Kiss Me Hardy Spanish v British

Having found Black Sea's not especially to my liking Dave suggested that we try the TFL set 'Kiss Me Hardy" so for my last game of the year Dave kindly came round to sail the seas of the Mediterranean in a scenario from the new Lard Mag called "Desperate measures in the Mediterranean".

After making up some cards and ship data sheets I decided to use my Spanish as the French in the scenario giving them somewhat better stats than the rules give to the Spanish but hopefully making the game a little more balanced. The British objective is to destroy the Spanish while for the Spanish getting off table to sail to Corsica while hopefully inflicting some losses on the British is what's expected.

The Spanish have four 3rd Rate ships, the San Francisco and the Neptuno under the command of Capitaine Diaz and the San Justo and Monarco under Commodore Rodrigo. Initially Rodrigo's force is at anchor having landed men to secure fresh water and food.

The British fleet also has four ships, Admiral Pound with the 1st Rate Imperial and the 5th Rate Firkin plus two 3rd Rates, Badger and Avoirdupois under Captain Stone.

The San Francisco and Neptuno are already under sail:

The San Justo and Monarca recall their ships boats and cut the anchor cables:

The Spanish have a land fortification available, unfortunately they appear to have failed to supply it with cannon or crews!:

The San Francisco and Neptuno are making good speed:

The San Justo and Monarca raise their sails and will be on the move soon:

The enemy appears! The Imperial and Firkin make slow progress hindered by the wind direction and the sailing ability of the big 1st Rate:

With a more favourable wind the Badger and Avoirdupois also appear and move towards the Spanish more rapidly:

Both sides clear for action:

The British open fire on the San Francisco with their bow-chasers:

The Monarca is better placed and fires her initial broadside:

The San Francisco takes a broadside from the Badger:

The San Justo and Monarca have raised sails and get under way both firing at the unfortunate Badger which is taking a bit of a pounding:

It get's worse for the Badger as the San Francisco replies with her own broadside:

The Monarca keeps the pressure on with another broadside. So far the British Avoirdupois and the Spanish Neptuno haven't had much of an effect:

More broadsides are exchanged. The Badger is taking a real beating now:

At last the Imperial and the Firkin prepare to join the fight:

The Badger has had enough and stikes it's flag after yet another broadside from the Monarca:

The situation may improve now for the British though as the mighty Imperial closes in on the damaged San Francisco and the Neptuno:

The San Francisco gets the first broadside off though it isn't as effective as it could be as many guns have been damaged in the fight with the Badger:

The Badger runs aground drifting after striking:

The ships close on each other! Now it is the San Francisco's turn to take a pounding, she has a lot of damage and fire has broken out. At least the Neptuno is still in good shape and can try to help out:

It is looking very likely that a collision will occur somewhere:

Meanwhile the San Justo and Monarca attempt to turn to engage the Avoirdupois:

The Imperial has just collided with the Firkin, luckily for the British the damage is minimal though the Imperial loses her bowsprit. With no other option the San Francisco puts her fire out and heroically sails between the two British ships then unleashes both broadsides! Despite the carnage on the San Francisco's decks she manages a few hits on the British:  

The San Justo and the Monarca are almost ready to resume the fight with the Avoirdupois. Both Spanish ships have taken little damage while the Avoirdupois is rather battered so the odds would seem to favour the Spanish:

The heroic crew of the San Francisco just fail to get off table and are forced to strike by the Imperial. However, the Neptuno ensures that everything isn't going for the British by stern raking the Firkin:

At this point we decided to call the game as we had been playing for quite a while and it was getting late.

For the Spanish the San Francisco had struck, the Neptuno and the Monarca had a little damage while the San Justo had not taken any damage at all. As for the British the Badger had struck and run aground, the Avoirdupois and the Firkin were heavily damaged and even the Imperial was quite damaged. 

As a result the Spanish Commodore is prepared to declare the action a mighty victory for his valiant ships with a special mention for the San Francisco which was in the thick of the action for the whole engagement.

I have to say I enjoyed KMH much more than I did Black Seas, everything seemed to go along quicker with the card-driven move sequence and be simpler to work out which, as a non-specialist in the period, is fine with me! The game took longer partly because I'd never played before and Dave had only had a couple of games so went spent a while looking things up, after a few games I'm sure it would be much quicker and I'm certainly keen to play again as the ships look fantastic. Of course it may have helped that I used French stats for my ships rather than Spanish so the difference in quality wasn't quite so vast.