Under The Southern Cross

 A few months ago I got a notification that GMT Games had taken a wad of cash out of my bank account. This was something of a shock at the time, since we were in the middle of buying a house and already spending tons of money. Fortunately it didn't send us into abject poverty, and after the initial shock I realised that what had happened is that I'd been billed for a game project I'd backed a good couple of years before. And what a project!

A few weeks ago the game arrived - 'Under The Southern Cross'.

'Under The Southern Cross' is the fourth volume in a game series called Flying Colours. Now I wasn't familiar with this system, but each volume is self-contained, so I could safely buy Volume IV without having the others. 'Flying Colours' is a game of ship-to-ship combat in the Age of Sail. Volume I covers the classic British/French/Spanish stuff. Volume II adds the Americans. Volume III focuses on actions involving the Russian navy. And volume IV? It's there in the subtitle - South American Naval Battles in the Age Of Sail 1811-1841. When I saw that I signed up immediately, even if I then forgot about it.

What do you get in the box? Well, there's two booklets for starters. The first is the 'Flying Colours' core rules, which you'd expect. The second is the much thicker book specific to the game. It includes a few extra rules and rules modifications (mostly to cover things like river currents and shoals, since so many of the actions are fought in such an environment), but is mostly scenarios. There's some 20 single ship-actions and 25 squadron/fleet actions, covering all of the conflicts in South America from the earliest Liberation era naval actions in 1811, through to the various squabbles between the nascent South American nations up to 1841. Each conflict is accompanied by plenty of historical context and there's a good write-up of the individual battles. Sidebars cover many of the key historical personages involved. The scenario book is worth the price of the game on its own.

In addition to the books there's two quick reference charts, a turn sequence chart, two sheets of counters (one of markers and one with a counter for each individual ship you'll need) and three maps, two for the large actions and one designed for the single ship duels. There's some cards which are used in the single ship actions and, of course, a dice. The game uses a D10.

The game design is pretty standard hex-and-counter stuff. It doesn't have pre-plotted movement, which I like, but also dispenses with ship data sheets by putting all of the information on individual counters, and then using a ton of markers to show damage and various ship states. This leaves the board looking very cluttered*; I made up an A4 sheet with a box for each ship to put the markers on, just to keep the board tidy.

Over the past couple of weeks I've played a couple of test turns to sort out the basic mechanisms, but last night I decided to take the plunge and play through the first scenario.

It's March 1811. The Argentine Junta has dispatched its tiny, three-vessel navy, under Juan Batista Azopardo, up the Parana River with supplies for the Patriot forces under General Belgrano. The Commander of the Royalist Uruguay River Flotilla, Jacinto Romarate set off in pursuit, and caught up with the Patriots at San Nicola de los Arroyos.

Here's the setup. The three very lightest areas are land. All other hexes are river, with a current flowing from left to right.  The wind is blowing from the top-right.

The Patriots under Azopardo are anchored in the narrow river channel under the cover of a small battery. They consist of the Invencible (12) and 25 de Mayo (18) plus the gunboat Americana (3). Heading upriver towards them are the Royalists; the flagship Belen (14), Cisne (12) and three gunboats, San Martin, Fama and Gunboat #1.

The Royalists have 12 turns in which to sink, burn or capture all three Patriot vessels. Any other result is a Patriot victory. The game extends by two turns for each Patriot vessels which raises anchor.

Here's the action a couple of turns in. In Flying Colours at the start of each turn ships are either grouped into commands or are considered out of command. Commands must include a commander, and can either be a formation, where each vessel is within four hexes of another vessel in the same formation and facing in the same direction (so they could be in a line with the commander somewhere along it), or simply within the commander's command radius. As an example, the Royalist commander in this scenario has a command radius of 6 hexes. Ships that are out of command are limited in what actions they can perform unless they make an initiative roll. 

Players dice for initiative, and then alternate activating commands. Each out of command ship counts as a separate command. So by keeping your forces together you can move and act with several ships at once; always useful.

In this scenario the Patriots, whilst neither in a formation nor all in the radius of their commander, count as being in formation so long as they remain anchored. The battery counts as a command of its own.

The Royalists have pushed up the river, with the wind but against the current, maintaining a line with Belen at the head, then Cisne and finally the three gunboats San Martin, Fama and Gunboat #1. The plan was to hug the northern bank and pass by the isolated 25 de Mayo with each ship hitting it in turn. Then the Royalists would turn downstream and towards the southern bank to engage the two ships anchored there. Belen had fired a long-range broadside at the gunboat Americana, though, and scored a lucky hit that had badly damaged the little vessel.

(Note that I put the markers for the commanders next to their ships rather than on them, so it was easier to read the stats on both types of counter).

Turn Three saw the first serious action. The hapless Americana struck its colours. Belen moved alongside 25 de Mayo and they exchanged broadsides. In this scenario the Spanish have better gunnery than the Patriots, but the Patriots have the advantage of being anchored when they fire. Gunnery is resolved in a three-step process. Firstly the ships effective Rate is determined; all of the ships in this scenario are either unrated vessels or gunboats - the two smallest rates. A few factors can adjust the effective Rate. The Rate is then cross-referenced against the range to give a Firepower factor. Firepower can be adjusted by a number of modifiers; carronades add extra firepower and it can also be adjusted for ships that are over- or under-gunned for their rate. In this scenario, for example, 25 de Mayo is over-gunned and also equipped with a heavy additional carronade battery, so has relatively powerful gunnery. Finally the Firepower factor is cross-referenced against an adjusted die-roll to determine actual damage (if any). A ship can choose to target the enemy's hull or rigging. 

So back to the Belen and 25 de Mayo exchanging fire. Belen scored some light damage on 25 de Mayo, but the Patriot ship, with its powerful carronades, and an initial broadside, smashed up the Royalist flag and started a fire on-board. When a ship takes a certain amount of damage the counter is flipped to its damaged side (with reduced stats) and once it has taken enough damage a damaged ship becomes vulnerable to striking. A ship that loses all of its hull must test to see if it sinks.

The end of Turn Four. The Royalist line began to turn in succession ready to take the fight to the southern bank. But Belen was in serious trouble, so the wily Romarate transferred his flag to the Cisne which was next in line. A good job because the crew of the Belen struck the ship at that point. Cisne had survived its run past the 25 de Mayo, and inflicted a little more damage. It would be up to the three gunboats to finish off the Patriot ship.

The end of Turn Five. Belen blew up! Cisne was now crossing the channel and taking fire from Invencible and the battery. Meanwhile the three Royalist gunboats were engaging 25 de Mayo. San Martin had run up alongside the Patriot ship and grappled it, ready to take it by boarding. But the exchange of broadsides as they closed demolished the little gunboat, and when 25 de Mayo cut the grapples the San Martin sank. The Royalists had now lost two vessels, whilst the Patriots still had two of theirs, plus the battery. 

The end of Turn Six. Fama had cut across the channel to support Cisne in its attack on the Patriot flag, Invencible. The battery kept up a steady but ineffective fire. Gunboat #1 had closed with 25 de Mayo, and some brisk gunnery finally saw the Patriot vessel take enough damage to make it vulnerable to striking. Which it then promptly did.

End of Turn Seven, and the end of the game. Invencible turned at anchor to avoid being raked by Cisne, but this reduced the effectiveness of its fire for the turn. Cisne and Fama kept firing steadily, and pushed the Invencible into a position where it had to test for striking. Once again the Patriots were unlucky, and their flagship surrendered.

So the Spanish had won. And, to be fair, that was the historical result, although in the actual fight whilst two of their ships went aground and had to be refloated, the Spanish didn't lose any ships. I'm not sure if the Patriots have anything to gain by raising anchor either; they are heading against the wind and certainly can't outrun the Royalists. Plus by raising anchor their command cohesion becomes riskier and they give the Royalists more turns in which to defeat them.

I did play one thing wrong (that I know of) - I forgot that the wind-strength was Calm, which reduces the movement of the ships. I factored in the current correctly, but the Royalists should have moved more slowly. However I can just assume that there was a change in wind-speed on the second turn (you do test for changes in speed and direction at the start of each turn) and that makes everything all right.

To avoid the clutter of damage markers and markers recording fired broadsides, I made a simple table to hold them, and it worked fairly well. The author of the game actually sells a pack of cards for this game, covering every vessel represented and giving their stats as well as a place to put markers. 

So it took me around 2 1/2 hours to play this action. I'd got the basics of the rules sorted from test games, but still had a lot of stuff to look up as things progressed; how to manage striking, deal with fires and so forth. I'm still not clear on some of the rules (you can move through a hex containing an enemy ship, for example, but how you fire whilst doing it is very unclear and will need further reading). I'd certainly give this game another go, despite it being more fiddly and complicated than I usually like. But it was worth getting regardless; I now have a book of scenarios for a whole range of obscure but interesting South American naval actions, and it should be relatively easy to translate them for use with Galleys & Galleons or Form Line of Battle.

Update: I just found a set of rules for the gunboats that I'd missed in the specific rules which make them less powerful that I played them last night. Would have made a bit of difference to the game and takes away some of the Spanish edge.

You can find out more about 'Under The Southern Cross' on the GMT Games site HERE.

*In the other games there are a lot of ships that are fourth-rate and higher, and they get two hex counters, which allow more space for markers. This game features small ships with 1/2" counters, so they end up being a stack of markers if you're not careful.