War in the Galamor bay

After the repeated failures of the Privateer navy of Galamory, Empress Matilda decided as her first act in power to grow the tiny Imperial fleet based at Sudhafen. By the year 511PC the Imperial navy had grown from a handful of sloops and frigates, to a warfleet of dozens of frigates, cruisers and several galleons. Each ship was brand new, state of the art and equipped with the latest cannon.

The first act of the newly appointed Admiral Von Schneckt was to prosecute Matilda's private obsession with gaining control over the privateer fleet. In secret, and without the knowledge of her council, she had taken Von Schneckt to one side and instructed him to go to Galamory and subdue the privateers. Their vessels were to be impounded and added to the Imperial fleet.

Unfortunately for the Empress, Von Schneckt was neither a subtle nor competent admiral. Instead of using possible subterfuge, the admiral sailed half his fleet into the Galamor bay and declared the privateers to be under arrest for piracy. Incensed by this, the privateers then proceeded to leave their anchorage and sink Von Schneckt's fleet, with the exception of one medium sized cruiser, which managed to escape. Von Schneckt went down with his ship, the Pride of Sigmar, leading to much embarrasment for the Empress. Matilda however had managed to keep her secret, and was able to blame her undoubtedly incompetent admiral for the debacle. At the same time she managed to tarnish the noble houses of Hoffenland, whose advice she had sought on appointing the leader of her new navy.

The Imperial navy came unstuck later on in the year as well, when Khaldeith raiders were sighted in the Galamor bay. The Imperial fleet, led by the new flagship Empress Matilda, sailed out to meet the dark elf threat. In their fist taste of real battle the Imperial vessels faired poorly. Although they looked the part, shiny guns and clean decks are no substitute for experienced crews, and that showed in poor manouevring and even worse gunnery. The Empress Matilda did manage sink some dark elf vessels, but concentrated too much of her firepower against the smaller enemy ships, leading to an inevitable unequal duel with the dark elf battleship.

The cruiser fleet faired little better in its action against its counterpart. The Khaldeith fleet ran rings around the Imperial cogs, sinking all of them, while suffering only a few ships lost themselves. Another admiral had been lost and the pride of Matilda's new navy now lay at the bottom of Galamor bay. Still, the raiders were driven off, at least that was Matilda's claim, and the Empress insisted more budget be spent replacing her lost ships.