Circle of Blood

9/5/2022

Circle of Blood!  This scenario from Riz is one I’ve played a few times before, and this time it would be in Las Vegas against my friend Captain Randy.  We also used these house rules, and all game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet.  Randy rolled to go first with his Pirate fleet led by the Zeus.

I went with an evil themed fleet full of chaos:
Divine Dragon + OE Davy Jones, captain, helmsman, Sir Edmund, oarsman
Cassandra + RotF Crimson Angel, Grim the Savage, helmsman
Locker + tribal chieftain, helmsman
Cursed native canoes
Banshee’s Cry + Jonah, Calypso, explorer
Coeur du Lion + Desailly, Auraa

The mega iceberg was a gift from Captain Redgoat while I was in Portland.  The sea monsters were picked at random out of Randy’s tray with our eyes closed, while the forts were neutral with 8 3L cannons each.  With a whopping 60 coins in play, it promised to be a doozy!

There is also some raw video footage of the game!  (it does contain some spoilers for later in the report)

A dramatic first turn!  Randy settles a great turtle as his home island, with his other ships docking elsewhere.  I redock the 3 canoes remaining from the Zeus assault, flinging coins towards the Divine Dragon, who uses her second action to explore the island and claim the gold as mine!  I somehow roll a 6 with the Lost UT, yanking in a bunch of terrain to blanket the map with trade currents and strategically placed fog banks to help me get away with home island raids.  Which was the next step!  The Cassandra started the game right next to what would become Randy’s HI, flipping Grim the Savage on the first turn to home island hoard immediately!!  O_O  My early game luck was so dominant that it looked like it should be an easy win for me.  However, we were in for quite a long game….

Although my Banshee’s Cry and Calypso were eliminated by Gog-Clocthoth due to the Bad Maps UT, I put the Coeur (with L-mover Desailly on board) into a fog bank so she was safe from the Zeus.  Then I used the great turtles as a suction/vacuum effect, saccing move actions from the submerged Locker and fogged out canoe to suck both a wild island and Randy’s home island toward my own home island!!  This would make home island raids in the future even easier, with the goal of having the Cassandra able to raid Randy’s HI for 3 coins and then deposit them on the next turn.  For now the Cassandra hid in fog on her route to my HI, which was quite effective since she could stay safe while at sea in between robberies.

Both flagships had All-Powerful, which would prove to be quite the matchup throughout the night (and early morning…).  Emperor Blackheart on the Zeus vs. Davy Jones on the Divine Dragon.  Randy’s fort-immune Windjammer plinks away at an English NPC fort in the northeast quadrant, while the DD round earths to blast masts off the Akua Lapu.  The Cassandra docks home a bunch of Randy’s initial gold from his HI, and Randy’s HI is looking dangerously close to my own.

At the top right, Emperor Blackheart thinking about round earthing the Zeus back to Randy’s HI:

The creatures moved around haphazardly throughout, but other than Gog-Clocthoth sinking the Banshee’s Cry, none of them really affected the game much.

In a shock to me, the Zeus leaves herself somewhat open to attack, with Davy Jones taking advantage in a hit-and-run where the Divine Dragon shoots 3/4 before using the extra action to return home.  I could have gone for the dismasting but I don’t trust my cannon luck, which would have had to be above average to win an all-out slugfest.  At the top of the picture, the submerged Locker rams a mast off the Akua Lapu, leaving her with just one remaining.

A few big plays were made before showing this next picture!  Randy sacrificed a move action to move his home island within docking range of the Coral, who unloaded gold in preparation for his next play.  Randy built The Devil’s Maw at the island the Akua Lapu was docked at, mostly to siphon gold off his home island knowing it would be safer in the fort from Grim the Savage.  However, I had a play of my own to make, using a 6 from Davy Jones to reef the Zeus!!!  This left her mastless, but Randy was able to row her home.  Knowing she would be repairing two masts per turn and that I would inevitably get pinned if I rammed her at all afterwards, the Divine Dragon took the opportunity to strike.  With no masts on the Zeus, the DD had a boarding guarantee (my lowest roll being 7 against Randy’s highest of 6) and no way to get pinned even after Randy started repairing on his turn.  So the DD used her two actions to ram and board twice, eliminating the Zeus’ explorer and oarsman and leaving her with just Emperor Blackheart and F&S Hammersmith (for captain+helmsman).  Capturing the Zeus was definitely a goal of mine, especially seeing her so vulnerable.  By this point in the game Randy had found a second Eye of Insanity UT (the first was eliminated super early by the Pirata Codex), which allowed a crew on his Neptune’s Hoard to copy any Cursed crew in play, which inevitably became Davy Jones and All-Powerful every turn.  So in essence, I was now at an “All-Powerful deficit” at a 1-2 ratio.  However, if I could capture the Emperor, I would be up 2-1 in the arms race.  XD

The Locker turns her attention to the Windjammer.  The flagship junks have a boarding duel with pirate casualties.

Randy was using the Neptune’s Hoard to ferry a ton of gold into The Devil’s Maw fort, as I had cleaned out his HI and made it nearly pointless to bring gold back to it.  The great turtle I had moved towards my HI earlier in the game was moved by Randy towards his fort.  The Zeus was repairing quickly, but her absence from combat allowed the Divine Dragon to easily capture the Windjammer (only after the Windjammer had blasted the final flag off the English NPC fort, and therefore a blow to Randy’s morale as it seemed like the long attack on the fort was all for naught).  I was seeing my path to victory: if I could just destroy The Devil’s Maw right before eliminating Randy from play, I would win easily.  Knowing this (and being really tired lol), there was no point in going for the rest of the gold on wild islands or attacking the NPC forts needed to get it.  All I cared about was wiping the fort off the map and then triggering an endgame condition immediately afterwards, even if it meant suiciding my own ships which would be incredibly easy between all the hazards in play (iceberg, reefs, forts and monsters that automatically shoot at targets in range).

However, destroying the fort wouldn’t be so easy!  Randy dealt a huge delay to that goal of mine when he got a 6 with All-Powerful, reefing the Divine Dragon!  With the worst possible roll of 1 she lost 5 of her 6 masts!  Like the Zeus she returned home to repair, and I was careful to dock at a location where one S+S+S move action would not be in range of any reefs.

Randy’s mid-game success continues, with another All-Powerful 6 used to reef the Cassandra where she lost all but 1 mast!!  O_O   She was then captured by the Zeus!  The Akua Lapu hits the abandoned fort one final time, destroying it and opening its gold up for exploration and claiming.  Randy seemed intent on putting as much gold in The Devil’s Maw as possible, which slightly amused me since I didn’t think it would help him much (in hindsight it makes sense though to make sure there was more in the fort than on my HI).

Losing the Cassandra was a big blow to my morale (if Randy could repair her and use her against me to raid my HI, I might lose big in a huge blowout), but I recovered quickly with a clutch turn.  A lucky 5 from Davy Jones was intriguing at first, and turned into one of the biggest rolls of the game.  I surfaced the Locker, ramming twice to dismast the Zeus!  With no oarsman left she was finally ripe for capture!!  The Divine Dragon swooped in and snagged her, netting me a second source of All-Powerful and making it extremely difficult for Randy to win any future battles on the sea.

The Locker dived below and rammed the Cassandra derelict, as I wanted to recapture her.  I rolled a 6 with All-Powerful, and got overzealous.  I didn’t realize how quickly Randy could end the game by suiciding, and forced the Neptune’s Hoard towards an NPC fort with the intent of weakening the ship.  It did take 3 masts off (would have been 4 without the Cross of Coronado triggering), but I quickly realized I had been too hasty, since Randy clearly had more gold in his fort than I had on my HI.  He had no incentive to continue the game and would be able to suicide before I could destroy The Devil’s Maw.  This made my capture of the Zeus feel slightly in vain since I probably wouldn’t even have time to repair her.

Captain Randy’s gold mountain:

Suddenly Randy only has 2 masts standing, with self-sabotage options aplenty and every reason to do so.

Now it was a race against time.  What would happen first – Randy ending the game by eliminating his own fleet from being able to get future move actions, or me securing a gold advantage by destroying The Devil’s Maw and making all of its gold not count for anyone?

The Divine Dragon dropped her towline on the Zeus, sprinting south to round earth for a fort assault.  The Locker headed there as well for any firepower support she could provide.  Randy crashed the Neptune’s Hoard into the megaberg, but Desailly L-moved her away from it (which in hindsight didn’t help much).  I believe a 6 from All-Powerful let me move the Akua Lapu into the fog bank west of the fort, making it harder for the AL to drive onto the reef on the east side of the fort.

Randy reefed the Akua Lapu but rolled too high!  The DD swooped in and started blasting the fort, with the Locker surfacing to assist.

But in the end the Pirates hadn’t taken everything into their calculations.  Although Randy was able to successfully turn the Akua Lapu into a shipwreck on his next turn, he still had an oarsman left in play on the Neptune’s Hoard, who was fully capable of rowing at S+S with future move actions.  Randy contended that using the Eye of Insanity with the NH’s oarsman to copy Davy Jones’ All-Powerful meant that the Oarsman ability was not technically present on the NH.  In a huge rules question that would basically determine the game’s outcome, Woelf said that the Eye of Insanity cannot trigger the “no future move actions” endgame rule.  With that drama hanging in the balance (I was convinced I was right, and insisted the game wasn’t over), I took my next turn, destroyed the fort and sank the Neptune’s Hoard to end the game at last!!

1. Ben: 29 gold
2. Randy: 0

What a finish!  This certainly felt like the closest finish of any of the 7 games I played with Captain Randy on my Vegas trip, and easily could have gone a lot worse for me.  If Randy had been able to wreck both of his ships before the fort was destroyed, he would have won 62-29!  (as there was 62 gold in The Devil’s Maw)

This game was characterized by HUGE momentum swings.  I looked unstoppable after the first round or two, with Randy in complete despair as a long week of pirating came to a crushing head.  However, my mid-game was an absolute disaster, as Randy accumulated a ton of gold, worked around his horrific HI situation (I basically stole his HI), nearly wrecked the Divine Dragon and captured the Cassandra.  In the end though, my penchant of often having a strong endgame won me the day.  We both had a lot of lows in this game, with a few massive highs as well. We were tired and the game probably ended around 1:30am on Tuesday morning, with me having to get up at 5am for a flight that same day.  I think fatigue led to the gaffes on both sides.  However, even if it was a really brutal game to play, it’s always much more satisfying to play it out and have a memorable outcome.

With that, I ended my 2022 Las Vegas trip with a 5-2 record, far better than I could have expected going into it (including a trio of 3 player games).  Here’s to hopefully next year!!

Straits of Chaos – Adventure Book scenario

9/4/2022

Captain Randy, Maddy and I played a scenario from the Adventure Book – Straits of Chaos.  We used a 40 point build total and the other default house rules from my trip to Vegas, with the exception that it was flat earth so ships could actually sail off the map properly per the scenario rules.

Randy went first with a Spanish fleet including their native canoes, while Maddy had a mostly Corsair fleet that also included the Longshanks.

My strategy was to use a “mach speed” HMS Swallow to explore the islands as fast as possible with one ship:
HMS Swallow + LE Griffin, captain, helmsman, explorers x2, oarsman
Patagonia + Robinson, Mycron, Bratley
Mermaid

When the coins used for island markers were revealed, it looked like Randy had a huge advantage.  He ended up as the only player on the east side, with the first 3-4 islands perfectly lined up for him.

Randy looked like he would use the Algeciras and canoes to explore a ton of the islands all in one turn, but wasn’t anticipating Griffin making my Swallow even faster than normal.  I knew my best chance against the double action San Cristobal would be on the first round, and had to pounce.  Mycron let the ship move S+L+S+S twice (as fast as the Cristobal!), speeding over to get some cannons in range and hit thrice on the Spanish flagship!

The Spanish counterattack is effective overall, but the Swallow has 2 masts standing, which is a decent amount of firepower with a guaranteed second action available.

The English win the important fight, with the Mermaid taking the San Cristobal under tow.  I quickly realized that scuttling captured ships would be a great way to take advantage of the “no sinking” rule, as all ships essentially have their own version of Eternal in Straits of Chaos.  Because of this I didn’t bother sinking the Rosario, since doing so would just help Captain Randy.  The Swallow explored island #1, but Randy had already explored the first 3 islands.  Maddy’s fleet was making all speed towards the initial islands in the east, but was definitely in last place.

Even a weakened Swallow was looking like an absolute menace on these waters, now barren of big threats to oppose her.

It was time to get greedy and dominate.  I knew I would have time to explore islands as I went along, so acquiring more ships became the priority in the short term, both to eliminate the Swallow’s opposition (the Queen of Sheba did have a captain aboard) and to expand my fleet for exploring options.  My fleet got to work crushing the weak ships in the vicinity, dismasting the QoS, Algeciras and one of the Barbary 1 masters.  The San Cristobal and Rosario were scuttled.

Even though I had still only explored one island, the game was now mine to lose as the Swallow continued to dominate the ocean.  The captured Queen of Sheba rows towards island #2 to explore it for me, while the scuttled Spanish ships repair at island #1.

The oarsman-free galleys really started to expedite my pace of victory as they could row and explore islands immediately after I captured them.  The Whisper and Tunis were added to the ever-growing English fleet.  The QoS explored island #2, Rosario explored island #3, and Tunis island #4 as I tied Randy for the lead at 4 islands explored each.

The Swallow sent one of Randy’s canoes back to island #4 by sinking it, delaying his progress.  The Swallow explored island #5 and the QoS explored island #6, meaning I just had to get all of my many ships off the map.  In the meantime the San Cristobal took care of Maddy’s Longshanks, which despite my fears did not have a captain aboard.  My ships scrambled for Ocean’s Edge, with Mycron’s Patagonia likely to be one of the last to go after he assisted other ships in speeding away from the scene.

With the other players unable to explore all the islands, I sailed off the map to victory!  This was a fun scenario where HMS Swallow decisively defeated the San Cristobal early on, which proved to be all I needed to dominate the ocean thereafter.  I don’t recommend galleys in Straits of Chaos, at least not without oarsmen since they are so easy to row around for extra exploring logistics immediately after being captured.

Question of the Day: Have you played any scenarios from the Adventure Book?

Wreck of the Black Galleon

9/3/2022

Captain Randy, Maddy and I met up at Davy’s to play an old Wizkids scenario from way back in the day – Wreck of the Black Galleon.  We used a 50 point build total and some house rules in addition to those from the scenario.  Randy and I actually played the scenario twice, and you’ll soon see why.  The scenario is evidently from the Spanish Main days of 2004/early 2005, as each player contributes only 6 coins worth 12 gold (rather than 8 for 15).  In addition, it seems that terrain didn’t exist when they wrote the scenario (therefore before Crimson Coast was released!), as it doesn’t specify that the wreck should be on a reef.  As a result, we didn’t bother with having ships roll for reef damage when docking at/exploring the wreck.

The galleon itself!  Big thanks to Randy for using a broken El Garante to make this epic shipwreck that was perfect for the scenario.

Captain Randy had a bit of a swarm fleet, while Maddy had an imposing mix of Darkhawk II, Angelica, Banshee’s Cry and Dragon.

I on the other hand went with what I like to call “douchebag supreme” (could also be known as “hypertroll” or “metatroll” lol):
Slipstream + F&S Lenoir, Gendarmerie Rene Moreau, helmsman
Coleoptera + Hag of Tortuga, Tia Dalma, helmsman
Mobilis + helmsman
UT’s: Wolves

I went first, with all three submarines diving below the water.  Randy’s fleet was going to be in a world of hurt, with his small ships vulnerable to my unrestricted submarine ramming barrage.  The Pique was the first casualty, with many more to come.

Randy got to the wreck of the Black Galleon and explored it, finding the tricky Wolves UT among all the other coins he was able to see.  This kept all the gold locked up until the Wolves could be eliminated by a musketeer or Marine, and it quickly became evident that I was the only player with such a crew in their fleet.  Of course, I had almost no intention whatsoever of actually killing the Wolves, unless it was at the opportune moment when I could guarantee victory.  XD  By this point my submarines had rammed three of Randy’s other ships derelict, with Moreau being revealed to sink one of the sloops with a 2S Marine shot from underwater (“torpedoes”).  Seeing the situation, Maddy turned around the Banshee’s Cry.  However, it was too late to save Angelica, whose Sea Dragon keyword was cancelled by Lenoir on the submerged Slipstream.  This froze the dragon in place where it wouldn’t be able to move for the rest of the game as I continued to cancel it to lock it in place, a rule I actually learned from one of last year’s games in Las Vegas.

At this point I knew my path to quickest victory was simply to ensure I had the most total units in play, effectively forcing a forfeit by refusing to kill the wolves with Moreau.  With three submarines and Moreau, I had 4 total units that would count toward the tiebreaker rules, so I just had to knock the other players down to 3 or less.  Randy was already down to 2 units that could be given actions so I focused on Maddy.  The Mobilis kept Sea Dragon cancelled until Moreau finished off Angelica with torpedo shots, shooting from underwater while invulnerable.  This knocked Maddy down to 3 units in play, at which point we called it because further play would just see me ram-dismast the remaining ships in play and cancel Submarine intermittently to capture enemy ships docked at their home islands that couldn’t be sunk.  I had won the game by forcing a treasure stalemate and then picking off the opposition until I was ahead in units in play.

1. Ben: 4 units in play
2. Maddy: 3 units
3. Randy: 2 units

My strategy had worked perfectly, though I would say this is probably the most obnoxious thing I’ve ever done in a game.  Once I read the full scenario rules my mind immediately went straight to the douchiest gamification imaginable – lock up all the gold with Wolves since it’s all in one place, then just ram and torpedo the other players out of the game until a sub can load some gold with only 1 enemy mast remaining up, or beat them into submission and win based on units in play as the 0 gold tiebreaker.  I did it partly to make an example out of the scenario (granted it was published before Wolves and submarines existed), and to likely ensure a victory on the trip lol.  The icing on the cake was that even if either of the other players HAD brought a musketeer or Marine, Tia Dalma on the relatively speedy Coleoptera would likely be at the wreck to cancel it in order to protect the Wolves.  XD  Each submarine had cancelling for maximum redundancy, making it extremely difficult for a single coin to be loaded from the wreck.

Game 2

The second game was just Randy and I.  He used the same fleet while I had a second, more “normal” fleet ready to go:
Joya del Sol + Nemesio Diaz, Fernando Sanchez, Contessa Anita Amore, helmsman
La Monarca + silver explorer, helmsman
San Salvador + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist
OE Algeciras
Coins: 6 silver 2’s

Randy went first, which meant he was likely to explore the wreck first and possibly have a big advantage since all the gold was in one place.

That is exactly what happened, with the Pique, Bon Marin and Bloody Jewel loading coins from the wreck of El Garante. The Monarca was able to grab a couple low value coins but Randy had already loaded all the silver.  The San Salvador got in range of the Bloody Jewel and shot a mast off.

Randy’s best blocking efforts were not enough to thwart the speedy San Salvador, whose firepot specialist landed a dooming hit on the Bloody Jewel (Nemesio Diaz being flipped to cancel the Jewel’s helmsman helped in the chase).  However, the best treasure was still going to end up on Randy’s HI, which would leave things up to Fernando Sanchez and the Joya del Sol to determine how the rest of the game would go.

The San Salvador was dismasted in turn by Randy’s swarmers, but she had done her job well enough. The Lezard rams a mast off El Algeciras at the wreck.

Effectively a ship for ship trade:

The Algeciras unsuccessfully rams the Lezard in return, while the Joya has loaded the final coin in play, fittingly a 0.  Any chance of a Spanish victory hinges on my ability to successfully raid Randy’s home island multiple times with Fernando Sanchez, so my strategy is to give the coin to the Monarca (the fastest ship in play, moving 4S per turn and likely able to avoid Randy’s fleet) to keep the game alive so HI raids can occur and start to swing the balance.  However, I know it’s an uphill battle unlikely to result in a victory.

I was pleasantly surprised when Randy decided to scuttle the San Salvador, meaning I wouldn’t have to face my own cannons as the Joya set out for loot.  I captured the Lezard with the Monarca in the middle, but both of my ships are likely to be too busy running around to tow her and the derelict Algeciras home for repairs.

Randy’s ships were beginning to encroach upon my fleet dominating the shipwreck area, and soon it would be time to split up and move.

As the Monarca sped off to keep her 0 coin safe, the Joya sailed over the Randy’s HI where Fernando Sanchez stole some booty!  Randy’s ships returned to the southwest via round earth to stop the thieving Spaniard.

The Monarca crests a wave, ready to escape indefinitely as the game continues:

I believe the Joya redocked to steal a second coin, but then had some masts removed as Randy’s ships converged on the galleon.  I had to make a break for home to repair and keep Fernando’s ship alive, but more of the swarm fleet was waiting there to continue the ramming onslaught.

The French were victorious, capturing the Joya and my essential home island raider crew!

Randy had the game in the bag now, just needing to thwart all desperate attempts by the Monarca to recapture Fernando Sanchez, who is now on the Star of Siam.

Randy had various methods of essentially ending the game by killing Fernando Sanchez, but opted to unload him at home where I couldn’t get him.  It was a solid game and Captain Randy’s swarm fleet was victorious!

1. Randy: 19 gold
2. Ben: 5