Greetings!
So what's this? I have an ongoing Age of Sail -themed game with 8 player nations in an earthlike galaxy, with bodies of water represented via start systems. The game started on the year 1700 (technically I had 1699 for setting things up) and is very heavy in roleplay and scheming.
Unlike most other AARs, this will be less in written form and more in video format. I have gathered 8 players, myself included, who will each roleplay a leader of one of the following nations: Great Britain, France, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire and Pirate Federation. (On who is leading what, you can check out this video:
) I will personally do all the actual playing, but each player gets to decide the direction of their nation, including diplomacy, fleet movements on the strategic level etc. I will then go on to play and record the game, consult the players when needed and keep them informed on what is going on with their nation. For the map, I made this:
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=11251.0 which I have further modified a little, placed down the 8 player nations as well as some 20 neutral planets, which consider anyone hostile and try to pepper with STOs, but can be conquered by the players. Each nation starts with a number of colonies, more info on various rules set for the game and starting figures can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t393iSGsdcsQXdLpPEWdk7L8c8TyJ_vvrec18F-_7iY/edit#heading=h.mwc9a7n7e3yj (Thanks to AuroraMod's latest functionality, I've now renamed the minerals with the names in that document.)
Majority of the players have never played the game, so I'm trying to make their life relatively easy by doing most of the work for them.
Over here you can find playlist links to each nation, the episode of year 1700
Britain -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzTVNZkqfxiW2iH7JCC75GZLFrance -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzQ4NvDhzNgpLfzyGklteYBOThe Netherlands -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzRcKo0PTVpDgEZb6IBTRY-bSpain -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzRHl7z5TFkUdqP4wAleP7wxPortugal -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzSiyF4SEOs5YUVVaKGMxnIUOttoman Empire -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzT6fOEna20BZWwTTZXwWqgkMughal Empire -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzRe-CwSRM0VmQsPOqabVJVwPirate Federation -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzTJoobzo9aOZK63geVCG3AlYearly Recaps -
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKFBBf1WhFzQ-kjehO8w4AREkcC_tngQ8 (First actual recap should be live in about 1h of posting this)
Originally intended speed was one year per week, but considering that moving about 50+ fleets over dozens of systems during wartime (because of course war happened pretty quickly) is rather time-consuming, the rate will be one year every 2 weeks, starting from June.
Yes, I know there are some historical inaccuracies, some intentional, others not. But I'm a mere mortal and had to get things rolling sooner rather than later. One could probably spend years researching for something like this, so I'm fairly happy with what I got together in two months.
While I might not have the time to update this very regularly, I will try to update this every now and then. My yearly recap episodes should still give a decent peek on what's going on in the game if watching through every nation's perspective doesn't feel like your cup of tea. The details here will be mostly on a grander level, to not spoil too much about the videos, but to act as a "Recap Lite".
Year 1700For all nations, the first year was primarily about surveying their surrounding to find some juicy planets. Unfortunately several of the nations had one of their survey vessels to run into a neutral port and got sunk by the coastal fortifications. Only the Ottomans and Spanish did not run into any problems and the Dutch ship managed to sail out of range of the enemy guns. Near the end of the year the French managed to sack the coastal defences of Rome as a retaliation for their lost survey sloop. The British also tried to retaliate against Copenhagen, but due to a design flaw were unable to aim high enough to hit the fortifications and were forced to retreat. The Pirates sent their first raiding fleet to the Atlantic from Tunis but were unable to spot any targets to plunder before they had to return home.
Year 1701All 8 nations focused on expanding their navy. On 1st of July, France instituted a blockade of Rome, a city which had sunk one of their exploration vessels. Everything seemed to go fine until the French officials claimed that a British ship had tried to slip past the blockade in late July. On 3rd of August, a joint operation from the French and Spanish committed a raid of port Royal in retaliation. While all but 2 exploration vessels of the British Caribbean fleet managed to slip away before the raiders got sight of the harbour, the coastal defences and shipyards were completely destroyed. Significant damage was inflicted on the city itself, but the defending troops were mostly unharmed aside from the coastal batteries. During the combat several French vessels took hits and a sloop was sunk. After the raid, the French & Spanish fleets returned to their ports in the Caribbean to issue repairs.
On the 13th of August, Portugal and the Netherlands joined their ally, Britain, in this war. Both the French and the Dutch had a mining colony on the same island in the Caribbean and the garrisons began to fight for the control of the island. The French troops were of higher quality and thus the Dutch sent in reinforcements from Curacao. A battalion of men landed in September, escorted with 2 brigs and 2 ships of the line (a 2nd and a 3rd rate). The French sent in reinforcements from Tortuga after the Dutch had landed. Unfortunately, the raid fleet was still repairing, so they had to scrape what they could from the reserves: 2 brigs, 2 light frigates and 2 ships of the line (3rd rates) escorting a battalion of their men. Lucky for the French, the garrison held bravely and actually stopped the Dutch attacks. Once the French fleet arrived close enough, the escort ships were sent in first, which the Dutch escorts moved in to intercept while their transport sailed off. A battle took place NW of the island where the Dutch were forced to retreat after losing their brigs and armour starting to break on the heavier ships. The battle did cost the French all four of their lighter vessels, but they did get to land their reinforcements and soon after took over the Dutch mines.
Both the Dutch and British as well as the Pirates they bribed to help them, sent raiding fleets to disrupt the shipping lanes of the Coalition of the Continent (France & Spain), the Brits scoring a hit in December by sinking a French colony ship in the Bay of Biscay. The Dutch focusing their efforts to the Atlantic while the Pirates having delays to actually setting sail until late December.
Year 1702The war started in earnest this year. The British managed to sink a Spanish civilian freighter in the Bay of Biscay while sending the majority of available fleets to Philadelphia in fear of an enemy attack into their only remaining port with shipyards in the New World. Their fears were justified for British reinforcement sailing North from the Caribbean spotted the French Caribbean Fleet heading towards Havana while themselves remaining hidden. Unbehest to Britain, the Coalition of the Continent (Spain & France) was amassing fleets both north and south of the American East Coast Region from their surrounding colonies. Unfortunately for the Coalition, some of their ships required a bit of serious overhaul, delaying their departure from Havana and Plaisance by a significant amount of time. Having heard the news of the French fleet abandoning Tortuga, the Dutch diverted some extra ships from Brazil to the Caribbean and launched a raid of Tortuga, destroying the coastal fortifications and shipyards there while suffering damage on a handful of vessels. Meanwhile, the Pirate Federation had sunk a Spanish colony fleet of five ships after failed boarding attempts.
Two weeks after the Tortuga raid, the fleet of the Coalition set sail to rendezvous a fair distance off the coast of America, leaving support vessels there, a safe distance away from any battle that was about to take place in Philadelphia. On the 11th of June, the Raid of Philadelphia started. The Coalition had a fleet of 143 ships against 108 British vessels supported by coastal fortifications. After a long a bloody battle the Coalition emerged victorious with 34 ships lost and sinking the entire British fleet there in addition to destroying the shipyards and defences. They had, however, taken very heavy damage on the majority of the ships and only one ship out of the entire fleet had taken no damage at all during the battle. The Spanish fleet set sail back south to Havana while the French set off to link with their supply ships left behind before sailing to Quebec. Unfortunately for them, 4 British brigs (6th Rates) chanced upon the French support vessels while heading towards Philadelphia. Losing said support vessels left the French fleet stranded until substitute vessels could be sent from Quebec.
At the end of June, the French were met with even more bad news when an Ottoman fleet approached to raid Toulon in the Mediterranean and a few days afterwards another Ottoman fleet raided Barcelona. The Sultan had decided to restore the Roman Empire and the Coalition was standing in his way. The raids destroyed the defences and shipyards but failed to catch any Coalition ships. Later in the year the Ottoman Army tried to land in Rome, a neutral city, but failed to secure a proper beachhead. The Coalition fleets in the Mediterranean were already reduced to a near minimum, so they opted to combine their fleets for the time being.
After the bulk of the Dutch fleet had recovered from the raid of Tortuga and hearing the news about Philadelphia, they sent their fleet to try intercepting any fleets returning to the Caribbean. Fortunately for the Spanish, who had a delay of their own waiting for refuel, they managed to spot the Dutch in time to avoid them while sailing back. French support vessels sailing from Havana were less lucky, although they would not know that for some time yet. The Dutch spotted the vessels sailing north and the admiral decided to shadow the French ships, figuring they'd probably lead them to at least some of the French fleet (the extent of damage done on them was somewhat known by the Great Trade Alliance as the alliance of Britain, Netherlands and Portugal is now known). Using some brigs to act as a bait and scouting element they did indeed manage to locate the stranded French fleet. Support vessels from Quebec had not had enough fuel on them to get the fleet moving yet, thus they had to bring extra vessels from the south as well. The bait provoked the French to send most of the still mobile vessels to protect their support vessels while hiding their true speed to allow the pursuing ships to stay relatively close, but far enough to avoid fire. Meanwhile, the Dutch Frigates and Ships-of-the-Line sailed west to loop behind any ships pursuing the bait. The french left around a dozen ships defending the few immobile ships and support vessels, which quickly began the refuelling process. The main chunk of their fleet had orders to buy enough time for the supports so that the fleet could head to Quebec for repairs. The bait led the French fleet fairly far away and the main fleet set sail to a position between the two French groups, but their enemy managed to spot the ships and realized the trap that was being set upon them. The French fleets managed to combine their strength just barely before the battle was upon the already weary fleet again. The Dutch had a total of 69 ships, while the French side had 88. After a relatively short battle, the Dutch pulled back after losing one of their 2nd Rates, they did, however, sink 21 French frigates and heavily damaging another 21 ships. In the end, the French fleet, or what was left of it, did manage to make it to Quebec with a lengthy set of repairs ahead of it. The Dutch fleet was left stranded for a while, but support vessels from Curacao made most of the way there before the end of the year.
I'll leave the technology, colony etc. details out of this year's report, due to the battles taking the lion share of the time. I fully recommend watching the individual country episodes for a more in-depth view of the battles and more info about the situation each country is currently in.
