An Elizabethan Entertainment

Four nobles at the court of Good Queen Bess have each wagered that their personal yacht is the fastest in the kingdom. Obviously there's only one way to determine the winner - a race!

I thought that it would be fun to try a non-combat scenario for Galleys and Galleons, and a race seemed the obvious choice. I decided that there would be no combat, so the C values of each vessel are irrelevant. I made a list of suitable traits for racing, and then built four different designs - the lower a vessel's quality, the more points it had for traits*.

The four yachts (numbered with dots):

1 - Greyhound - Q4 - Galleon Rig, Razee, Shallow Draft
2 - Caroline - Q3 - Galleon Rig, Pilot, Sweeps
3 - Minnikin - Q3 - Square Rig, Charismatic, Pilot, Yare
4 - Levant - Q2 - Lateen Rig, Shallow Draft, Sweeps, Yare

And here they are on the starting line.

The course was a figure-of-eight. The first pass between the islands would be with the wind, but one the ships rounded the farthest island they would be working against the wind. Assuming, of course, that the wind hadn't radically changed direction in the meantime.

And they're off. As anticipated, Greyhound immediately pulled ahead, with its Razee ability giving it a real edge. But it's lower Q value meant that once maneuver was needed it would be at a disadvantage. Levant lagged behind; running before the wind wasn't its best point of sailing.

Having drawn the outside position, Minnikin was struggling to get up with the pack, which also limited its expensive Charismatic ability (which intimidates other nearby vessels and reduces their Q value). Greyhound continued to pull ahead, followed by Caroline.

Levant's shallow draft allowed it to shave close to the first island, and turn to  better point of sailing. Minnikin continued to struggle.

And now the tricky bit - the first tight turn which would allow the vessles to then run across the wind on the far side of the island and get into a good position for the tack at the other end. Greyhound began to stumble here; built for straight line speed turns were not really its forte. Caroline stuck close to its stern. Levant carefully turned into position; with a shallow draft it could cut close to the island with no risk, and its Yare ability meant that it could turn better than some other ships.

Greyhound turned slowly, forcing Caroline to veer away in order to avoid a collision. Even Minnikin was catching up now.

Greyhound pulled ahead again. Caroline faled to turn and Minnikin risked the shallows. Levant looked blocked by other vessels.

But if there's one thing Levant can do, it's turn. Its helmsman swung the little ship hard to port and it flew through the gap between Caroline and Minnikin.

(I used random sequencing based on cards, and this was the result of a fortunate piece of timing with regard to the order of movement.)

Unfortunately Minnikin failed to react, and collided with Levant, ending up badly damaged. Levant escaped with a few minor scratches.

Caroline was still making heavy weather of the turn. Levant turned broadside on to the wind and sped away, in pursuit of Greyhound. Minnikin was now moving through the shallows; already damaged from the collision, it hit a rock, and foundered.

So now there were only three vessels left in the race. Greyhound was still out ahead, but was now trying to tack for the second pass between the islands. Levant angled for a closer pass around the island.

Caroline moved up slowly, but was still messing up its turns. Greyhound tacked but the more nimble Levant was rounding the island and tacking more quickly. In addition it deployed sweeps, enabling it to move even into the wind, albeit very slowly.

Levant edged into the lead! Caroline's slow turns meant that it was now pretty much out of the running.

Levant and Greyhound reached the far side of the first island. Levant shaved it close; a slight turn as it cleared the land would angle it nicely for the finish line. Greyhound had ended up wider, and was now in trouble; a tack to starboard would end up with it sailing dangerously close to the island, but it couldn't make a forward move whilst in irons.

A small shift in the wind helped Greyhound, allowing it to close haul round the island. This brought it close to Levant. Greyhound was once again in a bad position; the wind meant that it would have to pass between Levant and the island, but there wasn't room. To turn the other side of Levant would mean going into irons again. The only solution was to stay on course, and collide with the Levant. Both ships took damage, which would make the final Quality rolls to finish the race riskier.

The finish line was now in sight, and both ships were lined up to cross it. Levant was ahead, but if Greyhound could get a better angle it could maybe use its Razee ability to outrun Levant.

I'd decided that if two ships crossed the line in the same turn, then the one that went furthest past would win. Levant sailed as fast as allowed. But Greyhound made the necessary course change ..

... and cut inside Levant. Both ships crossed the line together!

The Queen was forced to deploy the Royal Laser Pointer. It determined that Levant had won, by the length of a forecastle.

Caroline came a distant third.

This was great fun to play. Galleys & Galleons using fixed distances for sailing, which I thought might be an issue for racing, but the vagaries of the action system meant that when a  ship was able to turn was also very important. Greyhound had a real advantage in the straight line race, but Levant was able to exploit its extra turn ability and took the lead thanks to being able to use sweeps when both ships were turned into the wind. Levant's superior quality helped as well; on a couple of turns Greyhound had to choose between boosting its move or turning, because its low Quality left it with only one action.

An interesting fantastical race could be had by adding in the other movement options in the game - galleys (historical, there), but also ships with steam engines or unorthodox propulsion.

*If you're interested, a Q4 vessel could spend 13 points on traits, a Q3 10 points and a Q2 8 points.