I invited my friend Caleb over to play Sails of Glory this evening (he had a blast the last time we played), and we managed to have enough time two play two games. (I will be reserving the next two posts for images of the battles).
The First Battle
My Fleet:
-Gneereux (Good Aim)
-Hermione
Caleb's Fleet:
-USS Constitution (Captain Charles Stewart)
-HMS Meleager
The wind blew south. As usual, England, siding with the American colonists, began upwind from the French. They sailed in from the east while the French came from the west. The French ships took a two-turn side slip while the Constitution moved to put the wind to her back as she sought to line up a shot with the Genereux. She moved in just outside of the French ship-of-the-line's forward firing arc on the port side and let loose from fore-starboard. Pelting the hull, the the flying balls took out a few members of the crew, starting a fire, and opening a leak below the waterline. But through intuition the French crew was prepared for both of those eventualities, dowsing the fires while carpentry teams fixed the gash before too much water could get into the holds.
In game terms, I had preemptively planned Extinguish Fire and Repair actions in case the damage I was bound to take would cause a fire or deal some other form of damage.
Curving to starboard, the Genereux brought her port broadside to bear and unleashed a close-range barrage of steel into the Constitution's side. Hermione was close enough to help, firing off her front cannons to deal some additional long-range damage. In all, two leaks sprung on the American frigate. But fast as her repair crews worked to patch the holes, time would tell that it wouldn't be enough to save the ship.
Meanwhile, Hermione also had her sights on the HMS Meleager sailing around in the north. She opened fire with her full port broadsides, taking damage from the Meleager's starboard-aft cannons in return. Both ships lost a mast and the Hermione sprung a leak.
The next maneuver had the Constitution's stern lined up perfectly to be raked. Her rudder was smashed to pieces, two masts toppled over. Many American sailors lost their lives. And to top it off, the remaining leak in the hull brought on enough water to founder. After watching the Americans go down, the crew of the HMS Meleager thought the better of the situation and fled the battlefield as the French ships attempted to circle around and give pursuit.
Victory to France.
The Second Battle:
My Fleet:
-HMS Victory (1805)
-HMS Vanguard
Caleb's Fleet:
-Commerce de Marseille
-Le Swiftsure
England and France basically switched places for this game, meaning the wind direction swapped as well.
The HMS Vanguard and Commerce de Marseille, being the ships at the front of their respective lines, side-slipped toward each other and let loose a full broadsides at each other from long-range. The french first-rate lost two masts, took some damage to the rudder, and had a fire start while the English third-rate lost some of her crew and some maneuverability as well. The rest went to her hull. Le Swiftsure followed up the Marseille's cannon fire with her own, effectively taking the eye that the Vanguard took from the Marseille, adding a bit more hull damage to the exchange.
HMS Vanguard swerved away from the Swiftsure while HMS Victory maneuvered to engage the Marseille. Unfortunately, the French ship moved into position to rake the Victory's bow, doing an incredible amount of damage all the while crews shot at each other with musketry fire. Her cannons couldn't reach the Marseille's hull, but there was the Swiftsure off starboard. Both she and the Vanguard let loose with their cannons, taking out a bunch of the Swiftsure's crew.
After a round of maneuvering, the Victory and Swiftsure found themselves in a firefight. But the Victory came out on top as the French ship fled the battle (her next maneuver was a straight that wouldn't have saved her even at Backing Sails). At this point, it turned into a cat and mouse game, with the mostly hurting English ships on the run from the Commerce de Marseille. We eventually called the game, giving victory to the French given the relatively good state the Marseille was in compared to both the Victory and the Vanguard.
