Battle - 1720 - December 16 - The Capture of New Orleans (a.k.a. - Captain Lapenotiere's Christmas Present)

Ships in Action:
ALLIES:

Captain Alec Dai - 'Dauntless' Frigate

Captain Everett Wick - HMS Ramillies ('Wenden' Third Rate)

Captain Theodric Pastile - 'Alexander' Fourth Rate

 Captain Virgil Kyle - HMS Judicator ('Dauntless' Frigate)

Captain Lewis McLain - HMS Punisher ('Mercy' Naval Frigate)

-19 other British ships, split almost evenly between colossals and heavy frigates.

ENEMIES:

-French fleet of 15 ships, made up entirely of heavy frigates.

Action Setup:
Upon arriving in the battle's ready room, I was pleasantly surprised to see four other SGS captains in the ready room with me! This is the largest group of captains the SGS has fielded in a port battle in quite a while.

Although it took the assembled captains quite a while to sort out the groups, we had many good leaders in this battle, as with the last, and we managed to sort out the groups before the battle started. I, Virgil Kyle, was assigned as the leader of White Group, comprising myself, Captain Wick and Captain Pastile, in addition to three other British captains sailing a Couronne, a Valiant and an Alex, respectively.

Captain Dai was assigned to the Green Group - comprised entirely of heavy frigates - headed by Captain Courtney.

Captain McLain and his brand-new Mercy were assigned to Red Group - a detachment of mixed frigates - under command of Copper Hellion. This was McLain's first port battle.

Upon finalizing our groups, we left the ready room, and sailed into battle!

The Action Itself:
Upon entering the battle, we were relieved to see that the French had, for the second time in a row, not arrived in full force, bringing only 15 ships to defend New Orleans. This time, however, it quickly became apparent that they intended to fight in full on ship-to-ship combat, despite their significant numerical disadvantage. Kudos, my dear, dear frogs, kudos! I can't help but respect an underdog.

As we approached the enemy forces in line formation, I suddenly became distracted by a most perturbing sequence of events - it seems that multiple members of Red Group, one of our frigate squadrons, were disobeying their commander's orders to fall in line behind our group, and were interfering with my own battle group's position in the line! After multiple captain's repeated orders to drop sails and let us pass (my own voice mixed in amongst the other stern voices), the offending captains finally dropped sails and let us pass. It was not a moment too soon, either, as the front of our line began to make contact with the French forces as our situation in the back of the line was sorted out. The French forces quickly crumbled under the firepower of our colossals at the head of the line, however, and by the time my group approached, they were already beating a hasty retreat. Those that could not flee were gunned down by our pursuing frigates, and by the time the main line had pulled in front of the fortress to block in those French captains that had escaped into it, the battle was all but won.

The Result:
Victory, yet again! No ships were sunk on our side, and at least three enemy ships were sunk. The remaining French took cover in the fortress or escaped out to sea. All in all, this battle concluded a good day's work on behalf of the English. Huzzah, and Rule Britannia!

Lessons Learned:
Well, I certainly learned the value of proper regimentation, and following orders, in this port battle. Even with our superior numbers, Red Group could have made things very dicey for my group in particular, had they done what they did in the heat of battle. It made things way more hectic and confused than they had to be, as it was.

We were lucky things turned out okay this time, but I really do not want to see that happen again...

Visuals
The following is a picture of our line of battle as we approached the enemy.

So beautiful. It never gets old...