Kiss Me Hardy

Had another game of “Kiss Me Hardy” the Franco-Spanish had 8 ships on the Franco-Spanish fleet (5 1^st rates and 3 3^rd rates) while the Royal Navy had 6 ships (4 1^st rates and 2 3^rd rates (2 74’s a 64 and an 80). So we had gone over the top (and unhistorical) on the 1^st rates but we would see if this helped or hindered the Franco-Spanish.

Sides were decided randomly with Nigel and me Julian commanded the Franco-Spanish while “Broken Dice” David and “Uncle Albert” played the RN.

As usual we also decided the quality of the ships randomly and the Spanish managed 1 average and 3 poor ships, the French had 2 average and 2 poor. This time RN threw better with the RN 5 elite ships and 1 average.  

The Franco Spanish sailed on in a single squadron with the Spanish forming the back of the line (but we had forgot a rule which would bite us later). The RN also formed two squadrons, and battle plans were formed.

French sailed on with the Spanish due to form the rear of the line.

French leading the line

The RN sail on in two squadrons in perfect formation.

Orderly RN sail on in two squadrons

Chaos breaks out as the Spanish arrived, we had forgotten that we needed to take a “sailing test” to hold formation and with 5 poor sailing ship we needed to throw a 6 on a D6 so the line was split.

Chaos when the Spanish arrive

The French try to head the RN squadrons while the Spanish do some random sailing in the rear.

French sail towards the British

As the fleets close things start to go wrong for with the French with fire breaking out on the Orient as she receives fire from the Victory. Also the Genereux had her steering gear shot away.

Close engagement

The Victory and the Orient collided and the became locked when the Victory successfully grappled and the boarding action began.

Boarders away

The Spanish had finally managed to get the wind on their quarters and were able to engage the second RN squadron. The boarding action continued on the Orient with them losing another deck! The Genereux managed to collide and lose its bowsprit in the process.

Spanish appear and engage

To make matters worse for the Genereux she was also set on fire but and another strike test was needed.

Collison and Fire

Another French ship starts to burn as another fire breaks out, things are going badly for the French.

Fire everywhere

More collisions occurred between the Spanish and the second RN squadron with mast falling!

More Collisons

In the next turn the “strike test” card came out early and with three French ships and a Spanish ship “striking” the game was called with victory to the Royal Navy.  

French ships striking everywhere

Another cracking game and a good laugh.

“Fifteen (Well five actually) Men on a Dead Mans Chest”

The most recent game it was time to debut Paul’s collection of “Blood and Plunder” that he has been working on.

In the scenario three forces were involved. A Franco-Spanish force (commanded by Dave A, Dave B and “Uncle Albert” Julian) an Anglo-Dutch force (commanded by me and Nigel). While “Broken Dice” David played the Pirates who were the meat in the sandwich.  While Paul provided umpiring services.

In the scenario the Pirates had kidnapped a local Spanish official and the treasure he had in his possession and decided to hide in an abandoned farmhouse. The Franco-Spanish launched a rescue mission, while the Anglo-Dutch wanted to capture him for the information he could provide.

The expectation was that the main forces would engage each other while both sides would try to engage the Pirates!

The field of battle

Both sides deployed and deployed to advance towards the farm but who would be the most aggressive.

Preparing to advance

The Anglo-Dutch forces advanced rapidly towards the farm and soon started exchanging fire within the farmhouse.

Anglo-Dutch converging on the house

A four-man Forlorn Hope armed with firebombs advanced towards the farm but was shot at and soon there was a single man stood there. Luckily, he passed his morale test and he rapidly took cover under the wall.

Oops – Forlorn Hope suffer

The British charge the farmhouse trying to get into the ground floor.

Preparing to charge the house

While the Anglo-Dutch were heavily engaged with the pirates with both sides suffering heavy casualties. However, the Franco-Spanish were cautiously moving from cover the cover as they approached the farm.

Franco-Spanish not advancing as fast

Spanish forces slowly advancing across the board, will they cross the centre of the table?

Spanish slowly advancing

The Dutch on the hill engage the Spanish at long range with both sides taking casualties.

Dutch engage the advancing Spanish

By now the French had moved into a position to flank the British contingent and bring them under fire.

French flanking the farm

By now the Pirates had taken heavy casualties being outnumbered 2 to 1 by the Anglo-Dutch who were now fighting to enter the lower floor, while the British were now in a firefight with the French on the flank.

Fighting to enter the building

The Dutch were engaged in a firefight with pirates on the upper floor while the other unit was engaged with the Spanish now fighting to enter the building on the other side of the building.

Dutch shooting at the pirates on the upper floor

The Dutch musketeers now moved into the farm to reinforce the British who had cleared the ground floor and trying to hold off the Spanish attacking the other side of the building.

Dutch enter the building to support the British

The Spanish had advanced and wiped out another Dutch unit while the fighting continued in the building. This had not been helped when the French joined the fight through the side entrance.

Spanish nearly cross the centre of the table

The end came as the Spanish and the French drove the British and Dutch from the farm, rescuing the captive and recapturing the treasure. In addition, they managed capture the Pirate leader when he tried to sneak away.

Victory to the Franco-Spanish

So the Franco-Spanish tactic of waiting for the Anglo-Dutch and Pirates to “kick lumps” out of each other and then move in and “pick off” the survivors worked.

A great first game and look forward to the next game. The rules look interesting and give a good game.

Thanks to Paul for organising the game and just waiting for him to finish off the ships 😁.

Mission 5 – Large Airfield

Playing the last scenario of the North Africa campaign for 02 Hundred Hours.

The SAS raiders were controlled by “Uncle Albert” Julian, Nigel and me, while “Broken Dice” David again controlled the DAK forces. As with the other scenarios the raider players each took a character model and dividing the normal troops between them.

The scenario was a “Large Airfield” the raiders had to destroy the aircraft (1) and as many of the fuel tanks (2) before withdrawing.

To make life more difficult for the raiders the “Alert Level” started on suspicious so we only had a short time to get in position before the alarm would be raised.  

The single aircraft was in the middle of the board which would prove a problem later in the game as the German reserves arrived.

The raiders were moving on from the far board edge to avoid crossing the open airfield.

Airfield

Early moves saw my sergeant move onto the board and hide in the guard box to avoid the patrolling sentries.

Hiding

Split into three groups the raiders moved on with Nigel and “Uncle Albert” targeting the Fuel Tanks while I had the responsibility of destroying the aircraft with demolition charges.

Moving towards the targets

The raiders crept on making the best use of the terrain to avoid being spotted by the patrolling sentries.

Dodging the patrols

Couple of raiders playing “peek a boo” with the DAK Officer up the road

Peek a Boo

“Uncle Albert’s” patrol had moved into position in the cover and were awaiting the alarm to be raised before taking action.

Awaiting the alarm

As the alarm is raised sub-machine gun fire rips through the night and the first of the sentries goes down.

Alarm raised

This was soon followed by more fire from the raiders and another sentry goes down.

Clearing the guards

On the far side more firing takes out another sentry clearing the way to the Fuel Tanks.

Sentry down

The SAS sergeant has an argument with a dog handler as they round the water tank.

Argument with a dog

But the handler is taken out and the dog runs off.

Handler down

The first fuel tank is taken out by the SAS Officer and the patrol moves off to provide support to the centre.

First target down

First loss for the raiders as the bren gunner is taken out before he can fire a shot.

Raider down

The DAK Officer takes out one of the raiders with a pistol shot. Also by now the German reserves were flooding the airfield and all heading for the centre of the board and surrounding the aircraft!

Another raider down

The SAS sergeant bumped into another sentry on the way to the last of the fuel tanks.

Up close and personal

But the rest of the SAS patrol had cleared the way by taking out the German guards in the hanger and were advancing on the Fuel tank.

Germans suffering

The DAK officer had snuck up on my sergeant but had failed to take him out, but then he was taken out himself by the rest of the patrol.

Officer down

The SAS sergeant had by now taken out the sentry and was moving towards the Fuel tank.

By now we had decided that we would start to withdraw as our losses are mounting and there was a large number of DAK troops guarding the aircraft. The patrols near the exit points started to withdraw.

Way clear to the target

A grenade thrown at the fuel tank which exploded in a most spectacular way which killed 5 guards but also one of the SAS raiders. But also just after this we managed to exit the 50% of our troops from the board so we had won the game 😁.

Second target down with spectacular results

It was now time to count up the points for the objectives destroyed

“Uncle Albert” = 5 pts

Bryan (me) = 8 pts 

Nigel = 5 pts

This gives us a final total of:

“Uncle Albert” = 15 pts

Bryan (me) = 38 pts 

Nigel = 5 pts

Giving a grand total 58 points for the campaign. We didn’t managed to win any medals but we avoided getting demoted and got “mentioned in the local papers” for our activities.

I have to admit that the game can be incredibly frustrating at times but overall it is a brilliant game.

Overall a great laugh with good friends.

Mission 4 – Armoured Column

Playing the fourth scenario of the North Africa campaign for 02 Hundred Hours.

The SAS raiders were controlled by “Uncle Albert” Julian, Nigel and me, while “Broken Dice” David again controlled the DAK forces. The raider players each took a character model and dividing the normal troops between them.

The scenario was a “Armoured Column” the raiders had to destroy the halftracks (3) and as many of the supplies (crates and boxes) they could manage (5).

The patrol route was laid out and the SAS were going to enter the board from the left-hand corner of the board.

While the supplies can be destroyed by grenades the halftracks had to be destroyed by demolition charges these were being carried by the two sergeants.

The targets

Early moves saw the sniper creeping onto the table to provide overwatch sat there waiting for the alarm to be raised.

Sniper sneaks on and draws a bead

SAS raiders had to move in the open between cover as they attempted to get to the first half track target.

Moving in the open

The alarm level was triggered early due to the raiders deciding to tap dance onto the table. However this gave the chance for the raiders in the palm grove to “open up” on a pair of sentries.

Alert raised

At the same time the SAS manged to take down another sentry before they could fire on the sergeant approaching the halftrack.

Clearing the sentries

The SAS had also managed to take out the DAK officer on the approach clearing the way to the targets.

Officer and sentry down

By now chaos had broken out all over the table with both sides exchanging shots.

Chaos on the table

First of the supplies were destroyed by a grenade.

Access cleared

With the alert being raised the DAK reserves were flooding onto the table and facing off to a third of our forces.

German reserves flood onto the board

The SAS sergeant had made it to the half track and was preparing to place a demolition charge. However, he came under fire from the DAK sergeant who managed to take him out. This left us with a problem as we would need to recover the demolition charges before we could destroy the halftrack.

Sergeant down

The SAS were taking casualties after coming under fire from DAK troopers behind one of the supply targets.

SAS taking casualties

German casualties were mounting as the SAS raiders were trying to recover the demolition charges.

More German casualties

The pressure was mounting on the SAS as another trooper went down, this meant we were fast approaching the 50% losses that would mean we had lost the game.

Another raider down

Trying to get some points the SAS officer threw a grenade at the supplies in the truck which was destroyed. Luckily they didn’t explode as two of my raiders were using the truck for cover!

Another near miss

By now the German reserves had moved up and the SAS were taking more fire. Being outnumbered this was bad news for the SAS.

General firefight

With the losses mounting it was time to take a gamble and my Sergeant took the risk and placed the demolition charge near the halftrack and hoped he would survived the explosion which luckily he did.

Gamble

We had signalled the withdraw by this stage but the sniper was taken out so we were only one more loss away from losing the game.

Sniper down

As we were trying to withdraw another SAS trooper was taken out and we had lost the game 😒.

The End

It was now time to count up the points for the objectives destroyed (which is halved as we had lost 50% of our forces.

“Uncle Albert” = 2 pts

Bryan (me) = 6 pts 

This gives us a running total of:

“Uncle Albert” = 11 pts

Bryan (me) = 38 pts 

Nigel = 0 pts

Another cracking game which supplied plenty of laughs as well.

Mission 3 – Small Airfield

The third scenario of the North Africa campaign for 02 Hundred Hours.

The SAS raiders were controlled by “Uncle Albert” Julian, Nigel and me, while “Broken Dice” David again controlled the DAK forces. The raider players each took a character model and dividing the normal troops between them.

The scenario was a “Small Airfield” the raiders had to destroy the aircraft (5) and as many of the trucks they could manage (2). Once again the number of objectives is drawn randomly at the start of the game.

The patrol route was laid out and the SAS were going to enter the board from the left-hand corner of the board.

In addition the two SAS sergeants were carrying demolition charges as these were the only way we could destroy the aircraft.

The targets

As the SAS raiders arrived they were near a set of patrolling sentries which was not ideal.

Patrol route set and raiders advance

It also didn’t help the raiders were tap dancing and whistling as they moved on the board to alert the Germans.

Noise behind the drums

However on the other corner the SAS Officer has snuck on and crept up on the sentry that was moving towards two SAS troopers hung up in the wire.

Sneaking up on a sentry

The tactic worked and the sentry was silently removed from the game.

Target down

Now my sergeant made a potentially fatal mistake. He planted the demo charge to destroy the aircraft then I realised that there was two timer tokens to be drawn. This would mean that I would be standing next to the charge when it explodes – doh!

Potential fatal mistake

Chaos had broken out at the hanger as the SAS sergeant went into hand to hand with a pair of sentries and the German officer opened up on a SAS trooper.

Chaos near the hanger!

The SAS officer managed to take out a sentry while the SAS trooper was stunned until the end of the turn.

Another guard down

At the end of the turn the charge exploded and I had to throw for a wound and guess what I threw and my sergeant was killed in the explosion.

It was a fatal mistake 😒

The hand to hand continued at the hanger with both officers getting support.

Up close and personal

The German officer was taken out so things appeared to be going the raiders way except the man with the demolition charges was fighting in hand to hand and not blowing up the aircraft!!!!

German officer down

A German dog handler releases his dog to attack an SAS trooper stood next to the light.

Attacked by the dog!

One of my troopers had managed to get into a position behind a German officer and a patrol. However he couldn’t target the patrol as they had not been seen in the dark. So he opened up with his SMG on the officer.

Behind you!

But a lucky roll meant that the hits spread to anyone within two inches of the original target so he not only managed to gun down the officer and one of the sentries.

SMG fire works

While the German dog handler still lurked in the dark an officer behind him was spotted and a rifle shot rang and the officer went down.

Long range shot takes another officer out

The SAS officer now decided to throw a grenade at the truck which was destroyed much to the surprise of my trooper who was nearly caught in the explosion!

Close call as truck explodes

By now the dog handler had been spotted and targeted and while not killed he failed his “trauma” test and was stunned.

Dog handler targeted

While he survived the first shot he didn’t survive the SMG fire from the officer.

Dog handler down as another arrives

By now we had decided that we would not manage to destroy any more of the targets and our losses were mounting so we decided to “exit stage left” before we lost 50% of our forces.

Exit stage left

However we didn’t manage to exit the troops before we lost more men to the German reserves that were flooding onto the board.

The end

It was now time to count up the points for the objectives destroyed (which is halved as we had lost 50% of our forces.

“Uncle Albert” = 3 pts

Bryan (me) = 5 pts 

This gives us a running total of:

“Uncle Albert” = 9 pts

Bryan (me) = 32 pts 

Nigel = 0

Another cracking game which supplied plenty of laughs as well.

Raid on the Chapel

I put on a game of Pillage where Viking Raiders (commanded by Alan, Dave B and Paul) were trying to liberate 5 points of loot and get them back to their exit point within 10 turns, to gain a to crushing victory they had to gain 1 loot from the chapel. To stop them the Saxons (commanded by Dave A and “Uncle Albert” Julian) had to stop them!

In the early turns the Saxons moved in mass to protect the Chapel while the Vikings split into two attack forces. The Viking plan was for the armoured troops to act as a screen and protect the unarmoured warriors who would be responsible for collecting the loot and exiting the table as they moved faster.

Early moves

Saxons move to protect the church and see which way the Vikings would attack.

Defending the Chapel

On the left flank the Vikings advanced heading for the various livestock.

Viking left flank advancing

On the right flank the guards hadn’t got the message and while the unarmoured Vikings headed for the loot the huscarls and the chieftain lagged behind or moved on the other side of the stream.

Viking right flank but guards have not got the message

The Saxons raced forward to protect the livestock in the field and engaged the raiders to protect the loot.

Guards didn’t arrive before the Saxons

In the rest of the field the troops were engaged across the board.

Battle around the loot

Back on the left flank the Viking plan was holding and they had they had soon gathered three loot (the sheep) and with the armoured warriors to the fore.

Left flank grab the loot

Things were getting messy on the left when the Viking warriors had managed to charge the Saxon archers.

Archers caught and battle in the centre

On the right the Saxons had engaged the Viking Chieftain and had managed to killed one of the Viking Berserkers.

Berserker down

While combat was raging the Vikings were moving off with the loot.

Viking sneaks off with the loot

By now the forces were thinning out with both sides approaching losses that would cause morale tests to be taken.

Forces thinning out

By now the Vikings had managed to grab 3 pieces of loot and were heading for the exit points.

Running off with the loot

And on the left loot number 4 was led off bleating away.

Loot number 4

To try and get the last piece of loot required the Viking chieftain moved and two Saxon warriors moved to try and block him.

Saving the loot from the Viking Chieftain

In the centre the Saxon chieftain fell while fighting a Viking berserker but the berserker was taken out at the same time.

Saxon Chieftain and Berserker both go down

But by this time both sides were taking morale test and one of the Viking leading off the loot threw a 1 and therefore fled leaving the loot just short of the table edge.

Leaving the loot behind

With the end of the game approaching the Saxons had driven off the Vikings with the Chieftain still fighting for the goats. However victory belong to the Saxons.

The end and victory for the Saxons

Another cracking game with loads of laughs especially as the Viking commanders were bickering.

Mission 2 – Fuel Storage

It was time to play the second scenario of the North Africa campaign for 02 Hundred Hours.

The SAS raiders were again controlled by “Uncle Albert” Julian and me, while “Broken Dice” David again controlled the DAK forces. The raider players each took a character model and dividing the normal troops between them.

The scenario was a “Fuel Storage” the raiders had to destroy the fuel tanks (3) and as many of the supplies they could manage (1). The number of objectives are drawn randomly at the start of the game.

The patrol route were and the SAS were going to enter the board from the left side.

Early moves as the raiders move between the huts as the sergeant moves towards the fuel tanks wit the demolition charges.

Hide and Seek around the huts

One of the guards moving on the patrol route stubbles into a couple of the raiders.

Spotted

On the other side of the board the rest of the guards continue to move along the patrol routes until the alarm is raised.

Patrols making their rounds

The SAS officer emerges from cover and creeps up on the guard who had spotted the SAS raiders.

“Look behind you”

Using one of the “patrol” cards is used to let the SAS Officer to move up behind the guard and knifes him in the back.

Knife in the back

At the other end of the board a pair of guards move around the huts and spot a couple of raiders.

Sentries round the corner

Between the buildings SMG fire erupts from one of the raiders.

SMG fire erupts

The SMG fire takes out one of the Guards.

Sentry goes down

The SAS officer moved forward and lobs a grenade at the fuel tank which explodes.

Grenade takes out the fuel tanks

But the gamble does not pay off as the officer is “taken out”.

SAS goes down

The SAS sergeant had manged to place a demolition charge and made his get away before it explodes. This meant that he was in position to place the next charge on the remaining fuel tank.

Demo charge takes out second tank

By now the reserves were moving on and the guards were all moving onto the area where raiders had been spotted.

Moving to place another charge

The 3 troopers in my sergeants command were now trapped between guards and would have to fight their way out of a sticky situation.

Trapped

The sergeant had now placed the next charge and it was now time to run to get out of the way of the explosion.

Charge placed and time to run

An escape route has now been cleared as the SAS takes out another guard to clear their escape route.

Escape route cleared

The sergeant is running for the cover of the truck as the next demolition charge goes off and the explosion takes out another guard.

Escaped explosion and another guard down

The SAS sergeant has now got into cover of the truck. At the same time a firefight has broken out between the raiders and the guards.

Firefight breaks out

Another SAS trooper goes down and we are approaching the point where we had lost 50% of the raiders which would hand victory to the Germans.

Another trooper down

With the loss of another SAS trooper means that we have lost 50% of our forces so the game ends with a victory for the Germans.

End game as half of SAS taken out

It was now time to count up the points for the objectives destroyed (which is halved as we had lost 50% of our forces.

“Uncle Albert” = 3 pts

Bryan (me) = 5 pts 

This gives us a running total of:

“Uncle Albert” = 6 pts

Bryan (me) = 27 pts 

Another cracking game which supplied plenty of laughs as well.

02 Hundred Hours – Mission 1 – Supply Dump

We took the decision to replay the Western Desert campaign for 02 Hundred again.

The SAS raiders were again controlled by “Uncle Albert” Julian and me, while “Broken Dice” David controlled the DAK forces. The raider players each took a character model and dividing the normal troops between them.

The scenario was a “Supply Dump” the raiders had to destroy the supply trucks (4) and as many of the supplies they could manage (4). The number of objectives are drawn randomly at the start of the game.

The patrol route was set up and the initial moves started. On our left flank the SAS Officer (a Paddy Mayne figure) moved through the scrub and a rifleman moved on the right to cover the demolition sergeant.

Deployment

The sergeant moved to the rear of the truck and placed the demo charge while hiding from the patrol.

Demolition charge placed

He then managed to get the moves required to move around the corner and get ready to place another demo charge on the second truck.

And then does a runner

As the patrol nears the truck the demo charge explodes and the “alarm” is raised for the defenders.

Demolition charge explodes and alarm raised

The sergeant is now on a roll and has placed another demo charge and snuck around the corner.

2nd Demo placed and then again manages to move

But this does mean that he is playing hide and sneak with one of the DAK sentries who is behind the nearest truck.

Playing hide and seek with the guards

The second truck detonates and Mayne “opens up” on the DAK sergeant as things start to “heat up” as the DAK reserves start to enter the table.

Second truck explodes and Mayne goes off on one

“Paddy” switches to grenades and lobs one at the supplies which are destroyed.

Grenades away

By now the sentries are exchanging fire with the SAS raiders who are sheltering behind a stack of supplies they are supposed to blow up!

Exchanging fire

Casualties are exchanged as an SAS raider and a sentry are taken out.

Guard and raider down

The sergeants luck holds as after placing his last “demolition charge” on the truck he is still standing beside it (two timer counters came out) before he had a chance to move! However he is lucky on the dice roll and doesn’t get injured. Taking advantage of this he lobs a grenade at the last truck which explodes and destroys it. He is really on a roll!

Trucks 3 and 4 down

He then manages to move off around the corner of a building lobbing another grenade at a pile of supplies.

Sergeant carries on his merry way

Continuing his one man demolition of the supply dump he then moves towards the exit point but manages to blow another supply dump as he passes it.

Happy in his work

To clear the sergeant’s path to the exit point the riflemen who has sat there for most of the game takes a shot and takes out the last of the sentries that could intervene with the sergeants escape.

Shot in the back

The DAK forces had been unlucky with their reserves in the sense that they could not detect exactly where the raiders were so most were still milling about near the entry point.

Reserves wandering around

The SAS were now moving rapidly moving towards their escape points.

Exit stage left for the SAS

It was now time to count up the points for the objectives destroyed.

“Uncle Albert” = 3 pts

Bryan (me) = 22 pts 

So with most of the objectives destroyed and only two casualties on the raiders side it was a victory for the SAS.

It is also worth saying that “Broken Dice” lived up to his name as the phrase “barn door” springs to mind when it came to the shooting of the DAK forces.

The “man of the match” goes to the SAS Sergeant who completed his one-man demolition mission without firing a shot in anger 😁.

Another cracking game which supplied plenty of laughs as well.

I have to admit I really love this set of rules.

Painting Coefficient June 2026

It is time to have a look at the output for the last three months of the year.

Normans

The last army for my “Dark Age” project brings it into the medieval era with the Norman army. Again this is bolster my original Saga force so I can use it for Midgard and Hail Caesar as well as providing a few figures for dismounted knights in Pillage.

Norman foot based on 60mm bases

Total = 60

Couple of dismounted commanders.

16 individual based figures that can either be used in sabot bases or in skirmish game.

Napoleonic  

I actually managed to get another Napoleonic battalion done. This time it was the Anhalt Battalion for the Confederation of the Rhine that fought in the Peninsula War. The standard was from Maverick Miniatures cloth standards.

Total = 24

WW2

Couple more figures completed for O2 Hundred Hours this time it was another Dog Handler and some dead bodies.

Total = 6

Carthaginian

Finished off the last of my Pachyderms for the Carthaginians this time as Libyan/Numidian elephants using the Little Big man transfers for the howdah and blanket.

Total = 8

Cruel Seas

And now for something completely different – two lighthouses! These were a present form “Broken Dice” a long time ago and have been staring me in the face for a couple of years at least.

Total = 2

With birthdays and my own weak willpower the number of figures added to the “pile of potential” is higher this quarter.

Total Number of figures added = 166

Total Number of figures painted = 100

Overall Coefficient = 66

However how are we doing in the year to date?

Total Number of figures added this year = 182

Total Number of figures painted this year = 192

Overall Coefficient Year to Date = -10

So actually still managed to reduce the “pile of potential” 😁

Kiss Me Hardy – part 5

We repeated the last game we had in April with the same fleets using the “Kiss Me Hardy” rules using the same larger fleet, 8 ships on the Franco-Spanish fleet (4 1^st rates and 4 3^rd rates) while the Royal Navy had 6 ships (two 1^st rates and four 3^rd rates (2 74’s a 64 and an 80).

Sides were decided randomly with Nigel and “Uncle Albert” Julian commanded the Franco-Spanish again while “Broken Dice” David and I played the RN.

As usual we also decided the quality of the ships randomly and the Spanish managed 1 average and 2 poor ships, the French threw well with 4 ships being average and 1 being elite. This time we threw better with the RN 4 elite ships, 1 average and 1 poor.  

Both sides sailed on in two Squadron formations with the Spanish forming a second line sheltered by the French. The RN also formed two squadrons, and battle plans were formed.

Fleets deployed

The French and Spanish decide to hold their formation and sail ahead while the RN split to attack the head and tail of the French squadron and then tackle the Spanish.

RN Split to engage the head and tail of the French

The early moves didn’t go well for the RN with the HMS Ville de Paris (100 gun) had her steering gear shot away and sailed away from the combat. In addition the French squadron kept managing to move first and were heading the other RN squadron (moves and firing are drawing cards and the French squadron kept coming out first!).

French heading the line

With the French keeping the advantage of moving first was the ability to inflict heavy damage on HMS Victory which means that it is rapidly losing its ability to hit back.

Victory taking heavy damage

The Victory and the Impetueux (64) had to form a parallel line to the French and exchange fire which they were coming off second best.

Having to match the French line

The Ville de Paris finally heaves too and manages to repair its steering gear and prepares to rejoin the battle.

Rudder shot away and missing the action

The French kept the advantage and were holding their fire card when their move card then is drawn which is bad news for the HMS Victory as a series of French ships moving past and issuing fire not only inflicting damage but also inflicting “heavy officer casualties”. Things were not looking good for the RN.

French keep the advantage

The other RN squadron was trying to close on the Spanish squadron as fast as possible with both side inflicting damage on each other.

Trying to close from the rear

Now the HMS Tonnant enters the fray, and things go from bad to worse for the RN. In rapid succession the Tonnant has her steering gear shot away, a mast shot away and is set on fire. This proves to be a major problem as the RN has yet to move!

Tonnant has steering damage and on fire!

When the RN moves the Tonnant collides with the French line, which then means that the Victory collides with the Tonnant and the Impetueux collides with the Victory 😱. This means that the Victory and the Tonnant ending up striking!

Bumper cars

Soon after that the game was called with a victory for the French with two RN ships struck to one French ship striking. How am I going to explain this to the admiralty?

The end

Another cracking game and a good laugh with great friends.