November Finale – 11/30/2019
Likely my last physical game of Pirates CSG for quite some time!
This is a report for a nice family game played with relatives near the end of the Thanksgiving weekend. We set up for a game with 4 players at a 40 point build total. It ended up being rather long and complex for a game featuring relatively basic fleets and no UT’s or terrain. Round Earth was the main house rule.
We used Ross’ 5 beach island as the sole wild island, with 3 coins per beach. As usual, each beach had to be explored individually.
-All game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet.
Here are the fleets, in the order of play:
French Pirates
Bruja + captain, helmsman
Musarde + captain, helmsman, explorer, oarsman
Franco-Spanish (FS)
L’Epee de L’Ange (Epee for short) + captain, helmsman
San Pedro + helmsman, explorer
Americans
USS Atlanta + Master CPO Charles Richard (OE version)
Dark Fox
USS Plymouth Rock + shipwright
Cursed Pirates (Ben’s fleet)
Flying Dutchman (PotC 001 version) + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Lechim Namod
And they’re off!
Could I wreak havoc with my nasty beast?
The Bruja round earthed while many ships looked for gold early. Lechim Namod (LN) is submerged, hoping to feast on the Americans shortly.
The squid surfaces! The Dark Fox loses a mast, while the Flying Dutchman empties a nearby beach of treasure.
The Bruja shot 0/4 on the FS, allowing the Epee to return fire on her way home, hitting once.
Already facing some tough decisions, the American commander got an incredible clutch roll of Fear. Getting a 5 on it with the Dark Fox, Fear cancelled the abilities of LN, disabling the Sea Monster keyword to unpin the Dark Fox, allowing her to escape with a coin! The Atlanta shot 1/2 to knock a tentacle off LN, after which the Plymouth Rock was essentially sacrificed to give the Atlanta more time. Her shipwright was transferred to the Atlanta, which became important later. LN flailed away and took off the Plymouth Rock’s only mast, with the FD coming over to capture the sloop.
Here come the Cursed Pirates! Love the colors in this picture and that you can make out the ship names.
The Bruja found her mark, hitting twice on the Epee to eliminate two masts and two cargo. The crew were eliminated, allowing the Epee to unload a coin on the next turn. The San Pedro went out for more gold, having already deposited 2 coins along with her +2 bonus.
LN moved out of the way to allow the FD to capture the Plymouth Rock.
A deal was briefly discussed between myself and the Americans, with the Atlanta potentially allowed to get home with 2 coins if the Americans didn’t contest the capturing of the Plymouth Rock. Nothing was really agreed upon, and I decided to do what a pirate would and attack anyway. The FD shot 1/2 to eliminate another mast from the Atlanta.
It soon became apparent that the Bruja might finish the job for me, as the dangerous Pirate ship lumbers towards the Americans!
The Flying Dutchman was still carrying 3 coins, so I wanted to get her and the prize home and let LN potentially interfere in the looming Atlanta-Bruja battle. At the upper left you can see that the Musarde has round earthed after getting some coins home for the French Pirates.
The Atlanta managed to evade cannon fire and fled for home, taking a mast off the Bruja as well! The Dark Fox moved to block the Bruja, but was rammed by Lechim Namod, who resurfaced but had trouble maneuvering past the rocks.
I started to realize that capturing the Plymouth Rock was largely pointless, as the FD barely got home at L+S after dropping the tow.
The Bruja moved to block the Atlanta from docking, dismasting her and eliminating a coin with cargo-wrecking in the process. However, on the American turn, the Dark Fox rolled a 6 for Fear on both the Bruja and LN! O_O This was a strange game where Fear was quite successful, even the dominant ability in the game.
The Atlanta repaired with the shipwright she acquired from the Plymouth Rock, and the Dark Fox landed a 6 to hit the Bruja and take her down to 1 mast! Between Fear and her 5L shots, the Dark Fox went 3/4 on 6’s this turn, proving she may not be one of the worst speedy ships in the game. There are 3 coins between two of the “northern” beaches, which are likely to be contested by the Epee, San Pedro, Musarde, and Flying Dutchman. LN has submerged and slowly creeps towards the French ships.
The Bruja dismasts the Atlanta again, with the mast falling on Master CPO Charles Richard. 🙁
LN surfaces to ram and pin the Musarde, who now carries 2 coins.
Another coin will certainly be contested:
LN dismasts the Musarde! However, the Dark Fox is back, ready to scare the big squid for perhaps the 3rd time in the game?
With her explorer the San Pedro managed to load the coin out from under the Flying Dutchman. However, then it was the FD’s time to shine! She did her job well, dismasting the San Pedro easily. Both players declined to board, myself especially because I wanted to be able to use the San Pedro’s crew. (I was thinking that Massacre would override my house rule of letting me as the potential winner choose what option to use, but either way I wanted to capture the ship with all her cargo intact, as she could be valuable in the late endgame coming up.)
The Bruja used round earth to return home, allowing the Atlanta to do the same. The Atlanta unloaded her remaining coin after one of the most harrowing and impressive journeys I’ve ever seen a ship go through in a relatively short and small game. I’ve always thought of her as a bit underrated, and here she was both resilient and lucky.
The Atlanta repairs, the Bruja prepares to do the same; LN knocks a mast off the Dark Fox, and the FD captures the San Pedro. I wanted LN to keep the Musarde pinned until the FD could capture her somehow or steal her gold, but that was looking somewhat unlikely due to how long it would take for the FD to get home with the San Pedro and sail back out again.
The Dark Fox moved to position herself in L range of the LN but out of the LN’s S tentacle range. However, I decided to break the pin on the Musarde, with LN ramming the Dark Fox derelict. The Musarde was now free to row at S+S; I was hoping she might actually get into a better position for the FD to track her down as she approached her home island, especially given round earth making my home island close to that of the French Pirates.
The Dark Fox hit with Fear yet again before being sunk by LN, getting a 5 to stop the Musarde for an additional turn. The Bruja and Epee repair, and it looks like it will be a final showdown in a chase towards the French Pirate HI.
The FD finally docked home the San Pedro, netting my fleet an extra 3 gold total. This brought my fleet to 4 ships total, but I was worried I didn’t have enough gold to win.
The Atlanta prepares to round earth as LN submerges, not wanting to pin the Musarde just to get blasted by the Bruja and/or Epee.
The chase was… anticlimactic! The Atlanta, FD, Epee, and LN all couldn’t reach the Musarde in time. The partially repaired San Pedro used round earth to ram, but didn’t even win the boarding party. XD The Bruja played bodyguard, but barely needed to block the Atlanta, let alone fight her or the FD.
The Atlanta rammed the Bruja for fun, but it killed the hardworking shipwright who kept the Americans in the game to some degree.
The Final Standings:
Franco-Spanish: 18 gold
Cursed Pirates (me): 12 gold
French Pirates: 11 gold
Americans: 6 gold
The Musarde only brought back 3 gold, so her changing hands would not have affected the victor. (ex: Cursed Pirates with 15 and French Pirates with 8)
Thanks for reading! 😀