Cape Finisterre at Huzzah!

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I day tripped up to Huzzah to run the battle of  Cape Finisterre for Huzzah! 2023 "Turning Points". I picked this battle because it resulted in Napoleon turning his back in an invasion of England and heading off to Austria instead.  The French and Spanish had the weather gage turning south east as the English are turning Northwest. 

Artist/engraver/cartographer: Engraved by Ch. Dyonnet; Drawn by A.H. Dufour . Provenance: "Atlas de l'histoire du consulat et de L'Empire", Dressé et Dessiné Sous la direction de M. Thiers, Par MM. A. Dufour et Duvotenay; Published by Paulin, Lheureux et Cie, Paris. Type: Antique engraved map

Deployment was based off the map above. 

My players had all the aggression both sides wished their leaders had possessed in 1805. The six Spanish ships split into two squadrons in an attempt to envelope the leading English Ships. Meanwhile half the French fleet moved north and east while the other half split in two part of it moving to assist the Spanish and part of it heading south east to cut through the rear of the English line. 

The leading English ships HMS Hero and HMS Ajax where soon in trouble and hero slipped beneath the waves while Ajax was forced to strike it's colors. 

The English where giving as well as taking punishment as the Spanish flagship Argunata sank to relentless English gunnery.

The English van was battered on both sides by the Spanish though it was not a one sided affair and more ships came up to support both sides.

French gunnery joined the Spanish as the Epannia was forced out of line and moved to join the southern most French squadron. 

At this point the fighting became hand to hand with Formidable grappling HMS Triumph and forcing her to strike. She was the grappled by S Barflure. The Spanish where not to be left out with three of their ship America, San Rafael and Terrible all grappling HMS Agamemnon.  

Barflure eventually overcame Formidable but Agamemnon though she over came one attacker was overwhelmed. The HMS Glory passed close along the tangled ships and fired in to them at point blank range with devastating results. San Rafael and Agamemnon slipped beneath the waves while America was left crippled. The British press reported Agamemnon sank bue to Spanish not English fire....

HMS Defiance was mauled by the French and would probably strike if another turn or two had been played but Swiftsure was battered and forced to strike.

Let's look at the score.  HMS Ajax was Captured by the French but Formidable was taken by the English. The Allies lost Argonauta, America and San Rafael sunk, while Swiftsure and Firme where forced to strike, in addition Terrible and Pluton took significant damage(below half). Several other allied ships suffered minor to moderate damage. On the English side, Hero and Agamemnon were sunk, HMS is Triumph was forced to strike and had only two hull left so she is probably scuttled, Barfleur, Malta, and Defiance significantly damaged (below half) Additionally Dragon and Glory are Damage but still fully able to fight.  The allies have 10 ships that are still more or less fully combat capable while the English have 7 (both side include ships with some damage). 

             Allied vs English

Captured     1 vs 1

Sunk             3 vs  2

Struck           2 vs 1

Damaged   6 vs 5 (all types) 

Over all I would call this a Minor English victory.  Both Sides are battered but the English Government probably won't sack the British Admiral as they did historically.  I suspect the French ships run to Ferrol with thier prize though they might be able to try again the next day if they felt specially aggressive.  Napoleon probably still heads to Austria as I don't see the French pushing on to Brest after this mauling.