2×60 on VASSAL
12/7/2022
This game was Kyle’s first on the VASSAL module! We set up for a 2×60 game using our regular Seattle Pirates house rules. All game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet. He went first with the French:
Le Superbe + Capitaine Arathiel, Jules de Cissey, helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x2
Tepant + captain, helmsman
Le Bon Marin + helmsman
Le Pique + captain
Marianne + Maurice Aristide
I followed with an English fleet from RtSS:
Elthelfleda + Captain Nemo, helmsman, oarsman (got this idea from Ochobrazo2298’s game)
HMS Halcyon + RotF HGold, RotF Trevor van Tyne, 0LR+5 Bratley, cannoneer, oarsman, grape shot
HMS Goodfellow + helmsman, explorer, oarsman
Coins: Weapons, Seastar, Dead Man’s Chest (PotC version), English Royal Decree, four 5’s
The setup:
Both fleets headed out for gold, with the Superbe exploring first and the Pique preparing to grab a coin from her.
Elthelfleda and Goodfellow loaded some solid coins including the Seastar UT, but a French blockade looked to be brewing.
Knowing I had a good amount of “extra firepower” available on the Halcyon in the form of musketeer+cannoneer+grape shot, I charged for home after seeing she would be in range of the Tepant. She went 4/4 to dismast the Eternal Frenchman! I went straight for home with my other ships as well to put as much pressure on the Superbe as I could, forcing her to make potentially tough decisions on what to shoot at.
However, I had been too aggressive with the Goodfellow and wrongly guessed that an action generator on the Superbe would have already been revealed. Capitaine Arathiel took the helm and piloted the Superbe to a game-changing attack, sinking HMS Goodfellow and her 10 gold (+Dead Man’s Chest UT) and then taking the Halcyon down to 1 mast! Great maneuvering by Kyle ensured she stayed out of the range of any potential canceller on the Halcyon. On my turn I weighed various options, with perhaps docking the Halcyon at home being the smartest. However, this would allow Kyle to scuttle the Tepant while I tried to get gold from the Mercenary Elthelfleda to my HI via the Halcyon, and letting the Superbe run wild. He was also amassing good gold through Maurice Aristide, so my chances were dwindling. Halcyon continued the fight, taking a mast off the Superbe and using grape shot to whittle down her sac options a bit. Elthelfleda headed straight for Tepant, knowing it was the key to getting some gold home and/or staying alive in the game.
Superbe sank the Halcyon, then sacced her helmsman to ram the Elthelfleda and take her down to 1 mast remaining! (and stealing her 5) With Mercenary again preventing the E from docking at home, I used Seastar unsuccessfully and then captured the Tepant, who explored the E to grab her oarsman in anticipation of getting home on my next turn.
The Tepant was able to get home rowing S+S (avoiding a sinking at the hands of the Pique sniping at her), but at the cost of losing the Elthelfleda to the Superbe. In the meantime the Bon Marin was transferring another coin to Marianne, who upped its value by 2 with Aristide. The game was all but over.
At this point it was worth counting up the gold on Kyle’s HI and the gold remaining in play. It revealed that I could only hope to ever get 4 gold by some miracle, while Kyle already had way more than that on his HI!
- Kyle: 17 gold
- Ben: 0
A lopsided 2×60 game but a good introduction to VASSAL! Kudos to Kyle and his effective French fleet, using pieces synergistically and saccing to devastate the English position at the opportune moment!