All Categories - Greg Schroeder Writes

Bavarians and Russians 1813

4/10/2022

Had a pleasant game again tonight. Bavarians and Russians contesting a crossroads in 1813. It was supposed to be a double mismatch with Wrede binging eight big brigades against Sievers' six while Neubronn with only three Wurttemberg brigades faced Borosdin's corps of six more Russians.

In the end it was Sievers who originally pushed back Wrede, though numbers eventually told and the Bavarians won back some of the ground lost, but not, by the end of the game, the crossroads! On the other side Borosdin never did get his assault going and the gap between the Russian corps was exploited.

In the end, though Sievers occupied the crossroads, Russian losses had been severe, over 20%, with three brigades smashed beyond usefulness. German losses were less - about 10% - and Neubronn still held the high ground.

We use Fire and Fury Napoleonic variant and 15mm.

Klein Clausterthal May 20, 1809

3/31/2022

With apologies to Marshal Marmont and General Leutnant Klenau
20 May 1809. Camp outside Klein Clausterthal, Austrian Empire.
To: The Duke of Portland, No 10 Downing Street
I have the pleasure to report to Your Excellency that the Austrians showed a bit of fight this day, battling the corps of Marshals Soult and Marmont for eight hours. They will be forced to retire on the morrow – news has arrived in camp that Davout threatens to interpose between us and Vienna, but it was a glorious action!
Prinz Hohenzollern, showing unusual energy for an Austrian, aroused his III Korps in the early morning hours and advanced on the exposed corps of Marshal Soult at the small crossroads of Klein Clausterthal. Despite several couriers, General Leutnant von Klenau was delayed in rousing his VI Korps and thus the Prinz was forced to start the action alone.
Marshal Soult, upon seeing the approach of the Prinz and being warned that von Klenau was nearby, dispatched riders to call up Marshal Marmont’s corps to his aid and launched General de Division Morand in an all-out attack from the French right. Morand, his troops well in hand, was soon fully engaged with the Prinz’s left-hand division under General Leutnant von Schwartzenburg. Meanwhile, General de Brigade Lasalle advanced his outnumbered French hussars to engage Major General Brady’s hussar brigade in advance of Klenau.
Prinz Hohenzollern, unperturbed by Morand’s attack, pressed forward with Hohenfeld’s division as well as General Leutnant Hesse-Homburg’s grenadier division and Major General Nostitz’s Grenzer division. However, without Schwarzenburg’s division, Soult launched another spoiling attack, sending the 3rd Swiss into Hohenfeld’s flank. With Lasalle and Brady fully engaged and Klenau not yet up, Soult also made a spoiling attack on his left (north) with the 105th Line.
Schwartzenburg bent but he did not break. The French surged ahead with their usual intensity and elan. Over the course of the entire day’s fighting both Infantry Regiment Number 14 Oranien and Infantry Regiment Number 24 Strauch were forced to retire. But both rallied and, eventually, returned to the fray. In a death match Infantry Regiment Number 38 Wurttemberg destroyed the 48th Line, literally grinding it out of existence and capturing its eagle. At one point the 10th Legere captured the 3rd Reserve Battery but, again, by day’s end, the Austrians had recaptured and recrewed their 4 undamaged guns.
Lasalle and Brady surged back and forth, first one squadron sweeping forward only to retire before the sabers of its foe and then repeating, but in reverse. In triumph, well past midday, Lasalle forced the Austrian hussars to quit the field, only to succumb to the fresh horses of Nostitz’s uhlan brigade. By then, however, the sun was sinking low, and Marshal Marmont’s corps was well up. There would be no horsemen thundering over panicked infantry.
At Klein Clausterthal, brute force won the day. The 105th Line succeeded in chasing away a cavalry battery during its spoiling attack, and then forced the Peterwardiner Grenzers back. However, a third opponent was too much. As Lasalle’s hussars were retiring, blown, and the 48th’s eagle was finally falling, the 3rd Converged Grenadiers forced the 105th to retire on Marmont, clearing the north face of the village.
On the south face, the Swiss drove off Infantry Regiment Number 22 Lacy and then, after much desperate fighting, Infantry Regiment Number 9 Clerfayt. The 13th Legere was fed into the fight by General de Division St Cyr and they defeated the 2nd Converged Grenadiers and then fought the resurgent Warasdiner Grenzers (see below) to a standstill. However, these two French regiments’ reward was to end the day virtually surrounded by Hesse-Homburg, Hohenfeld, and Nostitz, suffering over 200 men captured before they could recover their own lines.
At the crossroads all honor went to Infantry Regiment Number 29 Wallis. Ignoring the Swiss, who were causing so much havoc to the rest of their division, Wallis surged forward when the bugle sounded and routed the 111th Line regiment. Then, pivoting, smashed into the 30th Line and forced them to retire. This placed them to the rear of the village where they faced Molitor’s entire division in Marmont’s advance as night began to creep over the battlefield.
In the village itself, the boys of Warasdiner Grenz Regiment were repulsed by the 108th Line. Hesse-Homburg then gave the order for the 4th Converged Grenadiers, and they stormed into the village. The French line troops were forced, grudgingly, out of the village. They prudently retired out of the range of Wallis’ muskets, leaving the village, smoldering, in the arms of the grenadiers.
Von Klenau, when he came up, did come with a rush, swinging wide to the north of and simultaneously through a copse of woods to engage Marmont. General de Division Friant’s division was fully engaged with General Leutnant von Ulm’s division on the far northern end of the battle when darkness brought an end to the slaughter.
Losses were extremely heavy. From official reports coming into this headquarters, Klenau suffered about 900 casualties. Marmont, it is said, 600 with another 300 stragglers. Soult, from sources, including a young staff officer captured after dark, has 5000 men who will not fight tomorrow. Finally, Prinz Hohenzollern, he of the unusual energy for an Austrian, has suffered 6000 casualties, or over 22%.
Honors to the French 10th Legere who captured one color and, for a time, 6 cannon. The 3rd Swiss who took two colors. The 48th Line, who fought to the death. The 13th Legere who took 1 color. The 105th Line who repulsed three attacks and, again temporarily, took 6 guns. And, finally, to General de Brigade Lasalle and the French Hussars who fought almost the entire day, outnumbered, and triumphed over the Austrian Hussars.
Honors to the Austrian Infantry Regiment Number 38 Wurttemberg who destroyed the 48th Line. To the 3rd Converged Grenadiers who took the north edge of the village. To the 4th Converged Grenadiers, the honor of taking the village. But highest honor to Infantry Regiment Number 29 Wallis, who captured two eagles and made the furthest contested advance of any Austrian unit.

Your Excellency, Prime Minister, we may yet have a worthy ally in the Austrians.
Major Douglas Heresy, Special Observer for the Crown

Allatoona Gap - October 1864

2/27/2022

Major General Samuel G French had been ordered to cut the Federal supply line at Allatoona Gap, Georgia. He did not hesitate to deploy his brigades in heavy attack columns immediately upon his arrival. Above, the Federals bristled in a thin line stretching almost a mile and a half from the railroad gap to the edge of the ridge.

French, sensing his numerical advantage, sent a message to the Federal commander,

“I have placed the forces under my command in such positions that you are surrounded, and to avoid a needless effusion of blood I call on you to surrender your forces at once, and unconditionally.

“Five minutes will be allowed you to decide. Should you accede to this, you will be treated in the most honorable manner as prisoners of war.”

Brigadier General Robert Corse, having just arrived with reinforcements, allowing him a second line, which were in defilade and invisible to French, replied, defiantly,

“Your communication demanding surrender of my command I acknowledge receipt of, and respectfully reply that we are prepared for the "needless effusion of blood" whenever it is agreeable to you.”

French found it agreeable immediately. At a range of about 1000 yards the Federal guns began to boom from the heights as French’s columns moved forward smartly. He massed two batteries of Napoleons between Chalmers’ right-hand brigade and the center brigade of Jones Withers. The guns began to bang away at the 11th Michigan in their earthworks about 500 yards away.

Chalmers advanced behind a double line of skirmishers - the 21st Alabama and 5th Mississippi – on a narrow front up the steepest part of the Federal line. Crowning the Federal left was the 19th Illinois and the Battery M, 1st Ohio Artillery. The Ohioans had had an early success when a shell hit one of J. H. Kolb’s cannon and completely destroyed it. However, as the skirmishers pushed up the hill, the guns switched targets, spraying canister like angry, lethal, bees, downslope.

Withers attacked on a wider front, with the 26th Alabama on the left and the CGRB on the right. He applied pressure to Battery G, 1st Ohio Artillery, and their supporting infantry, the 78th Pennsylvania. The 26th soon got into an uneven firefight with the Federal guns.

On French’s left, at the end of the ridge, Brigadier General J K Jackson sent forward Wheat’s Battalion and the 5th Kentucky. Supported by Bouchaud’s battery of rifled guns, they were soon pressing Brigadier General J Beatty’s brigade. Wheat and Bouchaud directed their attention against the 37th Indiana while the Kentuckians threatened the far flank.

Battle was intense all along the line with the lead Confederate units gradually worn away and the Federal units at the schwerpunkts also being battered. After two hours French sensed the Federal line cracking and ordered a full assault. The lines of butternut and gray surged the last hundred yards.

Corse, too, had seen his front line begin to waver and determined the time was right to maneuver those reserves heretofore unseen to French. The veteran 42nd Indiana ascended a small rise to the left of the decimated 37th. Greeted warmly by Bouchaud, they delivered a devastating volley to stop the 25th Alabama and plug the gap where Battery G was fighting sponge stave to bayonet over the gabions.

Likewise, on the right, the 11th Michigan finally gave way but forward into the gap marched the 18th and 74th Ohio to thwart the surge of the 1st Louisiana and 10th Mississippi.

A rider galloped up to French with a note that Federal columns were on the move on the road from Atlanta and he called of the attack, even as its momentum died at the lip of the fortifications on the anvil of the fresh reserves and their concentrated volleys.

Corse suffered casualties of almost 25%. French, with a considerably larger force, though at a decided tactical disadvantage in terms of altitude and dirt, lost almost 30%.

We use Mr. Lincoln's War rules and 15mm figures.

Ambush 1675

2/12/2022

The country is in flames! Smoke rises high above the forest spurring on Major Lathrop and his small supply column. Flour, freshly ground at the Hadley Mill, critical for surviving the long winter ahead. But the natives had risen in anger and devastation had touched the Connecticut Valley even as the amber, crimson, and gold leaves fell from the trees and the first cold winds swirled down from the north. Villages, towns, and isolated houses all along the great river, from its mouth to where white habitation lagged in the mountains of western Massachusetts, had been struck. Residents had died in their fields, on their stoops, and down the trails.

Lathrop had thought the natives might strike the mill or his wagon and haulers and so had stripped Springfield of its militia. A single platoon was left with instructions to retreat to the blockhouse if attacked. From the pall on the horizon, he hoped to God! they had made it to the blockhouse. He also hoped Major Pynchon had gotten his message and was hurrying to catch up.

The major had lived the past fifteen years on the frontier and had scouts deployed to both flanks as he rode behind the creaking wagon and the few bearers. Yet the command was still surprised when the three bands suddenly rose form the undergrowth and poured lead balls and ash arrow shafts tipped with sharpened flint.
Captains Moseley on the left and Treat on the right steadied their men and got them firing. As always the natives proved elusive. Shot after shot would thunder from the militia muskets only to be met with unremitting and unslowed. Not so the militiamen. Lathrop saw them one after another be struck by missiles from the unseen enemy. A man with a musket ball through his elbow, the arm hanging limply unusable as blood poured from the severed artery. Another foaming from an arrow lodged in his chest, lung pierces, gasping for breath.

After less than five minutes the whoops came from the left. Lathrop pulled his pistol and braced with the wagoneers as a band of warriors, painted, screaming, and brandishing tomahawks emerged from the forest and struck Moseley’s depleted company. Lathrop watched Moseley stop a tomahawk with the butt of his musket but then have his skull split in two by a second warrior.

And then, the warriors were upon Lathrop and the wagoneers. The pistol misfired and Lathrop went down, the light fading from his eyes.

Two days later he woke, in a straw bed, Captain Marshfield nursing a bottle of rotgut in the chair nearby. Marshfield, in his perpetually slurred speech, related the rest of the battle. The natives, being led overall by Mettawump and with the bands of Nonotuck in the front of the trail and Pocotuc on the right, had followed Mettawump’s charge and converged on the wagons. Only a handful of Captain Treat’s company survived, racing back down the trail to find Major Pynchon advancing.

Lathrop had survived because he fell under the wagon which the natives soon set ablaze. None ventured underneath the flames to scalp the unconscious officer, leaving him to the fire. Once the wagons were fully engulfed they pulled out, the barrel of rum and the militiamen’s muskets their only spoils – and 42 locks of hair.
By the time Pynchon’s force cautiously advanced there was nothing to do but pull the major to safety and hurry on to Springfield. There they found the Widow Morgan leading the survivors in a spirited defense of the blockhouse and the 67 souls who had crowded in. Five unfortunates had been caught on the street. 22 houses, five barns, and a dozen other buildings had been destroyed in part or whole.

It would be a long winter.

Japanese Raid Landings at Manus

12/19/2021

1 March 1944
A sequential raid of Japanese aircraft and heavy cruisers at the Army’s landings on Manus Island in the Admiralties was beaten back.

So said the official report from Rear Admiral William Fechteler to General Douglas MacArthur.

In actuality, it was a near disaster.

The day before Fechteler had landed elements of the First Cavalry on the island and they had made good progress. That morning more troops were being landed from three APDs and supplies were being ferried ashore at a frantic pace. Two DDs were on station providing gunfire support to the cavalrymen. Radar picked up an incoming swarm from Rabaul.

Fighter control aboard USS San Diego vectored the 16 P-40s flying cover from New Guinea to intercept. Poor coordination between the Army Air Force flyers and the Navy gunners proved catastrophic. Fifteen Warhawks were shot down, five by “friendly” AA fire.

However, the Japanese displayed their deteriorating pilot skill as well. Twenty-seven Betty bombers and a dozen Zero fighters swooped in on the packed harbor. Heavy, accurate AA fire and the doomed Warhawks shot down 11 Zeroes and 9 Bettys. The survivors dropped 20 bombs and 13 torpedoes and succeeded in getting only a single hit. It was a spectacular hit, however, penetrating three decks on the seaplane tender Curtiss to land in the depth charge magazine and rip the ship to tiny pieces.

As the surviving planes swept over the land and out of sight, USS Barton signalled “Unidentified ships, 30,000 yards and closing!”

They turned out to be IJN Tone and IJN Myoko who had crept up on the landing by using the shore to mask themselves from radar.

Left with no choice, Admiral Fechteler ordered his covering force to charge the Japanese heavy cruisers, whose 8-inch main guns easily outranged the 5-inchers of the Americans.

The ensuing gun battle saw the volume of American fire smother the two heavy cruisers. While the 8-inchers hit much harder, the rapid-fire 5-inchers hit exponentially more often, eventually turning both Japanese ships into infernos.

The heavy fire did claim San Diego, sinking with no less than 10 heavy caliber hits and six hits by smaller guns. Four destroyers were also hit, two seriously, but gunnery honors went to USS Barton, the ship who gave first warning, which scored an unbelievable 21 hits on Myoko and 4 more on Tone.

The landing was saved but McArthur was forced to divert USS Phoenix and two destroyers from protecting coastal traffic in New Guinea to replacing the losses sustained by Fechteler. As for the Japanese, they had thrown their last roll of the dice to support the infantry now doomed to destruction on Manus.

Dyrrhachium

11/4/2021

Tsar Ivan’s scouts had returned with a message that Tigranes would soon arrive to break the siege of Dyrrhachium. Facing a choice he broke his army into three parties and ordered an immediate storming of the castle.

The cataphracts were expected from the north so Ivan’s northern attack party was given only two ladders and expected mostly to raise a feint and be on the lookout for Tigranes. The main assault, by Ivan’s turncoat Varangian guards, would utilize a battering ram against the castle gate. Another strong assaulting force, armed with 6 storming ladders, formed on the south face.

The approach took three turns during which Nicetas’ 20 archers did their best, killing 16 attackers. The Slavic archers were much less effective, killing only 5 defenders.It was a good start. But, when the attackers attempted to raise their first ladders only Nikos, on the northwest curtain wall managed to push his back down. Simeon from the northern attack group and Aspaurakh from the southern secured ladders and up they went!

Turn 4 was decisive. The cavalry failed to appear, rolling an even number, leaving Nicetas and his shrinking band without succor. For Ivan’s attackers things developed swiftly. The southern attack group succeeded in getting three more ladders up and, even more decisively, pushed three men over the battlements. The Varangians began to batter the gate and rolled an incredibly high damage number (9).

The Byzantines had three heroes of Turn 4. Nikos, again, successfully kept the assault ladder from being set. Hylax, defending the northwest corner, was assaulted by two men at arms and felled both. Finally, Stenech, above the gate, began hurling his stack of small boulders on the heads of the Varangians, crushing the skulls of two.

On turn five the cataphracts, delayed by the need to detour around some swampy ground, arrived off the northeast corner of the castle. They immediately charged, riding down three men-at-arms who had been set as a flank guard.

Stenech felled two more Varangians, but there seemed to always be another to step forward. The ram got another exceptionally high roll and the gate came crashing down. Hylax fell as more Slavs surged up the only ladder set by the northern force. (Perhaps spurred to get away from the heavy cavalry!) On the south wall more Slavs cleared the parapets; only the southeast tower still held. By now Nicetas had lost 16 men, but all his lightly armored defenders were now confronted mano a mano by their more heavily armed and armored attackers.

Turn six saw Stenech’s last hurrah, killing one more Varangian with his rocks before an attacker from the southern party forced his to defend himself. The cataphracts continued their charge, riding down another 5 Slavs, but the first horseman was also slain. Inside, eight of Nicetas’ defenders were cut down and they only killed two .

The medium infantry of the northern party took their pound of flesh turn 7 when they killed 4 of the cataphracts and only lost 5 themselves. Inside the Varangians cleared the courtyard. Only a handful of the defenders survived, scattered amongst the part of wall and tower not yet reached by the assaulters.

One more turn for Tiganes to finally push to the gate, but by then there was no one left to save. The archer, Ephedius, killed the cavalry captain by driving an arrow through the horse’s eye and then a Varangian cleaved helm and head from shoulder and neck. The last three cataphracts turned and made for Tirane at their best speed. Nicetas threw himself from the east tower to avoid the depredations of Ivan’s horde. Six hapless defenders were all that surrendered.

Ox Crossing, Tennessee January 1862

5/23/2021

East Tennessee, January 1862
Pap Thomas was worried. True, he had won the race to the vital Ox Crossing and his troops had spent the night digging thin rifle pits fronted by whatever rocks and sticks they could wrench from the cold ground. But they were mostly untested and spread thinly to cover the three roads along which the rebels might debauch.
His right was anchored by Lieutenant Colonel Luck’s 7th US Battalion, the original garrison of Ox Crossing. Having been there longer they had built a substantial redoubt on top of a grassy prominence known locally as Hare’s Hill. The rest of Gibb’s brigade covered the Grigg’s Bypass, including the only unit that had seen action, the 3rd Tennessee.
The center was held by Brigadier General Wilson and his polyglot brigade which had been hastily assembled from four separate depots and had only been brigades for three days. Johnson’s Track snaked its way through a small valley at the center of Wilson’s position.
Finally, to the Union left was Grover’s Brigade. They sat astride the Knoxville Road and had 2nd Battery, Ohio Light Artillery with its four 6-pounders enfilading the road. Rush River closed the flank, but Grover lacked the troops to provide a continuous front, leaving a gap between his left and the river.
George B Crittenden had an impressive resume – West Point education, experience in the Black Hawk and Mexican Wars – but he was out of his depth. In the race to Ox Crossing he split his “Army of East Tennessee” into three equal columns, gave conflicting orders and lost. Now he ordered them forward as three separate attacks against the intrenched bluebellies.
Patton Anderson led a Mississippi brigade over Grigg’s Bypass. Anderson was in good spirits – his brigade had just received a shipment of Austrian rifled muskets to replace the Tower of London flintlocks that had armed three of his regiments.
In the center, Manigault’s brigade was spoiling for a fight. Although they had marched with the trains, it had been discovered that the sacks of coffee they had captured from a Union rail depot the previous week had been filled with sand by some blue-coated quartermaster with a sense of humor. Rumor had it that quartermaster was in Ox Crossing.
Finally, on the Confederate right, on the Knoxville Road, advanced Hindman’s Brigade of Alabamians and Dent’s Battery of 6 guns. Hindman, however, had been recalled by Crittenden for “consultations” that morning so the column was led by the political general Felix Zollicoffer.
The Ohio battery duly opened the action by sending a few balls down the road. Zollicoffer, in his first taste of actual battle, saw his orderly’s horse disemboweled and ordered his column to deploy almost 600 yards short of the Union line. Unmolested by artillery, Anderson and Manigault deployed much closer, Manigault in more open terrain, slightly quicker though soon the pop of muskets was heard all along Gibb’s and Wilson’s front and clouds of smoke drifted into the cold mid-morning air.
Hindman, hearing the gunfire, raced to the front. Creating order from Zollicoffer’s chaos, he ordered Dent to unlimber and sent his brigade looping to the right, attempting to exploit the gap between Grover’s line and the river. Alas, Hindman was too late. Thomas had already sent a reserve regiment sidling to his left and Grover had moved his reserve further left to block the gap.
Manigault attacked first but with Thomas calmly walking his horse up and down the line and Wilson shouting encouragement the attack was repulsed. A musketry duel ensued at ranges of less than 100 yards. Manigault’s brigade fell back, their anger at the coffee/sand cooled by the loss of almost 400 men killed and wounded.
Anderson swept forward with the 44th Mississippi making it to the works on Gibb’s right with the 41st Mississippi in support but after a brief crossing of bayonets they were forced back. Down the road advanced the 10th Mississippi with the 9th in support. At a range of 25 yards they engaged the 3rd Tennessee and the 63rd Pennsylvania for more than thirty minutes. But it was too much. With the assault on the redoubt stopped and Manigault recoiling the rest of Anderson’s brigade was forced to fall back.
Hindman’s attack was overtaken by these events. Organized slowly due to Zollicoffer’s delay, his 19th and 39th Alabama had come to grips with Grover’s repositioned brigade just as a rider galloped up from Crittenden ordering a general withdrawal. Pinched by the river and Grover’s Bald Hill works the packed ranks suffered over 100 casualties in fifteen minutes. They had the consolation of watching the 2nd Tennessee find the action too hot and pull back to a grove of trees.
With two more blue regiments forming behind, shuffled over by Thomas, Hindman reluctantly acceded to the general withdrawal order. Ox Crossing, at least for now, would stay under the Federal flag. The three uncoordinated rebel attacks cost them 850 casualties; Thomas counted almost 600.

Cochrane Nelson and Jones - Game 1

4/22/2021

Cochrane, Nelson, and Jones (CNJ) is a set of rules for naval warfare in the Age of Sail, roughly 1700-1820. It works equally well with single ship actions and large fleet battles. The need for record-keeping is reduced from that traditionally required for such games by using tokens and by using a card-based movement sequence. On a ship’s roster only damage, current speed, and boarding parties need to be noted.
The American frigates Fox and Hancock are running away from the small British 4th rate Rainbow. They are all hauling to the west northwest when another sail, the Flora, displaying Continental colors, appears fine off the port bow. The game begins with Flora 300 yards from Hancock, Fox 150 yards off Hancock’s starboard beam and Rainbow 200 yards astern of Hancock. Scenario specific rules are (1) that all ships must maintain course until Flora fires or approached within 40 yards of either American ship and (2) Flora must tack and close on the Americans at her best speed. For the move sequence, Fox draws a 9, Hancock a 5, Flora a 6, and Rainbow a King.
Turn 1 Phase 1 Flora tacks in the first phase, turning into the wind. The other three continue straight as per the scenario.

Turn 1 Phase 2 sees Flora complete her tack but with some sternboard, so she has lost a bit of seaway. She is now approaching Hancock on the opposite tack.

Turn 1 Phases 3 and 4 see all four ships maintaining speed and course, men poised at battle stations. Flora is now nearly crossing bowsprits with Hancock.

Turn 2 Phase 1 Card 1 is King of spades, Rainbow moves forward 55. Card 2 is 9 of diamonds, Fox moves forward 55. Card 3 is a 6 of clubs. Flora hauls down Continental colors, raises English colors, moves forward 60 and pours a raking broadside into the Hancock. Range is 20, odds are 12:11 (1:1) and the rolls are blue 5 and red 8 resulting in 4 hull and 2 rigging hits on Hancock. She also passes with 15mm of Hancock (nearest point) and rolls an 8 on the fouling table (not fouled). Fox and Hancock decide to hold their fire. Card 4 is 5 of spades. Hancock now moves to rake Flora. Unfortunately, she rolls a zero on the fouling table and her bowsprit becomes entangled in the mizzen of Flora. She lets go with her heavier, 12-pounder, broadside, at a range of only 30. Odds are 16:9 (3:2) blue 7 red 9 (+1) which results in 6 hull and 2 rigging.

Turn 2 Phase 2 Card 1 is 5 of clubs. Hancock makes the decision to board Flora and attempts to grapple, succeeding with a roll of 8. Card 2 is King of clubs and Rainbow closes on the unengaged side of Hancock, moving forward 55. Card 3 is 6 of hearts. Flora attempts to ungrapple and unfoul but fails with both rolls. With a heart Flora’s battery is reloaded at the end of the phase. Last card is 9 of clubs. Fox wears 60 and fires at Flora but only rolls blue 8 and red 1. At a range of 30 that is only one hull. Flora returns fire and gets a much better blue 0 red 9 which results in 4 hull and a rigging. Flora and Hancock drift 10 downwind.

Turn 2 Phase 3 Card 1 is 9 of hearts. Fox slows to just 30. Card 2 is 6 of diamonds. Flora manages to ungrapple (rolling a 9) but stays fouled (rolling a 4). She does let loose on Hancock, now at 10:11 (2:3), rolling blue 4 and red 4 which is one hull. She also sets a defensive boarding part of all sailors and marines. Card 3 is King of hearts. Rainbow moves forward 55 with a maximum deviation to try to close with Hancock. Card 4 is 5 of diamonds. Hancock throws another grapple and succeeds (8). She sets an offensive boarding party of all sailors and marines and three sections of gunners.

Turn 2 Phase 4 Card 1 is the King of diamonds. Rainbow is finally up on Hancock, moving forward 40. Range is only 40 but the gunnery gods are not with the British. The heavy 18-pounder battery has odds of 18:11 (3:2) but roll blue 5 and red 0 for only one hull. The lighter 12-pounder battery does even worse, rolling blue 0 and red 0 for a miss. Hancock returns fire from its previously unengaged port battery, odds 11:13 (due to 3 gunners no longer at their guns) rolling blue 2 and red 3 for a single hull. Card 2 is 9 of spades. Fox inches forward 10, waiting for her guns to reload. Card 3 is 5 of hearts. Hancock fails to attach a second grapple (5). The final card is 6 of spades and Flora again ungrapples (9) but fails to unfoul (5). At the end of the turn the boarders are away! Hancock has 16 points against 8 for Flora. Roll is a 4. The attacker seizes a section of deck with losses of 2 crew sections for the attacker (Hancock) and 3 for the defender (Flora).

Turn 3 Phase 1 Card 1 is a 5 of diamonds. Hancock now has a 14:6 advantage in melee but rolls a 3 and gets a stalemate, losing 1 more crew section but Flora loses 2. Card 2 is a king of diamonds. Rainbow, at barely 30 range fires into Hancock inflicting 3 hull and a rigging from her 18s and another hull from the 12s. Hancock replies with a ragged broadside and also gets one hull. Card 3 is a 9 of diamonds and Fox wears 15, moves forward 40 and pours her broadside in a bow rake of Rainbow, rolling a blue 8 and red 2. The light 9-pounders only score two hull. The last card is 6 of hearts. Flora desperately orders all gunners to form into a reinforcing boarding party (this will take two phases). Her existing party fights a bloody stalemate, rolling 5(-2) resulting in 3 crew lost for the attacker but 2 more sections lost for Flora.

Turn 3 Phase 2 Card 1 is 5 of spades. Hancock, despite an 11:2 advantage rolls a 0 and gets another stalemate, losing two more sections. But Flora loses one, leaving her with a single section in melee. Card 2 is a 6 of diamonds. Flora rolls a 4 (+4) which ends the melee (Hancock takes the last two sections of deck AND the last crew section of Flora is casualties. Hancock loses one more crew section, for a total loss of 8 crew sections (2 gunners, 5 marines, and a sailor). Card 3 is a King of hearts. Rainbow tacks, bringing her port broadside full on to Fox at a range of only 40. Between both batteries she inflicts another 4 hull on Fox. Because the card was a heart, she reloads. Card 4 is a 9 of clubs. Fox moves forward 60. She also recovers her maneuver chip.

Turn 3 Phase 3 Card 1 is King of spades. Rainbow attempts to complete her tack but rolls a 0 and is in irons! Special damage to the Rigging is a 62 – main topmast falls to starboard and obscures the battery. She is pushed backward 45 (55 minus 10 for dragging a mast) which puts her in range to fire at Fox again at a range of 40, causing a total of 4 more hull and a rigging. Card 2 is 5 of hearts. Hancock forms a prize crew of 2 sailor sections and a marine section on Flora. She attempts to unfoul and fails (7). Card 3 is a 9 of hearts. Fox moves forward 60 and reloads with chain shot. Flora gets no action for her card as the prize crew is organizing.

Turn 3 Phase 4 Card 1 is 6 of spades. Again, Flora takes no action. Her prize crew will be organized at the end of this phase. Card 2 is 9 of spades. Fox wears 70 and takes Rainbow in a stern rake at only 70 range with dismantling shot. Her battered 9-pounders though are only 6:13 and she gets a red 0, only one rigging. Card 3 is a 5 of clubs and Hancock lets loose at Rainbow at range 130. However, her blue 8 is an outright miss. She again fails to unfoul (7). Card 4 is a King of clubs. Rainbow tries again to complete the tack and fails again with a roll of 1. This time she rolls a 95 and the entire mizzen mast falls, obscuring the port battery. She does cut away the starboard debris.

Turn 4 Phase 1 Card 1 is a 5 of clubs. Hancock finally unfouls (2) but fails to ungrapple (0). She fires again at Rainbow, now with more gunners and rolls better, blue 3 and red 5 firing high and causing two rigging boxes. Card 2 is a 6 of hearts and Flora ungrapples (8) and gets under way, moving forward 25. Card 3 is 9 of hearts. Fox moves forward 60 and fires chain again at Rainbow, range 70, stern rake, but 1:3 odds (6:13), blue 7 and red 6 is one more rigging. Card 4 is King of hearts. Rainbow falls off and fires at Hancock, range 130. She rolls two 0’s and inflicts no damage; she does manage to cut away the fallen mizzen.

Turn 4 Phase 2 Card 1 is King of diamonds. Rainbow, having reloaded with a heart at the end of the previous phase, now wears 40 (full speed) and fires at Fox, range 110, a stern rake. The dice gods, so pointedly absent last phase, return. With a blue 5 and red 9 her heavy battery scores 10 hull and 3 rigging and the upper battery gets another 3 hull and one rigging. Fox needs to roll twice on the Special Hull Damage table. First is 07 which is a mast. Rolling then on the Special Damage to Masts and Rigging is a 27 bringing down the foretopgallant which falls clear off the starboard side. The second Special Hull Damage roll is a 28, rudder damaged. The last three cards each of the ships simply moves forward. This ends the game. (Picture is of the fateful rake).

Epilogue. Flora had the misfortune of being fouled by the larger Hancock. This was compounded by hoping to detach and regain maneuver over being fully committed to the boarding action. Because Hancock committed so many crew to boarding, on the other hand, she was left to hope Fox could divert the much larger Rainbow. Fox did an admirable job dancing about, but her light guns could do little against the small 2-decker. Rainbow, in the end, was done in by poor seamanship, losing two masts in her abortive tack. Rainbow’s gunnery was erratic but averaged, in the end, to devastating damage on Fox and significant damage to Hancock.

Baltic Battle 1797

2/7/2021

Played a sharp little naval action entirely by email. A small Russian naval squadron, led by the 100-gun Saratov, with two 74s, engaged a Swedish squadron of a 70, 2 62s, and a 540 gun frigate. Photos are from the climactic 8th turn, where all ships were engaged, the two lines passing each other at from 1-3 cables apart. The frigate rakes the massive first rate, but rolls poorly, dooming the Swedes, who were then forced to withdraw with both their flagship and one of the 62s at over 75% damage.

Memorial Day 2020 Poem

5/25/2020

In Honor of all Those who Served

We sent them off
Flags waving, bands playing
To defend our shores,
To claim new lands,
To banish tyranny and evil.
Or, even, once,
To sew the country
Back together.
But we were never ready
When they returned
One at a time
From distant places
Damaged on our behalf.
Some came back
Missing pieces, left,
In haste and violence,
On some battlefield,
Rarely remembered by us.
Some came back
But left intangibles,
Minds affected like
The bodies of their buddies.
And some came back
As only a memory,
A paper apology for our loss,
Of course, only a tiny
Loss compared to that of he or she
Who never will come back.
Once a year, today,
We wave those flags,
Bands play, speeches are made
And we remember
Those we sent off
Without being ready
For them to return.