Tag: Naval Rules

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wargame rules wargaming

2nd Battle of Tinckermann Bay

The Red Kingdom had suffered a crushing defeat losing 2 of its 4 ships at the 1st Battle of Tinckermann Bay.

The Blue Kingdom had pursued its plans for invading the Red Kingdom and so the Red Kingdom sent another Squadron of ships to defeat the Blue Navy.

The Red Squadron ships set sail…………

Willem Van Der Velde Rijksmuseum
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

Again the Blue Kingdom Navy had word of the Red Squadron and despatched the same successful squadron, now repaired, to intercept the Red Squadron. The Bellona was added to the squadron.

The two squadrons met again near Tinckermann Bay, scene of the recent Blue Navy victory.

The Red Squadron approach Tinckermann Bay with trepidation…………

This time it was the Blue Squadron who were in a full line and met the Red Squadron dispersed in three groups. The Blue Squadron attacked immediately led by Abellino and Lyra.

The Blue Squadron sail into action confident of victory

The ships present were

The Red Squadron

Centre line

  • Elven – a single decker 3 masted FAST frigate
  • Neptunus – a 3 decker 3 masted ship of the line

Right Line

  • The Meshuda – a 3 decker 3 masted ship of the line
  • The Triton – a single decker 3 masted FAST ship of the line
  • The Allart – a single decker brig with a Carronade

Left Line

  • The Zugarte – a 2 decker 3 masted FAST ship of the line
  • The Sarpen – a sloop of war

The Blue Squadron

  • The Chippewa – a 3 decker 3 masted ship of the line
  • The Allegheny – a 3 decker 3 masted ship of the line
  • The Abellino – a 2 decker 3 masted FAST ship of the line
  • The Firefly – 1 decker 3 masted FAST Frigate
  • The Lyra – a 1 decker 3 masted FAST Frigate
  • The Bellona – a 3 decker 3 masted ship of the line

The Red Squadron seemed too spread out to present a threat and as the Abellino bore onward the frigate Elven turned, fired a broadside and scuttled to join the Zugarte.

As it happened both outer lines of Red Squadron ships fired on the Blue Squadron line who returned fire with mixed results.

The Neptunus presented a broadside to the lead ship Abellino who returned the favour. Behind the Blue Squadron quickly broke its line pursuing the seemingly disordered Red Squadron.

The Blue Squadron break their line

In the process Abellino found itself isolated as did the Lyra. Again luck was against the Blue Squadron ships as the Lyra and then the Abellino had their masts shot away leaving them adrift yet still able to fire.

Elven, Neptunus and Sarpen had done the damage.

Further back down the line Firefly joined the action at the head of the line while Bellona and Allegheny became isolated in the rear. In the case of the Allegheny it appeared she would soon be defeated. Bellona destroyed the Allart’s sailing gear leaving her adrift.

The lines are broken into a series of small ship to ship actions
Now Bellona and Sarpen (top left) began their own singular battle while Meshuda and Triton closed in on Firefly, one of the few Blue Squadron ships still intact.

The Allegheny could still make sail but was now disarmed, so she made much sail with Zugarte vainly pursuing her. Elsewhere the final reckoning was taking place.

Firefly managed to evade the Meshuda and Triton before being pursued by the Zugarte. The Allegheny had sailed away with Bellona close behind.

The Firefly fought a gallant final action against the Zugarte with the Triton now closing again (see bottom of picture).

Finally Firefly fled having lost all her guns.

The Red Squadron had defeated the Blue Squadron in the second battle of Tinckermann.

The Red Squadron had captured the Chippewa, Lyra and Abellino while the Sarpen and Allart had been demasted and had to be towed back to port.

The Red Squadron return to port with their prizes………

Willem Van Der Velde Rijksmuseum
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

The Rules

I had used the basic TTBnaval rules described in my previous posts including amendments in the Battle of Tinckermann post.

This time I introduced some variation on the ships themselves and added another weapon class – a carronade.

A carronade required the ship to be in contact with its target – point blank range and it throws on the broadside to hit column. The value though was always to be +1 on the respective broadside hit result. The carronade being just +1 on the to hit column meant throwing 12 +1 to get 13 and achieve the maximum 3 hits (2+1). Very damaging but not easily achieved. This combination of close range only + difficulty to hit, I think would prevent the carronade being too overly powerful.

In the event the Allart (a two masted Brig) had her masts destroyed before she could get into action and was left adrift with her shiney new carronade unused.

Another new ship for the Red Squadron was a “sloop of war” fast and well armed. The Sarpen did do some damage early on but was eventually brought to a standstill, her masts and sailing gear being destroyed.

Victory was secured in move 11 so again the game, with my changes, was contested between sides of differing numbers and capability. It could have gone the other way if the Blue squadron had not lost ship manoeuvreability early on.

Finally I have kept the “outcomes” unaltered because this is where the tempo of the game is achieved – brisk but not too brisk! And that is what makes TTBnaval fun to play.

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wargame rules wargaming

Rule test: Trim those sails

Photo by David Jakab on Pexels.com

Having had my naval warfare appetite wetted by a series of books ostensibly about land warfare, I now had to hand a simple ruleset for naval wars.

a 40 page compendium of rules oriented to grid gaming

Table Top Battles (TTB) is a compendium that include several rulesets, one of which is about naval warfare. The rules are clear – they are not an exercise in sailing simulation: I think they are a landlubbers abstraction. That does not sound complimentary. They are simple, quick, fun and to this landlubber just what I needed to play out some of the small actions I have been reading about.

The Blue squadron engage the Red squadron – the red squadron started the action one ship less with otherwise identical ships.
The rules reward broadsides although spectacular results can be had attacking the stern with a broadside
The Abellino has taken a hammering from the Red Squadron and limps away from the action with just one sail (= 1 move per turn down from 3) and its command intact in the stern
In a last exchange Zugarte of the Red Squadron finishes off the Blue Squadron Lyra but it is too little too late
Zugarte in turn is caught by Blue Squadron Allegheny and Firefly – no contest

I used the rules out of the book unaltered and found they were quick and easy to apply giving swift results. The original squadrons arriving in a line (two lines for the blue squadron) soon broke into small groups contesting their survival one to one and occasionally two to one. It felt right.

The movement is unlimited so ships can stop, go maximum or any distance in between if they have sufficient sail intact. Each ship had 3 sails = 3 spaces maximum movement. The ships could turn in a square with each 90 degree turn taken. This level of abstraction might feel like bumper cars. However the question is “is detailing carefully turning as a process – useful?” Whereas rules that focus on outcomes tend to the abstract.

Each ship is given armanent in the shape of a broadside on each side of the ship. The broadside can only fire at ninety degrees to the ships keel line. The crew represent other close action capability. This has limited range and impact yet 360 degrees of direction irrespective of which crew element is left in operation.

The final component is the command. This provides additional support to the combat elements of crew and broadside.

All 4 element types – sail/broadside/command and crew can be destroyed and that is the sole objective of the game. In this way you knock ships out of action.

The winning side is the one having the most ships with both some sail and broadside capability.

With 5 versus 4 ships, all identical, the advantage was signficiant and the result was all the smaller sides ships were defeated. You don’t get draws, I suspect, if fighting to the last ship. So any game should be time bound or have limited victory conditions.

As a basic quick maritime wargame it works. This landlubber is happy.

The rules are available online or in print here. http://www.gridwargaming.co.uk/p/table-top-battles-2nd-edition.html

They retail at 14 GBP – remember though, you get multi era rules for land, sea, air, fantasy, sieges and campaigns. The naval ruleset also covers ship to shore battles which I have yet to look at.

weigh anchor and set sail……….

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Military History wargame rules wargaming

landlubber sets sail

Photo by Sharon Wahrmund on Pexels.com

Having decided to try out Mike and Joyce Smith’s Table Top Battles (TTB) – the naval rules, I suppose the question might be why? why now?

The consequence of being taken in by post napoleonics and 19th Century Italian Wars has led me to 1848. In that year there were a series of revolutions across europe. Some, like the First War of Italian Unification involved such unlikely naval opponents as Piedmont and Austria in the Adriatic, while on the Baltic Denmark squared up to an aggressive German Confederacy.

Now I also stumbled across something else.

The Wars of Italian Unification are reckoned to have really got going after Napoleon first defeated Austria in the 1790’s fuelling the peninsula with raw ideas of revolution.

So reading about Napoleonic Italy led me to the US Navy in the mediterranean sea! This is something I have completely missed. Mind you the 1812 Anglo-American War has passed me by as well.

All these steps were made possible by reading books. I love book reading – yes I need access to online material but I love reading a “printed” page.

MacAulay’s Book 1 of his Garibaldi trilogy includes his hero’s failed attempt to join the besieged Venetians. Michael Embree’s Radetzky Marches covers the siege in more detail including some sea action.

The red book of McAulay written in the early 1900’s about his hero Garibaldi. I am sure Sharp Practice would work for Garibaldi at least in 1848 anyway!

General reading about the italian wars of the 19th century introduced the presence of the US fleet in the mediterranean.

this educational book is just right for quick reference – it gives excellent summaries

The First Schleswig Holstein War of 1848 includes some fascinating sea action – where the shore batteries won!

This is a fascinating war related to a famous question – the Schleswig Holstein question of course.

A book about Barbary pirates fighting the US Navy in the Mediterranean in the early 1800’s actually covers some of the effects of the Anglo-US war of 1812 and the whole issue of the lack of a US fleet that could even put to sea when blockaded in home ports by the dominant British Navy.

an interesting story about the USA squaring up to the Barbary states of North Africa who had got used to being bought off by the Europeans when it came to enslaving captured ship crews and passengers.

And that final book has led me back to the USA and some of its naval experiences during the Napoleonic era. That has somehow triggered in my head the need to test simple naval rules.

I am after small actions and a high level of abstraction.

a favorite abstraction icon from the Ferens Gallery Hull – East Coast Port by Paul Nash

While abstraction is an essential part of wargaming your mind of course fills in all the gaps to give something like this…………

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr/deed.en
Categories
wargame rules wargaming

On the Grid but all at sea

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Table Top Battles (TTB) by Mike and Joyce Smith are an excellent set of rules for my solo campaigning. The ruleset is actually a compendium of rules including air and fantasy not to mention siege warfare and, as you may have guessed, a set of naval rules.

My first edition Table Top Battles rules are unchanged in the second edition

All packed into 40 odd A4 pages the softback ruleset is short on images but strong on mechanisms that are simple, work together and can be adjusted or expanded.

So having flicked past the naval rules, on many occasion, I have finally succumbed. I dug out some thin card and scissors and pencil in hand in a thrice had two magnificant navies…………

The magnificent Blue Fleet “Abellino” armed with two broadsides plus two crew teams for close action. The Command in the stern adds bonus points when fighting while the three sails define the speed and manoeuvrability of the vessel