AAR January: When the Fog Lifts (by Ozariig)

[Ozariig]

Scenario: Mission 1: When the Fog Lifts

France (Player):
Capitaine de frégate Henri Bellamy commanding a frigate

• Unité (72 points)
• Novice Gunners (-6 points)
• Total: 66 points

Britain (AI):
Captain James Nicoll commanding a frigate

• HMS Terpischore (68 points)
• 1x Crew Damage (-2 points)
• Total: 66 points

French Order: Sink or capture the enemy frigate.

Game settings:
Basic rules
fredmiracle's solo rules
Plus additional rules: Raking Shots, Boarding (basic), First Broadside, Crew Damage Effects on Captains, Disengagement

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RESULTS:

Capitaine de frégate Henri Bellamy (P) / captured / no victories
Captain James Nicoll (AI) / returned to port / captured 1 ship

Time to play: ~37 minutes

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Notes:
Excellent scenario. Very straightforward, lots of fun. Thanks Eric!

I chose to use Basic Rules and my particular load-out of special rules in order to optimize play for speed. I also tried to balance each side using points.

I have pictures documenting the battle, but my play area is pretty spartan. I'll consider uploading them for a play-by-play if anyone wants 'em. In the meantime, here's a general description of what happened:

• Cpt. James appeared to the South East, facing South.
• Cpt. James got the first broadside at long range, dealing trivial damage.
• Cpt. Henri's broadside at long range the following turn did significant crew and hull damage.
• For the next several turns, the two ships circled each other in the South West quadrant of the board.
• As expected, Cpt. James had the firepower advantage, dishing out lots of hull damage at long range.
• Cpt. Henri took a particularly nasty broadside (4, 5) which forced him to disengage. Unfortunately he was in a poor position to do so.
• Cpt. James finished him off in the next turn with a short range raking broadside on the rear of the ship.

My strategy was to use my burden as an advantage by closing to board. Obviously my sailing could use some improvement

Novice Gunners was definitely a significant handicap, but I can't say yet whether that proved critical in this battle. Cpt. Henri was lining up a good shot when he was forced to disengage. Had Cpt. Henri taken more crew damage instead of nearly all hull damage, it could have easily gone the other way.

Special thanks to spiessbuerger, as the formatting for this AAR belongs to him.