Improve, and repeat!

 Today, we returned to Galleys and Galleons - with some improvements! - The ship stats were more balanced, and the fleet sizes were half of the last game!!!

So, how would the game play this time as we were repeating the scenario? (The last game is at this LINK)

Lawrence was commanding six East Indiamen, basically heavily armed merchantmen.

Phil was using a Xebec and two galleys.

I had the same.

Lawrence had provided his nice little islands again!...

...and the port, which the British had to bypass and exit in the table corner.

Gotta love this Bastion!

Lawrence set up in two columns, each providing mutual defence.

Phil was becalmed, having to use his sweeps, so his Galleys surged ahead!

The Indiamen had favourable wind, so moved quickly.

I got problems with activation again, one Galley stopped dead, and my Xebec nearly ran into the back of the other, which I had managed to get out of the way...just!

Phil was having similar problems , though angling his Xebec meant it was making headway.

Phil was in a good position to intercept the Indiamen. 

I managed to co-ordinate a galley with my Xebec to run the gauntlet of fire and attack the British rear.

My failure to activate my last Galley meant only Phil's Xebec moved.

An Indiaman fired a broadside at my galley, but it missed, just!

Now we would have a chase on!

My Xebec fired ineffectively...but the Indiaman damaged my ship in return! 

Phil's Xebec crossed the 'T' of the Indiamen but his fire failed too.

My Galleys were struggling to keep up, activation failures meant the British were pulling away from them.

A Traffic jam beckoned!

Phil's Galleys were struggling to keep up too!

One Merchantman smashed into the blocking Xebec, 2 others had to swerve to avoid the pile up!

Phil's Xebec gallantly grappled and boarded the Indiaman but were soundly trounced, and combined with supporting fire hitting the Ottoman, the Xebec succumbed and was lost!

All our Galleys were becalmed again! - except one of Phil's!!!

My Xebec attempted a charge to board the rearmost merchantman but a 1 on my damage die meant they got 'confused' and sailed out of the battle!!!!

An activation failure meant one of the Indiamen wrecked itself on the harbour wall!

Phil's Galley couldn't keep up with the last merchantman, which made its escape.

A narrow win for the Ottomans!

We found the activation frustrating again, so next time we are taking a rule from Oathmark (Which we haven't played yet --until I finish painting my Dwarves!) - and we are going to allow ships which fail activation to do a simple, non aggressive action instead, and the activation will not switch to the other side unit all one side's ships have dice to move.