Fighting Sail! Napoleonic Naval at the War Room

Pete introduced Rob, Doug, Brian and me to Osprey’s fastplay Fighting Sail rules at the War Room on Wednesday 11 March. The model ships were rather different too: full-colour 1:1,200 scale plastic flats from Wofun (a Romanian company), which looked very impressive.

Pete had created magnetic bases with stats for each ship, on which the models were placed.

Our game was a Napoleonic naval scenario. British (Doug and Rob) vs. French (Brian and I) with 28 ships on each side in three squadrons respectively. After setting up on the full table, each side spent 5 relatively quick turns moving and turning. The procedure was simple: either a group roll for squadrons, or for individual ships, although we mostly rolled only 1 or 2 movement distances (2″ per move).

The French were ahead of the British, and Brian and I tried to turn port (left) into the wind, which was challenging.

The British meanwhile had the wind at their backs and were approaching us.

On turn 6, the British got into firing range: the British middle squadron under Doug came under attack from Brian’s ships.

French gunnery was as follows. The Jacobin hit Caesar twice. The Juste dealt Caesar 5 more hits, and the Caesar saved from the French ship Northumberland.

British fire responded but the Caesar failed to hit the Jacobin.

The French continued turning into the wind slowly.

The exchange of guns recommenced soon enough. The Northumberland hit the Caesar twice, but the British ship saved. The Juste hit the Caesar once, and the Jacobin failed to hit the Caesar.

The British responded with deadly fire. The Valiant with 9 dice dealt 5 hits to the Jacobin, which sank!

Next turn I failed to move any ships owing to poor rolls. Each ship received an ‘anchor’ which affects movement and makes rolling even harder.

Meanwhile the British fleet was trying to come up behind the French fleet.as the French sailed into the middle of the table.

In the next round of firing, the Juste again struck the Caesar which led to the British ship being shaken and acquiring a damage token. However the Caesar saved hits from the Northumberland. The British responded with indecisive fire on the Northumberland and Juste.

I managed to roll off most of the ‘anchors’ on my ships, and continued to move most of them. Rob was unable to move any of his ships owing to a poor roll.

Indecisive firing continued between the French ships Juste and Northumberland on the Valiant and Caesar respectively. The British ship Invincible saved from the French ship Patriote. British counter fire was also indecisive. The Northumberland and Juste saved from the Invincible and Caesar respectively.

My movement continued, but I picked up some anchors for failing to get 6s which would have allowed me to move. As both fleets were turning to port, the Juste bow raked the Valiant. 2 explosions resulted in no damage however. The Northumberland failed to damage the Invincible, and the Invincible also saved from the Patriote.

However the French ship Achille caused heavy damage on the British frigate Aquilon, causing cries of outrage as higher class vessels did not generally fire on frigates. Dastardly French! British fire responded with minor damage to the Juste from the Invincible, but the British ship Tremendous (probably the best named ship on the table) struck the Juste 4 times, but the Juste saved everything!

The French rearguard consisting of Brian’s red squadron was being attacked by multiple ships. The Juste was targeted, with the Royal George hitting her twice, Caesar also hitting twice, as Brian took the brunt of the battle. Meanwhile my ships were taking ages to turn around!

Rob was frustrated that one of his British ships had not been able to move for 4 turns! Soon enough it was 5…

The next round of firing led to heavy damage to the Juste – 4 hits from the HMS Majestic. Luckily the Juste saved all but one hit from the Valiant, and all shots from the Royal George, the British frigate Aquilon and the Invincible.

Brian fought back. French fire by the Juste, Northumberland and Vengeur du People on the Valiant, Royal George and Invincible was ineffective however. Nevertheless, the Patriote sank the frigate Aquilon!

The French were losing the battle against the wind, and my blue squadron would never get into action. Meanwhile Rob’s southern squadron was coming up behind Brian’s red squadron.

We had reached the final turn, approximately the tenth. The Valiant, Royal George and Caesar all targeted the Juste. French counterfire was ineffectual, and the Juste was taking damage from the Royal George. Finally the Valiant dealt 6 hits to the hapless Juste. While 4 were saved, the remaining 2 sank the ship! The French had lost.

All in all the game was fastplaying indeed, particularly due to the playable mechanics enabling movement and firing to take place without protracted calculation. With two huge fleets on display and able umpiring by Pete, we had an enjoyable evening. Turning into the wind is very slow, and maybe the movement rules could be tweaked. However, we only had about 2 hours of play with 56 ships in total.

Napoleonic Naval is a magnificent period to wargame. Osprey’s rules have boiled down the over-complex mechanisms and terminology of established rulesets for the interested wargaming non-specialist. The rules summary is just 2 pages long, and Fighting Sail certainly merit another go – and a full day’s play. As a professed land lubber, I was glad to see an epic battle using relatively simple rules that I could hope to grasp one day! The two fleets cost around £100 and fit neatly into small boxes. Wofun ships are thus within the reach of the average wargamer who cannot construct intricate models but is inspired by the likes of Hornblower and Master and Commander. Many thanks to Pete for staging! Next up… Trafalgar?