AdamC: USS President and Corsair Xebec

Two very different ships on offer today.  The USS President and a yet unnamed Xebec.

 The USS President was a sister ship of the USS Constitution there were some differences in construction and armament.  The President was more heavily armed with 42-pounder carronades compared to Constitution’s 32-pounders.   

President side by side with Boston

President was the Flagship of commodore John Rogers in 1812 and 1813 and cruised extensively against British shipping often in company with other US war ships.  Rogers was unlucky and never had a shot at a English ship or squadron of equal force so his real contributions the American cause are over shadowed by the flashy single ship actions of other ships.  In 1814 President Switched commanders to Captain Steven Decatur and was captured by the British while trying to break the blockade. 

The details of the figurehead were a little hard to make out but I determined it was supposed to be George Washington in is Continental Army uniform which I did my best to recreate. 

 The Stern details are great lots of good "ginger bread" from the ships name to an American eagle and shield. 

 Next up a kit bashed Xebec.  I got another 6 brigs with the American Fleet set and more brigs are about the last ship type I need (I have 10).  So after waiting for Guy Bowers to share how he was going to make his Xebec.  I decided I would proceed on my own.  As a side note here are a pair of Islands I carved from packing foam. 

The hull is made from parts of two brigs.  The masts are part of left-over plastic spear parts.  The foremast should be leaning forward.  opted to have the fore and main masts with their lateen sail spreading to different sides because it looked cool (like a pair of wings) and I found several images with sails in this orientations.  The Sails are paper form my daughter’s art pad it took some trial and error, but they came out good in the end.  I sort of regret the bit of cloth I tried to make into a furled sail, but it doesn’t look too bad I suppose. 

I created a pop deck with some left-over bits including railings made from 15mm tank tracks (anyone spot that?) The paint job is of my own invention.  Green is a color that appears on several Muslim flags, so it seemed a likely choice for a warship.  I think the Xebec came together nicely and I hope to compare construction notes with Guy when he gets his finished.  Now I just need some good  Corsair ship names. 

A thrown together encounter

We were supposed to be playing Dave's home grown version of Pirate Frostgrave but Dave's son had an accident at school so Dave was with him at the ER (the lad is fine just a Sprain) so Frank and I were stuck throwing together a game with my miniatures and the terrain I and the store had on hand

The board is as you can see a bit  more open then I generally prefer but you use what you have.  I improvised a scenario based on the Saga Last Stand game.  We used the Pirate Frostgrave rules developed that Dave had developed.

My troops were on the out edge of the board...

While Frank was in the center.

One of Frank's Groups was isolated in the center so I sent troops rushing in with as much covering fire as I could manage.

I hoped to pull Franks other troops into the open were they could be easily shot... Well part of the plan worked any way Frank did advance into the open.

His shooting soon had some of my men down.. I also knocked out a few of his..

Then my leader took heavy damage.

My own men provided covering fire.

Stripping his leader of support but not before my own captain was down.

My pike man takes Frank's Captain to the brink but is killed in the fighting.

I ran out of time unable to kill Franks men before time ran out.  We both had a good time but the game would probably have played faster and better using Dragon Rampant.

Busy Day at Tortuga harbor

 Dave has been working on a Pirate version of Frostgrave.  We decided to test the rules.  Dave has his ship on the left, I'm in the center and Mike is on the Right.  Will has a party of government troops guarding the port.  The game is run in and grab treasure. 

 Dave Borrowed the ship and artillery rules from On Seven Seas.  The ship movement worked petty well the artillery less well (ranges need to be adjusted) Will did get one good hit in on my ship but the splinters didn't hurt any of my crew.

 Dave Mike and I agreed we wouldn't go at each other until we go to land... after all victory is related to treasure not ships. Our muskets shots begin to ring out.

 Will's soldiers are dropping fast

 Mike is trying to maneuver his ship into the dock

 I simply run it in my plan is to us it as a fort and fight every one off departing only after the others are driven off. The ships master (apprentice in frost-grave) runs ashore with the gunner at her side and their pistols shot drop the lone survivor of Will's soldiers on that side of the docks.

 My blunderbuss armed pirate attempts to sweep the flanking dock but his shooting was poor

 Dave and I are both racing for the treasure stacked by Will in one pile. I have more men and more guns..

 Dave's me are swept from the dock or flee.

 Mike finally makes his way in almost to the dock.

 My gunner and a marine  keep Dave bottled up while the rest of my men run in for the treasure

Dave and Mike are sniping at my men but lucky rolls give me the edge in the exchange.  I have a majority of he treasure and as many man as they have combined, a clear victory.  We need to give the guns butter range and I think En Garde will work better for us as a base rule set for club games but Dave has come up with some rules that will work great for conventions.

En Garde! game Two.

After our first go at the game of En Garde! we decided to try it again.  We basically put a bunch of treasure tokens down like Frostgrave to give us an objective.  I had a French army list (with Frank running the three soldiers on the left).

Mike had an "elite" pirate list (a list with all troops over rank 3) that I built.  I didn't give this list enough long range fire power and with two slow figures (peg legs) its at a significant disadvantage.

Dave had his list of Puritans and praying Indians.

My forces move into the center two musketeers taking firing position behind the wall to cover the rest of the force.

Mike has his two scouts up front, the blond sharpshooters and

the Gypsy pirate with her two pistols, team slow poke the two peg-leg pirates in the back ground

Frank grabs our first treasure token

My troops advance on the center area were the majority of tokens are.

Mike and I have a bit of a "Mexican stand off"

and neither of us want to be the first to go around the walls and face the others fire.

I get a man in firing position and hope that I win initiative.

Dave Kills one of Franks Musketeers

Two of Mike's soldiers are visible and I win imitative and open fire, Hitting the pirate lass

My officer takes another shot at her...

and down goes the first pirate.

Another shot and another of the scurvy dogs is down.

Mike takes a shot and down goes my second in command.

Frank takes out one of Dave's soldiers getting a little revenge.

In advances the gypsy scout

and lead fills the air as troops close on each other.

I kill the large pirate in hand to hand combat and the Gypsy runs looking for cover to reload her pistol.

She doges shots but is killed in hand to hand..

Franks lone musketeer is holding off Dave's forces on the left

but Dave has suck some men around while mike and I fight it out and grab treasure

the Blunderbuss kills of my men and wounds my commander

My wounded musketeer hits the pirate with the blunderbuss..

then my men rush the peg-leg pirates.

Long range fire exchanged on the left

Mike kills my commander but Frank and my swordsmen kill the blunderbuss pirate

The battle continues and the pirate commander goes down

Then the last pirate goes down and we call the game.  The Frostgrave style game didn't quite work the way we wanted. This game like Frostgrave needs a smaller table.  That said I like the system the hand to hand combat system is the center of the game and less complicated then it looks at first.