Vae Victis magazine has started the habit of including small, quick 
bonus games in their issues, typically (but not always) with some 
abstract or point-to-point movement and an A4-sized map.  The latest 
issue (main game on the 1919 battle for Orel between Red and White 
Russians) had a game called L'Invincible Armada, and this looked good 
enough that I tried it within a few days of getting the mag, last Saturday 
afternoon.

The components are rather unusual, its map consists of seven pairs of 
boxes depicting the progress of the Armada through the English Channel. 
Each side has eight large fleet or ship counters (about an inch square) 
labeled with the admiral and flagship name, and each box gets one counters 
so that two fleets face off at each point of the way, except there's two 
on each side in the last box. Each box also corresponds to a turn, so only 
the ships in that box act that turn. One can call ships in later boxes in 
to help but then you have to roll against their admiral's rating to see if 
they arrive and make it back in time for their own turn. (Arrival, but not 
return, is automatic if the wind is favourable.)  After the last turn, all 
survivors come together for a final battle if the game has not been 
decided.

Mounting the counters is simple as there's only sixteen (very large
ones). Each counter carries on the reverse side the name of the
admiral and squadron and the ratings for gunnery, boarding, # of ships
(which are used to take losses) and the favourable wind direction
(which really serves only as a randomiser).  The admirals are also
rated, interestingly with a slight edge for the Spaniards (total value
over all admirals is 31 for the Spaniards who have 3 fives over 29 for
the English). Amusingly enough, Northwest is spelled NW on the English
counters and NO (Nord Ouest) on the Spanish counters.  The front of
the counters only shows a ship This is a missed opportunity - both
sides' counters use the same ship.  Guess the artist didn't want to go
to the trouble of depicting the different style of naval architecture
(which is very nicely visible on the larg illustration on the first
rule page showing the higher built Spanish ships). Well, it's a bonus
game.

There is also an order sheet, where either player secretly sets down 
before the game the tactics that his fleets will be using every turn. 
(This is where the game gets interesting but also goes the way of the 
Euro.)  Orders for the British are: fire combat, maneuver, close in (the 
latter two prevent embarking of troops) and ammo resupply.  The last order 
must occur twice in the first 6 boxes, and once in the first 4.  Orders 
for the Spanish are: fire combat, boarding (where the Spanish ships are 
generally better), embarking troops and disembarking troops (the last 
meaning, on English soil). Embarking and Debarking can be plotted at most 
twice each, and that must happen in a continuous block. So it could be in 
the order EDED or EEDD.  (Only plotting one of each is a bad idea in case 
the first attempt fails.)

When resupply, embarkation, or disembarkation succeeds, both players
can change orders for their subsequent fleets. There's also a free
change of orders at the end of turns 3 and 6.

Pencilophobes need not be afraid at the mention of setting down orders, 
all you need to do is write down eight numbers (the turn on which the ship 
has that order) on a table that comes with the game. (Copying recommended 
or you do it on a scratchpad.)

There is a tactical matrix that spells out what happens based on the
order choices.  This is really the heart of the game and at this point
I don't really understand the subtleties but one obvious aspect is
that the Brits can always keep away from boarding combat as often as
possible by choosing fire combat as their option.  However, that
doesn't interfere with the loading of the Spanish troops (you have to
maneuver or close in for that).

The trouble begins when you look at the order sheet because the lower row 
of Spanish counters accidentally copied the ship names. No big deal though 
(the admirals are unique so the ship names are not needed.)

For my first, initial foray, as the English I chose some hard hitting
ships at the start and end, and the weaker ones in between (the trick
of preventing embarkation is to have the right order, not the specific
combat outcome). The Spaniards got their toughest ships for the
debarkation phase.

At the start of the turn you roll a die to determine changes in wind 
direction. It's a d8, very unusual, to correspond to the points of the 
compass. The rules suggest to roll 2d6 if you don't have a d8 which seems 
rather silly as it will produce a skewed distribution; I rolled a d10 
instead and rerolled 9s and 10s.

First round: Ark Royal (fire combat) vs San Cristobal (boarding)
results in fire combat.  (Funny enough, that part of the matrix says
"combat de feu" instead of "combat au tir" which initially led me to
suspect it might have something to do with fire ships, but it's just
another editing slip.  The English roll miserably (a 1) but due to the
relative advantage the Spaniards just barely win this battle with 8 vs
7 losses caused.

Second round: The Swallow goes up against Nuestra Senora del Rosario,
this time the British gain a clear advantage (10 vs 7 ships lost).

Third round: The Golden Lion goes for resupply while the Spanish
decide to embark; both sides' attempts work.  There is no battle.

Now orders can be changed.  For debarkation to succeed the Spaniards
must have debarkation ordered that turn and win the battle.  Since the
best two Spanish fleets are still a couple of turns away, the Spanish
player decides to leave their orders as they are and accept another
round of fire combat in between.

Fourth round: The Revenge (fire combat) goes up against Santa Anna
(boarding), the Brits win 8 to 7.

Fifth round: Now it gets interesting.  The Triumph goes up against the
Santiago which has debarkation orders.  Recalde, the admiral on board
the Santiago, calls Medina Sidonia for help who is in the next fleet
down and is a 5. Frobisher in the Triumph has only Roberto Southwell
who is a 3. However, both manage to pass their dierolls. So a rather
massive battle develops with the combined Spanish firing strength
exceeding that of the British (10 to 8) since Southwell's squadron is
also one of the smaller ones while the two Spanish ones are the biggest.

Both sides roll a 4, the Spaniards win 14 to 12 and have managed to
disembark their troops!  However, victory is not theirs yet, they will
have to win the final battle. Meanwhile, Medina Sidonia tries to jump
ahead again to his station for round 6 and manages.

So the Spaniards would win turn 6 by default but since they have
already landed this was a rather useless maneuver.  The English don't
even attempt this - all that would result would be to send Southwell
up against the significantly superior Medina Sidonia.

Before turn 7, orders could be changed again but things are pretty
clear, both sides are collecting ships for the final battle to see if
the British can establish a draw in the game by winning it.  The type
of fight in the Battle of Box 7 (that's what the rules call it, how
poetic, why not call it Battle of Gravelines the way the map does) is
determined by the side that has lost *more* ships.  In this cae that's
the Spaniards (37 to 36). So the battle will be a boarding one (total
strengths E 6 S 8) instead of fire combat where the strengths would
have been E 9 S 6.  But brilliant English admiralship turns the tables
(they rolled a 6 vs a 2) and the losses are E 10 S 12, making total
losses 49 to 46.  That's not sufficient to let either of the Spanish
fleets be captured and the Spanish admirals survive (although Hugo de
Moncada survives rather narrowly on a 5).

For the final battle, both sides count the number of remaining ships
(both sides start out with an equal 140 ships, another Euro aspect),
this leaves the Spaniards with 91 and the English with 94.  Both sides
choose an overall commander.  The modifier he provides is dependent on
whether the wind direction fits the one on his fleet, but we reroll.
The wind is currently southerly (never changed during the game), so
both sides choose a S-rated admiral.  The wind doesn't change so the
choice of admiral has no effect.

This leaves the English with a meagre 3-point advantage before the
final combat (which is resolved with 2d6 instead of a single dieroll).
The Spaniards roll 5, the English roll 6 for a result of 96 to 102,
which means the English win the final battle and manage to eke out a
draw.

This is a nice little game that should be playable in less than an
hour and is not totally disconnected from the battle it depicts. :-)
I'm someone who likes to point out that the "game vs simulation"
dichotomy is a false one and that any game can be a simulation no
matter how simple.  Here of course the simulation aspects are rather
thinly spread over the framework but one gets an inkling of the
challenges that both sides faced even if many of the mechanisms are
completely abstract (the final battle and wind in particular - the
wind problems that bedeviled the Armada during the campaign are almost
wholly absent in a game where wind is a randomiser that may affect
either side but in this case didnt').  A nice little filler game and a
switch from the SF games that normally fill this niche.  (By the way
John, you still have my copy of Lightspeed. :-)

Markus


Last 3 games played: L'Invincible Armada, Red Steel, Seven Days Battles
--------------- http://www.dbai.tuwien.ac.at/user/mst/games/ ---------------
"The best torpedo run to make - and the most difficult to avoid - is
one aimed head-on at the front end of a carrier."  -- "Helpful
Strategy", Milton Bradley's Carrier Strike game.

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