if I remember correctly, they had as much as 1/3 of each ships crew ashore at any one time. The shore parties required a large contingent of escorts for protection.Originally Posted by Nightmoss
if I remember correctly, they had as much as 1/3 of each ships crew ashore at any one time. The shore parties required a large contingent of escorts for protection.
I believe it could be done but gathering enough ships would be a problem. My quick estimate has the Suggested Retail Price for both fleets would probably be a little over $2,000.00 U.S. Nothing anytime soon on my gaming budget! (I actually would enjoy the challenge of setting it up - but like I said, that's a lot of ships!)
Copenhagen would definitely be doable. Similar but with some interesting twists to the Nile scenario just finished.
I could help out a good bit on the ships. But then there's also the issue of space and time. It would probably call for a considerably wider gaming space, and at least a couple of full days to play (?).
D'accord, voici le français après action Rapport de l'Amirale Aprilbooks, commandante de la flotte française à la bataille d'Aboukir aux Ministres de la Guerre - le site Anchorage.
Whoops – sorry (should be in English). Okay, here is the French After Action Report of Admiral Aprilbooks, Commander of the French fleet at the Battle of Aboukir, to the Ministers of War - Anchorage site.
Caveat: Even though I *did* volunteer to handle all 17 ships of the French Fleet (and the “really dangerous fort”), there were times that it felt that all the boyz were picking on the only guurrrl.
When Walram started getting serious about doing this, we had no idea how many people would be there to play. As we have both run various gaming scenarios (including a SOG at the annual Enfilade in Olympia, WA) he would occasionally bounce ideas off me. I felt that as the French couldn’t move until after the Orient went “down”, one person should be able to handle if not all 17 ships, then at least all the ships until movement was required.
Because I dislike being a commander unless I am only responsible for myself and I prefer not to captain more than 2-3 moving ships, I did volunteer to “command” the French Fleet. I also got voluntold to be in charge of the Phase Card, some photos, and the order of firing. And, like Fred said, *try* to keep the British in line (I also read this last one as getting as many verbal shots off as possible – I did my best).
The hardest thing I had to cope with was having the British drop anchor between my ships and hit me with raking fire and not being able to return the favor. However, there was a [very] short moment when I thought I had a chance – one of the English captains moved someone else’s ship {snarky comments about not reading his ship card deleted} into a position that I would have been able to get some cannon action. Unfortunately (for me), the error was discovered before I could take advantage and again I was subject to severe pounding.
I *did* try to lure some of the Brits into the shoals (the space after last line on the mat closest to where I had the French deck cards setup was designated as “shoals”), but nobody stepped up to the mark
I usually fired as soon as I could get range – often using just the front guns. And shot with anything I could (including pistol fire). With so many mobile units coming at me, I wanted to reduce the gun levels as soon as possible, knowing that there was every chance that I would get hammered before I could get another shot in. Occasionally, I was able to use the center broadside, but often I was half way down my damage card. It was not uncommon to have between 20-30 total chits per ship per turn.
One thing I had going for me was my ability to draw mostly “0” when I pulled my damage chits – unfortunately, I kept drawing “0” when I wanted to draw a “crew” (we were using E chits for blowing up and decision to depart the battle – “0” for not blowing up/not leaving and “crew” for blowing up/departing). The “House Rules” should be somewhere – Walram said he uploaded them.
Once the Orient went down, I welcomed Walram’s help – 10 ships or so were too much for me to handle all by myself. He would draw the E chits for leaving (doing better than I did), and would plan the movement for the eight ships that tried to leave. I would move about half of them (he would move the rest) and I was still be in charge of all firing of stationary ships and those leaving.
Bottom line – I had great fun!! I went in knowing that the French were going to go down (stupid Napoleon) so I wasn’t really bothered. I did try to keep the guys on their toes – like I said, what I couldn’t do with gun fire, I gave it my best verbal volley (keeping within the boundaries of camaraderie and fair play). And no matter what any of the guys say – I’m NOT dangerous.
Thanks so very much to Fred for his kind words, his narrative and his reporting of the stats– I had no idea what went down/how badly damaged the ships were. I was amazed at just how much damage I was able to inflict.
Thousands of thanks to Walram who put in uncounted hours to put this all together, to everybody who showed up to play and especially to the designers, Angiolillo and Andrea, for creating a GREAT game.
Below are examples of just how bad the French ships got surrounded (the ship card is what used to be the Orient). One of them shows the beginning of one of my "stack o' damage chits" (one of the previously uploaded pictures shows a bigger stack).
Let me mull it over. If I remember correctly, the "Glorious First of June" was the largest naval battle in the French Revolution/Napoleonic wars. It would be a challenge, but that could be fun to work up - i.e. go through it to see what is required (personnel as well as ships), see what assets are available, and figure the best way to handle something that large. But I really do believe it can be completed in a day (already thinking of a few ways to manage it!)
Thanks Tess for offering up your view of the battle. I don't know if I could have kept such a positive attitude while taking the amount of damage and destruction you did. I really do salute you and your efforts!
Great photos too!! Thanks!
Battle of Copenhagen would make another good project as similar to The Nile one fleet is anchored, but there are a multitude of Danish weapon types with large forts, floating batteries, weaponed ships without masts (no rigging shots for them!) plus shoals and British command problems. Would be complex but doable as the Danes wont be moving much.
Makes an excellent subject for a solo, demo or even a parti game with the Danes run on "auto". Reminds me, I must dig out my Danish 1/2400 fleet :)
Last edited by David Manley; 08-19-2014 at 06:14.
I ran Copenhagen at a convention using "Fire As She Bears" rules. I too have both fleets in 1/2400 scale as well as the forts etc. Just how to use 1/2400 scale with SoG is the question. Maybe sabot bases the size of SoG bases would work
For those interested, the house/scenario rules (one 8 1/2" X 11" size sheet - two sided) used for the Nile scenario are in the files section. One is located at:
http://sailsofglory.org/downloads.php?do=file&id=92
( I apologize for there being two files of the same thing. Not having posted anything to the file section before, I resubmitted it thinking that the first got lost when it actually was waiting for approval.)
I'd use a different set with 2400s
Daves, check your PM's--DK, I sent you some links for Glorious First of June and offered to forward you my own workup, and DM, I had some technical questions on another ship.
You did . I'm still up a mountain in Portugal with a load of horses. Will get back to you next week when I have something better than a phone to work with.
Gotcha, amigo. Safe travels, and no hurry. :)
Sorry, wish I'da known you were out on vacation--was starting to get a little worried about possibly having been black-balled... Now that I know what's up, and remember to adjust for jet-lag for our Italian contingent, I'm not quite so concerned.
Last edited by Diamondback; 08-19-2014 at 16:47.
Here Fishy, Fishy!
As I said to Fredmiracle when asking for assistance, “Nightmoss was trolling and I'm starting to play with the bait! Looking for other fish to help, (that's a BIG piece of bait!)” I do love a challenge!
I'm doing some preliminary checking on the possibility of running a "Glorious First of June" or “3rd Ushant” scenario. It looks as though we are very close to having enough ships to run it (like I needed an excuse to buy a few more 74s!) However, it will be a few weeks before our group here can get together to discuss and do a few tests.
I’d be looking to do it around the 1st of June, (of course!), maybe the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Based on the Nile scenario, my guess is that we will need about 7 to 9 play mats. Once I have a firmer idea on the table size requirements, I will start looking for a venue to host it.
Got a few other ideas percolating, but I’ll save talking about them until after our group has done a bit of work on them.
So far, besides Fredmiracle and Aprilbook acting as sounding boards and volunteering to assist, Diamondback is also in the process of helping me with some of the base statistics. If we need any other assistance, besides having more folks to play it of course, I’ll be sure to ask first on this site.
Isn’t there a saying something about “It takes a village ...”? Hope the ending wasn’t “to create the village idiot!”
Methinks Jimmy's gonna need a bigger boat... *hums Jaws theme*
I'm fine with that. As long as my chums (chums? bad choice of words?) and I are the sharks!
Remember, Dave, back in my college days no less than the Chancellor of my college himself described me as "a great white shark in the goldfish bowl"? LOL
Well, David that's a fantastic bit of news! I should spout off some other grandiose ideas and see if you take the bait? Seriously, if there's anything I can do to help (in my limited capacity) do let me know.
I would love to see what you'd come up with for us solo campaigners?! Cheers.
QUOTE=Nightmoss;37509]Well, David that's a fantastic bit of news! I should spout off some other grandiose ideas and see if you take the bait? Seriously, if there's anything I can do to help (in my limited capacity) do let me know.
I would love to see what you'd come up with for us solo campaigners?! Cheers.[/QUOTE]
One bite at a time! And I think I'll be chewing on this one for quite a while! (but I'll keep it in mind.)
"Wait'll they get a load of *me*...."
On-topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_o..._First_of_June .
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