Black Seas : Barbary Coast Ahead!

Halfway through painting my fleet of Barbary Corsairs Xebecs and Galleys...

And having completed the first of my USN Fleet:

For this 'Sunday Solo' game I wanted to get in some practice using my recent squadrons of 'fore and aft' rigged funnies against a couple of 'Square Riggers'.

A small, joint RN and USN frigate squadron is cruising off Algiers, along a stretch of coast dotted with rocks and shoals, attempting to sweep the pirates off the seas. USS President (44 guns/points) and HMS Sirius (36 guns/points) will take on 50 points of Xebecs (20 for a large and 10 for small) and 105 points of Galleys (35 for small).

Fortunately both frigates have experienced crews - lets face it, most of the US crew will have been trained aboard His Majesty's ships!

There's a fair bit different in Black Seas around fighting and navigating Fore and Aft vessels, not least because you reckon they are going to feel much more at home in shallow waters...

Weaving their way through sandbanks, rocks and shoals!

I made up a new 'Fore and Aft' attitude to wind template which points up nicely how much closer to the wind they can sail - 20 Degrees over 45:

I've also put together an aide memoire, assuming that the horrors of inshore waters will feature heavily in their tactics!

With the wind from due south, laden with hot dust from the Sahara, the Xebec squadron had no difficulty in sailing fast perpendicular to the wind right up to the USS President. The plan was for them to keep her engaged whilst the Galleys hugged the shoreline and then made a dash for her across the sandbanks. However, the 'Pig Trough' showed her teeth!

And took her punishment in return...

At this stage, with the wind sheering 5 points anti-clockwise, HMS Sirius found herself caught in irons and was wholly occupied with tacking... 

Meanwhile the galleys had worked their way through the shallows, which same rocks and shoals the USS President was desperately trying to avoid...

Even a stern rake was shrugged off by the President!

The corsairs had succeeded in splitting up the two frigates.

And now the Xebecs concentrated on HMS Sirius...

Much to their cost - the lead Xebec lost its rudder and was set ablaze, the remainder much knocked about...

USS President, narrowly avoiding the rocks, was set upon by the Galleys. 

One was quickly set ablaze by a lucky bow shot...

and fortunately for the USN, their armament was light and they thought better of using ramming tactics

Having sunk or set the Xebecs ablaze, Sirius attempted to close and aid the President.

But she was doing just fine on her own, thanks Limeys!

Compared to the Xebecs the galleys are pretty tough, but with such a light armament both remaining galleys could do no more that slowly whittle away...

As Sirius closed the scene of action, and with the Xebecs sunk or barely afloat, and one galley ablaze, the pirates slunk off. Just another day off the North African coast!

My first experience with fore and aft vessels was fun and instructive. They are potentially tactically more demanding, with their ability to exploit shallow waters, and ignore or sail closer to the wind. At first sight, galleys aren't worth their points considering their light armament. Picking off damaged ships by ramming is probably a better use for them....But Xebecs are potentially very useful if the conditions are right.