The 26th was the night of the AGM for Stoke Wargames Group so we knew we weren't going to get much game time in and needed something quick to set up. Off to sea!
Keith agreed to put a game of Man O' War together for us and turned up with his lovely Bretonnian and Empire fleets as well as a gazillion boxes of accessories. Matt and I took the Brets., Tom and Ryan the Empire. The Brets. had a Galleon, 3 Corsairs and 6 Buccaneers and the Empire had a Greatship, 3 Wolfships and 6 Wargalleys. Our MoW was 'heavy timbered' and theirs had a 'crows nest'. We both had a wizard.
We only managed a handful of turns on the first night but it wasn't a good start for us Brets. One of us (I'm not naming names, but it wasn't me (I made all the other mistakes)) turned our Corsairs into the wind and they took a pasting while they struggled to turn back out again. Bizarrely, MoW has no tacking rules...
I hadn't got my camera so a few phone shots will have to show how things were at home time.
In the South things looked OK. A plunging Buccaneer catapult shot sent a Wargalley down to the bottom of the sea and our Galleon was moving up in support.
Things were 'grim up North' however. You can see our paralysed Corsairs and in the distance our mostly dismasted Buccaneers. Oh dear...
Seven days later. Ryan couldn't make it so Tom took sole responsibility for slaughtering the remaining Brets.. In the close quarter fighting the Empire ship's oars and forward firing guns gave them a huge advantage. We took a few with us and had the satisfaction of sinking their Greatship but by the end of play all we had left was our Galleon; crippled, toothless and on fire. (Oh... and one Buccaneer heading for home!)
Good game. Thanks, Keith.