THURSDAY: SAILS OF GLORY, ISLAND HO!

This game was related to the previous two games we have played and follows on from http://www.sailsofglory.org/showthread.php?2189-After-Action-Report-with-Pics .

 

The French frigates Unite' and Hermione' have been shadowing the Vanguard and Spartiate, the damaged british ships of the line. They lose contact with Vanguard and move closer to try and regain contact. Spartiate turns in an attempt to drive them off.

Two views of the inital set up. The islands are made from Hexon 2.

Spartiate tries to draw the French away from Vanguard which is in the lee of one of the islands deperately trying to make repairs to make her seaworthy and is, as yet undetected. A sudden change of wind scatters the French.

 These pictures show Hermoine' chasing down Spartiate and managing to get a super effective raking shot. Vanguard can now be seen. She managed to make repairs and is now under way. We had to make slight changes to the island at this point. A change of wind meant that my two planned manouvers meant that I was sailing Spartiate directly aground. It did not occur to me to adjust my sails. If I had, the situation would not have arisen.

 Unite' adds to the misery of Spartiate by adding a partial broadside to the accumulated damage. Unite' now tries to outrun the pursuing Spartiate. Hermoine' can be seen managing to avoid a grounding. In the far distance. Vanguard can be seen making her escape.

The pictures above show the closing stages of the engagement. The two French frigates slowly, but surely, close in on Spartiate. Unite' exchanges a broadside with her before Spartiate barges Hermoine' out of the way. Despite taking fire from the heavily damaged Spartiate, the two frigates batter the ship of the line into submission, and she strikes her colours.

 

We played this game using the full rules, as close as possible, as there were only four ships. Rick was the rules guru and handled Vanguard. I took Spartiate. Neil was back from UAE and handled the French.

Using two cards to plan moves was difficult enough without wind changes intervening. That was mostly responsible for the grounding, although I have now learnt the importance of using minimum sail when sailing in the vicinity of islands!

 

More photos and commentray can be found here:

 

http://www.sailsofglory.org/showthread.php?2235-After-Action-Report-Part2-with-pics