Christopher Ono - Oct 26, 2009 8:43 pm (31097.) new On the Table - Flying Colors A very tight game of Flying Colors for me at our local wargaming group - refighting the Battle of Minorca (1756) as the British Admiral John Byng, who was historically shot for cowardice in the aftermath of the battle, was somewhat daunting. Flying the flag(s) of the hated Jean Crapauds were David B, Paul M and Patrick. Having a quantitative advantage as well as the weather gage, I was fairly confident that I would do better than my historical counterpart, but having not yet fought an action involving more than five ships on my side (I've only played three fairly small scenarios in Flying Colors before), I was uncertain of my tactics. I played it safe on the first two turns, edging slowly towards the opponents' line, trying to keep my line intact and my formation commands in good order. On the third turn, just as our lines came within reasonable firing range, the French won the initiative, and Paul, leading the van of the first four French ships bravely attempted to turn my line as he beat into the wind to cross our T. In the centre, Patrick drew up close and let us have it at ranges of two or less. The initial damage was not as bad as they hoped, and I took full advantage by turning from reaching to running as I crossed their bows and sterns, getting double broadsides wherever I could. Our slight audacity advantage came in handy many times, and Patrick's poor defensive fire rolls drew (well-intentioned) mocking from his comrades in arms. On turn four I narrowly won the initiative and in more close action, I managed to kill the French flag admiral, La Galissonière (well, Patrick rolled a 9, then a 0). Two thirds to three quarters of my ships had much of their sails and masts shot away at this point (-1, -2 or even -3 MP), but the beating I had been doing to their hulls was starting to tell. By the end of turn four I had twice as many undamaged ships as the French and had wrecked two ships; in addition I had killed their flag admiral, so a roll of 0 through 4 would result in a break-off. They rolled high, and lived to fight another turn. Despite the increasing chaos, I managed to keep all but one of my ships in a formation for the beginning of the next turn, while the van of the French line became separated into several small groups or individual ships fighting alone. This would become a critical advantage when I won initiative on the next turn. Turn five degraded into a pell mell battle, with the carefully controlled lines breaking into individual melees. Two ships collided and fouled as the wind veered a point and put most of the French, who had turned to beat upwind, into chains. Despite what should have been a case of me sailing circles around the French, I now had a number of ships which were trying to beat upwind with -3 MP sail modifiers, effectively setting them adrift, so I was not able to take full advantage of their plight. A few rather impressive sternway manoeuvres did have some success as the French captains fired while drifting backwards and turning. The cumulative effect of three or four turns of me concentrating on hull damage to the French line took its toll, eventually claiming two French third rates and two fourth rates, as well as having the French second-rate flagship damaged (flipped) and reduced by an additional relative rate. I had two wrecked third rates, a vulnerable ship and a number of other badly sail-damaged ships, but many were still in good shape, hull-wise, and fired off devastating broadsides at point-blank range. At the end of the fifth turn I was still double his number of undamaged ships, and combined with the morale effects of their deceased flag admiral, the break-off roll resulted in a substantial victory for the British as the French line decided discretion was the better part of valour and made sail. Port Mahon was relieved and Byng did not go to an ignominious end at the muzzles of a firing squad, at least in this alternate history. My thanks to Patrick, David and Paul for fighting on the disadvantaged side of the French and giving me a solid run for my money.