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| The battle, a few turns in, as the two capital ships close in, the smaller ships circle each other |
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| A close up of the smaller circling ships |
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| With the French capital ship at the bottom of the ocean, the British close in for the kill, little did they know that a few badly placed orders would result in both British ships colliding, sending one to the bottom of the brine
Summary and review
"Make it six bells of the morning watch! Mr Rose send the men to breakfast."
With only Si, Chris and I we played Sails of Glory. It shares similarities of wings of glory in that you preselect you movement, actions etc. and reveal them simultaneously and play them simultaneously. We had great fun and some harsh lesson were learned. There is one problem in that the book is divided into basic, standard and advanced rules which seem fine until you want to find a rule to check. Is it in basic or standard or advanced or optional? Yes optional rules as well. So rather than look up collisions and find all the rules you flick back and forth trying to find the section the bit about collisions you can’t remember.
However it is not a complex game but it is potentially more satisfying than wings of glory. Not only do you plan your movement but you can vary the sails (we didn’t last night) the wind changes direction which affects your speed and turn. You have to decide what ammo to load from shot, double shot, chain and grapeshot. Damage can affect the ship, the crew, set fires or leaks as well as damage sails, masts and rudders. You can activate crew for repairs, pumping water or fighting the ship depending on how many crews you have.
Anyway a summary of the game played. Si played the British with a frigate of 34 guns and ship of the line with 74, Chris played the French with the same rating of ships.
Enemy in sight is a blue water engagement free from islands or coast line. Both sides set their ships up for single ship combat with the frigates v frigates and line v line. As expected the first manoeuvres were to “go straight at ‘em” with a slight shift to starboard for the 74’s. It was the second turn when Chris and the French tried to come round to port to get to the rear quarter of the British ship. He was now turning into the wind and his ship started to lose headway. Both 74’s fired at long range and the French ship took the worst of the damage but both were in good shape and continued the engagement. The frigates were out of range and closed again. The French ship missed stays and the British 74 turned to run with the wind. There was a collision and both ships were damaged further but as the ships parted the British 74 had the weather gage and was in a position to rake the Frenchie ship across the stern. Loaded with double shot at short range (double damage, bonuses for raking the stern, bonus for first broadside), the damage was catastrophic; half the crew were dead, the hull was leaking, and the gun decks were smashed. A boarding action settled the matter and the French 74 sank shortly after for the loss of all 584 hands
The frigates engaged and again the French frigate was dealt the worst of the damage. The wily French Captain wasn’t done yet though he slipped between the British frigate and nearly made it past the front of the British 74. They clipped and the rigging was briefly tangled but sharply cut away. The British frigate was keen to finish of the enemy and made a terrible error which led to being rammed by his comrade and sunk.
The French frigate was being commanded by the only remaining officer and had only enough crew to make head way. The guns were loaded with grape shot and he let fly hoping to slip past the lumbering 74 which was now on fire. Sadly chain shot whipped across the deck smashing men and mast aside. With a crippled ship and hardly any able crew the order was given to strike the colours.
At one point it looked like it would all be over in an hour but Chris managed to regain some glory before finally being defeated.
It was great fun, there were a few issues with rules look up and we inadvertently added some advanced rules as the game progressed. Similar in status to wings of glory in that it’s a quick pick up game and once learned wouldn’t need any preparation to play. Another game or two in the coming weeks will help fix the rules.
8/10
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