Back To The Baltic

With the ships all labelled up and still to hand after my game on Thursday I had another go at my Scanian War scenario yesterday afternoon. I went a little more ambitious this time, by adding an extra ship of the line to each side, so the Danes got Gyldenlove whilst the Swedes acquired Mercurius. In addition I dropped the Carronades trait from the two big ships and replaced it with Master Gunner. This gives them a bonus on firing at all ranges. 

I also wanted to try a small house rule. Currently if you are at long range or closer and you roll a 6 then you score a critical whether you otherwise hit or miss with the shot. This makes chasers surprisingly useful, since there's a not unreasonable chance you can inflict some real damage by banging away with them. The change is simply that if you roll a 6 and you miss, you only score a critical if the target rolled an odd number. This roughly halves the chances of a miss scoring a critical; it's still possible though. 

I sent with the same setup as I used on Thursday, but I randomised the positions of the shallows and small islands, as well as the entry corners for each side (although the randomisation of the latter was weighted in favour of 'good' corners and against obviously bad ones such as deploying sailing directly into the wind or an island).

Here's the action a couple of turns in. The Danes are on the left with Gyldenlove to the fore. To the right are the Swedes, led by Draken. 

Things started badly for the Danes. Draken fired on Gyldenlove, scoring a hit and some rigging damage. When Gyldenlove activated it rolled a '1' on its red dice and had to check the All At Sea table. This had it fire on the nearest ship - its flagship Sophia Amalia. The only guns in arc were the stern chasers. The shot scored a critical, damaging the Sophia Amalia's rigging. 

Gyldenlove now found itself under fire by both the Draken and the Stora Kronan. With their flagship slowed by its rigging hit the other Danish vessels were slow to come up in support. 

The Danes moved to cut the Swedish line and get in behind the Stora Kronan. 

The head of each line was moving towards the shallows and an island. The Swedes opted to turn and board the Gyldenlove in order to avoid a running fight in such dangerous waters. 

The Danish flag Sophia Amalia ran aboard the Hieronymus and also initiated a boarding action. The rest of the Danes headed for the rear of the Swedish squadron. 

However the Dannebroge contrive to collide with the grappled Gyldenlove, taking damage. Meanwhile the Swedes were bringing the Hieronymus up in support.  

Outnumbered by two to one, and facing the massive Stora Kronan to boot, the Gyldenlove struck. Draken detached from the melee, and worked around the surrendered Danish ship to engage the Dannebroge on the other side. Meanwhile the Stora Kronan took possession of Gyldenlove and grappled it to the Dannebroge. The Hieronymus came up on the Dannebroge's port side. Things were not looking good for the Danes. 

Meanwhile the other ships in the fight were struggling to turn into the action thanks to poor activations and a shift in the wind. 

With a prize crew on board the Gyldenlove the Stora Kronan moved off in order to engage the other Danish ships. But this assumed the the Draken and Hieronymus would grappled and board the Dannebroge. Both fell short. This left the Dannebroge with a small window of opportunity. It boarded the captured Gyldenlove and drove off the prize crew. The Hieronymus then finally grappled Dannebroge, but was quickly and brutally defeated, striking after a short melee. 

The Dannebroge had sent a prize crew onto Gyldenlove, who swung it into Draken, grappling it. The Dannebroge swung in place and was able to grapple the Draken's bows.  

Grappled at both ends the Draken struck after a short fight.

Seemingly outnumbered three to one the Dannebroge had, by careful timing and a lot of luck, recaptured the Gyldenlove and captured two Swedish vessels!

The wind had now shifter to an arc unfavourable to both sides. The Stora Kronan was limited in its movement by the shallows, and the other Swedish ships were reluctant to engage the two larger Danish ships in the foreground. For their part the Danes had a tricky job sailing to engage the Swedes as well. 

By mutual consent the two sides broke of the action.

After a poor start the Danes had won a significant victory, recapturing their only loss and capturing two Swedish vessels as well. 

The scenario changes worked well; the extra ship on each side made the action more interesting, whilst the nastier gunnery on the flagships made them a force to be reckoned with.

The chaser guns were less dangerous than before, but not toothless, as the rigging hit on the Sophia Amalia showed. I'd not used prize crews much before, and found the rules a little vague. But it turns out the assumptions I made were correct. I'll probably tweak the rules a little to make them smoother, however.