KMH Caribbean Broadside Spanish v British

Another scenario from one of the Lard specials, this one saw my Spanish (pretending to be French as usual) taking on Dave's British. Two Spanish ships (one merchant and one frigate) have run aground following a storm and the Spanish flagship is moored nearby salvaging crew and stores from the wreck.

Meanwhile the British arrive scenting the possibility of prizes.....

The Spanish fleet:

Five 74's prepare to defend the flagship while it carries out the rescue:

The 'Neptuno' is the ship carrying out the salvage:

The British appear, a tough force of four 3rd Rates and a Frigate. In a daring moved the Frigate races ahead to lead the attack:

The Spanish were hoping to get past the salvage operation and intercept the British before they could interfere but the speed of the British frigate will thwart this plan: 

The British shake out into line and the fleets prepare to engage in the narrow gap between the two islands. Deploying in two columns does not seem to be a good plan for the Spanish:

Battle is joined! The British frigate and lead 3rd Rate take a bit of a battering but so do the Spanish:

San Francisco and Argonauta lead the attack, San Justo and Monarca are badly placed to help out though:

The Santa Anna (the red and white ship) attempts to engage the British frigate:

Unfortunately British fire causes the Santa Anna to catch fire:

Unluckily the Argonauta and San Justo also catch fire!:

While the Santa Anna and Argonauta put the fires out the unfortunate San Justo's fire reaches the magazine and the ship explodes horrifically:

The British push through the Spanish lines with both sides firing furiously:

Masts have fallen, ships are battered but apart from the San Justo all the ships are still afloat and no one has struck:

The salvage attempt has failed largely but most of the Spanish fleet has broken through the British and got away:

Great fun again and the ships look fantastic. I think if I took a very strict interpretation of the victory points I could claim a 4-2 win (one move of salvaging and one mast destroyed versus one mast destroyed) because you only get VP for ships which strike which, presumably, does not include blowing up! I feel that would be harsh though and really Dave easily had the best of the encounter.

I need to work on my tactics as well, the two lines thing didn't work at all and I find it hard to figure out how far the ships are likely to go and come up with a better plan in future, Dave's use of the frigate really caught me out.

Kiss Me Hardy "The Irish Question"

My second game of KMH, this time another scenario from a Lard Magazine called "The Irish Question" which is based loosely on an attempted French invasion of Ireland in the winter of 1796 which aimed to land 15,000 men plus supplies in Bantry Bay.

As with the previous game I just used my Spanish instead of French with Dave taking the British. My force consisted of two 'average' crewed 74's ('San Francisco' and 'Neptuno'), two poor crewed 74's ('Santa Anna' and 'Argonauta'), two average frigates ('Hermiona' and 'Santa Catalina') and four troop transports.

Dave's British had an initial force of three frigates ('Phoebe', 'Amazon' and the famous 'Indefatigable') with reinforcements of two 74's ('Majestic' and 'Swiftsure') and another frigate ('St. Albans').

The initial situation is:

The situation is rather complicated by the wind direction not helping at all as the Spanish transports try to enter the landing site. I deployed the frigates forward followed by the four 74's with the transports shielded behind them. The plan was to send as much of the fleet as possible to engage the British hopefully allowing the transports to sneak past and land the troops.

The Spanish fleet sails into action:

The enemy is in sight! The 'Hermiona', 'Santa Catalina' and 'Neptuno' move to intercept:

Action Stations! With the advantage of the wind the Spanish close quickly:

The engagement begins:

The 'Santa Catalina' rakes the 'Amazon' while the 'Neptuno' and 'Hermiona' also open fire:

The rest of the fleet presses on towards the landing site:

The British frigates respond to the Spanish broadsides with their own:

The 'Hermiona' battles on against the British:

The British reinforcements arrive including the two slow but scary 74's:

The 'San Francisco' desperately tries to cut off the leading British frigate from the troop ships:

The 'Neptuno' is stern raked damaging it's steering and starting a fire, the ship has taken a lot of damage. The 'Hermiona' attempts to distract the British 74's:

Fire from the 'Swiftsure' forces the 'Neptuno' to withdraw from the fight after a valiant attempt to hold off the British:

The 'Indefatigable'  avoids the 'San Francisco', draws alongside a troop ship and pours in a close range broadside causing it to strike:

Bottom left the 'Santa Catalina' is still in action despite taking a lot of damage, firing both it's broadsides at once into the British:

The 'Phoebe' and 'St Albans' have taken a battering while the 'Amazon' is a floating wreak so not everything has been in the British favour by any means. Unfortunately for the Spanish though there is nothing between the relatively undamaged 'Indefatigable' and the troop transports:

The battle rages on:

However, the 'Indefatigable' forces another troop ship to strike and there is no way the Spanish can get the remaining two troop ships through to the landing site. The invasion attempt has failed!: 

For the Spanish the 'Neptuno' had been forced to retire from the action while the 'Hermiona' and 'Santa Catalina' were badly damaged. The 'San Francisco' and 'Argonauta' were relatively intact while the 'Santa Anna' never got into action. For the British three of their four frigates were very badly damaged with the rest of the fleet taking only minor damage.

The action was quite close, if I had managed to cut off the 'Indefatigable' with the 'San Francisco' the troop ships would have got through but unfortunately the 'San Francisco' didn't quite make it in time and, once past, the superior sailing ability of the 'Indefatigable' meant it could easily mop up the troop ships. 

On reflection I made a mistake putting the frigates at the front of the line, I should have lead with the slower and stronger 74's and used the frigates speed either as a flying reserve or to try to distract the larger British ships. Hopefully I'll learn from that....

Having played two games of KMH now I have to say I really like the rules so far. They are quick to play and, unlike Black Seas, the quality difference between the British and Spanish (using French stats admittedly!) isn't so marked, even with the Spanish stats I think they could at least put up a fight unlike in Black Seas where it seemed absolutely hopeless!

I have to say I had mentally consigned the ships to the 'Well they look great and I enjoyed making them  but I'm never going to use them' category so it's great to find a set of rules I like playing and hopefully they will see a lot more action in the future!

Kiss Me Hardy Spanish v British

Having found Black Sea's not especially to my liking Dave suggested that we try the TFL set 'Kiss Me Hardy" so for my last game of the year Dave kindly came round to sail the seas of the Mediterranean in a scenario from the new Lard Mag called "Desperate measures in the Mediterranean".

After making up some cards and ship data sheets I decided to use my Spanish as the French in the scenario giving them somewhat better stats than the rules give to the Spanish but hopefully making the game a little more balanced. The British objective is to destroy the Spanish while for the Spanish getting off table to sail to Corsica while hopefully inflicting some losses on the British is what's expected.

The Spanish have four 3rd Rate ships, the San Francisco and the Neptuno under the command of Capitaine Diaz and the San Justo and Monarco under Commodore Rodrigo. Initially Rodrigo's force is at anchor having landed men to secure fresh water and food.

The British fleet also has four ships, Admiral Pound with the 1st Rate Imperial and the 5th Rate Firkin plus two 3rd Rates, Badger and Avoirdupois under Captain Stone.

The San Francisco and Neptuno are already under sail:

The San Justo and Monarca recall their ships boats and cut the anchor cables:

The Spanish have a land fortification available, unfortunately they appear to have failed to supply it with cannon or crews!:

The San Francisco and Neptuno are making good speed:

The San Justo and Monarca raise their sails and will be on the move soon:

The enemy appears! The Imperial and Firkin make slow progress hindered by the wind direction and the sailing ability of the big 1st Rate:

With a more favourable wind the Badger and Avoirdupois also appear and move towards the Spanish more rapidly:

Both sides clear for action:

The British open fire on the San Francisco with their bow-chasers:

The Monarca is better placed and fires her initial broadside:

The San Francisco takes a broadside from the Badger:

The San Justo and Monarca have raised sails and get under way both firing at the unfortunate Badger which is taking a bit of a pounding:

It get's worse for the Badger as the San Francisco replies with her own broadside:

The Monarca keeps the pressure on with another broadside. So far the British Avoirdupois and the Spanish Neptuno haven't had much of an effect:

More broadsides are exchanged. The Badger is taking a real beating now:

At last the Imperial and the Firkin prepare to join the fight:

The Badger has had enough and stikes it's flag after yet another broadside from the Monarca:

The situation may improve now for the British though as the mighty Imperial closes in on the damaged San Francisco and the Neptuno:

The San Francisco gets the first broadside off though it isn't as effective as it could be as many guns have been damaged in the fight with the Badger:

The Badger runs aground drifting after striking:

The ships close on each other! Now it is the San Francisco's turn to take a pounding, she has a lot of damage and fire has broken out. At least the Neptuno is still in good shape and can try to help out:

It is looking very likely that a collision will occur somewhere:

Meanwhile the San Justo and Monarca attempt to turn to engage the Avoirdupois:

The Imperial has just collided with the Firkin, luckily for the British the damage is minimal though the Imperial loses her bowsprit. With no other option the San Francisco puts her fire out and heroically sails between the two British ships then unleashes both broadsides! Despite the carnage on the San Francisco's decks she manages a few hits on the British:  

The San Justo and the Monarca are almost ready to resume the fight with the Avoirdupois. Both Spanish ships have taken little damage while the Avoirdupois is rather battered so the odds would seem to favour the Spanish:

The heroic crew of the San Francisco just fail to get off table and are forced to strike by the Imperial. However, the Neptuno ensures that everything isn't going for the British by stern raking the Firkin:

At this point we decided to call the game as we had been playing for quite a while and it was getting late.

For the Spanish the San Francisco had struck, the Neptuno and the Monarca had a little damage while the San Justo had not taken any damage at all. As for the British the Badger had struck and run aground, the Avoirdupois and the Firkin were heavily damaged and even the Imperial was quite damaged. 

As a result the Spanish Commodore is prepared to declare the action a mighty victory for his valiant ships with a special mention for the San Francisco which was in the thick of the action for the whole engagement.

I have to say I enjoyed KMH much more than I did Black Seas, everything seemed to go along quicker with the card-driven move sequence and be simpler to work out which, as a non-specialist in the period, is fine with me! The game took longer partly because I'd never played before and Dave had only had a couple of games so went spent a while looking things up, after a few games I'm sure it would be much quicker and I'm certainly keen to play again as the ships look fantastic. Of course it may have helped that I used French stats for my ships rather than Spanish so the difference in quality wasn't quite so vast.