Pyrate King of Traitor's Atoll

Captain Andrew, Ghost-captain Lee and I got together again this week. In a bit of a departure from our recent 6mm ancients-fest though, we got some wee ships on the table for a spot of Galleys & Galleons.  Playing the Pyrate King of Traitor's Atoll scenario, we each commanded a small 100 point force, and strived (strove...?) to be the player with the vessel closest to the centre of the table at the end of each turn. 

Unfortunately the lighting was bit rubbish, so my photos are worse than normal. Sorry about that. Andrew took a sloop and a cromster, I commanded a brig, a jacht and a flotilla of boats, while Lee chose a ghost ship. Watch out for those islands and the surrounding shallows lads. 

In the first turn I tried to get my swift jacht and boats into the centre, making the most of their shallow drafts to skim over the shallows. The wee jacht fired a broadside across the bows of the ghost ship, but tiny cannon ... long range ... ghostship ... you know how it ended. In return, both Andrew's sloop and his cromster opened fire on my brig, leaving her with slight hull damage and knocking out one of her masts for good measure.

While Lee coasted slowly forward towards the centre - having to work around an island - my boats darted forward to grapple and board Andrew's sloop. Unfortunately they didn't count on the sloop's crew rolling higher than them.

The sloop cut the grapples fixing them to the sloop and made its way towards my jacht and the centre of the table. Having been freed up, my boats then rowed on and grappled Andrew's cromster, while my brig - still dragging one of it's masts - came up and grappled the cromster from behind. Meanwhile, the ghost ship sailed straight on and somehow managed to ruin it's hull by sailing into shallow water.

Exchanging fire, Andrew's sloop took a pounding, while my jacht was also damaged. My jacht sailed on around towards the boarding action taking place on the cromster, but was not really necessary as the brig and boats had already forced her to strike her colours. Poor ghost captain Lee then rolled to activate his ghost ship, managed to roll a 1 on one (was it both Lee?) of his damaged dice, and promptly surrendered. Obviously the curse which animated his crew was a fairly mediocre affair and had worn off.

Then Andrew failed to activate his sloop which sailed straight into the curse-less ghost ship, ruined itself in the collision and sunk. And thus, dear reader, with Lee having surrendered, and Andrew's vessels either captured of sunk, I managed -quite by default - to find myself being crowned Pyrate King of Traitor's Atoll.