More Hebridean Piracy

I ran a game of Galleys & Galleons at the club last night, repeating my Hebridean Piracy scenario from the other day. I ran the merchant ships, whilst Peter and John ran the lairds in their birlinns. There was a little more terrain this time.

The merchant ships. I had some rocks and an island to negotiate at the start of the game.

The Laird of Skye's ships (Peter).

And those of Angus Redshanks (John). A couple of shifts of wind early on saw them having to row into the action, although the merchant ships would have to sail past them anyway.

That was assuming, of course, that the merchants made it across the board - in trying to get past the rocks two of them collided, taking minor damage.

When they emerged from the rocks, the lairds were already closing in fast. In the confusion one of the merchant ships fired on its fellow, although no damage was scored.

The Laird of Skye grappled one of the merchant ships.

The birlinns of both lairds became intertangled, although at this stage they threw nothing but insults at each other. The Laird of Skye took the lead merchant ship, and could now begin stealing its cargo.

Amazingly the other two merchant ships managed to slip past the birlinns, and began to turn for a run to safety. However John's red-sailed ships would be waiting, if they could row up fast enough.

Unfortunately at this point Peter had to leave, so we finished the game. John conceded that Peter had captured one ship and would be able to recover the cargo unmolested, whilst it was still uncertain if he could take any cargo himself. It was probable that one of the merchants at least would escape as well. Still, what we managed to play was fun and chaotic, which is how I hoped the scenario to run, although we considered adding in a victory condition that encourages some direct combat between the lairds as well (aside from simply stealing treasure off each other).