Nation v Nation 2016 Solo Campaign May AAR The Blockade

[Dr.Maturin]

2016 Solo Campaign --- Nation v. Nation

AAR May Scenario


Turn 1. Imperial, the first of the blockaded ships, moves out of the estuary. HMS Sybille, detached Frigate, appears on the Western Edge of the playing surface. I throw a D6 and get a result of three; this means that I can not expect the rest of my Squadron to appear before the end of Turn 3. Second blockaded ship, Le Swiftsure, appears at estuary mouth.. HMS Sybille reduces speed from 3 to 2 sails and moves. Imperial and Le Swiftsure both move.
Wind veers 30 degs. Clockwise (C/W).



Turn 2. All ships move. Aquilon, third blockaded ship, appears and moves ( to within C/D of Le Swiftsure) as all other ships move the second card. HMS Sybille reduces speed from 2 to 1 sail and identifies Imperial. Carmagnole, fourth and last blockaded ship, appears at estuary mouth.
Wind veers 30 degs. (C/W).


Turn 3. All ships move (two cards).
Wind veers 30 degs. (C/W).


Turn 4. Blockading squadron appears within ½ range-stick (R/S) of Western Edge. All ships
(except Carmagnole and recently arrived blockading squadron) now find themselves
head to wind and make their first move. Carmagnole also now finds herself head to
wind and is taken aback! HMS Sybille having successfully manoeuvred across the wind
narrowly avoids colliding with HMS Goliath.
Wind veers 30 degs. (C/W).


Turn 5. Blockading squadron moves with, once again, HMS Sybille narrowly avoiding collision
with HMS Goliath. Enemy squadron, except Carmagnole, reduce speed from 2 to 1 sail.
HMS Goliath identifies Imperial, Le Swiftsure and Aquilon. Imperial’s Captain, seeing
his route South completely blocked by the opposing squadron, orders his squadron to
‘increase speed to 2 sails and head back to the safety of the estuary’. HMS Sybille
increases speed to 2 sails.
Wind veers 30 degs. (C/W).






Turn 6. Blockading squadron all increase speed from 2 to 3 sails. HMS Goliath crosses
Imperial’s bow and delivers a double shotted raking broadside inflicting 8a + 8B damage, (4 hull
boxes and 5 crew boxes). Meanwhile Aquilon has sailed perilously close to the rocks but
manages to avoid any damage. Imperial now gets her chance as she crosses HMS Goliath’s stern
and delivers a partial forward broadside while at the same time ploughing into HMS Sybille who,
third time unlucky, has also collided with HMS Goliath. HMS Sybille now finds herself able to
deliver her first double shotted broadside into Imperial unfortunately just off a rake while herself receiving a partial forward broadside from Imperial’s starboard battery, and all three ships exchange musketry fire.
The result of this frantic action is:
Imperial v.Goliath = 6B + 3E.
HMS Goliath v. Imperial = 3E.
Imperial v. HMS Sybille = 6B + 3E.
HMS Sybille v. Imperial = 6A + 6B + 3E.
Wind veers 30 degs. (C/W) and steadies on this heading.


Turn 7. All ships move. HMS Defence delivers an initial double shotted broadside into the defenceless
Imperial, who is struggling to reload both her batteries, inflicting 8A + 8B damage. Imperial,
with all hull boxes now destroyed and only one crew box remaining, strikes her colours.



Turn 8. HMS Sybille and HMS Goliath reload their port broadsides with single shot. HMS Goliath
comes under fire from both Le Swiftsure (6B) and Carmagnole (2B). She replies inflicting 3B
damage on Carmagnole while HMS Sybille delivers 2A damage to the same target. HMS Goliath
manages one last partial forward broadside at the fast disappearing stern of Le Swiftsure who is
now well into the estuary approaches managing to inflict a paltry 2B damage before having to
swiftly turn away from the rocky headland.


The final tally being all enemy ships identified, one enemy ship, the Flagship no less, captured and
all remaining enemy ships forced back into the relative safety of their original anchorage.

Conclusion. British victory with all mission directives met and one huge 118 gun ship taken as
Prize and all remaining enemy ships identified. This all done without the British Flagship having to fire a single gun!

[Hjl]

Nice job. It's amazing how much damage those firsts can take whilst still handing out a beating isn't it! Double shot was the correct choice there, without it I think your ships might have had a much longer day!

[Bligh]

Well done Captain.
Orders carried out to a T.
Enemy Fleet thwarted with little damage to your own Squadron, and a fine 100 gun ship as a prize to boot.
No mean feat in any sea battle.
There Lordships of the Admiralty send their complements.
Bligh.

[Dr.Maturin]

Well done Captain.
Orders carried out to a T.
Enemy Fleet thwarted with little damage to your own Squadron, and a fine 100 gun ship as a prize to boot.
No mean feat in any sea battle.
There Lordships of the Admiralty send their complements.
Bligh.

Thank you Sir for your kind comments. I don't know about "little damage" to my fleet though as my battle board photos are suffering from high reflection and almost impossible to read. I am currently trying to decipher my contemporaneous notes taken at the time so I can post a fairly accurate Butchers Bill.
Watch this space.
It was a 118 gun ship by the way. Wouldn't want the Admiralty to pay for a 100 gun by mistake.

[Torrence]

Very nice victory and quite an outstanding prize, well done!

[Union Jack]

Could some nice chap please move this thread into the 2016 folder please. I don't have any rights here so cannot do this.

Cheers in advance.

UJ

[Bligh]

Done Neil!
Rob.

[Union Jack]

Cheers Rob.

[Bligh]

You should have received them by now Chris.
Rob.