Dutch Phalanx

Phalanx, the North-west premier wargames show was once again held at St Helens. Not too bad a drive, wet in places but still made good time. Did have to drive around St Helens a bit to try and find the route to the Centre. It didn't seem as well signposted as past years.

Seemed a bit quieter than last time, with less traders and more room for the demo games. There also didn't seem to be any boardgame traders other than the second-handers. The bring and Buy was also a bit thin of items, only a couple of things perking my interest.

From Phalanx

Martin was demoing his Anglo-Dutch Naval rules, doing his largest battle to date (Goodwin Sands\Dover) and aided and abetted by Graeme, who had managed to purchase some more Uncharted Seas stuff, despite its scarcity, in his continuing quest to defeat Colin's Dwarf Fleet.



A couple of demos caught my eye, a Sudan fight, and a very impressive Dresden demo.



Didn't purchase much myself, just some 15mm Abyssinian Riflemen from Irregular Miniatures to help bulk up my army and a copy of the latest Battlegames magazine. So not as eventful as past years but still a decent way to waste a few hours on a Saturday.
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Rubber Cannonballs!

Martin brought along his newly revamped A-D rules; and promptly dropped them on the floor, It's at times like these that using page numbers come in useful. Maybe he will include them next time.

The Dutch start with the weathergauge and take advantage of it. One section of the English comes to a standstill as they turn into the wind.

The Dutch fireships head directly towards the English but some luck gunnery from the opposition takes out both fireships boats, leaving the crews without a method of escape. With the boats gone the only thing they could do was run away\get in the way.

From Anglo Dutch

Soon the battle is split into two distinct engagements, both moving away from each other. One was moving downwind, the other across the wind. This required the hex mats to be shifted a number of times.



Due to a couple of Dutch ships getting tied up with the retreating fireships, the English outnumber (and out-gun) the Dutch, but the Dutch still have the Wind with them and start maneuvering off the table to get away before the majority of the English ships can bring their guns to bear. Meanwhile, downwind, a couple of English ships get surrounded and pounded by the second Dutch force.



The ability of a critical hit to switch locations, from hull to rigging and vice versa, on a roll of 3 or 11, did lead to the strangest event of the evening when a cannonball fired at the hull first rebounded into the rigging, before dropping to the hull and then bouncing back up to finally damage the masts.
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Pass the Dutchie...

...on the larboard side!

Martin has once more rejigged his prototype rules for the naval warfare of the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

10 ships a side and a mixture of warships and armed merchantmen plus a fireship each.

From Anglo Dutch

The English gained the advantage of the Weatherguage and move into position. Sending the fireship ahead to try and disrupt the Dutch's formation.



The Dutch try to close with the English to negate the more effective English cannons and to bring their own shorter ranged guns to bear.





Both Fireships actually made contact with target vessels and managed to tangle with the opposing ships. The English managed to blow the Dutch fireship out of the water but not before it had set fire to the ship. The fate of the English fireship was quite different...

With the ships boat destroyed normally the flaming of the ship would not happen as no captain would be foolish enough to torch a ship without some means of escape. Unfortunately the next thing to happen was the captain getting hit with a cannonball (a frequent occurance in this paticular game!) and the rules for that is that the crew continues with the previous orders i.e. Torch the ship! Soon both ships are ablaze and crews heading overboard.



The fate of the Dutch ship approaching the conflagration above was just as dramatic as a direct hit on its powder store leading to a massive explosion and an absence of the ship.

With the Dutch morale wiltering and almost an entire squadron gone the Dutch called it a day.


This game was played just a bit too late for 'International Talk Like A Pirate Day'

Pics from this and other playtests...