Archive for February, 2019

Close Action at Flintcon 2019: scenario CA17 – Santo Domingo

Monday, February 18th, 2019

Saturday, February 9, 2019, saw another game of Close Action played in southeastern Michigan, this time at Flintcon 2019 in Flint, Michigan. We played Close Action scenario 17, “Santo Domingo.” In that scenario, five French ships, an 80-gun (Alexandre), a 120-gun (Impérial), and three 74-gun (Diomède, Jupiter, Brave) ships were trying to escape the map, and initially only three British 74-gun ships (Superb, Northumberland, Spencer) were on-board to try to stop the French. The British would also receive reinforcements: Canopus (80-gun) on game-turn 3; Donegal (74) on g-t 4; Atlas (74) on g-t 5; and Agamemnon (64) on g-t 10, although the French could be far away before the reinforcements could even think of catching up.

Starting Positions

British
Superb (74) – A1640:2
Northumberland (74) – A1544:2
Spencer (74) – A1450:2

French
Alexandre (80) – A3435:1
Impérial (120) – A3439:1
Diomède – A3443:1
Jupiter – A3448:1
Brave (74) – A3452:1

Santo Domingo starting positions:

Santo Domingo starting positions: The French line is at the top of the picture, headed right-to-left. The British are at the bottom-right, headed at an angle towards the French. The wind is blowing right-to-left.

Jim Robinson, an experienced Close Action player, commanded the French ships from Impérial. Bill Worrel, who has played CA only once before, commanded the British aboard Superb. On the face of it, this scenario looked to be a tough one for the British to win. The French could escape not only from the far left map edge (there is another map board in that direction that is not pictured, and it’s a long way to that map edge), but could also escape off the long edge at the bottom of the above picture. Any French ship that escaped off the map would give 90% of its Victory Points (VPs) to the French, so the British somehow or another needed to stop three of the five French ships from exiting the map. The British would eventually receive four more ships as reinforcements: Canopus (80-gun) on game-turn 3; Donegal (74-gun) on g-t 4; Atlas (74-gun) on g-t 5; and Agamemnon (64-gun) on g-t 10. Of course, by the time Agamemnon got on the map, the French ships could be far away! So the first item of business for the British was to close the range to the French and to start shooting.

The Wind Speed and Sea State were both “2” at the start of the scenario, so that wouldn’t affect any ships adversely.

Game-Turn 1

The movement for the game-turn 1 was simple. All French ships were at plain sail status, and they all moved ahead 6 spaces, maintaining their line-ahead formation. The British were also at plain sail, and they moved ahead 8 spaces towards the French, due to the fact they were in a better attitude to the wind (the Brits were “broad-reaching,” while the French were “running” with the wind). Only one ship, the British Northumberland, announced “men-in-rigging” as it started changing from plain sail to medium sail status. That sail change would take two game-turns to complete.

Only one ship opened fire at the long range, and that was Brave firing at Spencer. The range was 12 hexes, too far for an initial broadside bonus, and Brave’s Basic Gunnery Number (BGN) was “12” at 12 hexes. Brave had a Crew Quality (CQ) of “D” and so it had a Gunnery Modifier of “0” (zero) for this shot due to being at plain sail. Greg Lim, the skipper of Brave, rolled a d6 and rolled a “2” while firing high (Brave had to fire high at ranges more than 9 hexes from the target). Spencer then received only a single hit on her rigging, due to being at plain sail herself. (It was later determined that the -1 mod for firing when at plain sail was missed, so Brave’s fire should have had a total of -1 in modifiers. C’est la vie!)

End of game-turn 1

At the end of game-turn 1, the British have closed the range towards the French.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 1:

British
Superb (74) – A2436:2
Northumberland (74) – A2340:2
Spencer (74) – A2246:2

French
Alexandre (80) – A3429:1
Impérial (120) – A3433:1
Diomède – A3437:1
Jupiter – A3442:1
Brave (74) – A3446:1

Although messages were written at the beginning of the game-turn, they were not received until the end of the g-t. The British admiral, Bill Worrel, in Superb, sent the message “STOP REAR THREE SHIPS”. The French commander, Jim Robinson, sent a rather frivolous message: “SET PHASERS DEEP FAT FRY”! Um, we’ll just ignore that message, eh?

Game-Turn 2

On game-turn 2, the French continued sailing in line-ahead formation, all ships moving 6 hexes ahead. The British Superb moved ahead 6, and the Northumberland and Spencer each moved “7P” to turn and head in the same direction as the French ships. All three British ships showed “men-in-rigging.”

Superb (5 hexes) and Northumberland (4 hexes) both fired their initial starboard broadsides at Jupiter, and Spencer (5 hexes) fired her initial starboard broadside at Brave. Diomède (4 hexes) shot at Superb, an initial port broadside and a bow rake; Jupiter (4 hexes) fired her intial port boardside at Northumberland; and Brave (5 hexes) fired at Spencer again.

Superb had a BGN of 22, with +4 for CQ and +1 for initial broadside, but one of the sailor crew sections was busy making changes to the sails, so that gave a -3, for a total Gunnery Modifier of +2. The dr was “3” so the damage inflicted on Jupiter was 2 rigging (one of the rigging lost was due to the target being at plain sail), 1 hull, and 1 sailor. Northumberland then had a BGN of 25 versus Jupiter, with a total of +3 in modifiers. A 1d6 dr of 6 gave a Final Gunnery Number (FGN) of 34, which yielded 3 rigging, 2 hull, and 2 sailors (although it was recorded as only 1 sailor lost). Northumberland also caused a critical (hull) hit on Jupiter, and that caused the “Wheel Shot Away” result. That meant that Jupiter could only make one 60° turn in a game-turn (instead of two turns), and had to roll on the “Poor Maneuvering” table any time she did try to pivot. Spencer then fired at Brave with a BGN of 23 and +2 in mods, with a dr of “5”, to inflict 2 rigging, 1 hull, and 1 sailor in losses.

The French return fire saw Diomède was a BGN of 26, +4 in mods (+2 each for initial broadside and rake), but as she was firing high and using dismantling shot, another +1 would apply (although it should have also had a -1 for shooting while at plain sail). In any event, the damage dished out was recorded as 5 rigging. A hull hit was ignored, as dismantling shot could not affect the hull. Jupiter fired high with dismantling shot at Northumberland, inflicting 3 rigging boxes of damage. Brave then fired at Spencer, firing high with dismantling shot inflicting 5 rigging and 1 marine boxes of damage, plus the “Braces Cut” critical hit. That meant that Spencer would not be able to accelerate or decelerate during game-turn 3.

In all, the British dished out 16 boxes of damage in g-t 2, while receiving 14 boxes of damage in return. Each side inflicted a critical hit on the other side. Both sides also forgot to apply the -1 modifier for firing when at plain sail. It should also be said that it is the GM’s fault for not remembering to apply the plain sail modifier, as most of the players either had zero or very little experience playing Close Action.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 2:

British
Superb (74) – A3033:2
Northumberland (74) – A3037:1
Spencer (74) – A2942:1

French
Alexandre (80) – A3423:1
Impérial (120) – A3427:1
Diomède – A3431:1
Jupiter – A3436:1
Brave (74) – A3440:1

At the end of g-t 2, the French message from Jim Robinson (aboard Impérial) was revealed to the other French ships as “CHANGE SAIL STATE”. The British sent the message “CONCENTRATE FIREPOWER ON DIOMEDE”.

Game-Turn 3

At the beginning of the game-turn, the Wind Direction Change dice roll revealed that the wind would indeed change 60° counter-clockwise, to blow toward direction 6. But that change wouldn’t take effect until the beginning of g-t 4.

During game-turn 3, the French continued sailing straight-ahead, with all ships showing men-in-rigging. Alexandre moved 7 hexes; the other four ships moved 6 hexes ahead. Superb moved “3P2” which moved her right alongside Jupiter. Northumberland moved ahead 5, and Spencer plotted “2S4”. Spencer had to try to move 8 MPs in this game-turn as she had used 8 MPs in the previous g-t and suffered the “braces cut” critical hit in g-t 2, but as she started g-t 3 as “running” with the wind, her maximum movement was 7. So, Spencer moved as many MPs as she could. Superb and Spencer had men-in-rigging, and Northumberland was now at medium sail. Spencer was 1 hex short of raking the stern of Brave. The Brits got their first reinforcement; Canopus came on the board (in the lower right of the pictures) and moved 6 hexes ahead).

Only two pairs of ships fired at each other in g-t 3. Superb and Jupiter were right next to each other at range 1. Northumberland and Brave were on parallel courses, at range 4. Superb’s shot caused a loss of 3 rigging, 2 hull, 1 sailor, and 1 marine to Jupiter, and Jupiter’s shot caused a loss of 3 rigging, 1 hull, and 1 marine to Superb. Each ship lost its 1st section of rigging and had to make a rigging check 1d6 die roll. Jupiter rolled “Lines Jammed,” and that canceled her attempt at changing sail state from plain sail to medium sail. Jupiter also received a critical hit, but only lost -1 Guns Dismounted to her port side. Superb rolled “Braces Cut” and also would not be able to accelerate or decelerate in game-turn 4.

Northumberland had a very good shoot at Brave, causing a loss of 4 rigging, 3 hull, and 1 sailor, and inflicting a critical hit of “Leadership Casualties on the Quarterdeck” and so Brave also lost a marine box. Brave’s return fire at Northumberland only dinged 2 rigging boxes. Later, during the maintenance phase, Brave rolled a Morale Check (MC), and passed it. And Superb repaired her cut braces.

The ship positions at the end of game-turn 3

The ship positions at the end of game-turn 3. Superb is right next to Jupiter.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 3:

British
Superb (74) – A3329:1
Northumberland (74) – A3032:1
Spencer (74) – A3338:2
Canopus (80) – A1146:1 (reinforcement that just entered the map)

French
Alexandre (80) – A3416:1
Impérial (120) – A3421:1
Diomède – A3425:1
Jupiter – A3430:1
Brave (74) – A3434:1

French message to all of their ships at the end of game-turn 3: “GOOD SHOOTING KEEP IT UP”. British message to all of their ships: “STOP DIOMEDE FROM ESCAPING”.

It should be stated that in the present position, the leading French ships should be able to escape from the British. That would have won the scenario for the French due to the special victory conditions. However, it would not look good if the French admiral simply abandoned his last two ships to the tender mercies of His Majesty’s Royal Navy!

Game-Turn 4

The wind had now changed; it was now blowing toward “direction 6,” which is to say it was blowing towards the starboard quarter of the French ships, so the French was now all “broad-reaching.” Three of the French ships turned to port and started making way for the nearest map edge where they could escape. The leading Alexandre moved “P6,” Impérial moved “5,” Diomède moved “6,” Jupiter moved “1P1,” and Brave moved “P5.” For the British, Superb moved 5 hexes straight ahead, Northumberland moved 6 hexes ahead, and Spencer moved “P2,” which left her a bit behind the French ship Brave. Donegal came onto the map to join Canopus as a reinforcement; both ships moved 7 hexes forward in direction 1.

All of the French ships were now at medium sail, except for the damaged Jupiter. Jupiter had her sail change canceled due to receiving battle damage in the last game-turn. Superb, Northumberland, and Spencer were all at medium sail, but Spencer had men in the rigging to get back to plain sail to close the distance back to the French ships. Canopus and Donegal were both flying plain sails so they could make all speed towards the enemy.

After movement, only three ships elected to fire at each other: Brave fired a 5-hex range stern rake on Northumberland; Jupiter fired a 3-hex range stern rake on Superb, but could only fire her forward starboard guns; and Northumberland had a 3-hex range bow rake on Jupiter, but could only fire her rear starboard guns. No other ships had a target with the arc of their broadsides.

Jupiter had a BGN of 26 for her shoot at Superb, but had a total of -2 in modifiers, and fired high. Jupiter did roll a 6, and that also caused a critical hit against Superb. Superb lost 3 rigging, and 1 sailor. The critical hit caused leadership casualties on the quarterdeck, which caused Superb to cross out a marine box. Superb then had to take a morale check during the maintenance phase, which she passed with her Morale Rating of “3”. Northumberland’s bow rake versus Jupiter started with a BGN of 25, but had a total of -4 in modifiers. Rolling a “4” caused a loss of 2 rigging and 1 sailor to Jupiter. Brave fired on Northumberland with a BGN of 23, -1 in mods, a dr of “5,” causing a loss of 2 rigging, 1 hull, and 1 sailor. Northumberland then lost her 1st rigging section. The resulting Rigging Check was for a “Mast May Fall” possibility, but fortunately for Northumberland the mast stayed upright.

End of game-turn 4

End of game-turn 4: Three of the French ships have turned to port, but the two rear French ships have been separated from their three other friendly ships.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 4:

British
Superb (74) – A3324:1
Northumberland (74) – A3026:1
Spencer (74) – A3336:1
Canopus (80) – A1139:1
Donegal (74) – A1145:1 (reinforcement that just entered the map)

French
Alexandre (80) – A2813:6
Impérial (120) – A3416:1
Diomède – A3419:1
Jupiter – A3328:6
Brave (74) – A2931:6

The French message to their fleet that was revealed at the end of g-t 4 said “REAR TWO SHIPS TURN PORT”, although those ships had already executed that turn. The British showed a somewhat spurious message of “DAMN TORPEDOES FULL SPEED AHEAD”. The receiving ships were wondering what the heck was a torpedo?

Game-Turn 5

To begin g-t 5, all of the French ships were now at medium sail, except for Jupiter, which was still at plain sail status, although Jupiter could only move as fast as medium sail status due to having lost her 1st rigging section. Northumberland and Superb were at medium sail, as was Spencer, but Spencer still had men in the rigging to get back to plain sail. The British got a 3rd ship to add to their reinforcements, the Atlas, to join with Canopus and Donegal. All three of the reinforcement ships were at plain sail. Canopus and Donegal moved 7 hexes, and Atlas moved 8 hexes.

Spencer moved 6 hexes directly toward where the French line had been sailing. Superb turned to port to move “P3,” and Northumberland moved “P3P” to sort of head in the wrong direction from where the French were headed, although Northumberland did get a bow rake shot against Jupiter by turning in that direction. For the French, Alexandre moved ahead 5, Brave moved ahead 5, and Jupiter could only manage to move 3 hexes. Those three ships were headed diagonally toward the closest escape edge of the map. Impérial and Diomède both turned to port, both moving “3P”.

Auditing the ship’s logs after the game, there were some move “discrepancies” on this game-turn. Brave moved “5” but only had 4 MPs while running with the wind while at medium sail. So Brave moved one too many hexes forward. Spencer accelerated too much, using only 3 MPs on game-turn 4, and then using 6 MPs on this g-t. Also, while Spencer only used 3 MPs on g-t 4, she should have used at least 5 MPs on g-t 4, since she used 7 MPs on g-t 3! Impérial plotted “2P”, when the photographs were checked after the game, she had actually moved “3P” on the map. And, Canopus, in her first three g-t’s on the map, plotted “6,” “6,” and “7,” but her position on the map at the end of g-t 5 was two hexes to the rear of where she should have been on the map.

The British ships Northumberland and Superb both targeted Jupiter, and Spencer shot at Brave. The French returned fire with Diomède and Jupiter both shooting high at Superb, and Brave fired (low) at Northumberland.

Northumberland inflicted damage to the tune of 5 rigging, 2 hull, and 2 sailor boxes on Jupiter, and Superb dished out another 4 rigging, 2 hull, and 1 sailor to Jupiter, making a total of 9 rigging, 4 hull, and 3 sailor boxes lost. Jupiter lost her 1st hull section, taking a hull check and that directed her to take a rigging critical hit roll, which turned out to be “Shrouds Severed” which caused the loss of another rigging box. The hull check also meant a morale check later in the game-turn. Then, since the Jupiter had also lost her 2nd rigging section, she had to take a rigging check dice roll. Unfortunately for Jupiter, the rigging check was that a mast fell, and that caused the loss of the rest of rigging section 3 and another morale check. Also, Jupiter lost her 1st sailor section, meaning she had a permanent -3 modifier to gunfire, and she would have to take a 3rd morale check during the maintenance phase later in the game-turn.

Spencer’s shot at Brave yielded only 1 rigging and 1 sailor box checked off. Brave lost her 1st rigging section, and got “Braces Cut” for her rigging check, so her acceleration and deceleration would be zero for the next game-turn, and she had “-2 guns dismounted” on her starboard side. Jupiter’s simultaneous return shot at Superb caused the loss of 3 rigging and 1 sailor box, and Diomède’s shot at Superb only added 1 hull to the damage to Superb. Superb did lose her 2nd rigging section, and got “-2 broadside obscured” (from falling rigging) on her port side. Brave’s gunfire at Northumberland caused the loss of 1 rigging and 1 hull box.

Then, during the maintenance phase, Jupiter failed two of the three morale checks she had to make. That dropped her Crew Quality to “F”, which gave her another -5 modifier to all of her gunfire. Add in her -3 for missing sailor section 1, and her gunfire had to apply -8. She also had a “-2 broadside obstructed” to her starboard side due to the mast falling. At this time, Jupiter only had 6 boxes remaining unchecked in rigging section 4, and she could only move at fighting sail MP rate, although she would still take damage at the plain sail rate as she still hadn’t changed her sail state.

End of game-turn 5

End of game-turn 5. Three British ships are rushing to help along the bottom edge of the map.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 5:

British
Superb (74) – A3023:6
Northumberland (74) – A2724:5
Spencer (74) – A3330:1
Canopus (80) – A1132:1
Donegal (74) – A1138:1
Atlas (74) – A1144:1 (reinforcement that just entered the map)

French
Alexandre (80) – A2310:6
Impérial (120) – A3413:6
Diomède – A3416:6
Jupiter – A3027:6
Brave (74) – A2429:6

The French signaled ” FRONT THREE SHIPS TURN PORT” which they already did, and the British signaled “FREE FOR ALL”.

Game-Turn 6

For game-turn 6, four of the French ships were at medium sail, with only the battered Jupiter still being at plain sail status (although Jupiter could only move at fighting sail MPs, due to having already lost 3 of her 4 rigging sections). For the Brits, Northumberland and Superb were at medium sail; the rest of their ships were at plain sail. Superb had men in the rigging to change sail state.

Northumberland moved “1S3” which put her course on the same heading as Brave, although 5 hexes distant. Spencer moved 6 hexes straight ahead, which put her in position to fire at the stern of Jupiter (although it was not a rake). Superb plotted and moved “1” although she should have spent 2 MPs since she used 4 MPs in g-t 5 and her deceleration was “2”. The British reinforcements Canopus and Donegal moved ahead 7 hexes, and Atlas moved ahead 8 hexes.

Most of the French ships moved straight ahead. Alexandre moved 5, Diomède moved 3, Brave also moved 3 hexes. Jupiter plotted and moved 2, although with only 1 rigging section remaining she only had 1 MP available! Impérial moved “3P”, with her turn to port putting her aiming for a collision with Diomède.

Northumberland shot at Brave, and Spencer and Superb shot at Jupiter. The French Brave fired back at Northumberland, and Diomède and Jupiter both fired at Superb. Brave lost 3 rigging, 1 hull, and 1 marine box. Jupiter lost 4 rigging, 4 hull, 1 sailor, and 1 marine box, although they were not all checked off her ship’s log (in particular, 2 boxes in rigging section 4 were not checked off, nor was the marine box). The French return fire was rather light as to damage. Northumberland lost 2 rigging and 1 marine box, and Superb lost only 1 rigging and 1 sailor box.

End of game-turn 6

End of game-turn 6. Jupiter is being battered to pieces, and Brave is about to be surrounded by the British reinforcement ships at the bottom of the map.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 6:

British
Superb (74) – A2922:6
Northumberland (74) – A2323:6
Spencer (74) – A3324:1
Canopus (80) – A1125:1
Donegal (74) – A1131:1
Atlas (74) – A1136:1

French
Alexandre (80) – A1808:6
Impérial (120) – A3111:5
Diomède – A3114:6
Jupiter – A2826:6
Brave (74) – A2127:6

Only the French admiral sent a message on g-t 6: “FRONT THREE SLOW TO ENGAGE”, meaning, of course, for Alexandre, Impérial, and Diomède to engage the British with the thought of trying to extricate Jupiter and Brave from the clutches of the enemy.

Three of the French ship commanders

Three of the French ship commanders (left-to-right): Jack Beckman (Alexandre); Jim Robinson (Impérial); and Larry O (Jupiter).

Game-Turn 7

During game-turn 7, the mapboard began to look like giant melee. Spencer raced ahead 8 hexes and could loose a broadside against Diomède. Northumberland moved “S3,” and Superb just plotted “S”, a turn to starboard. Canopus moved “2S4” to try to cut off Brave; Donegal moved 7 and Atlas moved 8 ahead. For the French, Alexandre moved “P2” to start to head towards the British preparatory to doing battle. Impérial moved 3, and Diomède wisely turned to port, moving “P3”. Brave turned to starboard and moved “S2”, and Jupiter merely moved “1”, as fast as she could sail.

Fortunately for the French, only Spencer threw iron at Diomède. Canopus decided to hold her initial starboard broadside instead of firing a mere half-broadside at Brave. Donegal and Atlas decided to also hold their fire against Brave, and Superb and Northumberland didn’t have any enemy ship in their sights. Diomède and Jupiter both fired upon Superb, Jupiter getting a 3-hex stern rake, although she had -9 in modifiers to add to the +3 rake modifier. Brave fired upon Canopus at a 6-hex range, and Impérial fired her 60-gun initial port broadside at Spencer.

Diomède received damage to the tune of 2 rigging, 2 hull, and 1 sailor box. Canopus lost 2 rigging boxes, Superb lost 3 rigging and 1 hull box, and Spencer lost 4 rigging and a sailor box. Spencer lost her 1st rigging section, and the rigging check caused “braces cut” so her acceleration and deceleration for the next game-turn would be zero. Superb suffered a critical hit, also of “braces cut.”

Superb was subject to drifting, but did not drift, during the maintenance phase.

End of game-turn 7

End of game-turn 7. The battle is about to turn into a free-for-all.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 7:

British
Superb (74) – A2922:1
Northumberland (74) – A2320:1
Spencer (74) – A3316:1
Canopus (80) – A1521:2
Donegal (74) – A1124:1
Atlas (74) – A1128:1

French
Alexandre (80) – A1609:5
Impérial (120) – A2813:5
Diomède – A2816:5
Jupiter – A2725:6
Brave (74) – A2125:1

Once again, only the French admiral signaled to his ships, continuing the same message as before: “FRONT THREE SLOW TO ENGAGE”.

Game-Turn 8

All of the ships continued getting intermingled during game-turn 8. For the Brits, Superb moved “P1”; Northumberland moved “1P”; Spencer moved “2P2”; Canopus moved “4”; Donegal moved “7”; and Atlas moved “4S3”. For the French, Alexandre moved “4”; Impérial moved “2S”; Diomède moved “P3”; Jupiter continued moving “1”; and Brave moved “3”.

There was a lot of gunfire in this game-turn, as every ship on the map fired at some enemy ship. Atlas took a long-shot at Alexandre, inflicting a loss of 1 rigging box. Canopus and Northumberland shot at Brave, causing a loss of 7 rigging, 5 hull, 2 sailors, and 1 marine boxes. Brave also lost her 2nd rigging section, and suffered “sheets cut” during the resultant rigging check, and so she would lose 1 MP from her available MPs for next turn, as well as a -1 to her acceleration (for next turn only). Donegal fired at Impérial, nicking only a single sailor box. And Superb shot at Jupiter, causing losses of 1 rigging, 2 hull, and 1 sailor boxes. That shot reduced Jupiter to only having a single rigging box left in rigging section 4. One more hit to her rigging and she would be dead in the water.

For the French return fire at the British, Alexandre caused the loss of 1 rigging to Atlas. Brave fired away at Canopus, getting Canopus to check off 3 rigging, 1 hull, and 1 sailor. Diomède and Impérial blasted away at Northumberland, causing a loss of 4 rigging, 2 hull, and 2 sailor boxes. Northumberland also lost her 2nd rigging section and suffered “sheets cut.” And Jupiter shot at Superb, but only caused a loss of 1 sailor box.

End of g-t 8

End of g-t 8: Jupiter is one rigging box away from being dismasted, and all ships fired their cannon during this game-turn.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 8:

British
Superb (74) – A2822:6
Northumberland (74) – A2319:6
Spencer (74) – A3113:6
Canopus (80) – A1919:2
Donegal (74) – A1117:1
Atlas (74) – A1423:2

French
Alexandre (80) – A1211:5
Impérial (120) – A2614:6
Diomède – A2819:4
Jupiter – A2625:6
Brave (74) – A2122:1

No messages were sent during game-turn 8.

Victory Determination

At the end of game-turn 8, the time limit (four hours) for the scenario expired. Victory Points were tallied for each side. The French did not exit three ships off the map (Alexandre was the only ship close enough to escape), which they needed to do to earn enough VPs, so Victory would be determined by who inflicted more damage to the other side.

Damage to the British:

Atlas, Canopus, and Donegal (the reinforcement ships) did not lose any rigging, hull, or crew sections, and so yielded 0 VP.

Northumberland (worth 94 VP) lost 2 rigging sections. Each rigging section is worth 5% of her VP, so 10% x 94 = 9.4 VP.

Spencer (worth 95 VP) lost 1 rigging section, which was worth 5% x 95 = 4.75 VP.

Superb (worth 87 VP) lost 2 rigging sections, worth 10% x 87 = 8.7 VP.

Total VP awarded to the French: 9.4 + 4.75 + 8.7 = 22.85 VP.

Damage to the French:

Alexandre, Diomède, and Impérial did not lose any sections, for 0 VP.

Brave (worth 70 VP) lost 2 rigging sections, worth 70 x 10% = 7.0 VP.

Jupiter (worth 66 VP) lost 3 rigging sections, 1 hull section, and 1 sailor section, worth (3 x 5%) + 10% + 10% = 35% x 66 = 23.1 VP.

Total VP awarded to the British: 7.0 + 23.1 = 30.1 VP.

So the British led in VP, 30.1 to 22.85, making the damage (so far) fairly equal, with the British ahead.

In another game-turn or so, Jupiter would have lost her last rigging section, making her dead in the water. She would then have been pounded until she would have struck, giving all of her 66 VP to the British. But the leading French ships, the Alexandre, Impérial, and Diomède, were coming back to do battle, and they could have dished out some punishment to the British.

Aftermath

Now, the French could have easily sailed their leading three ships away and off the map, but that would have meant abandoning their trailing two ships to capture by the British. Although that could have earned the French enough VP to easily win the scenario, one would think there would have been repercussions to the French admiral when he got back to port, after abandoning 40% of his force!

For this scenario, I made up a form so the GM (myself) could keep track of things such as each ship’s plotted movement, their target, how may gunnery factors and modifiers, how much damage they dished out, and any special results like critical hits. But in spite of that, several times ships were moved a differing number of hexes than what was plotted, and there were other discrepancies, such as ships not keeping within their acceleration or deceleration limits, or sometimes using too many MPs for their sail state and attitude to the wind. Part of that was probably due to new players to the game who didn’t perfectly understand the rules, but I must also take some of the blame for not educating the players better. So, I will work on a handout to give out that will explain how the log sheets should be filled out properly, among other things.

In any event, I will run another Close Action scenario at the Metro Detroit Gamers’ Wintercon 2019 at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, on Saturday, March 9, 2019.

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Close Action at Spartacon 2019: scenario RS13 — Winter Interception

Thursday, February 7th, 2019

Spartacon 2019 was held in Lansing, Michigan, on Saturday, January 12, 2019. I ran a scenario of Close Action (from Clash of Arms games) there, using the Rebel Seas scenario 13, entitled “Winter Interception.” This scenario was from January 21, 1781, during the American Revolutionary War vs. England, and had a total of seven ships, three British and four French. Basically, the French have two 32-gun frigates, the Gentille and Surveillante, plus two 64-gun ships-of-the-line (SOL), the Eveillé and Ardent (the Ardent being an ex-British ship). The French can win by exiting all four of their ships off the far end of Map A, but a complication is that none of their ships can lose more than one of their rigging sections (each ship has four rigging sections). Else, the scenario would be won by which side caused more damage to the other. In opposition, the British have the 50-gun Adamant, the 64-gun America, and the 74-gun Bedford to try to stop the French. Jim Robinson was the French commander aboard Eveillé, and Joel Lauder commanded the British side from the deck of the Bedford.

The situation at the start:

The At-Start situation for Winter Interception

The At-Start situation for Winter Interception. The French ships are in line, with two scattered British ships in opposition. (Click the picture to enlarge it.)

In the above picture, the French ships are in the order Gentille, Surveillante, Eveillé, and Ardent. They are indicated by the blue text, and are heading towards the left narrow side of the map. The British Adamant is near the edge that the French are heading towards, and the America is almost in the exact center of the mapboard, heading towards the French on an angle. The British ship Bedford is off the map, and won’t appear on the map until game-turn 5 (aka g-t 5) of the scenario. All of the ships on the board at start are flying medium sails.

Starting positions

British
America (64) – A2445:3
Adamant (50) – A2004:4
Bedford (74) – (off map, near hex A1126, won’t enter until game-turn 5)

French
Gentille (32) – B4405:1
Surveillante (32) – B4411:1
Eveillé (64) – B4423:1
Ardent (64) – B4429:1

In the above hex locations, “A” or “B” gives the map board the ship started on. In the above picture, Map A is the near map, and Map B is the map that is farther away. Then the hex number is given for that map (example: “2445”) which tells which hex that ship’s bow is placed in. And then, since each ship’s counter covers two hexes, we need to know which way the ship is pointing. The number after the colon (example: “:3”) tells us which way the ship is pointing. The maps have a compass “rose” printed on them. Direction “1” is pointing directly towards the near narrow map edge (off the near side of the table). Direction “2” is one hex clockwise from Direction 1, etc. The wind is blowing toward direction 5, sort of from the near-left corner toward the far-right corner of Map A.

There are a couple of complications with this situation. Although the Wind Speed = 4 (high winds), the America is sailing “close-hauled” into the wind. But the America is flying “medium sails” and so can move four hexes in that wind attitude. But the danger is if that one British ship tries to intercept the French by itself — the four French ships could gang up on the solo Brit and cripple her before the other British ships come up to do battle. Also, with the high winds come high seas (Sea State = 4). This means that all of the ships other than the two frigates will lose some gunnery factors when they are firing their guns downwind, due to having to close the lowest deck’s gun ports to keep the high waves from flooding into the ships. Also, the French are also sailing close-hauled into the wind, and that will slow their progress. Their two 64-gun SOLs can only move 4 hexes per game-turn in that heading, although their two 32-gun frigates can move 5 hexes at medium sail in that heading.

Game-Turn 1

During game-turn 1, Gentille moved ahead 2 hexes, Surveillante moved ahead 3 hexes, Eveillé moved ahead 4 hexes, and Ardent also moved ahead 4 hexes. Adament turned 60-degrees to port (due to the limitations of the hex-grid) and then moved ahead 4 hexes. America moved ahead 4 hexes to close the range towards the enemy. Ardent and Eveillé placed “men in rigging” markers to show they were changing from medium sail to some other sail state. A casual observer would probably think they were going to put up more sails, to go to “plain sail” status, to increase their movement allowance. On the British side, both Adamant and America also placed “men in rigging” counters. No ships fired on g-t 1.

Ship positions at the end of game-turn 1:

British
America (64) – A2847:3
Adamant (50) – A2406:3
Bedford (74) – (off map, near hex A1126, won’t enter until game-turn 5)

French
Gentille (32) – B4403:1
Surveillante (32) – B4408:1
Eveillé (64) – B4419:1
Ardent (64) – B4425:1

The French flagship, Eveillé, signalled to the French fleet: “CLOSE UP THEN COMBINE”.

Game-Turn 2

During game-turn 2, Gentille and Surveillante each moved 2 and 3 hexes straight ahead, respectively, the same as in game-turn 1. Eveillé and Ardent each moved 4 hexes ahead, to try to close the gap between them and their leading frigates. The British Adamant moved four hexes ahead. as did America. Eveillé and Ardent still had men in their rigging, as did Adamant and America. On this turn, the two French frigates also showed men-in-rigging. So all of the ships on the map were changing the status of the sails. Once again, there was no gunfire. At the end of the game-turn, during the maintenance phase, the ships announced their new sail status. Gentille and Surveillante had gone to “fighting sail,” meaning they were flying the minimum amount of sails so as to minimize any damage they might receive from enemy fire. Eveillé and Ardent had gone the other way, to “plain sail” and were now flying as many sails as they could get aloft, so to increase their movement allowance. On the British side, both Adamant and America were now flying plain sail.

It should be noted that changing sails requires either one or two crew sections to be plotted to accomplish that task, depending on what sail-state the ship is changing to. Also, the amount of time is slightly variable per ship, depending on the quality of a ship’s crew. Better quality crews can change sails faster than lower quality crews. Quelle surprise, n’est-ce pas?

The map after game-turn 2

The map after game-turn 2. The America has closed the range towards the French, and the Adamant (in the foreground) has turned to port to try to get in front of the French.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 2:

British
America (64) – A3249:3
Adamant (50) – A2808:3
Bedford (74) – (off map, near hex A1126, won’t enter until game-turn 5)

French
Gentille (32) – A4453:1
Surveillante (32) – B4405:1
Eveillé (64) – B4415:1
Ardent (64) – B4421:1

The French flagship, Eveillé, signalled to the French fleet: “FIRE WHEN YOU CAN”.

Game-Turn 3

During g-t 3, both British ships could now move faster while close-hauled toward the wind due to their increased amount of sails, and Adamant and America both moved 6 hexes ahead. Gentille, the leading French frigate, plotted and moved “P3” which means she turned to port, then moved ahead 3 spaces. While the turn to port put Gentille into a more favorable wind attitude of a “broad-reach,” ships are limited by acceleration and deceleration factors from one turn to another. A large sailing warship just can’t accelerate like a race horse! This turn put Gentille on a near-collision course with America. Surveillante was content to just move ahead 3 hexes. Eveillé moved ahead 6 hexes, and Ardent moved ahead 5 hexes. Adamant declared “men in rigging” again, as did Eveillé and Ardent. America also had men in her rigging.

The situation on the map after movement in game-turn 3:

Gentille and America head towards each other

Gentille and America head towards each other. Neither of those ships can bring their guns to bear on each other in this game-turn.

While Gentille and America were near each other, neither ship could fire at the other; however, Surveillante could bring her guns to bear on America, and so Surveillante, commanded by Bill Worrel (playing in his first game of Close Action), opened fire at a range of 6 hexes. At a 6-hex range, Surveillante had a “7” as its Basic Gunnery Number (BGN). It got to add a “+2” for its Crew Quality (CQ) Gunnery Modifier, to give her a Modified Gunnery Number (MGN) of “9”, but was just out of range to get a “rake” or an initial broadside bonus to her gunfire. The result of the gunfire was that America lost 2 rigging boxes (out of 6) in her first rigging section, and also lost a crew box from her marines. So Surveillante had the honor of drawing “first blood” even though the wound was only a “dice wound.” All ships were too far away for any shipboard marines to fire at each other.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 3:

British
America (64) – A3852:3
Adamant (50) – A3411:3
Bedford (74) – (off map, near hex A1126, won’t enter until game-turn 5)

French
Gentille (32) – A4151:6
Surveillante (32) – B4402:1
Eveillé (64) – B4409:1
Ardent (64) – B4416:1

The French flagship, Eveillé, signalled to the Surveillante: “GOOD START”.

Game-Turn 4

America (with men still in the rigging) now decided to try to turn to port, to head in the same direction as were the French SOLs. That meant she would have to tack through the facing wind. So America turned to port, and then had to stop, as she was now “luffing” straight into the wind. America had used 6 Movement Points (MPs) in her previous turn, which meant she ordinarily would have had to use at least 4 MPs in this turn due to her deceleration rating of 2. But when a ship turns directly into the wind, it immediately stops. America moved another 6 hexes straight ahead, still angling to get in front of the French ships. The French ship Gentille, commanded by Mike St. Peter, moved “2P1” which meant it moved 2 hexes ahead, then turned 60-degrees to port, then moved 1 more space ahead. This put Gentille’s port bow adjacent to America’s port bow. Surveillante now also peeled out of the French line, plotting and moving “1P2”. Eveillé and Ardent, both still with men in rigging, moved 6 and 5 hexes ahead, respectively. This was opening a bit of a gap between the two 64-gunned vessels.

A note about combat in Close Action (of course, anyone who knows how to play Close Action will know this, but this blog post is mostly written for novices to follow along with play). Like, movement, ships simultaneously plot which ship they will fire at, if any. Then all ships will reveal their targets. Ships also calculate their MGN (Modified Gunnery Factor) and should also write that down. All gunfire (and marine fire) is considered to be simultaneous, and so each ship needs to know what its MGN was at the beginning of combat, as damage received can cause a ship’s gunnery to be lessened.

America could now fire a half-(initial) broadside from its port bow battery at Gentille; Gentille suffered a rigging and a hull hit. Gentille’s initial (half) broadside from its port bow battery returned fire, but did no damage to America. Marine fire between the two ships was ineffective.

During the maintenance phase to end the game turn, America drifted 1 hex to leeward (that’s downwind for you land-lubbers). Although America pivoted (turned), she did not move ahead, so that was considered that she did not move during the turn. Ships that don’t move during a game-turn are subject to drifting, and with high winds in a scenario like this one, they will drift more often than not.

Situation at the end of game-turn 4

Situation at the end of game-turn 4. America was one hex further forward, but has drifted backwards one hex after exchanging gunfire with Gentille.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 4:

British
America (64) – A3852:2 (for combat, then drifted to hex A3752:2)
Adamant (50) – A4014:3
Bedford (74) – (off map, near hex A1126, won’t enter until game-turn 5)

French
Gentille (32) – A3851:5
Surveillante (32) – A4252:6
Eveillé (64) – B4403:1
Ardent (64) – B4411:1

Also, at the end of g-t 4, America announced it was now back at medium sail; Eveillé and Ardent also announced they were back at medium sail. HMS Bedford, the British flagship, sent a message to Adamant, saying “COME HERE FASTEST”. This message was sent, even though the flagship was still off the board (but would enter the game map the next turn). The French flagship, Eveillé, signalled to the French fleet: “ROUND SHOT AT SAILS”.

Game-Turn 5

America now rolled to see if she could successfully complete the tack to port this turn. After taking the required two d10 dice rolls on the tacking table, it was found that she did complete the tack, so her move for g-t 5 was plotted as “P”. She did have 3 crew sections plotted to help with the tacking maneuver, so her gunfire for this game-turn would have a -9 modifier applied (-3 per each missing crew section—they’re “missing” from manning the guns because they’re playing with the sails). Adamant plotted “3S2” and was now headed directly at the French, from dead-ahead of their SOLs. And the Bedford, a 74-gun SOL, was finally able to enter the board (in plain sail), moving 5 hexes towards the French.

For the French moves, Gentille moved ahead 2 spaces, Surveillante moved ahead 3 spaces, Eveillé moved ahead 4 hexes, and Ardent moved “P2S,” to sort of side-slip a bit to the left of Eveillé.

America fired at Eveillé, while the Eveillé, Gentille, and Surveillante all fired at America. America did no damage to Eveillé, but America suffered a combined loss of 1 rigging, 1 hull, and 1 sailor boxes. In addition, America suffered a critical hit of waterline damage, and had to send another 3 boxes of sailors to “man the pumps” to keep out the water below. This meant that America lost its first crew section, which gave it a permanent -3 modifier to all gunfire (from the main guns, not from marine fire). America also had to take a morale check (MC) at the end of the game-turn, but with a morale rating of “3”  was able to pass the MC.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 5:

British
America (64) – A3752:1 (for combat, then drifted to A3653:1)
Adamant (50) – A4317:4
Bedford (74) – A1629:3

French
Gentille (32) – A3652:5
Surveillante (32) – A3950:6
Eveillé (64) – A4451:1
Ardent (64) – B4210:1

Bedford (the British flag) signaled to Adamant: “MOVE TO JOIN AMERICA”. The French flagship, Eveillé, signalled to the French fleet: “FIRE EVERY TIME”.

Game-Turn 6

America having completed her tack during game-turn 5, was facing toward board edge “1,” and was facing directly toward Gentille. Not wanting to risk colliding with Gentille, America wisely plotted “0” and so did not move. Adamant, under plain sail, in a broad-reach attitude to the wind, raced along at 9 hexes toward the French. Adamant also had men in the rigging. (Upon examination of the ships’ log for Adamant after the game, Adamant should have only moved 8 hexes, due to its acceleration of “2” and the fact it used only 6 MPs in the previous g-t.) Bedford, being close-hauled, moved 5 hexes towards the French. Gentille moved “1P2” which brought her port side up against the port side of America. Surveillante moved “P2S1” to gain a bow-rake on America. Eveillé moved 2 spaces ahead. Ardent moved 4 spaces ahead.

America plotted to fire at Gentille; the other two British ships were still well out of range of the French. But America was in a sort of vise, drawing the fire of Gentille (1-hex range), Surveillante (2-hex bow rake), and Eveillé (9-hex range). After all gunfire was resolved, amazingly, America had only sustained damage to the amount of 2 rigging boxes and 2 hull boxes and 1 sailor box. Gentille sustained damage of 1 rigging and 1 hull box.

The situation at the end of game-turn 6

The situation at the end of game-turn 6: British ship America is trapped between the ships of the French squadron.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 6:

British
America (64) – A3653:1
Adamant (50) – A4326:4
Bedford (74) – A2131:3

French
Gentille (32) – B3502:4
Surveillante (32) – A3651:6
Eveillé (64) – A4449:1
Ardent (64) – B4206:1

The French flagship, Eveillé, signalled to the French fleet: “FIRE AT RIGGING”.

Game-Turn 7

For game-turn 7, Adamant, still with men in the rigging, continued to make haste, moving 9 more hexes closer to the French. Bedford moved 5 hexes closer to the French, coming in from an angle. America, effectively not moving at all last turn while completing her tack, could only accelerate to 2 MPs, so she moved 2 hexes straight ahead. Gentille had been passing by America, so plotted “P1” to turn to port behind America and so gained a stern rake shot. Surveillante plotted “1S1” and so turned to starboard and was now on a parallel course with America, although slightly ahead, so Surveillante could still shoot her starboard stern guns at America. Although, in the end, Surveillante passed on the low-odds shot in order to not fatigue her gun crews for no result. Eveillé continued to move 2 hexes forward, and Ardent moved 4 hexes forward.

Once again, America was the only British ship that could fire at the French, so America fired at Adamant, who was 6 hexes away on her starboard side, rather than take a 1-hex range half-broadside at Surveillante. Gentille, Eveillé, and Ardent all fired at America. America managed to inflict damage on 1 rigging and 1 hull and 1 sailor on Ardent. In return, America suffered damage of 1 rigging (losing her 1st rigging section and having to take a rigging check die roll, which resulted in “sheets cut”), and 1 sailor. So, in spite of having 3 ships firing at her, America dished out 3 boxes of damage while only receiving 2 boxes of damage in return. Perhaps more importantly, America was holding the French in combat, instead of them sailing toward the board edge they needed to exit from.

At the end of the turn, Adamant announced she had changed to medium sail (from plain sail).

Situation at the end of game-turn 7

Situation at the end of game-turn 7. Will America be able to escape the French trap?

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 7:

British
America (64) – A3651:1
Adamant (50) – A4335:4
Bedford (74) – A2634:3

French
Gentille (32) – B3603:3
Surveillante (32) – A3549:1
Eveillé (64) – A4447:1
Ardent (64) – B4202:1

The French flagship, Eveillé, signalled to the Gentille: “TURN AROUND”.

Game-Turn 8

America now appeared to get entirely out of the French trap, as she only plotted “2” to move ahead 2 hexes. Bedford continued to close with the enemy by moving forward 5 hexes, and with men in the rigging. And Adamant, now at medium sail, moved forward 7 hexes.  Gentille moved ahead 4 hexes. Gentille also had men in the rigging (sailor crew section 4), wanting to put up more sails to try to get back into the fight, as her sailing had now taken her a bit in the wrong direction. Gentille also had her marines working at repairing rigging. Surveillante moved ahead 2 hexes, keeping America on her starboard quarter. Eveillé moved ahead 2 hexes, and Ardent moved ahead 4 hexes. America set her marines to work at repairing her rigging.

America once again chose to fire a full broadside at Ardent, rather than a half-broadside at the closer Surveillante. Neither of the other British ships fired. Ardent and Eveillé returned fire at America. America received only a “canvas wound,” i.e., a hit to a single rigging box, while America dished out 2 boxes of damage to Ardent, to a rigging and to a marine box.

During the maintenance phase, Gentille switched from fighting sail to medium sail. America, having fired her guns 5 times, now added a -1 “fatigue” factor to all future gunnery.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 8:

British
America (64) – A3649:1
Adamant (50) – A4342:4
Bedford (74) – A3136:3

French
Gentille (32) – B4005:3
Surveillante (32) – A3547:1
Eveillé (64) – A4445:1
Ardent (64) – B4250:1

The French flagship, Eveillé, signalled to the French fleet:”CLOSE UP WHEN POSSIBLE”.

Game-Turn 9

America slowed to only 1 hex forward movement, while her marines were still working at repairing the rigging. (After the game, while perusing the ship’s log from America, she was repairing rigging while at medium sail. That is a big no-no! Ships must be at fighting sail or have their sails furled, or even dismasted, to be able to repair rigging! As a GM, I must check their logs more closely during the game.) Bedford got another 5 hexes closer to the enemy French, still with men in the rigging. And Adamant plotted “1S1P1” to sort of side-saddle move to starboard.

Eveillé moved 4 hexes forward. Surveillante moved 2 hexes forward, which put America behind her starboard quarter so now neither of those ships would be able to fire at each other. Gentille moved ahead 4 hexes, then turned to port, directly into the wind, preparing to tack to a new course. Gentille had effectively sailed completely around America (the ship, not the country!). Ardent continued moving ahead, 4 more hexes worth. This put Ardent on a direct collision course with Adamant! They were facing each other in adjacent hexes.

America again targeted Ardent, and now the HMS Adamant opened fire on Surveillante. Ardent returned fire at America, and Eveillé fired at Bedford. Ardent received a hull hit, while Surveillante was unscathed. America sustained a hull hit, and Bedford dodged any damage.

End of game-turn 9

End of game-turn 9: HMS Adamant and the French SOL Ardent are on a collision course!

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 9:

British
America (64) – A3648:1
Adamant (50) – A4245:4
Bedford (74) – A3639:3

French
Gentille (32) – B4407:2
Surveillante (32) – A3545:1
Eveillé (64) – A4441:1
Ardent (64) – B4246:1

Bedford dropped from plain sail to medium sail during the maintenance phase. The French ship Surveillante signalled to the French fleet:”FIRE AT HULL”.

Game-Turn 10

The first order of business for game-turn 10 was to resolve the possible collision between Adamant and Ardent. Ardent made a turn to port, which was prudent, as if she had turned to starboard she would have turned into the wind and would have lost all headway. So, one would have thought that the captain of Adamant would have realized this and so would have turned to port, but instead the Adamant turned to starboard, and that put the two ships on a collision course, only in a different hex! Besides gnashing of teeth, there was dice-rolling to see which ship got to move first and take possession of hex A4145, and it was the French ship Ardent that got to move first into A4145. Now, sometimes, a ship can attempt to “bear off” by making an emergency turn in a game of Close Action in order to try to avoid a collision. But in this case, since Adamant had just made a turn, and had plotted to move “S1P1S” (which was also an illegal plot, as ships cannot pivot more than twice in a game-turn), she could not turn again immediately. Instead, she rammed into the starboard bow of Ardent. In Close Action, the ramming ship takes damage to its sails, depending on how many sails are flying, when it rams another ship, but the ship that is rammed into does not get any damage. So, in this collision, Adamant lost 5 rigging boxes. That wiped out Adamant’s entire first rigging section (of 5 boxes), necessitating a rigging check, which took out two more rigging boxes in rigging section 2. And, to top things off, the two ships became fouled together, so neither would be able to move away from the other.

For the other ships’ moves, America moved 2 ahead then turned to port. As Surveillante only moved 1 hex ahead, that put Surveillante in position for a bow rake on America. Bedford moved “S2P” and had a bow rake shot on Surveillante from 4 hexes distant. Gentille rolled dice to attempt to continue tacking to port, but the tack’s completion would be delayed for a turn, so Gentille stayed facing into the wind. Eveillé turned to port and then moved 3 hexes ahead, which put her in position for a 9-hex ranged shot versus America, although in the event Eveillé instead fired a half-broadside at range 5 versus Adamant.

During combat, America fired at Ardent, and Bedford fired its initial starboard broadside with a bow rake at Surveillante. The French returned fire with Surveillante firing its half-broadside bow rake at America, and Eveillé and Ardent both shot at Adamant. America suffered only 1 hull hit, but Adamant took a pounding, losing 3 hull and 4 sailor boxes, to go with the 7 rigging boxes Adamant lost during movement. Losing the crew section triggered a morale check for Adamant, which she failed, dropping her crew quality to  “E” which also yielded a “-2” to future gunfire. Surveillante lost only 1 sailor box, and Eveillé lost 2 rigging boxes.

Situation after game-turn 10

Situation after game-turn 10. Adamant has rammed and fouled with Ardent.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 10:

British
America (64) – A3646:6
Adamant (50) – A4245:5 (fouled with Ardent)
Bedford (74) – A3641:3

French
Gentille (32) – B4407:2
Surveillante (32) – A3544:1
Eveillé (64) – A4139:6
Ardent (64) – B4145:6 (fouled with Adamant)

The French ship Surveillante signalled to the French fleet:”GO DOWNWIND ENEMY”.

Game-Turn 11

Gentille completed its tack, and simply pivoted to port. It drifted later (1 hex downwind), during the maintenance phase. Surveillante moved 3 hexes forward. Eveillé moved 6 hexes forward. Ardent was still fouled with Adamant, so neither of those ships moved. America merely moved 1 hex forward, which put her in position for a 3-hex range stern rake of Surveillante. Bedford moved “1S1P” which put her stern in position to be raked by Surveillante. Bedford would return fire at Surveillante, but could only use her starboard stern battery. Eveillé fired at Bedford, but could only use her port stern guns. Ardent delivered another bow rake on Adamant, but this time, Adamant returned fire with her port bow guns.

Adamant lost 2 rigging, 2 hull, a sailor, and a marine box. Bedford lost a hull and a sailor box. Surveillante lost 1 rigging, 1 hull, 1 sailor, and 1 marine. Losing the sailor meant that Surveillante lost her entire first crew section, so future gunfire would have a -3 modifier, and she also had to take a morale check later in the turn (which she passed, having a morale rating of “4”). Ardent lost a rigging, a hull, a sailor, and a marine, although no full sections were lost (yet).

During the maintenance phase, Gentille drifted, as did the fouled duo of Adamant and Ardent.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 11:

British
America (64) – A3545:6
Adamant (50) – A4245:5 (fouled with Ardent) (drifted to A4145:5)
Bedford (74) – A3742:3

French
Gentille (32) – B4407:1 (then drifted to B4307:1)
Surveillante (32) – A3541:1
Eveillé (64) – A3536:6
Ardent (64) – B4145:6 (fouled with Adamant) (drifted to A4046:6)

The French ship Surveillante signalled to the French fleet:”RUN OR FIGHT”, evidently wanting to know what the admiral wanted the French to do. At the same time, the French flagship, Eveillé, sent aloft the signal flags that stated “SHOOT AT AMERICA”.

Game-Turn 12

Now the French 64-gun Ardent began to worry. It was still fouled to Adamant, and now Bedford was closing in for a bow rake on Ardent. Bedford moved “1S2” but was only in position to rake the Ardent with her port bow guns. America moved 3 spaces ahead, moving once again in uncrowded water. Gentille accelerated at her maximum rate of “2” and so moved two spaces ahead after finally completing her port tack. Surveillante moved 5 spaces ahead to move away from the nearest British ships, and Eveillé moved 6 spaces ahead.

America fired at the retreating Surveillante at 8-hex range, too far for a rake of the Serveillante’s stern. Adamant, still fouled to Ardent, fired her port bow battery at Ardent. Bedford also fired her port bow guns at Ardent, a half-broadside bow rake. Ardent was the only French ship to return the British fire, firing a 1-hex range bow rake at Adamant.

Surveillante took only 1 hull hit, but Ardent got pummeled to the tune of 3 rigging and 3 hull. Adamant lost 2 rigging (causing the loss of her 2nd rigging section), 1 hull (causing the loss of her 1st hull section), and 1 sailor (losing the 2nd sailor section). So, Adamant had to take another rigging check, a hull check, and two morale checks. In addition, she added a -1 modifier for “guns dismounted” from both the port and starboard broadsides, and all gunnery also got a second -3 modifier for the extra missing crew section (making the “missing crew” gunnery modifier -6 in total). Damage was really beginning to add up against the Adamant.

During the maintenance phase, the Adamant kept trying to grapple the Ardent, to keep her from being able to sail away, especially now that the Bedford was coming up to aid the Adamant. Although the grappling attempts kept failing, the Ardent was also unable to unfoul the ships, and so couldn’t get away.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 12:

British
America (64) – A3244:6
Adamant (50) – A4145:5 (fouled with Ardent) (drifted to A4046:5)
Bedford (74) – A3845:4

French
Gentille (32) – B4305:1
Surveillante (32) – A3536:1
Eveillé (64) – A2933:6
Ardent (64) – B4046:6 (fouled with Adamant) (drifted to A3946:6)

The French flagship, Eveillé, signaled “CLOSE UP UNTIL GENTILLE” to her squadron. The British flagship, Bedford, signaled to the ship America “TARGET FRIGATE IF POSSIBLE”, but did she mean the retreating Surveillante or the approaching Gentille?

Game-Turn 13

The British Adamant and the French Ardent were still fouled together and so couldn’t move, and now Bedford moved 2 spaces ahead to have a better bow rake on Ardent. America moved 3 spaces ahead, not sure whether to go and help finish off Ardent or to pursue the Surveillante and Eveillé. Eveillé turned to starboard and then moved 3 spaces directly toward the board edge where she could escape from the British. Surveillante turned to port and moved 2 spaces ahead, so she would be able to shoot at America. Gentille accelerated to 4 MPs, and moved straight ahead.

For the combat phase, America and Surveillante traded broadsides, although Surveillante, being only a 32-gun frigate with a missing crew section and whose remaining crew was slightly fatigued, could only manage a MGN of “0” (zero), to  which of course a 1d6 would be added. Ardent continued to bow rake Adamant, and while Adamant returned fire at Ardent as best she could, Bedford now had a full 1-hex range bow rake on Ardent.

America managed to hit a single sailor box on Surveillante; the return broadside did no damage. Ardent’s bow rake at Adamant caused damage to 3 rigging, 1 hull, and 1 sailor. The return fire from Adamant and Bedford to Ardent caused damage to 1 rigging (taking out rigging section 1 and causing a rigging check), 2 hull (wiping out hull section 1 and causing a hull check and a morale check), and 2 sailor boxes.

The end of game-turn 13

The end of game-turn 13. The French ship Ardent is now caught in a vise between Adamant and Bedford. Eveillé has moved to the left, out of the picture, and Surveillante also has a clear path to escape to the left. Gentille, at the top-right of the picture, should be able to cruise past Adamant and Bedford to escape.

Positions of ships at the end of game-turn 13:

British
America (64) – A3143:6
Adamant (50) – A4046:5 (fouled with Ardent)
Bedford (74) – A3847:4

French
Gentille (32) – B4301:1
Surveillante (32) – A3335:6
Eveillé (64) – A2930:1
Ardent (64) – B3946:6 (fouled with Adamant)

During maintenance, Ardent still was unable to unfoul from Adamant, meaning Ardent was in a very precarious position. The British flag in Bedford sent the message to all British ships, “FOCUS ON ARDENT KILL”. I guess you can’t make it any plainer than that, that you want to wipe out an enemy ship!

Game-Turn 14

During game-turn 14, the French ships Eveillé and Surveillante continued to move toward the escape map edge. Eveillé moved 4 hexes straight toward that map edge, and Surveillante moved 7 hexes while on a broad-reach, in the general direction of that map edge. Gentille accelerated to “5”, the most speed she could go while close-hauled with medium sails. She also had men in the rigging, trying to raise more sails, although that would take two turns to accomplish. For the Brits, America merely moved 2 spaces ahead. Adamant was still fouled with Ardent and so couldn’t move, and Bedford did not move at all, so to keep the perfect bow rake position on Ardent.

Only two ships fired during combat: Ardent had a bow rake on Adamant, and Bedford had a bow rake on Ardent. But, it seems, the game was ended just at this moment, as no damage was recorded for game-turn 14.

Victory Determination

The French did not fulfill their special victory condition of exiting all four of their ships off a particular map edge, so the scenario would be decided by damage inflicted upon the enemy.

Damage to the British:

America (worth 72 Victory Points) lost 7 rigging boxes (1 was then repaired), 5 hull boxes, 6 sailor boxes, and 1 marine box. She only lost one rigging section, though. That rigging section was worth 5% of her total VPs, so the French earned 3.6 VP for America.

Adamant (worth 45 VP) lost 14 rigging boxes, 7 hull boxes, 7 sailor and 1 marine boxes, which was a loss of 2 rigging sections (2 x 5% of VPs), 1 hull section (10% of VPs), and 2 sailor sections (2 x 10%). So Adamant was worth 40% of her 45 VPs, or 18 VP.

Bedford (worth 70 VP) lost only 1 hull and 1 sailor box, and no sections, so she yielded 0 VP to the French.

So the French amassed a total of 18 + 3.6 = 21.6 VP.

Damage to the French:

Gentille (worth 28 VP) lost 2 rigging boxes, 2 hull boxes, and no sections, so she yielded 0 VP to the British.

Surveillante (worth 27 VP) lost 2 rigging boxes, 2 hull boxes, 3 sailor boxes (1 crew section), and 1 marine box. So her 1 crew section was worth 10% of her VP, or 2.7 VP.

Eveillé (worth 62 VP) lost 2 rigging boxes only (no sections were lost), so she yielded 0 VP.

Ardent (worth 62 VP) lost 6 rigging boxes (1 rigging section), 8 hull boxes (1 hull section), 4 sailor boxes, and 2 marine boxes, so her 1 rigging section is worth 5%, and the hull section is worth 10%. So 15% of 62 = 9.3 VP.

So the British earned 12.0 VP from the French.

The French had a VP lead of 21.6 to 12.0, so on the face of it, the French earned a slight victory. However, if the scenario had continued, I believe that Ardent would have eventually surrendered, or would have been battered to pieces, so I would say that the British won this scenario as it seemed the other three French ships were mostly concerned with getting away. The other French ships could have come back to help Ardent, but by the time Eveillé could have turned around and come to Ardent’s aid, Ardent would have not been in very good fighting condition.

British ship Bedford still had all of its gunnery factors; if it continued to pour in bow rakes at Ardent, it would usually have a BGN of close to 30 from 1-hex range. Even at 5-hexes, Bedford’s BGN would be just more than 20. Firing 30 (plus the d6 die roll) gunnery factors should inflict 4 to 7 points of damage per turn. Firing 20 (+ d6) factors should inflict 1 to 3 factors of damage per turn (not counting any critical hits, of course). However, the other British ships were not in great shape. The Adamant would have to apply -10 or -11 to all of her shots, and maybe more negatives. America had a total of -6 or -8 in modifiers, but she still had a Crew Quality of B, so that added +4, making the total gunnery modifier only -2 to -4. So America would have been able to make some effective gun attacks versus Ardent.

But Ardent wasn’t in any immediate danger of being boarded and captured. At the time the scenario was suspended, Ardent still had 17 sailor boxes and 3 marine boxes, more than enough bodies to repel boarders. But she would probably lose those bodies at the rate of 1 or 2 boxes per turn of gunnery fire against her.

Of course, Ardent may have been able to unfoul from Adamant, and if Bedford drifted away, then Ardent could try to make a run for it. But Ardent had lost one rigging section, so she then couldn’t raise sails any more than medium sails, meaning that if was sailing close-hauled toward the exit map edge, she could only move 3 hexes per turn. If Bedford stayed with medium sails, she could move 4 hexes close-hauled, and so could catch Ardent. Although, America had lost one rigging section, and so her fastest speed while close-hauled with medium sails was also only 3 hexes. And Adamant had lost 2 rigging sections, so could only make 1 hex per turn while close-hauled, as she could only fly fighting sails.

So, perhaps Ardent could have escaped? I have all of the logs, maybe some day we can get some folks together and play out the rest of the scenario?

Aftermath

This was a sort of hectic scenario, in that we only got 14 game-turns played (well, we got 13.5 game-turns completed). We would have liked to have played 30 game-turns or so, but we had three players who were new to Close Action. And one of them arrived to play after we had started the scenario, and so Joel and myself (mostly) were trying to explain the game to him. As the GM, I was also trying to take lots of notes and pictures to help with this write-up, although I forgot to take pictures after some of the game-turns. And that record-keeping slightly slowed up play, also.

Some of the logs were not filled in correctly, but that is to be expected, especially with novices playing. One of my goals of running Close Action scenarios is to educate folks how to play the game, so we will have a larger pool of experienced players available so we can try to (eventually) play some of the larger scenarios. There were also two times where captains had crew working at repairing rigging damage, but the ships were at medium sail. I will have to remember to check the status of ships’ sails during rigging repairs in the future.

But there are bound to be mistakes, especially playing at a game-con where you have a limited amount of time. We had four hours available for this scenario, but probably 30 minutes of that was used in explaining things to new players at the beginning, and the “command conferences” where each admiral explained their plan to their subordinate captains of course took some time.

Future Close Action games

I am running another scenario of Close Action at Flintcon in Flint, Michigan, on Saturday, February 9, 2019. The Close Action game will begin at 0900 (9:00 am for land-lubbers) and will run until 1300 (1:00 pm). The game con is at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and School, 402 S. Ballenger Highway. The scenario is “Santo Domingo,” Close Action scenario 17. Five French ships are trying to escape from seven British ships, although only three British ships are on the map at the beginning of the scenario (the other five Brits enter later as reinforcements). So up to 12 players can play! Come and check it out!

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Close Action in the Detroit, Michigan, area

Tuesday, February 5th, 2019

A number of years ago, I was introduced to the game “Close Action,” which is a board game about naval combat in the “Age of Fighting Sail,” circa the year 1800. It is basically an improvement of the old Avalon Hill game of “Wooden Ships & Iron Men.” Close Action was designed by Mark Campbell, although he has had a lot of folks play various scenarios and offer suggestions for improvements along the way. The game was published by Clash of Arms games in 1997. But then I didn’t get to play the game for more than a decade (probably closer to two decades).

Close Action box cover

Close Action box cover, from Clash of Arms games.

So, probably around the middle of 2017, I was checking out the latest sales flyer from Noble Knight Games, and I saw they had a brand new copy of Close Action for sale. I immediately bought the game, because Close Action has been out of print. Noble Knight also had the two add-on scenario packs of Rebel Seas and Monsoon Seas for sale, so I bought those, too. (Rebel Seas is the only product from the Close Action series available for sale at the Clash of Arms web site, as of February 2019.) So now I owned the basic components of Close Action, but didn’t have any miniature ships to play the game with. Although CA was designed as a board game, it does seem more fun to play when using miniature ships.

I was still in contact with Jim Robinson, as he races in our CFR-Detroit racing games. He’s the guy that introduced me to Close Action in the early 1990s. We were playing then with “pre-publication” rules for the game (version 4.30). Dennis Daughetee was another player, and between Dennis and Jim we had a good sized fleet of miniature ships to use. Anyway, in March 2018, we got several folks together to play a scenario of Close Action at the Canton (Michigan) public library during the first Saturday meetup boardgame day. We used (I believe) 1:900 scale ships on Jim’s large hex mat (with 2-inch hexes). It was pretty cool.

Close Action with 1:900 scale ships

Close Action with 1:900 scale ships at the Canton, Michigan, library.

Now, the large 1:900 scale ships are really neat, but later, while playing another scenario at Imperium Games, with about a dozen ships on each side, it became apparent that it would be very difficult to get all of the ships on the same playing mat at the same time. This made me want to use smaller scale ships. I began to look into the various ships available. It seems that 1:1200 scale is a very popular scale for naval minis from the Age of Sail, and it seems the two main sources for ships are GHQ’s “Micronauts” and Langton Miniatures. GHQ’s ships are about $17 each, though, and the Langton ships are about the same price, once you buy the hulls and sails. Sort of a steep price if you want to purchase enough ships for a 40-ship battle!

So then I discovered the 1:2000 scale ships available from Valiant Enterprises. While Valiant’s ships are not nearly as detailed as the larger 1:1200 scale ships, they are much more affordable, and they are “good enough” for minis gaming. You can buy a 3-pack of 74-gun ships-of-the-line from Valiant for less than $15, or $5 per ship. Now we’re talking affordable! Not to mention that the ships won’t take up as much space, so one can use a smaller hex grid to play on. What made it even better, just about the time I mentioned to some of our Championship Formula Racing group that I was going to start buying the Valiant 1:2000 scale ships, two of the CFR racers, Jim Robinson and Mike St. Peter, gave me a bunch of already built and painted ships! Jim gave me close to 40 ships, mostly 74-gunners but also a few larger and smaller ships. Mike donated around a dozen serviceable ships to me, and some other parts that can be salvaged to repair some other ships.

So, now I had a fleet of ships to use, so the next thing to do was to obtain a playing mat. Now, most folks I have seen online who play naval minis just buy a large hex-grid mat from folks such as Hotz Mats. While the mats from Eric Hotz are beautiful, they are also somewhat expensive, with a 45-inch by 72-inch “Mediterrean Sea Blue” mat costing $67 (with shipping). And you would need more than one mat. But there are two problems with using a plain-colored mat.  For one, the generic blue-hex-grid mats don’t have numbered hexes, making it difficult to correctly place the ships for the scenarios. Also, some of the scenarios in Close Action have land or shallow water. The original maps that come with Close Action have different colored hexes that can be used to depict shallow water or land, while the generic hex-grid mats are all the same color, making it difficult to designate areas as land or shallow water. Not to mention that I don’t want to limit my playing to only deep-water scenarios. So then I decided to use my flat-bed scanner to scan the CA maps, then enlarged them 160% so the hexes were 1-inch across. I then printed them out as tiles, and then glued them to a folding cardboard display board. The final result looks  like this:

Close Action enlarged maps A & B

Close Action enlarged maps A & B.

For basing the ships, I made some 1.75-inch by 0.75-inch rectangles, and added the number of guns, each ship’s name, and the country flag of that ship along both sides of the rectangle. Then I printed out the artwork and glued it to foam-core board, then used an X-Acto knife to cut apart all of the bases. The ships on their bases look like this:

1:2000 scale ships on foam-core bases

1:2000 scale British 50-gun Adamant and French 64-gun Ardent, mounted on foam-core bases.

So, now we’re ready to start playing some semi-regular games of Close Action in the Detroit, Michigan, area!

 

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CFR-Detroit 2018 Championship race – South African Grand Prix

Tuesday, February 5th, 2019

The eighth and final race of the 2018 CFR-Detroit season was held at Pandemonium Games in Garden City, Michigan, on Friday, December 14, 2018. Fifteen drivers contested the race, with five of those drivers having a chance to win the points championship. When all was said and done, Bill Worrel finally drove to his first race win in CFR, and that earned him the championship over Mike Cook, Garry Kaluzny, Richard White, and Jack Beckman. Finishing 2nd at Kyalami was Richard White, and Gary Sturgeon finished on the podium in 3rd place after passing Kaluzny just before the finish line.

The race was held on the Kyalami track, from an old Avalon Hill design from Speed Circuit. This was the first time this track was used in the CFR-Detroit racing series, although it had been used in the old Advanced Speed Circuit races in the Detroit area back in the 1980s/1990s. Of course, we raced on a large-scale track that had been painted on a bedsheet so we could use our 1:64 scale cars.

Kyalami race track of the South African Grand Prix.

Kyalami race track of the South African Grand Prix. This was from the old Speed Circuit game and was available as an extra item from Avalon Hill.

After the drivers set up their car’s specs, the drivers secretly bid for starting positions. Each wear chit counted as 1.0, and each skill chit counted as 0.5. Higher bids started in front of lower bids. Ties were resolved by rolling percentage dice, high rolls favored over low rolls.

The four main contenders for the title, Cook, Worrel, Kaluzny, and White, all wanted to start near the front of the large pack of 15 cars. A “wild card” in this race was Louye Padol. Padol had raced in some old Advanced Speed Circuit races in the Detroit area near the end of that series in the early 1990s. Padol further stated that since he had never won a race in that old ASC series that he wanted to win a CFR race. Of course, he knew his work was cut out for him, what with the hungry drivers who really wanted to win the championship.

Qualifying

There were some high bids for pole position. Mike Cook snatched the pole with a bid of 9.5 (6 wear + 7 skill). It was Cook’s 8th pole in the 15 races he has participated in, the most of any driver. (Jim Robinson and Bill Worrel each have 2 CFR-Detroit career pole positions.) Louye Padol also started in the front row, in 2nd place, with a bid of 9.0 (8 wear + 2 skill). Garry Kaluzny started in 3rd with a bid of 8.5 (6 wear + 5 skill). Bill Worrel started 4th with his bid of 7.0 (5 wear + 4 skill). Greg Lim (3 wear + 6 skill) and Gary Sturgeon (3 wear + 6 skill) each bid 6.0. Lim started 5th after his percentile dice roll of “73” to Sturgeon’s dice roll of “06,” thus relegating Sturgeon to 6th place on the grid.

Richard White bid 5.5 (4 wear + 3 skill), so he started in the 4th row, in 7th place. Beside White, in 8th place, was Mike St. Peter with his bid of 4.5 (4 wear + 1 skill). Brian Robinson (1 wear + 5 skill) and Jack Beckman (2 wear + 3 skill) each bid 3.5 and so they had a “dice-off” for 9th and 10th place on the starting grid. Brian Robinson started 9th after rolling “63,” and Beckman started 10th after rolling “52.”

Jim Robinson was the 11th place starter with a bid of 2.5 (0 wear + 5 skill). Aric Parr (1 wear + 2 skill) and Jim Landis (1 wear + 2 skill) each bid 2.0. Parr won the dice-off by “45” to “26” and so Parr started 12th, and Landis started 13th on the grid. Joel Lauder bid only 1.0 (0 wear + 2 skill) to start 14th, and P.J. Norton (0 wear + 0 skill) bid nothing and was content to start 15th.

The starting grid for the 2018 South African Grand Prix with their car specs:

 # Driver (Car)                    Start/Accel/Decel/Top/Wear/Skill/Tires
11 Mike Cook (Camel Lotus)          100   40    40   140  5x   3x   soft
25 Louye Padol (Ligier)             100   40    40   160  5x   2x   soft
 8 Garry Kaluzny (Marlboro McLaren) 100   40    40   140  5x   3x   soft
 4 Bill Worrel (Tyrrell)             60   40    40   160  5x   3x   soft
13 Greg Lim (GoDaddy)                60   60    40   160  4x   3x   soft
22 Gary Sturgeon (McLaren)          100   40    40   160  5x   2x   soft
 1 Richard White (Brabham)           60   40    40   160  5x   3x   soft
44 Mike St. Peter (Mercedes)         60   40    40   160  5x   3x   hard
 5 Brian Robinson (Walker Racing)    20   60    60   140  5x   3x   soft
12 Jack Beckman (Ferrari)            60   40    40   160  5x   3x   soft
 2 Jim Robinson (Williams)           60   40    40   160  5x   3x   soft
14 Aric Parr (Motul BRM)             60   40    60   160  5x   3x   hard
20 Jim Landis (Benetton)             60   60    60   160  4x   2x   hard
 7 Joel Lauder (HSBC Jaguar)         60   60    60   180  3x   2x   hard
 3 P.J. Norton (Tyrrell)             60   40    40   160  5x   3x   hard

Start = Start Speed (in miles/hour); Accel = Acceleration (in mph); Decel = Deceleration (in mph); Top = Top Speed (in mph); Wear = # of Wear markers (per lap); Skill = # of Skill markers (per lap); Tires = hard or soft tires to begin the race.

The starting grid at Kyalami

The starting grid at Kyalami: 1st row: Cook (yellow car) & Padol (blue car); 2nd row: Kaluzny (orange/white) & Worrel (blue); 3rd row: Lim (green) & Sturgeon (black/silver); 4th row: White (white/blue) & St. Peter (silver); 5th row: B. Robinson (white/blue) & Beckman (red); 6th row: J. Robinson (white/yellow/blue) & Parr (gray); 7th row: Landis (green/red/blue) & Lauder (green); 8th row: Norton (blue/white). (Bill Worrel photo)

1st Lap

At the start, pole-sitter Cook surprised the field by using his -3 skill chit and rolling dice to boost his car’s start speed to 120 mph, giving up the opportunity to use a wear (since he was on soft tires) to get the automatic 20 mph increase to his start speed. Of course, the fact Cook had bid 6 of his available 15 wear to get the pole position might have influenced his choice, since he only started the race with 9 wear. Padol and Kaluzny, both on soft tires, each used a wear to start at 120 mph. Worrel, who was starting the race with 10 wear after bidding 5 wear for qualifying, rolled dice (using two -1 skill chits) to start at 80 mph. Sturgeon was content to just start at his car’s 100 mph start speed; that allowed him to pull alongside Worrel’s blue Tyrrell. Lim used a wear to get to 80 mph; he slotted himself right behind Worrel. White, starting on the inside of the 4th row, also rolled a -2 modified start speed roll, making the roll and thus starting at 80 mph and pulling right behind Lim. St. Peter, starting on hard tires, was content to just start at 60 mph. That allowed Beckman to pull alongside St. Peter after Beckman used a wear to start at 80 mph. J. Robinson used a wear to start at 80 mph, thus leap-frogging B. Robinson who had used a wear to increase his start speed to 40 mph. Parr, starting in 12th, decided to make an unmodified start speed dice roll. Parr rolled an ‘8’ and thus started at only 40 mph, 20 mph below his car’s normal 60 mph start speed. Landis and Lauder started at their normal 60 mph start speed, and they both pulled even with Parr. Norton, making his first official start in the CFR-Detroit races, was content to start at his normal 60 mph speed.

The pack roars away!

The pack roars away at the start! The order is Cook, Padol, Kaluzny, Worrel, Sturgeon, Lim, White, St. Peter, Beckman, J. Robinson, B. Robinson, Parr, Landis, Lauder, and Norton. (Bill Worrel photo)

On the 2nd move of the game, the leading trio of Cook, Padol, and Kaluzny all increased their speed to 140 mph through the Crowthorne Corner. Worrel spent a -1 skill marker and successfully rolled dice to increase his acceleration. J. Robinson rolled a -2 acceleration roll (and made it). Most of the following cars maintained their order, although Beckman got by St. Peter, and J. Robinson pulled to the inside of St. Peter. Landis got by Parr, and Lauder pulled alongside B. Robinson. As the leaders approached the Jukskei Sweep, Worrel and Sturgeon had caught up to the leading trio. Lauder moved to the inside of White.

Going into Clubhouse Bend, Kaluzny passed Padol for 2nd, and the pack was all bunched up again.

Cook still leads at Clubhouse Bend

Cook still leads at Clubhouse Bend, followed by Kaluzny, Padol, Worrel, Sturgeon, Lim, White, Beckman, J. Robinson, Lauder, St. Peter, B. Robinson, Landis, Parr, and Norton. (Bill Worrel photo)

St. Peter spent two wears and two -1 skill markers (making a chance roll) going through The Esses at 120 mph. Parr tried to force a pass by Landis through Clubhouse Bend, but was balked. Parr then had to scrub off 40 mph to reduce his speed to 60 mph.

Going through Leeukop Bend, Cook was able to get clear of the pack, opening a 3-space lead over Kaluzny. Cook was one space shy of The Kink, though, and so he was unable to enter the pits before his following competitors. Then on the next move of the race, Cook did pull into the pits just after crossing the start/finish line. It was the 17th lap Cook has led in his CFR-Detroit driving career, far and away the most of any driver. (Cook has led 38% of the laps he has raced.) Also pitting were Kaluzny, Worrel, Sturgeon, White, and Padol. Lim accelerated to 160 mph out of Leeukop, but then had to roll a -2 deceleration roll to reduce his speed to 140 mph as he didn’t have any wear remaining and so would not have been able to enter The Kink at 160 mph. That left Lim one space shy of getting into the pits on that move.

Cook leads the 1st lap

Cook (just past the start-finish line) leads the 1st lap, pulls into pits. (Bill Worrel photo)

During the immediately succeeding move, the cars of Lim, Beckman, and B. Robinson joined the other cars in the pits; they were eventually joined in the pits by Parr. B. Robinson made a -2 chance roll going through The Kink so he could get into the pits at a higher speed. Not pitting were Lauder, J. Robinson, St. Peter, Norton, and Landis. Lauder was then the leader on the track due to his staying out of the pits.

The official order at the end of the 1st lap: Cook (0); Lim (+3); Lauder (+11); J. Robinson (+7); St. Peter (+3); Norton (+9); Worrel (-3); Kaluzny (-5); Sturgeon (-3); White (-3); Padol (-9); Landis (+1); Beckman (-3); B. Robinson (-5); and Parr (-3). The numbers in parentheses indicate how many places a driver either gained (+) or lost (-) from their starting position. After the pit stops were resolved, the running order on the track was Lauder, J. Robinson, St. Peter, Norton, Cook, Worrel, Kaluzny, Sturgeon, White, Padol, Landis, Lim, Beckman, B. Robinson, and Parr.

2nd Lap

Coming out of the pits, Worrel made a -1 modified dice roll to boost his top speed to 180 mph. Kaluzny also used a -1 modifier to increase his top speed to 160 mph. Since the top four contenders basically needed to win the race to also win the championship, they knew going in to this race that they would need to roll some dice! Going into Sunset Bend, Cook made a -1 deceleration roll, and St. Peter used 2 wear and made a -2 chance roll. Then going through Clubhouse Bend, J. Robinson took the lead from Lauder. White then made a forced pass of Worrel coming out of Clubhouse Bend.

Jim Robinson takes the lead

Jim Robinson takes the lead. Following are Norton, Lauder, St. Peter, Cook, Kaluzny, White, Padol, Worrel, Sturgeon, Landis, Lim, Beckman, B. Robinson, and Parr. (Bill Worrel photo)

Jim Robinson managed to gain a 2-space lead over Norton and Lauder coming out of Leeukop, but J. Robinson had to make a -3 chance roll to gain that advantage. Cook had to make a -1 deceleration roll going into Leeukop (dropping to 80 mph from 100 mph), as the road ahead was blocked by Norton’s Tyrrell. In the process, Cook used his last skill modifier, leaving him with no more skill markers, and there was still a little more than a lap left to race.

Now the dice started really flying. Jim Robinson needed to pit, and he wanted to pit on his current move, so he rolled a -2 chance at The Kink, but he spun. He had to roll as he was out of wear. Then Lauder tried to get into The Kink at 160 mph, so he used a wear and also rolled a -2 chance. Lauder also spun. Although spun, both J. Robinson and Lauder’s cars were placed into the pits, as The Kink corner was the first space where cars could pit. Norton made a -2 acceleration roll coming out of Leeukop so he could go 140 mph. That left him once space short of The Kink, meaning he couldn’t get into the pits on this move.

J. Robinson and Lauder both spin going into the pits

J. Robinson and Lauder both spin going into the pits (so their cars are both facing backwards to indicate they have spun). Other cars on the track are Norton, St. Peter, Cook, Kaluzny, Padol, Sturgeon, White, Worrel, Lim, Beckman, Landis, B. Robinson, and Parr. (Bill Worrel photo)

During the next move, Norton and St. Peter made it through The Kink, then they both pulled into the pits. Cook, Padol, Kaluzny, and Worrel all made it through The Kink, and Sturgeon and White were in The Kink. That meant all six of those cars could accelerate down the long straight. Cook made an unmodified top speed roll to move at 160 mph. Worrel made an unmodified top speed roll to move at 180 mph. Kaluzny wanted to move at 160 mph, and had to roll for his top speed. In spite of using a -1 skill modifier, Kaluzny failed the roll. He moved this turn at 140 mph, and his future top speed was now only 120 mph. So he knew his shot at the championship was doomed. Landis pulled his car into the pits, as he was the last of the cars that had not yet pitted.

Cook, Padol, and Worrel vie for the lead

Cook, Padol, and Worrel vie for the lead to begin the 3rd lap. (Their cars are near the Monty Python-esq hand of Kaluzny.) Kaluzny and White are right behind the leaders, and Sturgeon is also right behind. Lim is just crossing the start/finish line. B. Robinson is just in front of Beckman who is just in front of Parr. The cars of J. Robinson and Lauder have come out of the pits to be placed back in the track in The Kink, but are facing backwards to show they have spun. In the pits are Norton, St. Peter, and Landis. (Bill Worrel photo)

P.J. Norton (+14) was the official leader of the 2nd lap, although he was in the pits when he achieved that honor. The rest of the official order for the 2nd lap: Cook (-1); Padol (-1); Worrel (0); Kaluzny (-2); White (+1); Sturgeon (-1); Lim (-3); B. Robinson (0); Beckman (0); Parr (+1); St. Peter (-4); Lauder (+1); J. Robinson (-3);  and Landis (-2).

3rd Lap

Worrel made a daring move to take the lead going into Crowthorne Corner at the end of the long straight. Since he was on the outside of the track, and would have moved after other cars that plotted the same speed, Worrel plotted 180 mph, made his top speed dice roll, but then slowed to 160 mph before actually entering the corner. That let Worrel move before Cook and Padol. Cook did move alongside Worrel in Crowthorne, with Padol right behind them in 3rd. Kaluzny and White were side-by-side behind Padol, and Sturgeon was behind White.

Worrel and Cook were side-by-side racing through Barbeque Bend and the Jukskei Sweep. Kaluzny, with his damaged top speed, moved to the outside in Barbeque Bend, letting White pass on the inside. Kaluzny did not want to hold up a competitor who had a chance for the championship.

Then came the stunning event of the race. Cook made an unmodified top speed roll to move at 160 mph (so he could move before Worrel) headed into Sunset Bend, and then Cook made an unmodified deceleration roll to get down to 140 mph for the corner. Cook then used 2 wear and rolled an unmodified chance (Cook was on hard tires and so couldn’t use 3 wear, and he was out of skill markers). Unfortunately for Cook, he crashed and was suddenly out of the race, just when he was going for the lead! (Note that if Cook had made the roll successfully, it would have been a piece of “brilliant driving” and might have won the game for him.) Worrel’s car pulled up just short of Sunset, and he took the inside lane, eschewing the cornering arrow that was in the outside lane. Padol then pulled alongside Worrel and took the arrow. White pulled ahead of Kaluzny, and Sturgeon pulled alongside Kaluzny.

Cook has crashed in Senset Bend

Cook has crashed in Sunset Bend (upside down yellow car next to the flat-bed truck). Worrel and Padol are side-by-side just before Sunset Bend, followed by White, Kaluzny, Sturgeon, Lim, Beckman, B. Robinson, Norton, Parr, St. Peter, Lauder, J. Robinson, and Landis. (Bill Worrel photo)

Now Worrel and Padol had a spirited battle on the track. Worrel spent 3 wear through Sunset and Clubhouse, leaving him with only 3 wear remaining for the rest of the race (and with three more corners to go). Worrel then pulled ahead of Padol at The Esses, as Worrel used a wear and made an unmodified chance roll. (It goes without saying that White, Padol, and Kaluzny were hoping for a spin or crash!) As Padol had taken the line behind Worrel, White had to go off-line at The Esses, using 2 wear and making a -2 chance roll so he could be at 100 mph.

Worrel moves in front at The Esses

Worrel moves in front at The Esses. Padol and White are right behind, then are Kaluzny, Sturgeon, Lim, Beckman, B. Robinson, Norton, St. Peter, Lauder, Parr, J. Robinson, and Landis. Cook’s crashed Camel Lotus has been loaded on the flat-bed truck, and the flagman is waving the yellow caution flag just before Sunset Bend. (Bill Worrel photo)

Worrel then pretty much wrapped up the race victory and the championship at Leeukop, as he was the only car that made it to the end of the corner where he would be able to accelerate out of that corner in the next move.

Worrel continues to lead at the exit of Leeukop

Worrel continues to lead at the exit of Leeukop. White is 2nd, Kaluzny has taken the inside and 3rd place from Padol (who is 4th). Sturgeon is 5th, and Beckman (red Ferrari) has just passed Lim for 6th place in The Esses. (Bill Worrel photo)

From that point on, the race to the finish line was an anti-climax, as Worrel crossed the line 3 spaces ahead of White and Kaluzny to win the race and the 2018 CFR-Detroit championship! Kaluzny had used a slip to pull alongside White, especially as Kaluzny didn’t dare roll for his top speed again.

Worrel wins the race and the title!

Worrel takes the checkered flag to win the 2018 South African Grand Prix and also winning the 2018 CFR-Detroit points championship. (Bill Worrel photo)

There was still a race on for other positions. Beckman made a -3 chance roll at Leeukop, and Brian Robinson used 2 wear and made a -3 chance roll, also at Leeukop. At some point late in the 3rd lap, Padol failed a top speed or acceleration roll, although it wasn’t recorded when it happened. Failing that roll cost Padol a couple of positions at the finish, at least. Also, Sturgeon was able to pass Kaluzny as they crossed the finish line, thereby earning a podium finish in 3rd for Sturgeon.

The official finishing order at the 2018 South African Grand Prix: 1st-Bill Worrel (+3); 2nd-Richard White (+5); 3rd-Gary Sturgeon (+3); 4th-Garry Kaluzny (-1); 5th-Louye Padol (-3); 6th-Jack Beckman (+4); 7th-Greg Lim (-2); 8th-P.J. Norton (+7); 9th-Brian Robinson (0); 10th-Mike St. Peter (-2); 11th-Joel Lauder (+3); 12th-Jim Robinson (-1); 13th-Aric Parr (-1); 14th-Jim Landis (-1). Classified in 15th with a DNF was Mike Cook (-14).

Aftermath

Louye Padol had a nice drive for his first race using the CFR rules. He was in contention, but he seemed to not want to interfere with the four-way battle for the lead amongst the main contenders for the title. And P.J. Norton, although he had previously raced in a few demo races, performed well in his first official CFR race, moving up 7 places from his starting position to finish in 8th place.

Points awarded at the 2018 South African Grand Prix: Worrel 10; White 6; Sturgeon 4; Kaluzny 3; Padol 2; Beckman 1.

The final points standings of the 2018 CFR-Detroit season (after eight of eight races):

Place Driver (Car)                    Points
  1   Bill Worrel (Tyrrell)             37*
  2   Richard White (Brabham)           32
  3   Garry Kaluzny (Marlboro McLaren)  30
  4   Mike Cook (Camel Lotus)           29
  5   Jack Beckman (Ferrari)            20
  6   Jim Robinson (Williams)           18
  7   Gary Sturgeon (McLaren)           14
  8   Mike St. Peter (Mercedes)          9
  9T  Brian Robinson (Walker Racing)     4
  9T  Aric Parr (Motul BRM)              4
  9T  Jim Landis (Benetton)              4
 12T  Joel Lauder (HSBC Jaguar)          2
 12T  Greg Lim (GoDaddy)                 2
 12T  Louye Padol (Ligier)               2
 15T  Mark Moellering (McLaren)          0
 15T  Gary Kempen (Williams)             0
 15T  Chuck Modzinski (Arrows)           0
 15T  Jim Lauder (Shadow)                0
 15T  P.J. Norton (Tyrrell)              0

* Drivers could only count their 6 best finishes out of the 8 races. Bill Worrel had to forfeit 1 point (from a 6th place at Monaco) due to his having earned points in 7 races. (Worrel did earn 38 points, but could only count 37 of them.)

After the race, Bill Worrel was awarded the 2018 CFR-Detroit Individual Points Championship trophy from outgoing race steward Garry Kaluzny. Kaluzny was then surprised when the rest of the drivers gave Kaluzny a trophy for the appreciation the drivers had for his organizing and running the race series for 2017 and 2018.

Worrel and Kaluzny receive trophies

Bill Worrel with his 2018 CFR-Detroit championship trophy (left), and Garry Kaluzny with his appreciation trophy (right).

After the championship trophy presentation, the drivers continued to uphold an old tradition dating back to the Advanced Speed Circuit days in Detroit–they voted to award the “Tom Kane Memorial Award” to the most sportsmanlike driver of 2018. Each driver got to vote for one driver, via secret ballot. The voting tallies were:

Jim Landis – 7
Jim Robinson – 3
Jack Beckman – 2
Greg Lim – 2

Thus, Jim Landis was voted the Most Sportsmanlike driver of 2018 and was awarded the Tom Kane Memorial Award trophy.

Jim Landis receives the Sportmanship trophy

Jim Landis (right) receives the Tom Kane Memorial Award trophy as the CFR-Detroit Most Sportsmanlike driver of 2018. Presenting the award is the 2017 Most Sportsmanlike driver, Greg Lim (left). (Bill Worrel photo)

In the 2018 CFR-Detroit racing season, a total of 20 different drivers took part in the eight races. The most drivers at any race was 15, at both the Belgian and South African Grand Prix. The fewest drivers in any race was 11, at both the Italian and German Grand Prix. The average number of drivers for the season was 12.8 drivers per race. This was an increase from the average of 10.3 drivers per race in 2017.

For the 2019 CFR-Detroit racing season, Jack Beckman will be the race steward. There will also be a “team championship” award added, and already the drivers have mostly formed teams for 2019.

As always, keep up to date for the CFR-Detroit schedule at the CFR-Detroit home page at http://michigumbo.com/cfr/.

A demo race will take place at Flintcon (in Flint, Michigan) on Saturday, February 9, 2019, using the Indianapolis road course. The actual 2019 CFR-Detroit schedule begins on Friday, February 15, 2019, at Pandemonium Games in Garden City, Michigan. We will race the Australian Grand Prix using the Adelaide track. Qualifying begins at 6:45pm. No experience is necessary; you are welcome to join us!

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