Captain Smith gets his feet wet.

[Bligh]

Geoff's first assay into sails took place a couple of weeks ago.
The scenario involved a French Frigate with important supplies trying to reach port by breaking through the British close blockade. Geoff played the Intrepid British Captain Smithers whilst I ran the French ship on AI to show him just how it worked. We included the Anchoring rules and the use of bow and stern chasers as extra options.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48294&d=1583590511

Here we see the two ships spotting each other.


As the Frenchman tries to slip inshore of the Islets and rocks Captain Smithers gets his first shot off.

Ahttps://sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48293&d=1583590511


Attempting to cut him of Smithers gets in the optimum position for a bow rake.




https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48292&d=1583590511

With the following results.


https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48291&d=1583590511

The French now get into a position to return the favour on the British who have been forced to anchor to avoid going aground on the coast.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48290&d=1583590511


And the French small fort on the headland adds its own counter fire to the British woe.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48296&d=1583590617

And the French small fort on the headland adds its own counter fire to the British woe.



https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48295&d=1583590617

Firing from the tops also takes a toll on the crews

https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48297&d=1583590617

https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48298&d=1583590617


Dryade now makes a break for the open sea, whilst Agile has to swing on its anchor and get under way again.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48299&d=1583590617

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As the Frenchman passes the gap between the rocks, he gets off a stunning bow rake on Smithers' ship and things are lookig bleak for their chances of cutting off the Dryade from port.

[IMG]https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48301&d=1583590731

However, a lucky shot from the Agile bow chaser sets the Frenchman on fire.

The fort's final volly takes further toll on the Agile.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48302&d=1583590731


Nevertheless, the fire was too much for the wounded Dryade and she is forced to strike within sight of her destination.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48303&d=1583590731

The relieved Captain Smithers, decided it was now time to get more than his feet wet.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=48304&d=1583590731

Well done indeed sir.

[Bligh]

And I am pleased to have finally found a way around delivering an AAR without unwanted attatchments.:fixit::clap:

Rob.:hatsoff:

[Dobbs]

Rob, how do you handle an AI ship around islands, since it can't "see" them? I have been contemplating this for my rules as well as how to have them avoid friendly ships in close combat, since they are also invisible to AI ships.

[Bligh]

Two good points here Dobbs. This is the same as we do for sailing off the edge of the universe. Use the I bit and either give them the nearest move which does work, or as I did for one of the moves in this game, the diametrically opposite turn to which the chart indicated. The reason Geoff anchored was that we had decided that the French sahip could not miss going aground on the island in front of it or at least if it went straight on would collide with Aigle. As it transpired, the wind took its turn and it was thrown over to the Starboard tack, just missing the rocky island. In that case we would have let the result stand because it would have been muck or nettles, had the AI move been followed but for once the rules of the game overrode the card options.
Geoff and I have also been playing together now for over 40 years, and ever since the onset, made decisions by consent where the rules have obviously thrown up a stupid decision. our criteria are usually based on how good the General or commander was supposed to be, the quality of his troops, any factors in the lay of the land which may have an influence, and then discuss the most likely outcome, rather than blindly following the rule book. An enjoyable game, rather than a smashing victory after a few moves, has ever been our objective. So I can't be much use in your search for a strict ruling on this I'm afraid.
With regards ships that go bump in the night, with AI we assume that Commanders have a signalling system and AI ships just follow orders, until they get into battle. Then if they collide, so be it, just like aircraft in the Wings game, an inept move or circumstances takes its toll. If enemy ships collide the damage is also the same, unless one of the captains has the intention of boarding, in which case the ships take only half the burden damage of the lesser ship. If both captains are intent on boarding, then no damage is recorded.

Rob.

[Bligh]

Also a big thank you for the Rep which I have just spotted sir.:thanks:

Just looking back over the AI actions, the first big surprise we got was that we were expecting a head to head confrontation, and not for the French to come about and head for the inner channel. It was a good move, and had the Aigle not have been placed where it was, it could never have got through the other gap. By the time it took to come about the Dryade would have been home free. In the end was only a forced move due to sail damage that brought her head to wind and caused her to slip through the gap just vacated by Aigle. it is another of our house rules that if a ship takes rudder or sail damage the ships next move must be one of the damage movement cards instead of the intended one. We pick the nearest card to the one intended whilst the crew struggle to regain control of the ships heading.

Rob.

[Vagabond]

A nice action, well done to HMS Aigle and Captain Smithers, it's always good to see your clifftop scenery Rob and a famous British victory to boot.

L'Dryade's Captain took a bold decision to risk the inshore passage which unfortunately didn't pay off for him, hopefully he will be exchanged shortly.

In the 2nd picture the British ship fired her bow chaser but the French didn't return fire, were they loaded with the wrong shot, or was there some other reason they didn't fire?

That was a neat trick Captain Smithers did, dropping his anchor rather than running aground, do you then swing the ship to lay head to wind or not, I know you refered to swinging on his anchor to get underway again but I'm not sure how that was used.

I've started re-reading the Patrick O'Brian books, just finished Master and Commander where Aubery is given a cruise between Barcelona and Cabo de la Nao, we are about 10 miles south of the Cabo today and the cliffs look amazingly like your scenery did you base them on this area or go for generic cliffs?

[Bligh]

Thanks for the very nice remarks John. I will pass them on when I play my next game with the good Captain on the 21st.

What he did in this instance to swing was to raise his stern anchor and set sails to allow the wind to act on the rearmost set, whilst allowing the formast sails to spill the wind. Thus the forrard anchor acted as a pivot and as soon as he was facing the correct way he trimmed his sails to the new wind direction and slowly started to make way. Not reccomended if the tide is against you when you have turned, and you are that close inshore. On occassions we use ships boats to tow out the anchor, and winch the ship around by use of the capstan.

Our rules for bow chasers are that they can only be used in a chase situation, and if a line drawn parallel from each side of the chaser's base intersects with the chasee's base. Pretty much the same for stern chasers. We assume that as the long nines were generally for ranging shots and chasing they are loaded with single ball at all times. At all ranges only one A chit is drawn for the pair of chasers, and they take two cards to reload as for broadside guns. We toyed with making it three cards to allow for fine adjustment, but decided that as the gun captain would probably be the best one the captain had this was unnecessary, and made play easier because there was no need to add extra complications to the normal loading proceedure as stipulated in the rules.