The French Admiral Suffren - Bane of the Royal Navy

After finishing listening to Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power on History" (although I have to say, it was a much longer than expected slog), I was delighted to uncover an aspect of naval history I was completely ignorant of, namely the illustrious career of the French Admiral Suffren, who was the bane of the Royal Navy on the India station in the late eighteenth century. I have to confess to my relative ignorance of the of both the "Age of Sail" and this great French admiral (other than a class of French WWI vintage armoured cruisers being named after ), things I am trying to address (see below, the Wikipedia link is a very useful starting point):  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Andr%C3%A9_de_Suffren

There is also a wonderfully titled tomb (Satan's admiral) on Admiral Suffren's career, but it is somewhat outside of my price range and budget (see below, I ask you is there nothing [in theory] you cannot buy on Amazon?):  

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Admiral-Satan-Life-Campaigns-Suffren/dp/185043686X

From my internet poking I see there are plenty of other wargame bloggers have tread the Suffren path before: 

http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2020/12/admiral-satan-life-campaigns-of-suffren.html

http://devonwargames.blogspot.com/2013/02/battle-of-sadras-1782.html

There are even board games to play: 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31251/monsoon-seas-naval-warfare-south-atlantic-and-indi

Interesting "Age of Sail" web-site:

http://www.larsonweb.com/transfer/miniatures/sail/sailhomepage.htm

More doubtless to follow ;) 

"Form Line of Battle" : Napoleonic Naval Small Squadron Action

A small Royal Navy squadron of HMS Thunderer (74) and HMS Canopus (80) spots a suspicious pair of sails on the distant horizon (see below):

The sails turn out to be a small French squadron of two ships Le Franklin (74) and the Commerce de Marseilles (120) obviously intent on conducting a secret mission for the Emperor (see below):

Despite being out gunned the Royal Navy commander decides on a aggressive strategy of cutting the enemy (French) line, so the fittingly named HMS Thunderer leads the charge. HMS Canopus and the Commerce de Marseilles have exchanged fire resulting in "sail and mast" damage to both. As HMS Thunderer blocks HMS Canopus' line of sight to the French flagship Canopus turns her attention to the Le Franklin (see below, British squadron at top of photograph, French bottom):

The ambitious "breaking the line" manoeuvre goes somewhat awry as the captain of HMS Thunderer miscalculates the relative speeds of the two ships and impales herself on a ship twice her size (a crew of over a thousand Frenchmen compared to under five hundred British sailors). This meant interested reading and re-reading of the collision rules (see below):

As a wargame the battle had to be left unfinished, in rather a shambolic state, with the French flagship being entangled with the small British 74 (HMS Thundered). HMS Canopus and Le Franklin meanwhile continued their exchanges of broadside upon broadside, leaving both in a state of mutual "de-sailing and de-masting" (see below):

Chances are the Le Franklin will succumb to the continued attention of HMS Canopus as both ships become static floating fortresses, the rate of fire from the British being better. However if HMS Thunderer cannot untangle herself from the French flagship ultimately the battle will be lost to the French.

A 60:40 probability to the French methinks ;)

French Sea-Wolves (Part III of III)

Rigging, sails and masts torn away the British 100 gunner is hard to move, her only choice is really plough on or face a bow or stern rake (see below):

The lead French ship is at least suffering too (see below):

However she presses on impressively fire another telling broadside (see below):

Covering the second French "Sea-Wolf" to close to the vulnerable stern side of the British ship. Not quite there for a stern rake yet, but yet more rigging hits (see below):

There is still plenty of fight left in the British ship, but with her decreasing amount sail she is slowly becoming a fortified island rather than a ship of the line (see below):

Here we called a close to proceedings. The consensus being that unless British "help" turned up the 100 gunner was a lost cause. She may have taken a Frenchman with her but it seemed almost just a "matter of time".

Two French "ships of the line" versus one British "ship of the line" had swung the odds too much in favour of the French. What was also interesting is that the jump between "third rate" to "second or first rate" ships seems to be less of an increase in killing power than we expected. "Third rates" can stand in line of battle and trade it with their bigger cousins. Especially RN "third rates"!

Coming soon to the "wet wargaming table": Three French versus Two British!

French Sea-Wolves (Part II of III)

The French Formation Turns:

The French fleet (ahem, OK their two ship squadron) turns in succession (see below):

The British suffer 'lost sails' which makes an already  tactically challenging situation with an unfavourable "weather gauge" even more challenging (see below):

The Gun Fight Continues: 

The French have scored early hits. The British however do at last get a telling reply in from their 100 gun broadside and French sails come crashing down (see below):

The alternating shots (as the French fire 'every other go') from the French Squadron at least give them continuous fire (see below):

The Royal Navy are suffering. The expected devastating broadside of the 100 gunner is not manifesting itself as the Death Star it was expected to be. In fact the British gunners are statistically "missing" more than expected. The lead French ship is taking hits and her compatriot is bunching up to her because of her reduced speed (see below):

The second French ship is now freed for independent action rather than be masked by or mask the guns of her admiral in the lead.

French Sea-Wolves (Part I of III)

Time to stack the odds against the Royal Navy who so far have trounced the French Navy good and proper in one-to-one encounters. Two French third-rate 74's (with a total of 154 guns, er do the math?) come across a mighty second-rate RN 100 gunner "alone" at sea. It was thought that the 100 gunner would be such a devastating force in a fight the French were still likely to be blown away. Will it be the hour of the French Sea-Wolves or more broken French match-sticks floating in the sea? The scene is set below, bottom for the French, top for the British):

The fleets slowly converge with the French being slightly favoured with the "weather gauge" as the wind is blowing across at the British ship (a very nice GHQ 1/1200 model from another wargamer) so the Brit would have trouble trying to sail at the French as he would have head into the wind. The "weather gauge" was a random factor not written into the scenario (see below):

The French Commander or should I say Admiral (me) decided to take the initiative and close the range with the Brit (see below):

By choosing to close the range in the same fashion again for another consecutive turn (can anybody else see the parallel with The Battle of the Denmark Straits?) rapidly decreased the distance but caused the Royal Navy Commander to burst at the seems with an opportunity to deal a 100 gun bow -rake, though a long range (see below):

The Frenchman had the luck of the devil as the British gunners uncharacteristically missed. The helm was brought about and the lead French shipped fired. Tears and gaping holes in the British sails boasted of good French dice rolls. (see below):

The French had yet to bring the full squadron broadside into play as the French formation was turning in succession. This evened up the tactics rather than letting the French duo split up right from the start. The second French ship is constrained to play follow the leader until circumstances (such as battle damage) dictate otherwise.

PS I think the sea is pretty cool, being a relatively cheap table covering (that never saw a dinner service placed on it). I will have to keep an eye out for one!

The Dual Revisited (5): Closing Rounds

The Le Franklin's masts and rigging are now in a poor and sorry state of affairs (see below):

Her only hope is to try and pull away, clear the fallen rigging from her decks and hope for a change of wind or sea state to escape. HMS Thunderer meanwhile has other ideas and gives Le Franklin a medium range broadside, but misses (see below):

Undaunted, with a deft turn of the helm HMS Thunderer comes about with the intent of causing more mischief aboard the labouring Frenchman (see below):  

A stern rake to add to the Le Franklin's agony. The French crew morale is plummeting (see below):

The final act of the drama ensues, a short chase is on as HMS Thunderer mercilessly pursues Le Franklin, the Royal Navy captain is obviously thinking of the prize money at stake (see below):

The Frenchman sees the Royal Navy gaining, with no hope of rescue, the French Captain eventually "strikes her colours" to signal surrender and preserve life (see below):

So ends the min-epic sea drama. Two - nil to the Royal Navy so far!

The Dual Revisited (4): Deadly Fire

The British 'master gunners' unleashed hell, bit missed the rather large French battleship (see below, argh, don't roll a one):

The Frenchman sees his chance, but he too misses (see below)

This time the range is so close nobody can possibly miss (see below):

The British fair better in the exchange and use their superior seamanship to good effect setting up a bow rake (see below):

"Deadly Fire" ensues (see below):

One rather bedraggled and sad looking French "ship of the line" starts thinking of "going home" (see below):

Next: An interesting "morale test" to follow.

The Duel Revisited (3): Closing the range

The second firing pass sees HMS Thunderer opening fire on Le Franklin, but sadly (as I am playing the British) missing (see below):

Le Franklin returns fire but she too clean misses her mark. The range though is slowly decreasing to provide a nastier type of fight (see below):

As the ships pull away in search of gaining the "weather gauge", Le Franklin attempts an extreme/long range rake. 

This seems to be the naval fashion of play as the French seem to "want to get lucky" whereas the British inevitably "get lucky" at some point (see below):

The Frenchman shoots but to no avail (see below):

However both ships set themselves on a converging course (see below):

The captains sit it out as their respective broadsides lie "out of arc," well at least for the time (see below):

The Frenchman comes into arc and fires, but misses (see below):

Whereas the English captain holds his nerve and responds at a closer range band for a 'hopefully' better effect (see below):

In the words of Nelson, "This will soon become a hot affair."

The Dual Revisited (2): Firing Commences

Ships firing like this look rather bland (see below):

But with addition of a little smoke marker, it can get quite atmospheric.

Note: It will also help when the number of ships increases (and along with it the obligatory book work and also with it the capacity for 'innocent' mistakes) with the racking of which side of a ship 'has' and 'has not' fired (see below):

The first fire was simultaneous, with the British choosing to aim their shots at the sails, masts and rigging, scoring (even at this long range) a hit to remove one French middle sail, taking the top sail with it (small pieces of paper serving as handy damage markers, needed as damaged sails etc are to be cut away one section per turn - something that was picked up in the rules since last game).

Now it was time for the Royal Navy to take the return fire from the French (see below):

Again the atmospheric smoke comes into play (see below):

But the Frenchman misses and both ships sail majestically by, note the Frenchman still frantically cutting away at the remaining sail dragging behind it in the water (see below):

Cleared for action both participants prepare for a second pass (see below):

Turning to face each other they are both 'just out' of gunnery arc and steady themselves for the onslaught in the next turn.

Note: Already, even in the early stages of combat, the Frenchman is at a disadvantage when trying to manoeuvre into position thanks to losing that middle sail (see below):

"Fire as she bears Mr Christian" (see below):

I like this shot, I find it quite atmospheric. I suppose I am also a long, long, long way away from anything that resembles a cannon ball so hence not in the least bit frightened!

:)

Next: The Deadly Closing Circle of Death

The Dual Revisited (1): Le Franklin versus HMS Thunderer (1/1200 NapNaval)

As if the sands of time had somehow been reversed, the Le Franklin's topsail hove into view from the lookout's position aboard HMS Thunderer. Armed with the revised interpretations of the Action Under Sail (4th Edition) rules the combatants 'made ready', the players had also switched playing sides from last time, so the French players were British and visa versa.

Both ships start with the wind on their quarter, coming from the left hand side of the photograph (see below):

The Royal Navy Commander contemplates a turn towards the wind to bring himself across the bow of the Frenchman (see below):

Both captains have chosen identical tactics to try and gain advantage of the "weather gauge" (see below):

The Frenchman seems to be gaining a slight advantage, though she sailing periolously close to the wind for her average rated crew (see below):

This is becoming a tense affair as the Frenchman has now reached her maximum position (without sustaining damage) while the Royal Navy crew have something in reserve as they can take their vessel closer to the wind if need be. They are waiting to see if the Frenchman makes a mistake (see below):

The Frenchman is now making little or no headway against the wind whereas the British still have managed to keep a full sail (see below):

This allows the British Commander to narrow the gap before his sails sag, bereft of power, both captains are ready to bring their helms around for action (see below):

From a slow crawl to a sudden spurt of speed and the two ships haul alongside each other (see below):

Both sides get ready to deliver their first broadsides. Already a tactical affair, this game has a developing sense of drama about it. Both players are cagey and are trying to size their opposition up before totally committing themselves on a full-blooded strategy.

Next: Fire as she bears Mr Christian!