June requested a game of Galleys & Galleons this week and specifically asked for sailing ships. So I had a quick look through my past games and thought that it would be fun to revisit my cut-down version of the Battle of Bantam from a few years ago. This was an action between Dutch and Portuguese ships fought off teh north coat of Java in 1601. There were a lot more vessels involved in the actual battle; I just scaled the numbers down.
It's more of an 'inspired by' really.
Anyway, the forces are:
Dutch - Three Cromsters (Gelderland (Flag), Utrecht, Zeelandia) plus a Jacht (Wachter)
All ships were lifted straight from the book aside from the Fustas which I rated as Q2 C1 with Galley, Shallow Draft and Yare. Domas and Wachter both had the Relay trait which extends the flagship's command radius. Both sides come to about 220 points.
I took the Portuguese, who mostly have ships that are big and powerful, but cumbersome.
June's Dutch force was smaller, but the ships are more easily controlled and a lot more nimble.
Early approaches saw an attempt to form a ragged line. The Portuguese fustas got left behind as their movement relied on me not rolling activation failures.
The Sao Simeo fired the first shot of the game, damaging the Utrecht.
Return fire from the Dutch raked the Sao Simeo and started a fire.
More fire from the Dutch saw the Sao Simeo badly damaged. Rakes will do that
The Portuguese flag Sao Salvador ran aboard Utrecht and grappled it. The Dutch suffered badly in the ensuing melee.
June's enthusiasm for raking hadn't taken into account that the Portuguese ship on the receiving end would be so busy fighting fires that turning away from a collision would not be an option. Sao Simeo crashed into the Dutch flag, Gelderland. And set it on fire.
Utrecht cut grapples and escaped from being boarded by Sao Salvador, but in the confusion collided with Nazare, and ended up damaged.
Plenty of action. Sao Simeo was now burning brightly with multiple fires and would take no further part in teh action (despite some valiant firefighting activity by the crew). The Dutch flag was also ablaze. To the right of the picture the Jacht Wachter was boldly engaging the two fustas.
The hapless Utrecht collided with Serang. It was too much damage for the Dutch ship, which sank.
Wachter fired away at the two Portuguese galleys and inflicted damage on both of them. But it was suffering damage as well; its tiller was damaged and it had lost rigging.
Serang caught fire and exploded!
Meanwhile Santa Cruz and Zeelandia were locked in a duel which saw both ships battered. Nazare was coming up in support. And (not pictured) the fire on the Gelderland got out of control and the crew abandoned ship.
The plucky little Wachter finally struck.
This left June with just one ship. The Zeelandia fired one more broadside and fled the field of battle.
Dutch losses were the Utrecht sunk, the Wachter struck and the Gelderland burned to the waterline. The Portuguese lost the Sao Simeo burned, and the Serang to an explosion. Most of their ships were fairly beaten up as well, but a victory is a victory.
This was a lively action which saw a lot of ships on fire (four of them at one point). Thanks to June for a fun game.
Great report, sounds like a fun game! And makes me want to play sailing ships G&G again.
ReplyDeleteThis looks like a lot of fun, with a wide variety of vessels to play with. Great stuff!
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