Naval Playtest 2

What should you do on one of the hottest days of the year.  Well, Steve and I stayed cool and met online to do a second playtest of my naval rules for my 17th Century ships that might otherwise rest unloved in a box in my cellar. 

Today's outing was really about testing the rules with more than one ship per side.  

The basic idea of the rules is to assume a lot of things happen of their own accord and just deal with the action and excitement.  For those who like to do tests for running up the main sail or shoot differing types of ammo, this is not for you.  The intention is quick and fun.

The mechanic that runs throughout is that a six on a d6 does something.  Each rating of ship starts with a set number of d6, for example a First Rate carrying 100 guns would start with 10 d6, a Fourth Rate with 56 guns might have 7 d6.  These dice are used during a turn to shoot, reload, repair and to interrupt another player's move.  There are only two modifiers, both on shooting, one for close range and one for raking.  

The ship that's been activated can perform its actions in any order.  Everything except moving requires a six to perform it.  The number of d6 rolled to get the six is decided on by the player.  So, if the Fourth Rater spends 4 dice reloading, it only has 3 dice left for shooting... if the reloading dice successfully produced a six!

A ship degrades during a battle.  Each hit is the loss of one of the ship's d6.  In a way, the rules takes a resource management approach.  The player has to allocate dice to different jobs.  However, as the number of dice (resources) reduces due to hits, the management of the resources become more critical. Thus, more decision points for the player.

That's enough blah, blah!

So, with three ships each we set about it.

With the wind rolled for, Steve was going to enjoy the early advantage of being windward.

Steve made sure that he kept the wind. Meanwhile, I was forced to tack into it.

Very quickly, Steve was positioning his ships to profit from the elements.

And so Steve manoeuvred nicely to bring raking fire. 

His ship, Le Saint Phillipe had 8 dice.  All of which he brought to bear.  Being close range and raking, that gave him a +2 on the dice.  Effectively now needing 4-6 to hit.  Which he rolled with devastating effect.  A consequence was the need to roll for critical damage. In this case my vessel was holed beneath the waterline and likely to sink if not repaired.

The raking shot that devastated my ship of the line.

Not content, Steve then brought a broadside against the same ship.

Steve would now board. With the crew decimated, it was easily captured.

Steve then used the weather gauge to sail into position to rake a second of my squadron.

However, with my 2 remaining ships, I gave a broadside and cut their line.

I will freely admit that I my knowledge of naval conflict in the age of sail is extremely limited.  However, I recall something from somewhere that gunnery fire from these ships required execution at the optimal point as the ship rolled.  I think that was to ensure the shot didn't end up being fired into the sea and killing sharks!  So, in a situation above with a double broadside the allocated dice are equally divided.  This is to abstract that the gunnery may not be at it's best on either side due to having to fire despite the roll of the vessel.  Nonetheless, even with reduced dice, was I still rolling with a 50% chance of doing damage.

But, this would be too little and too late.  

Steve lets rip with his cannons.

With that blow, my squadron has had enough and decides to try and put as much ocean between them the Steve's ships as possible.

I tested a morale/exhaustion threshold for the squadrons.  Essentially, a squadron would decide to withdraw once it had suffered hits equal to 50% of the starting total of ship dice.  My three ships started with a total of 21 dice.  So, I set the threshold at suffering 11 hits before withdrawing... which I did.

The final positions at the point my squadron decided that it need to get away.

Afterthoughts.
That was a lot of fun.  To reiterate a phrase from the first playtest, it was "fast and furious".  Exactly what I want.

• Whilst it played quickly, there were a lot of decision points throughout the game.  As the game allows for interrupts, the non-phasing player really needs to pay attention and is therefore fully involved.
• The game worked well with multiple ships per side.  One on one gave a good game.  Three on three was equally entertaining.
• We had a good discussion and quickly ironed out some creases with the boarding and recrewing rules.
• The "resource management" of the dice made the game zip along nicely.  Plus, we did not get bogged down in what mast was hit or how many guns out of action etc.  The abstraction with the number of dice meant that we could concentrate on sailing and action.
• There were critical hits during the game.  This occurs when shooting produces more than 50% hits on a ship.  This did not happen often, but was fun when it did.
• Steve and I had a good chat about turning.  Whilst the game worked, we both felt that a little tweak to calm some turns was required.  This I have now looked at and await an opportunity to test the changes out.
• I am, so far, pleased that the tweaks mentioned above keep to my design principles and maintain the simplicity of the rules.
• Lastly, the exhaustion/morale threshold produced a good end to the game and a decision on a winner.  Plus, the state of my squadron at the point that it was reached felt like the moment an admiral might want to extricate himself.

All in all, the game felt right and seemed plausible in its outcome.  I finish here feeling quite pleased.

Rivoli at the Broadside Show 2025

Another year and another excellent Broadside Show.  This year the Rejects took the Battle of Rivoli to display.

The motley crew.  I'm sure some of these are on the police's most wanted list!

This post is mostly about the game.  I was umpiring and barely had a chance to step away from it all show.  For other excellent reports on the show and the game I refer you to fellow Rejects Lee's Broadside Wargames Show 2025: Show Photo Review and The Battle of Rivoli 1797 - Posties Rejects demo game at Broadside 2025 and Ray's Broadside 2025 - The Rejects on Tour - The Battle of Rivoli 1797.

Surjit carefully eyeing up the table and weighing his options.  Having led the Austrians to the Osteria Gorge twice and failed, he was determined to crack this toughest of nuts.

The Austrians advanced towards the Trombalore Heights threatening Joubert's troops deployed there.

French reinforcements start to arrive while Postie can't quite believe whatever he is seeing or hearing.

Surjit launches cavalry quickly up the gorge and clears the deployed artillery and turns to face the French light cavalry.  The Austrians have already got off to a better start.

To add to the Austrian joy, Vial's troops are being pushed back from San Marco.

Hoping to maintain pressure and hold the initiative, the Austrians rush to climb the gorge and gain access to the Rivoli plateau.

Meanwhile on the Trombalore Heights, Stuart outflanks the French defences and sends the 85th reeling off the heights.  The rest of the French position is looking precarious.

French army reserves are quickly required to form a new artillery line.

The Austrians throw cavalry into the fray.

With troops being thrown back from the heights and San Marco, the French command is trying to form a new line using reserves and Massena's arriving reinforcements.

Alas, the French guns stall the Austrians at the top of the gorge.  However, San Marco is clearly in the hands of the Imperial troops.

Caught in the act!  What sort of lunch break is this?  Ice cream guilt is written all over their faces.

The view over Rivoli shows the French beginning to form their defensive line on the plateau.  All the while, the heights are being heavily contested.

Uh oh!  Austrian troops led by Lusignan have arrived in the French rear.  Fortunately, Steve commanding Massena's division had two units to turn and face the unwelcome threat.

Massena's fresh troops steady the position at the foot of the Trombalore Heights.  With the front line units exhausted and approaching exhaustion, matters are finely balanced just as Surjit launches his best infantry at the French units trying to hold the plateau.

But with an established artillery line supported by steady infantry, the French were able to repulse the Austrian grenadiers.  With that disaster, the Austrian efforts to break out further onto the plateau ended in exhaustion.  With further French reinforcements due to arrive later, the game was called a French victory.

That was both the closest iteration and the one that most resembled the events of the actual battle.  Some slight tweaks improved the scenario and made it a game where the French really had to expend a lot of nervous energy and thought in holding off the Austrians.  Thoroughly enjoyable.

A lot of interest was shown in the game.  Especially in the 6mm MDF figures from Commission Figurines, and the 2mm buildings from Brigade Models.

With so much of my attention on the game, I barely saw much of the show.  Here are a couple of pics just to prove that I did have a quick wander around.  However, I didn't get the names of the games.

I really liked that the terrain was entirely from carpet tiles.

This one was using Lego.  I think it was called "Brickskrieg".

I also managed to come away from the show with some goodies.

I was actually given these by Postie in exchange for doing some future painting for him.

A couple of dice trays.

The rest were bought at the show's flea market.

Hussars to add to my 28mm Revolutionary Wars collection.

A box full of painted 15mm FPW. Mostly French and some Prussians.  I don't know which manufacturer. I will certainly have to rebase them.

All in all, an excellent day.  There seemed to be a lot of people there, including families and young couples.

Well done to the Milton Hundred Wargames Club on putting on another superb event.

A Naval Encounter - Rejects as Guinea Pigs

Having painted a French squadron for the Anglo-Dutch wars it doesn't look like the Rejects are getting anywhere close to playing with these toys...

So, I decided to ignore the rules we'd planned to use (Mad for War by Barry Hilton) and quickly scribbled an easy fast play set to try out with the Rejects remotely during our usual online paint and chat evening.

The rules avoid a lot of detail for simplicity of play via Zoom.  I expected them to be rubbish and openly shared with the players, Dan and Steve, that they were guinea pigs for the night.  I sent them a copy of the rules as they currently stood... untidy and barely legible.

The rules as originally written. The work of c.20 to 30 minutes... and it shows!  Once they have been tested and refined I may type them and share them.

Each player started by taking command of one ship apiece, both classed as 2nd Rate ships of the line.

Their starting positions.

They were quickly at each other.  However Steve, commanding Le Saint Philippe, got into a position at close range and able to deliver raking fire.  It was devastating.

Dan, captaining La Therese, desperately tried to keep distance to try and make some repairs.

However, Le Saint Philippe was never far away and continued to harass Captain Dan.

Until eventually, Steve manoeuvred onto the rear of La Therese (!) and delivered the coup de grace with another raking shot.

That was the game over in just under an hour with poor Dan never able to recover from the first raking broadside.  We had a little chat about the rules and set about a second game.

This time, some islands were placed as terrain with the opponents placed behind each.

Perhaps having learnt the rules, the two commanders were slightly cagier in the manoeuvres.

Regardless, Steve managed to get into a position for another raking shot. However, his devastating dice from game one were now starting to obey the laws of probability.  La Therese got off lightly.

The cat and mouse sailing of both continue as each sought position.  Both having to contend with the wind and islands.  Steve was a little abler in handling running repairs compared to Dan.

Each sought to gain wind advantage.

Eventually closing...

...to deliver broadsides at close range.

The battle had to end there.  Steve and Le Saint Philippe were able to claim a victory by virtue of having inflicted more damage on La Therese.

After Thoughts
The aim of the rules was to abstract a lot and keep things really simple.  Each rate of ship starts with a number of dice with which everything has to be done.  So the principle is that commanders have to make decisions about their priorities for the turn.  With hits, these dice are reduced.  The reducing dice makes the decision making both challenging and critical.  Pleasingly, this seemed to be how things played out.

With the players' help, some, but not many, rules were tweaked.  The general opinion being that the rules played very well and were "fast and fun" (Dan's words).  This was exactly what I was aiming for.  We all agreed that the next test would be try them out with multiple ships per side.

My other aim for the evening was to test the remote gaming set up.  With no dedicated space anymore, I have to use the dining room table.  My concern was principally lighting the gaming area.  Happily, Dan and Steve said that my arrangement (two cameras and a special lamp borrowed from my son) worked well.  Whilst I won't be able to keep games set up over a number of evenings, it does look like single evening games are a possibility again.

It was a fun evening with turns that whizzed by.  Thanks to my guinea pigs Dan and Steve and their feedback.  I'm looking forward to the next encounter.