Action off Port Cros, July 1872

I decided to set up a back of a fag packet game of Broadside and Ram this afternoon, to test out my tweaks to the damage system and repair costs, designed to make it progressively harder to fix damaged ships and increase the chances of inflicting Crippled and Shattered results. In this scenario I wanted to make sure that lots of damage would be done, so set HMS Fury against three rather less formidable French ironclads, the Flandre, Provence and Revanche. If you've never heard of HMS Fury it's because she didn't exist, or at least was commissioned as HMS Dreadnought after a redesign following the loss of HMS Captain. In my alternative timeline, this never happened as HMS Captain did not founder, so HMS Fury was launched and completed in her original design format.

In the scenario, HMS Fury has stealthily arrived off Port Cros, an island on the south coast of France, where she is lying in wait for any passing enemy warships or merchant vessels. The French have detected the presence of an enemy ship from its plume of smoke but haven't identified her and assume she is a single broadside ironclad or even a lightly armed raider, not suspecting a cunning trap by the Royal Navy. A squadron of three broadside ironclads has been dispatched to deal with the perfidious intruder before it can threaten any coastal convoys or merchant shipping. The initial set up means that HMS Fury is screened from the approaching French warships by the two islands, so they are going to get a nasty surprise. Zut Alors!

The game began with the French approaching from the West and HMS Fury, which was an independent command, advancing through the channel between the two islands to meet the oncoming enemy squadron. The range closed as the French commander realised that he was up against a formidable opponent, with the combined firepower of his squadron the best tactic to adopt in the face of HMS Fury's superior armour and turret armament. 

The initial shots by both sides caused some damage but did not inflict any serious harm. However, once the range closed the French were out manoeuvred and despite frantic efforts to concentrate their fire, found themselves end on to the twin turrets of the enemy. After several raking shots, the Flandre and Provence were both reduced to a Shattered state, albeit with repairs keeping them afloat for some time. A Critical Hit on the waterline sealed the fate of the Flandre while Provence took longer to slip beneath the waves.

In conclusion and as expected, HMS Fury ran rings around the French, but it wasn't all one sided. At several points she suffered Silenced results and only managed to repair with some high AP dice rolls. The fact that she was an independent command meant that she didn't have to spend any AP's on movement, so could afford to splash out to fix the damage. The French, in contrast, never really got their act together, so missed the chance to inflict some serious damage on the Fury. The early loss of the Provence also nullified their advantage of combined supporting firepower and meant that valuable AP's were wasted in repairs. Overall, the tweaks I've made seem to speed up the game a bit and avoid the issue of 'boomerang' repairs, which I've found to be a bit unrealistic. The real test will be when two equally well armoured and armed squadrons coming to blows!