A night onboard the BH

[Baxter]

For our weekly stoush last night I elected to use the BH (Bonhomme Richard) against the HMS Swan and the HMS Concorde. I thought that the Concorde would engage the BH while the small Swan used its greater speed and maneuverability to get some bow and stern shots in. After rolling dice I ended up sailing the Swan, Mark the Concorde leaving Doug to sail the BH. We have all played at least 4 games together so I thought we all had an adequate grasp of the rules to make it a fun night. We did use the wind direction optional rule and also our own collision rule where each ship takes one E chit and cannot fire if a collision occurs.

The wind one worked fairly well with at least two changes in wind direction in the game but the collision!!!!! Mark and I collided at least 4 times and that caused a few crew casualties where crew members fell out of the rigging. :shock:

All in all a good night that ended when we had played for nearly 2 hours. The Concorde hammered the BH initially but by the end of the game both ships were down to 1 remaining crew box each and my Swan suffered the least damage as it tried to keep out of the main line of fire and do sniping attacks.

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[Bligh]

An honourable draw there then Gary.
Thanks for posting that game.
We are very short of the AAR's at the moment with no fraternisation between households, so this comes as a breath of fresh air to us all.
Rob.:clap:

[David Manley]

Collisions, collisions, thats one reason why I prefer the original "singe card" approach, ships drive into each other far too often

[Bligh]

Ah yes I remember it well Dave. :wink:
Rob.

[Capn Duff]

Nice pics and write up of the action.
Interesting collision rule also.

For myself, I understand why the collision rules were written and why they are so severe, but I feel it is a gamey thing, as to be a Captain you would surely be able to manoeuvre and have the seamanship to not collide.
So house rules are the way forward for me.

[TexaS]

There were friendly collisions in battles, mostly due to gunsmoke covering the sea. Battle of Santo Domingo comes to mind where a British ship lost her bowsprit.

The strange thing to me is that the speeds were often very low, sometimes even down to walking speed (agreed that we modern people are kind of speed freaks compared to the times, thinking 10 knots as nothing) and the tall ships I've sailed respond well to the rudder. Agreed that they have an awful turning circle but that's the arrows on the movement cards, not the planning.

[David Manley]

I'm not saying they never happened, just that the system as published seems to encourage it's occurrence too frequently. We still managed to drive into each other using the single card approach in playtesting, just not as often.

[Bligh]

I am with you on this Dave. I feel that the chance of entanglement together with drawing an A card if your burdens are the same and maybe two if you are of a lower burden would be sufficient. This for use in both friendly and enemy incidents. I am also tending much more towards favouring the one card option.
Rob.

[David Manley]

Of course a benefit of going to a single card system is that you can use the cards from a single model for 2 ships, ideal if you are 3D printing your own, upscaling Langtons, adapting Houston's etc. :happy:

[Bligh]

That is what I will be doing with my Algerine Langton ships for sure. Printing half decks is much cheaper.
Rob.

[Diamondback]

The strange thing to me is that the speeds were often very low, sometimes even down to walking speed (agreed that we modern people are kind of speed freaks compared to the times, thinking 10 knots as nothing) and the tall ships I've sailed respond well to the rudder. Agreed that they have an awful turning circle but that's the arrows on the movement cards, not the planning.

As late as the 1880's-1890s there was a belief that at 100mph the lungs wouldn't be able to pull enough oxygen from the air and you'd suffocate; unless you were travelling via the Empire State Express even 40-50mph was considered a breakneck speed. Even today at sea, the most common cruising speed for freighters and warships in IIRC in the 10-15kt range.

[Naharaht]

Thank you for sharing the A.A.R., Gary. :thumbsup:

[Bligh]

Yes Gary. It certainly got us talking about turning circles and collisions.

Rob.

[TexaS]

As late as the 1880's-1890s there was a belief that at 100mph the lungs wouldn't be able to pull enough oxygen from the air and you'd suffocate; unless you were travelling via the Empire State Express even 40-50mph was considered a breakneck speed. Even today at sea, the most common cruising speed for freighters and warships in IIRC in the 10-15kt range.
In the napoleonic times it would rather be 5-10 kt.

When preparing for battle by lessening sails you also loose speed.

[Bligh]

Several texts state that Captains were overjoyed if they were averaging 7½ kt.
Rob.