Weekend Galleys & Galleons

I headed down to Cancon this Saturday, and a brief report will follow, including the obligatory bloggers meet-up photo. However I also found time to play more Galleys and Galleons this weekend, choosing to play rather than photograph and blog reports. But I took a couple of photos of two of the three games. In the first a pair of pirate ships attacked a small fort, but were themselves attacked by a ghostly galleon. Both pirate ships escaped, although one didn't manage to leave by the designated exit area, so didn't count for points. The other lost a chunk of rigging, but evaded the galleon by virtue of being able to apply a speed boost from the razee ability.

I actually ran the ghostly galleon with the Unorthodox movement ability, which meant that it needed actions to move and its speed was unpredictable, but that it wasn't worried about the wind direction. It made for an interesting matchup.

Yesterday evening I tried out some more lacepulp stuff, as the Laputan navy took on a force of Chinese pirates. The Laputans had a dirigible bomber, an ironclad galleon and, of course, their flying island. The Chinese had a couple of war-junks, and three man-carrying kites, rated as square-rigged airships with very, very low C values. Two of the kites were equipped with derring-do swashbucklers, which would give them a single decent boarding action apiece, whilst the third was equipped with rockets (rated as a fiery attack). The junks were pretty much straight from the book. You can see everything in action here.

The wind shifted badly against the Chinese, which meant that they couldn't bring their kites into the attack. The assault kites were fully capable of capturing the Island of Laputa, if they could get close enough, but they couldn't. They were shot out of the sky one after the other by the island's massive gun-batteries. However the junks worked upwind and were able to attack and capture the ironclad galleon. One of the junks was lost in the fight, but the other then proceeded to hit the dirigible bomber with a lucky shot which saw it explode. With just a junk on one side and the flying island on the other, I reasoned that the Chinese would run for home, but the junk had to slip past the island first. The two models traded broadsides, and two lucky hits saw the Island of Laputa crippled and on fire. As the junk sailed for safety, the island crashed into the sea and was lost.

I didn't get any pictures of the other game I played, but it was a rerun of the fight between Henry Avery and the Mughal Fleet. I upgraded the pirate ships to have chasers, whilst the Mughals were dropped to lateen-rigged, but added in two extra ships. The fight started well for the pirates, with Avery diving boldly into the midst of the Mughal fleet, causing it to break up in confusion. However as he turned to exploit his advantage, a lucky shot from one of the smallest merchant ships started a fire, and his ship exploded. The other two pirates did the best they could, and caused damage throughout the fleet, but the Mughals made their escape mostly intact, having sunk one pirate and forcing the other to flee the action in confusion.

Since I know people will ask, here's the Island of Laputa in all its glory. It's a 3D printed castle hex-tile, with a rocky underside made from pieces of cork tile, and the whole thing mounted on a flying stand made from a clear plastic pot. I have used the lid of the pot as the basic stand, for when it is a sea-level, and can then put the lid on the pot itself for high-altitude action.

And the game stats:

Q5 C6 - 72pts - Airship, Steam Engine, Flagship, Bombs, Heavy Bow Chasers, Heavy Stern Chasers, Reinforced Hull, High Castles, Sluggish, Pilot

With a low Q value, the Flagship ability at least means that the island gets to do something each turn. The Heavy Bow and Stern Chasers means that it has a decent all-round firing capability, assuming it gets the actions to do it. It's not fast, nor is it maneuverable, but it can just aim for a point on the table and then sit there taking on all-comers.