*Oak & Iron* with Ralph on Tabletop Simulator. Ralph is the person who introduced me to *Oak & Iron*, and thus Firelock games, but he hadn’t played with the second edition rules yet, so was interested to try them out. Our game was split across two nights because of life and schedule constraints, but we got through it! --- Commodore Macquer’s squadron sighted three ships they believed to be English to weather, and began to beat towards them, eager to engage. The lee gage did them no favours, but as they closed to cannon shot, they saw the choppy water filled with rocks and shoals that the enemy sailed through, and decided that maneuverability was their best advantage, and kept far to lee. The pilot they had picked up down the coast nodded at the captain’s choice, saying that in these neap tides, the shoals were particularly dangerous. > *The objective was “Engage the Enemy”, just a straightforward fight. But I was able to crowd the shoal terrain into the weather board edge, and take “Local Pilot” for myself. Then again, between a fluyt and a brigantine, the English weren’t at a great risk from the shoals—only their fifth-rate was really in danger. Ralph’s deployment did force me to lee, but I at least had a clear board to work with.* ![[june_19-1.jpg]] As the ships neared, they began to exchange fire. The English were unlucky, and the French were disciplined, and the fluyt that led the English formation took a few hits to the rigging. But then, a perhaps decisive moment came: Commodore Macquer’s flagship, *La Sirène*, fired on the unknown fluyt and a lucky ball smashed the mizzen mast. The stays and shrouds having already been damaged, this toppled the mast over, which then began to act as a sea-anchor, checking the fluyt’s way completely. As the English were in tight formation, and sailing among shoals and rocks, the flagship, a fifth-rate frigate, suddenly had to thread a very tight needle. Commodore Macquer thought back on [[June 13, 2025|his action against de la Cerda]]—he knew what the English captain must be feeling. ![[june_19-2.jpg]] As the English flagship maneuvered through the tight space, a series of flags went up and down, and Macquer, trying to interpret them through his glass, was forced to signal to his squadron to hold fire. They may not have been English, and may have been neutrals, and the risk of continuing the engagement was too high at that moment. > *Keeping the engagement at cannon range, Ralph played the Pirate initiative card “Deception”—a card he could take, as his admiral was Henry Morgan. I had lined up some shots, but couldn’t take them, and was forced to give him a turn of peace, during which he repaired and rallied and sorted out his dismasted fluyt.* Considering the possibility that this was a ruse, or that it was honest, Macquer hedged his bets, and gave the signal to wear fleet. At that moment, the breeze slackened, and his whole line of battle was able to turn in place and reverse their heading quite respectably. > *I was amazed to pull this off. While Ralph was trying to sort out his jammed-up line and ended up pulling his brigantine and fifth-rate out of formation into a dead-run at me, I turned my sloop, sixth-rate, and corvette each in place and reversed from a, let’s say, northerly course to a southerly course, still on a beam reach, and having lost a minimum of distance from his ships, between his movement and mine. It was very satisfying to perform a tight maneuver like this, and regain line-of-battle formation by the time guns started firing again.* ![[june_19-3.jpg]] Now the movement of the English ships—and the unfurling of the great red ensign—made it clear that it had been a ruse, but Macquer was prepared. All three of his ships bore up a point and a half to weather, maintaining their battle line, and opened fire at what they could. *La Panthère* and *La Sirène* both laid in to the English flagship, the veteran crew of *La Sirène* acting smoothly despite the splinters that flew from the English broadside. The guns hit home. At this point, the English struck their colours, and Commodore Macquer met the English captain, and received his sword. It was none other than the famous Henry Morgan, and the two exchanged stories of bedevilling the Spanish over some of Macquer’s best wine at dinner that night. > *Ralph says dice hate him, and I’ve never seen anyone barely hit statistically-average on their rolls so often, while their dice-luck is so bad to push my rolls to well beyond average. I did not use a single Fortune point the whole battle, because every roll was better than expected. My two broadsides on his flagship each rolled three skulls to confirm as criticals, while also rolling some cannons as regular hits. It was uncanny. But at this point, with his fluyt and his flagship each a point or two away from being crippled, and no damage or fatigue left on my ships, Ralph felt there was no reasonable way for him to come back and struck. It was a good game, with good moments, and good sportsmanship.* ![[june_19-4.jpg]]