A Foggy Affair – Fog Home Islands on October 28th, 2016

Posted on July 31, 2019July 31, 2019 by Ben

A Foggy Affair

This game was between 5 fleets at 50 points each.

Here are the fleets in the order of play:

The English were looking to combine extra actions with the Hoist keyword and Commander Temple’s capture ability to snatch enemy ships.

A mixed Corsair/Viking fleet had a big focus on gold. With lots of cargo available, the Donar’s defensive ability, and HI raider Grim the Savage, this fleet looked competitive.

The French were next – similar to the English, they had a “pokeship” along with a 3 masted ship for gold running. The Grand Vainqueur carried a firepot specialist and reroll ability to increase her effectiveness, while the Auguste looked to get bonuses on stolen coins via Maurice Aristide.

The Pirates had two big bad ships and two tiny cheap ones. The Shadow was at the forefront – she would try to steal gold, using Mysion’s Parley ability to escape. The Greed’s Hammer would cause trouble for opponents and act as a hybrid, possibly trying to get the +2 bonus on coins the Shadow stole from enemy HI’s.

Finally, the Americans. I saw Crenshaw aboard the Saratoga in one of Cadet-Captain Mike’s battle reports, and decided to try the combo. Exploding shot and fire shot were added to make the ship more deadly, while the Colonial Trader and Argo would get treasure.

But something odd happened during setup. The crews found no islands to dock their ships at! Instead, ships had to seek shelter in fog banks. To unload gold, a ship had to enter it’s home fog bank, and HI raiders would have to do the same. However, since ships cannot be shot at while inside fog banks, HI raiders were invulnerable while stealing!

A Foggy Affair - Fog Home Islands on October 28th, 2016

Drawing from stuff at the bottom of my Game Ideas post, there would be fog home islands.

The MF took the first action of the game, and here she extends her crane to find some gold and a UT.

Moments later, the French strike! Throwing caution to the wind the Grand Vainqueur (GV) goes after the CV fleet, sinking the Donar! The Grendel has been set alight, and it’s a terrible start for the new allies.

The Pirates create some chaos of their own, as the Greed’s Hammer dismasts the MF! The Hammer had actually gotten Requin’s SAT roll, but Thomas Gunn gave him some kind of potion or brew of some sort, and Requin thought better of attacking again.

Continuing the assault on different fleets, the Americans join the fray! The Mermaid is quickly doomed at the hands of the Saratoga’s powerful gun battery.

The Turn 1 chaos:

The Corsairs get gold but the GV is intent on destroying their entire fleet!!

As cool as it looks, the GV managed to miss both fire shots, even jamming the flamethrower cannon. Her latter two shots connected to dismast the Dervish.

The Pirates have pulled off an amazing turn. The Fancy explored and found Letter of Marque, meaning a ship could repair inside another fleet’s home fog bank. The Shadow got an SAT to grab some gold from that same beach, and then move back to deposit the loot in her fog bank. The Greed’s Hammer captured the MF, and the English were down to the Ajax…

And now the Ajax is in trouble! She had loaded some great coins, but the Saratoga sped around the island and set her stern on fire!

After another turn, the French and Pirates have unloaded gold. The GV sank the Dervish and nearly dismasted the Sultan’s Sword, who managed to win a boarding party against the Frenchman. The Grendel has repaired, but doesn’t want to leave the fog because the GV is so close by. The Saratoga has round earthed to the west, while one of her victims, the Ajax, burns in the east.

Possibly my favorite picture from this game:

After only a few turns, the English are out of the running.

The Grand Vainqueur turns around to finish the job.

It’s happened! Likely the first-ever home fog raid! The Shadow takes a coin from the French, and not only can the French not do anything about it on their next turn, the Shadow has Captain Mysion and his Parley ability to protect her if the French do manage to attack.

The Greed’s Hammer grabbed the MF’s 5 coin rather than tow the ship back home. The Argo dropped off some high value coins for the Americans, and the Colonial Trader is almost back with more.

The Auguste set out to steal gold from the Pirates, but she was caught by the Shadow! The Greed’s Hammer came out to assist, and the Auguste was sunk.

The Saratoga’s fire shot backfires, but her other 3 shots hit, leaving the GV a burning wreck!

Fire and smoke everywhere on the sea battlefield

Just like that, the French have been eliminated! It happened in an instant – they looked like one of the better fleets, but now they have no chance at winning, especially after the Shadow stole a coin.

The Pirates’ next target was the Americans, who looked to have the most gold outside of the Pirates and potentially the French.

The Saratoga’s fire spreads, and the Fancy somehow isn’t hit by any shots!

Fancy has early luck against Saratoga schooner.

That gave the Fancy an opportunity to do something remarkable – a 1 masted sloop dismasting a 4 masted schooner with a successful shoot and ram. The Fancy had found an abandoned captain the turn before, which was perfect timing. Alas, the Fancy couldn’t deliver, rolling consecutive 1’s on the shot and ram, and then losing the boarding party 8-7 after both ships rolled 6’s. That gave the Saratoga a 5 coin, and to continue the sudden reversal of fortune for both ships, put out both her fires while hitting the Fancy with exploding shot! It was truly a momentum battle, with the Fancy having all the luck early and a chance to win, before the Fancy failed miserably and the Saratoga completely took over. That exploding shot meant the Fancy would burn to the waterline, and also eliminated the abandoned captain lol. A quick turnaround indeed!

The game soon ended, with the Greed’s Hammer capturing the Argo and sinking the Saratoga. That left the Colonial Trader, whose slow speed and inaccurate cannons stood no match for the combined might of the Shadow and Greed’s Hammer. At the right you can see the Grendel made a late-game dash to steal a fortune from the Pirates, but she didn’t stand a chance.

The Pirates had won a considerable victory:
1. Pirates: 29 gold
2. Americans: 19
3. French: 6
4/5. English and Corsair Vikings: 0

This was a fun quick little game. The Pirates simply had the luck on their side. Almost everything went right for them, from the coins they found, SAT luck, and cannon accuracy. Combine that luck with the fact that they’re already the best faction in the game, and it’s no surprise that they emerged victorious. The coin the Shadow stole from the French was a 6, so they would have won 23-19-12 if not for that raid. The Americans got to pick their fog bank first as the last player, so they had a nice location for the Argo and Colonial Trader to grab gold while the Saratoga went crazy setting no less than 4 ships aflame. It’s tough to award an MVS (Most Valuable Ship) here; both the Shadow and Greed’s Hammer played perfect games, using their abilities and taking no damage. The Shadow got more gold, but the Greed’s Hammer’s cannoneers were simply excellent, barely missing at all and dismasting the MF and Argo. The Saratoga and Grand Vainqueur performed well, but the chaos they caused didn’t help their fleets win. The French looked great early on, destroying any hope the CV’s had. The English and CV’s were essentially doomed after a few turns. The Americans played a good game but couldn’t compete with the sheer luck and talent the Pirates possess.

I’d like to do fog home islands again at some point – next time I may have them move each turn, like rolling fog! (originally an event from SCS)

Maxing out ship point costs – October 8th, 2016

Posted on July 30, 2019July 30, 2019 by Ben

Another solitaire game has been played. As before, the Water World rules were the basic rules. However, similar to last time, there would be no home forts.

This time, instead of maxing out the cargo space of each ship, each ship had to carry crew up to its point cost! This meant that a 15 point ship would have 15 points worth of crew aboard.

As you can see, this led to some interesting setups! Unfortunately I forgot about some of the Water World rules when making the fleets, partly because I was in a rush.

The English were ready to go with guns blazing. The Auguste looked formidable for the French. Originally their plan was to use Calypso (aboard the Floating Stone) to have the Auguste raid enemy home islands, but there were none! The French then wanted to use Calypso to let the Auguste get to islands before the opposition. Maurice Aristide’s bonus would count towards any gold aboard the Auguste at the end of the game, since it couldn’t be unloaded. Carcharodon was an interesting way to “cheat” the setup restriction – with no cargo space the French were free to add the monster without maxing out the point cost with crew!

Maxing out ship point costs - October 8th, 2016

The Spanish went with a couple of 3 masted schooners. That face down equipment is actually my custom equipment:

Bow Chasers
Faction Affiliation: Neutral
Type: Equipment
Point Value: 5
This ship gains two additional cannons that can only shoot from the foremost mast of the ship. The cannons follow the range of the foremost mast of the ship, but they have 4 rank and the Extended Range keyword. The cannons can only fire in a straight line directly forward of the ship’s bow. Other pieces of equipment cannot be used with Bow Chasers.

In addition to the extra forward-firing guns, the Sirviente was ready for a fight. She also carried Fire Shot (courtesy of Master Bianco aboard the Cervantes). She had S-boarding, +1 to boarding rolls, and reroll! What a stacked ship! The reroll was multipurpose: use it for a botched S-board, rerolling a 1 with fire shot, or try to get another hit with the chasers. The Cervantes was by far the best gold ship in all the fleets, with 4 open cargo spaces in addition to the Secret Hold, explorer, and S-explorer abilities. The Spanish looked competitive given the restrictions.

The Pirates went next with their own batch of fun. The Greed’s Hammer had an eclectic mix: Barstow, helmsman, oarsman. Barstow would try to grab both coins and enemy crew (crew wouldn’t have to be unloaded b/c no HI’s), assisted by the other Pirate ships. They were ready to fight, and fight they would.

Going last would be the Cursed, with Davy Jones and a captain aboard the Scythe. The Demon Gate got a rare appearance, crewed by none other than RtSS Papa Doc (canceller and +1 to boarding rolls) and a helmsman.

4 wild islands with 5 coins apiece. The other coins are at the low point of the arch on the other side.

On the first turn Davy Jones rolled a 6! The Hibernia opened fire on the Orkney and shot two masts into the water with the help of Nigel Hardwicke!

Careful to stay out of Papa Doc’s cancelling range, the English respond by dismasting the Demon Gate!

Chaos! The Scythe blades the Orkney but misses with her cannon. Her other cannons were destroyed by the Plague of the East! The Pirates were eager to capture Davy Jones and Papa Doc with Barstow, who could turn them into 20 gold total!

A closeup of the action: Davy Jones uses an extra action to blade the Hibernia as well!

Unpredictable seas were a factor today; here the Orkney rolls to port as the Scythe rips down another mast.

In the meantime, the French were struggling. Calypso’s rolls failed, so the Floating Stone simply trailed the Auguste, who found not only Wolves on the southeastern island, but also the abandoned musketeer who was supposed to eliminate the Wolves! This left Nigel Hardwicke as the only way to get the island’s gold, and he was fighting for his life against the Cursed. Carcharodon got bored and swam off to eat people.

More fighting in the southeast as the English get the better of the Scythe. The Orkney’s ram took the Cursed out of the game! However, this made the English a target of the Pirates, who still wanted the Cursed crew for gold payouts. Now that they noticed the English, the Pirates began sizing up the pricey English crew as well…

During all of this, the Spanish Cervantes had made off with some riches. The Sirviente protected her, but knew she’d have to fight sooner or later. The Spanish tentatively headed south towards the French, with Carcharodon following.

Tensions in the south: the Fancy and Greed’s Hammer look to join the fray against the English, who were severely weakened in their battle against the Cursed.

Commander Temple strikes! I didn’t want him to be a complete waste of 6 points, so I house ruled his ability to say “wild island” instead of home island. The English explored the Scythe and warped both ships to the nortwestern arch, furthest from the hostile Pirates.

The only problem was that it left the Hibernia alone to battle the Pirates. She grabbed the Demon Gate to capture Papa Doc and gain his valuable canceller ability.

But the Pirates simply ram, and then own the south! The Demon Gate is captured, while Barstow captures Nigel Hardwicke (ending any possibility of getting gold from the southwestern island, which is fine with the Pirates) after ramming the Hibernia’s second mast off. It was truly a great turn for the Pirates, as the Fancy even rolled a 6 at doubled range to snipe a mast off the Auguste, who had sailed to the southeastern island after discovering Wolves.

But here come the Spanish! With a surprise attack, the Bow Chasers are run out and fired at the Greed’s Hammer! Surprisingly they both hit!

The angry Pirates suddenly split, and give up control of the south to the French, who have moved in with their entire fleet. The Pirates turn their wrath on the Sirviente, but they only manage one hit in four tries! The Greed’s Hammer has no captain and decides to run for it. At the bottom of the picture, the Cervantes is biding her time, hoping for the game to end while she still has all her gold aboard. At the left, the English experienced a miracle at the arch. The Orkney explored and found the Trees UT! This repaired 3 of her fallen masts and the dangerous English gunship was ready to fight once more!

Absolutely relentless, the Spanish pursue the Greed’s Hammer! With improbable luck and help from Miranda’s reroll, they score two more hits!! The Greed’s Hammer sinks!

At this point the game devolved into chaos. The Pirates, more furious than ever, sank the Sirviente. However, the damage was done. South of them, Carcharodon munches on Cursed helmsman. The French are still under the radar, with a gold plan. The Cervantes and Orkney are still important…

The Cervantes turned around, but the Plague of the East hit 2/2. The Auguste had failed an S-board, and was then dismasted by the Fancy. The French had their plan in place though: the Floating Stone dumped Calypso on an island to load 7 gold, while the Auguste carried another 3 with a 1 +2’d by Aristide. The problem was keeping that gold alive.

The Pirates dismasted the Cervantes, but the shark dismasted the Fancy. The Floating Stone looks to make a getaway.

The Orkney managed to miss a bunch of times, but eventually dismasted the Plague of the East and sank the Cervantes!

At this point the Floating Stone had to tow the Demon Gate (with Papa Doc still aboard) in order to contest the Orkney, who easily killed Carcharodon.

Blam! In an impressive display of firepower, the Orkney hits 2/2 with her L-range guns (avoiding the canceller) to pulverize the turtle ship’s defenses.

The Floating Stone rammed on her next turn, but her attack failed. The English were victorious with just 3 gold! They had captured the Auguste with her 1 gold, which was worth 3 with Aristide’s bonous. However, the English had also outlasted all the other fleets, albeit with some help from a house rule concerning Commander Temple and some lucky Trees!

I would recommend these odd restrictions on crew! They make for a nice change of pace, and a fun challenge when building fleets.

70 Point Water World – A7XfanBen vs. El Cazador on October 7th, 2016

Posted on July 30, 2019July 30, 2019 by Ben

70 point Water World

10/7/2016

A 70 point game of Water World was played between myself and El Cazador. He went with a Pirate fleet with three ships each having double action crew aboard, while I went multi-faction with the Grand Path, Rocinanate, and Renard a Ailes (latter two from RtSS).

The Pirates attacked immediately, with the Akua Lapu going 4/4 to cripple the Grand Path. The Cassandra flew through a whirlpool and came out to dismast the Renard. The Rocinante hit the Cassandra twice but the Grand Path’s counterattack failed.

The Pirates then sank the GP and Renard, leaving the Rocinante alone.

The Rocinante put up a fight but the Pirates sank her to win the game!

No home islands and no open cargo spaces! October 4th, 2016

Posted on July 29, 2019July 29, 2019 by Ben

In my first solitaire game since last fall (I think), I decided to do something totally different.

Following the Water World rules introduced by brettb45, there would be no home islands. However, similar to a few other games I played last fall, there would also be no home forts. There was absolutely nowhere to store or unload gold – only gold on ships would count towards victory at the end of the game. The game would end once all the wild islands had sunk, when they had no more gold on them.

To make things even more bizarre, there were 5 fleets at 30 points, but no ship could have ANY cargo spaces open to start the game. Every ship had to be full to the brim with crew and/or equipment, which meant that to load gold, crew would have to be either left on the island or killed in combat! It was a whole new approach to the game, with new strategies, tactics in fleet construction, and odd gameplay. It turned out to be great fun! I also happened to be in a rush playing the game, so all of this happened very quickly.

These were the fleets – one from each of the Big 5. Making the fleets was rather strange – given the constraints of my traveling collection, there were only so many options. It was also tough to fit named crew, especially without defaulting to a one-ship setup. The play order went in the reverse faction order, with the Americans going first, and then the Pirates. Each of the 4 wild islands had 5 coins.

The Pirates unfurled their sails but the Spanish were right behind them! The Furia quickly took out the Fancy, but the Cantabrian struggled mightily against the Selkie, managing to win a boarding party after missing both shots and failing to damage the ship with a ram.

The other 3 fleets were content to sail towards wild islands without interference:

No home islands and no open cargo spaces! October 4th, 2016

The Selkie fought both broadsides against the Spanish, but missed 0/3 and rolled a 1 with her exploding shot to lose a mast! The Furia punished her afterwards, scoring a hit to dismast the Selkie and eliminate the Pirates from the game before a single island had been explored! In the meantime, the Americans had ominously turned the United States around – why bother getting a few coins early in the game (which would come at the expense of some very valuable crew) when you could wreck havoc first?

The Maui’s Fishhook (MF) finds Plague! The UT wipes out all 5 of her generic crew, but it does allow her to load 3 regular coins without making any tough crew decisions. She left a 0 coin on the island as a decoy, and to keep the game alive in case she would be able to load more gold and/or use the Plague to terrorize other fleets.

The United States sank the Fancy and Selkie to destroy both Pirate ships, but the Furia sailed up and shot away two of the American’s masts! In the meantime, the Cantabrian had explored an island and loaded a couple coins, leaving her captain and helmsman behind. The Spanish were looking good…

But so were the French! The Missionary actually made it easier for them – the Floating Stone was their main gold ship anyway, so losing the helmsman and explorer wasn’t a big deal. The French had a plan for the island’s gold.

The Floating Stone loaded two 1’s and the Weapons, which would soon be transferred to the Marie Antoinette, who swapped her explorer for the final 1 coin. It was a good “resource management” turn – the MA would now have a +2 bonus on boards, which was a great combo with her built-in S-boarding ability.

An overview of the situation:

Not wanting to risk a Broadsides Attack with a world-hater aboard, the United States went 1/3 to take a mast off the Furia! It wasn’t enough once the Cantabrian and Furia teamed up to eliminate the Americans from the game! The Spanish had their own resource management plan: maximize gold aboard ships by transferring the Cantabrian’s gold to the United States, and then have the Cantabrian go back to the island to pick up more gold. It was definitely a strange game for strategy, but a fun and refreshing one at that!

The northwestern island sank, and the Marie Antoinette was looking to attack the Spanish before turning on the English because the MF’s Plague could render the MA relatively weak to the Furia.

However, I then realized that due to the Plague (using the old version), the MF couldn’t dock, so she headed straight for the MA!

The Furia sailed bravely into battle to protect her fleet’s gold, but missed her shot against the MA. The MA utilized her S-boarding prior to moving, but remarkably, she couldn’t even win the boarding party with extra Weapons aboard!! With two crew aboard and a die roll of 1, the MA had a boarding score of 7, which was tied when the Furia rolled an improbable 6!

The MA used her move action to smartly get away from the sickly MF, instead dismasting the Cantabrian and sinking the United States with 4 gold aboard! As a result the MF dumped the Plague onto the Furia to eliminate all 3 of her crew, and France now had the upper hand against Spain.

The MF actually won her boarding party against the Furia to take the Plague right back! This made her a target for the MA, who dismasted her with (ironically) help from the Furia. (with no crew the Furia couldn’t ram or shoot the MA on her turn)

However, the French still had a logistical issue in the way of them winning the game. The only gold they controlled was the three 1’s on their two ships, which could not be counted on against the 3 coins aboard the MF, who was captured by the Spanish. The French countered by capturing the Cantabrian. It was a race to see who could control the most gold the fastest, but the key lied with the MA’s still-healthy crew complement.

The Marie Antoinette used her captain and helmsman to sail up to the Spanish, sinking the MF and dismasting the Furia! The game had ended not with all the islands sinking, but with only one fleet remaining!

The French had won with 5 gold! All the other fleets had not a single coin between them. The extremely low values were explained after the game by the unexplored southeastern island, which held a nice cache of 15 gold. Even if the United States had grabbed that gold early in the game, it’s not likely she would have held onto it with the dangerous Furia and MA opposing her.

This was a really fun setup, and I’d recommend it if you want a quick, desperate, and exciting match. I’d like to do it again soon, possibly with other variations (such as making it mandatory to fill up each ship’s point cost with crew, rather than cargo spaces) and likely a higher point limit.

VASSAL Fleet Challenge Tournament – June 3rd, 2016

Posted on July 28, 2019July 28, 2019 by Ben

The first two games of the VASSAL Fleet Challenge tournament have been played!

Game 1

El Cazador – VASSAL China (this fleet was played by a7xfanben)

Xerecs – VASSAL Pirates

VASSAL Fleet Challenge Tournament - June 3rd, 2016

El Cazador’s fleet went first, and both ships quickly reached wild islands.

The Nubian Prince cornered the Grand Path, and went 3/3 in the first fleet challenge shoot action we’ve seen in quite a while!

The Grand Path rammed the Nubian Prince, unable to shoot with her S range guns. In a huge turn of events and momentum, Dragon Eyes captured Aruj Barbarossa! This gave the Jade Rebels 10 gold (if they could bring him back home), while also denying his further usage by the Pirates. In addition, the Tiger’s Breath brought home gold, while the Darkhawk II found the Rats UT.

The Darkhawk sunk the Tiger’s Breath. After depositing the captured Barbarossa on the Jade HI, the Grand Path sailed out for a stealth raid on the Nubian Prince, but it failed.

After another raid by the Grand Path, the Nubian Prince finally escaped for good.

All remaining gold was unloaded, and the game ended! El Cazador’s fleet won 28-15!

Game 2

Xerecs – VASSAL Pirates

Volt – VASSAL La dominación española (this fleet was played by a7xfanben)

This time Xerecs went first. For simplicity and fairness we used the same setup.

The Darkhawk docked at the middle island, while the Spanish gunships moved into the fog.

The Darkhawk found the Turtles UT! This seemed to give the Pirates a great advantage with their home island so nearby, but when the Nubian Prince moved north towards the Spanish HI, the Santo Columba was able to swoop in and sink the Darkhawk with a double action! The Algeciras killed a turtle while the Joya del Sol docked at the northwestern island.

Poor turtles!

The Nubian Prince shot two masts off the Santo Columba, and won a boarding party against the Algeciras to capture Luis Zuan.

The battle raged, allowing a few turtles to reach the safe shore of the Pirate home island.

The Spanish decided to cut their losses and flee, knowing that 2 more turtles getting home would only mean 2 gold for the Pirates. However, if Aruj managed to capture some of the Columba’s crew, it could tip the gold balance in favor of the Pirates.

The Nubian Prince dismasted the Algeciras, but the Santo Columba had escaped through a whirlpool while the Joya del Sol sailed out for another gold run.

Knowing she can’t be shot at by the Santo Columba, the Nubian Prince rams the Spaniard but can’t capture any crew. The yellow token at the stern of El Algeciras signifies that the Spanish are scuttling her.

The Santo Columba resumed the battle with a double ram, but the Nubian Prince was too tough to take out. However, she lost Aruj Barbarossa and Luis Zuan in boarding parties, dooming the Pirate efforts.

After another skirmish, the Santo Columba had to repair again.

The Joya made a successful trip to the southwestern island, and the Santo Columba protected her return trip.

Volt’s fleet won 32-9!

At this point, Xerecs has lost both of his games and is out of the challenge tournament. This leaves only Volt and El Cazador, meaning that the third game will be a tiebreaker to decide the winner of the fleet challenge!

I didn’t do a battle report for the third game, but these should be the pictures from that game. El Cazador won the game and therefore the VASSAL Fleet Challenge Tournament!

VASSAL CG4 continued – July 2019

Posted on July 28, 2019July 28, 2019 by Ben

VASSAL Campaign Game 4 continues at a glacial pace, but a few developments have happened so far in 2019.

Most of the factions have expanded a bit with new ships. UT shenanigans continue to literally Plague a few fleets. This update mainly concerns my 4 factions.

The Pirates have the biggest fleet, now numbering at 21 ships. A handful are gathering metal in the south, while in the north (via the connected home island with round earth), the rest of their fleet collects textiles. This resource change has finally slowed the Pirate launchings, but the resources are set to change again next round. The Pirates have some of the first gunships in play, with the Akua Lapu and Eagle both equipped with the captain ability.

The Pirates have done a great job salvaging the captured Santa Isabel over the course of MANY turns, knowing their patience would probably pay off. Maps of Hades was transferred to a flotilla, which cannot be affected since it cannot be given move actions. Things like Rotting Hull and Wet Gunpowder were eliminated via repairs, and now the Santa Isabel is finally repairing her actual masts! The Pirates don’t know what to do with the Fruit UT yet, so it will probably have to stay aboard for good and decrease the ship’s cargo to 4, still plenty for a solid gold runner.

The Dungeon has had both Plague and Enemy of the State for a while now – the Pirates launched her specifically to be the designated carrier of both UT’s. She was making sail towards the Archipelago, but found a target before I expected her to. On my latest turn, the Dungeon rammed the Virtuous Wind to unload the Plague and kill Tsai and a helmsman! The Pirates have no beef with the Jade Rebels, but were simply looking to unload the nasty UT on a valid target before too long. In addition, the game has seen no combat thus far, which combined with the glacial pace makes for an extremely passive game. Perhaps stirring the pot will entice the other players to get in action more? I doubt it, but one can try….

The Cursed have been going slow but steady. They have 5 ships, all of which are going to and from separate islands as of now. The Sea Duck managed to get in and out of the Archipelago with a load of spices, while the Opal Shrine and fog-hopping Wisp are heading home with UT’s as well.

The Vikings are not satisfied with their launch pace, growing more bored as they once again don’t have valuable resources. The Frost is returning home with textiles from the island the Pirates have gotten rich off of, with two more Viking ships headed that way now.

The Corsairs have also been taking advantage of the nearby textiles, with four of their galleys docking there this past turn. Some of their 13 ships are grabbing spices from the east, though the presence of HMS Hyena has made them a little nervous.

Here is the full map. Bad Maps has changed the look of the Archipelago, moving the SE island towards the center to make the area more compact. Factions are starting to spread out a little and the opportunity for combat is barely beginning. Right click to open in a new tab for the full size picture!

Feel free to check out Xerecs’ battle reports for the game as well!

Sink the Battleship Fleet Challenge – October 1st, 2016

Posted on July 28, 2019July 28, 2019 by Ben

These battle reports concern the following:
Fleet Challenge: Sink The Battleship

4 competitors would face the Spanish Main version of El Acorazado in this setup to determine the winner of the Sink the Battleship fleet challenge!

First up: The Dread… (Xerecs)

The Acorazado maneuvered to get the first shot, and took out three masts.

Sink the Battleship Fleet Challenge - October 1st, 2016

The Dreadnought returned fire twice with all cannons but missed a few times! This left the Acorazado with two masts, which was enough to sink the Dreadnought with an SAT. The Patagonia was also eliminated, and Xerecs was out of the challenge!

Next up: Allies in Fire (Volt)

The Acorazado maneuvered, staying close to her home island and waiting for a chance to strike.

She struck the Victor, since I believed the Victor’s Exploding Shot to be the most dangerous weapon that I could not cancel or deal with. The Fortune had to come within S to shoot firepots, and so the Victor was sunk.

Volt’s fleet struck hard afterwards, and there was simply too much to cancel. I decided to cancel the Fortune’s captain if she came within S range, but in the meantime the Glorious Treasure and Maryland eliminated masts. The Battleship was soon ablaze!

The Acorazado didn’t get Castro’s SAT, so she had to stand and fight. Dismasting the Glorious Treasure and Coeur was the best I could do.

The smaller ships closed in and dismasted the Acorazado! Volt’s fleet has beaten the ship in 4 turns!

The third challenger: Gonna Sink You!

With no extra action or canceller capabilities, it was difficult for the smaller ships to get the first shot. The Acorazado struck with a double action, and purposely shot a mast off each of the two masters, meaning that their guns would be completely useless for the rest of the battle.

The ships had no choice but to ram. All 4 rams failed, and the Acorazado quickly destroyed the fleet and claimed a second victory in three games!

The final test for the Acorazado: Cheeseland VS The Battleship

The Swallow made sure to stay out of the Acorazado’s range.

The Acorazado simply sailed away from the Swallow, looking to frustrate the English and leave her vulnerable. The Swallow took the bait, but not only because Griffin and Lawrence were frustrated – they knew that Thomas Gunn’s fleet had already beaten the Acorazado in 4 turns, and time was running out. They had to make a move in order to make El Cazador victorious. Sailing up to the Acorazado on the third turn, they loosed a Broadsides Attack and missed with a 1!

The Acorazado only hit 3 times after failing to get the SAT from Castro. This opened the door for the English, who could tie Volt’s fleet if they sank the Battleship this turn. Turn 4 proved to be the climactic (or anticlimactic) one: the Swallow hit with her first broadside (a 4), but missed with her second on a 3!

Turn 5 wasn’t necessary, but the Acorazado finished off the Swallow just to prove a point. Not only did the Acorazado win 3 out of the 4 games with a considerable point disadvantage, she had also sunk or dismasted 3/5 of Volt’s fleet in her only loss!

@El Cazador: I forgot to copy and paste the chat transcript for the final game before I closed VASSAL. What’s funny is that I forgot about the Swallow’s strategy at first: before undoing the turn, I had the Swallow sail up and broadside the Acorazado on the very first turn (with her second action, after the Acorazado had gone first). However, that BA roll was a hilarious 1. Looks like the Swallow needs some more gunnery practice!

Volt has sank The Battleship and won the Fleet Challenge!! Congratulations! Now it’s up to you to determine the next challenge. Thanks again to all who entered.

10/3/2016

The Acorazado faced another English fleet (created by El Cazador) in a deathmatch. This one tried to utilize the Gargantuan’s reverse captain ability, L-range guns, and double cannon bonus (via TGunn the Elder and Griffin) when combined with Mycron on the Patagonia. The Victor served as support with more L-range firepower.

The Acorazado decided to chance an early attack, and hit 2/2 against the Victor.

The Victor rammed a mast off the Acorazado, who had a new strategy: eliminate Lord Mycron. However, the Gargantuan caught her and was able to blast some masts off. Eventually the Battleship fell to the English.

Thanks for reading! Do you think you can Sink The Battleship? Feel free to post any fleets below that you think would be victorious!

VASSAL Pirates – Game 16 on August 26th, 2016

Posted on July 27, 2019July 27, 2019 by Ben

VASSAL Game 16
8/26/2016

VASSAL Game 16 – a7xfanben vs. xerecs

With the World game in limbo until Xerecs can get a computer upgrade or something, we decided to play a “regular” game. However, we wanted it to be special and memorable. Each of us would control two 80 point fleets, which would function independently (so effectively 4 “players”).

The order of play:

Fleet 1 (Xerecs)
HMS Apollo + Thomas Gunn
Black Pearl + Griffin, Calico Cat, “Cannonball” Gallows, helmsman
Tiger’s Eye + helmsman, explorer
Hai Peng + Captain Jack Sparrow, explorer

French Mercenaries (a7xfanben)
Le Gaule + Captain Nemo, Lenoir, captain, helmsman
Tenfold* + Zedekiah*, helmsman, oarsman
Le Triton + captain

*Both customs courtesy of El_Cazador
Tenfold
Type: 3-mast hoist
Nation: Mercenary
Points: 22
Masts: 3
Cargo: 5
Move: S+S
Cannons: 4L,3S,3S
Link: Zedekiah
Mercenary, Hostile: Caesar, Hoist, Turbine. Two hits from the same shoot action are required to eliminate one of this ship’s masts. This ship ignores the first hit she takes each turn if she has all of her masts.

Flavor: Zedekiah’s ironclad ship has been in the employ of several nations, most recently the French. His hope is to repurchase the ancient land of the Jews with the lucrative profits he makes from shipping. As he is fond of saying, if you hire him, your investment will repay tenfold.

Zedekiah
Type: Crew
Nation: Mercenary
Points: 8
Link: Tenfold
Ex-Patriot, Hostile: Barbary Corsairs, Cursed, Pirate, Viking; Captain. One of this ship’s treasures is worth +2 gold when unloaded at your home island.

Flavor: Zedekiah has had run-ins with all the worst on the seas yet always comes out ahead. He captains his ship well but prefers to play the tunes of his people on his clarinet.

Fleet 2 (Xerecs)
San Cristobal + Victor de Alva, Duque Marcus Vaccaro, helmsman
HMS Morning Star + Hermione Gold, Lawrence, Sir Christopher Myngs
La Santa Isabel + Dominic Freda, helmsman
Longshanks + explorer

Mind Control (a7xfanben)
+ additional ships
Banshee’s Cry + helmsman, explorer
Mermaid
English Letter of Marque x2: one on the Kentucky, one on the Cyclone (the nationality was determined at random by die rolls – it just happened to come up English both times)

Xerecs created a great map, with 8 total islands. The home islands were selected in reverse play order, and the wild islands were towards the edges. Round earth rules were in effect, and my Mind Control fleet made sure there was plenty of terrain around.

Play begins! The effects of the mind controllers were felt immediately: GWL on the Kentucky rolled to move any ship L! The San Cristobal was the closest big ship to a reef, and incredibly she rolled two 1’s in a row (with Vaccaro’s reroll) to lose 4 of her 5 masts! The brainwashed Americans aboard the Kentucky exclaimed with glee, and Davy Jones offered a rare smile. In the meantime, Fleet 1 was the only fleet that didn’t appear to scatter on the first turn.

VASSAL Pirates - Game 16 on August 26th, 2016

Early on the next turn, the Tenfold was the first ship to reach an island! Using her hoist to explore, she found an alarming cache of UT’s! First, Plague eliminated her three crew. Then, she rolled a 3 for Lost! Reefs appeared under the Divine Dragon, Apollo, and Morning Star! Just like the San Cristobal, the Dragon rolled a 1 to lose all but one of her masts! The English 5 masters were more fortunate, losing 1 mast between the two of them.

The San Cristobal and Divine Dragon returned home to repair. Especially with a severe loss in durability, Davy Jones knew that Captain Nemo aboard the Gaule was sailing for him.

The next ship to explore was the Banshee’s Cry, and what a haul she found! Maps of Hades backfired, being found by the mind controllers themselves. Ammunition was turned into a Spanish Letter of Marque in exchange for marooning the explorer on the island, in anticipation of a possible attack by the approaching Santa Isabel. However, two UT’s proved to be even more interesting: Maps of Alexandria and Nemo’s Plans. The Maps revealed all treasure on the other two wild islands! In the northeast, it showed that both Runes of Odin and Runes of Magic were on the same island, which could give the ship exploring the island the opportunity to play both at the same time and eliminate any one ship in the game virtually at will! The mind controllers were very excited, because the Mermaid and Rover were already headed towards that island. If they could get both Runes on the ship with Nemo’s Plans, nothing would be able to stop them!

The northwestern island had an interesting mix of UT’s, including Bad Maps (lots of maps in this game haha). This forced Fleet 1 to make a decision – would they explore the island and get wrenched around by the French Mercenaries, and if so, which ship would do the deed?

In the end, the Tiger’s Eye and Black Pearl continued west while the Hai Peng explored the wild island. The French Mercenaries moved it south, while the Hai Peng was saddled with some other UT’s, including Nemo’s Charts, Runes of Thor, and Weapons. The mysterious island also took a mast from the Hai Peng.

The French Mercs were next. The Tenfold headed home, with the Triton’s captain putting his ship between the Tenfold and the enemy ships. A battle was imminent. To the northeast, the Gaule just barely managed to S-board the Kentucky! The Gaule won the boarding party, and Nemo captured GWL! Now the mind controllers could possibly have their strategy used against them!

The mind controllers made a nice strategy decision with Nemo’s Plans. Knowing they didn’t want the Plans to be on a ship with Maps of Hades (the Banshee’s Cry, which could get wrenched around by Fleet 2), they had the Cyclone use her ability. The ability specifically allows the Cyclone to take unique treasures that otherwise can’t be removed, namely the Plans. Now the mind controllers had Nemo’s Plans aboard a more durable ship, which also had an English Letter of Marque aboard, and which wasn’t near enemy gunships. To complete the plan, the Mermaid and Rover docked at the northeastern island and prepared to explore. However, the round earth rules would soon prove problematic, and even the best-laid plans go wrong…

Fleet 1 attacks! The Black Pearl uses the Runes of Thor (aboard the Hai Peng) to force an extra action from Calico Cat, which allows the ship to get in range of both the Rover and Mermaid! The Rover is quickly sunk, while Griffin’s reroll is used to dismast the Mermaid. The mind controllers’ fragile fleet was crumbling, and things were about to get worse…

Captain Nemo captures Davy Jones!! The Divine Dragon had little choice but to repair on the previous turn, but it wasn’t enough against Le Gaule, who was actually able to use her +1 to boarding rolls against the Cursed ability. This left the mind controllers with no crew essential to their strategy.

Combat also erupted in the south. The Triton positioned herself between the Morning Star and Longshanks, but her captain was cancelled by Lawrence. The Tenfold took matters into her own hands, ramming the Morning Star! This gave the English the Plague, and Lawrence paid the price for his cancelling. All the crew died, but now the Tenfold was pinned to a larger ship.

Fleet 2 quickly retaliated, sinking the Triton. The San Cristobal fully repaired, and the Santa Isabel sailed home with gold. The mind controllers had an eventful turn. The Kentucky and Divine Dragon combined to go 3/4 to weaken the Gaule. The Banshee’s Cry was able to emerge from a fog bank (previously hiding from the Gaule) and dock home gold, also transferring the Spanish Letter of Marque to the Divine Dragon. The Cyclone, seeing the now-dismal situation in the northeast, simply picked up a 1 from the nearby island. The Mermaid had one clear choice. She couldn’t pick up the abandoned shipwright to repair, since she can’t carry crew. In addition, the Black Pearl could easily sink her on the next turn regardless. Therefore, picking up regular gold wasn’t a good option either. She decided to put as much of the Rune combo into play as possible, without having a second ship to assist her. She explored the island, loading Runes of Odin. Then the UT was flipped, and a big wall of icy death appeared off the stern of the San Cristobal, still docked at Fleet 2’s home island!

The ball was now in Xerecs’ court: the Tiger’s Eye sailed to the northeastern island and explored it. The ship loaded 4 regular treasures and a unique treasure, but not Runes of Magic. Xerecs had an opportunity to eliminate a fully-loaded San Cristobal (!) from the game. He didn’t take it.

The chaos continued. Lenoir, having no place for Captain Nemo to dock, decided on a dual mission: engage the Black Pearl on the way to pick up the abandoned shipwright. The BP lost 2 masts, but the Gaule didn’t S-board. The Longshanks and Morning Star began wearing down the Tenfold, and things were not looking good for the French Mercenaries. The San Cristobal escaped the deadly iceberg, but the Santa Isabel did not. The Mermaid, surprised to be afloat after the Black Pearl turned south, re-explored the northeastern island to load and use Runes of Magic, and the iceberg sank the Santa Isabel with lots of gold aboard! The Cyclone headed home with gold, the Kentucky finally departed her HI, the Divine Dragon continued repairing, and the Banshee’s Cry finally rolled badly for Maps of Hades and was forced onto a sargasso sea.

The San Cristobal dismasts the Hai Peng!

The SC is then dismasted by the Apollo! The BC makes it to the northwestern island. The mind controllers have captured the Black Pearl, and the Divine Dragon seeks revenge on the French!

The Gaule prevails with Lenoir’s cancelling, and cripples the Divine Dragon.

The Cyclone somehow makes it home with the Black Pearl, but the Dragon is sunk. Fleet 1 unloads a ton of gold all at once!

The BC slips by the Gaule after winning a boarding action! The Gaule rolled a 1 when S-boarding to lose 6-4! Unfortunately, the BC can’t quite make it into the fog.

The Gaule somehow can’t sink the BC on her next turn, allowing the Black Pearl to get in range. However, the Pearl only hits once. The Gaule then sank the BC with 6 gold aboard! In the meantime, the Tiger’s Eye and Cyclone gathered gold while the Apollo and Morning Star fought in the south.

The Black Pearl sank the Gaule but could only delay the Tiger’s Eye so long with MI effects. Fleet 1 further proved their dominance, with the Apollo eliminating the remnants of Fleet 2.

In the end there could be only one winner!

The final tally:
Fleet 1: 26 gold
Mind Control: 15
Fleet 2: 3
French Mercenaries: 0

This was a good game that saw a lot of interesting UT interactions and some rules questions. My Mind Control fleet continues to prove its worth in multiplayer games, coming in second after a string of victories a few years ago. Despite losing their controllers, they were able to salvage a decent game. In the end, it came as no surprise that a fleet with the Tiger’s Eye and Hai Peng would emerge victorious, and Xerecs has his third win on VASSAL!

Our next endeavour could be even crazier: a 200 point game of Water World!

One Virtual Game, One Physical Game – August 25th, 2016

Posted on July 26, 2019July 26, 2019 by Ben

8/25/2016

I played two games tonight, in rapid succession. The first was against Xerecs, the second against my friend John.

Xerecs and I decided to pit our Keyword fleets against each other!

a7xfanben – Keywords everywhere

Xerecs – Hoist the Keywords!

My swarm fleet immediately scattered, with the Dervish losing a mast to a whirlpool.

One Virtual Game, One Physical Game - August 25th, 2016

The Dervish was quickly picked apart by her opponents, but the Akua Lapu found Plague! In the meantime, the swarmers had already cleaned off two islands.

The Plague was given to the Dervish, who had no crew to eliminate. The Strongarm (from Return to Savage Shores) then took care of the Plague by sinking the galley.

I anticipated a race-battle to the southwestern island, but Xerecs took the Strongarm through the whirlpool towards my home island. Both fleets unloaded some considerable loot.

After divvying up the wealth among my three ships at the southwestern island, I decided to scatter my units once more! The Grinder headed for the whirlpool, while the Glorious Treasure and Lightning headed for home together. I then went after the Strongarm with the ships that weren’t carrying gold, in an effort to distract and block the hoist. This purpose was achieved with canoes, the Sea Tiger, and the Libellule.

The end of the game was rushed, with the Strongarm sinking the Lightning and the 1 gold she carried. The Akua Lapu sailed through the whirlpool, and managed to position the Doombox flotilla so it could smash the Glorious Treasure. Luckily for me, one of the shots missed, allowing the Glorious Treasure to dock home on the next turn. This late-game skirmish also saw a few canoes sink, while the Grinder was damaged. In the end, the swarm fleet was victorious by a score of 28-10!

The second game featured two 60 point fleets. I was in the mood for something a bit wacky, and ended up going first.

French Vikings:
Grand Vainqueur + Jules Arnaud, captain, helmsman
Carcharodon
Grendel + captain

Anglo-Americans:
Grampus + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist
HMS Henry VIII + captain
Pequod + explorer
HMS Dunlap

(I did not mean for it to look like the shark is breathing fire lol)

The Anglo-Americans attacked on their first turn, dealing damage to the Grand Vainqueur. The French retaliated, setting the Grampus alight while Carcharodon missed taking a bite out of the Henry VIII’s deck.

The fighting schooners teamed up to dismast the Grand Vainqueur! It’s worth noting that both the GV and Grampus were set alight, but both extinguished the flames with their next actions.

The Grendel was the first to reach the beaches, but things looked grim for the French Vikings. However, the shark proved to be a slippery devil, avoiding hits by the Grampus and Henry VIII.

Indeed, the two gunships combined to miss 7 times in a row, making it almost a fair fight!

Carcharodon is wounded, but he allows the Grendel to slip by with gold. If not for all the misses, it’s unlikely I would have brought back any gold in this game.

The shark is finally killed, and the Grendel sets off on a suicide mission.

By necessity the Anglo-Americans keep the lone Viking alive, but she’s not a threat and the Pequod and Dunlap return home with enough gold to win the game without sailing back for another trip! The Anglo-Americans defeat the French Vikings 23-15!

Back in Action! 2 Players, 40 Points on August 24th, 2016

Posted on July 25, 2019July 25, 2019 by Ben

With the fall approaching I’ve started playing with my regular play partner once again! Our first game back was a simple affair, played on the sidelines of a super-casual game night. This led to some interruptions (which may lead to new players though heh) and the game being quite short. I was excited to make a fleet with some of the stuff I haven’t used before, and came up with a combo I like. (After Volt’s recent report I almost went with Terrox but this was only a 40 point game and the other Cursed stuff in my current traveling collection is less than inspiring lol)

He went first with a mixed fleet:
HMS Dunlap
Pequod
USS Oregon + captain

Pirates:
Grand Barnacle + Calypso, Coconut
El Ballista + Hammersmith, fire shot
Mermaid

The Grand Barnacle and Mermaid are two of the newest additions to my fleet, and I never use Calypso as much as I’d like to heh. John went with a gold-oriented fleet with plenty of open cargo spaces and durability, while I wanted to use the Ballista as a fast suicide attacker to distract from the Calypso gimmick.

Back in Action! 2 Players, 40 Points on August 24th, 2016

The Ballista quickly set upon the slow Oregon, while Calypso didn’t need the monkey’s reroll to set up some whirlpools.

The Ballista went 0/4 on her second volley and then was pummeled by the Oregon and Dunlap. The Pequod and Mermaid are almost back with gold, but the Grand Barnacle has the best haul.

The Pirates made it back, and I ceded the rest of the gold in play. Luckily it worked, with the Pirates winning 23-22! (A narrow margin of victory, and almost the same score as Volt’s 3-way tie at 22 haha)

It was good to get back to some good ol’ pirating, and we look forward to more adventures in the near future!