Game n' Grounds - 3 games at 2x60

Game n’ Grounds – 3 games at 2×60

7/14/2024

I met up with JW Darkhurst at Game n’ Grounds in LA (Chatsworth specifically) for a rapid-paced trio of casual games. The build total was 60 points and we used the Seattle house rules.

I used a fleet focused on variety and making sure each ship had the Captain ability:
Gale Force Nine + Hammersmith (F&S version), Le Requin, Cannonball Gallows (MI version), oarsman
Le Descharges + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Bazana + captain, helmsman
Griffin + captain

In the first game, Darkhurst used a Spanish fleet with the LE San Cristobal, La Santa Isabel, and La Joya del Sol.

The full setup – we both contributed some mysterious islands.

Gale Force Nine proved valuable immediately, with the S-exploring ability helping Bazana and the Santa Isabel taking damage from the GF9.

Bazana rolled poorly at the MI, allowing Darkhurst to move her away from my home island (HI). However, GF9 got SAT from Le Requin, sailing over to dismast the San Cristobal!

This particular MI ability gave us a new idea – if you simply redocked the enemy ship and they rolled low again, they could get trapped in a “loop” and get stuck at the island indefinitely! However, I think the only way to make sure of it would be to have Runes of Loki with Nemo’s Plans.

La Joya del Sol explored an MI of her own:

GF9 captured the SC, while Bazana decided to take advantage of her hidden Captain and dismast the Santa Isabel! Griffin is headed home with gold, while Le Descharges heads north to cut off the Joya, taking down half of her masts.

I ended up capturing the other two Spanish ships as well, with only the Griffin’s gold getting home before the game ended.

Ben: 12 gold
JW Darkhurst: 0

My luck had been far better… for now.

Games 2 and 3 featured the chess clock, with a maximum time of 20 minutes per player per game. However, we were playing quickly enough that we never ran low on time.

Game 2 featured JW switching to an all-schooner fleet. Since I was traveling (and pressed for time before my trip), I had only brought one fleet and I would be using the same fleet in all games regardless of how many we were able to play.

JW’s Neptune’s Hoard managed to get a quick gold score, while GF9 took on HMS Durham (proxied by HMS Oxford). Taking advantage of round earth to explore in the northwest, Bazana unloads her captain to load an extra coin.

Griffin explored for gold but got saddled with the same negative MI effect as Bazana in the first game. GF9 gets the better of HMS Durham, but Le Requin wants Descharges to tow the Englishman home so he and Cannonball Gallows can go off in hunt of other schooners.

Indeed they did, with Neptune’s Hoard the next domino to fall. However, JW Darkhurst had already unloaded a bunch of gold, including at least one +2 bonus from La Santa Isabel (LSI) and the Barbary Banner UT (worth 5 gold). Bazana gets me on the scoreboard, but Griffin is forced to sail into less friendly waters.

I begin to tow my prizes home, with LSI in pursuit of the captured Durham. However, it wouldn’t matter, as JW had gotten so much gold early in the game that the gold race was already out of reach.

JW Darkhurst: 40 gold
Ben: 36

Game 3 saw JW go back to his initial Spanish fleet with a slight crew change, but with a very different HI + terrain setup compared to Game 1.

Round 1 saw the fleets sail in opposite directions as exploratory efforts began:

San Cristobal got SAT and sailed over to sink Le Descharges!

True to the day’s trend, my luck had completely run out. Overall I had far better luck than JW Darkhurst in Game 1, while Game 2 saw it mostly even (JW getting better gold values while I won the battles). Game 3 was the opposite of Game 1, with my luck horrid while JW’s d6 rolling was better than usual. Requin didn’t give GF9 the SAT, and GF9 proceeded to go an abysmal 0/5 overall (including the ram damage roll), failing to dent the San Cristobal!

Spanish gold begins to pile up as my fleet continues to implode:

At the left, an iceberg nearly hits a docked Joya del Sol. Bazana reaches home safely with gold, but SC has sunk the GF9, leaving Griffin a sitting duck. She redocks, attempting to trigger the 5-6 MI effect (which would have allowed me to move the San Cristobal S+L), but fails.