Battle of the Murg estuary; Protected ducks

[Hobbes]

As promised, I post the AAR of my first play of the "Protected Ducks"-Scenario (follow this link).

As I had read Uthoroc's post on the Sitting Ducks-Scenario, I intended to learn from his experience. As a first measure and from historical lessons learned, I chose the british side and tried to annihilate the French. Second, I, having plenty of time at hand, played this game using the advanced rules.

The beginning:




At dawn February, 4th 1814 (+200), HMS Defence (upper ship) and HMS Defiance (lower ship) closed in shore, spotting the two french ships-of-the-line Aquilon and Fougeuex at anchor in Murg bay. High above the bay, Fort Muskatel protects the sanctuary and the ships within it. The British senior captain in HMS Defence gave orders to form line of battle and intended to enter the bay from the eastern entrance, which would allow the ships to cross the anchor area with the wind from astern. Defiance turned and lowered sail to fall behind the Defence. While this maneuver worked as planned, HMS Defence had some problems finding a straight southerly course into the bay, as the wind coming from the east constantly changed between beating and reaching directions.

First Blood



As the british ships approach the entrance in a more or less good line-of-battle, Aquilon opens fire on HMS Defence, it's first broadside from the forward guns doing considerable damage and instantly springing a leak. Defense hold here fire for some time longer, closing the distance. Although missing that wrecking raking shot, Defence returns fire at close range, instantly igniting parts of the Aquilon. The French's second broadside again sprang a leak on Defense and reduced the number of guns to almost half.

Aquilon is wrecked



Meanwhile Defiance had positioned herself for a raking shot and, in combination with a second broadside from Defence, finally destroys her opponent. Both ships turned their attention now to the unscathed Fougueux, with the battered Defence again leading the assault. The first exchange of broadsides results in the loss of two masts on HMS Defence and one on Fougueux. Defence in a desparate attempt tries to increase sails on the remaining mast in order to avoid the combined fire from th SoL and the fort.


HMS Defence and Fougueux surrender simultaniously



But due to being now exactly running before the wind, fails to do so before both fire their cannons in the almost unmanageable ship. Taking on a massive amount of damage (10 counters), Defence is crippled and surrenders, not without dealing a final broadside, which through luck or desperate aiming of her gunners take out the remaining masts on the Fougueux.

The ending, Defiance escapes



All the captain of Defiance had to do now, was to sail out of the reach of the shore battery. The fort managed to hit the Defiance a final time, but could not inflict considerable damage. Allowing her captain to report the results to his Admiralty.



Some thoughts

This was my first game of SoG and it was quite a lot of fun. Can't wait to play a game against a human opponent.

Tactical errors
It took quite some time for me to get Defence on a constant course, as I was struggling to judge the position of the ship when using the sideway slip (Veer 5 card) without knowing beforehand if I would be in the orange or green sector of the card. I tried to get on a straight southerly course with the wind coming from the east, so most of the time I had the wind right on the edge between green and orange. Might have been better to do a slight shift to the right first and the with a slightly easterly course enter the bay.

As the leading ship took on quite some damage and the following was nearly unharmed, I should have chosen a different approach. Either I should have tried to escape with Defence through the gap of the reef or I should have tried to attack from both entrances.

gaming errors
Aquilon was positioned in the wrong way on the base, thus the firing arcs were reversed.

I cheated once, as I accidentally picked a right hand turn instead of a left turn and changed that upon revealing the maneuver card.

I think I forgot to undergo mast repairs on Fougueux after her first mast came down. This might have prevented them from surrendering in that turn, although I think Defiance would still have managed to wreck it.

Apart from that, I think I got the most things right despite using the advanced rules and quite some optional rules (first broadside, wreck stays on the table, fort...). Elongating the firing range of the fort didn't alter the game, as the distance was covered within a single turn.