Narrative of the Battle of Plymouth scenario, recently run

In this running of the Battle of Plymouth scenario, the battle started, as always, with the English to windward, running down on the Dutch. As I was in command, as we approached the Dutch, I commanded the fleet to turn to port, to present broadsides to the advancing Dutch. Almost immediately, it was necessary to reverse course, to keep the English fleet athwart the Dutch advance. Immediately before wearing to the starboard, I ran the English a little more to the windward, before putting the fleet helm over to starboard. Right after turning to port, I felt like we needed to try to get more to the windward, again, as the Dutch were so close. The situation was dicey, as the Dutch were too close. Both sides were taking losses. Very quickly, both sides were reduced to 91%. Somewhere along the way, the Dutch actually had a higher percentage left.

As English commander, I was struggling, to be honest. Part of the problem was that I was using a different mouse than I had been using. This one was a wheel mouse, while what I had been using had a soft lever that behaved somewhat like a wheel.

I eventually got a feel for the new mouse, and concentrated more on keeping the English fleet off from the Dutch, and on wearing back and forth, to windward. The problem was that, as usual, the English fleet had become scattered, and some of the Dutch were mixed into the English formation (or grouping).

This battle was turning into one of those nasty "fights to the finish". Still, as I got more serious about maneuvering, the Dutch started to really suffer losses. They were down to 56% while the English were at much greater strength. Things were looking fairly good, although now the English were really getting decimated. The English were reduced to 40% while the Dutch were all the way down to 19%. At least the English were up 2-to-1.

The time was after 5pm, and the sun would soon be getting lower. By 5:30pm, the English were starting to appear to be in trouble. Most of the English ships were dismasted. There were a few Dutch ships that were still fully mobile. The English were about 31% to the Dutch 19%. I gave up and shut down the simulation.

As I have said, the English hired merchantmen that predominated in Ayscue's fleet were quite marginal. This was a battle between two second line fleets. De Ruyter's was tasked with convoying up and down the Channel. Ayscue's was tasked with interfering with Dutch trade in the lower end of the Channel. The main English fleet had only been recently formed, and had been engaged in a wild goose chase to the Shetlands. Most of the regular warships were with Blake's fleet, and were the worse for wear, after their stormy voyage. The only good thing was that the Dutch were in worse shape. The lords of the States General were so displeased with Tromp, that he was fired and Witte de With appointed in his place (although only temporarily, as it turned out).

The English ships are really starting to take heavy damage. Ships are dismasted while others sink.

The English ships are crossing the rear of the withdrawing Dutch fleet. The English maneuvering had caused the AI control to take the Dutch fleet away from the attacking English fleet.