The Battle of Pacocha

In 1877, a revolution in Peru saw the ironclad naval vessel Huascar taken over as a raiding vessel by the rebels, and used to harass local merchant vessels. This all went well until they boarded a couple of British ships. Obviously the British weren't going to let this affront to Imperial dignity pass unpunished, and dispatched two naval vessels to capture the Huascar - HMS Shah and HMS Amethyst.

The ships exchanged fire, and the British ships took some damage. The armoured Huascar was pretty much unscathed, outran the Royal naval vessels. However the rebels surrendered it to Peruvian authorities a couple of days later.

I set up this brisk little action for Galleys & Galleons., using the following stats:

Huascar - Q3 C4 - Steam Engine, Ironclad, Charismatic, Gun Turrets, Veteran NCOs, Trained Gun Crews,Yare (104)

HMS Shah  - Q3 C4 - Steam Engine, Chaser Guns, Trained Gun Crews, Carronades (62)
HMS Amethyst - Q3 C3 - Steam Engine, Chaser Guns, Trained Gun Crews (48)

I piled abilities onto Huascar in order to even the fight. At least one account suggests that Huascar could turn very quickly, so I gave it Yare. I added Veteran NCOs to make it harder to board. And Charismatic was added simply to give it an aura of piratical unpredictability.

HMS Amethyst I set up as a basic vessel, with a lower combat rating than Huascar. HMS Shah was bigger and much better armed, and I made it equivalent to the ironclad in firepower. The Carronades represent that fact that HMS Shah was armed with early torpedoes.

All ships were given Trained Gun Crews to reflect them being well armed with rifled artillery.

Many years ago I scratchbuilt models of all of the major vessels from the 1879 Pacific War between Chile and Peru, including the Huascar. I can't find them now. I haven't seen them for years, in fact, so I suspect they got chucked out, accidentally or deliberately, at some point. Anyway, I used proxies from the ACW naval collection instead. Huascar was played by the monitor USS Weehawken, HMS Shah by the USS Hampton and HMS Amethyst by the USS Kearsarge.

I ran the game as the standard pursuit scenario. Huascar has to get from one corner of the table to the opposite. The Royal Navy has to stop it. I randomly created some terrain; two small areas of shallows and a a small island ended up along one board edge, and played little part in the game.

The Royal Navy started in the opposite corner of the table to Huascar, forcing the rebel ship to run the gauntlet of their fire.

The Shah and Amethyst approached the Huascar towards the centre of the table; Huascar fired the opening shots, scoring no damage.

The Royal Navy vessels diverged, to bring two broadsides to bear on the Peruvian ironclad.

Huascar fluffed a series of activation rolls, missing an opportunity to pass across Shah's bow and deliver a devastating rake. Instead the ironclad ended up running alongside the Shah, and took a full broadside, which damaged its bridge, seriously wounding its captain and senior officers.

From then on the Huascar struggled to do much each turn except either fire, or correct its course. Its firing was wild, and it failed to inflict any damage on the unarmoured British vessel. The Shah turned about and took the Huascar under fire again, causing dome engine damage. But the Huascar's speed remained unaffected.

What of HMS Amethyst? The smaller naval vessel had had trouble turning about after its initial pass of Huascar, and was now well in the rear of the pursuit, taking no further part in the action.

Huascar was still running for safety, despite the damage it had taken. The Shah got in close for one more broadside/torpedo launch, but the Huascar was unscathed, and escaped into the darkness.

Although the Huascar was fairly badly damaged, it had escaped, so this counted as a reasonably convincing win for the Peruvian rebels. Shah did have the option of deliberately colliding with Huascar on the last turn, but I decided this was a risky (and somewhat dishonourable) move. Unfortunately there weren't the actions to do a turn and grapple, in order to halt the ironclad and possibly take it by boarding. The Royal Navy took no damage.

This was a quick game. Despite the Huascar being hit quite convincingly a couple of times, it was able to escape with little difficulty. Different terrain, and a bit of luck on the part of either side could have seen a radically different and (frankly) more interesting game.