Historical Scenario: Action of 20-10-1778 - The Anglo-French War

[Fabbe]

20th October 1778

Players: 1-3

Gaming surface: One game mat (98 cm x 67 cm). Wind comes from the West.

French Player: Triton (64). Use a French 64-gun ship model but use a British 64-gun ship track (e.g. HMS Vigilant) or else use the original French ship track but give the ship a burden of 5. In either case, cover the last box on the ship damage track and use manoeuvre deck J. The ship is placed within half-ruler distance from the northern edge of the game mat and within 3/8’s and 3/4’s of the width of the gaming area.

British Player: HMS Jupiter (50), replaced by any Portland-class ship, but the veer is reduced from 7 to 6 .
HMS Medea (28), an Enterprise-class ship. Use any Amazon-class ship, but cover the first two boxes in the ship damage track and the first box in the crew damage track. Additionally, at long range (A on the ruler) any damage counters with a leak are treated as zeroes (the player may use the Aiming High rule to avoid this). The Medea was armed with 24 9-pounders and 4 3-pounders, whereas a typical Amazon-class ship was armed with 26 12-pounders and 6 6-pounders. The French Triton had maybe about 23 inches of wood at the waterline and the penetration of the 9-pounders at long range would have been about 20 inches or less.
The British ships are placed within a half-ruler distance from the southern edge of the game mat and within 3/8’s and 3/4’s of the width of the gaming area.



Special rules: If any ship uses full sails during the game and are fired upon they take one extra C damage counter.
Do not use the First Broadside rule, unless you want a very quick action!
In the action a squall of wind and rain arrived, coinciding with nightfall, after about 2 1/2 hours of battle. To reflect this, after 10 turns start applying the Variable Wind Strength optional rule to see if the wind strength changes, but only apply increases to wind strength – do not apply any decreases. After the squall arrives, reduce all damage counters at A-range broadsides by 1/2 (rounding up), after all other modifiers have been applied. After 20 turns the squall arrives and the wind strength is automatically increased to strong. After the squall arrives, if the enemy ships are separated by more than one ruler distance, the battle ends and the winning conditions are applied.

Winning conditions: The British win a major victory if the Triton strikes or is captured or destroyed and neither British ship is destroyed. The British win a minor victory if the Triton withdraws or if the Triton strikes or is captured or destroyed and one of the British ships is destroyed. The French win a major victory if the Triton captures or destroys one or both British ships and does not surrender or get destroyed itself. The French win a minor victory if both British ships withdraw. If both sides are at more than one ruler distance from each other after the squall arrives (i.e. when the wind strength increases to strong), the ships are considered to no longer be able to see each other and the outcome of the action is a draw. A player may choose to withdraw a ship by exiting it anywhere along the player’s side of the gaming area at any time (French along the northern edge and British along the southern edge). If a ship exits along any other side, it is considered to be captured or destroyed.

Points values:

French

Ship	Class	Ship Cost	Hull damage	Good Aim	Intuitive Captain	Skilful Tactician	Total
Triton	64-gun 3rd rate	118-126	-15	+6	+4	+5	118-126

Note: Triton was a French 64-gun with stats similar to one of the British 64-gun ships in the game. Use the ship log from one of the British 64-gun ships and manoeuvre deck J.
If playing the Triton solo or against a new player, accept the challenge! Otherwise, consider adding other abilities for a more balanced battle.

British

Ship	Class	Ship Cost	Hull damage	Crew damage	Leaks as 0’s	Reduced veer	Total
Jupiter	Portland	96-99	-	-	-	-4	92-95
Medea	Enterprise	68	-6	-2	-2	-	58
							150-153

Historical outcome: For more information see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_20_October_1778

Designer’s notes: Choosing ship stats for the Triton required a little thought. To balance gameplay a little bit, I wanted to give the ship an advantage given that it is fighting against two British ships, albeit weaker ones. The Ares 64-gun French ships were likely weaker than the Triton was since they had a burden of about 1100, while the Triton had 1241. This justifies giving it an in-game burden of 5, but removing the last box, which puts it about half-way between the French 64-gun ships and the British 64-gun ships (with a burden of around 1350) available in the game. Since Triton was an older ship (launched 1747), it might have had poorer handling capabilities compared to the more modern Artesiens; thus, it made sense to use the J manoeuvre deck of the bigger British 64-gun ships.
The next step was to determine the broadside strength. Here the guns on the Triton match the Artesien class ships available in Ares series. However, this felt like it was a little bit too weak to go up against the two British ships. Strengthening it a little to balance this scenario felt right and using one of the 64-gun British ship stats seemed like a good option.
HMS Leopard could be used as-is, though I decided to reduce its veer, based on community discussions. Using an Amazon-class ship, but covering two damage boxes and one crew box, felt like a good representation of the Enterprise-class ship, HMS Medea. Given the Medea’s weaker guns, removing the ability to cause leaks at long range also felt sensible.