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Peninsular War Campaign - Turn 2 (September 1808) - Naval Action!

This month's campaign turn will feature a naval encounter played using Tony Bath's Napoleonic Naval Wargaming rules that where published in Featherstone's Naval War Games (1965). For on explanation of the campaign rules check the 1st turn HERE.


Situation at the beginning of September 1808



Random events

  • Leon: Gaining sympathy. The population is becoming sympathetic to revolutionary ideals and even some politicians are starting to show support. Alignment moves 1D10 towards susceptibility. New alignment: +1.
  • Andalucia: Losing sympathy. The population is not swayed by the revolutionary ideology and popular public figures have spoken against it. Alignment moves 1D10 towards resilience. New alignment: -4
Encounter at Cape Ortegal (Leon) 29 September 1808

French Order of Battle:
  • Le Formidable (74s)
  • Le Valmy (64s)
British Order of Battle
  • HMS Relentless (74s)
  • HMS Sthenelus (64s)



Tactical Situation. The two convoys meet off
Cape Ortegal
The British carry vital supplies for Northern Spain.
Wind N, both sides broad reaching


The British ships decide to go
 North of the islet


The French offer their compliments & broadsides.
Ineffective long-rage firing


Things heat up! Leading ship
Le Valmy bears the brunt of fire

Flawless wear by the British ships 
to offer their loaded broadsides

HMS Sthenelus tacks and is now
in position to rake Le Formidable

Le Formidable takes a devastating 8 hits
Le Valmy, reduced to half crew
is trying to slip away

The two British ships
gang up on Le Formidable

Facing mutiny if they continue fleeing,
the captain of Le Valmy decides
to turn back and come to the aid of their flagship

Le Formidable has rallied and
inflicts a severe punishment to HMS Relentless
in a cannonade duel (top of the image)

It seems that HMS Relentless is not so relentless
after all! It rolls a 1 and strikes the colours.

HMS Sthenelus is having none of this defeatism.
It successfully boards Le Valmy, which at this point
is battered and has a skeleton crew

But boarding is costly. Besides the losses
it has to leave a detachment on board the captured ship.
HMS Sthenelus (in the distance) decides
 to make a run for the port and salvage
 half the cargo

A race is on!
Le Formidable manages to sink HMS Sthenelus
with its chaser guns! French victory!

Effects of the battle
  • Leon: Breakdown of order. Wide spread hunger and protests as unsupplied British troops turn to looting. Clashes on the highways are a daily occurrence.
Situation at the beginning of October 1808


PS. Comments on the rules


Simple and elegant system by old-school author Tony Bath. I didn't use a wacky and godlike roll that  let's the fortunate player chooses the direction of the wind, but it sounds fun:) That said, I changed some things as I always do:

  • The rules do not say how to sail against the wind 45º either side. I added wearing (fails on a 1) and tacking (fails on a 1 or 2). On a fail the ship drifts 1D6
  • I added a minimum mandatory movement of 1/4 of full movement. After wearing or tacking only minimum movement is possible.
  • Turning deducts 1 inch of movement.
  • Firing arc 30º from main mast. 20º for raking.
  • I added the possibility of repairing masts on a 5,6, but that didn't come up as no one shot at the masts.
  • I used the 6 cards deck sequence of play taken from Form Line of Battle by David Manley. It's a fun and suspenseful system that works perfectly. Reloads, striking tests and repairs are checked on the first (command card) of each side.
  • The sequence I used is All fire before Movement /Movement-turning or turning-movement/ All fire after movement

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