Galleys & Galleons: First Game, Part 2

After the erratic broadside (see part 1 of this AAR), the man'o'War moved on.

The Pirate Frigate came about and closed on the Britons, firing wildly in the process, again without scoring a hit, but again taking Damage from Shallow Waters.

The Xebec did not get sufficient Actions for firing its guns.

I tried another Full Broadside, but my Master Gunners could not hit a barn from ten feet away...

...and then moved along. I would soon have to start thinking about some maneuvering...

The Frigate rammed my ship - neither of them took any damage from the impact.

The Xebec missed again...

Then a couple of Boarding Actions were carried out, resulting in the Frigate surrendering. As Bed-time was drawing close, we called that the Xebec would flee from the scene, thus ending the game.

Thoughts after the first game:

Wind and maneuvering:

Works really well. I think I am going to make some house rules regarding reducing and adding sails, though, as I don't really like the 'sails popping back up by themselves' situation (and I want ships to be able to come to a halt without turning into 'In Irons'). I'll probably use tokens on the ship roster to mark reduced sails, requiring 1 Action for each token to be added/removed - more about it at a later occasion.

Combat:

The Man'o'War with its C5 proved impossible to damage. I am not sure that I like the way this works; chance of hitting a target should not be influenced by the target's abilities, but rather be a target number depending on range and size of the target. Then, of course, we get another problem, namely that all vessels, independent of size, have only three hit points, and a large vessel like the Man'o'War will then be crippled far too easily... I need to play more games to see if things even out, but in this game, Lea had twice as many points as me, and she did not manage to inflict a single hit on my ship. Of course, she did half the damage to her ship herself, by sailing too close to an island, but still...

Galleys & Galleons: First Game, Part 1

Instead of cleaning more plastic Greeks when getting up this afternoon from sleeping after night watch, I set up a table for playing Galleys & Galleons with Lea (it was raining for the first time in over a month, so tennis was out of the question).

Lea took command of a small Pirate fleet, while I commanded a British Man'o'War trying to clear the archipelago of scum and villainy.

The first couple of turns of course consisted of a lot of maneuvering.

The largest Pirate vessel came too close to one of the islands, and took Damage.

My ship got in range, and opened up on the Pirate Xebec, and scored a single hit...

,,,then altered its course slightly.

The Pirate Frigate turned 'In Irons', and fired its bow chasers, but missed.

The Xebec raced closer and fired at the Man'o'War, but also missed.

I took the opportunity to fire a Full Broadside at the Xebec, but completely missed.

And this concludes the first part of this AAR, as I have to get ready for going to work later this evening. I may manage to get the next part done during the night, if things are calm at work.

Merchants & Marauders: First Game Finished

Lea and I finished our first game of M&M earlier today, and we called it a draw, as when I claimed victory by revealing my stashed Gold, Lea said that she was not aware of the Gold contributing to the Glory total, and that she was certain that she had sufficient Gold stashed away to reach 10 Glory before her first Captain died in an attack on Treasure Island.

I like the game very much - the option to earn Glory by trading, and not just by fighting, means that you can avoid the attention of the 4 powers' Naval Ships (and there is bound to be at least a couple of those patrolling the waters of the Caribbean early on with 16 of the Event Cards drawn at the beginning of every Game Turn bringing in a Frigate (or Man-o-War, should the owning nation be at war)).

Next time we play, we shall use the Glory Cards, and the special harbour rules (printed on the map), and, hopefully, persuade Anna to join the fray-

Merchants & Marauders: First Game in Progress

Lea got up early this morning (when she heard me rummaging in the bathroom), and she still has an age where she wants company (Anna has turned on full teenager mode and reads books in the seclude of her room), so I decided to skip most of my plans for today, and get out Merchants & Marauders.

I had hoped to lure Anna into participating, but when I finally managed to pull her out of her sleep (about 10.30 a.m.), she promptly disappeared into a book.

Lea and I played most of the day, and we still have not used all the rules, as the game is somewhat complex (not least because everything is in English, and Lea is not yet quite sufficiently versed in that) - but we traded a lot, and I only started raiding merchants after claiming a mission that required me to do so.

We have not finished the game, yet, and we shall not do so until tomorrow, as I had to take advantage of the sunny dry weather this afternoon to get the front lawn mowed (it has been raining a LOT, lately, and a trimming was long overdue).

Board Game: Merchants & Marauders

I purchased a couple of board games from Hyggeonkel the night before yesterday, and they arrived with the postal service while I was sleeping today - and luckily, my youngest daughter, Lea, heard the doorbell.

I have not had time to read through the rules, yet, but the game looks very good. Both plastic and cardboard components seem good quality, and this Danish Design game comes with zip-lock bags for all the small components - a first for me with this kind of game!

I am looking forward to try my luck as a daring privateer on the Spanish Main!