Black Seas: Catch the Prize x2

Friday John and I met at the Hobby Bunker.  Despite his eagerness to get on with our ACW campaign John agreed to play Black Seas so I could be sure I had a handle on the rules before running the game I have planned for the 28th of March.  We used the "Catch the Prize" with the US navy acting as defender and the French navy acting as attacker.  I was very focused on the rules, so I didn't remember to take pictures every turn. 

The Merchant is in the lower corner it has turned away from John's French ships long range shots do minor damage to the French brig. 

As the ships close the US frigate hits the French Brig hard causing a crew hit and a fire (a bad combination) 

 John's Brig crashes into mine both ships take collision damage and are now on fire, I forgot the fire markers so we used the hot shot marker. 

The French brig did manage to put out its fire but then struck its colors rather and face fire form both my ships.  The American's closed on the French Frigate and both side took some hits but the merchant schooner made good its escape.  

 For our second game we switched sides.  I put a ship on each side of the Americans.  John did a good job using his frigate to hold off my brig as both ships traded blows.  My brig held its own until it was able to get out of John's arc of fire (trading boardsideds with a ship twice your size isn't a good idea). 

 My Frigate had a chance to cut inside John's brig but in the interest of learning the game I decided to grapple the American Brig.  The Boarding rules were quite clear and easy to understand the larger ship eventually forced the smaller one to break. 

 Meanwhile my Brig managed to get its gun on the Merchant Schooner.  I hit it fairly hard over two or three turns but never got a critical that would slow it and it slipped away. I could have tried boarding, but the American Frigate would probably have joined, and two ships overwhelmed my one.  The rules played well, much smoother than Trafalgar and more Realistic than the Osprey rules where ships "blew up" in a single broadside. There were lots of additional and advanced rules we could have used but we both enjoyed the game at this level of complexity.  Also, this is probably the first time John and I have played a rule set without having any disagreements about how a rule should be interpreted.  This is a tribute to the clarity of language and the good illustration of the rules (and a decent index) used by the Author and publisher.  I'm not generally a fan of Warlord Game's rules but this one is a new favorite; I hope they will continue to support it.