*Oak & Iron* with John on Tabletop Simulator. The scenario was “Raid”, with the French attacking the English under Henry Morgan. ![[july_15-1.jpg]] --- Mon gouverneur, A great victory. We successfully raided the English settlement on the *îles Caïmanes*, and sunk one of their ships in the bargain. The action was brief and decisive. We approached the islands with the wind on our beam, the English to weather and coming directly at us. Their squadron was divided in two: the heavy ships to the weather of Caïmane Brac, and their corvette in the channel between the islands. Ours divided similarly: my flagship and corvette approached in the channel, while my sloop, marines aboard and ready for the raid, went to lee of Little Caïmane. Our sailors and gun crews readied for the English gunnery; you know well how effective they can be at extreme range. But we closed the distance more rapidly than they did, and used Caïmane Brac as cover. The corvette quickly came into the broadsides of our line, and *La Sirène* and *La Panthère* reduced it to a wreck quickly. The slowly settling hulk stuck in the shallows and provided further cover for our ships as they sped on. Meanwhile, Lt. Lebeau on *La Railleuse* brought his vessel in to the lee of the island skillfully, and to anchor. Boats were sent out, and the marines executed their mission on the island to perfection. Seeing the smoke rising from South Town, and their corvette destroyed, the heavier English ships withdrew. We could not force their surrender, but we did force their retreat. Votre serviteur, Cpt. René Macquer *post scriptum*—before the engagement, the foremast hands saw a pod of dolphins swimming ahead in our bow wave. They take this as a good omen, and their optimism was borne out! ![[july_15-2.jpg]] > *Game commentary: I played with an old friend whose joy at engaging with games is infectious, and it was a delightful time. The terrain was not his friend, but I hope and think that the game was enjoyable.* > *He took a fun approach to placing terrain, which I’ll try to use more in the future, throwing terrain on my half of the board, knowing that I could adjust it but still making it my problem to deal with.* > *My timing on initiative cards ended up very good, as did my dice luck—though it did take all three fortune points to ensure that. Heavy French gunnery at short range will make up for English long-range gunnery.* > *Of particular note was my approach to the island with the sloop for the objective marker: Swift Vessels for an extra speed 1 move, seamanship to Adjust Speed up, then reduce sail to minimal. Next turn, seamanship to Adjust Speed up again to counter the reduced sail. I was still just out of reach—a slight miscalculation—but I was on a beam reach, and so the next turn I counted myself as sailing to windward to reduce my speed, and then took an action to anchor and another to send out my landing party. The use of a beam reach to adjust valid speed options for landing is really interesting to me, in the absence of a dedicated Troop Transport/Expert Topmen landing ship.* > *For whatever reason, there were many crits rolled, and almost every one confirmed to rigging damage and nothing else. The English corvette getting stuck in the broadsides of a sixth-rate and a corvette at pistol shot was certainly the largest source of damage.*