The Battle of Bishops Court
A Scenario For 'Form Line Of Battle'

Introduction

This scenario is based on an historical action which took place on 28th February 1760 off the west coast of the Isle of Man. I discovered this action whilst on holiday on the island in June 1999. A full description of the events leading up to the action can be found at this site. There is a splendid audio-visual display at The House of Manannan, at Peel on the Isle of Man, and the Manx Museum in Douglas has a painting of the captured French ships in Ramsey Bay.

The scenario is designed for use with 'Form Line of Battle II', but can be easily adapted to other sets. It should be noted that this battle takes place in 1760, before the period covered by most Age of Sail rules. In essence the rules can remain the same, but it should be remembered that no ship in this period was fitted with carronades. 'Form Line of Battle' is especially suited for this action as it relies on relative ship statistics rather than absolute, so the game is not affected by differences in ship performance between 1760 and 1800.

Forces Involved

Ships are listed in the following format: Name, Guns, Gun Strength/Hull Strength, Rate, Crew, Value

British

French

All ships are sailing class 2.

Set Up

                     
 --------------------------------
|                        |       |
|                        V       | L
|                      French    | A
|                                | N 
|                                | D
|                                |
|                                | E
|                                | D
|                                | G 
|                                | E
|                                |
|                                | 
|                                | N
|                                | ^
|                                | |
|                                | |
|     British        Wind (ESE)  | |
|        ^               |\      |
|        |                 \     |
|        |                  \    | 
 -------------------------------- 
 

Special Rules

• The Eastern edge is considered land. Any ship leaving this edge is considered to have run aground, and is lost
• This action took place some 30 years before the widespread introduction of carronades. Accordingly, the fire modifier for Point Blank range is '-2' rather than '-4'.
• No ship can fire at Long range.
• Ships of both nationalities may exit from any edge except the East. French ships score victory points if they are able to exit the South edge.

Victory Conditions

The battle ends when all on-table ships are controlled by one side or the other.

The British score full points for all ships that they control.

The French score full points for all ships that they control, plus half points for any ship that they control that has exited the South edge.

Both sides score half points for any enemy ship that exits any edge with half or more of its gunnery factor lost.

Both sides score full points for any enemy ship that sinks or is forced to run aground by exiting the East edge.

If the difference between the scores is five points or less then that battle is a draw. If the margin is more than five points, then the side with the most points has achieved victory. If the margin is more than ten points, then the side with the most points has won a famous victory.

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