Off the Coast of Florida

An Independence Day Battle

Once again I offer an American Revolution battle to celebrate Independence Day.

This is part of a series of fictional battles set in East Florida.

Introduction

Stymied in his efforts to invade East Florida by land, Colonel Endicott takes to the sea.

He outfits a small flotilla and hopes to sneak by the British navy. Alas, his force is spotted by a squadron of British frigates.

Top (red) - The British squadron consisting of the Ajax, Bucephalus, and Cato.

Bottom (blue) - First squadron (top 2) - Adams and Franklin. Second squadron - Washington and Jefferson

The Battle

The combatants loose their initial broadsides.

The Continentals take the brunt of the damage. The Washington is nearly crippled.

In desperation, two of the damaged Continental ships rush in to board their opponents.

The Bucephalus strikes! But Continental hopes fade when the Adams also strikes.

The remaining Continental frigates swarm the damaged Ajax, which is locked with the Adams.

Heavy gunfire forces the Ajax to strike.

Despite being undamaged and facing heavily damaged enemies, the Cato looks at the numerical odds and flees the battle. Its captain will have a lot of explaining to do!

Meanwhile, Endicott finds the sea lane to St. Augustine open!

Battle Notes

From 2018 to 2020, I played a Revolutionary battle to celebrate Independence Day. I demurred for 2021 because the scenarios were beginning to feel same-ish. That's why I decided to do something different for 2022 - a naval battle!

My East Florida campaign is now tied up at 2 battles apiece. Next year will be the clincher as Endicott will try to take St Augustine, and with it the entire colony of East Florida.

I don't have formal rules yet for naval battles. I just kind of made things up as a went along, using MicroBattle as the framework. 

I also don't have a gridded naval battlemat that is large enough for Age of Sail battles. I used a plain blue felt mat and a ruler.

The ships are 2D counters I scratch built back in 2018.

Storms of War at Sea

I did a little Age of Sail experimentation today. I didn't bother recording all the action, but I'll give you a brief synopsis.

First was a moderate sized (for me at least) battle with 4 ships a side. One Blue (bottom, with a white marker on it) and two Red ships (also with white markers) were forced to strike.

The I tried a smaller action to see if my rules would be too simplistic with few ships. I thought they worked fine. Here we say one Red frigate (bottom right) trying to overhaul two Blue merchants. One of the merchants is trying a long range shot (it missed).

 Eventually, the frigate caught one of the merchants and severely damaged it, although it took some damage too. The other merchant would escape.

I used the rules as-is for the frigate (i.e. 2D6 in combat). Obviously, a frigate does not have the same firepower as a ship of the line, but I essentially adjusted the scale accordingly. The merchants fired with a single die.

All-in-all, I have been pleased with the rules. Here is the latest incarnation.

One issue is that collisions were very frequent when one ship tried to cross another's T. The target ship had to move forward 1 space, crashing into the enemy. I may allow the target a chance to turn before movement.

Come Sail Away

Earlier this week I performed a couple of Age of Sail experiments.

Previous experiments utilized my scratch built ships (which I made in the early 1990s!)

Because of their masts, these ships don't fit well into my portable wargame boxes. I've been thinking about creating some counters, like Fantalonia's. I don't have a functioning color printer at home, so these counters have been shelved for the moment. However, I have some pieces of craft wood. A little snipping and painting later and I have 2 fleets.

I also dabbled with rules today.

First, I used an idea from Aelred Glidden's As Per Margin rules (in MWAN 109). Roll 2 dice to determine movement. Use the higher die if moving with the wind or the lower if against. Because my board is small, I halved the movement rates (e.g. a roll of 5 or 6 = 3 squares). To speed the process, I rolled per squadron instead of per ship. Overall, I felt that this was a positive experiment. It gave some variability to movement that made things interesting.

For combat, I rolled 2 dice per ship, needing a 4+ (5+ at long range) to hit. Given that ships could only take 3 hits before striking, this could get bloody fast. Thus, I added a couple of rules to lessen damage. First, ships could make repair rolls; for each hit roll 4+ remove a hit. Then halve the number of hits to determine permanent damage.

Here is a shot of my ships in action.

This was after several turns of battle (half of the Blue navy has sailed off the board without damage). Black markers indicate hits and orange represent permanent damage. After repairs, these 4 hits translated into 2 points of damage. At the end of the game, Blue had no damaged ships while Red had 3 (one seriously with 2 damage). These changes seem to be working.

Once again I had a game partner. This time Onyx watched without disturbing the pieces (although he sat on my box).

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Oft get derailed by cats.

As I mentioned last time, I was planning to add a naval battle to my Tweenwater campaign. Saturday I decided to set it up.

A Redgravian warship is escorting a troop transport to Blancport. A squadron of Imperial ships intercepts the reinforcements.

But what is that line of dark clouds on the horizon?

It's Hurricane Onyx, who scatters the fleets!

Per our house rules, the game ends when the cat sits on the board. Oh well.

I did get a couple of turns in. I think I need to reduce the movement rates (I was using a rate of 3" if sailing with the wind). I also think that a gridded board will work better.

But my biggest issue was with the combat rules. Most Age of Sail rules use a dice pool mechanism. I was trying to avoid a dice pool so that I don't have to scrounge around for a bunch of dice. I tried a variant of my space dogfight rules - roll 2D6 and consult a chart to determine if the target is destroyed, damaged, or merely disrupted. This mechanism works well for dogfights where hitting the target in the first place is a big part of the challenge. It just did not feel right for Age of Sail. Hits should not be that difficult, however ships can take a lot of damage. I think I'll investigate other options.

In other news, my 2mm armies are progressing rapidly. Here is the Red army.

Top row (L to R) - Heavy cav, elite infantry, militia infantry, elite infantry, cavalry
Middle row (L to R) - cavalry, 2 x regular infantry, general, 2 x regular infantry, cavalry
Bottom row (L to R) - skirmishers, artillery, skirmishers, artillery

Blue is also finished.

I went for very simple paint jobs - I only painted ground, uniforms, and hats. The idea is to create a recognizable splash of color that can be seen while looking down on the board.

And Now For Something Really Different

After the last battle in my Tweenwater War campaign, I've been thinking about the next scenario. I wrote that General Spengler retreated to his base at Blancport. Since then I have been envisioning a siege of the city. Perhaps I can assume that Imperial artillery has breached the city walls and the Imperials are attacking through the breach.

However, another scenario idea has sprung into my mind. Considering that Blancport is on the coast, the Redgravians can supply it by sea.

Of course, the Imperials would try to blockade the city, Which means that I need to fight a sea battle!

I have a smattering of ships but have lost the rules I used to use. Which means I am now on a hunt for some very simple Age of Sail rules (ones that will allow me to handle up to 6 ships a side while playing solo).

A sea battle experiment. Looks like rough seas.