Battle of Grand Port Play test

[DeRuyter]

This is a brief AAR of a test run for this scenario I plan on running at the HMGS Cold Wars convention next weekend. The scenario is Erin's Grand Port demo game that can be found here:

http://sailsofglory.org/showthread.p...D-HURRICON-AAR


I used Standard rules with the addition of Entanglement, Boarding, and changing sail settings. I also changed the collision rule to have damage only if the collision occurred at full sail (draw a 'C' damage). The players were all very experienced miniatures gamers and after everyone got the sequence of play the two card system seemed to work well. During planning one could change sail settings by one, which I added because the French start anchored. I also used all SoG game components for the terrain and battery with the exception of some of the reefs which were from the Pirates card game.

The French plan was to tack and sail along the shore line to attempt an escape past the British squadron. The British sailed straight on until the French placed shoals disrupted the formation and then the inevitable happened and one of the ships ran around. Sorry for the quality of the photos they were quick iphone shots and I think the mats messed up the focus a bit.

In this first photo the British squadron are seen sailing into the channel while the French raise sail and attempt to tack.


One of the British frigates has run aground.


One of several French collisions as they attempted to maneuver.


The battery gets off a shot. I used the small battery drawing 3 chits instead of two drawing one per the original scenario. you can see the one French ship that gets away - Le Berwick being used as a stand in for the captured Indiaman Ceylon (with reduced factors of course!). The British ship getting hit by the battery just missed raking her though! LED blinky light in smoke thanks to Gunner.


The end of the battle. The frigate that ran aground is refloated at an opportune moment and lends support to a second ship which has boarded and taken a French ship. At the bottom of the shot a second French frigate has collided with the first and is ultimately shot into surrender.



A couple of lessons learned from this play:

A relatively simple turn sequence handout is a good thing. I used a flow chart which I got from BGG, but it was too complicated and caused confusion. I have worked up a simpler sequence to use at the convention.
How veer works needed careful explanation!
The two card system worked for new players once they learned the turn sequence.
Collisions limited to a chance for entanglement and a reduction in speed worked well.
I need to add sail special damage otherwise no one loads chain shot!!

I'll post a convention AAR after the convention this coming weekend along with the play sheets and scenario handouts.

Eric