AAR Battle of Oliwa

[Bushbaby]

Battle of Oliwa (Danzig) 1627 between Sweden and The Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. AAR

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Oliwa

 I used the largest "map" in my gaming career, spreading 2000 (in game) meters in every direction.

Order of Battle:

Sweden:

Man O' War "The Tiger" (Nils Stiernsk?ld)
Man o' War "The Sun" (Alexander Forath)
War Galleon "The Moon"
Full rigged pinnace "The Parrot"

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth:

Small War Galleon "Knight St George" (Arend Dickman)
Galleon "Aquarius" (Herrman Witte)
Merchant Galleon "King David" (James Murray)
Full rigged pinnace "Noah's Ark"
Fluyt "Black Raven"
Fluyt "Yellow Lion"

We were two playing Swedes and three playing Poles with two ships each.

The battle started with us Swedes having to sail in a row upwind along the coast while the Poles had favourable winds and spread out along a wide line to our left.

An hour into the battle with only minor damages due to the 500+ meter ranges, our Swedish Admiral had one vodka to many, got drunk and decided to sail his flagship "The Tiger", and the small "Parrot", straight against the Polish line. A poor decisison, it would show.

I decided to stick to our original plan and sail the "Sun" and the "Moon,  past the end of the Polish line, successfully striking their last, lone galleon, the "Aquarius".

The "Parrot" was set ablaze and when the fire reached the gunpowder storage it went up like a 4th of July firecracker.

The battle ended after the sinking of the "The Tiger". Surrounded by six Polish ships she took a lot of punishment before going to the deep with the surviving crew. The other Swedish player had already abandoned ship (he was sleeping the vodka off) and given me command of hist last, sinking vessel. A doubtful honor.

Since the Aquarius was also badly damaged, the battle ended with a draw.

It was a very fun experience trying out my home made rules "Rake that stern!" One thing made the whole game more unpredictable: the players were not allowed to discuss tactics after the initial plan was set. So you had to guess the intentions of your team mates. Something that lead to a couple of near collisions among the Poles . And me not being able to stop my teammate going on a kamikaze run.

The Swedes to the left and the Poles to the right in the picture.

[Bushbaby]

The Swedish ships "Tiger", "Sun" and "Moon" (with a certain Admiral  )  The "Parrot" is to the right of the picture.

[Bushbaby]

The Polish-Lithuanian Navy

[Bushbaby]

View from the "Sun"

[fred]

Very cool!

How big was the ?table??

I think you should have allowed communication by flag signal

[Bushbaby]

Very cool!

How big was the ?table??

I think you should have allowed communication by flag signal

Thank you! I would say the "table" was about 20x20 meters big. The reason I removed communications all together was creating that chaotic feel of 17th century warfare. In those days naval line tactics were not a thing and every captain acted much more individually.

[mikedemana]

What a cool idea! I'm going to guess you didn't have a dog who took on the role of the Kraken and investigated or menaced the ships? 

Mike Demana

[Bushbaby]

What a cool idea! I'm going to guess you didn't have a dog who took on the role of the Kraken and investigated or menaced the ships? 

Mike Demana

Haha! No but we had a weasel climbing the barn in the background!

[Bushbaby]

The death of the "Tiger". All other ships surronding her are Polish. At the end her remaining crew could not repair the hull breaches and she sank.

[LouieN]

That is very unique and impressive. 

[fred]

Looks like you need some grass capable stands for your ships - the big rocks look a little worrying for damaging the sides of the ships.

[Bushbaby]

Looks like you need some grass capable stands for your ships - the big rocks look a little worrying for damaging the sides of the ships.

It was actually to keep them from blowing over due to a windy day

[AWu]

Great game, convention style.
Gulf of Gdansk is kinda muddy but not that green.. You have to work on the table