The English worked out their peace treaty with the Amercs. The Amercs were forced to abandon their islands they controlled and take everything back to their harbour. The treaty ended the war and determined that the Amercs could not expand to islands, attack the English, or do any kind of enterprising actions.

The Pirates, ready to attack the very well-defended French harbour housing the Franco-Spanish fleet of over 100 ships, were not aware of a massive hurricane brewing to the east. The Pirates attacked, causing incredible carnage and confusion. The Teach and Seleucis sank Allied ships left and right while the Toro did the same to the Pirates.

Then the hurricane struck! Rock them like a hurricane!
Don’t think there’s much else to say. The fleets were annihilated by the bad timing of mother nature. It didn’t help that the wind was blowing due south, forcing ships onto the rocks. Lightning struck down masts as the rain and wind combined to swamp ships, foundering while their crews tried in vain to bail. The few hundred survivors managed to return to their respective harbours, knowing the forgotten war was over. This brings my HFS (historical fantasy scenario) to an end!

I picked up the islands and reefs while putting ships back on the deckplates of their harbours. I was sad, but extremely excited to start my next project: a five-way 500-point game! Cumulatively, 2500 total points! 😮 (2520 if we add the ransom crew +5’s)

The factions for this massive enterprise remain the same. It will be the English v.s. Pirates v.s. Spanish v.s. French v.s. Amercursedcorsairebels. I have already constructed the fleets with crew (had to write all of it down last night, it was quite fun!, never built fleets that big). In total, I am using 151 ships and six sea monsters. Many very prestigious and well-known ships will be participating, including: HMS Grand Temple, HMS Titan, Nautilus, Enterprise, Divine Dragon, El Acorazado, Revenant, Harbinger, Raven, Lechim Namod, El Toro, Darkhawk II, Magnifique, Soleil Royal, Jarvis, and Asesino de la Nave. I am planning on using 20 islands, with ten of them being mysterious. I am also planning on using 5 reefs, 5 fog banks, 4 sargasso seas, 4 icebergs, and 3 whirlpools. I am using all of my unique treasure (22, I think?). Hopefully it will live up to my expectations.

Feel like I’m forgetting something…whatever.

Today was nice and easy, but I will admit that I am biased towards the Royal Navy.

The Amercs had the Terror and the Mobilis, two subs, submerged outside the English harbour so they could keep an eye on them. The English used up most of their reserve monies to ‘complete the fleet’, buying the only ships they had yet to build, the most powerful. They built their five five-masters, awakened(?) the two Luscas (sea monsters, if you didn’t know), and my original HMS Lord Walpole and HMS Birkenhead (my first English ships, they are very special to me). Then they put the two Luscas on underwater surveillance and sure enough, they spotted the two subs from deep in the water. Somehow the Luscas were able to communicate this to the English (any ideas on how?), and the English made the Luscas bring the subs to the surface. The subs were brought to the English admiral, who forced them to surrender or face the incredible broadside of the newly commissioned English flagship, HMS Lord Algernon :cool:. If they submerged, they would just be carried back up by the Luscas.

The English admiral proceeded to replace the Mercenary crew with an English crew, with the sailors using the clothes the Mercs had to play the part beautifully. At gunpoint, the Mercs were forced to tell the English the exact locations of their islands and harbour, as well as directions on how to effectively man and use the submarine. Then, with the Mercs, now officially POW’s, safely put away, the English admiral told the Englishmen what they were going to do.

So the English had their first subs and were embarking to find the Amercs! This brilliant plan would soon come to fruition. The English (as Mercenaries) completely fooled the Amercs and told them about how the English had only a handful of ships, most of them badly seaworthy, the crews were being decimated by scurvy, etc., etc. The Amercs proclaimed victory in their war against the Britons and set out to destroy this weak British fleet! They didn’t send their whole fleet, only a portion of ships of the line, but the fleet was still impressive at 28 SOL’s (including three of their four biggest ships) and 20 frigates. The two subs raced back to tell their comrades of the perfect sequence of events, and once safely ashore, the British sunk the two subs just off the harbour, announcing that sailing ships would rule the seas forever! (I wish)

The Amercs sailed leisurely along, singing sea songs while enjoying each other’s company and making bets on how fast the English would surrender. Some sailors bet they would surrender without firing a shot!

OH MY, OH MY. BIG PROBLEM. All I am going to say is: don’t mess with the Royal Navy. The English had 96 ships, but knew they wouldn’t need them all. They positioned their 17 three deckers, four frigates and the two Luscas to the southeast of the harbour, the wind blowing due north (no doubt a “Protestant wind”, this would be key later on). What happened next was one of the biggest fiascos/routs/dominating performances/whatever you want to call it in history. At night, the four English frigates surrounded the two Bletchleys that had been captured in the last battle and forced them to surrender. The two Luscas picked off the remaining 18 frigates one by one while the rest of the fleet, farther back, had no idea, singing too loudly and celebrating, not hearing the sudden screams of their fellow sailors.

Morning came, and the Amercs were hung-over and not at all ready for battle. After assuming that the frigates had just gone ahead to scout the situation, they decided to wait another day to attack. The English, however, would not. With the unfurling of the sails, the 17 three-deckers came bearing down from windward on the Amerc fleet. Every sailor, officer, and captain in the fleet suddenly had their eyes wide open :eek:. “We have been deceived,” said the Amerc admiral aboard the Enterprise. “Tell the men to load their guns and prepare for battle.” The decks were not even clear when the English swept down on them. The HMS Success and HMS Titan surrounded the USS Stephens, dismasting her and forcing her to surrender. Two HMS Gargantuans surrounded the Enterprise. The other Titan and the HMS Lord Algernon surrounded the 6 masted junk, Divine Dragon, and dismasted her. After ten minutes of furious broadsides, all three had surrendered. The two Luscas and the remaining British ships rounded up the rest of the Amerc ships and forced them to flee to leeward, but they could only go so far. Suddenly the rocks were sighted to the north, giving them the chance to surrender, be dashed on the rocks and killed, or fight a superior enemy and be killed.

At the conclusion, the British had captured 30 ships (including recapturing the three English ships), while sinking another 18. In the following weeks a British fleet told the Amercs to the east of the defeat, repaired the three flagships (now they have the “HMS” Divine Dragon, watch out!), and worked on a peace treaty.

The treaty will probably be worked out soon, and now I concentrate my energies on determining how the Franco-Spanish war with the Pirates should end.

Today, July 29th, I had the biggest battle of my current historical fantasy scenario so far, and it didn’t disappoint.

The Franco-Spanish allies departed from the Spanish harbour with 104 ships, and the Raven made sure they were heading to the French harbour as expected, then she raced off to tell the Pirate admiral and the Pirate squadrons lying in wait just off the French harbour. The Spanish harbour is to the north, and the Pirate harbour is just around a cape directly to the south. The French harbour is to the east of that harbour, so the Allies went east for a bit and then turned southeast. The Allies sailed in a massive formation where the van was shaped as a V, with their 18 frigates out in front scouting for trouble, which they would soon run into. Then came the three-deckers (four-masters in this case), then another line inside of them of ships of the line on both sides of the transport ships, which were two deep and protected on both sides by double lines of SOL’s (ships of the line). This intense and closely packed protection was suggested by the French, who warned the Spanish of how there was a good chance of a surprise attack on the voyage, or maybe the Pirates would be waiting for them in their own harbour! They were taking the relatively short journey very seriously, which would pay off. The transport ships carried the gold (for repairing and building new ships), as well as the infantry troops and artillery pieces.

The Pirates had a line of SOL’s anchored to the west of the French harbour and to the north, creating an L-shaped formation of powerful ships. This was strengthened by a squadron of ships stationed at a nearby island, and by a host of reserves to the south, not to mention the ships still in the Pirate harbour.

The Raven, being the Pirates’ fastest ship, told everyone that the Allies had departed and were now presumably on course to collide with the Pirate fleet. Obviously, an epic battle was inevitable, neither side willing to back down!

The Raven rounded up the other nine Pirate frigates and led them to the northeast, then turned due south with the wind and came down on the foremost Allied ships, forcing them out of the Allied formation. The battle was on! The Allies cleared their decks for action and loaded the guns, knowing full well that they were probably going to soon run full-tilt into an impressive Pirate fleet. What they didn’t count on was not being able to get their transports safely into the harbour. The Pirates had positioned the anchored L they formed so that the first ships of the intersecting lines were tied together at the bows, as well as the ships on down the line, creating a nearly impenetrable wall of firepower, and the leading Allied ships would be exposed to fire from two directions.

The Allies sailed toward the intersection of the L, where directly beyond lay the French harbour, a safe haven away from the chaos and carnage. The frigate battle was progressing, but although the Pirates first had the weather gauge, they were outnumbered two to one. Meanwhile, to the southeast, the Allies’ biggest ships had reached the apex of the L and purposely rammed the two Pirate three-deckers tied together and other ships followed suit and rammed other Pirate ships, but could not break through! As masts fell and the carnage increased, the distances between ships completely evaporated, as almost the entire Allied fleet fell into the L and ships were crushed together in the desperate effort to get through. The Allies had a secret weapon, though. The gigantic crab El Toro suddenly arose from the depths on the other side of the Pirate line and began wreaking havoc on the first Pirate ship, tearing out masts and cutting her anchor cable, sending her drifting to the south, letting the Allies begin to go through the new opening.

The Allies’ weak rear came under attack by the reserve squadron of the Pirates, and they fought desperately to try to keep the Pirates from getting to the transports. The ships in the Allied formation became incredibly cramped and were not able to maneuver. The Raven alerted the Pirate admiral in his harbour of the need for more ships, and the Pirates accordingly sent a dozen ships, nine of them three-deckers. Meanwhile, the Pirate frigates were suffering badly from having to fight both broadsides. The Allied ships continued to break through the Pirate L to the French harbour, only to find Pirate ships manning the otherwise deserted harbour! These ships were not as prepared as others in the battle, as they did not think that the Allies would break through the Pirate line so quickly. The Pirate ships farthest north cut their cables and headed south to the mounting carnage as more and more ships got involved.

The Pirates were losing tons of masts and the east side of their L had completely disintegrated when the Pirate reinforcements of a dozen arrived from their harbour, almost at the same time the two Pirate sea monsters made their appearance. The Teach and Seleucis. The five-master Prussian Crown led the way, with fellow five-master Harbinger directly astern. In an act of pure aggression, the Prussian Crown sailed straight into the frigate battle to try to get to the Allied transports. Friend and foe alike scampered out of the way as the huge three-decker made her entrance. And what an entrance it was! The Prussian Crown smashed her way into the Allied line, her first doubly-shotted broadside sending 110 cannonballs careening through the decks of her poor opponents, a couple of Spanish 64’s, who both were quickly dismasted and on fire. The horrors that befell the Allied rear in this battle were almost indescribable. The three-deckers from the west were joined on the other side of the Allied formation by a handful of Pirate ships from the east side of the L, and the pincer movement was devastating. Hundreds of soldiers lost their lives on the transports as broadside after broadside rained down masts and rigging, starting fires below decks, one of which reached El Pulpo’s powder magazine. The Pulpo exploded!, and sunk the two Allied ships in her immediate vicinity, while setting fire to others. Masts continued to fall as some of the Allied transports made their way into the French harbour.

At the harbour, the Allied escorts had formed a crude opening that they protected Pirate ships from penetrating. El Toro protected the opening and sank any Pirate ships that came too close. This system worked for many of the transports, but the rearmost transports were doomed, courtesy of the Prussian Crown and Harbinger. In a heroic display, the Allies managed to gang up four ships and the injured Toro on the Harbinger, and she lost mast after mast until the Toro finally pulled her under in a suicide mission, two of the most important figures in the battle going out in a blaze of glory :eek:. Other acts of extreme teamwork and determination were present in the Allied fleet. The Asesino de la Nave blew up the larger Xiamen’s Claws, while the Seleucis was killed in a group action of 74’s and 64’s. Some Pirate ships, especially the ones trapped between the harbour and the Allied ships, surrendered. The Pirates did not expect the Allies to fight so hard, and after the admiral on board the Prussian Crown saw the Harbinger go down, he ordered a general retreat. The Allies were too damaged to pursue, it being one of the most exhausting and bloody battles in history!

The Pirates escaped while the Allies tried to make sense of how bad their losses were. They were surprised to discover that they had won a somewhat crushing victory!(The Pirates were also very confident in themselves based on past raids, so it was a huge blow to their morale)

When it was finally sorted out and crews were able to rest for the first time in over 18 hours of hardship, it was clear that the Pirates had not accomplished their goal of decisive victory. The Pirates had lost 155 masts, a truly staggering amount, compared to the Allies’ 102. The Pirates had had six ships sunk, compared with twelve for the Allies(including one important gold transport), but the Allies had captured 18 Pirate ships, while not surrendering any. Two of the three sea monsters were dead. The Allies lost 16 infantry units, as well as two artillery units but many more had reached safety, as well as enough money to repair all of their masts. The Pirates also had an even larger stockpile of money, so they were able to make all of their repairs and build back some of their sunken ships.

The battle was very satisfying, with incredible CARNAGE everywhere :D. The fleets made their repairs and are already ready to go at it again. I have a historical fantasy rule that captured ships can be repaired 100% and then traded in for ships of the winning nations’ unbuilt ships with the same number of masts. In this way the Allies traded in five captured four-masters for four Allied five-masters, the new flagships! (I save the five-masters for last, they’re the most powerful in HFS’s and amazing to me)

The next event in the HFS will be something to do with the Amerc vs English war. I already know what I will do, but you’ll have to wait to find out!

Today I was able to have the battle of the English vs the Amercursedcorsairebels, but not the Pirates vs Franco-Spanish engagement. The English were peacefully sailing through the channel between two reefs and about to skirt around the sprawling Pirate harbour on their way to their new colony, but then they were suddenly ambushed! The Amercs attacked with a roughly similar force (English had 20 ships of the line and three frigates), and took the Britons completely by surprise. With the wind blowing due south, the Amercs attacked from windward as fast as possible, the British forced to fight a uncharacteristically defensive battle (also due to the fact that they had 5 ships with troops/artillery on board that they didn’t want to lose). The British formed a double line of ships on both sides of the five ships packed with troops, but the Amercs did not sail in line-of-battle. They had about six ships attack the British directly, breaking the line and causing chaos. Another half dozen ships went ahead further south to cut off the van of the British line(s).

The battle was not completely pell-mell, as the British were able to keep a disciplined line and protect the transporting ships, but two of their three frigates were captured due to the overwhelming number of Amerc frigates (one-masted galleys, blockade runners, the Griffin (a two-masted galley), and one-masters vs three Bletchleys!). As masts fell and casualties mounted, the British reached the island they intended to conquer and found a Pirate fleet stationed there, in order to cut off the Franco-Spanish fleet! Realizing the venture had failed, the English admiral aboard the Leicester (he later had to shift his flag to the HMS King Edward due to the Leicester being dismasted by the USS Stephens and Louisiana) signaled for the fleet to tack around to the northwest and then retreat west and begin the journey back to their harbour.

As they began to tack, three things happened. The British were determined not to let the entire enterprise be a failure, and their shots began to tell more often. As they tacked, they gained the weather gage and the smoke from their cannons drifted south to confuse the Amerc ships and cover their escape. The third thing was not in the Brits’ favour, though. The Cursed sea monster Lechim Namod arose from the depths 😮 and quickly sunk one of the ships with troops on her, the Belle of Exeter. As the British made their way away from the battle, the Amercs being too weary and blind to pursue (along with gathering up their derelicts so they didn’t drift too far south and be dashed on the rocks), the HMS King John fell behind slightly and was also sunk by the Namod.

In the aftermath of the battle, both sides claimed victory. The Amercs had dealt a huge blow to English morale, and they were able to capture three ships and sink two more. Despite that the English expedition had failed, they had inflicted so much damage that the Amercs had to abandon the island they were stationed at and head home for repairs (only one ship had not lost at least one mast). The English had knocked down 49 masts, and had lost 34 in return.

The Amercs returned to their harbour, only a short journey northward, and shadowed the fleeing English with three submerged subs. Then they put a group of ships that didn’t participate in the battle back on duty at their island. The English returned home disappointed, and after they had docked had no idea they were under surveillance by the three subs.

Meanwhile, the Franco-Spanish finished up their preparations for their expedition under the watchful eye of the Raven. I should have that battle tomorrow.