60 Point Games in Vegas with Kogz03!
11/17/2023
Kogz03 and I met up at Dangerous Dave’s Vegas Board Games Meetup for a pair of 60 point games. We used the Las Vegas house rules. We both had English fleets in the first game. Kogz rolled to go first.
Kogz03 English
HMS Titan + Thomas Gunn (RotF version), Lawrence, Administror Scott Bratley
HMS London + Hermione Gold (RotF version)
Aberdeen Baron + helmsman
HMS Hound + explorer
Ben’s English
HMS Phoenix + Admiral James Norrington, helmsman, oarsman (20)
HMS Lord Kenyon + captain, helmsman (15)
HMS Rye + explorer (10)
-towing Gibraltar (7)
Honu Iki + explorer (8)
(for a lot of battle reports I just paste my fleet notes from a document into the BR, which is why sometimes there are point totals for me but not opponents)
Due to the limited table space available, it would be a tight setup. However, this promised to make the games fast and furious, and made it far more likely we’d be able to finish a second game before the Panera Bread closed at 9.
First turn carnage!! Hound and Aberdeen snag 7 coins between them, but I had to pounce to stay alive in the game. Rye snagged the final coin from the southwestern island, with Gibraltar dismasting the Hound! (I intended to capture for her gold) Phoenix (who redocked to stay safe), and Lord Kenyon (LK) teamed up to nearly dismast the Titan! Norrington’s cannon bonus was irrelevant against a fellow Briton, but LK was devastating, eliminating the maximum 3 masts from her shoot+ram barrage.
Honu Iki has explored the southeastern island.
Aberdeen couldn’t quite reach home, leaving her open to a cannonade from the Gibraltar flotilla, which knocked out 3 masts but wouldn’t prevent her from docking home her booty on the next turn. HMS London dismasted the Honu Iki, while the Titan docked at home.
Rye captured Hound after dropping her tow of the flotilla. LK risked getting a 1 on her ram roll of HMS Titan, but the gamble paid off. The Titan’s final mast fell overboard from the concussive impact, allowing Phoenix to capture the ship! (I was also gambling that the final face down crew on the Titan was some kind of captain, not an oarsman, which proved to be Thomas Gunn)
Aberdeen Baron docked home her coins. HMS London arrived on the scene to contest my capture of the Titan, but couldn’t get all cannons in range of Phoenix and took out 2 masts. This allowed Phoenix and Gibraltar to dismast London my turn, with Titan firmly switching sides with a double repair after getting towed home. Bratley would be worth 5 gold to me, but I wasn’t finding any good values even with my capture of the Hound. Since Rye had no helmsman but LK did, LK took up towing duties of the Hound while Rye went off to get meager loot from the southeast and possibly rescue Honu Iki.
With the English being my favorite faction, it felt strangely cathartic to capture some of my favorite ships in the game (Hound and Titan) and nearly snag London as well. However, the gold race was not in my favor, with Kogz finding the 6 and 4 he had contributed, among others. Hound and all the southeast gold was mine, but Aberdeen was able to get the northwest island’s gold home in just a couple short turns, with LK not wanting to dismast and end the game since I would prematurely lose. (almost nothing on my HI until the final round)
- Kogz English: 26 gold
- Ben’s English: 17 gold (12+5 from Ransom)
What an interesting game! I’ve had games similar to this in the past where one player can dominate the combat but lose the gold race, but usually it’s not this lopsided. (usually either a closer gold score, or the combat winner is able to control the endgame and win)
For our second game, Kogz switched to an all-Guichuan setup. I only brought one fleet and would be running the same setup. I answered a few questions about Kogz’ fleet beforehand; both players knew the entire crew setups of the other fleet before the game began.
Kogz’ Guichuan
Guichuan + The Headhunter, Davy Jones (DJC version), El Fantasma (OE version), helmsman, shipwright, explorer, oarsmen x3
We redid the island setup and actually remembered to add terrain! I rolled to go first this turn, and tried to pick a home island that had quick access to 3 of the 4 wild islands.
I did reach 3 islands on my first turn, but could only explore 2 of them since LK had no explorer. However, Fantasma was ready for slaughter, saccing to dismast Rye and then round earthing to dismast the Phoenix!
I made sure to have a huge homecoming party and all-out attack on the Guichuan! Rye rowed into position where she was within S for cancelling, but also got all of Gibraltar’s dangerous cannons in range. Combined with LK, 3 masts were shot away. Honu Iki dropped off 3 coins, while Phoenix rowed for home at S+S but couldn’t quite hide behind LK and was likely doomed.
Sure enough, Guichuan stayed in the fight and sank the Phoenix. Fantasma sacced another oarsman to repair and shoot, with Gibraltar’s flag being shot off. Fear affected both Rye and LK (6’s to limit their base moves to S on my next turn).
The English spent another turn blasting away, taking the Guichuan down to 3 masts. Fantasma sacced again to explore the northeast island and then round earthed to deposit the coins. This allowed Rye to dock home her coin and repair, while LK looked to get the rest of the gold that the Rye had found on turn 1.
Guichuan repaired two masts in a double action. LK and Honu Iki have drained the southern islands, while Rye has designs on round earthing to the northwest to snag the best coin from the final unexplored island!
Rye was able to grab a coin while Guichuan was busy copying Extended Range to blast away at the LK. We took a look at how much gold each of us had, knowing that we had contributed the same 38 total gold between us as the last game. I calculated that I could just edge out the win if I held steady with the gold currently in my possession, thankful I wouldn’t have to risk going back to the northwestern island again.
Guichuan cleaned out the NW island and LK and Rye managed to make it back with their loads!
- English: 20 gold
- Guichuan: 18
A very close finish! I think going first and being able to divert my ship resources across the map made up for the early loss of the Phoenix and not having any extra actions available in my fleet.
A nice pair of 60 point games! We both won, and got to use some pieces we’d been looking forward to playing. Catch us soon in Vegas for more adventures!
PS: A quick heads up that we’re planning a big Pirates weekend at Dice Tower West from 3/8-3/10/2024. Let me know if you’d like to attend and hope to see you there!
