Man o war battle number two

This weekend saw my second game of Man O War (MOW) down at my local club. MOW is a fantasy naval system from Games Workshop that was released in the early nineties.

Once again the Dwarfs took on an Empire Fleet (these being the only two fleets I have). This time the fleets were the 'standard' 1000 points each. The Empire forces were bolstered by the addition of a new squadron of ships and a more powerful wizard. The Dwarf fleet was also bulked out with an extra ship.

The fleets were as follows;

Dwarfs: One dreadnought, two monitor squadrons (three ships in each), two ironclads and one nautilus submarine.

Empire; One greatship, one squadron of three wolfships, two squadrons of wargalleys (three ships in each), one squadron of hell hammers and a master wizard.

I took the role of the Imperial admiral and my friend played the Dwarfs. After randomly setting up the terrain as per the rulebook we deployed the fleets. My opponent threw me a curve ball by concentrating his forces along one half of one table edge. This was to prove crucial later on.

The Dwarf fleets initial deployment

After some early manoeuvring the fleets finally got within range of each other on turn three. Due to my opponent concentrating his forces my wolfships and hell hammers were facing only empty sea and had to make their way across the table to join the fray and so were late joining the battle.

The Imperial hell hammer squadron

The game quickly developed into two separate mini battles. In the centre my greatship and a wargalley squadron took on the Dwarf dreadnought flagship, an ironclad and a monitor squadron. On my right flank a wargalley squadron took on the other ironclad and a monitor squadron.

The greatship and wargalleys slug it out with the dwarfs. The nautilus submarine lurks menacingly behind the sandbank

 

Things didn't go well for the Empire. A combination of ineffectual magic and deadly torpedo salvos from the nautilus meant the Dwarfs soon had the upper hand. The greatship (my flagship) was damaged by a combination of ram and cannon attacks from the monitors and ironclad. She was sunk by the nautilus as she tried to break off. Not by torpedoes but by a lucky hit from it's cannon. My admiral and wizard clung to the wreckage but I was unable to rescue them. Elsewhere, despite fierce resistance my ships were worn down and more and more were sent to the bottom.

The fierce melee between a wargalley squadron and a monitor squadron supported by an ironclad

The wolfships sailing to the action as fast as they can

A lone wargalley makes a desperate attack on the dreadnought

Eventually my wolfships and hell hammers made it into the action. They were to prove ineffective however. The wolfships did their best but were unable to inflict serious damage. They did succeed in capturing one of the ironclads in a boarding action but this rather pinned them down and prevented them from being used to full effect. To add insult to injury the Dwarfs were able to re crew the ironclad before I could scuttle it.

The wolfships ram and then board the ironclad

The hell hammers managed to score a number of hits on the dreadnought but due to poor dice rolling on my part she remained mostly intact. Her boiler was knocked out however and she spent a large part of the game immobilised. Imperial losses continued to mount and soon I had few ships left. It became clear the Dwarfs had won a comprehensive victory and we decided to call it a day. Most importantly fun was had by all.

I plan to further increase the size of the fleets. I have another greatship that is in the dockyard (my painting bench) at the moment. She will be ready soon. I also intend to add some flying units. In particular I am on the look out for Dwarf war balloons.