Battle - 1720 - October 30 - Assault at Orleans

Ships in Action:
ALLIES:

Virgil Kyle - HMS Aquila ('Mercy' Naval Frigate)

-23 other British ships, over 3/4ths of which consisted of heavy lineships. The rest were heavy frigates and indiamen

ENEMIES:

-French fleet of 24 vessels, consisting entirely of heavy frigates and indiamen.

Action Setup:
The day's action, and the first port battle between us Brits and the French on this map, was unfortunately heralded by a bit of a misstep on my part. After pulling into port with the Striker, fully expecting to get an invitation to do battle with the French at Orleans, I was instead informed that I was in line to get a spot, but was 13th in that line. Giving up my hopes for participation, I wished those luck who were about to do battle, and transferred to the Aquila in Cayo de Marquis to take care of a few missions I had there. Suddenly, right after arriving in Cayo, I was told to report for battle at Orleans! Apparently, enough captains had left that I was offered a spot. Unfortunately, the Aquila is my PvE ship, and only has one durability left, so I feared for her safety. However, I knew full well what duty demanded from me in this situation, and thus I accepted, and made my peace with the potential ramifications of my decision.

I arrived in the Orleans ready room and was further disheartened to see it in a substantial state of disorder. Nothing was clearly said or communicated, and it took me until the very end of the preparation period to be assigned a group. I was glad to see Thomas Scotting, my friend from the battle at Port-de-Paix, in the group with me. However, things did not calm down, as we discovered that one of our number was sailing a second rate, and thus we quickly had to have him transferred to another, heavier group. In addition to all this, Ubert le Danois of the French was asserting over the area chat channel that they thought this was a non-lineship bundle battle. I expressed concern over this, but was assured by the leaders of the port battle that he had been informed of our intentions, and was merely trying to sow confusion in our ranks. In this state of uncertainty and confusion, we were forced to enter the field of battle, and I feared it would end up turning into a bloody day indeed...

The Action Itself:
Upon entering the battle, we immediately had a snag. Apparently, 3 captains had exited out the wrong door, and were now across the map from the rest of our forces! Not a good way to start things out. However, we nonetheless formed into our lines, and as we approached the French forces, we could see why they were so concerned. Compared to our forces, over half of which consisted of third rates or heavier, they had brought only heavy frigates and indiamen. This was confusing, to say the least. However, as we crossed their 'T', we quickly saw what their gambit was - they made full sail, and made to ram and grapple us! I was very near the point at which their spear aimed to pierce our line, and as their line rammed ours, it splintered alongside our own, and soon I was in the middle of one massive melee between our combined forces. It was shades of Puerto Cabezas all over again. However, this time my fellows and I were consumed with desperately trying to shoot down the French ships that had grappled our lineships. Luckily, we succeeded in sinking every ship which was attempting to board one of our own, and the survivors of this gambit soon ran. As we chased down the remainder of their forces, I breathed a long, heavy sigh of relief.

The Result:
Victory! Never have I been so happy to be wrong. Despite my initial misgivings, we trounced the Frenchmen, losing only one Heavy Hercules frigate in the effort. Truly this is a good note to start off the new map with. Let's hope our fortunes hold!

Lessons Learned:
Looking back, I did see a number of things which bothered me. Chief among them was our conspicuous lack of organization. Luckily, the French were as disorganized as us, and it was only our sheer firepower and strength which allowed us to wallop the enemy with the decisiveness which we did. We must not let the lessons of this battle pass us by. The French will undoubtedly be far better prepared for the upcoming fight at Irish Point, and we must therefore raise our standards for that battle if we expect to best them again.

This was a great victory, my friends, but it musn't be our last. Let's make sure the result of the next battle is yet another victory for the mighty British Empire!

Misc.
The following is a picture of my group forming up at the end of the British line of battle. Always an inspiring sight, that...