The Ivory Towers of Balnibarbi

After Lt. Morrison's escape from the angry natives of Nanus and Mauru, he took the HMS Opportunity to the land of Balnibarbi.  Needless to say he managed to upset the local there as well, and once again the Opportunity found itself having to flee, this time through a blockade of the strange and terrible Balnibarbian Ivory Towers.

This was the Blockade Runner scenario from the book. The Opportunity was unchanged from the previous game.

The Balnibarbians had three Ivory Tower warships. Each has the same basic design, but with a different set of weaponry - one was equipped with a ram, one with a powerful front-mounted cannon and the third with a poison-cloud disperser. I'll post the basic stats at the end of the report.

The Ivory Towers are powered by Science! so were not limited by the wind. However their movement can be erratic and unpredictable. But the Opportunity found its escape limited by islands on one beam and reefs on the other, and had limited room to move.

The first Ivory Tower moved in with its fearsome brass ram.

The Opportunity tried to slip past, and fired an ineffective broadside as well.

Science! prevailed and the Balnibarbian vessel rammed Opportunity amidships, badly damaging it.

Opportunity limped away ...

... as the other Balnibarbian vessels approached. The gun-vessel fired a shot and caused more damage.

The crew of Opportunity panicked, and steered it into the shallows surrounding an island, where it hit rocks, and sank.

So that ended well for the Opportunity ...

I set up the game again, with different terrain. This was a more open field, with a couple of islands still, but shallows rather than the reefs of the previous game.

The Balnibarbians were active, and quickly moved to intercept the Opportunity.

The ship with the poison-gas projector exuded a mist which confused the senses as well, and the crew of Opportunity struggled when in close proximity to it.

A couple of gas attacks took their toll, and Opportunity found itself putting all of its effort into fleeing rather than being able to shoot back. Skillful sailing kept it out of the firing arc of the gun-vessel, but the ram was closing up now as well.

Fortunately the former collier's sturdy build deflected the ram, but the crew suffered another gas attack.

The gun-vessel closed in from the stern, but misjudged its approach, and had to grapple Opportunity rather than risk a collision, spoiling the chance of a close-range shot.

With all seemingly lost, and Opportunity near-crippled, the crew found fresh heart. In a stunning display of good fortune they cut the grapples holding them in place, and slipped past the ram. The Balnibarbians floundered in confusion.

The gun-vessel got off a shot at the fleeing British vessel, and damaged its rudder.

But the Opportunity was already set on the course it needed to be on in order to escape, and as the Balnibarbian Ivory Towers failed to move properly, got a good enough lead to make pursuit impossible.

So one game each for the British and the Balnibarbians.

Balnibarbian Ivory Towers - Q3 C3 - Unorthodox, Shallow Draft, High Towers, Unarmed
Plus:
(i)   Ramming
(ii)  Bilious Cloud, Charismatic
(iii) Heavy Bow Gun, Master Gunner, Trained Gun Crews