Raise the Black!

It seems that I've developed something of a tradition; come summer and it's time to get the pirates out for a spot of 'Blood and Plunder'. Previously, I've started a couple of solo campaigns, set in the buccaneering era, using the campaign system in the 'No Peace Beyond the Line' supplement. Whilst these have been great fun, I always seem to run out of steam after a few games. I also never get around to writing the games up.

Spanish under Don Lardo raid the Logwood Cutters camp

Logwood Cutters emerge from the jungle

Big punch up on the beach

Spanish flee back to the boats

Hence, this time, I've decided to come up with my own system that hopefully  allows me to maintain the momentum and drop in and out as needed. This campaign will be set in the 'Golden Age of Piracy' and use real events, with a nod to 'Black Sails', as a backdrop. This will be very much a freeform system and won't have any formalised campaign rules as such. Instead I will play as a single ship's captain and follow his adventures through the height of the Golden Age. The narrative will be guided by a sort of choose your own adventure system. I will come up with a series of decision points for our would be pirate captain and dice for which action is taken. The only book keeping will be to track the status of the ship and crew, the captain's popularity and how much booty has been amassed.

The actual games will be played using 'Blood and Plunder', 'Oak and Iron' or 'Port Royal', depending upon the scenario.

The campaign begins in 1715, in King's Town, Jamaica. The War of the Spanish Succession (or Queen Anne's War in that part of the world) has ended, putting a large number of privateers out of work. In an attempt to prevent them turning to piracy, the governor of Jamaica, Sir Archibald Hamilton, has issued a number of Letters of Marque to hunt down pirates.  

So we start with our Captain, Bartholomew Pea, in command of a privateer sloop funded by Fezziwig the merchant. The first step is to fit out the ship.

 Vessel - Bermuda sloop with reinforced bulkheads.

Equipment - 6  light cannon, 4 swivels, sweeps

Officers - Bartholomew Pea (Experienced Pirate Commander, Brawler); William Manderly (Bosun); Jack Brass (Scheming Quartermaster); Barnaby Bowles (Sailing Master); Chippy Woodes (Carpenter)

Crew - 8 Veteran Sea Dogs, 8 Jamaican Privateers (2 with blunderbusses and a grenadoe), 7 Jamaican Privateers, 7 Pirates (2 with blunderbusses)

Putting this through the Firelock Force Builder comes to 195 points. It's not the optimal crew as many of the unit abilities overlap with the officers but I wanted 'characters' for narrative campaign purposes.

The action starts in July 1715 - hurricane season. Probably not the best sailing conditions but this covers the hurricane that wrecked the Urca de Lima treasure ship and kickstarted the Golden Age (also a major plot point in Black Sails).

Weather Bahamas    Oct - April north-easterly, mild, dry

                                 May - Sept south-easterly, hot, wet

                                 June - November hurricane season

July 1715

King's Town

Jamaica

Dear Uncle Ebeneezer,

I have grave tidings to import. Father has been arrested as a Jacobite. Truly he has been outspoken concerning the Hanoverian king but I don't believe they have any actual evidence of Jacobiteism. Nevertheless, they have taken him to England and I am afeared he will swing. Our properties in Jamaica have all been seized and I am left destitute. A friend of father's, Captain Bartholomew Pea, has taken me in and I am to be his clerk. The Captain is an experienced privateer from the recent war but I suspect he is not a man of letters.

Pea is in possession of Letters of Marque and Reprisal, issued by Lord Archibald Hamilton, and is authorised to hunt down pyrates. I am to repair on board The Fancy, a 6 gun Bermuda sloop that Pea ahs outfitted for the voyage. He has reinforced the bulheads and added four swivels and sweeps.

The officers seem a friendly crowd and consist of the Quartermaster Jack Brass, Bosun William Manderly, Sailing Master Barnaby Bowles and Carpenter Chippy Woodes.

The crew number around 26 and are all sailors of various experience. About half are Jamaican Privateers trained in the last war. The next largest group are all experienced sailors from various sources but veteran Sea Dogs all. The final group are mostly Nassau men, an unruly bunch and usually to be found in their cups.

I am told that we will soon sail on our first cruise and I hope to make my fortune.

                                                                                                            Your Nephew, Jeremiah Quilp

A Spot of Naval Gazing

 The last 2 club nights saw us indulging in a spot of naval gaming; always fun and something we should do more often.

First off was a fleet action using ancient galleys. During last year's lockdown I painted up a couple of fleets using Outpost Miniatures 1/3600th ships. I've never been happy with most naval rules that have a dozen or so models per side masquerading as a fleet of hundreds of ships; this way I get to deploy them in numbers that give a better impression of a fleet. I have 200 ships in my collection; still not quite a 1 to 1 representation but a respectable number nonetheless. Of course, using this many ships would require a different approach to normal and the rules need to be designed specifically for fleet actions.

When I started this project, the only suitable rules I was aware of were David Manley's 'Greek Fire and Roman Fury' which appeared in Wargames Illustrated in 2003. This uses stands of multiple based ships and a game engine based on Fire and Fury. I ran a test game and, although not totally convinced, reckoned it was a good starting point to work with. Fortuitously, an expanded version was released, last year, under the horrible title of 'He Hemetera Thalassa, Mare Nostrum'. The mixing of Greek and Latin notwithstanding, they're just a horrible mouthful; we've decided to just refer to them as Mare Nostrum.

I was initially quite excited by Mare Nostrum but unfortunately they don't really add much to the original Greek Fire and Roman Fury rules - the base rules have exactly the same wording. Granted the new version has fleet lists (including a truly horrendous points system) and scenarios but I'm beginning to doubt whether these were even tested. Some of the mechanisms are also unnecessarily clunky. That said we did have fun and the base idea is sound. I've already thought of ways to streamline them and we will definitely be giving them another go.

I didn't take many photos, as I reckoned tiny, tiny ships on blue bases, deployed on a blue mat, were never going to be photogenic. 

The fleets deploy. Romans in the foreground, Carthaginians in the distance.

Roman left attempts a flanking move whilst Carthaginians advance in echelon.

Roman centre in double line

Romans in trouble

The second game was much more successful and great fun. This was a 17th century game, using Firelock Games' 'Oak and Iron'. Yet another lockdown project and, at the moment, my favourite age of sail rules.

We pitted an English squadron, under Colonel Whitemoore, against a Spanish squadron commanded by Don Felipe. The English fielded a 5th rate frigate, a petite fregate and a sloop. The Spanish a light Galleon, a fluyt and a corvette.

We drew the escort scenario, with the objective token situated on the English sloop. The Spanish had 10 turns to capture the objective.

This size game is designed for a 3ft square table but I find that the table can be too cluttered, if terrain is used, and we always run out of sea room. Hence, I decided to try a 6 by 4 play area - the club tables and sea mats are this size, so it seemed easier. In retrospect, the standard scenarios begin with both sides almost in action and the game length takes this into account. In our game the sides deployed too far apart and the Spanish were never going to attain their objective in 10 turns. On the other hand, the extra sea room did feel good. Perhaps I will just increase the game length in future - we finished 10 turns easily in the usual time allotted for a club night.

The English attempt to hide behind the island

The Spanish deploy on the edge of the world

English skirt the island

English advance to shield the sloop

The Spanish Corvette attempts the passage between the island and the shoals but is covered by the English Petite Fregate

A late burst of speed from the Corvette doesn't quite reach the sloop in the final turn. In the distance the 5th rate and the galleon slog it out in a boarding action.

Spain v.s Dutch Pirates, Oak and Iron.

 The Righteous and Virtuous Empire of His Most catholic Majesty of Spain vs. the Trumping Dutch in the Seventeenth century Caribbean. 

I mean its typical of the Spanish court.  I was appointed Admiral with no experience of this game.  It shows.  You may refer to me as "His Excellency Count Finguin."  Vice Admiral His Excellency Count Manuel McGurk was well placed to support me.

On the other side of the Zoom call those bold buccaneers Admiral van Q, and Captains van Alan and van Mike.  

Young Davy Jones Quilp acted as our umpire, rolling the dice and moving the miniatures. [After several successful games using WhatsApp, this was only our second attempt at using Zoom. The Fat Marshal showed what could be done, in Purgatory, so I was keen to push the boundaries some more. One player couldn't connect on the night, so had to rely on WhatsApp photos and this blog. Admiral Finguin did a fine job of using screen captures to blog 'live'.]

The Oak and Iron table, and table E in almost full zoom mode.

The claw of Quilpius talks us through the setup.

Deploying.  Turns out the Spanish had the Galleon, a King Tiger of the Main.

Turn one sees no real surprises.  Straight sailing by all parties.

The end of turn 1. 

The overhead as turn two begins

Add caption

End of Turn 2

Basically more straight sailing.  All Captains were settling in and selecting their targets

The Mighty Galleon edges around the island.  What could possibly go wrong.

Captain Mike boldly slots between two Spaniards.

The battle between the Spanish Vice Admiral and the Dutch Admiral van Q heats up.  The frigate bullies our poor little Corvette. 

Captain Fast Mike gets battered

But it's the bold and valiant Spanish Vice Admiral who shoots most effectively at Captain Mike.  It's a battering.

End of Turn 3.  The Sloop on fire

Turn four, it's already apparent that the Spanish Admiral is just getting in the way!

Captain Alan goes for the prize, gets it aboard, and damages Spanish morale, giving them a strike point.

The Corvette and frigate slug it out to the north of the island.

Dirty tricks alert.   A shoal magically appears in front of the galleon.  Spanish Admiral fans (well just me then) fear the worst.

But the Galleon hits back in revenge.  Ineffective. 

Turn four.  My Glorious galleon gets off that damn shoal

And the Spanish start to run into each other's way

A tight turn for the Spanish Vice Ad...

The frigate of Admiral Q clips the shoal, but is undamaged.  

Spanish Vice swings his Corvette around

The damaged Brigantine limps off

End of turn five. The Dutch have the objective aboard, and the Spanish have a strike point. 

Admiral Q gets the frigate up to speed 5, Zooming around the Island.  He misses the shoal, barely...

Admiral  Q meets Dutch Mike swerving around the island.

The Spanish Vice, in his damaged Corvette creeps nearer the objective.

Do you have a broadside on that damaged Corvette... NO!  

The galleon shoots at the Flyboat again, poor gunnery again.

Huzzah.  Damage on that Flyboat...  End of turn 6.

So at this point a huge electrical storm descended on Pathos.  The Spanish Admiral prudently retired to unplug the TV, laptop and more critically the magic Internet box.   

In game terms I firmly believe that one of his crew pushed him overboard.  It meant that his Excellency missed the end of the sea fight.

That storm went on for hours!

[Electrical storms aside, Admiral Finguin actually retired very near the end of the action.]

The Spanish struggle to close, against the wind, while the Fluyt attempts to haul herself through the eye of the wind to get underway. The remaining Dutch appear to be on the wrong side of the island.

Van Mike and Admiral Q narrowly avoid colliding.

As the game approached the ten turn limit (I think we reached turn 8), the Spanish could not close enough to cause significant damage on the Fluyt. The last remaining Spanish hope was the Corvette which was still windward of the Fluyt. Unfortunately, it had been badly damaged in its fight with Admiral Q and could not take much more damage. In a huge gamble, that sadly did not pay off, the Spanish Vice Admiral brought the corvette into musket range of the Dutch Fluyt. A good broadside followed by partial fire in the next move was enough to see the corvette put out of action. With 3 Strike points and only 2 remaining ships it was game over for the Spanish.

End Game

So that was our first proper game of Oak and Iron, and the Zoom format worked surprisingly well. Hopefully this won't be our last.