I had Geoff roll for three terrain pieces - on a 1-2 it would be an island, 3-4 a sandbank and 5-6 shallows. He rolled three islands, which he used to create a cunning diagonal channel allowing his ships to cross the table with their flank covered from the pirates.
Ralph had to steer around the islands, leaving him intercepting the merchant vessels in the final third of their run to safety.
One of Geoff's ships broke formation, and Ralph pursued. Geoff's plan seemed to be to use the lead ship to draw off the pirates, whilst the other two slipped past upwind of them.
Ralph ran aboard the merchant and sent in the swashbucklers.
I managed not to take any photos after that point. Ralph's boarding action almost took the merchant vessel, but at the last minute Geoff managed a storing activation roll which allowed him to cut grapples and escape. Unfortunately the panicked crew then steered the ship off the table outside of the exit point, but doing so conceded fewer points then the ship being sunk or captured.
The other two merchants were harassed by the smaller pirate vessel. One of them was grappled, but escaped before being captured (more great rolling by Geoff), and managed a cheeky final broadside which badly damaged the pirate before escaping. When the pirate tried to board the other merchant vessel things went well initially, but the merchant crew rallied and counter-boarded, capturing the pirate.
With two ships escaped and one of the pirates captured, Geoff won a convincing victory, although the game was closer than it sounds.
We had a good turnout so there were other games on the go as well. as well as a game of Team Yankee (unpictured) there was this big battle DBA game ...
With loads of elephants.
Update: Here are the ship stats we used.
Pirate Galleon (66) - Q3 C3 - Galleon Rig, Swashbucklers, Charismatic, Chasers
Aspiring Pirate (30) - Q4 C2 - Square Rig, Swashbucklers, Derring-Do, Yare, Chasers
Merchant (30) - Q4 C3 - Galleon Rig, Merchant, High Castles, Pilot
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