Unorthodox 2

Following on from the previous game of Galleys & Galleons where I am trying out Unorthodox propulsion, I set up my three Ivory Towers against three galleys. The Galley and Unorthodox traits are very similar in that they require the vessel to spend activations in order to move. The Galley trait has a few extras though; the vessel doesn't have to move their full distance, which is always Medium, they shift their broadside to the front, but can't fire a more effective 2 Action 'broadside' and they get an automatic +1 in boarding actions. As a trait Galley is free, whereas Unorthodox costs points.

I ran three ships on each side. The Ivory Towers were the same as in the previous game, except that I removed the chasers. The Galleys were Q3 C3, and had the Master Gunner trait to offset the points the Ivory Towers spent on their propulsion.

The board had a series of shallows and islands, and wind was irrelevant. Both forces started in adjacent corners, and the battle mostly ended up taking place along one edge of the board.

The galleys advanced in line abreast, as this gives them the most effective gunnery options. The Ivory towers are best off moving in line abreast, because of their erratic movement, but still need to turn to bring their broadsides to bear.

A galley too the first shot and missed.

One downside of the galleys is that in order to shoot they have to present their bow to the target, and this leaves them vulnerable to being raked. And that's exactly what happened; a galley was shattered by the first raking broadside.

The Ivory towers shook out into a rough line, and poured broadsides into the advancing galleys. The galleys fired back, but despite their master gunners they didn't seem to be able to hit anything.

The galleys had potentially dangerous concentrated fire in one direction, so the towers attempted to work round onto their beams. A galley caught fire. 

And exploded. The galleys still hadn't inflicted any damage on the towers.

This changed. Spurred on by their consort's untimely destruction, the remaining two galleys actually made an effort, turned and starting firing effective shots at the towers

The towers turned in response and replied with their broadsides

One of the towers struck after taking a few hits.

The galley then sped forward, grappled another tower, and boarded. However despite an edge in the combat the galley lost, and was soon in trouble.

Meanwhile the other galley was taking steady fire, ended up holed, and sank.

The remaining galley cut grapples and fired, staring a fire.

This bought it time to pull away, and repair some damage. The tower extinguished the fire, and soon both towers were lining up shots on the lone galley.

A gunnery duel ensued, but it was obvious that the odds were against the galley.

Taking advantage of a moment's command paralysis, the galley closed up, hoping to inflict some critical damage on the of the towers. It wasn't enough.

The galley was steadily battered into submission.

This didn't turn out the way I expected, as I tend to regard the movement capabilities of the galleys as far superior to those of teh unorthodox vessels. However the fact that the galleys have to present their bows to raking fire, and that the towers get the ability to fire powerful broadsides whilst not having to move with the wind, did seem to offset some of this advantage. To be fair though the galleys rolled appallingly for shooting early on, and fluffed a couple of critical command rolls too, and that gave the Ivory Towers and early advantage they were able to exploit. 

For my next game I will dig out some suitable ACW vessels and pit the Ivory Towers against vessels powered by steam.