Napoleonic Naval

A small action to try out some new rules ideas.  In particular, testing out the IGOUGO limited by with command counters placed in your previous turn.  We invented for Dreadnaughts, where it worked so well we wanted to see if it would work as well for Men o' War.

Mark: 2 squadrons of French with regular crews, each 1 1st rate & 3 3rd rates.
Jim: 2 squadrons of Brits with elite crews, each 1 2nd rate, 2 3nd rates.

The French have both squadrons in line ahead with the wind abeam  form their Port side.
The British squadrons are separated one up wind & one downwind.

The Brits tied to combine their fleets, but misjudged & the French engaged the windward British squadron before the the leeward one could get within range.

The British flagship has coped a pounding as each Frog ship passes it.

The lead British ships have been so pounded they have struck their colours.  The lead French ships have changed broadsides to engage the leeward British squadron.

The 3rd British ship in the 1st squadron has struck its colours while the 2nd has floundered.  The 2nd British squadron is being so pounded by all 6 French ships, the lead ship has struck its colours & the other two have turned away to try a escape. A move that exposed them to so much raking fire that they too stuck their colours.

So we had the rarest of rare events:  A totally decisive French naval victory.  The Brits miscalculated their course at the start & as we've seen before, it's hard to recover from a bad position in linear naval warfare.  They should have conceded the weather gauge to combine their squadrons before engaging the French.

The proposed rules changes we were testing worked out well & will be adopted.