An affair in Morroco.

[Bligh]

Introduction.

With the Major Nations of Spain, France, and England engaged in the struggle for supremacy in the Med, the Moroccan Corsairs saw it as a prime opportunity to indulge in a bit of piracy and seizure of slaves whilst the main policemen were otherwise occupied. Raids on small settlements in Italian states, Greece, Sicily and Malta increased, as did the seizure of merchant ships of all nations, even forcing Great Britain to adopt a defended convoy system. The big mistake, however, was to begin to prey upon the merchant ships of the United States, in the mistaken belief that its fledgling navy was too weak and too far away to respond. The result was that several sorties were made on various occasions by the US Navy over this period.
In the picture below we see one such small squadron of US ships reconnoitring a Corsair stronghold with a view to a punitive action. Please note the lack of reaction from the fortification's guns despite the American ships trailing their coats within long range.
The full tale will follow shortly.
Rob.

[Bligh]

A week later, Captain Andrew Millington in the Frigate USS Essex arrived to reinforce the American squadron, and it was then that the Commodore decided that action could be started to curb the depredations being made on the merchant ships plying their trade in the Mediterranean.

[Bligh]

Two days later after a stormy night with gale force winds blowing into the bay of Gizzanoffa, observers on the shore saw a disabled Indiaman being blown inexorably toward the shoals. Standing off at about half a cable was an American Frigate desperately attempting to pass a line to the stricken merchantman before disaster struck. Word was immediately passed to the Dey of Gizzanoffa, Kamel Mudanyaei who decided to investigate the situation for himself.

[Bligh]

Taking his telescope to the top of the castle keep this is what he saw. The merchant ship had serious damage and was in process of losing its mizzen mast over the side. The Dey immediately sent instructions to his senior Captain to capture the embayed enemy ships.

[Bligh]

With the wind set dead against them the only vessels able to leave the port were the Galleys and gunboats under oars. Captain Millington who now had a line on the Richard, and was tentatively starting to tow the Indiaman off the lee shore whilst keeping a careful eye on the Galleys leaving the port, released the drogue sea anchor and inched forward until the hawse between the two ships was out of the water.

[Bligh]

All three galleys and the two gunboats were now leaving harbour and the leading Galley captain was looking to clear the shoals in order to make a course change which would enable him to set his sails.

[Nightmoss]

Thanks for the excellent play through and AAR. Your ships and scenery are pretty amazing!!

[Bligh]

Thank you Jim. The basic scenery and small town were for Sven's Battle of the Nile at Doncaster a few years back, The walled town and Castle were done this year intended for my Game at Doncaster this year, but that is another thing which will now have to wait so I'll try and get some mileage out of it in a few solo games during the winter.

Rob.

[Nightmoss]

Thank you Jim. The basic scenery and small town were for Svens Battle of the Nile at Doncaster a few years back, The walled town and Castle were don this year intended for my Game at Doncaster this year but that is another thing which will now have to wait so I'll try and get some mileage out of it in a few solo games during the winter.

Rob.

For anyone who hasn't produced a battle or the follow up AAR it should come as no surprise that it's a huge investment in time and effort. Having produced a few of those in the past, not only is the battle time consuming, but so is the set up and take down plus the post production in slides, text, etc. It's one reason I've not done much for many months. I have limited space to do miniature gaming so the time to set up, play out a battle and then clean up is a significant barrier.

Seeing the walled town and castle in future would certainly be enjoyable.

[Bligh]

I must admit that finishing the town and castle after the Pandemic broke, did help fill in some of the down time, but yes there is a lot of time in producing an AAR. however, they don't need to be a magnum opus. Just a duel between a couple of Frigates on an evening with a couple or so strategic photos would suffice if anyone wants to dip their toe in the water.
Rob.

[Dobbs]

I must admit that finishing the town and castle after the Pandemic broke, did help fill in some of the down time, but yes there is a lot of time in producing an AAR. however, they don't need to be a magnum opus. Just a duel between a couple of Frigates on an evening with a couple or so strategic photos would suffice if anyone wants to dip their toe in the water.
Rob.

Hear, hear! Even pictures of ships battling away fresh out of the starter box while the new owner puzzles out the rules is great vicarious sailing for the rest of us and keeps the conversation going.

[Naharaht]

Thank you for an excellent A.A.R. of an imaginative scenario, Rob. The beautiful scenery provided the perfect background. That would have wowed the spectators at a show.

[Bligh]

Glad you enjoyed it Dave. I sailed the next installment yesterday, so will try and get the intro up this weekend.
Rob.

[Vagabond]

Brilliant - lovely scenery and a cracking yarn, what more could we ask for.

That certainly sorted out those pirates and they'll treat the US navy with a bit more respect in the future. I liked how you changed the action from a ship rescue to an attack on the galleys, it caught me by surprise as much as the Dey.
Cheers

[Bligh]

Thanks John.
I really appreciate your comments. It can get a bit lonely at times when compared to the flock of comments coming in on the Drome.
The December AAR is up now, and I'm hoping to sail the January one some time this week.
Rob.

[Vagabond]

I saw 35 replies and thought things were looking up

I read Dec and hope to see Jan soon.

[Bligh]

I have to post one frame at a time John because of this stupid glitch which has begun to marr my posts where every photo is adding the attatchment to the post and if i delete the attatchment, by the next day the photo has also gone, so I'm deleting the photo and leaving the attatchment, but that of course means that if you do one long post all the pictures then end up in a pile at the bottom of your account with all the story line at the top. That is what artificially inflates the number of posts.
Rob.

[Vagabond]

I thought it must be something like that, I had a similar thing on the Wings site, it got so I was going to pack in posting games it was so frustrating and then we resolved the problem. Well mainly, we can now work around it without too much difficulty.

[ShadowDragon]

Good to see these ships in actions, Rob. Well done.

[Bligh]

Thanks Paul.

Rob.