My Naval Disaster in Maine

Saturday I was up in Brunswick Maine with my wife and got a "hall pass" for a few hours to meet up with the Maine Historical Wargamers Association for their game day.  I found my self in a game of Trafalgar commanding the  Bellerophon and Polyphemus which are to the right of the main battle line.

You can see the Spanish and French ships and their admirals behind them.  Their mission is to get off table to the far left.

The main British fleet is planning to cut across the front of the allied fleet.  My force is to flank them and harass them forcing them to split fire.  The wind is behind the English fleet meaning that to reach me the Allies will have to risk going into irons.

Part of the force is trying to do just that and two ships get badly tangled and one of them is in Irons.  I am unfortunately just beyond the range.

By turn 3 I would be in perfect position to start dealing damage but for fluke of the weather table that sends in thick fog... the French ships are just beyond the range of our guns.  

A massive Spanish ship looms out of the fog and rakes the Bellerophon smashing it with a single triple shotted broad side.

Polyphemus is now entangled with French ship my broadside fails to do serious damage

Another collision occurs as more French ships loom out of the fog. This time I was able to land a good hit shooting of the rudder of a french ship

The fog still hangs the rest of the British line slipping past in importance worse still the wind shifts so it is now behind the French...

Polyphemus badly battered slips off too damaged to help much in the fight.  My hall pass is expiring at this point and I had to leave. Things look really good for the French.   The fog ruined a pretty good plan had it not been for the fog I would have gotten off at least one broadside from each ship without the enemy (who were double shotted and limited in range) being able to reply.  Also with out the Fog the British line would have been in a good position to deal out damage with out the Double shotted French responding.  The Weather God was clearly a Frenchman on this day.