Pirates vs Carracks

I had a yearning to get some ships out the other day, and that means 'Galleys & Galleons'.

I set up a simple action set in the Spice Islands. Three Portuguese carracks are sailing between two headlands.

And they're being stalked by a couple of large pirate galleys. 

As the Portuguese headed into open water they spotted the galleys and opened fire, damaging one.

The firing became general. The smaller galley was holed below the waterline.

This seemed to stun the pirates into inactivity, and they stopped trying to close with the carracks. 

(In fact they had terrible activation rolls for three consecutive turns, and simply couldn't move.)

One galley did manage to damage the rudder on one of the Portuguese ships.

They continued to pound the smaller galley, which was now badly damaged. But the Portuguese squadron began to break up as they tried to bring all of their ships into action. 

The lead ship came close to sailing out of the action altogether in fact. It didn't, but it never got back into the action either.

The pirates began to get their act together, closing up on the Portuguese. But their gunnery had little effect on the robust carracks.

As the Portuguese turned, the larger galley turned with them, closing in on their unprotected sterns.

A sudden rush, and the pirates had grappled and boarded. There was a brisk fight ...

... and the Portuguese surrendered!

(That '1' on the red die was an All At Sea roll, which, if you're grappled, means the ship automatically strikes)

The large galley now grappled and boarded the second Portuguese ship. This was a long fight, and the action ebbed and flowed between the two vessels. 

With both ships damaged it would come down to who fluffed an activation roll first. And again it was the Portuguese.

I called it a day at that point. Two Portuguese ships had surrendered, but both pirate vessels were heavily damaged. In time the third carrack could have turned back into the fight and I doubt  either pirate vessel would have been able to stand against it, but it would have been a slow process. I reasoned that the pirates would grab one of the carracks and run for it, burning the other one.

So a game that started out strong for one side ended up being a win for the other. The pirates were unlucky early on and suffered badly for it, but so were the Portuguese at the end.