Memoir of Battle at Sea: Play-test 1

Despite having had a rather busy weekend, I managed to run a play-test of my MEMOIR OF BATTLE AT SEA naval wargames rules.

I decide to pitch two late nineteenth/early twentieth century coastal defence ships against each other, the Greek Psara and Turkish Messudieh.

Psara

Messudieh

These two ships were evenly matched, and might have faced each other in battle had the circumstances arisen.

Turn 1
Both ships began in opposite corners of the battle area.

As soon as they saw each other, they turned so that they were directly heading for each other.

Turn 2
Both ships maintained their current course, and the distance between them began to close.

Turn 3
For the second turn running, neither ship changed its course.

Turn 4
Simultaneously, both ships turned towards each other, and the distance between them closed so that they were almost in range of each other.

Turn 5
They both turned again as they came into range of each other so that they could engage each other with broadsides.

Turn 6
Both ships fired at each other. The Psara threw two 'reds' (i.e. misses) but the Messudieh threw a 'red' (i.e. a miss) and a 'blue' (i.e. a minor hit that cause one point of damage of the Psara).

Both ships then moved forward and turned sixty degrees so that they could still each fire at the other.

Turn 7
Again both ships fired at each other. The Psara's gunfire missed yet again, but the Messudieh threw a 'blue' (a minor hit) and a 'white' (a major hit) which cause the Psara a further three points of damage.

Both ships continued to turn so that they remained broadside on to each other.

Turn 8
This was the decisive turn. Psara fired at the Messudieh and caused her some damage ('white' inflicted a major hit which was worth two points of damage), but in reply, Messudieh threw a 'white' and a 'blue', which caused Psara to suffer a further three points of damage. As she had only had two points of her original six remaining, she sank.

I was pleased with the way the rules worked. In particular, firing before moving rather than the more traditional 'move then fire' approach seemed to work well. I hope to play-test a somewhat more complex scenario next time (possibly two weaker ships against a single stronger ship) before I look at ways of introducing rules that allow ships to fire torpedoes at each other.