View Full Version : AAR. The battle of Cape Ortagal.
My own tribute to Trafalgar Day, was to set up a re-enactment, not of the battle itself, but of the aftermath fought on the 4th of November between a British Squadron under the command of Captain Sir Richard Strachan, and the ships under the command of Rear Admiral Dumanoir le Pelley who had escaped from the Battle of Trafalgar with most of the French part of the Van under his command during the battle...
The action started with the sighting of the French by the British Frigate Phoenix commanded by Captain Thomas Baker. Dumanoir gave chase, and Baker drew them onto the British Squadron. Strachan then began a pursuit of the French which stretched out over the next night.
On the morning of the third of November Strachan was joined by the extra frigate Santa Margarita, and the chase continued. It went on all that day and the next night with the British gradually adding extra ships to the squadron as they caught up. Two of the frigates, closed on the rear of the French squadron at about 5.45 on the morning of the 4th of November and the battle commenced.
The positions of ships as shown on map one.
The pursuing British Frigates opened fire at long range on the French rear.
Scipion takes serious damage from HMS Revolutionairre and a small conflagration starts.
And Mont Blanc also takes damage from HMS Santa Margarita.
Their reply from the stern chasers is insubstantial.
The wind which has been blowing from the West North West now veers into the North East.
This allows the French Squadron to change formation into Battle Line although still being harried by the chasing Frigates at their heels, as the dispersed British Line begins to draw nearer.
Having put out the fire, Scipion is again raked by Revolutionairre.
Her reply was desultory to say the least.
The position was now developing into a somewhat similar position as shown on map two.
Santa Margarita now began to come about onto the same heading as Scipion.
And had time to double shot her broadside which almost took all the fight out of the 74 without any further ado.
Scipion’s reply from her rear battery was hurtful but not totally disabling to the Santa Margarita.
Her other full broadside was more effective on the approaching ship of the British Van,
The 80 gun HMS Caesar whos captain deemed that the ship was not yet in a position to make a telling reply.
A couple of moves later the overall situation was thus with the British Line forming parallel to the French, with the French admiral hoisting the signal for his ships to tack in succession.
The action at the Battle line now became general.
HMS Hero exchanged opening broadsides with Mont Blanc at long range and set her on fire in two places.
Whilst Caesar in the van served out much the same to her opposite number the 80 gun French Flagship Formidable although it was not her opening broadside, she still started one fire on the Frenchman’s deck.
In return Formidable’s broadside was somewhat less effective.
The wounded Scipion was even less successful against Hero.
She also tried her hand against the Revolutionairre
As you can see Scipion had now shot its bolt and surrendered to the Frigates forthwith.
A remarkable success for the frigate force.
The French now commenced their evolution to come about and take on the British in a pass by.
Unlike the moves shown in the actual battle they have already lost their rearmost 74 and the British Frigates have to circumnavigate the derelict Scipion.
The whole battle now starts to diverge from the historical action. The Frigates are too far in the rear to harry the enemy for some time and crowd on sail to attempt to catch up, and it is also obvious that the much slower Namur still has not caught up with the line of battle.
Steadily the French approach the British squadron, and it seems that the encounter is to be three on three with the Frigates now out of the picture, and Namur’s escort dispatched to close the gap between the other Frigates and the British battle line.
As the French start to pass the British van, and open fire, the frigates start to come about in pursuit.
This is as close as we got to the rest of the action in the actual battle as can be seen from the map. With Scipion out of the equation, the Frigates can start turning much sooner than in the actual action.
Hero commences the action with a broadside which badly mauls the as yet unengaged Dugay Trouin, maiming many of her crew and starting no fewer than two fires.
The riposte is equally savage as the French 74 pours her first broadside into the already injured Hero, shredding sails, bringing down masts and also setting her on fire, with crewmen falling in all parts of the vessel including the fighting tops.
All action ceases on the Hero as the stricken ship drifts out of the battle line, and the Dugay Trouin presses on unable to stop and take the surrender of the British ship.
Score ONE ALL.
Not for long, however, as the Caesar now extracts a terrible revenge upon her counterpart the Formidable, with a tremendous broadside which catches her just as she comes out of tacking. Two fires, plus a mast and rudder damage, is included in the hammering which is dealt out to the French Flagship at point blank range.
Not having completed her turn, she is only able to reply with her forrard section of guns, and does considerably less damage to her adversary than she received.
As she moves on down the line, the fire takes hold fanned by the cross wind.
Here is the overall picture at this stage of the battle compared to the actual map 4.
As the now reloading Dugay Trouin passes the HMS Courageux she is treated to its first double shotted broadside.
The fire which breaks out on her foredeck plus incredible overkill as evidenced by the bottom line of extra chits not used forces her inevitable surrender to Courageux.
The remains of a proud ship.
As Mont Blanc finally reaches the battle HMS Caesar turns to port and cutting across her stern delivers a double shotted broadside.
Although she replied with her rearmost guns, she had been too badly damaged earlier in the battle and had suffered loss of morale due to witnessing the surrender of her Flagship.
Within minutes, as the smoke cleared her flag came down and Sir Richard Strachan accepted her surrender, thus concluding the battle.
Afterword.
The final positions of the ships can be compared with the actual battle map, and you can clearly see that the enactment made much more heavy weather of it from the French standpoint than in the real battle.
The points which astounded me most were the efficiency of the British Frigates in hounding the French rear, and the number of fires in the game which certainly played a serious part in the French defeat. I have never seen so many fire cards drawn even in battles as large as Trafalgar or the Nile.
Here is a picture of the number drawn.
As the battle developed circumstances forced the AI to make differing decisions to those made in the historical action and it diverged more and more as the game unfolded as can be seen from the maps. All in all an enjoyable game, and one which took a different approach from the normal.
The Butchers Bill.
French.
Capn Duff
10-26-2021, 13:43
Great action Rob, will cross this one off my Doncaster list
I was actually going to do this at Doncaster next year Chris.
Rob.
What a marvellous AAR. Very well fought indeed. It is a bit of a bother to me though that those British ships have French and Spanish names. Presumably they were captured at some point? They should have all been renamed with proper English names eg. HMS Alfie, HMS Roast Beef etc etc. What do you think?
Diamondback
10-26-2021, 18:08
Either captures or named in memory of prior captures.
If you have a look here, you can find out all about the captains the battle and at the bottom the Battle order. Hover over the ships names and click and it will take you to the ships biography.
https://sailsofglory.org/showthread.php?4764-The-Battle-of-Cape-Ortegal&highlight=hms+namur
Rob.
Thank you very much for the Rep Gary, I am glad you enjoyed my Trafalgar tribute game, even if the ship names were a bit of a confusion. Strange to say, but when the captured French ships were taken into service they were all given English type names save HMS Mont Blanc.
Unfortunately none were given the epithet HMS Roast Beef, or HMS Yorkshire Pudding for that matter. :wink:
Rob.
Just joking. Mind you, saying Bellerophon caused a lot of problems amongst the unwashed as you have pointed out. :happy:
Just joking. Mind you, saying Bellerophon caused a lot of problems amongst the unwashed as you have pointed out. :happy:
Be wary about what jokes you make Gary. They may return to bite your bum.
Nice battle. Really well done!
About the names, by the way, British sailors had their own names for ships with names they thought were hard to pronounce.
Vincy Joe, Billy Ruffian, Eggs and Bacon, Belly Squeaks, Jenny Rooks, Polly Infamous, Andrew Mackay, Dead Nose.
Can you figure out which name hides behind the descriptions?
I know that Billy Ruffian is Bellerophon, and suspect that Polly Infamous is Polyphemus, as for the rest ?
Rob.
Those are correct, Rob, but I suspect you can guess which is Lord Nelson’s favorite ship.
The French ones may be a bit harder.
Diamondback
10-28-2021, 11:01
Vincy Joe is Vincejo, Belly Squeaks is Belliquese, Andrew Mackay is Andromache, Dead Nose is Dedaigneuse. Jenny Rooks = Genereux?
DeRuyter
10-28-2021, 11:07
Those are correct, Rob, but I suspect you can guess which is Lord Nelson’s favorite ship.
The French ones may be a bit harder.
Eggs and Bacon = Agamemnon?
DeRuyter
10-28-2021, 11:11
Great AAR Rob. :salute: I ran this battle some years ago at a US show. If I recall correctly I applied post Trafalgar battle damage to several of the ships.
My only concern is that the frigates caused too much damage. I think this would be a good situation to apply Dobb's weight of shot rules!
Yes Eric I agree,
and to think that I nearly left the frigates out until I re-read the action and found out what difference they made. I decided not to deprive Formidable of the guns they cast overside whilst scarpering from Trafalgar. It's a good job that I didn't otherwise the battle would have been over even sooner.
Rob.
Tomorrow i will start dropping in the ship cards for this action in case anyone fancies having a go at it. At the moment I'm clearing up after this weeks game which I ran today.
Rob.
Great AAR, an inspiration for future games :thumbsup:!
Thanks Achim. If it encourages anyone to get started on the write up of their own games it will be well worth the effort.
Rob.
Yep, great AAR, Rob!
I was also surprised at the amount of damage the frigates delivered. Eric, the only thing about my weight of shot rules is that it applies to 12pdr frigates or smaller. I think all the ones in Bligh's engagement were 18 pdrs.
The French should have turned enmass and devoured the frigates before the English 74's could get there. :shock:
What am I saying!? I'm responsible for a number of lost 74's.:wink:
Diamondback
10-28-2021, 18:24
Santa Margarita should be a 12pdr IIRC, I'll have to doublecheck.
You got them all.
I have thought about the difference between frigates and ships of the line before. In the Battle of the Nile there was an incident that clearly showed the power difference and that is hard to recreate in Sails of Glory.
Yes DB. she is a 36 gun 12 lbr.
Aeolus is a 32 gun 18 lbr.
Phoenix a 36 18 lbr.
As far as I know after her capture by the British Revolutionnaire became a 38 gun 18 lbr. but from 1803 she replaced her top deck 18 lbrs. for 32 lbr. Carronades.
Rob.
Comte de Brueys
11-03-2021, 00:38
Brilliant reenactment, Rob. :salute:
Thank you for this historical based scenario.
Thank you for the Rep my dear Comte. If you can make Doncaster next year, I'm hoping that you will do me the honour of commanding the French Fleet in the Action.
Rob.
Vagabond
11-04-2021, 18:15
Unlike the moves shown in the actual battle they have already lost their rearmost 74 and the British Frigates have to circumnavigate the derelict Scipion.
That brought a tear to the eye of that old French sea dog Jean le Vagabond, I'll drink a glass of the 98 brandy in honour of those brave French sailors.
Excellent game Rob, easy to follow the action, even if painfull at times to see the force of the British gunnery which at times was so extraordinarily damaging to the elegant French ships.
I know the French were tacking in this photo but I wonder if they could have crossed the T of the British line rather than tack and follow a reciprocal path. Would that have been a possible option or were you trying to be as close to history as a re-enactment can be? Either way, excellent game.
I like what you've done with rounding out the corner of the table, it always jars with me when I look at my pictures and see a square corner, I've been thinking about doing something similar and yours looks very good.
Cheers
I didn't capture the picture, it was at 15:35.
Thanks for the ships cards and yes the frigates caused a lot of damage and the French gunnery was poor apart from 1 broadside ( think).
Hi John.
Good to hear from the old Vagabond again. Firstly thanks for the rep, and the comment. I followed the actual battle line until it became impossible to comply because of the Scipion being in the way and then went onto the AI for the French with a lot of A. If they had not got all those fire cards they would have made a better fist of it.
Rob.
Here is the next of the British ships.
Vagabond
11-16-2021, 03:54
Rob I don't know if it's my internet connection being slow but I can't see any of the later pictures you've posted.
Cheers
Where does the problem start John?
Rob.
Vagabond
11-16-2021, 04:40
Where does the problem start John?
Rob.
I can see HMS Caesar but no pictures after that.
Can you see HMS Courageux now chaps.
If so I will amend the others, but it may take a day or so because it is a bit of a rigmarole to do.
Rob.
Diamondback
11-16-2021, 14:18
Courageux shows fine here!
This is a good "bite-size" mixed engagement; I've tried to suggest Ares look at it as a small-scale developmental model for working toward The Big One.
Goodon all fronts DB. it would be great to see that come to pass. Also, now I know why the pictures failed I can get the others put back.
Thanks for the feedback.
Rob.
Hopefully you can all now see the full set of ships cards.
Rob.
thanks a lot, now it works for me.
That's good to hear Lankin. I now know how to avoid that one in future.
Rob.
Vagabond
11-18-2021, 09:34
Rob they all work for me now.
Thanks for rectifying it, does this mean you can post pictures normally now or are you still 1 post at a time?
Cheers
The failure to post viewable pictures was my feeble attempt to rectify the problem John. I'm afraid I am back to having to post and then save the attatchment in order for the pictures to show up. I could see them fine but obviously no one else could.
Rob.
Vagabond
11-18-2021, 10:19
I was having a similar problem to you but on the Wings site, I would post all my pictures exactly as I had previously done and it would show them where I expected but also dump them all on the bottom of the post as well.
I then started posting following MikeeMagnus procedure and that worked but it was laborious. I then tried a post using my original method and miraculously it worked and has done for the last 6 months. I haven't changed anything, I'm sure it was the site.
Stumptonian Pete had a similar problem but he found a specific code had changed, once he amended it he's had no problems since, you could ask him what he did and it might solve your problem, alternatively I could find Mikes instructions to me and send you a link so you could see if that helps.
That would be very handy John. I was getting the same problem on Wings, but have not posted any pictures there for a while. Maybe I should try again. This process only works if I delete the original, and as you say the pictures then group, so I can only post one at a time which is very time consuming, and is putting me off doing long AARs more than once a month or so.
Rob.
Vagabond
11-19-2021, 09:55
Hi Rob, sorry to be hijacking your game post but if you look at this post on the wings site just rush past my game report and look at the comments where the discussion into posting pictures starts.
https://www.wingsofwar.org/forums/showthread.php?33269-OTT-CYM-Mission-4-A-Hunting-We-Will-Go-27-July-1916-by-Vagabond
Flash Dave then provides another link and the conversation continues on a different thread, part way down that I ask Mike for the document he uses to post and he posted it into the body of the thread, I printed that and followed his instructions, it worked fine just a little slow.
I know what you mean about frustrating, when I first started posting AAR's here I had to create an album and then cross reference from the album to the AAR which was awful. The later ones I did I was able to copy and paste the text from my laptop to the post and then go back and place the curser where I wanted a picture and click on the insert picture button and select the photo from my laptop and insert it.
If it's not easy then no one will post long picture intensive AAR's, we need to make it easy for you to post at least once a week. :wink:
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