York Factory Again

It's been a hot humid weeken, so to cool down on Sunday afternoon I got out my Galleys & Galleons scenario for the action at York Factory in 1697, which is set in a frozen and fog-bound Hudson's Bay.

You can read about the first time I played it HERE.

I played it as written but with randomly scattered ice-floes ships could collide with and with the Charismatic trait on Owner's Love instead of Fireship. 

It's a fun scenario because, aside from the dangerous ice-floes and limited shooting ranges (because of the fog) both sides get a random set-up and random entry of reinforcements. The French started with two ships in play (Le Palmier and L'Equimaux), whilst the English only had the Dering. Two opposing ships actually started next to each other. 

Whilst L'Esquimaux quickly sailed to safety, Dering and Le Palmier exchanged fire. 

Le Palmier was damaged. 

Although they started with the advantage of numbers the English soon got the upper-hand as more of their ships arrived. The first was the mighty Hampshire. 

Soon they had all four ships in play, and a shift of wind gave them the weather-gauge as well. 

As teh English organised themselves the French finally got reinforcements in the form of their largest ship Le Pelican. Le Palmier moved up in support. 

L'Esquimaux engaged Royal Hudson's Bay, inflicting some damage. 

However the small French vessel received a shattering rake from Owner's Love.

Royal Hudson's Bay finished the job. Holed below the water-line and with it's tiller gone, L'Esquimaux struck. 

Royal Hudson's Bay then moved to engage the newlt-arrived Le Profond. 

Meanwhile Hampshire was working it way around the ice in pursuit of Le Pelican and Le Palmier. Le Wasp arrived in the vicinity as well. 

Royal Hudson's Bay and Le Profond exchanged fire, and to the surprise of the French the English ship struck. 

Le Wesp took one broadside from Hampshire and also struck. 

Hampshire took a risky course through some ice to head off the French ships, whilst Owner's Love came up aiming to engage Le Palmier. 

Owner's Love took fire from Le Pelican and Le Palmier and was soon on fire. She took no further part in the action, and eventually burned to the waterline. 

Hampshire moved up. 

Hampshire and Le Pelican engaged. Dering came up in support of the Hampshire, but Le Pelican fought both sides and Dering caught fire. They soon extinguished it, but the delay took them out of the fight. 

The two large vessels blazed away at each other. Both ships took damage and Le Pelican lost some rigging. 

Hampshire ran aboard Le Pelican and grappled. 

The crew of Le Pelican resisted bravely for a while, and it looked like there might be an upset for the English. But the Hampshire's crew persisted and the French ship struck. 

At that point I called the game finished, with the English gaining a marginal victory. They still had Hampshire and Dering, whilst the French has Le Palmier and Le Profond. All ships were damaged but the odds probably favoured the English. However it would take several turns before the two sides could properly engage, and I was running out of time to play. So I assumed that in the fog they'd break off and see to repairs.