NOVA Close Action group game of scenario DS-03 from the still-in-progress Distant Seas and Spanish Silver module. As such, there may be some changes made to the scenario by the time of eventual publication.
This is a hypothetical scenario from the War of the Hats where a small Russian squadron of four small ships of the line attack a smaller but more powerful squadron of Swedish SOLs.
The Russians must destroy 2 Swedish sections by GT14 to prevent a Swedish auto-victory.
(Click on any image to see an enlargement.)
The images show before and after scatter.
On the Swedish side (blue blocks) are, top to bottom, Vestmanland (60), Enigheten (70), and Finland (58).
The Russian squadron (brown blocks) is, top to bottoma, Severnaya Zvezda (54), Reval (66), Astrakhan (54), and Kronshtadt (54).
The ship names participating in the battle didn't entirely match our equipment. It was confusing during the game trying to remember which ship was which, so for purposes of this battle report from now on I will use the block names rather than real ship names, except for Enigheten, because calling that ship "blank" seems silly. Here's a table showing the real ship name and the block abbreviation representing it:
| Ship Name | Block Name |
| Vestmanland | VST |
| Enigheten | blank |
| Finland | FRE |
| Severnaya Zvezda | SEV |
| Reval | FER |
| Astrakhan | AST |
| Kronshtadt | NEP |
The white "MS" blocks atop the Russian ships indicate that they are at Medium Sail. The Swedish ships are at Fighting Sail, and cannot raise sail until game turn 8, and can never go to Plain Sail.
I was at the helm of Kronshtadt, aka Neptunus, at the rear of the Russian line.
The Swedes run. Since we Russians had superior speed, and weren't sure whether the Swedes would continue close-hauled, run, or even wear, we moved forward to try to get ahead of them, but turned broad-reaching for the extra speed next turn.
The Russians continue in line abreast, while the Swedes prepare their reception. Severnaya starts raising sails for that extra oomph. These ships aren't the cream of the crop, three with "D" crew quality and four "E"s. With "E" crews taking an extra turn for sail manipulation, the Russians at least had some hesitation about too many sail changes. But Severnaya was one of the relatively lucky "D"s, along with Vestmanland and Enigheten.
The fleets are finally in gunnery range. The Swedes inflict four hits, leaving only Astrakhan completely untouched, while suffering just a single rigging box off Vestmanland in return.
The Russians continue to close in, barring Severnaya which takes her sails back down.
Neptunus ended the turn on a pivot so as to get a shot in, which turns out to be pointless as her fire on Freden misses entirely. In return, she takes another rigging hit. Unfortunately for me, getting hit while failing to land a blow will be the pattern for the next few turns.
The Swedes fade to get some more turns of that sweet, sweet unreturned fire. Astrakhan takes her first damage (3 boxes: r-h-s) and so too Leferm (h).
Leferm, our most powerful ship, whiffs entirely against Enigheten, while Astrakhan's half broadside inflicts a rigging hit on Freden, making that the only damage the Swedes take this turn.
The Russians are starting to close in. Enigheten scores the first critical hit of the game, inflicting Hull Structural Damage as well as r+h on Severnaya while Leferm and Neptunus each take another hit. Despite the shortening range, on the Russian side only Leferm causes any damage, hitting Vestmanland for r+h plus a sailor box lost to marine fire.
A couple of knife-fights occur at either end of the Swedish line. On this turn the gunnery honors are at last roughly even. Vestmanland suffers the first morale check of the game (which she passes) as Leferm's marines knock off her first sailor section. Neptunus starts off strong by taking a rigging and a hull off Freden but the return fire gets a rigging, a hull, a sailor, and a -2 Guns Dismounted Critical Hit. Sharing the Critical Hit joy is Leferm, whose crew must reorganize, giving our strongest vessel a gunnery penalty that will last for several turns.
The brief Russian almost-parity in gunfire evaporates, as this turn they account for only two hits on the Swedes. The return fire is ferocious, taking out the first sailor section on Neptunus and a hull and a rigging section on Leferm. At least we passed our morale checks.
Note the board reset as the fleets were nearing the edge.
I finally got the better of Freden positionally, only to have my gunnery miss despite the near nose-to-nose range. I must stop angering the dice gods. Overall attrition still favored the Swedes, four boxes to three, but there's some hope for the Russians in that Vestmanland loses a hull and a sailor section. She passes both morale checks.
Although these ships have mediocre-to-bad (D/E) crew quality, their morale ratings are surprisingly good, 3s and 4s, the lone exception being Vestmanland's 5. But she's passed three morale checks even so. No one has dropped in CQ ... so far.
Neptunus rams Vestmanland. This wasn't entirely intentional. But it wasn't entirely unintentional, either. I figured Freden would avoid the potential collision by turning to port and coming around aft, and so I plotted to reach him with my port broadside. And it seemed likely to me that Vestmanland might turn and follow Enigheten. And if I was right, great.
I knew there was some chance of a collision, though I thought Freden the more likely candidate. But if it happened, it didn't seem like disaster. Reducing the mobile ships from 4:3 in our favor to 3:2 couldn't hurt. The collision did cost me a rigging section, though.
Neptunus also takes a hull hit courtesy of Freden and a rigging and a sailor hit thanks to Vestmanland and her marines. So a bloody turn for me. Elsewhere, Astrakhan gets her strongest broadside of the game, hitting two boxes on Vestmanland.
Astrakhan comes alongside Vestmanland, which takes some of the pressure off Neptunus. Unfortunately, Enigheten has decided to rejoin the battle and Astrakhan gets hit from both sides. She loses a sailor section and fails her subsequent morale check, dropping from "E" crew quality to "F".
Neptunus is surpringly effective this turn, getting a hull hit on Freden via gunnery and a marine hit on Vestmanland from her own marines. But her time as an effective fighting vessel is clearly coming to an end as Freden knocks out a hull section and the second rigging section. She, too, fails her morale check and her crew quality drops from "E" to "F".
Vestmanland and Neptunus drift. Freden and Enigheten close in for the kill on Astrakhan.
The only damage the Russians manage this turn is, amazingly, from the marines on Neptunus, who shot down a marine box on Vestmanland. But the concentrated Swedish fire on Astrakhan is devastating, doing seven(!) boxes of damage, counting additional damage due to losing a rigging section and a hull section. At least she manages to pass her morale check.
Vestmanland finally manages to get unfouled. I would have grappled to keep her immobile if I could have, but "F"-rated crews aren't allowed.
Astrakhan continues into the ring of fire and takes nine boxes of damage, including losing a rigging section and a Critical Hit forcing her to reorganize her crew and take a morale check, which she passes. Freden then tries to grapple her to keep her in place, but fails.
Astrakhan collides with Freden, and Severnaya narrowly avoids piling on by passing her bearing off roll.
This is the best gunnery turn for the Russians in a while but at such close range Astrakhan is virtually shot to pieces. She's forced to take 3 morale checks, and, as an "F" quality crew, if she fails two of them she will strike. Her morale holds, though, as she passes all three.
The Swedes had lost three sections (all on Vestmanland) so they did not win an automatic victory at this point. But they clearly won a victory on points anyhow based on the shape of the Russian squadron, and we called the game at this point.
The final section losses were:
| Ship | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | H1 | H2 | H3 | H4 | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | M |
| Vestmanland | ● | ● | ● | ||||||||||
| Engiheten | |||||||||||||
| Freden | |||||||||||||
| Severnaya | |||||||||||||
| Leferm | ● | ● | |||||||||||
| Astrakhan | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ||||||
| Neptunus | ● | ● | ● | ● |
The one-box-aways were Leferm's first sailor section, Freden's first rigging section, and Vestmanland's marines.
Barely-touched were Enigheten with one box of hull damage, and Severnaya Zvezda with two hull and one rigging box.
The results speak for themselves, I think. The dice clearly favored the Swedes, although without having proper statistics that's an impression rather than a fact. That impression seemed to be shared around the table, though, not just the Russian side. And reviewing the turns for this write-up, the Swedes often out-positioned us as well. It's hard to beat that combination.
Anyway, another enjoyable outing. Thanks to all the participants!