I remember reading a Hornblower novel where his ship was being attacked by three Xebec's full of Barbary Pirates, so when Morocco began preying on my trade lanes with Europe I was curious to see just how well CA had recreated the imagery of these small oared galleys.
The fleet I sent to deal with the Moroccan's was a bit of a weird mixture. My admiral was sailing in a 5th Rate Frigate, I had built two Brigs in anticipation that galleys might not function in the Altantic and I had a galley and three light galleys.
As it happens I could have stuck with galleys as I managed to lured the Moroccan fleet back into the Mediterranean by blockading their newly acquired port in Algiers. The worrying thing being that their entire fleet turned up rather than just one of their squadrons and it looked pretty impressive.
The deployment phase posed an interesting problem, as half my fleet were galleys with forward firing cannon, whilst the other half were sailing ships with broadside cannon. Clearly we could not all sail in the same direction and still be able to fire. In the end I split my fleet into two squadrons. The galleys formed one squadron which was deploy in line abreast so that they could all fire in the direction they were moving. The sailing vessels in the other other squadron were formed in line astern as is traditional to allow all the guns to bear as they pass the enemy.
However, at that stage it still seemed awkward and I had no idea how co-ordinate the movement of the two squadrons without obvious conflicts of purpose. Nevertheless the die were cast and I had not been given the option to withdraw so it was all or nothing.
So, I clicked the button to end my deployment.
What greeted me as the battle started was like a gift form the god. The AI had chosen rather stupidly to deploy all its light galleys (8 of them) in line astern, led by their Admirals barge and the long string of boats was heading straight into the mouths of my four galleys deployed in line abreast across their path. Deployed thus they would sail into cannon range one vessel at a time and each face the fire of my four boats.
I decided then how to use my sailing ships, for the obvious thing to do was wait until the enemy galleys had come withn range of mine and then sail down the length of their line (where they had no guns) and blast them with concentrated broadsides.
If they turned to try and bring their guns to bear on my sailing ships then they would present their sides to the galleys, whilst firing at the galleys would leave them unable to reply to my broadsides.
Well the plan worked perfectly. The enemy Admiral rowed smartly into range of my galleys leading his fleet like a line of little duckings to the slaughter. Practically, the first volley of cannon saw his galley explode in a in a casade of driftwood and the second and third faired little better and they tried to engage my fleet.
Meanwhile my sailing squadron glided smartly past the my line of galleys and moving slowly down the column of enemy ships blasted them apart in quick succession. One enemy galley captain did make a brave attempt to grapple and board one of the brigs but a broadside from my flagship persuaded him to strike his colours instead.
By the time the enemy reinforcements arrived their main force was already just a collection of matchwood and bodies and they quickly struck their colours after a couple of broadsides.
Herioc Victory - Go Navy.
Must admit the visuals for the naval battles are very good, especially the galley, if only the ships would keep moving without constantly being given new waypoints. But thats a minor issue.
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