A Lunchtime Quickie

I had a quick got at one of the ship duel scenarios from Under The Southern Cross at lunchtime, adapting it to Galleys & Galleons again.

This time it was a small action from 1820 between an Argentine privateer, Santa Rita and a Portuguese brig, Maria Teresa. It was a night action, so used the rules from Fayre Winds & Foul Tides. 

Santa Rita (26) - Q3 C3 - Square-Rig, Chasers
Maria Teresa (14) - Q2 C2 - Square-Rig, Chasers

Santa Rita started anchored and unalerted, 2 x Long from the east edge, which was land with attendant shallows. The wind was blowing from the north-east. Maria Teresa started in the centre of the south edge, heading north-west (so the wind was directly on its starboard broadside). Santa Rita could take no actions until it was alerted. At the start of the Argentine turn it rolled a number of Q dice depending on how close Maria Teresa was - 1D6 at 2 x Long, 2D6 at Long and 3D6 at Medium or less. Any dice that succeeded meant a level of alert; if Santa Rita achieved a level of four then it was alerted and could start taking actions.

The positions and wind were adapted from the original scenario, and if you set them up you'll see that Maria Teresa, despite having the element of surprise, is also downwind of Santa Rita. 

So the Portuguese ship sailed wide of the Argentine, staying out of spotting range, and looking to get upwind. Obviously this was a slow process, and the wind shifted a little as it did so.

In fact a fortuitous shift of wind helped Maria Teresa with its tack to bring it into range of Santa Rita.

With the wind on its port beam Maria Teresa sped towards Santa Rita, whose crew were beginning to suspect something was up.

Unable to angle in for a boarding action, the captain of the Maria Teresa opted for a broadside, but it did little damage to the Argentine ship.

The Argentines fired back and inflicted both hull and rigging damage, which would now make it harder for Maria Teresa to close and board.

The brig fired again, inflicting only superficial damage on Santa Rita, whilst a second broadside from Santa Rita shattered the Portuguese vessel, crippling it and slicing up more of its rigging.

Maria Teresa finally got in a good broadside that inflicted critical damage, leaving Santa Rita badly hurt. But the Argentine's third broadside saw a fire break out on Maria Teresa.

The fire damaged the brig's rigging some more, and the Portuguese vessel quickly struck, its crew abandoning ship ...

... just before Maria Teresa exploded.

So a win for the Argentine Santa Rita, who hadn't even raised anchor. To be honest the odds seem stacked against the Portuguese ship, but historical actions are rarely fair. It whiled away twenty minutes or so, so was a fun diversion.

Once again you can see that I had foreign vessels standing in for the combatants.