We had a family over for dinner a week and a bit ago and the husband/father was interested in taking a look at my collection of miniatures. He'd never been to our place before, but we've talked about our projects and have exchanged pictures of things we've worked on. During this show-off session, I decided that the Pirates of the Spanish Main ships had been left too long in the drawer and some of them needed to come out and play. Then, looking through the rules for Wooden Ships and Iron Men, I came across the scenarios and the campaign highlighting the British (Hughs) and French (Suffren) actions in the Indian ocean during the 1770's.
First, I gathered enough ships to outfit both sides (making little flags out of bread tags to replace the pirate flags most of them have). Then I got a map of the battle to figure out starting positions.
 |
| Found on website threedecks.org, they cite The Royal Navy: A history from the earliest times to the present Vol 3 |
After setting up the fleets in position A, I realized the scale of miniatures and size of my table were not going to let the described maneuvers take place, so at this point, the resemblances to the scenario cease and my game, using Full Sail, commences.
Turn 1:
On both sides there was jockeying and speed changes as ships tried to set themselves up to make lines. Three of the mid-sized French ships opened up long-range fire on an English heavy, dealing some damage. The English ship responds, dealing enough damage to one of the Frenchies to trigger a threshold check, resulting in the loss of two starboard cannon.
I went to bed and during the night, a hurricane struck, upsetting and scattering all of the French ships and capsizing two English ships. Dang cat! Now to figure out how I can cat-proof my table.
