Form Line Of Battle

I've always described 'Form Line Of Battle' as my favourite set of rules for Napoleonic Naval, but I was surprised when browsing through this blog, I discovered that the last time I'd played it was over ten years ago!

Inspired by the announcement of a new 6th Edition, I dug out my 4th Edition (plus house rules) and set up a game. I actually repeated the setup for THIS SCENARIO in which two British frigates faced two Dutch frigates in the Mediterranean in 1781. 

The British have Flora (36) and Crescent (28). The Dutch have Castor (36) and Briel (36). Flora is heavier than the Dutch frigates, and also has a new-fangled weapon - carronades. 

In fact, whilst I remembered the carronades, I forgot that the Dutch frigates were lighter and had a penalty when shooting at Flora. It might explain the final result.

Anyway, here they are all set up - British to the left and Dutch to the right.

It took me a turn to get back into the swing of movement, and I found the wind-attitude tools a lot harder to use than the ones for Galleys & Galleons (which is, to be fair, pretty simplistic in its approach to wind). 

The Dutch opened fire at long range, not wanting the Flora's carronades hitting them close up. They scored a hit on Flora. I got back into the swing of firing too. 

Flora hit Briel at close range, scoring a hit. Ships took a lot of single hits, but even they slowly whittle down the broadside factor. 

The little 6th rate Crescent also damaged Briel. 

Flora attempted to cross Briel's stern, but couldn't manage it at close range. 

The initial exchanges of fire saw all ships with at least one hit and some initial broadsides burned. The Dutch formed up heading down-wind, and the British turned to follow. The Dutch were using unfired broadsides though, so scored some more hits on their opponents. 

However a misjudged turn by Castor saw the British with an opportunity to rake it from both ends. Crescent didn't manage it (but gave it a good hit on the stern quarter) but Flora managed a solid bow-rake. Castor was now fairly beaten up but, unfortunately, so was Flora who had taken more steady fire from the Dutch as the lines had closed. 

Briel had dropped out of the fight for a short period with a damaged wheel, but came back in with a vengeance, delivering a shattering broadside to Crescent, which left the British vessel close to striking. 

Crescent fought on as best it could, but Flora wasn't in a position to come up in support owing to a small change in the wind direction. Flora managed another bow rake on Castor, but the gunnery on both ships was now weakening through damage. 

Briel hit Crescent again, taking down a mast. 

And the Dutch got their act together and raked both British ships. Crescent was forced to a strike test, but passed. However it was now spent as a fighting vessel. Flora took more damage and was now very weak.

With Flora trying to turn back into the fight the Dutch focused on Crescent, and a pair of broadsides forced the small frigate to strike. 

With little effective firepower left the Flora's best option was a tactical withdrawal. 

The initiative card system worked well for both sides, opening up rake opportunities twice. The British didn't get much out of theirs, but the Dutch used their two rakes to pretty much finish off their opponents. As I said at the start, I did forget that as Inferior ships the Dutch got a -1 when firing at  Flora. It might have made a small difference, but I doubt it. The British were outfought.

These rules are wonderfully old-school and fiddly, but not too complicated. However the constant checking of sailing attitude got wearing, as did even the simple arithmetic of firing and then looking up a die-roll on a table. I think age is beginning to dull my ability to play rules like this. Or maybe it was simply lack of practice. I will give them another go though, maybe with some easier to use player aids. I do love the initiative system, with each side's three phases being intermingled, and the random movement is delightfully unpredictable and often frustrating, generally forcing you to use conservative movement options to keep your ships together and avoid collisions.