Micro Fleet Frigate Action

I played out a simple two ship game this morning, with HMS Spartan (38) intercepting the Perle (40) somewhere off the coast of Brittany. The basic set up was a T shape with Perle crossing the T and Spartan sailing at right angles. The wind was from the South so that Perle had the wind aft and Spartan on the bow. 

In Turn 1 both frigates advanced toward each other, with Perle making a two point turn to larboard, Perle loading her port battery and Spartan her starboard batteries with shot, anticipating some long range fire. In Turn 2, Spartan turned four points to larboard and then sailed 200mm forwards, while Perle did exactly the same manoeuvre in order to close the range.

At this point, the issue of simultaneous movement cropped up, with incremental steps having to be taken once Perle decided to fire on Spartan half way through the move. When this fire was eventually resolved, requiring seven different tables to be referenced and four different calculations, Perle succeeded in inflicting sixteen casualties and two destroyed guns on Spartan's starboard side. 

In Turn 3, HMS Spartan turned two points to larboard then opened fire to rake Perle as she passed, resulting in yet more tedious calculations to inflict only twenty casualties and two destroyed guns, one on each side of the hull. This seemed a little light for a stern rake but there you go. The move continued to the end with Spartan moving straight ahead and Perle continuing her three point turn and forward move.

At this point, I lost interest as I had forgotten how much number crunching was involved with this set of rules and decided to call it a day. The game had moved quite quickly despite all the tables and charts, calculations and head scratching, but in the end I had had enough. I declared the scenario a draw but a tactical victory for the Royal Navy.

There are two main problems with the Micro Fleet Napoleonic rules which, for me, made them far too clunky.

The biggest issue is simultaneous movement and firing, which complicates the turn and forces you to take every move one step at a time. This was very tedious and complicated further by the need to reassess move rates due to changing aspect to the wind, as each move progressed. There was also no initiative rule or order of movement as a result, which meant that both the French and British moved and fired together. 

The other problem was the number of tables and calculations required for just the simplest of actions, making anything more than a couple of ships a side far too cumbersome to manage. When I used to play this game solo back in the '80's I seem to remember having three or four ships a side but how I did that I have no idea? 

On the plus side, the components are still very good and the move templates, firing gauge and wind direction circle are all very well designed. There's a potential game in there somewhere, using the ship counters and templates, but it would require a full on rewrite of the rules to make it a decent fast play system including some rules for initiative and streamlined rules for movement, firing and damage.

Oh well, it was worth a try!