Fort Charlotte

As a change from Vikings (however contemporary the Up Helly Aa festival actually is) yesterday we detoured by Fort Charlotte in Lerwick, which is a naval fort overlooking the bay and the use of Bressay. This is actually its third incarnation, as it was built and rebuilt during both of the Anglo-Dutch Wars before being rebuilt AGAIN in the 1700s - the latter incarnation is the one that mostly stands today, although it never saw action despite being manned throughout the Napoleonic Wars.

Small, but atmospheric, and an interesting little site.

Battle Report - 20 Jul 2019 - “Napoleonic Command”

Probably not fair to call this a battle report, since Jeff (author of the rules) will undoubtedly be posting a much better one on his site later.

Suffice it to say that it was my second go-around with the Napoleonic Command rules of his, hosted by Elliott in the Twin Cities, and featuring the Prussians (technically commanded by me and ably assisted by Elliott) against Jeff’s French who were attempting to reach Berlin.

I think this time round the rules clicked with me and we managed to stage a very successful defence of the approaches to Berlin, driving Jeff’s attacks back on both flanks and stalling his centre for long enough that had we gone on he was going to get enveloped from both sides.

Terrain by Elliot and IIRF largely Timecast, figures mostly (Jeff will no doubt correct my) Pendraken 10mm form both Jeff and Elliott’s collections.

More detailed review of the rules to follow on the next podcast episode, but for now I need breakfast and have a flight to catch home. (I foresee more reading of Dux reference sources in my future :D)

Battle Report - 10-Aug-2015 - Sails of Glory

 Back to the club for the first time in a while, and a nice little game of Sails of Glory. We went for something a bit different this time - Andy took a French first-rater (the Orient), while Miles, Dave and I took a frigate each (the Terpsichore, the Meleager and the Iphigenia).

It.. could have gone better for the English. It probably would have gone a whole load better if we'd actually coordinated our battle plan, rather than sailing merrily up to the Orient as we felt like it. The Iphigenia was the first to go - I took only a partial broadside from the Orient, but pulled a really vicious set of chits from the B bag, and wound up with one hull box left and on fire....

Ouch... Iphigenia on the receiving end of a partial broadside

For those unfamiliar with the Advanced rules for SoG, the first thing that happens in a turn is you determine if the wind changes. Immediately after that you resolve continuing damage (before things like movement and crew repair actions!) - and guess what, if you're on fire you lose a hull box. Exit the Iphigenia, a charred and drifting hulk, sails and masts ablaze (and probably with her magazine gone).

Miles' captaincy of the Meleager didn't fare much better: the ship wound up caught in irons when the wind changed, and due to some less than inspired movement choices, she drifted onto a rocky island shore and foundered.

Which meant it was all up to Dave and the Terpsichore....

The Terpsichore getting hammered...

He did his best to pull of a piece of Bolitho-esque heroism, but it wasn't to be - almost managed a couple of rakes of the Orient, but in the end the first-rater's superior firepower did for him.

A fun game, with lessons learned - we may well try this scenario again next week!

Holiday reading... ok, listening

Given my current gaming addiction (Sails of Glory, in case you've been on holiday longer than I have) it may come as no surprise to learn what my holiday listening was.

My right eye is still not 100%, so instead of print (which also takes up valuable luggage space) or e-books, I've been using up Audble.com credits on the Alexander Kent "Richard Bolitho" series of Napoleonic-era naval books - the series is being read by British actor Michael Jayston, who brings just the right aura, and a wide range of accents, to the novels. I was kind of hoping to grab some good SoG scenario material out of them, but Bolitho is, of course, the hero of a book. and thus most of his victories come against odds ranging from the unfavourable to the impossible, so some tweaking will, I suspect, be required.

Good to dip in to them again - Jayston reads them very well, and they're a bunch of rattling good yarns.

Sails of Glory - check this out

I was going to post about something else today, but I know at least a few of my followers will want to see this from the Anchorage: fredmiracle's AAR on the recreation of the Glorious First Of June at Enfilade in the NW USA...

I mean, holy <bleeping> <bleep>....

...and that's just the British rear division!

Battle Report - 25-May-2015 - Sails of Glory

All about to go sadly wrong for the French...

The game I was /meant/ to run, with fewer players since they'd all played last week - specifically, just me and Dave :

Captured, pardieu!

I took Le Berwick, and Dave HMS Defence for a little one on one scrap. Things opened up with a mutual broadside, causing Le Berwick to spring a leak and Defence to catch fire, and we spent a goodly while circling each other while effecting repairs. I missed one golden opportunity in which I had an uncontested broadside, but no crew free to fire that side, before eventually misjudging how close to the wind I could sail, and being grappled and boarded by the British.

And it all fits flat on the floor of the
boot of the Skoda....

Another good fun introduction though - that's another person keen on the game who is up for more :D

Battle Report - 18th May 2015 - Sails of Glory

That's HMS Terpsichore in the middle of this dance.
The wind's blowing bottom to top....

Well, that wasn't meant to happen this week :D

Sadly, Gary, who's running our 100 Days Black Powder campaign, is busy discovering the joys of parenthood, specifically the bit where your kids give you their viruses, so at about an hour's notice I got to run some Sails of Glory.

We went for a pretty basic 2 on 2 from the starter box, the French (Rich and Dan) having the Courageuse and the Genereux, and the British (Carl and Dale) HMS Vanguard and HMS Terpsichore.  Dale rapidly proved he should be let nowhere near anything involving sailing and the wind, as the Terpsichore found herself in irons, bow into the wind, then collided with the Vanguard, and then in rather rapid succession was broadsided, then simultaneously boarded and raked stem to stern by the French. Meanwhile, Carl managed to survive the collision (having the bigger ship!), and by dint of some smarter manoeuvring and being the only Captain never to get caught bow-to-wind, managed to sail to safety back off the British edge of the table.

Initial impressions? Great fun. I'd reckon a second game would be ample to get comfortable with the rules. You do, though, need a fair amount of peripheral table space for the ship logs/counter storage. Every time I found myself thinking 'I wonder if the rules cover...' I found out they did. :D I'd have liked more than 30 mins and a couple of YouTube gameplay videos worth of preparation, and the folks on the Anchorage forum are dead right on two points:

• it's not worth it unless you play the advanced rules (special damage, crew actions etc)
• the rulebook layout is NOT conducive to playing the advanced rules :D

The forum has a downloadable reference sheet [you'll need a forum login] with turn order and page numbers, and this is utterly invaluable and makes the advanced rules much easier to follow, as log as you read it through a couple of times, and then follow it step by step! As you can guess, we didn't for the first few turns :D