Mimi & Froufrou Go Forth

 

Fleets closing for battle

The title for this article is not to be confused with Giles Fodden's wonderful book about the battle of Lake Tanganyika, 'Mimi & Toutou Go Forth', which is well worth a read if you are interested in the more unusual aspects of WWI naval warfare.

Rather, my title is the consequence of the Ruler of the Galician Navy having a fondness for Lehar and so naming many ships of the line after the bevy of grisettes to be found at Maxim's in the last act of 'The Merry Widow'.

In my alternative 18th/19th Century era continent of Antea, the Galicians are the inveterate foes of the Ruritanians.  Hitherto they have only fought on land but spurred on by Little Wars TV's episode on Trafalagar  I have finally got around to putting my ships - all Tumbling Dice's 1/2400 scale Napoleonic era models - onto octagonal bases and giving them a first outing using the 'Fire as She Bears' rules by Phil Fry and others.

The scenario was simple.  Two equal sized fleets are both running before the wind and as the early mist lifts from the sea find themselves on parallel courses just beyond extreme gunnery range.  The venue was a sunny dining room in south Oxford, using a roughly 3' by 6' table with rounded corners, each fleet entering the table from the corners of one of the narrow sides with the wind directly behind them.

For both my opponent and I it was the first attempt at a Napoleonic Era fleet action as well as a first outing with the rule set.  The action looked good.  The firing system was straightforward and we managed to track damage easily with the ship record charts.  Movement worked well before we started to have questions about how to handle ships when in close proximity to each other and when we started to encounter Crew Quality Checks.  Lots of rules told us that these were needed, but finding out how to conduct them was another matter.  The table of contents was no help.  None of the side boxes provided full guidance.  The Examples document did not contain a clear summary of the rules or principles.  We jury rigged our own check system but I found afterwards, from patient working through the entire rule set, cutting and pasting everything relating to crew quality checks, that we had not got it right.  This was only the main example of lack of clarity in the organization and presentation of the rules that left us frustrated and using choice nautical expressions.

The battle gets a little complicated

In fairness, I have to say I had bitten off rather more ship's biscuit than was sensible for a first mouthful, and hadn't tapped it properly to get the worms out before starting.  Rather than beginning with just a few ships a side to get familiar with the mechanics I gave each side 15 ships of the line, deployed in 3 squadrons.  The only simplifications were to dispense with having to clear for action or use topgallants and not to have changes of wind direction or strength.

I set up both fleets in advance but we rolled on the day to determine which fleet we would command.  I found myself with the Galician fleet, commanded by Admiral Laplace de Saule on his flagship 'La Reine Margot' (110 guns, Poor crew) which was placed in the centre squadron together with 'Alouette' (74 guns, Elite crew), 'Froufrou' (74 guns, Veteran crew), 'Cloclo' and Lolo (both 74 guns, Average crews).  Leading the van squadron was Commodore Binnet in the Valenciene (80 guns, Elite crew), together with the 'Rillette', 'Galette', 'Saliette' and 'Mimi', all 74 guns with average crews.  The rear squadron under Commodore Baillargé on the 'Francette' (74 guns, Veteran crew) also had four further ships, the 74 gun 'Babette' (poor crew) and three with 64 guns, 'Joujou' (Elite), Dodo (Veteran) and 'Etmoi' (Poor).

The Ruritanian flagship was the 98 gun 'Vládka' which had an average crew.  This was accompanied by two large 74s, the 'Nepružný' (Veteran) and 'Svatý Ján' (Elite), a further 9 ordinary 74s, 'Arcivojvoda Ferenc' (Elite), 'Vyzývavý', 'Markgróf Karl' & 'Zúrivý' (Veteran), 'Král' Ladislaw', 'Kralovna Alzbeta', 'Bojovnik', 'Dobyvatel' & 'Hridna' (Average) and three smaller ships, 'Leviatan' (64 guns, Veteran), 'Triumf' (60 guns, Average) and 'Hrom' (60 guns, Poor).  The Ruritanian van had five ships, the centre six and the rear four.

Both commanders were of the never mind manoeuvres, go straight at 'em school.  As soon as the van squadrons were on the table they turned to head towards the enemy at full speed on a broad reach, both centre squadrons following on in line.

The first salute was given at long range by Nepružný at Valenciene as the leading ships of the van squadrons came towards each other.

Nepružný opens fire to little effect

After replying with the port broadside, Valenciene swung around to port, aiming to move in close to the enemy van but heading in the opposite direction, giving her starboard broadside into the Nepružný at close range as she did so to good effect.  Rillette followed her but when Gallette went to turn to follow her she took a critical hit that caused her to swing to windward in the opposite direction.  To prevent Gallette being left isolated against the leading ships of the enemy van, Saliette and Mimi were ordered to follow her, splitting the Galician van.  Valenciene passed down the other ships of the Ruritanian van doing quite a lot of damage but taking a lot in return, ending up opposite the last ship in the Ruritanian squadron.  At the other end of their line, the Nepružný  found itself under fire from both the Gallette and Saliette while Mimi drew fire from the two ships behind Nepružny.  Behind Valenciene the Rillette closed for a duel with the remaining ship in the Ruritanian van.

As this went on at the front of the action, the two central squadrons came together at an angle but both trying to push ships forward where they could find space and losing the cohesion of their firing lines.  The Ruritanian flagship, the 'Vládka', found itself under fire from both the Alouette, leading the Galician centre, and the powerful La Reine Margot coming up behind her.

Further back, the two rear squadrons headed straight at each other, passing behind the centre squadrons.

The van squadrons engaged in the top left, the centre squadrons coming together in the centre and the rear squadrons starting to pass along each other's line to the right.

As firing intensified across the increasingly confused mass of ships, in quick succession the Nepružný and then Valenciene succumbed to the weight of fire pouring into them and sank.  The Ruritanians used the space opened up by the sinking of Valenciene to get 'Vladka' out of the eye of the storm while bringing up fresh ships, especially the Elite 'Svatý Ján' and began to cause heavy damage to the Galician centre.  At the rear, the smaller Ruritanian squadron took a pounding from the Galician rear squadron as it ran past, but got in some telling rakes on the Galician centre as they did so.

Chaotic close action

In the final turn that we played, momentum began to shift towards the Ruritanians as they inflicted several critical hits on different Galician vessels and managed to manoeuvre towards a concentration of ships against the battered Galician van.  No more ships had been sunk but more of the Galicians were on the verge of losing their last hull points and only a couple of small ships in the rear squadron were unscathed.

Ruritanian ships on both sides of the Galician centre and closing in on the remnants of the Galician van while the Galician rear has failed to keep close.

Heads reeling from the impenetrable wording and organization of the rules we decided to break for tea and reflect on the action rather than fight through to the grim death.

We both agreed that it would have been better to have started with a smaller game to learn the ropes.  Even so, the poor organization of the rules was likely to have caused the same sort of delay and frustration that we encountered.  So, either we have to find a new set of rules or prepare a clear, well indexed analysis of Fire as She Bears to guide us when we are able to play again.  Given that there are large sections that did work well - firing, sailing and command - I may well invest the time needed to prepare a better guide to play.