Two months ago CH and I played this battle using WTJ's Quickfire rules. We had the idea of sorting out if we were capable of faring better than historical spaniards, but the battle changed in a really unexpected way. See it by yourselves:
La flota española apostada tras la base de Cavite
Spanish fleet at bay behind Cavite's base
Los americanos entran haciendo una especie de linea mal hecha. Un presagio de lo que sería la batalla
The americans enter the map in a badly done battleline formation. It was an omen about what the battle would end up becoming.
El Olympia en cabeza, como tiene que ser.
Olympia leading the line, as it should be
Los españoles se cansan de esperar y empiezan a moverse
The spaniards get tired of waiting and start moving.
El almirante americano no sabe de formaciones
The american admiral knows nothing about formations
El español, tampoco
Neither the spanish
La flota española se divide y está a punto de chocar consigo misma
The spanish fleet is divided into two groups which are about to clash
El glorioso fuerte español sirve de diana a los americanos antes de volar por los aires en el tercer turno. Al menos abolló al Baltimore (o al menos le rayó la pintura)
The glorious spanish fort serves for an american turkey shoot before exploding in the third turn. At least it dented the Baltimore (or at least it scratched its paint)
Los españoles se lo montan para salir de la bahía sin embarrancar ni chocar entre ellos. ¡Increible!
Incredibly, he spaniards manage to exit the bay without going aground or bump into each other
Y los tiros empiezan... sin ningún acierto.
And shooting begins, with no scores.
El Baltimore se adelanta y recibe el fuego a corta distancia de prácticamente TODA la flota española. Resultado:
Baltimore goes forward and receives fire from the ENTIRE spanish fleet at short distance. Result:
Baltimore a pique en el 6º turno
Baltimore to the bottom on the 6th turn
Notese como los barcos americanos se estorbaban unos a otros a la hora de disparar.
Notice that the american ships were almost continually annoying each other by blocking their line of fire.
El resto de la batalla (de la que no tengo fotos) fue un combate a corto alcance muy reñido entre las dos flotas. La nave insignia española aguantó lo indecible antes de irse al fondo, y al final los españoles lograron hundir de un "disparo perfecto" al último buque yanqui. Resultado final: la flota americana destruida y 3 de los 4 barcos españoles supervivientes prácticamente inútiles. Ver para creer...
The rest of the battle (of which we didn't take any pics) was a close range fight. The spanish flagship suffered an horrendous amount of damage before going to the bottom, and at the very end the spaniards managed to sink the last american ship with a "perfect shot". In the end the entire american fleet went to the bottom while 3 out of the four surviving spanish ships were a floating pile of junk. If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't believe it...
