The Age of Fighting Sail, Kiss Me, Hardy! 1/1200 scale 

First of all, I’ve got to start with an apology. This is a game report from 24 April, and I’m only posting it on 3rd June. The reason is, I spent the  time writing a book. I sometimes get tunnel vision when I’m at that stage of the writing process. Apart from spending up to 12 hours a day on it, seven days a week, I only managed to fit one other game in, which I’ll post in a few days. Sorry. Still, at least its done. This isn’t the cover  below  – its just a mock up, but I think it was worth the slog. It doesn’t get published until this time next year, but at least that’s the hard bit done! Right, on with the game. Sean and I fancied something nautical this week, so we came up with this. I was Rear Admiral Mangetout commanding the French Rochefort Squadron. It had slipped through the British blockade in a storm, but failed to meet up with the Brest squadron due to a storm, so this was it heading back to port. Sean commanded the Royal Navy’s  Blockading Squadron, trying to stop them making it home.We began with the French entering the top left table edge with four ships of the line and a frigate. They had to exit the opposite table range, which represented the entrance to Rochefort, covered by coastal gun batteries. there was only a narrow entrance channel though, and I had to aim for that. Sean’s slightly smaller squadron of three ships-of-the-line and a frigate had better trained crews, and so the odds were roughly equal. What happened next was down to chance and seamanship. The wind was coming form the north (the right in the picture above), and Sean’s alter ego Rear Admiral Kipper had his ships lying off the narrow channel entrance under easy sail. However, when the French appeared he had his squadron increase sail and head south, to get within gunnery range as soon as possible. For the moment though, the French kept sailing east. That meant they were heading straight towards the northern tip of the island of Óleron, which blocked the way into Rochefort. So, to get into port, I needed to head upwind, towards the north. That of course meant crossing swords with the British. It was all a matter of timing. I turned towards the north-west, and passed the British at medium range on the other tack. the two sides exchanged broadsides, but the only French ship to suffer was the Scipion (74). She was the last one on the French line, and the British pounded her mercilessly. My other ships though got past without taking any damage. For once I was firing at the rigging of the British ships rather than the hull, trying to slow them down. The result was the two lines passed each other going in opposite directions. That meant of course, that the French managed to reach the entrance to the Rochefort channel, and the British couldn’t.The whole British fleet was busily turning round, some way to the south of the French, and it would take time for them to get up into position to block the French. It was now a race – could the French reach the western table edge first, or could the British manage to stop them? Of course the poor Scipion was lagging behind the rest of the French squadron. If mangetout lingered, the British could stop his whole squadron from reaching the safety of port. So, I’m afraid Mangetout cut the Scipion loose. Captain Berrenger  and his crew would just have to fend for themselves.  That’s where we found ourselves in the position shown above. the French were at the entrance to the deep water channel leading to Rochefort, and their line was starting to turn towards the west. the poor Scipion though, lagging behind, with a damaged bowsprit, found that the whole British fleet were now firing at her! Actually, sacrificing the damage Scipion was the right call. The French 74-gunner was left stopped in the water, with two masts down, and the frigate HMS Endymion was sent to take her surrender, or pound her from outside the enemy’s arc of fire. The other three British ships raised sail, and tried to cut the corner off the French, as shown above. It almost worked too, but it turned out they were just a turn or so too late. As the French approached the western (short) table edge, the three British ships-of-the-line soon found themselves unable to keep up due to the angle of the wind. All they could really do then was to pound the rigging of the French ships, and hope to carry away a mast or a spar, to allow the British to catch up. Alas for them it didn’t happen. One by one the French ships reached the table edge, and made it safely home. That though, still left the Scipion. She put up as good a fight as she could, but with her masts gone it wasn’t  going to last. eventually she failed her strike test, and her colours came down. the picture above is the boats of Endymion sending across a boarding party to take charge of the prize. As for who won, the jury’s still out. The French lost a  ship, but it could have been much worse, and the British could have bagged the lot. So – it was an honourable draw!

Tags: Kiss Me Hardy