The Ionian Mission

Introduction

This scenario is based on an action described in the novel 'The Ionian Mission' by Patrick O'Brian. It was originally written for the first edition of the 'Form Line Of Battle' miniatures rules, but I have updated it to fit in with FLOB 4.0/5.0.

Obviously if you've not yet read 'The Ionian Mission' then this scenario is loaded with spoilers.

There's a refight at the end of the post.

Background To The Action

In an unknown year towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Jack Aubrey is in command of the 28 gun frigate HMS Surprise. He is sent on a mission to force the French out of a port on the Ionian Sea, and involved in negotiations with a minor Turkish ruler. The ruler captures Jack's transports and set out to sea to assert his authority. Jack puts the Surprise onto a southerly course to intercept the Turkish ships.

British

Surprise (28) - Superior 6th Rate Frigate, Elite crew

Turkish

Torgud (32) - Inferior 5th Rate Frigate, Poor crew (See special rules below, however)
Kitabi (20) - Inferior 6th Rate Corvette, Poor crew

The Torgud mounted a pair of heavy cannon which gave its broadside an extra punch, but which hampered its sailing qualities. It therefore moves at Frigate speed but turns as if it were a ship of the line (2 points per movement phase). The heavy cannon can be used three times during the game, their use being declared before the dice are rolled. Each use adds one to the Torgud's fire factor for that shot.

Setup

Use a table approximately 6' x 4' with the N-S axis being the longest.

    N                             
    ^
    ^
                      S
   
                           
            K    T 

The ships are as follows:
S - Surprise
T - Torgud
K - Kitabi

The wind is from the South East.

Torgud and Kitabi should be lined up about 15cm apart heading NNE and about 15cm from the Southern edge of the table.

Surprise is heading South West about 30cm directly NE of Torgud.

Special Rules

The Surprise lived up to its name and initially caught the Turks unawares. To simulate this the following special rules apply. The Turkish ships may not deviate from their initial course or fire until the phase after they are fired on or until they become alerted. They may only move on one dice although they still roll the 4 dice their attitude to the wind entitles them to. In each Turkish command and repair phase roll a dice. If the score is 5 or more the Turks are alerted. Add one to the score if the Surprise is within 20cm and 2 if it is within 10cm of a Turkish ship. On all following phases the Turks may fire and move normally.

It is recommended that the optional rul for Poor crews turning more than one point be used.

Victory

If the Turks capture or destroy the Surprise they win a major victory. 

If the Surprise leaves the table they win a minor victory. 

If the Turks leave the table and neither exit via the Northern edge the British win a minor victory. 

If one Turkish ship is captured or destroyed the British win a minor victory. 

If both Turkish ships are captured or destroyed then the British win a major victory. 

Any other result is a draw.

'Historical' Outcome

The Surprise initially engaged the Torgud in attempt to mask the fire of the Kitabi. After a fierce exchange of fire, the Torgud attempted to close on the Surprise in order to board, but was out-manouevered. This left the Surprise in a position to engage the Kitabi instead, forcing it to disengage. Both Turkish ships ran to the North West with the Surprise in hot pursuit. Kitabi and Torgud collided in their haste allowing Jack to use the corvette as a bridge to board the frigate and capture both vessels.

Refight

I first developed this scenario more than ten years ago, and have played it a few times over the years. It's actually a tricky one for the British, as FLOB can sometimes be a bit random, leaving their one ship vulnerable to a couple of unlucky rolls or card draws. But, I guess, that's how the fortune of war works.

I played this game using my ancient Navwar 1/1200th ships.

Here's the Turks, sailing along blissfully unaware that their treachery has been discovered by the British.

HMS Surprise sails nonchalantly into view.

The Surprise suddenly turns downwind and fires a devastating initial broadside along the length of the Torgud.

With the Torgud damaged, Surprise turns on the Kitabi, but she manages to cut across the bows of the British vessel. The Surprise is damaged, but poor Turkish gunnery means that it's not too bad.

The Torgud tries to turn back into the action, but damage and the heavy guns means the ship is unwieldy and it's slow going.

As the Kitabi turns the Surprise cuts tight under its stern, and fires its previously unused starboard guns. In a single broadside, Aubrey's well-trained crew smash the Kitabi, forcing it to strike.

Whilst the Kitabi drifts, the Surprise and Torgud close on each other.

Another devastating broadside from the Surprise.

The Torgud returns fire, and starts a fire on the British ship.

However the elite British seamen are well-drilled in extinguishing fires, and the Surprise fights on. The Torgud almost manages to cut across the British vessel's bows, but the Surprise turns to avoid this, and a final exchange of broadsides sees the Turkish ship strike.

In fact at the end of the game Surprise only had one broadside factor remaining, but the with Torgud in a similar state it was always going to boil down to the massive difference in crew quality; the effect of Torgud's larger size had already been neutralised by the damage it had taken earlier on in the battle. The British victory was helped by being able to knock the Kitabi out of the fight in one shot, avoiding a sustained engagement there.

Rainbow and Avon Again

I replayed the action between La Nereide, Rainbow and Avon this evening. It was a much closer game than the first one, with La Nereide taking some early damage from Rainbow as it closed on the British vessels, but then demolishing the little Avon in two broadsides without receiving an effective shot in reply. It then engaged Rainbow properly, and very much got the better of the fight until the British ship got a stern-rake in and forced the French ship to strike.

I tried a small change to the rules which allowed a vessel with a broadside reduced to 0 to keep firing. It counts as having a gunnery factor of 0 (of course), but suffers an additional -3 penalty. Additional hits on the ship don't reduce the gunnery below 0, but remember that a ship with a 0 broadside which takes any hits must roll on the Strike Table, so surrender is only a matter of time for such a vessel. I'm looking at amending that slightly to make it more likely a ship will strike the more times it has to roll on the table.

The reason for the change is the bizarre situation of ships with no gunnery factors being in a kind of limbo - not struck, but unable to participate in the battle. It is assumed that a vessel with a 0 broadside still has a few guns left to fire and men to crew them, but that their efforts are less coordinated.

Here's a couple of pictures of the moment when La Nereide destroyed the Avon, whilst engaging Rainbow at longer range.

Best Game Of Maurice EVER

As you may have guessed from previous posts, Caesar and I played Maurice last night.

We used my Risk-figure Great Northern War Swedes and Russians - the Swedes had seven infantry, four cavalry, two artillery, Great Captain, A La Baionette and Cavaliers, whilst the Russians has nine infantry, four cavalry, three artillery and Maison Du Roi, which was used to upgrade two of their infantry to guard status. Aside from the guards, all troops were trained. Caesar took the dashing Swedes, whilst I took the stolid Russians.

Caesar won the scouting, and opted to defend. We ended up with a sparse terrain in what the terrain card claimed was the Tropics, but which we assumed was a forgotten part of the Steppes.

And so the pictures begin - click on them to make them bigger.

The armies deployed, with the Russians deployed in the foreground. The Russians were conventional; multiple lines of infantry. Caesar deployed the Swedes in his favourite march columns, aiming to get them where he wanted as quickly as possible. He's very good with march columns.

Heroic Russian infantry. Peter the Great decided to confuse the Swedes by putting his guard infantry on the left. Cunning.

The Swedish cavalry was split between the two flanks, whilst that of the Russians, which included two units of mercenary Cossacks (because that's what you get when you're the attacker in this game) was massed on their right..

Here's the Russian cavalry massed on the right.

And, because I was running the Russians, it was the cavalry which lead off the attack. And - because it's traditional - the initial cavalry attack ran in to an unexpected area of marshy ground. If Maurice is to be believed, 18th century Europe was riddled with unmapped marshland.

Marsh? Pah! The Russians rode straight through, hitting one Swedish unit with two of their own. The Swedes fought back, drove the Russians back into the bog and then sabred them all. To death.

Ten minutes into the game and I'm two cavalry units down, and my right flank has a great big gap in it. I decided to switch the focus elsewhere, and advanced my entire infantry line. The infantry probably sang some stirring Russian song as they plodded forward. More importantly they brought some of Caesar's columns into musketry range, forcing him to react or have them cut to pieces.

The Swedish cavalry had a go at the Russian guns. despite being bombarded they got within charge reach. But who is that hovering on their flank? My goodness! Cossacks!

For the first time ever my beautiful Cossacks charged into action and defeated a disordered, flanked and outnumbered enemy unit in a display of great heroism, saving the Russian guns.

Caesar slowly deployed his columns, swinging one infantry unit at a time into line in front of the Russians, and carefully working the next column around behind it. Over many, many turns he slowly outflanked the Russian right flank.

The Cossacks again! This time they charged some Russian infantry in the flank, but this is still the era, and the part of the word, where people on foot use long pointy sticks, and the Cossacks were driven off.

There was a gap in the photos at this stage because things got very intense as the two infantry lines blaze away at each other in a firefight punctuated by the occasional charge and countercharge. The thing with Maurice is that pike-armed infantry units are less effective at firing, so firefights are far less deadly than in later eras. A number of units hovered on the verge of breaking, before rallying and getting stuck back in. Throughout it all, though, Caesar was slowly turning the Russian right, and threatening their guns. He was delayed by the Cossacks again, who stood under fire for turn after turn, failing to charge, but also failing to retreat. By the time they fled - permanently - I had marched the bulk of my left flank infantry over to the right in order to block Caesar's advance. In this picture you can see them forming up in line beside the Russian guns.

Outflanked Russians ...

Left flank Russians move into position.

Things got very confused and messy. At this point the Swedes had charged the Russians, but were driven off by the timely play of a Grenadiers Forward card.

Russian guards formed up in front of the artillery which, although it had performed well early in the game, was now becoming a vulnerable liability.

And now the focus of the battle shifted! The switch of Russian infantry from the left to the right had left a gap in their infantry line, and Caesar advanced his cavalry on that side of the battle right though it.  The surprised Russians fired one totally ineffective volley as the horsemen swept past.

On the other flank the infantry lines were getting more organised. By this stage both armies were getting very close to defeat, with only a handful of  morale points left.

The Swedish cavalry rode dramatically along the back of the Russian line ...

... and encouraged a Swedish infantry unit to charge in what it thought was support (another event card). The outnumbered Swedes lost the fight, and routed.

The Swedish cavalry hit the rear of a Russian unit, but couldn't quite finish it off.

The Russians about-faced, and the Swedes veered off, aiming for the Russian guns, destroying one battery. But their attack had left their hand of cards depleted, and there was a lull in their advance as the Swedish commander paused to reconsider his options (translation - draw a new hand of cards). I exploited this to charge with my infantry, weakening two of the few remaining Swedish infantry units.

Before the cavalry could renew their attack on the Russian guns, the Russian guards fired a series of deadly volleys which routed another Swedish unit, and that loss was enough to defeat their army.

This was the closest game of Maurice I've ever played. The Russians started with 16 morale points, to the Swede's 13, but going into the last turn they had 1 left, with the Swedes wavering on 2. The last Swedish loss took the two points, but the Russians were one loss - of anything - from their own defeat.

Initiative swung back and forth throughout this game, as did the focus of the battle. It was a wonderfully intense and dramatic game; far more so than these pictures or this account can describe. Caesar is a truly cunning Maurice player, and I was lucky to clinch a victory in the face of his careful manuever. A great evening's gaming!

Another Thursday Night In The Gong

I still haven't had time to put together my report of the Maurice game Caesar and I played yesterday, but here's some pictures I took of of the other games on offer, before I got sucked into my own game.

Firstly, another Maurice game - Austrians and Prussians in the SYW, I think. 10mm figures. This was Mark and Ralph, who achieved a first for our Maurice games in that they ended the game by running through all three decks - the Reshuffle card came out very early in the second one.

Meanwhile Dave put on a game of big-battle DBA 3.0, introducing a few other players to this radically new version of the popular game.

Persians fought ...

... Peter's lovely new Greeks (sans fantasy elements).

There seemed to be much discussion of the new rules, and the game appeared to be intense and absorbing, but I'll have to get a full report from the players at some stage.

Next Post: My game. I promise.

A Right Old Dog's Breakfast

Here's a picture of the Great Northern War 'Maurice' game I played with Caesar this evening

It was a truly epic game, but I'm exhausted, so the rest of the pictures, and a wholly inadequate writeup, will have to wait until tomorrow.