Full Nelson French v British

Another new set of rules I've been playing is the playtest version of 'The Full Nelson'. Having previously tried Black Seas (not impressed!) and Kiss Me Hardy (good but a bit complicated) I was happy to give these rules a go.

They follow the currently very popular system of cards to determine movement order and 'action dice' which have various uses for sailing, gunnery and leadership. This was my fourth game and so far I've really enjoyed it!

The scenario was one supplied by the play test team, the Battle of  Cape Ortegal which sees three British ships of the line  (HMS Caesar, Hero and Courageux) taking on four French (Dugay-Trouin, Formidable, Mont Blanc and Scipion) The British have better crews and leadership, the French one more ship and more gunnery power. The French fleet is slightly damaged from a previous encounter with British Frigates but that was soon repaired by the French.

The eagle-eyed among you will realise that in fact all the ships are frigates with a mixture of French and British for the British and Spanish for the French!

The British attempt a traditional crossing the T plan while the French rely on opening fire as soon as possible:

A superb broadside from the 'Formidable' crashes into HMS 'Caesar' (5 hits out of 7 dice needing a 5 or 6 at long range!) and causing heavy damage:

The 'Scipion' joins in blasting 'Caeser' again:

'Caesar's' ship card shows the damage, she has lost 3 out of 6 action dice and will probably strike soon:

'Caesar' does indeed strike after further fire from the 'Formidable'. 'Hero' was also badly damaged while the French had taken very little damage causing the British to admit defeat:

We played again, this time the British didn't attempt to 'cross the t' but again had awful luck as 'Caesar' was shattered again, this time losing a mast, catching fire and finally exploding!

As I mentioned this is the fourth game I've played and I've really enjoyed every one of them! The rules are easy to learn the basics, the sailing isn't too complicated, it is fast moving and unlike many other sets of rules if you are British you certainly have advantages but it's not overwhelming (see Black Seas..).

The action dice system requires you to juggle sailing, damaging the enemy and repairing your own ship giving some tough choices (do I fire again but ignore minor damage that may well become major or repair the damage and not fire this time?). 

In a solo game I quite happily managed six ships per side which is a big improvement over most other sailing games as well where one or two is all you can cope with.

All in all a great set of rules in progress and I'll be playing a lot more games hopefully. Looking forward to the final version coming out as well, for sure will be investing in them.