Two San Juan Nepomuceno Class

 These are a Pair of San Jan Nepomuceno Ships of the line Printed by Arofan from Simon Mann's excellent files. 

These were considered solid ships of the line admired by many for their sailing qualities and strong construction. 

The Name sake of the class the San Jan Nepomunceno (some times called Neptuno by the English) had a brave crew. One of the last to strike at Trafalgar after being totally battered  into submission.

Spanish First Rate one of los Meregildos

The ship has been on my hobby desk for way too long. I was trying a new aproach to rigging that didn't work out and I had to touch it up and start over... it took me a while to get back to it.  

This is a Simmon Mann print done for me by Arofan. Its a Santa Anna class though I preffer to call them by their informal name Los Meregildos 

The ships were build in Ferrol and Havana at the two great Spanish shipyards. 

I added a few small bits from an old Warlor kit to added lanters to the quaterdeck these were too fine to in the print file to survie the clean up process.  

Black Seas and Naval Theatre

 

Saturday Dave hosted a game day at the Amherst Maker Space.  I ran game for the Hold Fast supplement of Black Seas called raise the Black Flag. When had three pirates Roberts, Blood and Barbarossa 

We all attacked the merchants Roberts got the first ship but then attacked Captain Blood and me (Barbarossa) 

I got a little of my own back raking Roberts 

I took two merchant then decided it was time run.

Frank play Captain Blood got a capture on the last turn a fun game. 

In the afternoon I played if Frank's Battle of the Philippine Sea (Abridged)

I commanded half of the American task force the Bunker Hill and Wasp.

I had responsibility for CAP while Oliver was supposed to handle stile escort and launch the initial strip while I would follow up with a second strike.

My young co-admiral sent out a rather disorganized strike 

Destroyers race toward each other (if I find out who put my carriers in gun range of Japanese Destroyers I'll shoot him LOL) 

My second strike is headed out just ahead of the Japanese attack.

My CAP gets tied up battling the zeros and Wasp takes multiple bomb hits. Oliver's strike also got through and did seriously damage one of the Japanese carriers.

My second strike 4 squadrons of avengers and 8 of helldiver's/ and SBDs with two squads of Hellcats ridding shotgun (taken from the CAP) since Oliver didn't leave any to escort my attack aircraft. 

Sadly the game had to end before the game could really come to a conclusion.  This was the first live play test of Frank's Naval Theatre rules and they played well though naturally we found a few issues.

The Leeward Line Trafalgar at New England Gaming Flea Market

The Leeward line Trafalgar I have the Royal Navy and Bob Rioux has the allied fleet . 

The French Frougeux opened the ball firing on the RN flagship

With the rang closing Santa Ana added her fire scoring it's first (of many critical hits) slowly Royal Sovereign and disordering the RNs formation. Royal Sovereign raked Pluton in return.

The second English squadron led by HMS Tonnant cuts the line and rakes the stern of Pluton..

Blowing her out of the water and battering p with it's other broadside.

Royal Sovereign is Raked and loses a mast. Santa Ana unleashed a point blank broadside into HMS Bellies her return board seems paltry by comparison.

Foruguex is sunk by HMS Mars two French down with two to go but Royal Sovereign, Belleisle and Tonnant are all badly damaged.

Tonnant and Belerophon hit Algesiras setting her ablaze and killing numerous crew.

Then Royal Sovereign sinks as does Algesiras... but then both Belleisle and Tonnant strike. Bon had a lot of good criticals getting a Mast critical twice on Royal Sovereign and knocking masts off two other ships.

State of the Fleets

Over the weekend at Huzzah several people asked me how many ships I had at this point and I decided that I should probably do an inventory because honestly I wasn't sure. Well I still don't know for sure(haven't counted the small stuff) but I can speak to the major fleets British, Spanish and French. 

The Royal Navy 1 Ship Sloop, 12 Frigates, 1 4th Rate, 3 small 3rd Rates, 11 large 3rd Rates, 4 2nd Rates, and 2 1st Rates. There are also quite a few Brigs, cutters and Indiamen not pictured here.

The Spanish Armada 1 Schooner, 1 Brig, 2 Frigates, 2 Small 3rd rates, 4 Large 3rd rates (2 more in the Painting queue) and 3 1st Rates including the Princessa Evelyn which with it s purple paint scheme may or may not see the table (but I do have one more spanish 1st rate in the painting queue)

The French 3 Brigs, 1 Corvette/Sloop, 6 Frigates, 14 Large 3rd rates, 2 1st rates. 

Over the weekend I had 35 ships of the Line battling each other about as big a fight as I want to run without a co-gamemaster.  If someone wants to run Trafalgar or First of June or some other mad project let me know and we can see how much we need to add to the Order of Battle . 

 

Cape Finisterre at Huzzah!

q

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. 

Ships for Cape Finisterre at Huzzah con

 Like most GMs I've been under the gun to get things ready for the convention.  I'm happy to say I have the ships ready to go. All are Simon Mann files printed by Arofan

Three English 64 gun ships of the line ready for action.

Glad to finally have some 64s as they say a lot of service in American Waters. The file is based on the Intrepid class a design from the late 1760s but that was still in use into the Napoleonic Wars. 

Another Spanish 64 joins the fleet the same San Fulgencio class as my previous Spanish 64.  They are a more modern design from the late 1780s. 

Finally a large Spanish ship of the line of the San Juan Neptuno class. 

Another great sturn for this one the San Juan Neptuno where a much admired class of ships as I understand and sculpt on these are excellent.