AAR - Frigate Action north of Algiers at 38°13'32“N and 2°41'54“E, 5th of March

[William Bush]

After the original date for this game had to be postponed on short notice, finally got together for this game on 5th of March 2023. As two of the players needed to be at home in the evening, it would only be a one-round match.

As this was only our second meeting altogether, we used the Standard Rules with following Optional Rules being in effect: Let The Men Drink (can't do without it...), Entanglement, Continuous Fire, First Broadside, Boarding, Surrendered Ships. We forgot about Double Shot and misplayed First Broadside by using it only once per ship and not once per the ship's both sides.

To get more acquainted and familiar with maneuvering, we chose a frigate action, which would also allow „Capt. Ganzorro“ a first try of his newly bought Spanish frigate Ifigenia and my own („Lt. Bush“) yet unplayed British frigate HMS Mahonesa.


Ifigenia 1795 (Spanish) – Capt. Ganzorro:
Burthen 3, Veer 7, Sailing Profile A, Guns 34, Crew 288, Point Value 73

Courageuse 1778 (French) – Capt. Brugueler:
Burthen 3, Veer 7, Sailing Profile A, Guns 34, Crew 280, Point Value 74

HMS Mahonesa 1796 (British) – Lt. Bush (Acting Capt.):
Burthen 4, Veer 7, Sailing Profile K, Guns 36, Crew 260, Point Value 80

HMS Orpheus 1780, (British) – Capt. Heald:
Burthen 2, Veer 8, Sailing Profile C, Guns 32, Crew 220, Point Value 69


Point Values of both squadrons were almost identical with 147 for the French/Spanish and 149 for the British.

The scenario was the „Basic“ scenario „Enemy In Sight!“. In the pictures, top = south, bottom = north, right = west, left = east.


In the Mediterranean Sea north of Algiers at 38°13'32“N and 2°41'54“E, 5th of March in the afternoon a small British squadron consisting of the frigates HMS Mahonesa (36) and HMS Orpheus (32) was alerted by the lookout to two sails on the horizon. The British closed on a south-westerly course identifying the unknown vessels as a pair of enemy frigates, the French Courageuse (34) and the Spanish Ifigenia (34) on a north-westerly course with a fine breeze blowing from the east.

Turn 1:
All hands at battle stations, HMS Mahonesa attempting to maintain the weather gauge, while HMS Orpheus falling off a bit to the west with the intention to envelop the enemy frigates.


Turn 2:



French Courageuse holds her fire vs. HMS Mahonesa, who cannot bring her guns to bear yet. HMS Orpheus has just contrieved to bring herself into position for a raking shot and fires her first boadside at long range vs. Ifigenia. The Spanish frigate is lucky as only some shots hit home while most miss closely.


Turn 3:



HMS Mahonesa has maneuverd behind Courageuse, avoiding the covered arc of the French vessel's full broadside while bringing her own to bear for the first time at close range with devastating effects on the crew of Courageuse. Unfortunately, it turns out that HMS Mahonesa is just in long range of the full broadside of Ifigenia, thus there is a lot of incoming return-fire. Luckily for HMS Mahonesa, the sturdiest of all vessels, the damage can be accomodated in two damage boxes plus one Crew damage. Ifigenia is further able to fire long-range from its frontal covered arc at HMS Orpheus causing some hull damage.


Turn 4:



While Courageuse holds course, HMS Mahonesa deftly turns westward setting the French frigate up for a raking shot at long range using Continuous Fire causing some damage, while it cannot be targeted by any enemy fire. While Ifigenia has to reload both broadsides, HMS Orpheus fires through the rear covered ard at long range but draws to blanks. So far, Ifigenia has been lucky as only two of eight chit draws against her weren't zeroes.


Turn 5:



HMS Mahonesa is safely out of reach while reloading. Courageuse cannot target any British ship. The hot blooded Spanish Ifigenia cuts in front of Courageuse in order to deliver a full broadside at short range vs. HMS Orpheus. It appears as a collision might be immient next turn. But first, the Spanish cannon balls tear into HMS Orpheus. As Ifigenia has taken some damage before, she can draw only two damage chits, one of which is a zero. This could have been worse...

[William Bush]

Turn 6:



To the great relief of the Spanish and French captains, both ships just contrieve to avoid a collision by the barest of margins. This comes at a price, though, as Ifigenia is taken aback, cannot fire and can only reload, while Courageuse, by avoiding her ally, exposed herself to a raking shot through the front at short range by HMS Orpheus, which caused significant hull damage. HMS Orpheus, pressed to avoid leaving the playing area, has to maneuver in a way that takes her aback as well. Meanwhile, HMS Mahonesa is now reaching on a north-westerly course to rejoin the battle.


Turn 7:



Courageuse has well maneuvered to punish HMS Orpheus with a full broadside to starboard and would likely have been in a good firing position against approaching HMS Mahonesa in the upcoming turn. However, in an audacious maneuver, HMS Orpheus successfully grapples the French frigate at the stern just as she tries to pull away. If that weren't enough, contiuously firing, grape and musketry fire mow down many more of Courageuse's crew. Luck shines on HMS Orpheus, as Courageuse's return fire could have been much worse and even the long-range assist by Ifigenia is of not much help. HMS Mahonesa keeps reaching towards the action. Prospects for Courageuse seem grim.


Turn 8:



Despite its crew having taken grievous losses, Courageuse does press for a boarding action courageously if not recklessly. While HMS Orpheus' hull has taken quite a beating, her crew is still at full strength. Both ships get Entangled.



Courageuse above.




HMS Orhpeus above.




Courageuse and HMS Orpheus continuously fire broadsides at each other, the former with ball, the latter once more with grape to decimate the crew. This and Musketry fire of both ships causes further horrible crew losses on both ships. HMS Mahonesa, intent on finishing off Courageuse this turn, fires at short range through the front covered arc but misses in the excitement. In turn HMS Mahonesa is missed by Ifigenia, who will be out of position to help her French ally.

There is hardly anyone alive on Courageuse, when her boarding party clashed with the much more numerous one from HMS Orpheus. And so, it is the British boarders who won while the Courageuse struck its colors.

[William Bush]

Turn 9:



HMS Orpheus managed to disentangle from Courageuse now out of action and drifting in the sea. We might have mixed up something in the order here, as the British frigate would not have been able to move from its position in Turn 8 to this one in Turn 9, but I can't reconstruct exactly what we did. In any case, HMS Orpheus was making way to get to grips with the remaining enemy frigate Ifigenia. The same was fired at long-rage by HMS Mahonesa without effect.


Turn 10:



Meanwhile, darkness had set in and the ships were barely able to see each other. In order to return HMS Mahonesa's compliments, Ifigenia turned to the north-west to return a full broadside at long range but only causing minor damage. For the upcoming turn it appeared that the Spanish frigate might get sandwitched in between its British adversaries.


Turn 11:



And indeed this is, what happened: Ifigenia took fire from both British frigates, but she returned fire with everything she had and contrieved to almost dish out as much damage as she got. As night had decended, the battle was suspended at this point. Ifigenia was reaching away on a north-westerly course into the gloom, leaving the field to the British frigates including their prize Courageuse.

[William Bush]

Final Reckoning:



Courageuse above.




Ifigenia above.




HMS Mahonesa above.




HMS Orpheus above.


The outcome was a tactical victory for the Royal Navy.

Courageuse was unfortunate to receive massive damage to her crew, while her hull was still half intact when she surrendered. Ifigenia's hull was comparably battered as that of her Spanish consort, but she had lost less than half of her crew when she slinked off into the covering darkness.

The crew of HMS Mahonesa was still in good shape, while her hull had taken about half of the damage she could bear. HMS Orpheus was beaten up badly, but more than half of her crew was still on duty.

As all ships were frigates, the damage they had incurred had reduced the punch of their broadsides significantly. Consequently, it would probably have taken out several more turns to take any of the surviving ships out by gunfire alone and musketry fire would have been a greater danger. Altogether, the British frigates could still summon up roughly double the firepower of Iphigenia and likely more cumulative opportunities to fire.


Lessons Learned:

1. The audacious Cpt. Brugueler of Courageuse stated that running a frigate is a much more fragile affair than 3rd rate ship of the line.
2. All captains appreciated the excellent veer and maneuverability of the frigates.
3. It was noted, that the frigates lose gunnery punch very quickly, even against each other, rendering them almost ineffective. That said, the SoG system is likely coming to its limits if it would attempt to represent smaller vessels, as desirable their addition would basically appear.
4. While the burthen of ships in the SoG system can effectively regulate the amount of physical damage a ship can take, there seems to be no such mechanism for crew damage. The sloop Alligator has a crew of 125 and 7 boxes for crew damage, i.e. one box represents roughly 18 men. The big 1st rate Royal George has a crew of 850 and 12 boxes of crew damage, i.e. one box represents roughly 71 men. So the ratio of crew represented per box for these two ships is almost 1:4 !! However, the chances to pull a damage chit for crew damage is the same for both vessels. In other words, the „method“ to take out big ships is to try taking out the crew, while the tactic to get rid of small ones is to go for physical damage. Is this „crew imbalance“ addressed somehow? Are we missing something?

Lt. Bush

[Bligh]

A very interesting shot by shot AAR Lt Bush.
I have found that in the unusual event of a Frigate vs 74 action the disparity in crew efficiency id of little consequence because the Frigate seldom lasts more than a couple of rounds. Remember that the crewmen do not really represent actual figures, but rather the deminishing ability to run the ship. If you want to look it as casualty depletion I suppose you could say that it is easier for a Frigate to hit a 74s larger crew than for them to hit a more spread out smaller crew in the first few rounds of fire, but that begs all sorts of question vis smaller balls and power to penetrate a heavier hull etc, so I would just take things as they are.

I also have personal issues about the way hand to hand strength is worked out, but that is a whole different musket ball game.

Generally we play with the rules we don't mind and alter the ones that we feel are disputable, such as the collision ones for enemy ships.

Rob.

[William Bush]

A very interesting shot by shot AAR Lt Bush.
I have found that in the unusual event of a Frigate vs 74 action the disparity in crew efficiency id of little consequence because the Frigate seldom lasts more than a couple of rounds. Remember that the crewmen do not really represent actual figures, but rather the deminishing ability to run the ship. If you want to look it as casualty depletion I suppose you could say that it is easier for a Frigate to hit a 74s larger crew than for them to hit a more spread out smaller crew in the first few rounds of fire, but that begs all sorts of question vis smaller balls and power to penetrate a heavier hull etc, so I would just take things as they are.

I also have personal issues about the way hand to hand strength is worked out, but that is a whole different musket ball game.

Generally we play with the rules we don't mind and alter the ones that we feel are disputable, such as the collision ones for enemy ships.

Rob.

Thank you for the Reputation, Admiral.

With regard to the "men per damage box representation":

The larger the difference of the ships crew, the more pronounced the issue becomes.

But indeed, usually, you will not attack a 1st rate ship of the line with a sloop & vice versa because both vessels will likely have more important matters to care for. And if the size of the crews are more even, so is the representation of damage counters.

So the issue might be of little practical relevance.

Yet, it is interesting to ponder it:
Let's say you have a 1st rate worth 200 points. Would 5 sloops worth 40 points stand any chance?

Assuming they try to outmaneuver the 1st rate and use one of their number to block LOS for the others to hide behind and emerge for cumulative suicidal close-in grape/musketry shots, trying to grapple/freeze the "big one" in place and even attempt boarding?

Likely the manouvering of the sloops would be too challenging to pull it off by themselves. But possibly one or two sloops might be sufficient to do the "freezing" while other larger vessels then take advantage of it.

I concede, that all this is far away from any historical tactics. I am just thinking what could be attempted within the scope of the rules.

Lt. Bush

[Dobbs]

A charming battle!

Here's my solution for small ships.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/entry.p...Weight-of-Shot

It strikes me that ships with a -2 also halve there crew damage.

[William Bush]

A charming battle!

Here's my solution for small ships.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/entry.p...Weight-of-Shot

It strikes me that ships with a -2 also halve there crew damage.

Thank you for the Reputation!

And as so often, your Weight of Shot approach is an interesting idea.

Lt. Bush

[William Bush]

And my thanks for Reputation to you as well, Shadow Dragon.

Lt. Bush

[Bligh]

A charming battle!

Here's my solution for small ships.

https://www.sailsofglory.org/entry.p...Weight-of-Shot

It strikes me that ships with a -2 also halve there crew damage.

Good idea Dobbs. That means we can have a meaningful contest between a couple of Luggers without it being all over in minutes.

Rob.

[ShadowDragon]

And my thanks for Reputation to you as well, Shadow Dragon.

Lt. Bush

You are most welcome, Lt Bush.