Battle of Havana (6/18)

[jdf]

Please post a summary. I'm most interested in number of captains on each side. Thanks.

[Cowie Mooo]

Aye!

Please post a battle report.

[Undrsiege]

24 Spain
20 France


Cant remember exact losses were close to similar. Only big big boat lost was 1 2nd rate from Spain.

Battle went to avcom. Spain brought a better armed force this day.

[jdf]

Undrsiege is still here! Glad to hear it was a real fight...too bad France couldn't muster a full 24. Appreciation to those French that were able to fight during the workday.

[Undrsiege]

Originally Posted by jdf Undrsiege is still here! Glad to hear it was a real fight...too bad France couldn't muster a full 24. Appreciation to those French that were able to fight during the workday.

The victory this day for them was expensive.

[facetious]

24 Spanish vs. 20 French

Spanish with their best fleet showing since probably Port St. Joe (spain attacking, not france) I believe. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 2nd rates, several 3rd rates, at least one couronne, many heavy hercs and 4th rates, nothing below 50. France showed up with 20 including a regular Arcadia, a Heavy Myrmidon, and an Athena as sub-50s, though also had a 1st rate, a 2nd rate, a 3rd rate, and 2 MC hercs.

Map was arch coastline with attacker wind due to CPs. First 20-30 minutes was spent basically feeling each other out, France staying in good position but choosing not to engage the full fleet of Spain when it was together even with wind advantage (first 10-15 minutes of the battle was spent tacking close haul to get wind). France's skirmishers tried to lure some away, pick some off, split their forces, etc. but for the most part Spain stuck together, splitting up a little bit but never straying too far. For a while, it looked like France might make a charge at half the Spanish line but the other half turned back in time to scare them away, resulting in a 1200 yard staring match.

Spain decided to stop *****footing around, not wanting to commit through the weather to engage the French force, instead heading downwind towards the town gun, and ultimately setting up a static line/blockade around the bay/port entrance there. I believe two Spanish ships were picked off in their movement that were falling a bit behind.

At this point, France played it surprisingly conservatively (in my mind), seeming very apprehensive about engaging the Spanish force. Granted, they did have a gun advantage, however they were in a static defense trapped in a bay with the wind in their faces, so though the bay did make it somewhat hard to manuever, a disciplined force should easily prevent casualties with blocking and/or tacking close haul to get out of range as the Spanish force was not on a position to pursue weakened ships.

Regardless, the main French force probably spent 10-15 minutes staring at the Spanish force at 1000+ yards while the skirmish group tried to harass their very end of the line, sheltered by an island.

Finally, about 10-15 minutes into the port timer, France committed some of its forces to a firing position, quickly realizing they could bring more guns to bear on their targets than Spain could return, even with their many 2nd rates. Still, picking at range at high armor/dr targets like 2nd rates was slow and it was slow out-damaging repairs. At this point, it seemed to me (from my position on the west part of the line, the slightly more open battle between heavy spanish forces and a mostly 4th rate franch group), that virtually all casualties came as a result of either poor positioning (i.e. a player getting too close or out of line for a block), or bad blocking, or calling for a block too late, etc. A few ships did go down, by far the most notable being an overzealous Spanish 2nd rate who got about 500 yards from the French line (by comparison, the rest of the line was around 650 yards) and nose into the wind. France seemed to be making some headway, though some losses were taken due to lack of blocking/poor positioning etc. However the progress was far too slow, and most of the Spanish (and French) fleets were intact by the time the port opened. At this point, Spain sent a small group of people in to tackle the town while keeping the brunt of their fleet and big guns blockading the port to prevent French access.

France made no real attempt to rush into the port, instead continuing to pick away at the slightly weakened Spanish line. As time went on, partly due to more Spanish players entering the town, partly due to a smaller Spanish force defending, and partly due to snowballing effect of this, France was able to force the Spanish into retreat into the port, though by this time the group in town was already on the garrison commander and though several French were able to make it into port, Spanish players could easily camp the spawn and pick off French players one by one while taking out the Garrison Commander.

I don't have an exact count for final losses, but it was something around 5 for France, 6 for Spain? Only notable loss that I saw was 1 Spanish 2nd rate.

[NightAngel]

It was a good fight by both sides and a lot of fun to boot.

Nice job to all.

[jdf]

Thanks for the writeup facetious...and great fight. Being a little conservative and saving our limited super heavies for a more decisive future port battle (with a full 24 French) was a great move...especially when able to take down a Spanish 2nd. ...really glad to hear some of our lsb ship players are still with us.

[Blackbeard the Pirate]

Losses: France 4 - Spain 4

[Blackbeard the Pirate]

Originally Posted by NightAngel It was a good fight by both sides and a lot of fun to boot.

Staring at you guys for an hour wasn't too much fun