Five players: Two British each with a squadron of 4 ships. Three French each with a squadron of 3 ships. Each squadron mainly 3rd raters with a 2nd rater leader. British crews elite, French crews regular. Rules: Our home made Men o' War rules.
The wind is coming towards the camera so both sides are on beam reaches.
The French 3rd squadron the 1st British squadron are passing through each other. With both sides having started with some of their broadsides double shotted, having their first fire bonus & raking shots combined, the carnage on both sides was terrible & the lead British ship was dis-masted.
The French 3rd squadron now ran alongside the British 2nd squadron & copped more punishment - the 2nd ship being sunk. The other 2 French squadrons are running downwind to get engaged.
The sole survivor of the 3rd French squadron breaks off as the rest of the French ships sail downwind to get in close & personal.
The two fleets have now passed through each other at close range inflicting terrible damage on each other.
The 2 British ships in the distance have broken off with high damage, 3 others have turned about & are still engaging the French, 1 is dismasted with its colour struck in the middle of the French, the other one has sunk. 5 French ships remain in action but all are badly damaged.
Both sides are content to break off the action claiming victory.
The Brits have lost 1 sunk, 1 dismasted & captured (but set fire to as it couldn't sail away), 3 so badly damaged they have broken off & 3 still in action.
The French lost 2 sunk, 4 ships so badly damaged they have broken off & 3 still in action.
Pretty much draw in fact.
This was the bloodiest Man o' War battle we've had - it was mostly point blank fire, often raking & double shotted with very little long range fire. There was also an unusually high number of ships sunk, but this was the result of some very bad Break Test dice on both sides.
No comments:
Post a Comment