This 18th century naval battle was fought using the Close Action rules. The game designer, Mark Campbell, refereed, and provided the ship miniatures, which make a great spectacle.
This particular battle was fought between the British (dark blue bases) and French (light blue bases) using their Indian Ocean squadrons, with much overlap from the previous game. The post-game wrap-up was definitely in the French favor, so much so that the discussion topic seemed to center on how to give the British a chance.
I was again running the 70-gun Burford for the British, which explains why many of the photos center around that ship.
Click on a thumbnail below for a medium-sized image.
Notice the difference between the "Before Scatter" and "After Scatter" shots; the French had a -2 drm on their rolls, and had to roll twice, which made a delightfully shambolic-looking line.
The French wasted no time heading for the British line...
...to which the British responded by reversing course.
The French made a parallel line as best they could, with the weaker frigates Consolante and Flamand definitely hanging back. The British began reversing course again.
Since the fleets were now on parallel courses in opposite directions, the lead ships were moving out of the battle for a few turns.
The French turned line abreast and sailed for the British line again, while the British were under orders to follow Exeter in sailing around the rear of the French fleet.
The French continued their advance on the British line....getting close! The main action was clearly occurring at the rear of the British line, which because of Burford's location and trying to take pictures was hard for me to keep track of, so I don't have much narrative to relate about it, unfortunately.
You can see that two French ships (Sphinx & Heros) are heading for the same hex, an incident that recurred amusingly often. Not that it stopped them from winning in the end, mind you.
The serious scrum began this turn, and though the location and participants changed, there was rarely a lull in the fighting. The French continue to have some difficulties getting their line together, but they have succeeding in concentrating 9 battle ships against the rearmost 5 British ships, with the British van effectively out of the battle for another few turns as we tack into the wind.
I say "we" because around this time for better or worse Burford, under orders to follow Exeter in line ahead formation, had effectively joined the van squadron.
From looking at the pins, Monmouth and St-Michel lost hull sections this turn.
The British van turned into the wind and lost all momentum.
The British rear squadron actually was fighting against something like even odds on this turn. However, the French rear was running with the wind, the British van against, so time was on the French side.
The pins show Orient and Brilliant losing rigging sections, and Eagle and St-Michel losing both hull and rigging sections.
Entertainingly, ships of the British fleet are now facing in five out of six possible headings. We had definitely lost cohesion by this point, which given French numerically superiority allowed us to get picked off one by one.
The British van got wind back in their sails. Burford probably turned too soon. On the one hand, we were supposed to form a line, in which case I should've proceded further down wind before cutting over. But on the other hand I didn't want to run my ship out of the battle, so I figured I could resume my place once I'd finished the turn.
The British van is now in the formation technically known as "a clump". Burford and Sultan look like they're going to ram each other, but the wind direction will prevent any untoward mishap.
The French rear squadron was now able to make its numbers felt.
The British bumper-car antics continue, with Superb joining the fray.
The four ships in the British rear are now being fired on by seven French ships, including little Consolante, who was heading towards the British van as fast as her sails would carry her. Very brave!
The wind speed had dropped from 3 to 2. This really hurt the British van as it tried to crawl upwind. Superb veered off from Burford, which saved us from collision but put another turn or two delay until one of our best ships could get into the battle.
Burford got a rake from impudent Consolante, which was in turn punished by Hero.
The French rear squadron manuevered to get to the port of the British van, which took them away from some opportunity to pound the British rear. But the remainder of the French were doing a good job of that anyhow and probably didn't need the help.
Sévère and Worcester took a heavy beating, each losing a hull section. Eagle was down two hull sections by now.
The British are gradually getting their formation into some semblance of order, but Burford is misplaced. I remember on this turn getting the order to slow down to fall in behind the van, but I greedily wanted to make sure I was placed to rake Sévère if she in turn tried to rake Worcester. So I plotted "2" for next turn anyway.
Eagle received the concentrated short-range fire of three French ships. She took three morale checks and ended up striking. Not what you want when you force is already outnumbered.
As it turned out, Sévère avoided the rake and I just ended up in the way of Exeter. At least from a gunnery standpoint it was probably better to have a 70-gun B-quality ship firing at Sévère than a 64-gun C-quality ship. But positionally it was obviously not my finest hour, as subsequent moves show.
Sceptre got a stern rake on Consolante, who spent the rest of the battle running off the map . We had her down to a "G" morale but she escaped before we could force her to strike.
Magnanime and Sultan got into great position against Artésian, and managed to start a fire aboard her. Makes a great little visual.
Given the positions, and with Artésian and Consolante to balance against loss of the Eagle, British fortunes seemed reasonable.
Artésian continued to beat the odds and failed to put out her fire.
Burford lost her first hull section thanks to Illustre.
Sévère grappled Worcester, while Heros ran afoul of Sultan, unfortunately with the latter in raking position.
The French rear looked like it had a "every ship for itself" order. Vengeur went downwind to meet Superb, while the others remained behind without agreeing on exactly who would to try to break the British line.
With the British van actually getting into a line and turning about, Sphinx found herself the target of three ships...but not Burford. I figured the other three ships could handle Sphinx on their own, so I took the bow rake on Ajax. Another mistake, probably. Still, Sphinx took three morale checks and failed two; with "E" morale and no place to run she was clearly in trouble.
At the other end of the line, Sultan was clearly getting the better of Heros, but Petit-Hannibal in turn was raking Sultan so the overall honors were about even.
But the most memorable point in the turn was when Sévère boarded Worcester. She had a 20% chance of taking over the ship, and managed to pull it off! With Eagle struck and Worcester captured, it was clearly going to be an uphill battle for the British, but we fought on.
On the other hand, Artésian's fire continued to burn out of control, so that was some consolation.
At the far end of the line, Vengeur and Superb began what turned out to be pretty much a one-on-one duel. My sense was that Superb was winning, but of course (being a British captain) I would say that, wouldn't I?
Sphinx continued to get more attention than she wanted; at some point over the next turn or two she fell to "G" morale and was clearly close to striking.
Turn 20's highlight was Artésian getting another fire for failure to put out the first fire after five turns (a.k.a. the "Thank you, sir, may I have another!" rule).
The British in my section of the line were back to clump formation. Vengeur failed two morale checks and was down to "E" morale.
Artésian finally managed to put out one of her fires. Neighboring ships were preparing for an explosion, just in case.
Yep, that's Burford out of position at the far end of the line.
Consensus was the French won rather obviously, capturing Worcester and causing Eagle to strike. Among the definitely hurting were Sultan, Artésian, Sphinx, Consolante, and Petit-Hannibal.
It was lots of fun, though!