Kiss Me Hardy "The Irish Question"

My second game of KMH, this time another scenario from a Lard Magazine called "The Irish Question" which is based loosely on an attempted French invasion of Ireland in the winter of 1796 which aimed to land 15,000 men plus supplies in Bantry Bay.

As with the previous game I just used my Spanish instead of French with Dave taking the British. My force consisted of two 'average' crewed 74's ('San Francisco' and 'Neptuno'), two poor crewed 74's ('Santa Anna' and 'Argonauta'), two average frigates ('Hermiona' and 'Santa Catalina') and four troop transports.

Dave's British had an initial force of three frigates ('Phoebe', 'Amazon' and the famous 'Indefatigable') with reinforcements of two 74's ('Majestic' and 'Swiftsure') and another frigate ('St. Albans').

The initial situation is:

The situation is rather complicated by the wind direction not helping at all as the Spanish transports try to enter the landing site. I deployed the frigates forward followed by the four 74's with the transports shielded behind them. The plan was to send as much of the fleet as possible to engage the British hopefully allowing the transports to sneak past and land the troops.

The Spanish fleet sails into action:

The enemy is in sight! The 'Hermiona', 'Santa Catalina' and 'Neptuno' move to intercept:

Action Stations! With the advantage of the wind the Spanish close quickly:

The engagement begins:

The 'Santa Catalina' rakes the 'Amazon' while the 'Neptuno' and 'Hermiona' also open fire:

The rest of the fleet presses on towards the landing site:

The British frigates respond to the Spanish broadsides with their own:

The 'Hermiona' battles on against the British:

The British reinforcements arrive including the two slow but scary 74's:

The 'San Francisco' desperately tries to cut off the leading British frigate from the troop ships:

The 'Neptuno' is stern raked damaging it's steering and starting a fire, the ship has taken a lot of damage. The 'Hermiona' attempts to distract the British 74's:

Fire from the 'Swiftsure' forces the 'Neptuno' to withdraw from the fight after a valiant attempt to hold off the British:

The 'Indefatigable'  avoids the 'San Francisco', draws alongside a troop ship and pours in a close range broadside causing it to strike:

Bottom left the 'Santa Catalina' is still in action despite taking a lot of damage, firing both it's broadsides at once into the British:

The 'Phoebe' and 'St Albans' have taken a battering while the 'Amazon' is a floating wreak so not everything has been in the British favour by any means. Unfortunately for the Spanish though there is nothing between the relatively undamaged 'Indefatigable' and the troop transports:

The battle rages on:

However, the 'Indefatigable' forces another troop ship to strike and there is no way the Spanish can get the remaining two troop ships through to the landing site. The invasion attempt has failed!: 

For the Spanish the 'Neptuno' had been forced to retire from the action while the 'Hermiona' and 'Santa Catalina' were badly damaged. The 'San Francisco' and 'Argonauta' were relatively intact while the 'Santa Anna' never got into action. For the British three of their four frigates were very badly damaged with the rest of the fleet taking only minor damage.

The action was quite close, if I had managed to cut off the 'Indefatigable' with the 'San Francisco' the troop ships would have got through but unfortunately the 'San Francisco' didn't quite make it in time and, once past, the superior sailing ability of the 'Indefatigable' meant it could easily mop up the troop ships. 

On reflection I made a mistake putting the frigates at the front of the line, I should have lead with the slower and stronger 74's and used the frigates speed either as a flying reserve or to try to distract the larger British ships. Hopefully I'll learn from that....

Having played two games of KMH now I have to say I really like the rules so far. They are quick to play and, unlike Black Seas, the quality difference between the British and Spanish (using French stats admittedly!) isn't so marked, even with the Spanish stats I think they could at least put up a fight unlike in Black Seas where it seemed absolutely hopeless!

I have to say I had mentally consigned the ships to the 'Well they look great and I enjoyed making them  but I'm never going to use them' category so it's great to find a set of rules I like playing and hopefully they will see a lot more action in the future!