*Oak & Iron* with Austin B. on Tabletop Simulator. --- A French squadron, led by Commodore Macquer of *La Sirène*, sighted the Spanish squadron led by Admiral Francisco Pereira Freire de La Cerda. The French line of battle was the corvette *La Panthère*, the sixth-rate *La Sirène*, and the sloop *La Railleuse*. The Spanish had the fluyt *Santa Ana* ahead of their flagship, the light galleon *Nuestra Señora*. Aboad the galleon was a dignitary the French had orders to capture or kill. > *The objective was “Escort”.* The Spanish were set on a broad reach towards a nearby island, and the French approached on a beam, very rapidly as the wind picked up and the dim early morning light started to solidify into day. > *Event cards “Reduced Visibility” and “Wind Increases” came out very early.* ![[june_13-1.jpg]] Cmdre Macquer signaled for the ships to put on all sail and close with the Spanish as fast as they could, never mind the guns. He knew he could out-gun the Spanish at range on an open sea, but they were facing a lee-shore and strong winds, and he hoped to take the Spanish dignitary captive rather than kill him. The Spanish broke downwind, hoping to double the island and keep their distance, but also opening their guns direct on the bows of the French line. The brave captain of *La Panthère* sailed directly into the Spanish broadsides, trusting to his small ship and the low light to protect his crew. Alas, he calculated that he might be able to weather one or two broadsides, not the three the Spanish immediately opened with—their gun crews were truly in fine form. > *The Spanish played “Rolling Broadsides” and moved, fired, reloaded with their galleon all in the movement phase, allowing another broadside in the shooting phase, and also hit with the fluyt.* The corvette was destroyed, and the decks a bloody mess, but the captain was able to swerve off out of the line and allow the rest of the French squadron to squeeze between him and the lee shore. ![[june_13-2.jpg]] ![[june_13-3.jpg]] Cmdre Macquer saw his chance while the *Nuestra Señora* was reloading and the *Santa Ana* was pulling ahead. He kept the sheets as taut as ever he could and sailed right at her broadside, veering at the very last minute and giving the order to throw grapples. Alas, the order proved unnecessary as the sixth-rate and galleon’s rigging became entangled, bringing the ships close enough for a boarding action. While he prepared, though, the Spanish sailors cleared the yards and pushed off with spars and poles and boarding pikes, insistent on keeping the action at pistol-shot. The fluyt hauled around to make its way as upwind as ever it could, skillfully navigating a shoal, and trying to bring its broadside to bear on *La Sirène*. The sloop *Railleuse* did similar, taking a taut bowline and speeding over another shoal, trying to bring the galleon’s stern in view of its guns. *La Sirène* veered in again and the order came for grapples, again, and this time the ships were made fast—but the Spanish had prepared their boarding defenses. > *I managed an intentional grapple this time, and the Spanish attempts at cutting free again failed—enough fatigue and no amount of skill and Fortune will guarantee a roll. But they had played “Repel Boarders”, and so I was attacking on only skulls this turn. However, I had played “Elan”, and got an extra close-combat attack at +1, before the close-combat phase. I had taken a brutal amount of damage, but the galleon had a brutal amount of fatigue.* ![[june_13-4.jpg]] The moment of truth was at hand: the *Santa Ana* opened fire on *La Sirène*, and *La Railleuse* opened fire on *Nuestra Señora*—unable to line up a stern rake but still with devastating French gunnery. Both entangled ships were on their last legs, all the crew aboard *La Sirène* who were not fighting manning the pumps as furiously as they could, but the barrage from *La Railleuse* left the crew of *Nuestra Señora* shaken and ready to surrender. ![[june_13-5.jpg]] And that was it: the Spanish hauled colours and the French saw to their survivors. > *This was a narrow narrow victory. It all hinged on a question of whether an entangled and shaken ship could still fire—if so, and the rules indicate that it can, the Spanish would have won, but Austin didn’t feel it was appropriate for them to make a partial fire attack from the galleon into my sixth-rate, which would have just done enough damage to push the crippled ship into shaken, leaving two ships entangled with each other and both shaken. Instead, my ship was crippled, theirs was shaken, and I captured the galleon and took the objective marker and had three strike points (one crippled, one out of action) and now, with the captured ship, three ships. Skin of my teeth!* > *We played with 5 fortune, per this week’s objective, and near the end of the game we were using it like water, freely and with abandon, making each roll just that much more extreme.*