19 Attachment(s)
March AAR The sacrificial lamb.
HI well I finally took the plunge and played my first solo game Sacrificial Lamb.
Preamble.
Being short of the appropriate vessels I made some slight adjustments I utilised two Spanish sloops (well they had Spanish sounding names) a French Frigate and a British Frigate.
The story being that a rogue French frigate was undertaking acts of piracy along a stretch of the America's coastline against merchant shipping, especially, the British merchant men.
Having only one naval ship in the area the commander persuaded the Spanish to support him in his quest to remove the French ship by capturing or if no other recourse sink it. As Spanish trade with the Americas was suffering they agreed to the attachment of two sloops The Aquila and the Galvarino the naval frigate the HMS Superb would act as the decoy merchantman.
The nature of the French attacks was to lay up in a bay and as merchant ships rounded the headland he would strike out. At any sign of support or threats the French would abandon the attack and sail away and strike another day.
The British plan was to use the two sloops in support of the frigate. under the orders of the Frigate Captain the two sloops sailed through the evening and past the horizon to avoid being seen they were tasked with hiding around both headlands the Aquila to the west and the Galvarino to the east
As dawn broke the British vessel would round the western headland in full view once the French vessel was close enough to avoid any action a single was sent to the Aquila to make haste and so as not to warn the French a single was sent to them asking for identification the Galvarino would see the signal and move up.
Let battle commence.
Attachment 37640
Aquila in place at headland west
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HMS Superb moving up
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Le Swiftsure lying in wait
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Galvarino east headland
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Superb and Aquila at the start line
Superb moves up
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Aquila starts a slow move
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Le Swift sure starts to move out
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Superb deviates slightly to give Aquila chance to close and to prepare broad side
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Aquila makes contact with the Swiftsure
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Superb in position to support Aquila with long range broadside Galvarino slow of the mark
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Both Aquila and Swiftsure sustain damage from close range double shot
Superb turns into the wind (no photo) it works to his advantage and he is able to manoeuvre back into position
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Superb now in a position to carry out a close range bow rake
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Damage to swiftsure with bow rake
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Both Aquila and Swiftsure are battling the wind Superb taking advantage of being with the wind
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Aquila and Swiftsure lock horns again Aquila using grape
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Superb moves in for the kill Galvarino closing in to support
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Superb gives a broadside of grape
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Swiftsure replies with a poor broadside
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Severe loss of crew and damage forces the Swiftsure to strike her colours
The French Captain was over confident in his and the crews ability to take on the sloop instead of having a go at the Merchantman first.
The delay in engaging the larger ship enable it (Superb) to get into position albeit with some luck from the wind but it meant that the niggling fire from the Aquila slowed down any hopeful action on the British Merchantman instead the Swiftsure was on the defensive from the start.
