The first game of turn two in my Blood and Plunder solo campaign was to be the 'Plunder' scenario from the 'No Peace Beyond the Line' supplement. It was also to be the first outing for The Chancellor - kindly donated by Uriah the boat-builder.
The Chancellor - stuck on the shoals |
The Scottish force consisted of Ebeneezer Balfour with 4 European Soldiers and 4 European Sailors in one longboat. A second boat carried 5 European Soldiers and 8 European Militia. This was a 100 point force, as calculated by the nifty online Force Builder on the Firelock Games website.
The Scots |
This time I experimented with the number of figures: for 15mm games, on land, I prefer to substitute bases of two figures and just count the number of bases. I usually revert to counting actual figures for games involving boats due to space restraints. This time I went for bases; it almost works for my newer figures on square bases but unfortunately the older figures on rounds don't quite work.
The English |
The English force consisted of Lucky Jack Quilp with 5 Freebooters and 4 Sea Dogs in one longboat. The second boat contained another 5 Freebooters and 4 Sea Dogs. I had 2 points in hand so I added a musician to Lucky Jack's group; I actually had a buccaneer drummer that I used to represent the musician. The musician would give the command unit the Inspiring trait - although I'd actually forgot that Lucky Jack is inspiring anyway. However, all was not lost as the musician also inflicts Terror on the first turn - i.e. all the enemy units have to roll a resolve test. Mind you they all passed anyway - still serious drumming!
Also pregame, Lucky Jack had two tactics to play and Balfour one. Most of the tactics are more appropriate for land battles but I chose Undisciplined Louts and High Tolerance. I diced for the Scots choice and came up with High Tolerance - which effectively countered my Undisciplined Louts tactic (this would have seen the Scots have to test for drunkeness). Obviously the Scots are hardened drinkers -who said typecasting?
The English deployed with both boats using the sweeps with the Sea Dogs assigned to the task. The Scots had one boat with the sailors on the sweeps but the second boat, wishing to maximize its firepower, deployed with the sails set.
Turn one saw the Scots draw a Joker, thereby initiating a random event. A wind change - bad news for the Scottish boat under sail.
In the initial moves both sides converged upon each other and exchanged some long range musketry. The Scots sailing boat also began to turn away from the wind.
End of Turn One - Scots boats in trouble |
Make way - no you make way! |
With one boat struggling under sail, Balfour's men made an extra effort at the sweeps and surged ahead.
Balfour makes for the Chancellor |
Balfour under fire |
English about to board |
Fire as she bears! |
Death of a Scotsman |
All in all a good game and I think the best one yet,
That looks to be a cracking game. The 15mm work really well!
ReplyDeleteWell that was jolly fun! Alas poor Ebeneezer. Like the sea mat very much.
ReplyDelete