The Marshal Petain Gentleman's Club: Oppressing the natives

Game two in my 'Six Nations' campaign pitted a force of French pirates against a Native American force from the Darien Peninsula.
Once again it was to be a sea based encounter; this time the 'Control the Field' scenario. The sea based version of this essentially consists of the defender starting downwind and fighting to gain the weather gauge.
Hence, the setting for this game was that a French watering party has landed on the Darien Peninsula and is seeking to return to its ship. The Natives have other ideas.

The French consisted of two groups of Boucaniers and group of Miliciens led by 'Happy Dan' Le Pew. [The Le Pew character started out as Pierre Le Pew (sort of a Pepi Le Pew feel) until I remembered that Happy Dan Pew is a character from George McDonald Fraser's 'The Pyrates'. In the novel he is an Englishman that thinks he is French after being hit on the head. So Happy Dan it is then - I see my version as a cockney with Del Boy's grasp of the French language.]

The Darien natives consisted of two groups of Warriors and a group of bow armed Young Warriors led by Chief Man Friday. This would be something of a challenge for the natives as the Warriors are solely armed with melee weapons. Normally a bow would be a compulsory upgrade but the campaign rules forbid upgrades unless the 'Armaments' resource is purchased.

The French force were equipped with two longboats. Happy Dan joined a group of Boucaniers along with a group of Miliciens in the first boat. The second boat carried the remaining group of Boucaniers. With two groups in his boat, Happy Dan was able to assign the Miliciens to the sweeps; pretty much a necessity as they would be working up wind. The second boat could either move under sail, leaving the Boucaniers free to shoot, or assign the Boucaniers to the sweeps, in which case they couldn't shoot. I chose to use the sails.

The native force were carried in three canoes; a group for each vessel. The canoes do not have a sail option, moving under sweeps (or technically paddles). In this case they had the option of assigning crew to the paddles, which allows a full move each go, or moving with a reduced move if no crew are so assigned. I assigned Chief Friday's group to the paddles and left the others unassigned.

Happy Dan's watering party. The wind is from the top of the picture.

Native canoes upwind

Unfortunately, I discovered that all my Caribs are either bow or musket armed - the latter would have to stand in for melee weapons in this game. Similarly, I'm still short of suitable militia or regular soldier types; in this instance Miliciens would be played by Napoleonic Spanish guerrillas.

There were no 'tactics' played at the start of the game as I forgot! Probably to the detriment of the natives as they held a club - whoops.

The first move saw the natives move into a blocking position in front of Happy Dan, whilst the second longboat crawled along close hauled. Hmmm - maybe sails were a bad choice here. Long range shooting was even; both sides taking a casualty.

Move 1 - the Natives block the way

Move 2 and Chief Friday hung back to keep the weather gauge whilst the Young Warriors circled around to harass the rear of the French with bow fire. Unfortunately, although bows can rain down huge amounts of arrows they are relatively ineffectual. By contrast, Boucaniers are deadly shots and get the benefit of Ball and Shot at close range to boot. Another 5 natives down and their first Strike Point.

Move two - notice the almost empty canoe!

Move three saw Happy Dan attempt to manoeuvre his longboat past Chief Friday's canoe. Meanwhile, the Young Warriors tangle with the rear longboat.

Move Three - Happy Dan surges ahead. Mangtout Rodders!
(In Happy Dan's addled brain ALL his crew are named Rodney!)

Move four saw Chief Friday grapple Le Pew's boat - eventually. After several failed attempts he wasn't left with enough actions to board. In his own turn Happy Dan cut the grapples and was in a position to move ahead and gain the weather gauge. However, the critical move came from the second longboat as some deadly shooting from the Boucaniers saw them kill enough Young Warriors to inflict a second Strike Point. Two nil down on Strike points and its game over for the Natives .