Camp Cromwell 21/01/10

Napoleonic Naval - Camp Cromwell's Men o' War Rules

British: Jim: HMS Hannibal + Elephant. Renfrey: HMS Resolution & Cunninglingus (3rd rates, good crew).
v.
French: Mark: Couchon Noir + Fifi (2nd rates, average crew).
Spanish: Rich: Madonna + Santa Maria (2nd rates, poor crew).

We started with the 4 squadrons scattered deployed using a 2 dice coordinate system.  This put Renfrey between the 2 Allied squadrons at the windward end of the table with Jim's squadron way downwind of them.

Renfrey charged at the French & hit them pretty hard before the Spanish came up and put him under pressure.  Renfrey pulled off, one ship dropping downwind to join Jim's squadron still beating up the table & the other beating off the windward.

When Jim's squadron finally came up it charged into the Allied fleet while Renfrey's damaged ships sniped from a safe distance.   The Allies copped a lot more damage, but so did the smaller British ships.  With the Elephant minus her foremast & thus unable to go to windward, the Brits consider honour satisfed and were content to slip away.

The pic is early in the action - Mark & Renfrey hard at it with Jim's fleet left foreground & Rich's on the right.  Wind from the far right corner.

It's beena  while since we used these rules - they are dated 2003 - I don't know why because they provide a fun battle - we all had a good time even if it was indecisive.