Anglo Duch Wars AAR pt 3

Situation after firing on T7.  Smoke puffs on the engaged side indicate ships that fired this turn.  Puffs on the unengaged side indicate unloaded guns from prior turns.

In turn 8, the iniative order became key due to the Fire as She Bears (FASB) rule.  The Dutch won the toss and the order of movement was as follows.

1. The Dutch move their Flagship Zeven Provincien first.  She attempted a FASB on the English tail ender Ruby before movement.  This required a successful reload roll and then -2 penalty kn her dice, ut it was the only way she could fire before the English swept past her.    She reloads and hits Ruby 4 times, causing a crew catastrophic hit.  Zeven Provincien then moves her full distance forward.  Ruby reloads and FASB before ZP moves out of arc, scoring 1 hit.
2. The English move their flagship Royal Charles next,  attempting a FASB on the Dutch tail-ender Noorderkwartier.  However, she fails her reload and moves her full distance without firing.  Noorderkwartier declines the possible FASB on Royal Charles.
3. The Dutch move Speigel next (second in line behind the ZP).  She could FASB but fans her reload.  The English Monck declines the FASB on Speigel.
4. The English move their second Royal Oak.  She reloads and FASB on Geloof before movement, scoring 1 hit hit.  Geloof declines the FASB in return.
5.  The remaining ship follow in line ahead without attempted FASBs.

In regular fire, Geloof reloads and hits Ruby twice.  Ruby is damaged and takes a morale check which she passes.

After firing on T8.  Puffs on engaged side show firing this turn.   Royal Oak has two puffs due to her heavy guns.

Turn 9 firing was on a FASB basis.  Monck failed to reload but Noorderkwartier hit Monck once.  Ruby hit Geloof twice but took one it in return.  In the morale phases, Ruby got a "must retire" result.

On the 10th turn the fleets swept past each other without FASB and the English admiral takes stock.  With his flagship worn and firing half dice and Ruby having to retire, he opts to retire with his squadron into safer waters.  The Dutch have taken less damage but let them retire rather than risk uncharted shoals.  This also made a convenient point to call it a day and figure where I'd messed up the rules.

Historically, typically the fleets came about and made another pass of one another.  The course reversals were made from the front and took a long time.  During the interval damaged ships attempted repairs, dropped out of line and/or retired home depending on the level of damage and the will of the captain and crew.  Seamanship was generally very high on both sides but it takes a while to get a line of 30 plus ships to reverse course.  James acheived the rare feat of a course reversal from the rear at Lowestoft which was quicker but took a high level of coordination and command control.  

Anglo-Dutch Wars AAR pt2

The situation after 5 turns.  Dutch have won the race for the weather advantage and are upwind of the English.  Both fleets have turned to a broad reach to bring full broadsides, but no fire yet.

Turn 6 before firing.  Royal Charles and Speigel exchange fire, as do Royal Oak and Seven Provinicien.  Geloof delays her turns to fire at Royal Charles but the other ships have no target in arc.

Royal Oak and Zeven Provincien each scored multiple hits with the Dutch Flagship taking the worst damage due to the heavy English Guns.  The combined fore of two dutch ships reduced the Royal Charles to worn and scored a catestrophic hit (they scored a total of 10 hits on 13 dice!), reducing her firepower by 1/2.  Royal Charles hurt Speigel in return but not enough to reduce her to worn.

Turn 7 after movement and reloading but before firing.

Cotton puffs on the unengaged side show unloaded guns.  Royal Charles and Royal Oak have heavy guns so take at least two turns to reload.  Speigel and Geloof failed to reload, but the Dutch flagship was successful.

Turn 7 firing shown with cotton puffs on the engaged side.  Note how Geloof is out of line due to the delayed turn.  All fire is between 2-4" so at close range.

Zeven Provincien and Ruby traded fire with Ruby taking 3 hits and her opponent 2.  Both became worn as a result.  Monck opened fire at Speigel and reduced her to worn, while Noorderkwartier fired an effective broadside on Royal Charles hitting 4 times on 7 shots.

I realize in retrospect that I messed up the moment after both sides turned on turn 5.  The Dutch certainly and probably the English should have moved faster as they are broad reaching not close hauled.  Oh well rookie error on a fist time play through.

Action off the Galloper Sands 1666

It's been 6 weeks since I've posted, but I've been up to a fair amount in my own private isolation chamber!  April was filled with end of semester and exams, with Zoom lectures  taking far more time than normal.  Ditto for doing individual final exams for every student.  There has been some painting appearing on the Quaratine Challenge and I'll try to catch up on these posts in the next week or so.

This weekend I got the chance to do a solo playtest of Barry Hilton's 17th century naval rules.  I ran through 10 turns using 4 ships squadrons from my Dutch and English fleets (1/2400 scale Tumbling Dice minis)

The Dutch Zeven Provinciën (80), Speigel (70), Geloof (60), Noordeerkwartier (60)

The English Royal Charles (86), Royal Oak (80), Monck (58), Ruby (48)

The flagships had veteran crews with all other crews being veterans.  The three biggest English ships have heavy guns.

The two squadrons started on equal footing close hauled.  After three turns, the speedier Dutch are pulling ahead of the English. 

The dutch have clearly won the race and are in danger of crossing the English "T".

Turn 4:  the English have the initiative and bear off the wind to bring their broadsides to bear.

Turn 5 the Dutch turn to steer parallel but on opposite courses.  Anglo Dutch Wars battles feature repeated "passes" on opposite courses.  

I'll finish up the AAR later, but can make some initial comments on the draft rules.

• This was a fun little game
• They played well, were fast to pick up and things were relatively straightforward.
• They seem to give a reasonable result of the period and ships.
• Barry's QRS wasn't readable on my iPad but I didn't really need one!
• I was using d6, d8, d10 and d12.  It would help greatly to have dedicated colours for each type of dice.  
• I need to iron my sea matt!  It's exterior grade vinyl upholstery so this will take research and checking with the wife on correct techniques and iron temperatures.