This was a five-player battle, using Mike's "Convoy Command" scenario as it was at the time. The three attackers -- Daniel Repaire-du-Lion, Paul the Pirate Prince, and the Dread Pirate Richard -- were all on the same team, with Daniel in overall command. The defenders, Cadet-Captain Mike and the Dangerous Lady Lora, formed the other team, with Mike giving most of the orders. There were no islands in this part of the sea. The defenders' object was to get at least half the gold in the merchantmen from the starting end of the map to the far end. The attackers' goal was to make off with more than half of that gold, either by boarding or by towing derelicts off to either side.
The convoy's formation was two lines of escorting ships, with the merchantmen in a disorderly line between them. Mike's big ships appeared first, with the Seattle and Freedom to the north and the Franklin and Hudson to the south. Mike skilfully maneuvered the entire fleet, keeping the lead ships moving at a crawl until the others could catch up. Lora's Naegling and Reconquistador came in on the north side, while the Sirviente and Longshanks joined the Franklin and Hudson. Lora played little role in this part of the battle, because she had to keep Typhoon Timothy occupied.
The attackers formed a rough line abreast, with Richard's ships staying slightly behind; Daniel wanted him to pounce on the merchies once he and Paul had punched a hole in the escorting forces. The defenders met them with two T-shaped formations, each with three strong ships up front and a weaker ship just behind them. Daniel was getting frustrated as the range closed -- he wanted to take the first shot, and Mike was determined not to give it to him. Finally, the Cadet-Captain maneuvered the Flying Frenchman into the same situation he'd achieved in their big death-match battle. Daniel's fleet got to take the first shots, but not many, and Mike would retaliate with every gun he had.
Those first shots were not wasted, though. Paul's Jarvis began the action by landing two good hits on the Seattle. Mike was heard to use some bad language, words like "tofu" and "broccoli," because not only was his ship damaged, but he couldn't use her gunnery bonus against another American ship. The Cat's Claw weighed in for an attack on the Freedom, but both her shots missed, and her Captain Griffin was asleep at the wheel and didn't try a reroll. The Ville de Paris also closed in, but couldn't find a target because the Jarvis was in the way.
Mike wasted no time in getting even. The damaged Seattle rammed the Jarvis and snapped off her mizzenmast, then fired two shots at point-blank range, and missed both of them. The Freedom raked the Jarvis' bow with short-range gunfire and knocked another mast down; her long-range cannons landed two quick hits on the Cat's Claw and took her out of the battle. Paul was dismayed, but his little Chesapeake got a measure of revenge by shooting a mast off the Freedom and killing her captain. The Jarvis hit the Freedom once at the same time. This led Paul to do a little chest-thumping in celebration.
Then it was Lora's turn. The Naegling positioned herself off the Ville de Paris' port bow and let fly with everything she had. Daniel watched in stunned silence as shot after shot struck home, and mast after mast cracked and fell overboard. Lora fired six cannons, and all six were on target. None of us had ever seen a five-masted brute turn into a no-masted barge that quickly! Lora celebrated, but not like Paul did. Seeing the fierce battle developing to the north, the gaggle of cargo ships veered to the south, which looked a lot safer.
The Naegling didn't get a second chance. Paul's Chesapeake and Richard's late-arriving Le Superbe teamed up to blast all three of her masts off, and killed her Helmsman as well. They came within a hairsbreadth of sinking her, but they should have known better than to challenge a hairdresser on hairsbreadths. At the same time, the damaged Jarvis rammed the damaged Freedom, then shot her last mast away. The Reconquistador returned the favor by ramming the Jarvis and ruining her last mast. The Seattle, no longer pinned, joined the ramming party by crunching into the Chesapeake and adding her hull to the cluster of derelicts that were clogging the northern part of the bay. The derelicts also sheltered the Seattle and the Reconquistador from the Superbe's cannons. (Mike had the nerve to suggest that he'd planned it that way.)
Meanwhile, on the south, the battle involved a lot more moving and a lot less brute force. Lora's Sirviente led the charge against the lead attacker, L'Espadon. She landed two good hits, and Mike's Hudson slipped in to finish her off. The Courageux got one of the Hudson's masts, and the purple-sailed schooner returned the favor a moment later. It fell to the Longshanks to finish off the tough little Frenchman.
The Sirviente then boarded Le Provence from a distance, cut down her captain, and sank the ship with accurate gunfire. The Bloody Jewel tried to avenge her fleetmates, but scored no hits. Lora attempted another distance boarding, but this time, the Bloody Jewel's crew fought with unexpected ferocity and won the boarding action. It was the Sirviente's captain who fell, and without him, Lora couldn't shoot. Richard's little ship had a clean shot at the merchantmen.
She was joined by a badly damaged Le Superbe. The Hudson had gotten behind her, and the Franklin had crossed the bay into firing position. Between them, they shot away four of the Superbe's five masts, but couldn't quite stop her. Daniel decided that, since the battle was all but lost, he and Richard would at least try to bag a merchie "for pride's sake." Haven't they read what the Bible says about pride?
They teamed up on the closest cargo ship, the Saratoga, and leveled two of her three masts. The Naegling, now free from the threat of the Superbe, used her Shipwright to fix a mast, while the Reconquistador pulled away from the cluster of derelicts to get into the battle. But all of Mike's and Lora's ships were out of position to guard the convoy, which would be on its own for at least another turn.
Remember when I said the cargo ships were "almost defenseless"? Almost, but not completely. Just behind the Saratoga, the captain of the Mohican saw a rare chance for glory. His ship had no cannons on this voyage, but she still had a stout bow, which rammed into Le Superbe and broke off her last mast. The Franklin reversed course again, finished off the Bloody Jewel, and the battle was over.
And what a battle it was! The combat was so fast and fierce, the merchantmen were barely 4L from their starting point when the fighting ended. The attackers were wiped out, while on the defenders' side, two big ships were derelict (one was repairing itself), two other ships took damage, and a third lost its captain, plus one damaged cargo ship. Because this was a team battle, the Captain's Coin (the winner's prize) did not change hands.
Lora was very pleased at the mayhem her longship had dished out, and that "her pretty ship" took no damage (although she did have to hang a "Help Wanted" sign on her captain's cabin door). Paul's Chesapeake hit with every shot she fired, killing two crew in the process, while Richard's Bloody Jewel out-boarded a bigger ship and made it through to the convoy intact. Mike's ships didn't do anything noteworthy, but he handled a seventeen-ship fleet with skill and daring.
The final tally did seem somewhat one-sided. What could have changed the outcome? As mentioned above, if the attackers had pounced on the convoy while it was still forming up, they could have done some nasty things to the lead escorts, and chewed up the convoy one ship at a time. Also, if they had divided their force into three separate fleets with some distance between them, they would have forced Mike and Lora to divide their force as well. Since the overall forces were even, this would have increased the chance that one of the three fleets might have won its battle and gotten through to the merchantmen.
In the end, none of these might have changed the result. Daniel has yet to defeat Mike's Americans in battle, and Lora is still riding an impressive streak of beginner's luck that should have run out months ago. Also, the scenario rules themselves need some tweaking to avoid favoring the defenders. But everyone managed to have some fun, and that's the final measure of a game. The young pirates have firmly requested a more conventional battle next time, though.