This was a test game for Galleys and Galleons, a Ganesha Games product. I was familiar with the basic procedures of the system, so opted for a clash between six ships per side:
Leuwenthaal
1x Flagship (Man'o'war with Flagship trait)
2x 3rd rates (Man'o'war with better boarders but no shooting bonus)
3x Indiaman (per the standard list)
Albion
1x Flagship (Man'o'war with Flagship trait)
3x 3rd rates (Man'o'war without the boarding bonus but increased gunnery)
2x Frigates (standard)
The Leuwenthaal convoy has to reach the extrication point on the opposite edge, while the Albionic squadron has to do as much damage as possible.
The ships I used were colour printed images of my own design. They are currently mostly under revision, but I will make them available on Random&Creative on a separate page.
I pasted the printed and mirrored images on 3mm balsa plates undercoated white. This produces an acceptable 2.5 dimension effect with little work. Then I glued the ships to 2mm balsa bases painted blue, and add the name plates.
Anyway, on to the action, which was quite random!
The Leuwenthaal convoy had the weather gage basically all the time. The Albionic fleet struggled with turning to the wind. Overall, I rolled a lot of turn overs for both sides, which made the action a bit incoherent.
Above, the flagship HMS Polyphemus finally manages to tack and get some going ahead.
The Leuwenthaal ships approach rapidly, and one enemy ship is already in range. Polyphemus releases a salvo at long range, causing excess damage, and... the target's magazine blows up?
Well that was quick.
The convoy escort's goal is still clear. They have to get the Indiamen to safety. Together they could still overwhelm the enemy, but getting away enjoys the priority.
One Leuwenthaal warship sails ahead to be the target of the attackers. The Albionic frigates HMS Terrier and HMS Fox get some wind in their sails, and move to intercept the Indiamen.
HMS Polyphemus now stern rakes the brave Leuwenthaal ship, to no avail? This is the thing I'm talking about when I mention how random things were, a stern rake at close range and nothing happens.
Fox and Terrier strike at the convoy, causing some damage.
An Indiaman repels boarders and cuts herself free from the grapples.
The Leuwenthaal flagship and an Albion 3rd rate collide (right side of the picture) while the remaining Leuwenthaal 3rd rate just sails off the table. The captain did his job in his opinion. The court martial at home might think otherwise.
No matter the delaying action fought by the two frigates, the tattered Indiamen manage to disengage and reach safety.
Here's my short assessment of the rules: they are fun and easy to play, but produce rather interesting effects. These might not be so plain with fewer ships, but I like the approach of rules like Kiss Me, Hardy and Fighting Sail better, where the player's control over movement is more extensive.
Once you roll a turn over, your ships will just randomly sail into the wind according to their current heading, and there's nothing you can do to stop that.
To remedy this, this is what I will do for the next game:
- Turning costs less and one automatic turn up to two compass points is allowed even when rolling a turn over
- Similarly, a ship could reduce sail automatically once per turn, even if a turn over is rolled
- I might introduce a 'movement by squadron' rule, where the squardon flagship will roll its Quality test, maneuver accordingly, and the rest of the squadron will follow.
Of course I could make a house rule that all of the above are applicable to well drilled crews only.
Similarly, the negligible effect of stern rakes should be managed otherwise, giving a better Combat bonus to the shooter. This requires some tinkering to not make it much overwhelming.
I'm pretty sure I did some things wrong, but I am going to use the rules and print more ready-use ships, so watch this space if you are interested.
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