Back To The Azores

Way back when I started playing Galleys & Galleons I set up a scenario to try out the new ships I'd made, in which a couple of English race-built galleons attempt to intercept a Portuguese treasure ship with a couple of escorts.

Yesterday I felt nostalgic and thought I'd try it out again.

So here's the Portuguese ships - the mighty Nossa Senhora da Guai and her two escorts.

The Portuguese galleon simply has to cross to the opposite corner, avoiding the rocks and the small island. A straight course will do that though.

At the top of the picture you can see the two English galleons.

The Portuguese managed to get off to a bad start, when the lead escort shortened sail only for its companion to not manage it and run into its stern. There was some harsh language and a certain amount of damage.

The English galleons, Auk of Onan and Popinjay, had hoped to use their speed to position themselves across the course of the Portuguese ship at long range, pepper her with fire and hope to take down a mast or two. In fact they suffered poor activation and an unfavourable shift of wind and didn't come up as quickly as they'd hoped.

Still, an opening broadside from Popinjay damaged the Nossa Senhora da Guai's tiller.

However one of the escorts, Flor De La Mar, came up under Popinjay's stern and delivered a devastating broadside in return. The English ship took massive damage and caught fire.

It took more damage from the Portuguese galleon. The Auk of Onan was still struggling to get into the action.

Popinjay blew up.

Auk of Onan fired an ineffective broadside, and took a close-range broadside from Nossa Senhora da Guai in return. In an unlucky blow for the English, Auk of Onan also caught fire.

With the crew battling the fire the English galleon lost control, and fell aboard the Nossa Senhora da Guai, causing some significant damage. The Portuguese ship was lucky, however, and did not catch fire.

The big galleon extricated itself from trouble, and the Flor De La Mar then came up and finished off Auk of Onan; it sank before the fire burned it to the waterline.

So a convincing win for the Portuguese in a game that saw an extraordinary number of critical hits being rolled, as well as some terrible activations for the English early on.

The Portuguese galleon is a tough nut to crack, though.