Acorazado vs. Flying Dutchman

2/12/2017

Yesterday (2/12) I won an extremely brief game against hiddenelephant.  Xerecs arrived and we set up for a 3 player game, which will hopefully happen sometime soon.

After resuming T2 and stopping in the middle of the second game for a rules question, we decided to have a quick deathmatch.  My Acorazado fleet was at 29 wins, tied with my HMS Grand Temple fleet for the most all-time.

Xerecs took the Acorazado on with a crew elimination/boarding strategy:

Flying Dutchman (PotC #001 version) + Hammersmith, Crimson Angel, Tia Dalma, Capitaine Chevalle, oarsman

Each of the FD’s hits would eliminate a crew, even if they didn’t eliminate a mast.  Vega and the helmsman were the first to go, but the Acorazado responded by going 3 for 4.

In a big moment, the FD won a boarding party to kill all of the Acorazado’s remaining crew!  This left her very vulnerable, but she managed to dismast the FD.  However, the FD would win the game if she was sunk, because we ruled that Eternal could still work once.  The FD had to be captured, but between her oarsman and the Acorazado’s lack of a helmsman or SAT from Castro, that didn’t happen.  The FD managed to get away to repair, setting up a second clash.  This time the FD won since Tia Dalma was able to cancel the Acorazado’s ability and the Acorazado had no crew to use.  It was honestly one of the most frustrating games I’ve been involved in, not just because I lost, but because there were so many complex ability interactions and annoying occurrences (such as the boarding roll arguably determining the whole game’s result, and the no-win situations that both fleets seemed to be in at various times).  It made me think that home islands should perhaps be eliminated from deathmatches once the game begins (or do away with them altogether), between Eternal being undercosted and the temptation to lurk near your home island so your opponent will come to you.