The Battle of Lion's Port

The British admiralty tasked commodore T.M. with the simple task of securing a desultory manned French outpost village in the remote island archipelago of Coatzacos.  The island chain consist of three tropical strips of land named Scurvy Cay, Neptune's Lair, and the main island of Coatzacos.  The seat of commerce in this far flung island was the city known as Lion's Port.  A modest French held colony of fishermen and farmers.  And a refuge for pirates.

As the squadron of British warships sailed into the vicinity of Coatzacos, French heavy warships arrived to intercept and stop the capture of Lion's Port.  WHAT!!  Where did these newly fitted warships come from?!  What source of revenue could possibly procure and man such huge ships of war.  A first rate 120 gun ship The Montagne, a 84 gun ship the Sans Pereil, and a 110 gun ship Terrible, lead by a coastal pilot ship 5th rate Tanis! Manned and victualed by the devil himself.

There was naught that the British squadron could do but to carry on the mission in the face of dangerous odds.  The Culloden 5th rate troop ship struck for the island and began landing the troops destined to garrison the island.  They met immediate island gunfire from a shore battery but courageously carried on their duty.  The Royal Sovereign 100 gun first rate covered the rear of the squadron as the two 74's Bellerophon and Patriote engaged the shore guns and then the French fleet proper.

The first shore party engages the island troops as the Culloden provides naval support fire.

Island fighting with formed up troops in the old fashioned way.

The attacking British would carry the day on shore, but what about out in the waves.  Perhaps a different story awaits the fleet.

Give them the bayonet!!

An abandoned flute, the Derapager rocks at anchor tethered to the wharf.  As infantry skirmishing can be seen in the distance down the beach.

Out in the surf this four on three rag wagon duel would tell a different tale.  The first ship to commit to Davy Jones locker was the pilot ship Tanis.  Sunk under combined fire it would not last the engagement.  But then the Patriote hauled down her colors as the guns of captain J.M.H. were silenced by overwhelming enemy fire.  Then captain K.V. crossed the t of the enemy line but he too would get his in the end.  A catastrophic initial broadside rake from the Montagne would scuttle that boat and send it bellow the waves.  The crew of the Bellerephon took to the long boats and rowed for Scurvy Cay.

In the end the battle on the water was a French success.  The Royal Sovereign was captured in a bloody melee boarding action and the only British ship to escape was the unloaded Culloden.  Heavily damaged and devoid of her cargo, the Culloden slipped into the night to pick up survivors and carry the tale of the battle of Lion's Port back to the admiralty.

Tune in next time when we see the Secondhand Lion's play the other side of this coin.

A good shot of some old guy playing at ships.

The Dread Pirate Yellow Beard!!

Off the coast of the Isla Doubloon, our captain Yellowbeard did reap the rewards of the open sea and pursue with steadfast doggedness the vile captain Verde.  Verde did succumb to the cannon and blade of Yellowbeard much to his personal chagrin and honour.  There was not  that could be done against Yellowbeards desire for gold and glory. And now poor Captain Verde is known as the dice-straught sailor.  Sing it with me lads.  Follow the bouncing cannon ball....

 "Hail to Yellowbeard."

A golden win.

Dice-straught Sailor - heaving shanty

What shall we do with a dice-straught sailor?

What shall we do with a dice-straught sailor?

What shall we do with a dice-straught sailor?

Early in the morning?

Way-hay, up she rises

Way-hay, up she rises

Way-hay, up she rises

Early in the morning

Put him in the long boat 'til he's sober

Pull out the bung and wet him all over

Put him in the scuppers with the deck pump on him

Heave him by the leg in a runnin' bowlin'

Tie him to the taffrail when she's yard-arm under

The Island of Coatzaco

THE RESCUE OF SVEN JOHANSSEN

            When we last left our intrepid adventurers, they had battled vile and evil creatures on the island of Coatzaco.  They boarded their ships and sailed out of the harbor to regroup, only to find a squadron of ships sent by the Governor was waiting to intercept them!  Cannons roared like thunder and tempered steel flashed like lightning as men clashed with men off the island coast on the glorious 21^st of June.

            Luck would be with our characters that day, crippling several of the warships and taking the flagship as a prize by boarding action.  Petru and a small prize crew transferred to the flagship only to find the Governor himself onboard!  An epic hand to hand combat ensued as the ship drifted toward the island.

            From the deck of the Gimlet, Captain Dwailyn could hear the actions from the flagship.  He knew Petru was a seasoned seadog and could handle himself, but there was something in the back of his mind that was bothering him.  Was it that Petru could be in need of assistance?  No, Petru’s capable of taking control of his situation.  Was it the fact that the Governor’s ships were waiting in ambush as if they knew we were here all along?  No, that can’t be possible, chances of them knowing our exact heading when we left Lion’s Port are slim to none.  Was it all the booty and the 400 gold coins that sit in the Captain’s quarters?  Aye, that’s it!  A very nice payoff for the crew after facing what they went through on that cursed plot of sand!

Wait…the crew…  Dwailyn did a visual check of the crew on board - Chun, Little Jim, Doc, Pankin, Sven…  Where in the hell is Sven?  A frantic search of the decks revealed no Sven!  In fact none of the crew had seen Sven since the landing party hit Coatzaco’s shore.  Sven’s still there!  We have to go back and find him!

Dwailyn assembles Chun, Doc, Little Jim and some other crew members as a rescue party.  As they discuss a plan, Chun mentions a temple marked _ _ ZOD _ _ on one of the maps he acquired from the island.  It’s determined that this is where they will start looking for Sven and they won’t stop until he’s found – dead or alive!

Are you willing to take up the quest to find Sven?  Does the thought of returning to the island make your skin crawl?  Do you have your brown pants on?  Don’t bother, they’ll be brown at some point, but a red shirt might be handy.

The Secondhand Lions gathered for the annual Halloween Heroquest game and this time we revisited our pirate themed re-skinning of this game.  It has been a full year and the tales of the brave Flashing Steel gang are growing numerous and vivid.  We were heading back into the jungle island of Coatzaco to rescue a friend.  The game was a dungeon crawl and was played with the full Heroquest mechanics.  Unfortunately no visual images survived the dank and horrendous caverns of the tomb below the island.  

The synopsis however was a huge butcher's bill and a very vivid Halloween horror tale. Dwailyn crawled out of the dungeon at the end of the night dragging Petru's  arrow riddled corpse followed by an egregiously wounded Sven.  Left in the howling undead mound of skeletal warriors were Chun, Doc and Pankin.  The last sounds were of gunshots and the slicing clash of many scythe wielding skeletons as the lost disappeared in the maze.

We lost the "Rapier of Despair"  in the final run for safety.  It was left behind with Chun as he tried to hold off a zombie rush that outnumbered him 12 to 1.   Pankin got greedy and went into a room against the best wishes of Dwailyn.  "There has to be great prizes in those chests!  This adventure is not over," were his last words as a failed attempt at unlocking a chest animated about 12 skeletal warriors all around him and Doc.

Great times with the best of friends.  Comradery and an annual gaming tradition.

The night ended with a little box hockey.  Caroms on speed.  More of that in another post.

A guest write up from our own Mr. T. Conn...

{Hours later in the aftermath of the brutal final fight...

Pain.  Pain and nausea.  Pain, nausea and…snoring?  Chun opened his eyes to slits, not wanting to alert anyone to the fact that he was awake.  
Initially, he couldn’t see anything, as his location was as dark as pitch.  Eventually, his eyes adjusted to the gloom and he could make out the faintest of forms to his left and right.  The one on the right was making an incredibly loud sound much like a saw scraping through wood.  The one on the left was smaller and dead quiet.  
Chun realized several things at once with a start.  First and foremost: He wasn't dead!  The last thing he recalled was Doc retreating along the corridor, urging Chun to run with him.  Debris on the ground kept Chun from fleeing the horde of undead sailors he was staving off with Dwailyn’s ‘Rapier of Despair’.  Wounded and regretting his decision to hold the rear, he watched as Doc’s Angel of Death spell whirled by, tagging the undead…captain?...before him.  The creature literally fell to pieces when Chun impaled it on the rapier’s point, but he didn’t have time to gloat under the press of decayed flesh forcing its way toward him.  A vicious blow to his head and…what?  Chun didn’t remember anything after that.
The next thoughts that whirled through his sluggish mind were that the forms to his left and right were Pankin and Doc.  He’d heard that buzzing snore before and hoped that Pankin was merely knocked out and not dead.  Chun rolled over and gently shook his fellow Chinaman, placing a careful hand over his mouth so as not to rouse their captors.  Pankin’s eyes popped open in surprise.  He quickly assessed the situation and gave an infinitesimal.  Chun took his hand away and asked “Are you injured?”  Pankin shook his head and quickly glanced at Doc’s still slumbering form, a look of confusion crossing his features.
“How did you get caught?” Chun asked quietly.  Pankin quickly filled Chun in on what happened after the group left with Petru and Sven.  Pankin’s story of greed in the face of danger and Doc’s problem of “wrong place at the wrong time” had Chun shaking his head in dismay.  
Chun sighed and said “Let’s wake Doc and see where we are and if we can get out of here!”  Doc was roused easily enough, his snore cut short, bringing a very sudden silence to the room.  
A quick search yielded few results.  It was a small room.  Hardly more than a storage closet, really.  A lone door let in a strip of faint light along its bottom.  As the trio stood there, quietly discussing their next step, the room shook then swayed to the familiar motion of waves.  They were on a boat!  

Miles away on the other side of the island and in the company of our portion of the crew that made it to safety...

Petru grimaced as he watched the receding coastline of Coatzaco.  He rubbed his ribs, his fingers gently probing the scars from the arrow wounds he’d sustained.  ‘Thank goodness for Doc’s poultices,’ he thought.  ‘Without them, I’d be nothing more than another tally mark on the Governor’s death count.’  
Dwailyn had rushed him aboard the Gimlet, roaring to the crew to shove off and fetch him a vial of Doc’s murky concoction.  Lucky thing he had, too, as Petru was just about as far gone as he could be without permanently joining the Ever After.  ‘I owe him one’, thought Petru, a thin smile on his lips.  ‘Not that he’ll let me forget it!’
Petru’s musings were cut short by a cry from the crow’s nest.  “Rigging spotted, Cap’n!”  Indeed, Petru could spot the tall masts of one of the Governor’s ships moving out of the sheltered harbor…toward them!

Dwailyn’s roar for all hands on deck and getting them the Hells out of there made everyone jump and scurry.  Petru eyed the slowly approaching ship and thought ‘Your time’s comin’, Governor.  The Boys and I are gonna have some words with you that you’re not gonna like.’  He turned and headed to his post, readying himself for the upcoming confrontation.

The Glorious 21st of June Naval Wargaming Outdoors Garden Style and Shrimp Boil

Wow!  What a wonderful weekend of fun.

I have in this blog post the great pleasure to tell the tale of  high seas adventure that occurred in my backyard over this last weekend of the 21st of June.  I annually host a game and breakfast event for my war game buddies.  This year I had to change things up to a mid day wargame with a hamburger and hotdog lunch and then an evening party with a shrimp boil and bonfire.

We called it:

"The Glorious 21st of June"

Scene VI

Off the island of Coatzacos, in which we see the petulant Dwalyn and crew escape the clutches of the vengeful governor. All pictures that follow will expand upon clickage to a wonderous view of the action that unfolded.

Short Captain Dwalyn and Petru maneuver their squadron off the coast of Coatzacos.  The bonsai tree collection represented the island coast from our last adventure.  You can see the idol of _Zod_ if you peer closely.

They would have their day in the sun.

The loyal opposition near their crew arrive on the scene to see the pirates trying to make an excape to the open sea.  Here we see Governor Gwynn Kell Uhll and Leitenant Carlos and below is their squadron of Royal Navy ships.  The Vengeur, Lion, Sabre, & Chum bucket.

Perfectly plotted maneuver would come unstuck in the opening of the contest.

Onboard the Gimlet. Characters from our story arch include Rubidenus Azure, Dwalyn the dwarf, Petru, Anne Bonny, Chun, et al.

Chun demonstrates the efficacy of a bow chaser.

Billy Blue is at the wheel of the Huntress.  Re-victualed and watered and ready to make a hasty escape.

The pirates would also suffer from a few near collisions and maneuver feux pas.

This is me.  Rarely seen in the blog so I had a portrait done especially to mark this occasion.

That handsome chap at the wheel is my character Gwynn Kell Uhll.  The governor of Neptune's Lair and the sacked city of Lion's Port.

And these are my fine ships I am leading to recapture my ship the Hotspur from the pirates.

Come follow me to glory!!

This is where it all went awry.  The pirate ship to my starboard would intercept my ship and savagely cut my crew to ribbons.  They were a horror to behold!

Lt. Carlos ponders how to help as he watches from starboard as my crew is reduced.

The dice tower.

Petru looks on as the fight continues.

Drawing damage chits from Lt. C's ship.

A battle scene.

Counting your 4's, 5's, & 6's.

Chun is leading the boarding party.

Melee in the dice tower.

A view of the firing arc.

Another boarding action begins.  This time the admiralty would capture the Cyprinadae.

Petru looks for inspiration.

Battle scene.

The game is called for lunch.  We toast the admiralty, a few more inches, absent friends, and the health of each captain in turn.

These pirate ships break for the open ocean.

The Vengeur is recaptured and Petru is last seen fighting a cutlass action onboard (to be continued...)

The game was a great half day of activity and fun.  We broke for a grilled lunch and a few beers.  Terry arrived and we all went indoors to play Pirates of the Caribbean table top game.  No photos were made of that action.

Then later that night, the families returned and we had a great shrimp boil zydeco music evening that ended with a bonfire.

Awwe-hawh.

Sunday morning medicinals.