The after game report back in 2013 was in the form of a Commando War Comic, filled with inuenndo and bad jokes. I promised that I would not repeat that for the Napoleonic game. (it's a promise I broke of course.)
Players work on the ships log, sending in orders and recieving reports. Movement is done by naval charts, and gauges for sea state, weather, current and depth , as well as what the sea bed is composed of.
I used several different charts for the game. All were roughly contemporary with the game date of 1793, and allowed me some leeway in swapping between charts as the action moved from the channel to the Islands and then the French Coast. The game was set up to begin the two Captains in Portsmouth and one in Plymouth. Unusually for a Kriegspiel both would be on the same "side," the Royal Navy. The French would be randomly generated and their "moves" taken by myself as umpire.
The game began on anchorage charts for the two English ports. One Captain caused an immediate upset by storming away from port under full sail, without a pilot, but avoided grounding his vessel, and in effect gained a move on hs rival. What neither Captain knew was that I had given them both the same mission, the cutting out of a captured British ship from St Malo, a haven of Privateers.
Players were kept up to date by means of the ships log for each watch of four hours, as well as the political situation by means of the Campaign newspaper, the Naval Times, which I used to add in some Scarlett Pimpernell background, or more correctly the "Black Fingernail" of Carry on film legend.
1:2400 scale ship models were used on printed out maps on my table, and one chart measured 3 yards by 3 yards so had to be done in sections. Photographs of the sighting radius for vessels were all that the players recieved however.
Chart 1 Plymouth
Chart 2 Portsmouth
Chart 4 the really massive and impressive Channel Islands chart of 1793, too big to reproduce here but available out there on the net.
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