The table set up with the mouth of the River Anduin on the eastern side of the table.
Ship Data card for the Corsair Frigate
Ship data card for the Gondorian Cog (Frigate)
The Corsairs approach from the south-western part of the table.
The Gondorian fleet sits upon the river.
A township along the river.
Two squadrons of Corsairs in their set-up location.
Two squadrons of Gondorian galleons.
Wind direction is determined to be from the south, blowing as a Southerly across the bay.
The mouth of the River Anduin. When travelling down the river, the water flow adds 2 inches to movement. When travelling up the river (i.e. eastwards) the water flow subtracts 2 inches from movement.
The Corsair fleet eye's the mouth of the river and a township to plunder.
And splits into two squadrons to circumnavigate an island in the bay.
The Corsairs have the wind with them.
The Gondorian fleet, alerted by watch towers igniting their fires on the islands of the bay, launch and head down river carried along by both wind and river flow.
The Corsairs split and come around both sides of an island to meet the Gondorians.
The Gondor fleet enters the bay leaving the river behind.
The northern Corsair squadron moves to engage the Gondorians.
The southern Corsair squadron moves to out flank the Gondorians.
The disposition of the fleets currently.
The Gondorians close with the northern Corsair squadron but are just outside of effective range and have no success with their ship mounted mangonels.
The Corsairs outfox the Gondorians and move to boarding actions. The northern most (i.e. left most) Corsair ship fires on the Galleon closest to it. The Gondorian is in range band one but only partly within the broadside arc of the Corsair ship. The Corsairs score one hit on the galleon but it doesn't do any damage.
The Gondorians scramble to fend off the boarders as grappling hooks grab hold of their galleons. The Gondorians have Armoured Forecastles and a crew of 3 against the Corsairs crew of 2.
Turns out it wasn't such a good idea for the Corsairs to attempt to board and capture two of the Gondorian galleons. The fight sees one crew of the middle Corsair ship be shot to pieces from the Gondorian archers in the Armoured Forecastles. End result is that the Corsairs score two hits (both negated by the Armoured Forecastle) and the Gondorians score two hits as well, killing the Corsairs in bloody combat and Capturing the Corsair ship!
The second boarding action saw neither side loose any crew members and thus the fight carried over to the next turn.
The second Gondorian squadron then closes in to the northern Corsair squadron. The middle galleon has the northernmost (i.e. left most) Corsair square in the sights of its mangonel. The Gondorian galleon opens fire...
And scores three major hits (i.e. rolling a six)! This scores 2 hits for each of the three successful dice rolls and permits an additional dice roll for each of these successful hit.
Another major hit causing 2 damage and permitting yet another roll.
All up, there are a total of four major hits, causing 8 damage.
This exceeds the Corsair frigates Critical Rating (CR) and, as a frigate with a Hull Rating of 2, no critical hit is scored. Instead, the Corsair frigate is sunk! A massive hit that must have used the Gondor equivalent of Greek Fire as the Corsair frigate is holed and sinks immediately.
Oops!
With this the fighting for the turn ends. Of the northern Corsair squadron of three ships, one has sunk, one has been captured and the other is still involved in a boarding action.
The southern squadron of Corsair ships make their way around an island and head northwards to meet the Gondorians.
With this the current turn ended. Stay tune for what happened next!
