A friend and I played our first game of Trafalgar from Warhammer Historical today; a fleet engagement with British facing off against French.  Brits had two 74-gun 3rd Rate Ship of the Lines along with two 36-gun, 5th Rate Frigates vs 6 36-gun, 5th Rate Frigates.

The French deploy with a disordered line, the wind was behind them so their sailing attitude was running or reaching.  The wind did alter a bit during the game, eventually resting in direction blowing directly towards the British side.  Wind strengths also varied going from a constant, dropping to nothing, and went back up to normal speeds.  There were a few dips in the winds also.

The British 2 SOL's and the Frigates assembled into one squadron:

The French line:


The French sent a few ranging shots out before realizing we were using centimeters rather than inches; the shots fell far short.

A bit further than the heavy cannons 30cm range!

_________________

But the next turn both fleets engaged in firing at maximum ranges;

the Brits lets loose with volleys:

Some bad maneuvering left two of the French Frigates blocked by their own vessels for a few turns:


The two fleets danced around each other mostly, circling.  But two French Frigates engaged the main British group while 4 French Frigates circled around looking for the rake shots:



Things get messy and bloody as the fleets close in and ranges drop fast:

The four French Frigates were somewhat out of position and should hav been in closer and aligned better to offer more assistance:

_________________

Things get interesting as close quarters are become obvious and bracing for impact seems prudent:

A burning French Frigate rams the Brit SOL but is sunk anyway from the collision and effects of being fired upon with "fire as she bears" during the movement.


The Brit Frigates opened up also on the two French Frigates during movement as they headed for the SOL's:

Formations are lost amid the chaos of the fight and the waters are blanketed in smoke from cannon fire:


The remainder of the game was the two fleets circling and trying to maneuver with the wind, a few vessels came to halt with failed tacking and boxing attempts but no mast were lost.

One French Frigate was sunk, while another crippled and headed out of the action.  Another French frigate was soon also crippled.  Both sides suffered a few fires on decks but it was French frigate that suffered a massive magazine explosion!  Suroprisingly she did not sink, but was a breath away from crippled.

_________________

The British SOL's can take a beating and did, crew loss was heavy due to critical hits but none were sunk or crippled.

The Brits also suffered a crippled Frigates and another that lost all crew but was still adrift:


Finally the French fleet broke with half of their vessels out of action, the remaining vessels had to pass command checks to carry the fight.  Two of them decided that discretion was the better part of valor while the last Frigate was stubborn and was ready to bear.


So a good Brit victory but with high cost.  The game took longer than we expected for this small to mid-sized game but it was our first go with the rules and we were a bit clumsy.  Definitely worth while playing though!


My friend, who played British, thought the critical hits came to easy (a roll to hit of 6 that is not saved against is a critical) but I feel that is offset by the ability to save against them.  We thought an alternate rule could similar to BFG where once damage is actually scored, then a roll of 6 results in a critical.

We both felt the template for determining bow and stern rakes was too liberal though.  Instead of 90 degree arcs for such hits, we felt they should maybe be reduced to 45 degrees.

_________________

Thanks Chaplain
The cotton wool did a fine job there!  
Looks fun, and the importance of manoeuvering seems to be highlighted by the rules - and that's good.

_________________
Back from oblivion (again)?

Great models, lovely pics and great BATREP - many thanks!  

_________________
Tas
My General blog: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/
My VSF Blog: http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/
My ECW Blog: http://declaresir.blogspot.com/

Nice ships, and thanks for the Batrep.

The danger with models of wooden ships and iron men: they scream for dismasted versions.

Aside from aesthetics, the cotton greatly helps to mark who has fired.  Almost a necessity once you have a handful of ship running around that can fire in either movement or fire phases.

Some historical sailing sticklers have a problem with some of the sailing techniques in the game, but anyone who is not a hard core sailor will not even notice.

_________________

Mercy, mercy.

Great looking game Mr Leviticus, thanks for posting.

_________________
I'm involved in Nunnery Practice
My latest Blog http://www.players.tacticalwargames.net ... p?blogId=8

Lovely! Now I am awaiting my copy of the rules even more eagerly.

_________________
http://diceatdawn.blogspot.se

Thanks for the report.  Very helpful

Thanks for posting the report.    I don't have a copy of the rules yet and I'm curious about typical fleet sizes for Trafalgar.  What was the points value of the fleets in the report and is that a "typical" sized battle?

I would say this fit into a regular sized game, maybe a bit smaller in the medium range.  These fleets were roughly 750 points per side with absolutely no upgrades to the vessels.

The scenarios tend to list point scales from "up to 750 points", "up to 1500 points", and "2000" points.

_________________