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.