Another Sample Game of Yardarm to Yardarm
This sample battle is shown with more detail than the last. It’s early in 1814, off the coast of Greece. A French Sylphe class brig is forced into combat by a British Seagull class brig-sloop. What’s different about the detail is a comment on what happens at very short range. As a gaming device to “encourage” players to fight at Close Hailing Distance, I do two things. The first is to change the movement rates at Close Hailing Distance. This is a very radical step, but it insures that vessels won’t fly by each other without being able to fire. No one knows how long it took to reload guns, so rules which force players to cool their heels for up to three turns without firing a broadside detract from the spirit of the game. If the firepower-to- damage ratio is historically correct, waiting to fire is not necessary. By changing the movement rates of vessels inside 10cm. of the enemy, it drastically speeds up play. Yardarm to Yardarm uses a fraction of speeds when fighting at over 10cm. apart. The upside is the fact that firing comes at the end of movement. (Note- movement includes any turns to be made. All turns are done AFTER moving forward.) Another concept which insures action is by players being penalized by firing at more than Close Hailing Distance. Frigates generally fought most battles at longer range than Close Hailing Distance. That’s why the average frigate action was close to two hours long. It takes a long time to make a ship surrender when the probabilities of hits are so much poorer than they are at closer ranges. So, frigates and larger vessels are exempt from the penalty from firing at distances greater than 10.cm. Small vessels are initially given thirty fire points. If those are used up, and the battle is not concluded, they must flee. That constitutes a tactical defeat! If a vessel fires a broadside at Close Hailing Distance, it counts as one fire point. Firing at One Cable’s Length, for carronade-armed vessels, will cost the vessel two fire points. Firing carronades at Musket Shot costs three fire points. For small vessels, armed primarily with short guns, firing at Musket Shot will cost two fire points per broadside. Small vessels armed primarily with long guns will be charged two points per broadside for firing at Musket Shot. Small vessels being armed primarily with short guns or long guns will be charged three fire points for each broadside fired at Gunshot Range. Remember, vessels larger than sloops are exempt from the fire point penalty.
The three most important elements in Age of Sail wargames are, in order, maneuver, gunnery and morale. If each is handled historically correctly, this will make for an accurate simulation. Board games may be fine for strategic battles, but moving a ship counter on a hex can’t approach the reality of ship-to-ship combat. You can have the best gunnery on the table, but you must be able to maneuver your vessel to get your best shot, while minimizing the risk to your own vessel. Gunnery is of prime importance to kill enough of the enemy crew to force your opponent to roll for surrender.
Okay, enough theory, let’s get down to the sample battle. Picture yourself in front of your dining room table. You are seated at the southern end of said table. Your compass is set on the table so that north is at the other end. The wind is out of the south-east. H.M.S. Oberon is on a west by north course. Slightly to their right, at 10.1 cm. away from Oberon, Coureur is coming towards them on a due west course. For game purposes, Oberon was forced to stop her forward movement, at normal speed, when she and Coureur came within 10.1cm. of each other. When the new game turn begins, she will move at a fraction of her speed. Coureur will likewise move at the same fraction for her attitude to the wind. The British player does not need to keep track of Oberon’s movements on his log, since he will simply place a playing card, face down, (each player will use their own deck) in front of his vessel. The French player will do the same. The playing cards have ZERO to do with probability. They simply correspond to the moves each player wants to make. When ready, each player will turn over their card and simultaneously move their vessels the full amount of what their card instructed. Some cards allow for forward movement, then a certain amount of turning points larboard or starboard. Other cards simply show the vessel moving a full move straight ahead, or cutting their move in half. After both sides have moved, eligible vessels fire at each other. Remember, these rules are for single ship-to-ship combat, so it’s not very complicated. Vessels have a 45 degree field of fire from the center of their vessel to the center of the enemy vessel. If outside the 45 degrees, the vessel may not fire that game turn. Players total up damage points, then go on to the next game turn by picking up the card they moved on, then placing a new card, face down, for the next turn.
H.M.S. Oberon b/s 1-6#, 7-24#c. 283 tons (builder’s measure) 15.1 points.
Game broadside 5.8
Game hull factor 16.3
Mast factors- Lower mast 5. Topmast 3. Topgallant mast 2.
Surrender- When 17 hull points have been reached, roll decimal dice. +54 saves from surrender until another roll becomes necessary.
Versus
Coureur b/s 1-8#, 8-24#c. 332 tons (builder’s measure) 14.55 (adjusted points).
Game broadside 3.9 (adjusted)
Game hull factor 24.17 (adjusted)
Mast factor- Lower 6. Topmast 4. Topgallant mast 2.
Surrender- When 25 hull points are reached, roll percentage dice. +46 saves surrender until next roll is necessary.
The Game
Movement on Game turn one. H.M.S. Oberon elects to move forward the full amount. Coureur does the same. Both vessels are now well inside the 10cm. distance from each other. Oberon fires five red d20s plus one purple d20, plus a d10. She scores 3 low hits and 1 high hit on Coureur. Coureur fires simultaneously. She fires three green d20s, one blue d20 and one d10. (Note- 11-20 scores a low hit from this range. 8-10 scores a high hit. The .8 and .9 decimals are handled by the odd colored dice, plus the d10. If Oberon gets a hit with her purple die, she checks the d10. If she scores 1-8 on the d10, that’s a full hit. Likewise, if Coureur scores a hit with her blue die, she checks her d10. If she scores 1-9, that’s a full hit. In other words, 9 or 10 are a miss on Oberon’s d10, while only 10 will be a miss on Coureur’s d10.
Game turn 1 (gun fire)
Both vessels are quarter reaching, so both vessels were forced, in the coming game turns, to alternate speeds between full movement and half movement, since moving at the maximum battle sail speed could cause the vessels to end a game turn out of position to fire a broadside. At the end of the move, both vessels fire simultaneously. H.M.S. Oberon scores three low hits and one high hit on Coureur. The rules state that shots aimed low, at Close Hailing Distance, hit the lower mast when inadvertently going high. Oberon takes one low hit and one high hit. (Note- both adversaries in this battle fire low ONLY. Firing high, on purpose, at this distance, hits the topmast, which will not cause the vessel to have to stop.)
Game turn 2
Both vessels move forward, but maintain their respective attitudes to the wind. Because forward movement is so drastically cut, when at this range, the ability to turn is cut to the same degree. These brigs are allowed to turn just two points (22 ½ degrees) at the end of their movement. Due to being so close, that could put vessels at an angle where they couldn’t fire a broadside. Fancy maneuvering is meant for being at longer range than Close Hailing Distance. Moving forward allows both vessels to come together gradually, but still fire their broadside at the end of the move. In this turn, H.M.S. Oberon scores two low hits, but three hits go wild and hit the lower mast. Coureur has a lower mast strength of just 6, so she’s already received 4 damage points there, in two game turns of firing. Coureur scores two low hits on Oberon.
Game turn 3
Because of their close proximity, it is not expedient for the vessels to maneuver, other than alternation speeds now and then. Both vessels will move forward in such a way as to maintain course, but come closer together for the remainder of the game, so only damage needs to be addressed from now on. Coureur takes a hefty 4 low damage points this turn, while Oberon receives the same.
Game turn 4
Oberon scores 3 low damage points, while Coureur scores 2 of the same.
Game turn 5
H.M.S. Oberon inflicts another 2 low points, while further damaging her enemy’s lower mast with another hit. Coureur does well by causing 3 low points of damage on Oberon.
Game turn 6
A pep talk from the gunnery officer inspires Oberon’s crew to give Coureur a whopping 6 low damage points this game turn. Adding insult to injury, Coureur fails to score any hits on Oberon.
Game turn 7
Oberon scores 2 low points, but puts Coureur in real jeopardy by scoring a sixth hit on her lower mast. This will cause the French to roll a d12 at the start of the next game turn. A roll of 2-12 will keep the mast standing until the next game turn. If she takes any more high hits, they will go against the lower mast section of her other mast. When Coureur fires, she scores one low hit and one high hit. Oberon now has two hits against her lower mast, but has a defense value of 5, so doesn’t need to be concerned.
Game turn 8
Coureur immediately rolls a d12 for her lower mast. Luckily, she rolls an 11. Both sides move, then fire. Coureur takes another low point and one high hit. Oberon takes 2 low points. The situation is now that Coureur has 23 low hits, with 25 needed to roll for surrender. Oberon has 15 low points, with 17 needed to roll for surrender. Game turn 9 should settle it, one way or the other!
Game turn 9
Coureur must begin the game turn by rolling for her tottering mast. The Emperor is with her, since she rolls a 12. Had she rolled a 1, and didn’t surrender because of gunnery, she would have lost her mast at the beginning of game turn 10. H.M.S. Oberon’s gunners answer the call by causing 4 low hits, bringing Coureur to 27 low hits. Coureur scores 1 low point and 1 high hit on Oberon. Coureur must roll for surrender immediately. She needs to roll forty-six (+46) or better, on a pair of decimal dice, to save herself from surrender. Even if she accomplishes this, she must immediately roll again. When she hit 25, she needed to roll. By also hitting 26 and 27, she would have to roll two more times to get out of trouble. As it turns out, she rolls 20, seeing the tricolor come falling down to the deck. Oberon now has 16 low damage points and 3 high damage points. One more low damage point would have caused her to roll for surrender. She’s still two high damage points away from worrying about her lower mast.
Conclusions
Coureur fought a brave battle, taking 45 casualties (40.66%), plus nearly having her lower mast come down during the battle. H.M.S. Oberon took 27 casualties (28.27%), plus having some lower mast damage. Coureur’s firing was 45.58% low points out of all shots fired, with a 50% average of what could be expected to hit. She also scored 7.67% high points from the 15% expected. Oberon, by contrast, fired at 51.72% low, when only 50% was expected. She, in turn, scored 13.4%, out of an average of 15%, high. Neither side managed to see their captains killed or seriously wounded, thus neither needed to forfeit a broadside, for one game turn, for that purpose. The key to the battle was actually game turn 6. When Coureur failed to score ANY hits, while Oberon outdid herself by scoring 6 low. Normally, a vessel can recover from one devastating broadside, but that late in the game, it sealed Coureur’s fate.
It was a fun battle. Even though Oberon had a larger broadside factor, she had to overcome Coureur’s hull factor. Her own hull factor was so small, average gunnery from Coureur could have overwhelmed her.
A note about close action in YtY
I recall reading somewhere that a wargamer commented on diagrams of actual ship-to-ship battles. He said that it looked like the ships didn’t travel very far from each other. I got the idea that it was like the 1960s board games by Avalon-Hill. They used a game device called, “Zone of Control.” It meant that once you moved a piece next to an enemy piece, you could not move it out again. That meant that you were forced to fight till elimination, although players were allowed to stack other pieces for reinforcements. I thought that zone of control was a bit drastic for the Age of Sail, but if players were given the incentive, they might deem it wise to stay in close contact with the enemy. As it stands now, two vessels move at a fraction of their normal rate ONLY when they are within 10cm. of each other. If a player wants to break off action, he can. The problem is that he may put his vessel in a position to be damaged, without being able to reply, if both vessels are still within 10cm. of each other. Small vessels may turn up to 22.25 degrees. That’s not a great deal of maneuver capability to get your vessel out of a bad situation. I do allow for being able to increase sail. Yty is set up for vessels under battle sail. If players want to increase sail, they must suffer a penalty of taking double high damage, when fired on, while under said sail. The only upside is that vessels may move a tiny bit more, but that movement is still just a fraction of their capability outside of Close Hailing Distance Range. We are talking no more than 9mm extra while quarter reaching. One’s best bet is to maneuver into a good position before entering the danger space of 10cm.
To familiarize one’s self with the game mechanics, check out the other articles about Yardarm to Yardarm on this site. There you will find rules for gunnery, morale and other aspects of play.