Thursday, September 3, 2015

Blockade that ends with a bang, Bang, BANG!

With my six Sails of Glory ships I thought I would try out the Blockade scenario of Galleys and Galleons, although I would give the French a complete force (not just a single ship).

The French head out as the British send a frigate round to get in behind them.  The British men-o-war with their trained gun crews get in some long range shots.

Paul and Mark B were the British players and their fleet consisted of 250 points as follows: 

HMS Defence
Points 102
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special Rules
Drilled Soldiers, Flagship, Galleon Rigged, High Castles, Master Gunner, Trained Gun Crews, Veteran NCOs
HMS Spartiate
Points 72
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special Rules
Drilled Soldiers, Galleon Rigged, High Castles, Master Gunner, Trained Gun Crews, Veteran NCOs
HMS Meleager
Points 80
Quality 3+
Combat 2
Special Rules
Drilled Soldiers, Galleon Rigged, Master Gunner, Relay, Trained Gun Crews, Veteran NCOs, Yare

Their admiral was swaggering, while the French admiral was middling.  The French players were Matthew and myself and we had the following 200 points:

Imperial
Points 100
Quality 3+
Combat 4
Special Rules
Drilled Soldiers, Flagship, Galleon Rigged, High Castles, Master Gunner
Aquilon
Points 60
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special Rules
Drilled Soldiers, Galleon Rigged, High Castles, Master Gunner
Unite
Points 48
Quality 3+
Combat 2
Special Rules
Drilled Soldiers, Galleon Rigged, Master Gunner, Yare

The "Relay" special rule for the British frigate HMS Meleager was designed to extend the range of their flagship but as the game played out it wasn't used.

The French are having trouble getting a shot in and have each suffered damage from the long range British fire.  At least they have the wind.

And then in a very lucky shot the Imperial causes the HMS Spartiate (the latest acquisition to my fleet suffering the new unit curse) to blow up.

Sadly the French Unite blew up after receiving a stern rake.  The explosion almost set fire to its tormentor HMS Meleager

The Imperial strikes again.  It must have been using hot shot or some kind of infernal exploding shell as a bow rake of HMS Defence caused such terrible damage that it also exploded.

The damaged British frigate is left to tail the French warships as they head out to the open sea.

You only get an explosion on a throw of 11 or 12 on 2d6 and that is only after you get a critical hit.  Makes for a fun quick game.


Relay Special Rule

Relay: if within one long of Flagship, ships within one long of this vessel receive a +1 modifier to their Quality when rolling to activate.  Only Frigates may have this ability.



4 comments:

  1. My goodness but that sounded like an explosive game!

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  2. PS: I might have to appropriate the Relay special rule if you don't mind :)

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    Replies
    1. Go for it. I recall reading somewhere that it was a function of frigates supporting the main battle line to relay commands from the flagship. Not sure of the points value, I think I made it 10, half the flagship cost, but 5 might be better, especially after I saw that Flagship only costs 15 points (was 20 in the fleet calculator).

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  3. Galloping galleons! It seems that a quick game is a good game? We'll at least in the something like 0.06% chance that you get three explosions, not accounting for the chance of a critical hit!

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