4×80 in Henderson
11/25/2023
I met up with Stefan (Kogz03) to play at this meetup in south Las Vegas! We were able to teach 2 new interested players, making it a 4×80 game! (4 players, 80 points) We used the Las Vegas house rules. I made a couple quick beginner fleets for the new players. Stefan and I probably had an advantage with our named crew, but we didn’t know if anyone would want to join us (fleets made in advance) and I think it can be best to avoid named crew for a player’s first game. Here are the fleets in the order of play:
Marco’s Frenchmen
La Ville de Paris + captain, helmsman
Tepant + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Cleopatre + captain, helmsman
L’Intrepide + explorer
La Courageux + captain
Le Bon Marin
Ben’s Spaniards
El Corazon Dorado + Victor de Alva (F&S), helmsman, Contessa Anita Amore (23)
El Neptuno + captain, tribal chieftain (24)
La Santa Ana + Dominic Freda (LE version), captain, helmsman, oarsman (22)
Concepcion + helmsman, explorer, oarsman (16)
Spanish native canoes
Coins: Rats, Fireworks, Weapons, 5 0’s
-My strategy was to bump up the 0 values with my gold bonus ships, which works better in a 1v1 game due to the 0’s taking up a greater percentage of the total coins in play. Rats would hopefully make it an even more low-scoring game that I could benefit from while hurting an opponent. Fireworks would be quite useful on any of my captained ships (especially Neptuno!), unlike something like HMS Gallows that already has essentially perfect cannons. I’ve always loved the high-cargo Spanish 4 masted square rigged ships, which evoke themes of Spanish treasure galleons from the Age of Sail. I often like to use them in tandem, with the Neptuno acting as a third galleon of sorts, but with some armament as well.
Spice’s English
HMS Goliath + captain, helmsman, oarsman
HMS London + captain, helmsman
HMS Sultan + captain, helmsman
HMS Lady Provost + helmsman, explorer, oarsman
HMS Bletchley
Stefan’s Cursed
Divine Dragon + Davy Jones (OE), captain, oarsman
Flying Dutchman + El Fantasma (OE), helmsman, oarsmen x3
Grinder + crew
Sea Duck
We were ready to set sail!
The English draw first blood! HMS London blasts masts off the Concepcion after she loaded some loot.
Fleets scattered about, with L’Intrepide snagging coins from the middle, leaving a 0 coin for HMS Bletchley to find. The Lady Provost has explored for 4 coins, denying the Spanish native canoes that island as HMS Sultan also round earths to provide escort protection. The Divine Dragon starts her night by shooting poorly, but eventually manages to dismast the Courageux.
The Tepant wades into the fray, deepening the Franco-Cursed conflict:
Both of my “bonus galleons” got home with 3 coins apiece, while the Neptuno explored for 3 coins of her own. El Corazon Dorado had her hands full watching both the London and Sultan. My canoes scattered, unlikely to get any gold with how fast it was flying off the wild islands. In the east, the Cleopatre takes a third mast off the Flying Dutchman while Intrepide docks home her coins. The Cursed have Grinder and Sea Duck explore.
With the nearby Spanish 4 masters all docked at home, HMS London heads east to continue her cannon barrage! She shoots 3/4 to sink two canoes and dismast the Bon Marin!
Victor de Alva didn’t give his Corazon Dorado an extra action all game, but that didn’t stop him from blasting 2 masts off the London. Concepcion is looking to “plus up” a 0 she left behind on her first gold trip. Neptuno is looking to offload her gold to Freda’s Santa Ana (to get the +2 bonus on at least one coin) and receive the Fireworks UT in return, potentially setting up a deadly weapon where Neptuno could hit on 4-6 at L+L range. HMS Lady Provost gets the English on the board, while the Goliath searches for treasure of her own. The eastern firefight has calmed down slightly – Tepant shot masts off the Divine Dragon, who explores rather than continue the bloodshed. The Cleopatre raids The Cursed home island (HI) of a coin, but is staring down a bunch of 2L cannons on the FD and Grinder.
Unfortunately time was running out, so we had to call for a last round – Stefan would get the final player turn so all players could have an equal number of turns. With this knowledge and the multiplayer rule that gold on ships counts towards victory, it got more desperate in a hurry. The following picture shows the second to last round of play.
London pivots to starboard and shoots at Corazon! Lady Provost makes a beeline for my home island, with a raid imminent! That would wreck my plans of having a gold factory and getting Neptuno set up for firework carnage (since I wanted to offload the gold but also stop Lady P if possible). Maybe the combo will work another time!
On the final round, the Spanish desperately tried to maximize their gold score while denying Lady P from stealing anything. However, Corazon only shot 1/3, and Neptuno missed all 5 shots at L+L range, with no 6’s rolled. She did dock home her 3 coins, while Santa Ana sped north to load the final coin from her previously explored wild island, in case it would matter in the final count. With 1 mast standing, Lady P was able to sneak around Corazon at S+L+S speed and steal a coin, which would count for the English in the scores.
The carnage continues out east! Cleopatre was dismasted by a Broadsides Attack from the Flying Dutchman! This allowed Grinder to capture the Cleopatre, but Tepant and Ville de Paris were on the scene to make sure The Cursed didn’t get their stolen coin back. Both ships were shot to the ocean floor! Overall the French had very good cannon luck in this game – lots of their shots hit, while a lot of enemy shots against them missed. Alas, they had only explored one island and it wasn’t very valuable.
Nearly at an end:
On their final turn, The Cursed broadsided the Ville de Paris and had Sea Duck pick up a final coin that would count towards victory.
Scores:
- Spanish: 26 gold
- The Cursed: 22
- English: 14
- French: 3
A rousing adventure to start two new pirate careers! This 4×80 game featured shooting, stealing, and plenty of good action! The gold bonuses proved key, as I believe they accounted for at least 6 of my gold. Stefan also found the Rats UT, which took a couple gold off his total. The Lady Provost’s raid only stole a low-value coin – if she had snagged the 5 instead, it would have been a very close 22-21-19 Cursed victory! However, the Spanish made up for their lack of EA and cannon luck with a big gold haul. I feel like a bunch of recent games have seen UT luck not go my way, so it was nice to have that strategy pay off a bit – I might even use a similar fleet in the future to try the Fireworks combo again. Neptuno using it could be spectacular, but Santa Ana or Corazon Dorado could have made good use of it as well.
Thanks again to all who played! For anyone reading that wants to play, let me know if you’re in Las Vegas! 😀