Galleys And Galleons In The Gong

I played Galleys & Galleons with Caesar last night, setting up the Scanian War scenario I've already logged here a couple of times, most recently HERE. I thought it would make a good starter game for someone not used to sailing vessels under these rules - Caesar has played a large galley action before but not much with ships under sail - but would offer a better experience than a simple piracy scenario.

Caesar took the Swedes and I took the Danes.

Caesar took the weather gauge and I moved downwind to try and form a decent line in response, hoping to batter him as he approached me.

What actually happened was that our two squadrons circled around each other, with mostly ineffective fire.

Caesar's Swedes, on the left, kept their line better than I did, though, and, more importantly, used their frigate to keep all of their ships under the control of the flagship.

The Danes inflicted the first damage of the battle, with the Dannebroge damaging the Hieronymous.

But Caesar then did what he does in most games -  appears on your flank or in your rear in a way that makes you wonder how he ever got there. Suddenly Swedish warships were on the stern of the Christianus V, which caught fire.

The crew quickly put the fire out, but the distraction was enough for Caesar to bring up three vessels that, in one turn, battered the Danish ship into submission. And, to the top-right, you can see that the Dannebroge had also taken damage as well.

The Swedish Draken collided with the Dannebroge, and grappled, ready to board. In response the craven cowards on the Dannebroge simply surrendered.

And that was it really. The Hieronymous chased down and destroyed my frigate, and that left me with my mighty flagship, Sophia Amalia, that had spent a lot of the battle tacking in order to get into the action. With no support I chose to simply have it sail away.

Despite having my arse handed to me on a plate, it was a fun evening's gaming; if you're going to be defeated then it's nice to see it done with such style, elegance and efficiency. And by someone you've effectively just taught the game to.