Trafalgar refought

Some three weeks ago, Grant ran a Battle of Trafalgar scenario at Dragon's Lair using some Portsmouth minis and modified Bloody Broadsides rules.

There weren't quite as many ships in our refight of the battle, but we did have over a dozen players commanding 17 or so sailing vessels.

I captained the Bucentaure, an 80-gun French ship.

We played a speeded-up version of the game, with automatic damage (the to-hit rolls slow a big game down) with the opportunity to roll for criticals. We maybe had one or two--mostly fires.

It was a fun game, with a lot of fog of war as ships carried out their written orders--sometimes to the detriment of the rest of the fleet.

The French and Spanish lost three or four ships, the English British maybe had one vessel that struck.

In the end, the English British, with their superior crews, prevailed. It was an enjoyable time.

My first sailing ship command

A couple of weeks ago at Dragon's Lair, Grant ran a sailing ship combat game. The minis were from Close Action, but he used a tournament version of Bloody Broadsides. It was my first time playing a sailing ship combat game; it's a lot different when you're so dependent on the wind.

There were nine players, each commanding a single sailing ship. I took the French vessel Pluton, a 74-gun vessel upgraded to 80 for this scenario, as our squadron sailed to meet the English.

As we began play, I quickly found out how important maneuver (and the direction of the wind) can be. The game quickly turned into a chaotic melee, as ships jockeyed for position and that oh-so-satisfying (and damaging) stern rake. In the end, the English fleet drove off the French, but ships on b both sides struck their colors.

Grant was trying out some streamlined rules he wants to use in a Battle of Trafalgar game in a few weeks. One thing I liked was no rolling to see if your cannon hit; you do a set amount of damage based on range. While some players like to roll for hits, it really slows down a large multiplayer game like this one with nine ships. Since the Trafalgar game will involve 23 ships, I think not rolling for hits is a fair compromise.