I have been experimenting with linking turn rate to the ships actual speed. No speed, no turning. The results are not perfect yet but I find it very much more entertaining than before and more realistic. Here is an unlikely feat by my Dutch protagonist Klaas van Krabdam and his 60-gun Roijael Krab, made possible by the lucky wind and poor enemy cohesion – which were the primary reasons for the outcome of a great many naval engagements throughout history. All told by the poor sailor Hopkins, he who has to come out to spar with beginner captains as you know.
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Hopkins! What are you doing here? We all thought you had had enough of giving fencing lessons to incompetent captains and set sail for England again?
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I tried! I even signed on for a British Man-of War, of all things, thinking that the passage should be safer inside the mightiest ship I could find. But nothing works out for poor Hopkins, oh no…
I had been assigned to the Marston Moor, biggest vessel you could imagine. 102 guns, over a thousand crew. Not only that, but she would be sailing with two other 1st rate line ships, and a new and nimble 3rd rater to deal with quicker targets. We were called back from the West Indies but west of Bermuda we fell upon some Spanish traders. Two of them were caught and struck their colours but the rest made a break for it and split. It was the 30th of october and the middle of the afternoon. To our south, there appeared a Dutchman of some fifty or sixty guns, faster than you could imagine. The Royal Crab. She took her sails down when our line opened fire and just lay their and weathered it while our ships struggled to catch the traders. We had our third rater at the fore, the Sparrow with 64 guns, and the 96 gun Iris behind, with us as the third ship and last the 96 gun Henrietta Maria. So! That Crab waited until the wind turned and blew her swiftly west, parallell wo our line. She veered away from our guns then started to turn northward and chase the Henrietta Maria which had broken off to catch one or two of the traders.
Meanwhile the Iris and the Sparrow did not tell each other what they were doing and we heard a massive crack, and it was the Sparrows bowsprit that had snapped. So stupid! Now our fastest vessel was hardly any faster than the rest. The crab came at the Henrietta Maria from an angle so they were out of both the aft guns and the broadsides. The Dutch were quite lucky devils, for the wind was perfect for their manoeuvre.
When they were so close that the aft guns would not hit their rigging, the Dutch turned sharply north and reduced sail to manoeuvre better. They could still take advantage of their built up speed.
Then they opened fire and raked the Henrietta Maria point blank. The sight was dreadful but the wind blew strongly now and she had good speed. That is of course until the crab began pouring chain shot across her masts. The Dutch were so nimble they could criss-cross after our ship and fire at every turn when their broadside faced forward.
The Henrietta Maria was steadily gliding away from the rest of us and none could come fast to her rescue for with the Iris and Sparrow tangled and the Marston Moor out of wind to turn we were quite slow. So her captain took a huge risk and turned around to meet us, all the while the crab was murdering her crew with its grapeshot. It didn’t work, for when she came around the wind was staright against her and she could not gain the wind to turn in either direction.
With only two guns against 28 she was beaten bloody and then those vile Dutch boarded and took her, while the Iris was still approaching. It had been about an hour, no more, but constant firing for the whole time.
Not content with massacring our largest crew, the Dutch commandeered the Henrietta Maria and used it as stationary battery to guard the crab and shot at the rigging of the Iris thatw as approaching, while taking shelter behind the first rates heavy oak. The two line ships traded broadsides all evening as the iris made sail south to come around and rake the Dutch.
The Dutch saw the danger, though, and left just a token crew and set out with the crab again, turning almost fully around to the outer side to not lose the wind, and set sail south to intercept the Iris. Her sails were in such poor condition and she so much slower and heavier that the crab seemed to have no trouble floating just into position before her bow and unleash its grapeshot again.
When the Dutch boarded, there was only a skeleton crew left, almost quite literally, and darkness had fallen upon us all. It must have been almost midnight when they took her too.
The Iris was slower and with lesser crew than the Henrietta Maria but sturdier and more easy to turn. The crab could easily replenish the stores from the vast cargo holds of those prizes.
The Sparrow was too late to save the Iris but pressed on none the less, seeking to get close enough to board. The crab turned sharply to meet her but then seemed to reconsider and dropped sial to wait for the Sparrow.
The Sparrow was sailing into the broadside of the crab and while she could more easily change her course to return fire she would have to slow down, and clearly judged it wiser to get close as fast as possible.
Unfortunately the fire never seemed to lessen and casualties mounted to the point that the Sparrow struck her colours.
The Marston Moor meanwhile was sailing up to shower the Henrietta Maria with her broadsides and strike at the crab. We did not count with the accuracy of the Dutch gunnery, and they tore our sails to shreds so we could not seem to get anywhere we wanted.
Caught in the middle of the half circle formed b the crab and her prizes our captain decided to make a run for it and drift with the currents around Bermuda until we could get repairs underway. It was an optimistic assessment for not only could we not come far with such rags hanging from our masts but the wind had lessened during the night and now in the morning we had not come far at all. And we could see the crab swiftly sailing up to our stern.
She might as well had sailed gently into a docks, so still and immobile did our ship appear. The crab dropped sail when angled so that herbroadside would hit our stern and also our whole starboard side. They did not need to aim at that distance. It was a massacre.
Little wonder our captain called for a ceasefire and ultimately capitulated, but damn him for being so tardy.
Of our entire crew was just me and 71 more that made it. We were sold in Marigot as indentured servants and so I’m back at hacking away at greenhorn captains.
Analysis: Large ships of the line used to be slow but stronger than all due to the high skills of their captain and their ability to turn to match the speed of kiting enemies. Now, they are ships of the line, no more, no less. If caught alone by a nimble opponent with heavy guns, they are in trouble. As I mentioned I think the effects of the turn rate are a bit extreme but on the whole the battle felt much more like the descriptions I’ve read in the history books and ditto sources.
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In my game big ships get stuck a long time with the fore against the wind (too long time for the moment but I’ll adjust that a bit), which is very interesting. Tacking is a pain, though, which isn’t intended. I suspect the remedy is some sort of turn rate inertia bonus so that a ship with good speed could use it to tack effectively and reach the “other side” and catch the wind again.
I visualize the goal as something like this: Small ships with good Point of sail can start from nothing and still turn decently, but they will depend mostly on the wind for their turn rate. Big ships with square sails (well, kind of all of them…) can not turn as fast from stationary but the trick with them is to build up speed and inertia to be able to tack and turn in battle at the right moment, so handling them should need more skill and understanding of these mechanics from the player.
Unofficial Non Total war single post AAR's thread .
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Originally Posted by Alwyn
