Return to Sails of Glory!

Today, we had a game of Sails of Glory, its been a Very long time since we played it, so we were all a bit rusty (no, not with salt water!!)
We did a simple scenario of two squadrons of '74's meeting at sea.
So,on to the sides....

HMS Vanguard, run by Lawrence...

HMS Goliath, run by Alex... 

And, in charge of our little squadron, me, aboard HMS Spartiate.

Our opposition, run by the solo system - Le Berwick..

...Genereaux...

...and finally Le Swiftsure.

At least, with only one class of ship in use, I only needed one solo chart!

HMS Spartiate led, followed by Goliath and Vanguard, we sailed upwind to try and cross the French 'T'.

Les Françaises, doing the same!

...Who would win the race? (As usual, we were using some house rules, allowing ships of different speeds to travel in line at the speed of the slowest, and ignoring damage from collisions, as we are such poor sailors! - in addition, we never count a damage box destroyed till it's full!)

Both squadrons closed in formation.

The French began dicing for manoeuvres but their choices would not impact till next turn! Neither side flinched!

The French seemed to be slightly ahead, what should we do?

I turned 'into irons', but the lead French ship did too, the others began to turn downwind.

I fired a reduced forward arc salvo, the French reserved their fire, hoping for a broadside.

I caused quite respectable damage on Le Berwick.

HMS Goliath exchanged shots with Genereaux.

Goliath shot a mast off Genereaux and caused a leak in her hull, the return damage was minimal, though several 'Jack Tars' were killed.

Both HMS Spartiate and Le Berwick were alongside and in Irons...

The French musketry was better!

I had drifted back blocking HMS Goliath!

So, how were the ships faring, Goliath was lightly damaged.

My Flagship, HMS Spartiate had some crew casualties.

Le Berwick was only slightly hurt.

Genereaux was quite badly damaged, her crew struggling to fix the leak, the broken mast would have to wait.

I had slipped off Irons - but it left HMS Spartiate the only ship not firing!!!

Some heavy damage occured, though it favoured the British.

Genereaux was still fixing the leak, and now had a fire! She was in really bad shape!

My Spartiate was lucky, only minimal damage from a stern rake!

HMS Goliath had lost a lot of crew, but wasn't badly damaged.

HMS Vanguard had only taken light damage.

Le Berwick, still in Irons, was blocking the movement of the Goliath and Vanguard, I had signaled them before to go the way the French had gone, but heigh-ho!

HMS Goliath though outshot, won the musketry duel again!

Le Berwick finally turned back into normal sailing, but Goliath got a small, but again very damaging front salvo into her stern!

...and she won the musketry duel AGAIN!

The other 2 French ships were sailing to regain the wind, I was sailing to intercept them, Goliath and Vanguard were chasing Le Berwick.

Le Berwick turned downwind and fired at Goliath...

...but Vanguard stern raked Le Berwick.

AGAIN, the damage heavily favoured the British!, Le Berwick even had a fire!

My Spartiate fired at Genereaux, causing a leak. The damage was too much for her, and she struck her colours! I had a prize!

Goliath was pursuing Le Berwick.

Le Swiftsure got a long ranged shot at Goliath, you can tell from the damage, she was no David!!!

Guess who won the musketry duel between Le Berwick and Goliath?

Having reloaded, Le Swiftsure got a rake on Goliath...

What was wrong with the French gunnery today?!

Le Berwick got a bow rake on me as I tried to join Goliath chasing her...

 ...again, I was lucky, a few more crew casualties only! - Alex's Goliath had a good stern rake against Le Berwick. 

Le Berwick was now badly damaged, and her crew level was getting critical.

Le Swiftsure was in good shape still...

HMS Vanguard was ok, but she had lost half her crew too.

HMS Goliath was the worst of our ships, she had few crew left.

My Spartiate, too, had heavy crew casualties.

HMS Goliath now got a good rake on Le Berwick...

...For once, not a great result...

Vanguard got a good shot from the bow, a fire and a leak!

Le Berwick promptly struck, as her crew struggled to save the ship!

Le Swiftsure, off on a flank, now wisely withdrew from the battle...

...We were content to let her go!

So, another British victory, I wonder how much it owed to luck in shooting, however!- It matters not, We will take the win, I am sure!