Well, we had a
good turn out for the May meeting, a total of 25 attendees, several of
whom were visitors, including ex-member, Tim Goodchild, visiting from
Singapore and 3 enthusiastic boardgamers, Sam, Anthony and Horace,
introduced by Lawrence Hung. It was also good to catch up with
ex-member, Andrew Chan, visiting from Australia.
Two large games
were played, 28mm French-Indo China and 15mm Seven Years War, plus a host
of others.
Two
boardgames were in evidence, a multi-player game of Avalon Hill's Wooden
Ships and Iron Men and Columbia's Hammer of the Scots. First,
Lawrence Hung's report of the former game:
“Captain,
enemy in sight!” Able Seaman Peter Munn shouted out to Captain James A.
Gordon in anxiety. Gordon, on
board of the Royal Navy frigate Active, took his lens and said calmly “
Battle
stations! Tell Captain Hoste and
Captain Whitby we are under attack.”
13 March, 1811
, cruising around the tiny
island
of
Lissa
, the British fleet was confident in
holding Napoleon off the coast of
Austria
.
Remember Trafalgar. Hearing
the news of the French approaching, Captain Hoste, overall commander of
the small British force, snubbed the abilities of the French in the
control of the sea. He trusted
his elite seamen. They were
experienced, well trained and in high spirits.
“Alright,
check the wind gauge and raise the pennants, full sail.” said Hoste. It
was going to be an all out frigate combat.
Amphion and Volage were just stood by "Active".
"Aye aye sir!" Lieutenant Anthony Lee responded.
Admiral
Dubourdieu had a bad feeling as the French navy made a contact with the
British. "How many ships,
Lieutenant?" "4, Sir" Lieutenant Horace Pascal replied.
Dubourdieu was worried. Horace
was a green officer. He did
not know what to expect. The
fleets were manned by many "mousse", i.e., boys as early as 13
years old as Napoleon could only field the Navy with the young and
innocent, after all the war torn campaigns on land.
"At least, we have the numbers..." The French and the
allied Venetian had 3 frigates each. The
Venetians were headed by Admiral Laurent Hungier.
They contained "Corona", "Carolina" and "Ballona".
Carolina
closed in the British Volage, really fast from behind.
They exchanged fire heavily. Carolina
was badly damaged but Volage was sunk.
Corona came to grapple Cerebus and sent in the crew on board.
Bloody fight. Laurent
captured Cerebus as a prize and went after Amphion and Active, whose
gallant fighting with the French. Dubourdieu
commanded Flore, Favourite and Danse. Favourite
had a collision with Active on to a reef, and was sunk not long after an
evasive manoeuvre. Outnumbered,
Amphion had almost all the guns destroyed and Captain Hoste surrendered to
the French. Captain Whitby was
killed with the sinking of Volage.
"Vive
la
France
!!"
Dubourdieu couldn't believe they could beat the British with
numbers alone. They learnt the
lesson at Trafalgar well and put it back on the British.
With enveloping manoeuvring from the north and south, the British
fleet was surrounded and had no room to escape the ring of fire.
"Your Highness, we had a major victory over the island of
Lissa. Send this message,
Horace." Dubourdieu handed out the note to his young lieutenant.
A
brief review of two games of Hammer of the Scots played by Sam and
Andrzej. In the first game Andrzej took the part of the Scots and
after coordinating his forces took Sterling castle only to have the year
end due to both players playing event cards on the same turn. From
then it was downhill all the way, with the English taking and
keeping the initiative and bringing the game to a conclusion in 1301 - the
quickest Scottish defeat on record!
In the second
game the sides were reversed, with Andrzej thirsting for revenge . . . it
was not to be, however. Despite getting off to a good start, the
English never managed to pin down the Scots to a decisive battle, although
a minor Scottish lapse did allow the English to corner Wallace in Dunbar
and eliminate him from the game. The arrival of the Scottish king in
1303 allowed the Scots to regain some of the territory lost to the English
earlier in the campaign, such that at the end of 1305 (the Braveheart
scenario) the English only had a one noble lead on the Scots (equivalent
to the narrowest of marginal victories to the English in the Braveheart
scenario), play however continued into the full campaign. Slowly,
but surely, the Scots gained control of northern Scotland and pushed the
struggling English further and further south. Despite wresting Bruce
from English control in 1313 through the timely play of of the Herald
event card, the Scots narrowly missed gaining control of all the nobles,
the English hanging on to their sole noble, Galloway, at the end of 1314,
thus avoiding total defeat by the the skin of their teeth.
Congratulations to Sam on two well fought games!
Report on the
French Indo-China battle coming soon, in the meantime, some photos: