England expects that every man will do his duty. — Nelson

Well, at least they tried. I’m sure recriminations are already running rampant amongst the tars in Spithead and, more formally, with the First Sea Lord at the Board of Admiralty….

In an effort to seek and destroy a larger French fleet, a plucky group of 6 British ships-of-the-line and one frigate sailed forward in an attempt to ‘cross the T’ of the French and win the day. The British captains maintained fantastic seamanship in quickly assembling a column and sailing ahead. The French, well, let’s just say they weren’t generating a lack of confidence in the British as they spread out and sailed like, well, drunken sailors.

However, perhaps that was just a ruse, intended to spur exactly the overconfidence that it engendered amongst the British captains. As the game approached its midpoint, two distinct, but not entirely separate, catastrophic events occurred that would swing the pendulum of victory to the French. Captain Bill, with an utterly horrifying initiative roll at a critical juncture, allowed the French to close and begin firing. As a result, a completely lucky damage roll saw one of the British ships explode magnificently, ending the turn with the British doing absolutely… nothing.

Then, to add insult to injury, the British lost initiative AGAIN (this seemed to be a recurring theme of the latter half of the evening). Despite valiant attempts to rescue the situation and destroy or take prize of some of the French fleet, the British saw their disadvantage growing and growing.

It became evident that any further play would not change the result, of a decisive French victory. The British were forced to withdraw, licking their wounds and their captains needing several glasses of port to steel themselves for an inevitable Court of Inquiry.

All in all, another fantastic Age of Sail game hosted by Kevin who, although still curmudgeonly (“Rule #3: Don’t “f” with the Referee), nonetheless took some satisfaction to the improved seamanship of the participants as compared to the outings of several months ago.

Now, back to the grog we go to drink away our sorrows while the French celebrate with wine, women, and song in Brest.