Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Russo - Japanese War Action


public domain
The wishful thinking of Russian propagandists...!

I've had a soft spot for pre-dreadnoughts since I first laid eyes on them; probably because they look like some kids made them from random bits of legos!  The inventive, unusual and even experimental ship styles are interesting to look at, while [depending on the rules] the various limitations of the weapons involved can make for some tough player decisions and interesting fights.

Also, the shorter ranges and slow speeds of pre-dreads means they can realistically fit onto a smaller table with an easy-to-manage time / distance scale. It can be tough to get a battleship with a 36,000m range fighting on an average gamer's table!  Pre-dreads are a bit more friendly, altho ironclads and age of sail are even more friendly, of course.

Even though the most famous naval battle was a disaster for the Russkies, hey, it didn't have to be that way... turn the lights out on those hospital ships for starters! Well, there may have been a few other problems, also.  Still, as a full naval campaign, the Russo-Japanese War  of 1904-5 is quite dynamic and complex, and both sides skillfully scored some victories through a variety of creative means.

My long-term weekly miniatures club has one person who agrees with me. Dave has decent fleets for both sides, and has been experimenting with various rules dynamics and mechanics for a while. This was his latest offering.

It was something of a running fight, with the Russians - in the distance, top - trying to circumnavigate a Japanese fleet - bottom - among an island group. I always pick Russians for their unpronounceable ship names, lacklustre quality, and the low expectations that go with picking the underdog. Still, the bigger the challenge, the more credible the genius if you win!   Plus, I like vodka more than saki, so when the battle goes south, my admiral has a palatable way to wash away his woes as well as his career. 
Above, the Russian cruisers are trying to keep the Japanese from engaging their battle ships. Unfortunately for the cruiser squadron, the Japanese take the bait!

Below, a Japanese battleship squadron supporting a cruiser attack on the Russian cruiser squadron - an island appears just to the right.

Below, return fire on the Japanese has mixed results. Next to the island, boldly handled Japanese torpedo boats lurk to keep the Russians from closing in on the Japanese cruiser squadron. Japanese gunnery being better, they will likely win the dual. Overall, the Russians are struggling with a complicated situation.

Below, most of my Russian cruiser squadron, and a stray battleship apparently beached to prevent sinking. We did take out a Japanese Armored Cruiser, which will be the highlight of my report to the Czar!

The ships are interestingly based on plastic Games Workshop cavalry slotta bases, 25mm x 50mm. This does make it a bit easier to pick them up. The water is cleverly printed from a picture of actual ocean printed in color! The wakes were painted on with white, and look quite realistic, IMHO.

The rules were a modified version of Brian deWitte's "When Dreadnoughts Ruled the Seas". Brian is a great guy and Dave the host had met him at a game he through at Historicon several years ago.  The rules are a good balance of crunchy and abstraction. Dave modified it for hexes and a bit more simplification of gunnery and a couple other things. For an occasional game on a weeknight, it was tough for some of the non-naval buffs to follow. In my opinion, game periods that rely on technical ability are tough to get right: the balance of technical differentiation makes the ships and period what it is, but players get confused by the arcane terminology.

Overall, the game was fun, but a bit too streamlined for me - I like naval games to be plenty crunchy, as that gives them good feel.  I don't like detail for detail's sake, or just to prove we know something. Details need to fit into the command level of the game, and illustrate critical differences in ship design and crew quality. But if it gets too simple, it may be tough to notice what period it is at all, which is not what I'm after..."a battleship is a battleship is a space battleship is an aeronautical battleship..." etc.

Just looking at these pics has me checking out my old Spanish-American war project. I like the boutique nature of the Avalanche Press naval games, they fit into a small space and don't take that long to play out. The abstraction does remove the maneuvering details, but replaces it with a "leadership skill" test that determines if one will fight at close or distant ranges.  That was a neat design trick. I may have to pull those out of a box at some point soon!

So...we'll see what happens next time, Adm. Togo!  Meanwhile, I toast you with the last of the *unbroken* vodka as the ship tilts slowly on its side...

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Star Wars Odyssey Slipways Fleet


Stealing a good idea from a pal, I'm going to start posting items I have for sale here, just in case the right buyer comes along. I'll try to keep everything oriented around naval / space ship gaming, of course.


First, Odyssey Slipways fleet ships 


in 1/10,000 scale, from HERE.
NOTE that most of these ships are presently Out Of Production, just a couple still being sold.

These are lovely scale ships, cast in resin. Very clean, easy to work with. No regrets with them as ships, I'm only selling them because my eyesight and time are more limited now, so I'm not going to finish this project. Heartbreaking, as I really like them. Ah well... 

They paint up easily and well. My demo presentation is a classic Star Wars ship - it was a medical frigate where Luke Skywalker got his new hand put on HERE at 46 seconds in.

Nebulon B Frigate from "The Empire Strikes Back" ending scene [ship is heading to you].
https://starwars.fandom.com/ru/wiki

Painting test- bottom is finished ship, including a shading, protective dip. Two above are primed in shades of grey. Bottom is a U.S. quarter, showing size [about 1.5" or 3.5cm] Easy!
  

Front view - lighting shows the deep sculpting - easy to paint!


Same, back view.


Back view, more flash - diminishes the depth of sculpting, but shows ship at play distance.


In the flesh with Studio Bergstrom Millenium Falcon for comparison [at 4x scale size!]:


Your fleet, presently sitting at drydock on my shelving...






Odyssey Slipways 1:10,000 scale capital ships for sale
List #, quantity of ships, type, total cost US$

  1. 3 x Nebulon B = $12.50 [one painted, two cleaned / primed, ABOVE]
  2. 2 x Nebulon B2 = $12
  3. 3 x Lancer Frigate = $10.50
  4. 4 x Corellion Gunships = $10
  5. 4 x Carrier Corvette = $10
  6. 1 x Imperial Escort Carriers = $10.25
  7. 2 x Carrack Cruisers = $10
  8. 1 x Assault Frigate A = $12.50
  9. 1 x Assault Frigate B = $12.50
  10. 1 x Imperial Enforcer = $12
  11. 1 x Imperial Interdictor = $12
  12. 1 x Flurry, Rebel Starfighter Carrier = $12
  13. 1 x Old Republic Heavy Cruiser = $11
  14. 1 x [Old Republic] Dreadnought = $11
  15. 26 ships = $202, pics of blisters / bags are HERE

Below, Wizards of the Coast Pre-painted Nebulon B for comparison...

Surrounding it are the next bunch of items, cool fighters from Studio Bergstrom!


Second batch are 1:2250, or 1/4 the size of the 1:10,000, 
so in other words they are four times as big as they should be. This is good, because at 1:10,000 starfighters are almost invisible! 
All games must exaggerate the size of the fighters in relationship to the capital ships.

Studio Bergstrom fighters shown here with Wizards of the Coast plastic Rebel Assault Frigate [as usual, somewhat bent]. But the TIE just above and to right is my test paint job.

You can see where I was going with the look - little flights of ships at various heights.
 Closeup of the Millenium Falcon in white metal


Anyway, these squadrons are from Studio Bergstrom, which is HERE.  Altogether there are 44 starfighters and 1 VERY FAMOUS tramp freighter! Why 44? In an obsessive moment, I think I watched the battle scenes from Episodes IV and VI and counted the actual ships doing the attack runs, and that's what I came up with...

  1. 1 x Millenium Falcon [cleaned and black-primed]
  2. 15 x X-wing [cleaned and white-primed]
  3. 11 x Y-wing [cleaned and white-primed]
  4. 6 x B-wing [mint metal]
  5. 12 x A-wing [mint metal]
  6. 44 fighters [@55cents] and MF [$1.70] = $26

For the opposing Imperials, shown HERE, I ended up with a nice batch of ships, including plenty of cannon fodder for the Rebels to shoot to pieces, AKA 24 TIE fighters!
  1. 24 x classic TIE fighters ["eyeballs"] [cleaned and grey-primed]
  2. 7 x TIE bombers ["dupes"]
  3. 6 x TIE advanced X1 [aka Darth Vader's fighter]
  4. 6 x TIE interceptors ["squints"]
  5. 2 x TIE experimental air superiority [sk x1?]
  6. 51 TIE types [@55 cents] = $28

From Odyssey Slipways [above]
  1. 1 x Tantive IV = $10
  2. 2 x 9 ARC starfighters = $23
  3. Total OS 1:2250 ships = $33
TOTAL ALL AUCTIONS = $300

YOUR PRICE$180

You may reply with a comment here with your interest, and "May the force be with you!"


Monday, July 29, 2024

Ironclads vs. B Movies

Was fighting your first ironclad scary?

No? Then how about your first Sea Monster!?

One of the regular hosts in the local gaming group has a flair for both historical and non-historical gaming, and occasionally he combines them. I've always missed those games and then regretted it later, so when his "Ironclads v. Mysterious Phenomena" was upcoming, I made sure to get there.

Each of the players got two Ironclads or ACW Iron ships from about 1865. On the other end of the board, a huge archway with dazzling lights within it turned out to be a portal through which monsters were coming. The job of the USN on this occasion?  Destroy the monsters and close the portal!

The first few turns were full of suspense, but only Moby Dick and a Giant Narwhal showed up, the latter ramming a ship but getting stuck for a turn...

However, it was soon joined by Giant Frogs, a Troll and Sea Serpent. The Troll mounted a small atoll and began hurling boulders at the gallant ships opposing him.

As if that wasn't bad enough, a dragon soon flew into the battle, his breath worse than any tarheel to take ship in the Western Hemisphere!

Below, Moby attacks my ironclad, which unleashes a full broadside into it - unfortunately missing 5 / 6 shots!  Clearly, my sailors were at their wits end with terror!

My iron frigate did hit, which made Moby swim off and blubber quietly a while...pun intended.

But that wasn't all!  The Sea Serpent decided my ships looked the tastiest. Rearing it's ugly head and baring its menacing teeth, it charged in my direction!
 
Below, the menace facing the USN - they thought the war was over!  Wait, are these monsters CSA, French or British??  Will they interrupt shipping?

As they reload their broadsides, my ships take up positions to "unleash hell" against the monster next turn.  Moby is blubbering well behind as we slowed him down.

A terrifying view from the deck of the Mohican!

Meanwhile, the Scottish Kraken - Phil Mac Kraken - chases down and attacks the Onandaga, snatching and snacking upon sailors through any opening it can get a tentacle thru! "Tentacally Sir, I don't think his tentacles should fit through those ports" says the officious engineering officer...

In a furious attack, the dragon dives down, huffs and sets an ironclad afire - sailors flambe??
While the surviving frog shoots his sticky tongue claiming the lives of a few more flies, erhm, sailors, crunchy them in his slimy mouth. The horror!  The horror!

In a masterful move, Commodore Alexander circles and then blasts the Sea Serpent, while staying out of reach of Moby Richard. Sheer nautical genius, if I do say so meself...
With an unholy scream, the Sea Serpent gushes his last...

But don't get complacent, laddies!  The Dragon has got us in his sights, and is flying a full cup over the battlefield, too high for our guns to elevate!  Oh, for a slightly more advanced weapon that could fire higher... the AD Gun?  Anti-Dragon Gun?

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the board, the Leviathan sinks a Union ironclad...

In the end, altho the USN was closing with and firing upon the supernatural archway into another dimension, monsters were slightly ahead, having sunk a few vessels while replenishing their numbers through unnatural means.

A fun game!  It would likely freak out some of the rivet-counters who tend to love ship [and tank] games, and would be likely to argue the relative effectiveness of huge sticky tongues and the reloading period for dragon's breath.  But I say sometimes you just have to relax. And that's what we did with this interesting adaptation of "Beer'n Pretzels Ironclads" by Buck Sardu and Michael Miller. Which had some streamlining changes by the host to give it more Beer and less Crunch! 

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Fighting Sail [S&T 1981] - San Domingo Analysis

Old Ducky may have My Touch...
from [click]
but he doesn't have my strategic sense, that's for certain!

When determining if a game has the right "feel", we need to consider if it gives us:
  1. Historical decisions the Commanders had, at the right level,
  2. Events and outcomes like the historical narratives we read,
  3. Opportunities for a different outcome to the battle, e.g. Napoleon wins Waterloo [if the French players play well], but in mechanics presents us with the likely results, keeping us in the 90%, 9% and 1% [typical, atypical, and once in a lifetime] of results.
For this, some analysis is required outside of game time, as we are usually too distracted when playing to do much figuring!

So in a set of naval wargame rules, how likely is the historical outcome for the naval battle of San Domingo, 1806? As I'm playing Fighting Sail [1981] these days, these are the rules I'll compare to history. However, I'll present a close description of the the battle that is good enough for you to compare your favorite rules out. I'll finish by examining if FS is likely to provide similar results if:
  • players make the same decisions as the captains and admirals, and...
  • the players roll about average and/or equally well.
As this was a very eventful battle, the victory conditions should give the French the ability to do better than their historical counterparts [like even one ship escaping?] and ideally should come down to the last few die rolls if both sides play equally well [note that this could be equally poorly, or equally excellently!].

In the analysis, the most important aspects of recreating this battle were the wind angle and the point of engagement between the two forces, which were not identical - the French had a First-rate 118-gun Ship of the Line.

Battle of San Domingo, 1806 from Wikipedia [CLICK]
Note: the below account is mostly from the Wiki article, but I've re-organized and edited it for clarity and ease of following tactically.

At 06:00 on 6 February Duckworth's scouts sighted the French, observing two frigates, five ships of the line and one large merchant ship anchored in line at the entrance to Santo Domingo.[11]

The French hurriedly set sail. The French Adm. Leissègues formed a line of battle, Captain Pierre-Elie Garreau in Alexandre leading with Impérial, Diomède, Jupiter and Brave following. The frigates and corvette took a position Northwest between the battle line and the shore. 

At 08:00 Duckworth's ships divided into three divisions: 
  1. a westerly battle line to windward under Duckworth with Superb, NorthumberlandHMS Spencer and HMS Agamemnon,
  2. an eastern battle line under Louis with CanopusHMS Donegal and Atlas
  3. The four British frigates were in battle line to the west of the British battle lines, awaiting orders to assist if required.[17] 

Duckworth was concerned that there might be other French forces to the west. He therefore angled his line of attack to pass across the front of the French line and signaled to his squadron to direct their fire at the front three ships: Alexandre, Impérial and Diomède.[11]


Over the next two hours [16 Turns] the British slowly closed with the French squadron, the British divisions breaking up as the faster ships outpaced the slower. Louis' squadron fell behind Duckworth's, while Agamemnon dropped behind the other three vessels in Duckworth’s division, which otherwise remained in a tight formation. A slight shift in the wind allowed Leissègues to adjust his direction to the southwest, but the close presence of the land restricted French movements.

Looking at the scenario in FS1981, the British appear to be in the wrong place, on the French windward side, between them and the coast to Northwest [top left]. The French are already at the point of being engaged at the scenario start, and there is little time to maneuver without being fired upon.
The below diagram appears to be more in synch with the narrative, placing the British to leeward and between the French and the open sea. 

At 10:00, on below diagram, Hispaniola [Dominican Replublic] coastline is to the Northwest, from which the wind is coming. Adm. Leissègues was sailing from San Domingo southwest to Nizao, following the coast. Therefore the French have little sea room to Windward [upwind], and the British fleet is to Leeward [downwind].

image from Wiki [CLICK]

On the game board, this would look something like this:
Note that the green and red die mark where the lead ships will be on Turn 3, and show the engagement point of close range Fire.

The French are paralleling the coast to the north or northwest, so shouldn't be allowed to exit the board from 0110 to 0101 to 1501 [the top left corner area]. As the French were trying to evade the British fleet, they should get victory points for any French ships that exit the board and are faster than British pursuers, as well as for destroying British ships. The British should get the usual victory points.

Analysis from Wiki article, in game terms:
At 10:10 [Turn “1”]  Superb was able to open fire on Alexandre.[18]

With the British flagship engaged with the leading French vessel, Northumberland opened fire on the next in line, Leissègues' flagship Impérial. The French ship carried 120 guns to Northumberland's 74, but Cochrane engaged closely, rapidly supported by Spencer, which opened fire on Impérial and Diomède simultaneously. [18]   For 15 minutes [two Turns] the British continued to close, both squadrons sailing westwards along the coast with the wind [both westwards and WITH the wind?  So the wind is from the East then?].

At 10:25 [Turn 3], the damaged Alexandre suddenly swung out of the line in an attempt to drive between Northumberland and Spencer [2nd and 3rd ships in Duckworth’s first division] and rake them both. Captain Robert Stopford on Spencer responded rapidly, passing across Alexandre's bow and raking her, before turning along the opposite [far? Starboard?] side of Alexandre and opening fire from close range. In the smoke and confusion neither Superb nor Northumberland noticed Spencer's move; both fired several shots into Spencer before they realized their mistake.[19]  

With Spencer and Alexandre out of the way, Impérial was able to engage both of the leading British ships, threatening to overwhelm them. Cochrane moved to defend the flagship by pulling Northumberland between Impérial and Superb, suffering terrible damage but preserving Duckworth's ship intact. Impérial's fire was so heavy that several shot passed straight through Northumberland into Superb.[20]

Destruction of Brave and Jupiter in the French rear
As the combat raged at the head of the line, the remainder of both squadrons strained [hurried?] to join the battle.

At 10:35 [Turn 4], the British eastern division under Adm. Louis reached the battling Alexandre and Spencer the two ships locked [grappled?] together to the south of the main engagement. As they passed, Canopus, Donegal and Atlas all [bow?] raked Alexandre, bringing down all her masts and leaving her in a crippled state.

Canopus then steered straight west – to join Superb and Northumberland around Impérial while Donegal and Atlas turned northwest to intercept Brave and Jupiter respectively.[17] 

When Donegal moved alongside Jupiter, Captain Samuel Pym in Atlas abandoned his brief engagement with Jupiter and steered to join CanopusSuperb and Northumberland around Impérial Superb and Northumberland  around Impérial .[21] 

Captain Pulteney Malcolm on Donegal attacked Brave directly, firing his starboard guns and then crossing Brave's stern, inflicting severe damage with a raking broadside, before pulling alongside again and engaging from close range.[17] Badly damaged, Brave surrendered. Malcolm then ordered Captain Richard Dunn in Acasta to take possession while he moved Donegal  forward to engage Jupiter

Taking advantage of Donegal‘s superior speed, Malcolm pulled ahead of Jupiter and then rammed her bow, securing the ships together to prevent the French vessel from escaping. Recognising that further resistance was hopeless, Captain Gaspard Laignel surrendered immediately. Malcolm then sent 100 men on board as a prize crew and attached a towline to the French ship, just as the trailing Agamemnon finally reached the battle.[20]

At 11:00 [Turn 8]Spencer followed Canopus to join Donegal, Superb and Northumberland  around Impérial as Alexandre's crew was preoccupied with extinguishing a fire on board. Alexandre was so badly damaged that she was unable to either escape or continue the action; she formally surrendered ten minutes later.[21]


Admiral Leissègues drives ashore
Under the shroud of heavy smoke that confused the positions and identities of the ships at the head of the line, maneuvering became hazardous: Atlas arrived and fired two broadsides into Impérial then raked the French flagship before her tiller jammed just as Diomède loomed out the smoke. Receiving a heavy broadside from the French ship, Atlas subsequently collided with Canopus as she too appeared immediately ahead, tearing off her bowsprit in the collision.[21] 

Turning back into the battle, Atlas engaged Diomède at close range as the rest of the British squadron concentrated their fire on the beleaguered Impérial, with the exception of the damaged Northumberland, which was drifting out of the line.[22]

At 11:30 [Turn 12], With his main and mizzen masts collapsed and escape impossible, Leissègues turned his ship towards the shore outdistancing the fire from the drifting Northumberland and leaving Superb behind; Duckworth was reluctant to risk his ship in the shallow coastal shoals.[23] Canopus maintained the pressure, pursuing the French flagship until it was clear at 11:40 that Impérial was hard aground on a coral reef, less than a mile from the beach. Diomède, under attack by Atlas and the recently returned Spencer, followed Impérial ashore.
 
As they struck the reef, both French ships lost their remaining masts and suffered severe damage to their hulls. Their crews then gathered on deck and made preparations to abandon ship as the British squadron pulled back out of range of fire from the shore.[24] 

During the engagement the French frigates and corvette had all slipped between the battling squadrons and the shoreline and escaped to the westwards. The British frigates were too preoccupied with boarding and towing prizes to initiate a chase.[25]

As Duckworth gathered his squadron, Northumberland's mainmast collapsed across the deck, causing severe damage to the ship's fittings. Although Cochrane's flagship was the most severely damaged of the squadron, all had suffered to a degree: Superb's men counted 60 shot holes while Atlas was out of control and Donegal had lost one of her topmasts.[26] Casualties were also distributed throughout the fleet, with Northumberland and Spencer suffering the worst and Atlas the least except for the barely engaged Agamemnon. Total losses were 74 killed and 264 wounded and several ships were damaged, but Duckworth was rapidly able to effect repairs as his ships remained on station to observe the situation ashore.[27]

Impérial and Diomède had both run aground between Nizao and Point Catalan, their hulls broadside to the beach and their bottoms stove in by the reefs that lay offshore.[28] Using the remaining ship's boats and with assistance from the shore, the wounded and survivors were ferried to the beach. 
 
Historical result: None but the French frigates survived. While the British fleet was badly damaged, since they held the field they were able to recover their own ships and those they captured. If any French ships of the line survive and escape, the French should get at least a minor victory.

Morale. Morale was clearly an important factor in the above narrative - some French ships surrendered quickly, while others fought it out. Therefore, it may be an issue for some players that there is no morale mechanic in FS - you just destroy hull boxes until the ship Strikes [surrenders]. Note that this does not include sinking, just Striking; ergo "Striking" in game terms may actually just mean enough hull damage that a ship will no longer fight. Given that it takes on average 7 Turns to force a typical 3rd Rate Ship of the Line to strike, which is 1 hour 45 minutes, that would synch with the 2-hour battle with no ships sinking but all Striking [or running aground...same thing].
- overall, depends on if you like a Morale Check mechanic to Strike sooner [or later], but the rules use a damage mechanic instead.

Ship Speeds. This is critical in any naval engagement, as the faster ships always have the choice of fight or flight, while the slower ships are forced to fight if the faster opponent wants to, and can't flee unless they damage the enemy ships and slow them down. [the other possibility is a surprise attack caused by low visibility, or the faster fleet is caught in harbor]. 

In this scenario, as set up according to the FS rules, the British may be in the wrong place historically, but they are in the right place to be able to catch the French ships and force an engagement!  If you correct the British placement per the above historical narrative and switch the British from the French starboard to their port side, the French ships will "have the Weather Guage" and always be able to react second and shoot first by the FS rules. Being on a Beam Reach, gives all the French Sailing Value A ships 4 Movement Points [MP], while the British will all be at 3 MP, unless they immediately turn the Frigates to port.
Even using the rules for "Studding Sails" [might be better termed "Full Sail" or something - FS1981 doesn't have variable sail speeds, altho they'd be easy to tweak to do so, and I have] doesn't make a difference, as the French will still have a better wind angle and get more advantage from the Studding Sail rule:

Additionally, the presence of the 1st Rate Impérial is significant - it can easily engage ships much farther out due to how the Fire mechanic works - it uses a linear model and bigger ships easily make up for the range penalty with more guns. This translates into about 2-3 Turns of shooting first, depending on the wind angle. It's a bit like a battleship in a cruiser fight! 
Above, note that the Impérial will hit on a 51 or less, so over 70% chance; Northumberland in return needs a 21 or less, about a 35% chance. Impérial also moves at the same speed as the 74's [which is historically accurate, it seems]. In one run-thru, Impérial managed to get four Hits on Northumberland before she could effectively reply! This also goes against the above historical narrative which states that the British opened fire on Alexandre first. Thus we see that the rules allow an engagement point that is much earlier and give the advantage to the French.

So, time to check another historical narrative!

Brian Tunstall's "Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail" published in 1990 [great book, btw] has the wind astern the British and French: "Duckworth immediately chased and with the wind almost directly astern of him, gained rapidly." This would make the wind from the East. If the British are gaining rapidly, and both sides' ships perform about the same, then the wind is likely East South East, astern the French but with the British just able to make a broad reach and force the engagement on the French who were trying to avoid a fight. Overall, this seems like the most likey combination of wind angle and sailing direction. 

Interestingly, the Wiki article's most recent source is 2006, so the question is who is correct?  The later books? According to the above narrative the French are heading west, turning a bit to southwest as contact is about to occur.

Another change for the scenario would be to switch the wind to come from the Southeast, heading to Northeast [the opposite of the scenario], which completes the change of the British to the French fleet's port side and still having a wind advantage. The deployment would now look something like the below:
Now there's no way for the French to escape without a fight. The British on Turn 1 will be at black die '1', same for French. But the Superb will be moving three squares a turn and quickly block Agamemnon's forward movement. She, and the French line, will have to turn a point to starboard, and start fighting it out. The alternative option would be to do something more radical, like a hard port turn, tack, and sail in an opposing direction to the British. They'd have to fool them at a key point, and it would affect their shooting a bit, but it is possible to do against a careless British player. The French may even destroy the trailing British ships.

This seems to put the engagement point of the two opposing squadrons at the right place, with the right wind and the right options. The French player will have to think outside the box and act boldly, but there's a good chance of doing better than the historical encounter!

So back to the original question, will FS 1981 give:
  1. Historical decisions the Commanders had, at the right level,
  2. Events and outcomes like the historical narratives for San Domingo above,
  3. Opportunities for a different outcome to the battle, but in mechanics presents us with the likely results, keeping us in the 90%, 9% and 1% [typical, atypical, and once in a lifetime] of results.
As presented in the FS rules [picture below], the scenario for San Domingo should easily have the British able to close assault the French - they start across their bows and ready to bow rake the lot, plus they've the Weather Gauge. I predict a similar outcome to history as long as:
  • players make the same decisions as the captains and admirals, and...
  • the players roll about average [at at least equally well].
The French could make a 90 turn to port, which would still leave them in that strange echelon formation, however the British are suffering from it also. This would enable Alexandre and Imperial the opportunity to batter Supurb while both sides straightened out their battle lines.
There is slim chance of the French doing better unless they immediately turn tail and run away, which is possible as the scenario rules don't prevent that! As FS gives the French ships better Sailing Values generally [B to C for most Ships of the Line] they may even get away with it.

In my modified and - seemingly - more historical scenario, the wind and ship locations will result in the British again having an advantage but this time it would be hard for the French to flee, so I predict another bruising encounter that would largely depend on the British player to make a few errors to lose.

Overall, my verdict is that both as originally presented [if not historically accurate] and as modified, Fighting Sail [S&T 1981] should give both sides an opportunity to re-fight history.

How do YOUR favorite rules stack up, you think?