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Stopping the British horde (PotBS port-battle AAR)
Sarg01
Member UncommonPosts: 170
(A report of an attempted port conquest on the Bonny server of Pirates of the Burning Sea)
From: Captain Zelos Russelo, acting Commodore, Port-of-Spain Provincial Defense Fleet
To: The Admiralty of His Catholic Majestys Navy
Cc: Rear Admiral Arturo de Cruce, Santo Domingo
Subject: A report on the recent battle near Port-of-Spain
Sirs,
It is my privilege to inform you that the British conquest force at Port-of-Spain has been repelled and the province remains in His Catholic Majestys hands. Given the evacuation of major naval forces in the area (and I am most confident that your Lordships made good use of those ships elsewhere), one suspects that this may come as a bit of a surprise. As it would pain me to cause consternation for you, I have prepared this report on the affair and how ten Spanish vessels were able to hold off the British horde of two dozen.
I had the occasion to find myself in the province of Port-of-Spain after hunting some British shipping in the area (per Adm. de Cruces orders). The local magistrate had just received word of the naval evacuation and was perhaps a bit distraught regarding the situation. In any case, he came to the tavern to recruit any captains available. To our good fortune, a CONSORTIUM trade convoy of six ships happened to be in town . Myself and 3 other captains brought the total to 10. The force consisted of Antonio Cappelli, Cormach Rohan, Minoman Valdez, Natanael Ramirez, Raphael Harlock, Reuben Goldman, Somtaaw Kiith, TC Murgoth, one Tymme Hunt, the naval escort for the trade convoy and myself. The magistrate outlined the situation and after a brief discussion of strategy, deputized me to carry out the agreed upon resistance plan.
For curious reasons, the magistrate insisted that all 10 ships deploy to sea, and that he would only open the docks after a nearby gun emplacement had been overrun. This is despite the fact that the town itself was clearly more defensible than the water before it. As we considered it unlikely that 10 vessels would survive for long against 24 British attackers before port, it was immediately obvious that we would need to cede the water between the fort, the gun emplacements and the port to the British if there was to be any hope of the attackers destroying the gun emplacement.
As you may have noticed, this poses the issue of putting the entire British attack fleet between us and the port, a situation less than conducive to a landing party. To counter this, we divided our ships into 3 task forces:
- Castile would be responsible for sowing chaos in the enemy battle lines.
- Leon consisted of members of the trade convoy and would be responsible for landing at the port and rallying any defenses.
- Aragon would be responsible for drawing the British lines as far as possible from the port, to allow TF Leon to break through to the docks.
Our initial plan was to encourage the British to move directly for the gun emplacements by massing in front of them. It had been hoped that the thought of a quick kill would draw the British there. As you know, impatience and wrath are common ailments of British society, so we had some hope of success in this. However, we also knew that the British are often lacking in gentlemanly honor, and could not be trusted not to move against the fortress. As a result, we took up a position that would allow us to break away both upwind (should they attack the gun emplacement) and downwind (should they move on the fortress).
I have attached a diagram of the battle theatre, representing the initial deployment of forces.
The British indeed chose to attack the fortress. We began to execute our planned escape, which had the happy circumstance of drawing the British further in front of the fortress island, significantly degrading their ability to pursue when we emerged from behind the island and turned to the south.
Please see the attached diagram, depicting this.
As the British warships struggled to reverse course to intercept us, we split into our task forces. However, Captain Goldman remained behind to slow a force of interceptors that were pursuing us behind the island. Task Force Aragon headed for the extreme south, while Castile and Leon took a middling approach, waiting for the British to spread out across half the theatre to find a weak spot in their lines.
The British clearly struggled not only with the turn, but with which task force to engage. The resulting mass of confused ships pursued the front of our lines, clearly attempting to cut off as many of us as possible. This pulled all British forces out of the waters immediately in front of Port-of-Spain. Task Force Leon and Castile turned to attack the rear of the british lines, forcing them once again to execute a confused reversal of course. They even managed to draw first blood from the British as they pushed into the remnants of their line.
This was made substantially easier than expected as the British fleets fastest craft were attacking Captain Goldman in 3 vs 1 far to the northwest, downwind. Though his ship would clearly not survive, Captain Goldman led the interceptors further and further away from the main battle before finally sinking. Meanwhile, Task Force Aragon was turning the corner past the end of the British line, using bar shot to slash the enemy's sails and rigging.
See attached diagram.
In the thick of battle, Captains Rohan and Valdez sailed past the British line, their sacrifice distracting enemy efforts long enough for Task Force Leon to slip away from combat towards the port. To the south, Captains Cappelli and Ramirez performed the same duty with their Postillionen, allowing the Lancers of Captain Hunt and myself to escape into Open Water and even depart visual range of the enemy. For this reason, I can not give you the exact chain of events that led to all four captains being rescued from the sea, suffice to say that the Lord Himself was undoubtedly reminding us that the New World was given to Spain by His Word (translated into mortal terms through His Holiness, the Pope).
See attached diagram 1 and diagram 2.
With the initial battle having gone largely according to plan, our initial strategic goals were still achievable. The sacrifices necessary to outmaneuver the British, however, had significantly increased the difficulty of the task. To wit, it was our assessment that it would take approximately 13-15 British captains to defeat the garrison. Having sunk 1, that meant it was vital to prevent 10 British captains from joining the assault on the city. Once Task Force Leon reached the city docks, the only Spanish forces left on the water were Captain Hunt and myself. We found it necessary to split up to attract more attention.
See attached diagram.
We were able to achieve our aims of pulling the bulk of the British fleet after us. Using an island in the middle of the theatre as an obstacle, Captain Hunt and I went in different directions, forcing the British to choose between either allowing my escape to open water or keeping Captain Hunt contained.
See attached diagram.
Unfortunately for my crew, they chose to go for the closer quarry. I sent my ship into the very corner of the theatre, forcing the British force to follow to get their kill. Meanwhile, Captain Hunt was turning the corner on a smaller British force and beginning to make his way to open water. Captain Hunt was never caught by the British.
The British landed at the port with less than half strength and were, as expected, slaughtered by Task Force Leon and the local garrison. Calling for reinforcements, wave after wave of British landed on the docks, but in the lack of a unified attack, all efforts were crushed.
See attached diagram 1 and diagram 2.
Sincerely,
Zelos Russelo
Comments
Great write-up! Sounds like you're having a blast
Absolutely agreed, great job Sarg...THIS is how you build a gaming community
A hearty congratulations to you, Capitan Rusello.
Excellent AAR! I can't wait for my box to arrive from Amazon so I can join the fight.
We got the British under control on our server of Antigua, they are even going by ways of forging alliances with the French and Pirates on our server, they may have the #s on our server, but I have to say, we are way more organized at this point in the game. We drew 1st blood on our server by taking over St. Johns.
(the British looking for Help) from the:
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3542 - (French)
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4839 - (Pirates)
Awesome. Truly awesome.
Thanks for comments, all!
If anyone is looking for a Spanish society with a track record of using strategy not just in the economy, but in PvP as well, you can look up Conquistadores Central on Bonny server.
fantastic writeup, impressive level of detail (the diagrams make it). makes me want to play
well to be honest the battle inside of town could've been won even with 5:1 forces because it is so broken as in game mechanics. great write up.
sdfsdfsfdsdfsfd
Explain to the members of this forum why it is broken..