So I went looking for trouble…

I needed a reason for Austrian and French fleets to clash before the First World War, something historic and plausible if possible, a factual jumping off point for a little naval campaign based in the Mediterranean and, given the ships I possess, circa 1906 / 07 ish. 

Fortunately the major powers around that period were forever getting up in each others grills and I quickly found just the thing.

You might want to go and have a look at the Tangier crisis on Google (other search engines are available)… but if (most likely) you just can’t be arsed to do that, I’ve listed the essential highlights below.

a) 1904 - Britain and France sign the Entente Cordiale - Germany is mightily pissed off.

b) 1905 - France continues to expand its influence in North Africa, focussing on making Morocco a protectorate.

c) 1905 - 1906 Pissed off germany does a bit of meddling. The Kaiser goes to meet Sultan Abdelaziz assuring him of German help to maintain Morocco’s independence. Sabres are rattled.

d) 1906 - An international conference is called to settle the matter. Britain, Spain and Italy side with France. Only Austria Hungary sides with Germany. The Germans are told to back off and mind their own beeswax. The Kaiser is humiliated.

So naturally that wasn’t actually the end of the matter…and it sort of rumbled on in a very low key manner until a second crisis occurred in 1911, but for now 1907 will serve as my campaign jumping off point.

So here’s the alt history bit to hang my new campaign on.

e) Following the conference a humiliated Kaiser begins secretly shipping weapons and “advisors” to Morocco via his supporters in the Austro Hungarian government. Wilhelm is not terribly concerned about Morocco in itself, of course, but in the right hands he hopes the weapons will fuel an insurgency that would be embarrassing and costly to France.

f) June 1907. The Austro Hungarian registered SS Amstetten strikes a mine while entering the port of Nador and is lost with all hands. Arms and amunition are recovered from the wreckage. 

g) Austria Hungary blames France for the sinking and demands reparations. France accuses Austria Hungary of attempting to destabilise Morocco, and threatens military action.

h) Germany comes out in support of Austria Hungary but Britain orders its Navy to readiness and the Kaiser backs away, washing his hands of the affair and leaving Austria Hungary to carry the can. 

i) A French Coaster, the Isle de Maran, goes missing in clear weather while en route to Le Souqet. 

j) Elements of the French and Austrian navies put to sea, intent on seeking redress.

The campaign will have strategic turns lasting a month (in game time) in which the players will assign their available vessels to a series of mission types conducted in unspecified geographical locations (look ma no maps). The French have more ships available than the Austro Hungarians but the latter fleet has a minor qualitative edge. Many of the French ships are Protected Cruisers for instance, having a fraction of the armour that the Austro Hungarian Armoured Cruisers have.

The French vessels initially available are:

Hoche - Battleship

Bouvet - Battleship

Charles Martel - Battleship

Galilee - Protected Cruiser

Linois - Protected Cruiser

D’ Entrecasteaux - Protected Cruiser

Friant - Protected Cruiser

Amiral Cecille - Protected Cruiser

Cyclone - Torpedo Boat

Tempête - Torpedo Boat

Ourage - Torpedo Boat

Coming into the region from other deployments are the Armoured Cruiser Bruix, 2 x Light Cruisers and 6 x Destroyers.

The Austro Hungarian ships are:

SMS Habsburg - Battleship

SMS Marie Theresa - Armoured Cruiser

SMS Sankt Georg - Armoured Cruiser 

SMS Kaiser Karl VI - Armoured Cruiser

SMS Zenta - Protected Cruiser

SMS Huszar - Destroyer

SMS Ulan - Destroyer

SMS Tural - Destroyer

In reserve they have the Battleship Wien and the Armored Cruiser Kaiser Franz Josef.

Any number of vessels may be assigned to one or more of the missions shown in the last piccie below, but the players assign them in initial ignorance of their opponents assignments.

Once the two deployments are complete the planning forms are placed next to each other. Where two missions are found to be in opposition a battle will occur. The winner of a battle is awarded 5 victory points. 

Once all battles have been resolved a cessation of hostilities check is taken, wherein the damage sustained to each fleet and the number of victory points accrued will be influencing factors. 

I will use my own set of rules because I’m eager to try them out, (they’ve been sitting on the shelf since 2021) though I am in possession of several other excellent sets that I intend to try out as well in the near future. 

Here are a few piccies relating to my rules, taken during a recent play test - which may stimulate comments (good or bad).

The battleship Habsburg comes under long range heavy gunfire. A six is required on a 1D6 to score a hit, but any miss causes a splash marker that adds +1 to any other heavy guns attacks (while the marker remains in place).

For every hit on a target with medium and light guns you roll one of these dice. Heavy guns roll 2.  The icons indicate what has been hit and as you can see here, we have both guns and armour strikes. In case you were wondering they’re just icons stolen off the interweb printed out and stuck on blank dice. Simples.

Each ship has a data “tile” held off board to record damage with markers. The Jaureguiberry shown here can take 7 hit markers before she’s lost but the individual hit markers also have secondary effects. This French battleship is taking on water from a hull hit, has lost steering and is currently on fire. A second fire inflicted on her while this one is still in being will result in a magazine explosion. The quality of the markers is poor but I resisted the urge to get “too frilly” until I’ve worked out if any changes need to be made.

Orders are issued from the squadrons flagship to subordinate groupings of vessels (divisions) in the form of flags placed next to the vessel data tiles (I hate clutter on the table). Only one order can be changed per turn - so you need to think ahead. 

Flag type order counters made out of MS Word symbols and stuck onto spare mdf bases.

Flag code books. There are three in existence for a player to choose from - pre game. The orders are standard on all of them but the colour and number of the flags is different - which stops you from knowing what the opposing admiral has just ordered his fleet to do.

Here are two divisons of a French naval squadron with their current orders on display. One is in line astern and firing at long range, the other is in line abreast (on the board) and ordered to close and engage. Orders are changed 1 at a time and can be removed or added to.

And finally… Not very exciting to look at but key to the campaign. Both players assign their available vessels to the missions in the boxes then bring the two sheets together to see which of the missions they have chosen have been opposed. Opposed missions result in a battle. The mission types include blockade, coastal bombardment, sea lane patrol, blockade runner, coastal defence patrol and merchant ship escort.

I’ve playtested the rules a few times in the last couple of weeks but I’m pretty sure the forthcoming campaign will reveal holes in the logic at some point. All part of the fun I suppose. 

Toodleooh.