The Action of La Florida, December 13, 1562

Today, in a bit of a change for the annual club Regatta, we played Mark Ritchie's Fighting Instructions instead of the usual Limeys and Slimeys. To be fair, this is because it's part of Mark's 1562 campaign set in our home state of Florida and using his rules - and Limeys and Slimeys can be swingy, especially in boarding combat wherein either you win big or lose big.

That said, we had some of our own amazing incidents...

7.5x12 foot table - a bit smaller and more cramped than
at Das Krieg Haus 1, but there is stuff still to unpack, and 
either move or sell, that will free it up.

Closeup of a brig, though all ships were assumed to have three masts.

The scenario.

The French are Huguenot while the pirates are Dutch, so it seemed fair for me (the pirates) to ally with their fellow Protestants and share any treasure won.

A typical ship card. Note that
"hits" are fewer than in L&S,
so this ship has only six crew,
five hull points and seven sail points.

At bottom left are the sailing points - with wind on a given quarter, you get that many moves in a turn, each of three inches. so a small ship with six move points and the wind on its aft quarter could move 18". One of these moves can be spent to "back," or not move, while 60-degree turns can be taken with increasing point expenditure. Minimal turns are free. So, for example, the above craft could move 15" and make a 60-degree turn, or 9" and a 120-degree turn, but could not turn 180 degrees because it does not have seven points to spend.

The game is semi-simultaneous, with each move "segment" taken at the same time and then firing altogether. Wind is highly variable, and can put you in irons unexpectedly, in which case you can make a single 60 degree move that turn in order to continue moving next turn. Otherwise, you drift 3". Ships without steerage way also drift, though with the gulf stream rather than the wind.

One of my pirate brigs, with a carronade two centuries ahead of its time!
Figures in our sea games are always cosmetic.

My ships did not come onto the board until about turn four, which set the stage for my participation - mostly on the edges and out of the way. While I could come on in any corner of the board I liked, one was too far away, one would have gotten in the way of the French, and one occupied by the Spanish.

A couple turns in. The Spanish (upper right) must shepherd
their treasure ship to the other short edge of the board. The
French (left) set out to block them. My pirates are not yet
on the board, just out of the way of the moves. (incidentally,
gun range is 60".)

Two of my ships, with the Pirate Queen (perhaps a
young Grainne O'Malley?) in the larger.

Huguenot flagship. 

Spanish about to take the long way round.

Opening fire - my bowchasers
vs. John's broadside.

The squadrons close.

I get a couple reinforcements.

I had one bit of luck - rolled a 12 for damage on a hull hit to the enemy's next-largest ship. This is a critical, and I ended up doing 2d6 hull point damage. You'll have noticed that few ships have more than a dozen HP, and after a few turns of fire have lost some. I rolled boxcars.

The ship didn't sink outright or explode, but its crew were now too busy pumping to fight. They struck, giving us half their victory points (full if we ever got around to boarding, which didn't seem likely).

I attempt to grapple and board.

It should be noted that at this point, the pirate ship to center left has one hull point remaining. My intent was to abandon it, board and seize the white ship it is hitting here.

One - I fail the grapple roll.

Two, a shot into my hull sinks my command ship outright.

"But the quarter that we gave them,
We sank them in the sea..."

The oncoming Don flagship. Behind it can be seen a
merchantman proxying for the ship I knocked out earlier.

Crossing of the ways. We didn't have period French flags...
Anyone know what the Huguenots' looked like?

So by this point I'd lost two ships, but they were back on the board
as reinforcements - behind the Spanish at this point.

The Spanish and French were heavily engaged in a messy
melee in the center of the board while two of my small ships
(upper right) were basically running away while the ones at
the bottom right are trying to catch up with the battle.

While both sides had equal honours in terms of damage, the Spaniards were cut off from their objective and increasingly too badly damaged to escape. So we halted early and agreed the French had won. I had not actually seen much action other than losing two ships by fairly bad luck, but my lucky shot early in the game had stopped up the Spanish strategy by a) getting in the way and b) losing a shield for their treasure galleon, which we hadn't actually taken yet but sure as hell wasn't getting away.

I spent much of the game in irons and just firing pot shots, but the Regatta is more about socializing than winning. We had a couple new members, Mike and Milton. Milton has just retired from California and edited a couple old colonial-wargaming journals, so that is an extra vote in addition to mine and Jeff's. The catch is that he plays The Men Who Would Be Kings rather than The Sword and the Flame, but I have long wanted to try the former and, as I mentioned in the previous post, am thinking about its relative The Pikeman's Lament. So I look forward to the opportunity.

Will not be gaming next week as I'm at work, but might get in some Battlefleet Gothic after Christmas. I also dropped by the game store to supply some hill-painting. Picked up green and brown speedpaint, and a nice broad scenery brush. May try that tomorrow.

Last but not least, part one of Oriskany Jim's Christmas Carnage: