SAILS OF GLORY: DESPERATE ENCOUNTER.

For this weeks Thursday game, Rick decided on a Sails Of Glory game.

The scenario was based on our last battle. HMS Defence had struck her colours and was sinking. Before she sank, the French found a chest containing gold and despatches to the Dutch government. The British had to stop the French from getting back to port and making use of the information..

 

The Terpischore, in the van, having rendezvoued with Vanguard, Spartiate and Concorde, tries to intercept Le Genereux (Le G), which has rendezvoued with Commerce de Bourdeax (CdB), Hermoine and Unite.

This shot is from early in the game, the British approaching in line ahead, loaded with double shot, looking to keep the new French arrivals away from Le G. This appears to have unnerved Unite. The frigate almost colliding with CdB. Hermione is advancing on her own.

Hermoine's lone attack continues. The two British frigates are drawn off. Terpishcore takes a broadside, but cannot reply as the range is too great for double shot.

CdB and Unite close on Terpischore.

In this picture, Le G arrives to port of Terpischore. CdB is on the unfortunate frigate's starboard. Will it survive the fire of two ships of the line? The British ships at the bottom are Vanguard, Spartiate with Concorde bringing up the rear. Unite is the French frigate at the top of the picture.

Terpischore and Le G exchange partial broadsides. Terpischore takes proportionately more damage, despite firing double shot at Le G. With a mast destroyed, Terpischore limps away out of the fight..

CdB sails between Vanguard and Concorde, whilst Le G rakes Vanguard with a damaging full broadside. Vanguard also takes a broadside from CdB, the combined effect causing heavy damage. The effect of A full broadside of double ball from Vanguard and a partial broadsde from Concorde was devastating enough for CdB to strike it's colours.

However, with all the British ships now damaged, three seriously, they used a favourable wind to put distance between them and the French. With only Le G damaged, the two frigates would be able to fire from a safe distance and make their objective almost impossible to achieve.

More photos and more info can be foubd here http://www.sailsofglory.org/showthread.php?2189-After-Action-Report-with-Pics

Rick had streamlined the rules to allow four ships a side. We only used one manouvre card, we had to change the way the counters were used on the ships templates as there are only enough for four ships in the starter set. We were not able to finish the game in an evening. We got far enough to decide an outcome: a marginal French victory, in the context of the scenario.

I have used the same tactics in the first two games playing the British: loading with double shot to get full effect with my broadsides. This leads to close actions and heavily damaged ships. I may experiment with different tactics in the next game.

I enjoyed both games that I have played. I don't feel that the changes to the rules had much effect on the game. The next game will, no doubt, continue the ongoing narrative.