BBIB Club Game.

 Just a sheet for terrain, add an island and of we go. Yep it's that simple. Tim and Myself had a 4 ship Spanish fleet and Graham a 4 Ship English fleet. WE started several turn apart to give us time to remember the rules. The fleets were roughly equal but not exactly the same and the fleets fought with equal ferocity. I let Tim take the lead and followed in line behind him and Graham snaked his fleet the other side of the island to me and I had a whole day of sitting the furthest away from the game action as was physically possible.

The opening shots saw The British fleet score the first blood. The return fire from Tim's two ships was far more accurate and made the British broadsides look really weak (Tim rolled well on the dice and did so most of the day).

And then the chaos started. Each ship going it's own way and no real formations. It was all a bit hectic and uncontrolled. So I can't tell exactly what happened and to whom and why. What follows is a few of the highlights in no particular order. It is worth saying that fires and crew losses were the significant ways that ships were lost. Graham's flagship suffered command and steering hits and was forced to sail in a straight line for several turn.

Another of Grahams ships was turned into a blazing inferno with some black joker damage card being drawn. Tim then boarded it to seize it as a prise but the plucky British crew fought them of (eventually). Seeing that He was going to loose a ship as a prize Graham fired into the boarding action with one of his other vessels. This killed all the British but so many of the Spanish that they did not have enough for a prize crew so had to abandon the attempt. The action cards came up for Graham to fire again and he managed to kill the few remaining Spanish sailors on Tim's ship. So he manoeuvred and boarded the two ships, one firmly ablaze, the other severely damaged, but with no crew at all, as they had already struck their colours.

As I had been chasing down this ship with my as yet undamaged 80 gunner. I let rip managed a bow rake rolled well on the dice and drew a total of 15 damage cards. The result was that my broadside both killed all the crew on Grahams ship but also set it on fire in 4 areas. So with no crew it was left to burn.

The last piece of action of the day as we were running out of both time and energy was my 74 gunner chasing Grahams flagship. This is where the cards and the dice (ok and my judgement) deserted me and Graham repaired his 100 gunner and could now both steer and had restored it's chain of command. Graham also had a 54 gunner, the weakest ship of the line which had sailed out of shot for all of the game. If my manoeuvre card had been turned over first I was in a position to bow rake the 100 gunner at less than 1/2 inch range. Alas for me, it was not meant to be and Graham was able to move the 54 gunner to bow rake me and the 100 gunner slipped away out of my arc of fire. The next card flipped was Grahams firing phase and my mostly intact s74 gun ship was punished severely.

We ended the game there due to lack of time. If we had carried on it really could have gone either way. Graham had a very badly damaged 100 gunner and a 54 third rate. I had a badly damaged 74 Gunner and an untouched 2nd rate.. Tim had lost both ships but had inflicted so much damage on the 100 gunner of Grahams fleet that it would have struggled to stay in the game for much longer and probably would have withdrawn. Or knowing Graham would have just dropped anchor and tried to keep guns towards any of my ships by using some clever rudder and wind manipulation.

Over all a very enjoyable game and a Sunday full of fun. That's it for today. Thanks for reading I hope to have something painted my Wednesday so I hope to see you then. All the best Clint.