English Pirates:
Bombardier + Thomas Gunn, First Mate Ismail, Sir Christopher Myngs, firepot specialist, fire shot
HMS Prince of Chichester + Hermione Gold, explorer
Princess + helmsman, explorer
Cursed Americans:
USS Albany + Commodore Peregrine Stern, Wayne Nolan, helmsman
Juggernaut + El Fantasma, captain, helmsman
La Rosario
The Cursed Americans went first, followed by the English Pirates. The Rosario was the first ship to reach an island, but the Prince of Chichester was the first to explore.
The Prince got away with three coins and knocked a few masts off the Juggernaut, who then rammed her and killed her explorer.
(Terrible picture but at least you can see where things are.)
The Prince was also rammed by the Albany, who stole two 4’s from the Prince, leaving the battered ship with just one 2. The Prince took out the Rosario (who herself was carrying a few coins) before sinking from the Juggernaut’s long-range cannons. In the meantime the Princess zipped home with 8 gold for the English Pirates.
At this point the Bombardier had failed Myngs’ SAT (with reroll) since the first turn, and thus was unable to get into action very effectively. The Albany received an extra action from Stern and took out all three of the Bombardier’s masts, capturing her on the following turn and towing her home to repair her.
At this point, the Princess slipped under the radar and brought home more gold for the English Pirates, which proved to be just enough. The last treasure coin was loaded aboard the Albany, and the game was called after the Princess was sunk, with only the Cursed Americans left standing. However, the English Pirates had collected more gold and won the game by a narrow 14-12 margin!
A quick but close game that featured a few interesting crew combinations I had been wanting to try for a while (on the Bombardier and the Albany). Unfortunately you have to double the cost of the SAT with Ismail since there’s not enough cargo on the Bombardier, but I really like the Albany setup getting EA, captain, helmsman, +1 to boarding rolls and a free reroll all for just two cargo spaces, which still leaves three spaces available with which to steal gold.