York Factory Refought

I had another go at my York Factory scenario last night, making the changes I'd mentioned at the end of that piece; I ran Owner's Love as a regular ship and scrapped the special ice-floe rules in favour of randomly scattering ten ice-floes around the board. If a ship collided with one then it would take a point of damage.

The action started with both the English and the French having their largest ships (Hampshire and Pelican respectively) on the board, sailing past each other in the fog with a small island between them.

The first action was when Pelican descended on Owner's Love and Royal Hudson's Bay. Owner's Love wisely fled, but Royal Hudson's Bay was damaged in the exchange.

The English ships had obviously been doing their best to sail in company, because Dering appeared in much the same area, only to be fired on and damaged by Pelican.

Dering managed to cut across Pelican's stern and deliver a not ineffective rake

Pelican caught fire, and the crew struggled to extinguish the blaze. The large French ship sailed east into the mist, still burning, and was never seen again

As expected the engagement became scattered. In this picture L'Equimaux has entered from the left and is heading towards Owner's Love as it makes its way through some ice. At the top Hampshire has just exchanged fire with Palmier. With Pelican out of the action, Hampshire would be a tough nut for the French to crack.

Saying that, L'Equimaux had a narrow escape when it ran along the broadside of Hampshire within hailing distance and didn't receive a single shot (yes, Hampshire messed up its activations).

Palmier sailed up to Royal Hudson's Bay, and grappled.

The English ship fought back briefly, but quickly struck.

L'Esquimaux engaged Owner's Love

Holed below the waterline and badly damaged, Owner's Love fought back, as both ships headed close-hauled to the west.

In fact a shift of wind had left all of the combatants struggling as, they tried to avoid going off the southern edge of the board and towards the silted river on which York Factory was situated. Most ships were slowly tacking to try and bring the enemy into action. Dering also collided with some ice.

Owner's Love managed to hold of L'Equimaux, but Wesp had now entered the action and quickly boarded and took the little English vessel.

Dering returned the favour, taking Wesp in a brisk boarding action.

Profond had also entered the action, but the wind was very much against the newly arrived French ships, and the vessel found itself trying to avoid the powerful broadsides of Hampshire.

Badly damaged the French ship ran into the ice and sank.

Both sides were now down to two ships. The English still had the powerful and undamaged Hampshire, plus the smaller Dering, whilst the French had Palmier and the little L'Esquimaux.

Palmier was the only hope the French had of driving off Hampshire, despite it being heavily outgunned.

They quickly engaged and, amazingly, the smaller French vessel gained the upper-hand.

Both ships pounded away at each other, and damage quickly mounted on both sides. The English had a setback when Hampshire collided with the struck Royal Hudson's Bay.

With both ships battered into crippled wrecks it was Palmier who struck first, but it was a close-run thing; Hampshire was close to striking and had taken damage to its rigging.

As the sole surviving French vessel L'Esquimaux made a run for it. She took a final broadside from Dering as she did so ...

... which damaged her rudder. However she survived and, although crippled and almost unable to steer, made it to safety.

This was a fairly decisive win for the English, since both of the ships they lost had simply struck and would be recovered. It's true that their force was fairly beaten up, but the French had lost one ship sunk, one disappeared whilst ablaze, and two struck, so the English had made a net gain in vessels. It played much smoother than the previous run-through - Owner's Love was much more interesting as a regular vessel, and the ice-floes provided just the right amount of challenge and inconvenience and stopped the ships from whizzing around as they wished.

The random setup and random reinforcements make this an interesting scenario for future replays too.

The Battle of York Factory

The Battle of York Factory, also known as the Battle of Hudson's Bay, was a naval battle fought during the War of the Grand Alliance. The battle took place on 5 September 1697, when a French warship commanded by Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville defeated an English squadron commanded by Captain John Fletcher. As a result of this battle, the French took York Factory, a trading post at the southern end of Hudson's Bay.

In the historical encounter, the French flag, Le Pelican, became separated from the rest of its squadron by fog, but arrived at York Factory and sent out a shore-party to investigate it. Ships were sighted to the north, which d'Iberville assumed were the rest of his squadron coming up, but which were, in fact, an English squadron under Captain Fletcher in the Hampshire. D'Iberville gave battle and fought three English ships; the Hampshire and the armed merchant vessels Dering and Royal Hudson's Bay. Seriously battered Le Pelican declined an offer to surrender from the English captain, who saluted the French crew's bravery just before a final broadside from Le Pelican caused the Hampshire's powder magazine to explode. Royal Hudson's Bay surrendered to the superior French ship, whilst Dering fled. Le Pelican sank soon after, just before the rest of the French squadron arrived and took York Factory.

I decided to play this battle using Galleys & Galleons (naturally), and adapted a scenario from one developed by Barry Hilton over at the League of Augsburg. Although he has a scenario just for the duel between Le Pelican and Hampshire, I went with a different one he has produced which pits the full English and French squadrons against each other, but in a haphazard manner hampered by fog and drifting ice. Historically it appears that both sides lost one or more ships to the ice before they ever got within range of each other.

The ships:

English
Hampshire (52) - Q3 C4 - Chaser Guns, Drilled Soldiers, Master Gunner, Square-Rigged
Dering (36) - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Merchantman, Square-Rigged
Royal Hudson's Bay (32) - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Merchantman, Square-Rigged
Owner's Love (12) - Q3 C1 - Fireship, Shallow Draft, Square-Rigged, Yare

French
Le Pelican (46) - Q3 C4 - Chaser Guns, Square-Rigged
Le Palmier (36) - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Square-Rigged
Le Profond (26) - Q3 C2 - Chaser Guns, Square-Rigged
Le Wesp (14) - Q3 C1 - Shallow Draft, Square-Rigged, Yare
L'Esquimaux (10) - Q3, C1 - Shallow Draft, Square-Rigged, Yare

For each side roll a D6 - on a 1-3 they start with one ship on the table, on a 4-6 they start with two. Randomly determine which ships they are.

Ships start 1D6 * 4" from entry edge. The French entry edge is from the South. The English enter from the North. They start (1D6 * 6) - 3" from the East edge. English ships are heading South, French ships are heading North. (I play on a 3' x 3' board - you would need to adjust these distances for your own table).

The wind starts from the West. The battle was fought in thick fog, so I used the low visibility rules from Fair Winds & Foul Tides (minus the automatic Derring Do rule). Because of the ice-floes I used the following rule:

On each activation a ship can opt to spend its first action navigating the ice. If it chooses to do this then all of its other actions/moves are resolved normally. If it chooses not to, then roll a D6 to see if it runs into difficulty in the ice.

1-3 - No effect. The ship acts normally this turn.
4 - All of the ship's movement is reduced by one level for this turn
5 - All of the ship's movement is reduced by one level for this turn and it may not perform any voluntary turns.
6 - All of the ship's movement is reduced by one level for this turn and it may not perform any voluntary turns. In addition it takes a point of damage.

Here's the game set up. The ice floes are just for show. In the centre of the board is a small island.

The French started with two ship, both to the east - Le Wesp and Le Profond. The English had one ship; the little fireship Owner's Love to the west. I actually did the setup wrong, with the French coming from the North and the English from the South, but materially it doesn't make much difference to how it plays.

At the start of each turn from Turn 2 onward a side rolls a D6. On a 5-6 a single ship appears on their entry edge, (D6 * 6) -3" from the East edge. The English were reinforced with the Royal Hudson's Bay. The two French vessels were working upwind towards Owner's Love.

Le Wesp continued after Owner's Love, whilst Le Profond turned to engage Royal Hudson's Bay. However the French ship ran into some ice and was damaged.

Being a fireship in G&G, Owner's Love cannot fire broadsides, so found itself in rather a sticky situation, with French ships closing in  from two directions. The French had been reinforced with Le Palmier (left).

Fortunately the short ranges forced on the battle by the fog meant that the little fire-ship had an easier time escaping than you might expect.

Ice prevented Royal Hudson' Bay from turning its broadside on Le Profond, and a few shots with the chasers were the best it could manage.

A view of the scattered action. On the far left the French now had Le Pelican whilst at the top of the picture the English Dering had entered the action.

I should note that the ice-floes were just for show.

Le Profond and Royal Hudson's Bay exchanged broadsides.

Owner's Love avoided a broadside from Le Wesp, which ended up more concerned with avoiding ice. Small arms from the English vessel inflicted a hit on the French.

Le Profond raked Royal Hudson's Bay, causing some damage and starting a fire.

Owner's Love continued to elude the French attempts to shoot at it, and was now closing on Le Pelican

Three other English ships were heading towards the French flag, including the newly arrived Hampshire.

Royal Hudson's Bay exploded - the first loss on either side.

Le Pelican found its way impeded by ice and took damage.

Its way was them impeded by the Dering, and it was forced to grapple to avoid a collision. The French quickly gained the upper-hand in the boarding action.

But here comes Owner's Love ...

In G&G the fireship rules are bizarre; you have to spend an action each turn to prevent the ship catching fire. I allowed the ship to ignite by spending an action; on subsequent turns it would simply burn and roll no further actions until it either exploded or sank.

Anyway, Owner's Love ran aboard Le Pelican, and, nicely aflame, grappled it.

Le Pelican quickly caught fire and the fire soon spread to Dering, who was unable to cut grapples in time.

Owner's Love exploded ...

... quickly followed by Le Pelican ....

... and finally Dering

This left the English with just Hampshire, to face Le Wesp, Le Profond and Le Palmier. (L'Esquimaux had left the East edge and was presumed lost). However all three French vessels were damaged to some extent, from a mix of gunnery and collision with the ice, so stood little chance against the well-manned heavier English ship. Wisely they broke off the action.

I decided to call this a draw. Hampshire was undamaged, but was the only English ship left; the other three had all exploded. The French had lost their flag, and L'Equimaux, and could probably repair, but taking on the Hampshire might still prove a challenge. Maybe that would make an interesting follow-up game.

This was a chaotic action, with random arrivals and positioning, and a wide ranger of ship strengths. The short gunnery ranges made for a challenge as well. It was a shame that the mighty Hampshire never got into action though; it's a tough ship that would prove a real challenge for the French, as it did in the actual action..

If I ran it again, what would I do differently? I think I'd scrap the having to spend an action to avoid ice, since this was a messy extra die-roll. Instead I'd randomly scatter ten ice floes around the board that simply have to be avoided (a ship would take a point of damage if they collided with one). In addition I think I'd simply run Owner's Love as a regular small-ship; this wasn't really an action for a dedicated fireship, plus the fireship rules in G&G really are a bit bizarre. It leaves the English slightly down on points, but not to a degree worth worrying about. I'd balance it by allowing English ships to leave the board via the North or South edges, but the French only via the North (since they were moving to escape the estuary on which  English-controlled York Factory was situated at the time).

Snow Tails

Although I bought a handful of figures and a few paints at MOAB over the weekend, my best purchase was this boardgame on the bring and buy.

Snow Tails is a game of husky sled-dog racing. I came across it when I was looking for games similar to Flamme Rouge, and  it was the one that struck me as potentially the most interesting. Sadly it was also out of print. So I was thrilled to find a copy on the bring and buy at a very reasonable price.

Yesterday evening Mrs Kobold and I gave it a go. I'll say from the outset that it doesn't work so well as a two-player game as Flamme Rouge. That has the advantage of bot players to add an extra challenge and actually works OK even if you don't use them. I think Snow Tails is probably best with four or five players. However it's also a game that takes a little bit of learning, so a two-player game gave us chance to do just that.

Like Flamme Rouge it uses tracks made up from module board pieces - straights, curves and hairpins. Whereas Flamme Rouge is about the ascents and descents, Snow Tails is about the corners.

Here's the very start of the game. My yellow sled has just moved, whilst Catherine's is about to.

Further into the game, and Catherine has a slight lead.

So how does the game play? Well, each player has a sled display in front of them, showing two dogs and a slot for the brake. Each player also has a deck of cards, with four each of the numbers 1-5. You have a hand of five cards and, on your turn, must play 1-3 of them onto your sled display, onto one or both dogs and/or the brake. The restriction is that if you play multiple cards they must all be of the same value; you can't play a 2 onto one dog and a 3 onto the other; you must play onto one or the other.

You then move according to your speed; a sled gets a movement allowance equal to the sum of the cards on the two dogs minus the value of the brake. If the cards on the dogs are the same then the sled is balanced and is entitled to a bonus move, which increases the further back in the race you are (a nice catchup mechanism). If the dogs have different value cards on them, then the difference must be moved as lateral drift because of the way the corners and hairpins are set up, creating drift is the only way to get around them, so the game is a constant battle between unbalancing your team to maneuver and then balancing it back up to run fast on the straights.

Here's an example sled. The left dog has a 5, the right a 3 and there's 2 on the brake. So the sled moves 5 + 3 - 2 = 6 spaces. The difference between the cards is 2, so 2 of those 6 spaces must be drift movement. You can do the moves in any order (so you could go DDSSSS, SSDSSD or any other combination, depending on the track conditions)

There are penalties for hitting the side of the track, hitting another sled or going into a corner or hairpin at greater than the designated safe speed. Most of these cause dents to the sled. A dent is a card you place in your hand that cannot be discarded, thus reducing your potential hand-size. If you take a fifth dent you can no longer hold any cards and your sled is wrecked.

Mrs Kobold and I got around our first race undamaged, and it was a close finish; we crossed the line on the same turn, but she managed to use bonus movement to just edge ahead of me.

We played a second game (unphotographed). In that she got into a tangle on the first corner, whilst I ran a smooth untroubled race and easily finished first. So one game each. I tried a solitaire four sled game after that, and it certainly played better with more racers on the track, partially because they block each other and also because the bonus moves you get are longer for sleds at the back.

The tiles are double-sided, which allows for left and right options on the curves and for some special obstacles on the straights. These include forests of saplings (which can be avoided or crashed through), a snowdrift which narrows the track and a chasm which narrows the track and forces some tricky manuever to get through it. But the rules advise that you get used to running the sleds properly before attempting these.

Like Flamme Rouge this game gives a fun and exciting race, and it's different enough that both games will see time on our table