surrendering Officer. As we know from History some were more honourable than others.
Land Actions – I have in mind to make the English ship set off low on water and need to re-water after maybe 20 days, this will entail landing in an isolated cove with a stream. The cove will be semi fortified, probably a small tower with a single gun (1 damage counter) and very small garrison (1crew chit?)
- Some of the merchant ships will run away and seek shelter under the guns of any fortification's and I envisage the English player landing a force to cut out or burn these ships. I need to read up on land action rules.
One interesting action coming up this week. Captain Kiwi's cutting out escapade. A night action with consequence cards, and moored ship state of readiness chits. For instance are most of the crew in the local Bordello or drunk in their hammocks. How good is the anchor watch? etc. Night actions give you plenty of scope to get up close and personal before losing too many of you men. if the enemy are alert, just treat as a normal boarding action, but with you getting that first chit advantage if they are surprised.
Chase Rules - Once an encounter has happened at sea I shall use Dobbs chase rules to determine if the chase ship catches the chased ship. There will come a point when the chase discovers what they are chasing and may decide they made a mistake and run away and the roles will be reversed.
Victory Conditions – Value of Prizes minus mistakes (capture of neutrals etc) minus damage or sinking to the British ship. (To be valued)
Neil did a very comprehensive set of rules for this in our Solo campaign some years ago. Have a look at it.
OK they are my limited thought, please bare in mind I want to keep it simple and of a limited time period, my plan is the 30 day cruise and at the end of a month the British Captain has to be back in Mahon, if he can. So is there anything I’ve missed and should include, if you can hang any flesh on the bare bones of my thoughts I should be very grateful.
My next stage is to detail specific rules to cover this unless someone comes up with an existing rule set in the mean time.
Thanks for any input you may have.
Cheers
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