As we reach the end of May 2018, I’m mostly satisfied with how the new Pirates with Ben is turning out. I’ve got 13 pages, and this is the 21st blog post. There are still a bunch of things I’d like to add or improve, but the foundation has been laid.
Unfortunately I am already contemplating going to a 3 days per week format with the blog. This isn’t from a lack of things to talk about, but more from the standpoint that I have other more pressing things that need to get done. Even doing the standard 3 features each day takes up a decent amount of time with all the links/pictures/finding stuff/etc. However, I like the video/audio blogging more than text-based, so hopefully I’ll do more of those. I will of course update if I do eventually shift to doing this 3 times a week instead of daily.
Deal of the Day: Gone now, but there’s always more available! This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
Pirates CSG Card of the Day
Set number: 11 – Rise of the Fiends
Collector’s Number: 031 – Rising Sun
Faction Affiliation: Pirate
Rarity: U
Type: Ship
Point Value: 13
Cargo Space: 3
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 3S-3L-3S
Number of Masts: 3
When this ship is given an explore action, you can swap a treasure on the wild island for a crew on any friendly ship.
Flavor: The crew of the Rising Sun are wary of Captain Wyung because of his habit of leaving behind crew to make room for more treasure.
You can hear my thoughts on this ship in the recent Rise of the Fiends set review. I see her as a strange hybrid that can utilize the Universal Pirate Shipping strategy pioneered by darrin. Since the ability is one of the most confusing in the game, I wouldn’t recommend her for beginners.
Standard 40 point games: Captain, helmsman, explorer. (19 total points)
Medium size games (50-100 points): Hammersmith, Coconut, Calico Cat, oarsman. This gives you the potential for 6S speed so you can get to islands faster and explore them to flip stuff around. The cargo and point limitations work out perfectly, as this combo comes to 13 points and 3 cargo spaces taken up. Shows off how great the Pirates’ named crew can be. (26 total points)
Large games (over 100 points): Same as the above. Being a midsize ship with somewhat limited options due to her 3 cargo spaces, and being a ship you’ll probably use for gold with the ability, the Rising Sun isn’t destined to be a monster gunship. There are some other combos you could try, but the basic captain/helmsman/explorer + SAT w/reroll is going to be your best bet most of the time with this particular ship.
Game Piece Rating: 7.5/10. An extremely OP ability is what saves this ship from mediocrity, but Captain Jack Sparrow does it so much better on a ship like the Hai Peng.
This could easily be the Picture of the Day, but my Economy Edition game has so many great pictures that I might as well share more than one. The Rising Sun had a short but interesting life back in 2015, which you can read about in the battle reports.
Original caption: The Rising Sun came out of the fog and promptly rolled a 1 while crossing the reef to lose her remaining two masts, leaving her derelict! Unfortunately for the Cursed, Coconut’s explorer ability combined with the Rising Sun’s ship ability let the Pirates transfer a shiny silver 6 worth 18 gold back to the Pirates’ HI right underneath the Cursed eyes! In this way, the Rising Sun’s expedition had turned into a relative disaster, but at least she had just about paid for herself and her crew in the process, if not only making the Cursed more angry.
Picture of the Day
This is what Economy Edition looked like 3 years ago today. EE will probably be the default PotD for the next month haha. Such an amazing game, and lots of amazing pictures from it. (not trying to brag about my photography, but more the aesthetic nature of the game/setup/ocean/custom islands and terrain)
I love the early stages of campaign games. They really have an “adventuring” feel to them that you can’t get from a standard game that only lasts a few hours or less. Of course, hindsight is key, as you’ll see. 🙂
Anniversaries galore coming up!
It’s a Pirates’ Life for Me.
Ben