jack wisak
Joined: 12 Mar 2008
Posts: 10
Location: United Kingdom
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 Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:41 pm Post subject: Battle report 15 march |
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On the evening of the 15th of March TBB had the largest PVE OS engagement in my memory so far. Our group consisted of myself, Nic Jaquotte, Willy, Bigwalter and Des. We were in 2x Stral MC, Defiant, (Posti?), Xebec and Locust Corvette. The enemy group was EIGHT level 50's, at least three of which were San Matteo style Galleons and a memorable 3rd rate something or other. The location was south of Whitby and it was a night battle which was quite relevant as spotting and distance was very difficult.
The battle commenced with only 4 of us to begin with, Willy and Bigwalter were slightly behind us on entry. We began by attempting to de-rig random ships in the pack whilst running downwind. The initial contact was fairly harsh as the pack moved slowly and didnt split so well so folks were getting broadsides from a good three ships at once at fairly close range which was VERY unsettling. Eventually a faster ship emmerged and we gained some distance and focus fired it down. I think by that point i had everything on cooldown already. Jac, myself and Nic were fairly close together by the time we made our first turn (1. in the picture) across wind across the front of the pack and we faced similar issues as they closed to short range and we found it hard to focus on one ship. by this time our group had spread and Big and Willy entered up wind of us behind the pack. We took two more ships out by the time I suggested we double back and run for a bit. (2 in picture)
At this point Nic and i were still together, Jacq was seperated off with Des and had almost disappeared into the dark, Big and Willy were nipping the ankles of the pack and any stragglers as far as i could tell, but gaining on joining us. Myself and nic were cross wind again to head off a ship that was closing to cut us off. At this point we were nearly done on one of the Galleons and i pushed it as much as I could to try to stay on it whilst the pack closed. I recall this being the worst time as at one point i was amongst some of the pack and was armourless on my rear and side with about 200 structure to go. I ran downwind and was then out of the battle for about 2 mins (3 in picture). I believe Jacq and Nic had removed two more by the time i had gotten back and we were down to the last three ships. Things were distinctly easier by that time, there was no pack, however our own group had split to surround the last three. I noticed as two more went down that Big had ended up with his arse facing the 3rd rate and promptly went down to two consecutive broadsides.
Jacq was upwind on the broadside of the 3rd rate and i was directly opposite (4 in picture). We closed for the kill but struggled with the distance and the vision. By the time we caught it myself but especially Jaquotte were taking a huge pounding for very little impression on its huge armour. We stabilised our movement and then the others positioned off the aft and stern for the killing blows. I have to say i think Jacq was pretty tattered by this time having tanked the 3rd rate for quite some time. I dont recall if it was Nic's stern shots or Jacq's broadside that eventually sunk it but either way it was close and we had defeated 8 top level ships and our first SoL for the loss of one xebec.
IMO an awesome job and very fun. Great teamwork, tenacity and courage given the incredible firepower there was and the fact we were forced into much closer range than we would have liked. Also given that only three of us had reasonable firepower and their sheer numbers meant that the smaller boats in our group could not find any safe havens due to all the available angles the enemy had. the nightime range reduction was possibly the worst disadvantage we had, i dont think we could have gotten harder circumstances or a harder PvE pack.
if i could award medals i would, however we are pirates so its Rum all round  GJ.
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