I’ve been writing Battle Reports since late July 2011. I played at least a dozen games (probably more) in 2005-2006 when I first got into Pirates CSG, but since getting back into it in 2011 I’ve recorded almost every game I’ve played in some way. In this blog I will be posting battle reports of my adventures. Check out my best battle reports in the Compendium and my biggest games in Huge Game Legacy.
Xerecs’ Pirates:
Darkhawk II + captain, helmsman, explorer
Eagle + Calico Cat, Hammersmith, The Hag of Tortuga
Bloody Jewel + explorer
Vendari’s Frenchmen:
Le Lyon + Guy LaPlante
Le Descharges + Lenoir, captain
Le Coeur du Lion + Vicomte Jules de Cissey, navigator
JR’s in the south, Pirates in the east, French in the west.
The Tiger’s Breath sprang out and gave Ben 3 coins early. The Sea Phoenix was picking up the scraps at the same island when the Darkhawk II initiated combat and dismasted the small junk. The Jade turtle ships turned around and attacked the Lyon! In the far north, the Descharges took out two of the Eagle’s masts.
The Lyon shot off one of the Proud Tortoise’s shell panels and rammed off her mast.
With a shoot and ram, the Noble Swan dismasted the Lyon. The Tiger’s Breath decided to forsake the gold in the southwest in an attempt to save the Sea Phoenix. She won the boarding party but couldn’t dent the Darkhawk, and she would pay for it on the next turn when the DHII dismasted her. In the meantime, the Eagle had rammed the Descharges. At this point it was noticed that the Bloody Jewel had inconspicuously gone missing!
The Tiger’s Breath and the Proud Tortoise rowed home to repair, while the Noble Swan captured the Lyon. At this point this 3 Player Game on VASSAL was called because xerecs couldn’t continue. The Jade Rebellion won 14-0-0.
3 impromptu games were played between myself and xerecs! Since they were all rather lopsided and quick, the reports will be short as well. The three games only took about 3 hours, so the concern of VASSAL games taking longer than regular games continues to lose steam.
The first game featured a7xfanben’s Minimal Crew fleet against a Cursed fleet made by xerecs.
A great barrier reef stretched across the sea to cut off access to the wild islands.
The Revenant successfully navigated the reef, but the Stephens rolled a 1 to lose 4 of her 5 masts!
As ships began exploring, the Stephens tried to sail back home to repair, but was promptly wrecked!
The Revenant targeted the San Pedro before she could cross the reefs, but missed.
The San Pedro rammed and boarded to take a coin from the Revenant!
The Lizard’s Sting dismasted the Bon Marin with a ram while the Revenant sunk the San Pedro, and the Cursed were victorious 21-13!
The second game was a 60 point game, and featured a7xfanben’s Clones of the South China Sea fleet against an American fleet created by xerecs.
Americans:
Venture (custom ship) + Commander Steven Decatur, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Nene-nui + explorer
Jarvis + 1 crew
This time, the previous setup was “moved and rotated randomly” until a feasible setup was found. The wild island in between the two HI’s has 5 coins on it, with 3 apiece for the other two.
The Grand Wind sacced an oarsman to move S+S+S+S, and the fleets were off and sailing.
The Grand Path received a ludricrous amount of 6’s this game, as the dice luck from the previous game shifted completely in a7xfanben’s favor! Here the junk has rammed the Venture!
The Venture is dismasted!
The Venture ducks into the fog while the Grand Wind returns home. The Grand Path hunts the remaining American ships.
The Venture is sunk, and the Americans look to be doomed.
The Nene Nui tries to return home, but is set upon by the Grand Path, who receives yet another SAT from Warlord Cavendish.
The Nene Nui is captured while the Grand Wind explores the center island.
The captured Nene Nui docks at the same time as the Grand Wind, giving the Jade Rebellion a huge windfall.
The Grand Path sinks the Jarvis, and the Jade Rebellion claims a whopping 31-0 victory!
The final game was the most unique. It featured 50 point fleets, with one wild island holding all the gold, defended by an old Viking fort with six 3L cannons. The island was completely surrounded by reefs and fog.
Cursed: (xerecs)
Revenant (custom ship) + captain, explorer
Divine Dragon + Davy Jones
My strategy was to use Calypso’s whirlpool-creating ability to warp into the area around the wild island, but it failed miserably. Further serving this goal and furthering the similarities to the epic Economy Edition, I secretly placed three UT’s: Bad Maps, Turtles, and Whirlpool.
Davy Jones got a 6 on the second turn, but the Pirates were smart to split up their ships in his presence.
Unfortunately for Calypso, she wasn’t such a surprise, since the Pirates waited too long to reveal her. As a result, the Cursed found the Whirlpool and Bad Maps UT’s, and figured out what was going on. Shades of Economy Edition indeed, but it didn’t work nearly as well. Further making the game a complete failure, we forgot to have the fort fire!
Chaos reigns as the island is displaced from the fake “lagoon” of reefs while the turtles start scrambling.
In my frustration, the Deliverance rammed the Revenant and destroyed the fort.
As the island does an Economy and returns to it’s former station, the fleets are flabbergasted.
The Divine Dragon and Deliverance are locked in a pitched battle.
The Deliverance sinks the Divine Dragon, while the Eagle heads to cut off the Revenant.
The Revenant is wrecked while moving over a reef, just like the Stephens in the first game! This ended the game, with the Cursed having no available ships. Neither fleet had any gold on their HI, so xerecs was decided the winner since his fleet had gold “in the water” while a7xfanben had no gold on his ships.
The last game was a complete disaster, but as usual in Pirates, “everything that can go wrong will go wrong”. However, all three games were fun and will now be forever known as the first confrontations between the legendary Admirals A7XfanBen and Xerecs, players of Economy Edition and Century of the Empires!
A HUGE thanks to el_cazador for reaching out to me! And once again, a HUGE thanks to B.J. Olejnik for getting this module up and running. I literally had VASSAL on my to-do list for today (part of a series of VASSAL ironies that keep happening – el_cazador literally PM’d me a few minutes after I responded to B.J.’s email), where I was going to experiment with it and play around a bit. Instead, my (and el_cazador’s) first game was played on VASSAL!!
I think VASSAL is going to be an extremely valuable tool. It’s the only known reliable way of people being able to play Pirates remotely, which is huge. This forum is full of the absolute, hardcore, diehard fans of the game that are still left supporting it and keeping it alive. The fact that we can play games of Pirates with each other for free and without the hassles of traveling is so cool!
This is a Battle Report of the game that myself and el_cazador played on 1/29/2016. It’s my first BR using “pictures” of a virtual game, which is crazy cool and crazy unique. You can’t get angled shots or closeups (edit: you can with a snipping tool or by editing and cropping full pictures), but the pros include not needing a camera of any kind, not having to worry about how the shot will look, and of course the nature of an overhead shot: every picture gives the viewer a great idea of what’s going on everywhere on the ocean.
Neither of us had much experience at all with VASSAL prior to this impromptu game. Nevertheless, we were determined to see it happen!! (I’m very excited about this lol.)
First, we didn’t even know how to set up the ocean. I’ll make a post within the next 24 hours where I do my best to give a comprehensive sort of “setup guide” for everyone. For now, I will focus on the report. This will eventually go in Battle Reports, but I think that this first game should definitely go in this thread, not to mention xerecs’ massively epic Economy Edition game going on right now. As always I’ll post it on BGG and Pojo (and I think reddit this time too!), so hopefully that will drum up additional interest.
I began creating a fleet. A day or two I was on VASSAL very briefly, and I created HMS Dover just to refresh my memory of how to create a ship and its associated deckplate card. As a result, she was the first ship I chose. My fleet was constructed somewhat randomly and haphazardly, but the English are my favorite faction and the Lord Algernon is my favorite ship, so it should come as no surprise that my first game on VASSAL featured them.
English: (Ben)
HMS Lord Algernon + Administrator Scott Bratley, captain, helmsman
HMS Dover + Thomas Gunn, explorer
HMS Hound + explorer
el_cazador, on the other hand, had a fleet ready.
Spanish: (El Cazador)
Spanish Cursed Seas Showcase (fleet was on Miniature Trading)
At this time it is necessary to explain the dumb setup. Once we had an ocean created, we got excited and started dumping stuff everywhere! We didn’t know how to delete islands and terrain! As a result, the setup was very abnormal and unfairly biased in favor of the English. Once our first ship was introduced to the sea, we both simply gravitated towards the nearest islands, so the HI placement was random as well. However, the treasure distribution was fair, with 4 coins on each of the 4 wild islands. There are no native canoes in the module so they’re represented by the 1 masted galleys.
The English rolled to go first, and the fleets were off! The Hound and Dover were quick to exploit the bad setup, docking and exploring nearby wild islands on the first two turns. The Lord Algernon headed out as the most dangerous but also slowest ship in play.
The Spanish sailed out, with the San Pedro easily navigating a reef successfully. The native canoes, however, couldn’t explore on the first turn.
The Dover docked home treasure, while the Lord Algernon moved within firing range of a native canoe!!
The Lord Algernon easily blasted the canoe to smithereens, and war was on! The remaining canoes had no choice but to run from the English flagship, but the Castigue had something to say about the Lord Algernon, hitting 2/3 to take out a mast!
Here the San Pedro docks and explores. a7xfanben, commander of the English forces, knew how valuable the +1 and +2 gold abilities (aboard the canoes and San Pedro) are, and therefore prioritized eliminating those ships from the game.
The Hound has docked home while the Morning Star takes gold from the western island. However, the English used their two gunships to sink the Castigue! This netted them 1 gold for eliminating the Ransom crew Anita Amore. The dots on the islands are explored markers, something el_cazador was brilliant enough to think of and find on the module. Nicely enough, they’re color-coded by player, and here they turned out to match the nationalities as well!
Surprising the English, the Spanish now attacked the Lord Algernon with their treasure runners! The San Pedro rammed and boarded. However, she failed with both rolls, losing her explorer. The canoes began to head towards the Lord Algernon, which El Cazador would later admit was a “canoe screen” to help shield the Morning Star. Mid-turn, you can see the S and L rulers in the directions ships have moved and are going to move.
The English strike again, and sink the San Pedro! After a brief discussion, it was decided that any gold on ships would sink to the bottom with the vessel carrying it. (Woelf does this and it’s obviously more historically accurate.) At this point the English finally remembered to use the Hound’s ability and revealed a 2 on the Morning Star, who was heading towards the southern island while the English were distracted by the canoes.
Here, the Morning Star has docked at the southern island, where she explores and finds some UT’s that were placed by a7xfanben. However, I didn’t define what they were when I placed them, so I decided to let El Cazador use them as “wilds” since the setup was so biased in my favor. This meant he could pick any value for the two “UT’s” from 1-7. Naturally, he picked 7 for both of them.
With a powerful broadside, the Lord Algernon stays put and sinks the remaining native canoes! The Dover returns home for the time being, while the Hound added to the English treasure haul.
The Morning Star began sailing away, but the Lord Algernon shot two of her masts off. The Dover docked home, only for me to realize that she didn’t have any gold on her after all!
The Morning Star continued to run, but the English continued to shoot! The Lord Algernon connected twice more, and the Dover moved into position to end the game.
The Dover fired and hit, sinking the final Spanish ship! The Royal Navy reigns supreme! (My shoot action die rolls were much better for this game than they are in the physical world, a promising sign for me lol.)
This image simply shows the English gold revealed on their HI, and they won by a 24-0 blowout! (The gold in the water is from the sunken San Pedro.)
The Economy Edition game being played right now by Xerecs has inspired me to start another (but considerably smaller and shorter) cumulative game. Things have come full circle after my CotE and Economy games inspired him to play those!
This game won’t last much more than a week and a half, if that. As the title suggests, it’s not your average cumulative game. There are going to be some things that I wasn’t able to do during my Economy game, as well as some other ideas I’ve been wanting to try out. This will also make for a unique style of battle reports. Be ready for anything!
Without further ado, here is the setting:
Shap-‘ng-Tsai has succeeded. “With over 100 junks at his disposal and bases hidden along the Chinese coast, Tsai claims that he will be the one to topple the English empire.” He has now done it. The English presence in the South China Sea is a remnant of its former self. The Jade Rebellion can now be more properly called a Jade Empire, as they are rightfully the dominant presence in their home waters.
However, the age of imperialism is not at an end. Other imperialist nations threaten to cause more damage to the Jades and their way of life, mostly as a result of the so-called “endless” gold deposits on the local islands. Just in the past few weeks, Spanish and French ships have entered the waters patrolled by Jade Rebellion ships. These two nations have teamed up once again to form the Franco-Spanish alliance, although here they’ve decided to split their forces to maximize their odds of taking down the Jade Rebellion empire. The Jade Rebellion has already sent away many of the gunships that helped to win the war against the hated English. Unfortunately for them, this means that only one capital ship remains in the area. The Jade presence is still strong, but the Spanish and French are a huge threat that Tsai and his fleet must deal with.
The Spanish and French may have underestimated their opponent, for they didn’t send large fleets to guarantee victory. However, one such ship, El Príncipe de Asturias, has considerable battle experience already, and her crew is thirsty for more. “El Principe de Asturias was reassigned to the South China Seas after leading several successful campaigns in the Mediterranean. Now her crew use their considerable experience against the Jade Rebellion.” It’s obvious that fighting is inevitable, and in fact the Spanish and French have already made a joint declaration of war on the Jade Rebellion.
To complicate matters even further, one English ship remains in the area, a veteran of the JR-English war. HMS Galapagos has suffered extreme losses in battles against the JR, making her tiny remaining crew anxious for revenge. Tsai recently let the Galapagos escape, knowing his fleet could easily take the ship at their leisure. However, with the Spanish and French now in the area, the Galapagos may slip under Tsai’s watchful eye since the FS (Franco-Spanish) are a much bigger threat.
The fleets sailed out in this order of play:
Jade Rebellion (100 points)
Grand Temple + Shap-‘ng-Tsai, Katsura-chan, helmsman, oarsman
Sea Wind + captain, explorer
East Wind
Sea Lion
Sea Crane + explorer
Admiral Yi
Dragon’s Talon + helmsman
Spanish (50 points)
La Voz de Dios + captain, helmsman
El Príncipe de Asturias + captain, helmsman
San Agustín
French (50 points)
La Gaule + captain, helmsman, oarsman
La Geographe + Nicholas-Thomas Baudin
La Fureur
L’Argus + oarsman
English
HMS Galapagos
As you can see, this game starts out as an all-SCS game. This is the beginning theme, but only that. As a result, the only three UT’s present at the start of play were also from SCS.
For the first time in any of my games, wind would be used! A while back I searched in the depths of the files section at BGG and found different wind rules. For this game, I’m using this from way back in 2004. Thanks to headlouse for coming up with it.
There are also some Sandbars present, which are similar to Sargasso Seas, but worse for large ships than small ships. Other ideas will be explored as well. For example, Marines can fire on EVERY player’s turn, not just on their owners’ turn. Also, to continue the experimental theme, ramming cannot do damage. In addition, some “ghost gold” has made its way into the setup.
– Transparent coins give the ship carrying them the Ghost Ship keyword, as long as they’re still on the ship.
The game’s area is limited by the table it’s being played on, and only non-standard islands and terrain were present at the start. There are currently four home islands (HI’s) and six wild islands (emphasis on “currently”). The English and Spanish HI’s are in the west, while the French have set sail in the northeast. The Jade Rebellion empire starts the game as the favorite to win, with the biggest HI located in the general center of the sea.
Flat earth rules are being used, for now.
Each wild island has 5 coins on it, and the new “shipwreck cove” area has three different sets of 3 coins on different shipwrecks, which must be docked at like they’re independent wild islands (and ships have to roll for effect on the reef when “docking”). The wild islands will replenish back to a maximum of 5 coins only after all 5 previous coins are gone from the island. The replenishment happens at the end of each round of turns.
This picture shows most of the sea. The bottom of the frame is south, while the top is north. The English and Spanish HI’s are at the edge of the table, while the Jade Rebellion sits in the middle. The French can just be seen at the top right in the northeast. Notice how the huge sandbar separates the Spanish and the Jade Rebellion, while the shipwrecks are a dominating factor of the northwest.
Also looking south to north, here’s the rest of the sea, showing the east where the Jade Rebels and Frenchmen reside. The Jade Rebellion has easy access to four of the six wild islands, but this is not the case for the other fleets.
Here is the ocean again, but this time looking from west to east:
The Jade Rebellion, with a HI that has 3 beaches, are completely unaware that their HI lies on convergent tectonic plates.
The Spanish are ready for war, with two gunships in the area already.
The French are ready to assist, especially with La Gaule.
The northern half of the sea looking from west to east.
The southern half:
Shipwrecks of a long-forgotten war between the Jade Rebellion and Pirates reveal similarly forgotten gold aboard the wrecks of the Thrud, Deliverance, and Flying Dutchman.
One last look for the time being – a unique shot showing the beautiful water of this contested sea.
As the English were the last fleet to take their turn, they chose the initial wind direction, choosing northeast (NE).
Without further ado the fleets set sail! The wind rules immediately affected things, since any ships sailing in the southwest direction lost S from their speed. This slightly slowed all the fleets except for the English, but the game was just beginning.
The Sea Crane was the first ship to reach an island, but the Gaule approached.
For the time being, the wind would be rolled for at the start of each round of turns, rather than at the start of each fleet’s turn. This could change. For now, a 4 was rolled, meaning that the wind shifted to blow due east, slowing ships headed west.
The French proved they weren’t about to shy away from a fight! On just the second turn, with war already declared, the French instigate the first conflict! La Gaule sinks the Sea Crane and her two 5 coins!
Tsai responds angrily by using his SAT powers to sink the Gaule and nearly dismast the Geographe!
In the meantime, the Sea Wind has found Rotting Hull, but she’s also brought back the first coin for the JR. The other JR ships have docked in the south and are exploring. The Geographe managed to mark that eastern island as explored and therefore knocked out the Sea Crane’s JR presence there. (This third turn saw the wind stay blowing from west to east.)
Using the wind’s +S boost, the Voz de Dios sails around the sandbar and rams the Sea Lion! With the Grand Temple off fighting the French in the east, the Spanish capitalize on an easy chance to hit Jade trade. The action is somewhat unsuccessful, with the Sea Lion only losing 1 mast after 4 shots by the Voz (and also remember no ram damage). However, the Voz did win the boarding party to steal one of the Lion’s coins. To make matters even more tense, the East Wind used her treasure trading ability to trade a 1 on that island for a 4 on the island that the other Spanish ships were docked at.
The English and Spanish have docked at western islands as separate skirmishes have already occurred in the south and east.
To get the +S wind boost, a ship must move in the correct direction (here anywhere between NE and SE) for one move segment. In this way, the Geographe was able to tack back to her HI in one turn, which meant she could repair. The Argus and Fureur turned around, desperate to stay away from the Grand Temple, who had already crippled the French fleet in just one turn. In addition, the Principe found Fireworks and the first ghost coin. The Dragon’s Talon had Trade Route aboard.
After just three turns, two separate battles have occurred and two fleets have already lost ships! This unique experimental game is just beginning…
1/8/2016
The fourth turn of play marked the second day’s action. The Jade Rebellion hired two captains, one for the East Wind, and one for the Dragon’s Talon. However, the Dragon’s Talon still had Trade Route aboard, and so had to wait for the Grand Temple to sail up and take it off her in order to load the captain. This turn marked another change in the wind, though it shifted back to NE, the direction it was blowing when the game began. The Sea Lion and East Wind managed to avoid further trouble with the Voz de Dios, who appeared reasonably content with the coin she stole from the Sea Lion. The approaching presence of the Grand Temple gave her another reason to head home.
On their turn, the Spanish used almost all of their gold to commission La Habana with a captain and helmsman, continuing the SCS theme by choice.
The Voz de Dios sails home with stolen loot while her fleet mates enjoy the comforts of their home island.
The Argus and Fureur head west to an island, while the Geographe repairs (top left).
However, with the wind behind her, the Sea Wind reaches that same island for the second time, as the newly-captained East Wind departs to the south. The Jade-French tension is obvious.
As the Voz rounds the sandbars, her proud fleet mates sail south to greet her. The San Agustin is slow, but her large cargo hold means she can empty the southwestern island when she isn’t carrying crew.
In the northwest, the Galapagos heads home with gold. To the east, the Argus docks but can’t explore just yet. The slow Fureur gets into position to dock and take gold next turn.
At the top of the frame, the East Wind has joined the Sea Wind on the north side of the Jade HI, giving the Jades two of their three gunships in close proximity to the French gold runners. Far to the south, the Grand Temple guards the southern island for the Sea Lion.
You may have noticed a few additional ships at the Jade HI. At the end of their turn the Jades launched two new turtle ships, the Proud Tortoise and Floating Stone.
With the Grand Temple facing southwest, the Spanish turn around and head north up the huge sandbar. The Voz docks home gold, while the San Agustin loads some. At this point, at least one of the six wild islands was replenishing at the end of each round, and many of the day’s turns saw two islands replenish in one turn.
With a meager haul of 7 gold from 4 coins, the English manage to launch HMS Patagonia with a helmsman and also add an oarsman to the Galapagos.
The Grand Temple shadows the Spanish, as the Jade gunships up north appear to sail in such a way as to cut off the French.
The Jade Rebels are still angry that La Gaule sunk the Sea Crane, and things don’t look good for the French.
Looking west to east, the Habana has been sent north to explore the mysterious shipwrecks of the northwest.
On their turn, the French did well to position their ships for possible attack, with the newly-repaired Geographe sheltering the Argus. However, the Fureur was a sitting duck.
The island that once sat in the middle of the lagoon in Economy Edition isn’t so lucrative anymore, but it’s the best option the English have.
War resumes! The East Wind takes on the Fureur!
With a devastating blow, the French are nearly defeated! The Fureur sank beneath the waves. Then the Proud Tortoise sailed towards the Geographe and hit with her fire shot! To finish up the successful attack, the Sea Wind hit the Argus and Geographe once each.
The Sea Wind carefully maneuvered to avoid illegally docking at the French HI while staying out of S-range of the Argus.
Luckily for them, the French had placed an oarsman on the Argus at the game’s start, and with the wind aiding her, she was able to return home and save herself! Her coin was only a 2, but the French had hope. That hope temporarily diminished when the Geographe continued to burn, but she got home as well. The French narrowly avoided being the first fleet eliminated.
The Spanish continue to play cat and mouse with the Grand Temple.
The East Wind and Sea Wind grab some gold on their way back to the Jade HI. The Jades have dealt with threats efficiently and have successfully intimidated the Spanish into staying in their own waters up to this point. As a side note, this day of action saw the wind blow east for four consecutive turns.
The Spanish were very worried that even with the help of La Habana, the Grand Temple could potentially cripple the Spanish battle fleet in one turn with Tsai’s SAT. As a result, they launched another ship from SCS, one of Spain’s finest: Santa Ana + Almirante Carlos Pavón y Miranda, Bianco’s Haulers (finally breaking the SCS theme), Comandante Antonio de Silva, helmsman, and oarsman.
In the meantime, the English launched an addition of their own: HMS Hyena + Sir Meyer Hampstead. This gave them a ship that could harass enemy gold runners while still having enough cargo spaces open to run gold normally if no targets were available. However, the English should have paid more attention to the man they hired…
“Hampstead knows that money—not the Crown—is what keeps the world turning, and he’ll do whatever is necessary to keep that money flowing back to the investors in London. Flags, kings, and courts are all secondary.”
The Jade Rebellion was obviously still the fleet to beat, but they were getting a little worried that they wouldn’t be able to deal with all of the growing threats at once.
The Patagonia has explored the wreck of the Deliverance, while the Habana is exploring the wreck of the Flying Dutchman, whose bulk obscures the Spaniard’s bow.
In the northeast, the French have repaired most of their battle damage, while to the south, the Jades have multiple ships coming back with gold.
All is well in the southern part of the sea… – hang on, what’s that in the southeast corner?!
IT’S THE BARBARY CORSAIRS! The Barbary Pirates have invaded the South China Sea!
The Grand Temple and Dragon’s Talon immediately head southeast to counter this unexpected threat! Seeing their opportunity, the Spanish gunships round the north side of the sandbar for the first time, entering Jade waters! The Jade HI is loaded with gold, but they may have to use some of it soon to deal with the madness that’s beginning to unravel! The Barbary 2 masters have docked at the southeastern island, while the Persian Victory heads straight towards the Grand Temple in open defiance of the Jade Empire! The Sea Dragon and Viper’s Bite sneak north.
The Jades are strong, but the Spanish have now massed all of their firepower in one spot! The returning Habana watches as her fleet mates round the sandbar in the largest display of firepower seen in the game so far. 16 masts on 4 ships, all with captains.
The 12th turn of the game finally saw a dramatic shift in the wind, as a 6 meant that the wind reversed direction from blowing NE to blowing SW!
The Jades have the opportunity to take the battle to the Spanish, and they do so! With war declared long ago, the Proud Tortoise has no hesitation sailing up to the Principe de Asturias and blasting her with fire shot!
But in the meantime, another battle is erupting at the same time! The Grand Temple shows her might once again – even with no SAT from Tsai, she dismasts the Persian Victory and takes out a mast on the Pasha’s Delight.
The Dragon’s Talon finished off the Persian Victory! The Admiral Yi has decided to go to the Sea Lion’s island to avoid having her gold stolen by the Barbary Corsairs.
Chaos! The other battle rages on, as the East Wind hits 2/3 on the Principe, bringing her down to 1 mast. The Sea Wind gets the cannon bonus from the East Wind, but still misses both her shots against the Habana.
With their aforementioned capital ships in another part of the world after the conclusion of the JR/English war, the Jades couldn’t launch any more of their own ships, for they had run out of building supplies. As a result, they turned to hired Mercenaries, purchasing the Meropis with Herr Fuchs, Count Gustov, and a helmsman, leaving just 10 gold on their HI.
The Spanish started their turn by rolling for the Santa Ana’s extra action (EA). They got it, and decided to let the Habana continue sailing home with gold. The Habana almost made it all the way back with the new NE wind pushing her home. The Spanish were confident their two remaining gunships could deal with the Jades, and they were right. The Principe started things badly by completely catching on fire, dooming the poor ship. The Santa Ana then used her double action to cripple the East Wind and sink the Sea Wind!
The Voz finished the Spanish counterattack by sinking the East Wind, but her long range guns couldn’t hurt the pesky Proud Tortoise.
The fully-repaired and now-ignored French make their way west, careful not to stray too far south.
The English went next, and began by exploring with the Galapagos so her cargo was full after the island replenished at the end of the previous round. Then they ordered Hampstead’s Hyena to continue sailing north and explore the Thrud shipwreck, but he had other plans! Caring only about money and profits, he rammed the Galapagos and stole all her gold in a ridiculous act of betrayal!
As the sun sets on another day’s action, one thing is for sure: these fleets are in for the unexpected!
But wait! The Barbary Corsairs took their turn as well, using the Bey’s Revenge to explore the southeastern island! Then the Pasha’s Delight used a repair action while docked, claiming that island as the new home island for the Corsairs! Finally, to end a crazy day, they launched the Ivory Star immediately with the gold they found on the island! She’s immune to the Grand Temple’s L-range guns and can’t be shot at right now since she’s docked at her HI!
1/11/2016
Turn 13 saw the southwesterly wind continue. The Grand Temple and Dragon’s Talon scooted away from the BC ships who couldn’t be shot at. However, the Meropis got into action immediately, but only went 1/3 to dismast the Viper’s Bite and failed to damage the Sea Dragon. The Proud Tortoise returned home to avoid being trounced by the Spanish. At the upper left, the Principe de Asturias is about to slip under the waves.
The Spanish had lost one of their four gunships, but had dealt the Jade Rebellion major losses in return. Now the Santa Ana and Voz de Dios headed east while the Habana returned home with gold. To the north you can see the French getting some much-needed gold.
The Barbary Corsairs respond! The Ivory Star has docked at the southern island to the left, while the Meropis is under attack. She was subject to three boarding parties during the turn, one from the Bey’s Revenge and two from the Sea Dragon via S-board. She lost her helmsman, but the Corsairs boarded because they had no crew to lose, which meant they didn’t have captains either.
The BC’s swarm the Meropis:
Furious at Hampstead’s betrayal of the English, the Galapagos fires a full broadside. She only hit once! The Hyena sails off with her stolen gold, with the weak Patagonia unable to do anything about it.
The following turn saw the wind shift to a northerly wind, which would benefit any ships sailing south. The Jade Rebellion launched a successful counterattack, damaging the Pasha’s Delight and Bey’s Revenge. In a rare instance where the reverse captain ability came in very handy, the Meropis used it to sink the Viper’s Bite before scurrying away from the frenzy of Corsair ships. Her guns were rather poor once again, however, since she needed all her shots to sink the Viper’s Bite and therefore didn’t have a chance to hit the Sea Dragon, which would come back to hurt her.
The Sea Dragon uses the wind to her advantage and catches the Meropis! With another double-board, she eliminates Count Gustov from the game! The 6 represents the fact that both ships rolled a 6 on the second boarding party, meaning no crew were eliminated with a 9-9 tie! (which happened after the Sea Dragon rolled a 6 to win the first boarding party) The 2 masted galleys returned home for safety and repairs, while the Ivory Star explored to the west. Towards the top of the picture you might notice some other things…
The Spanish continue their advance, though somewhat cautiously. The Floating Stone was off on her own, and the Santa Ana pounced, taking out both turtle shell panels. However, the Santa Ana couldn’t bring her last gun to bear since she wanted to dock at the same wild island in order to activate Bianco’s Haulers (this ship cannot be shot at while docked) and avoid getting hit with the Floating Stone’s exploding shot. The Spanish had the Voz de Dios shadow the Santa Ana, careful not to split their gunships up.
Here’s a broader shot of the situation. The main new development concerns the Habana, who has docked at the large sandbar for some reason. That longer, noticeably taller sandbar can’t be passed over by ships, but the two to the south (on the right here with one out of the frame) follow the custom sandbar rules.
The wind continued to blow south, and the Jade Rebellion empire continued to show its might. From left to right: the Grand Temple knocks out two masts on the Ivory Star (with her 3S cannons since the IS can’t be hit by L-range guns), the Floating Stone uses her initial segment to get the wind boost and escape from the Spanish, and the Meropis uses reverse captain again to hit the Sea Dragon before running away. The Dragon’s Talon hit with her lone cannon to dismast the Sea Dragon, but she can easily row home to repair. Knowing this, the JR’s are becoming tired of fighting the Corsairs so close to their HI, since it’s ineffective.
The Santa Ana got an extra action with that 6, and moved to redock at the island, and then explored. This was a puzzling move, since the Santa Ana could only take one coin aboard. The Voz followed suit, but there had to be some other motive.
To the west, the Habana “explored” the sandbar, and the Spanish finished their turn by putting Fortaleza Dorada on it! The fort’s two long range guns reached almost to the Jade HI, so their ships were blockaded in the south from the west! The Santa Ana’s explore action became obvious…
And the Spanish construct El Castillo del Infanta on the eastern island! The L-range guns again reach almost all the way to the Jade HI, and now the Spanish have lines of fire drawn on both sides of the Jade HI! This cuts the Floating Stone off from the rest of the fleet in the south, and immediately denies Jade access to the island the Castillo is on as well as the northern island at the top left. In addition, it kind of traps almost the entire Jade fleet in the south, making it harder to avoid the BC’s. Lastly, the wind was not favorable for the JR’s, since the Spanish had the weather gauge and the wind was blowing the JR’s back into the southeast.
The Hyena docks at the aforementioned northern island, and in a stunning move Hampstead reveals his new allegiance: to America! The new “American” fleet has been borne once again out of distrust of the weakened British, and the Americans claim the island as their own! With the Hyena’s stolen loot from the Galapagos, the Americans commission USS Overton with a helmsman! Hampstead comes aboard the Overton to command his new ship.
The ever-frustrated Jade empire responds after the wind shifts to the NW (blowing SE), and Tsai’s SAT gives the Grand Temple enough shots to sink the Ivory Star, who carried the hopes of the Corsairs with 15 gold on her. Now that treasure is at the bottom of the sea, and the Corsairs are struggling. They repair their 2 masters and row the Sea Dragon back. The JR’s, however, have their gunships in the southwest corner, fighting the wind to get back to their HI.
The English continue to slowly accumulate gold while their former fleet mate, the Hyena, repairs at the new American HI. The Overton has set a course for the tumultuous southern area.
With the wind at her back, La Habana has quickly moved south to the sandbars she can traverse. The Spanish may have a pincer attack in mind, with the Habana coming from the west and the Santa Ana and Voz coming from the east, while the forts prevent or delay escape to the NW/NE. At the bottom of the frame, the Pasha’s Delight is capitalizing on the JR’s dilemma and grabs a 7 from the southern island.
But once again the Jades strike first! The Grand Temple takes two masts off the Habana, further proving that the Jades are strong enough to handle the threats presented to them. The Spanish are frustrated with their slow progress in taking down the empire, but they know they need to proceed cautiously since the GT can move 6S (or more with the wind!) and rip off 12 shots in one turn with Tsai’s SAT.
Here you can see some gold on the JR HI, and they’ve done a decent job regrouping their gunships considering the pesky Corsairs and the unfavorable wind.
The Habana’s best option is to retreat, as the San Agustin docks home another load of gold. All of the factions appear to be saving up some gold at this point, and the English, Spanish, and Jade Rebellion all have at least 20. Notice the Overton on the right, sailing past the Spanish fort. The Spanish gunners hold their fire, dumbfounded at seeing an American ship in these waters.
Another picture to cover the eastern areas, this shows a good portion of the sea. The big Spanish gunships in the east have moved south! However, with a NW wind, they’re worried the wind will shift to a westerly wind and the JR’s will gain the weather gauge. Who do you think will win?
1/12/2016
Turns 18-21 have been played, and the wind stayed at a constant NW (blowing towards the SE) for turns 18-20.
At the beginning of turn 18, the Grand Temple turned around but knew she couldn’t go too far east for fear of being jumped by the Spanish gunships. However, the Jade Rebellion empire is smart. They knew that their window of opportunity to hit the Spanish hard was diminishing. They also knew that the Spanish would continue to get stronger as long as the Jades didn’t do anything about it. Therefore the Jades decided their best option was to take the initiative. The Floating Stone moved away from her HI and into range of the Castillo del Infanta’s cannons. She would do her best to cut off the Spanish escape route to the north. Then, the Proud Tortoise once again showed extreme bravery, and for the second time sailed up and fired upon a vessel much larger than herself! Her successful fire shot was instrumental in taking down the Principe de Asturias, and here it caused a fire on the Santa Ana! With the tough wind blowing southeast, the Meropis and Dragon’s Talon were forced to sail slowly back towards the Jade HI and the developing action.
The Spanish, seeing the dangerous fire upon the Santa Ana, order a temporary retreat! They’re very cautious this game, and we’ll see if it pays off. The Santa Ana got an extra action and eliminated her fire mast. Her first action was used to blast both turtle shell panels off the Proud Tortoise, and her second action was used to move north. The fort missed the Floating Stone, but the Voz de Dios managed to sink the ship instead.
The Overton, with Sir Meyer Hampstead and a helmsman aboard, continued to curiously sail south towards the Jade fleet. The ship then reached the Grand Temple and pulled alongside despite not having a captain! Then something strange happened…
Flavor text for Katsura-chan: “Some say that Katsura-chan was a member of a secret warrior caste that trained women in the art of deception and espionage. Since falling in love with an American sailor, however, she has taken to the sea to follow her heart.”
That “American” sailor turned out to be Hampstead! And Katsura-chan left the Grand Temple and the Jade empire to join the crew of the Overton!!
That was that. Tsai, the main commander of the remaining Jade Rebellion fleet, was stunned. He ordered his crew to hold their fire even as his second-in-command deserted for the Americans. He couldn’t fire on his friend, especially so soon afterwards! With everyone on the Grand Temple in complete shock, there was nothing they could do.
To change things up, the launchings for turn 18 happened at the end of the round, rather than at the end of each fleet’s turn. The historical “big three” got busy spending:
Spanish: Granada + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist, explorer
French: Le Bourbon + Benoit de Marsilles, captain, helmsman
English: Polaris + Hermione Gold, Commander Temple, helmsman
The Spanish were anxious to replace the Principe de Asturias, and the Granada has a nice complement of crew in addition to bonuses against the pesky Corsairs, should they try to bother the Spanish. The French used an oft-forgotten ship of reasonable value, but the real story was the marine: remember from the first post that marines can fire on ANY turn for this game (though the French would forget lol). The English launched one of my newest ships, a massive and wide Double Catamaran with an interesting crew complement.
Here you can see the new Granada and Polaris at their HI’s, while the Habana has arrived to repair.
Le Bourbon has arrived. The Geographe and Argus split up. The French plans remain murky, though the Franco-Spanish remain allied against the Jade Rebellion empire.
With more daring and excellent sailing, the Proud Tortoise easily catches the fleeing Santa Ana and lights her on fire again!
With Katsura-chan gone, Tsai had lost his captain and the reroll for his own SAT ability. Seeing the fleeing Spanish, he decided to press the attack despite the loss of such an important crew member. With a successful SAT roll, the Grand Temple flew across the waves and rammed the Voz de Dios, taking out her helmsman!
It’s finally happened! The Grand Temple, the Jade flagship, takes one of the Spanish capital ships head on!
A nice shot of the southern island, where the Pasha’s Delight is currently docked. Her immunity to L-range guns makes the Meropis feel even more helpless, as she’s forced to sail at just S speed going into the wind. The Admiral Yi and Sea Lion are headed back with gold.
The Spanish were next. The Santa Ana, once again aflame, needed to get back to the Castillo del Infanta to repair. However, she rolled low and gained another fire mast, leaving her with just one mast! In the meantime, the Spanish were relieved to not see Katsura-chan aboard the Grand Temple, giving the Voz de Dios the opportunity for the first broadside. The Grand Temple knew her guns were relatively inaccurate, but then the Spanish revealed their secret weapon: Fireworks!
The Voz connects! Disappointed to hit only three times, the UT was still very helpful because only one mast would have fallen without it.
Another angle:
The French continued to sail south, but the bad blood between the English and French was present throughout the world at this time, so the South China Sea was no different. However, the Polaris only managed one hit against the Geographe. To the right, it looks like the other French ships may be sailing to help out their Spanish allies.
Not the center of attention anymore, the Corsairs bring back enough gold to launch the Fire Djinn! This gives them another empty ship with S-board, and they’ve fully embraced the swarm/boarding ideal. With empty ships, they can board without restraint and try to steal gold and kill crew. The Sea Dragon and Fire Djinn can board twice in a turn with a ram, while the Pasha’s Delight and Bey’s Revenge have a nice tag-team gold system going at the southern island.
A closeup shot of the beautiful Barbary Corsair ships at their nice home island.
The Proud Tortoise continued to harass the Spanish, and hit once again with fire shot to burn down the last mast on the Santa Ana! With an oarsman aboard, the Santa Ana couldn’t be scuttled from the fire, but it was a very close call since the Santa Ana would have sunk if she wasn’t so close to the Castillo. In the meantime, the Grand Temple shot off two masts from the Voz de Dios as the big ships poured a heavy fire into each other.
In another instance where reverse captain was useful, the Grand Temple moves to ram and board after the broadside! The boarding party was a 9-9 tie after both ships rolled a 6, just like the Sea Dragon vs. Meropis earlier in the game!
To finish off the attack on the Voz, the Dragon’s Talon made it to the battle in time to knock another mast off.
The Spanish respond with a Broadsides Attack! As usual, it misses.
The Spanish took their chance at dismasting the GT with one die roll, but came up empty.
As the Santa Ana burns, the Jade Rebellion continues to surprise the FS with their resilience and fighting ability.
A rare angle looking from north to south, and you can see that the Santa Ana has managed to row over to the Castillo and eliminate her fires! The JR’s almost had a huge victory in sinking the current Spanish flagship, but once again decisive action is not to be found (which is ironic given the historical nature of this game so far).
The French have arrived with the help of the northwesterly wind! With a stunningly successful shoot action, the Bourbon goes 4/5 (including Benoit’s shot) to dismast the Grand Temple and knock a shell off the Dragon’s Talon! The Argus doesn’t have a captain, but she can’t be shot at within S and carries a 2S cannon.
The Bourbon raked the GT by the bows, firing a devastating broadside that increased the carnage in the battle area. The mizzenmast of the Voz has fallen between the two ships and further hinders the gunners’ visibility.
The Spanish have been having a rough time, and therefore see no reason to slow their expanding battle fleet. They launch La Manila + captain, helmsman, cannoneer, musketeer, oarsman. The Manila is heavily crewed to support her numerous but inaccurate cannons. The Habana finishes repairing and the Spanish have 3 healthy gunships, more than any other fleet. However, their unhealthy ones are on the front lines. The “USS” Hyena appears to have interest in exploring the southwestern island, partly because the Americans can’t go to the English island in the northwest and the FS haven’t shown hostility to the Americans so far.
In the foreground, the brand-new Granada has used the wind to quickly make it to Barbary waters, where she corners the obnoxious Pasha’s Delight. In the background, the Geographe continues sailing south, possibly in search of gold. With the American HI in the north, the Americans and French both have to travel considerable distances to get gold, and they were already two of the weaker fleets in the first place. This may serve to increase American/FS tension, though the Overton calmly sailed past the Geographe and Fortaleza Dorada without so much as a word. Hampstead seems to be content in reuniting with Katsura-chan, and the Overton has simply sailed for home. To the east however, there are more shots flying at once than the game has seen thus far, with the Corsairs now appearing to have a desire to join the fight.
The Sea Dragon and Fire Djinn increase the scope of the eastern battle, which is essentially a 3 on 1 fight against the Jade Rebellion empire. The Sea Dragon S-boards the Dragon’s Talon to eliminate her helmsman.
Turn 21 saw a 6 rolled for the wind and it shifted completely to blow towards the northwest!
The Spanish were smart to put an oarsman on the Santa Ana, as it recently saved her from a fiery doom. The Jade Rebellion put an oarsman on the GT to protect her valuable crew (but from shots, not an “English” nobleman!), but here the oarsman combines with the helmsman to let the GT return to her home island to repair!
The hostilities between the French and Jade Rebellion have recommenced, as the Meropis opens up another conflict by dismasting the Geographe!
The Jades are simply a force to be reckoned with this game! They won’t go down without a fight, as the two turtle ships ram the Santa Ana in an attempt to take out her crew. The Dragon’s Talon needed the wind’s assistance since she had lost her helmsman, but she also lost this boarding party to lose her captain. However, both turtle ships connected on the Bourbon, who was quickly down to two masts and aflame.
Total carnage in the east!
The Spanish won’t be friends with the Americans! Their gunships fire upon the Hyena, but somehow manage to hit once in eight tries! (Counting the musketeer and cannoneer since the latter two masts on the Manila weren’t in range)
Going 2/2, the Granada hits with her S-range guns to set the Pasha’s Delight on fire. I thought this was a cool picture, and later noticed it had a lot of orange/brown: the sandy/rocky island, the gold on the island, the gold on the PD, the PD’s deck, and the Granada’s masts and sails.
The Voz sails to the Castillo to repair. She manages to get her guns in range of the Dragon’s Talon and hits once to knock off a shell panel. The fort has one cannon in range, but misses the shot and reroll. While the Santa Ana repairs two masts with an extra action, Benoit (aboard the Bourbon) suddenly realizes he can keep shooting and dismasts the Dragon’s Talon!
The fire aboard the Bourbon spreads, but she manages to sink the Dragon’s Talon.
Courtesy of the Proud Tortoise, the Bourbon is now running north to her HI to put out fires and repair, exactly the same situation the Santa Ana was just in! Somehow, after all that has happened, the Proud Tortoise is still sailing.
The Sea Dragon eliminates the Voz’s captain, leaving the big Spaniard with no crew. This also made it clear the BC’s were at war with the Spanish, and by extension, the French.
Here are a few overhead shots looking from west to east to give an idea of the overall nature of the game. The English are getting gold with the Galapagos and Patagonia, but they’ve sent the Polaris east. The Overton is headed to pick up the last coin from the wreck of the Flying Dutchman, as the eastern battle still rages on.
The same angle but slightly south to expose the rest of the sea. In the far south the Pasha’s Delight has put her fire out, but the Granada can sink her. The Hyena has decided to run away from the Spanish, and the Americans haven’t really been able to gather any gold so far. The 4 gold on their HI is the gold left over from when the island was a wild island. A sharp eye will notice a peculiar fire marker lying on the deck of the Geographe, which was placed there to remind the Jades that she rolled for a successful scuttle attempt. The French don’t want the ship in enemy hands, as the Bourbon and Argus won’t be able to rescue her.
The wreckage of turns 18-21 sets up another very interesting day of action tomorrow!
8 turns were played today, turns 22-29. The first two turns saw the wind stay blowing to the northwest.
With an SAT from Tsai, the Grand Temple has repaired two masts already. The Proud Tortoise connects with another fire shot hit, dooming the Bourbon.
Without the weather gauge, the Meropis can’t fight the Granada yet, so Herr Fuchs settles for sinking the Geographe. This leaves the French with just one mast standing in their fleet, L’Argus.
The Spanish take their turn, and between the guns of El Castillo del Infanta and the Voz de Dios, dismast the Sea Dragon.
The English spent some gold and finally got some crew for the Galapagos – Commodore Rhys Gryffin Owen, Thomas Gunn, shipwright, oarsman.
Then the Corsairs bought another 4 masted galley – the Crescent Moon!
The Fire Djinn used S-boarding to eliminate the same oarsman who saved the Santa Ana, but the Sea Dragon was unsuccessful.
The Habana dismasts the Hyena:
The Granada quickly takes care of the Admiral Yi, setting her aflame with a firepot hit. The Spanish have successfully invaded JR trade.
With no captain, the best the Grand Temple could do was get in range of the Voz while staying out of range of the fort’s guns.
The Santa Ana got an extra action and dismasted the Fire Djinn! Notice the Polaris lurking behind the island.
And the Grand Temple gets her revenge! With another SAT, she shoots twice to dismast the Voz de Dios, almost sinking the ship. With the help of the wind, which is now blowing due west for the first time in the game, the Proud Tortoise is quickly trying to row back to the Jade HI and escape the angry L’Argus.
The Granada and Meropis engage each other in a predictable fight (as in, it had looked like it was going to happen). Both ships take damage. The Crescent Moon uses the opportunity to grab gold from the southern island.
The Jades have spent 39 of their 54 gold and used it to hire some more Mercenaries! 10 of the gold was spent on Dragon Eyes, who waits on their HI for the GT’s return. The Forward is crewed with Luc Savard, Ibrahan Ozat, and a helmsman.
With an extra action from Owen aboard the Galapagos, the Polaris joins the fray! She sank the Proud Tortoise (finally!) and caused some damage to the fort.
As the Sea Lion bravely ventures back to the tumultuous waters around the southern island, the Forward supports her by taking two masts off the Crescent Moon.
The Grand Temple has done it! The Voz de Dios is no more!
The Santa Ana immediately responds by making the GT derelict once again and eliminating her oarsman!
In the meantime, the Spanish have gained the upper hand in the south, and the Jade empire is crumbling. After a turn of unsuccessful broadsides by both ships, the Granada finally wins her battle against the Meropis. On this turn 25, the wind dramatically shifted to a westerly wind blowing due east, which let the Manila make great progress and arrive at the southern battle!
However, the Spanish suffer a setback when the San Agustin finds Wolves on her gold island! The Spanish don’t want to wait for the slow Manila (and her musketeer) to return, especially considering the change in the wind, so they decide to launch a new ship instead.
An overview of the situation: the game is actually shrinking a bit with so many ships being sunk. The Sea Dragon and Fire Djinn were finished off, leaving the Corsairs with just one ship. The new development here is the Habana (up north) speeding east to assist the fort against the possible danger of the Polaris, and also to help protect the Santa Ana, Spain’s flagship.
However, instead of continuing to bombard the Spanish fort, the Polaris has sailed south to touch her bow to the bow of the Grand Temple…
… and with an extra action from Owen, uses Commander Temple to warp both ships back to the English home island! The English have gotten revenge on the Jade Rebellion and captured the Grand Temple!!
To get even with the Spanish for the sinking of the Hyena, the Overton uses the wind to catch the Habana and dismast her!
In this picture, the Meropis has succumbed to fire, the Forward must fight the westerly wind, and the Crescent Moon has returned home.
Despite having the weather gauge and the first strike advantage, the Manila and Granada only manage two hits on the remaining two Jade ships!
The Spanish end their turn by commissioning the Pamplona with Diego Cesar Olano.
At the English home island, shipwrights busily get to work giving the Grand Temple a new paint job. With another extra action from Owen, the Temple raises two masts in one turn, and is rechristened HMS Grand Temple!!
The Barbary Corsairs saw that their swarming and boarding tactics weren’t working, so they gave up and decided to get some crew for the Crescent Moon – Kheir-ed-din, helmsman, shipwright, oarsman. However, some recently discovered Rats cut into their profits. The Crescent Moon loaded the new crew and repaired.
The Overton captures La Habana:
The Forward hit 1/2 on the Manila to set her alight.
Olano misses the Wolves:
Taking advantage of a great set-specific combo, the English then hired Calico Cat, Griffin, and a Pirate helmsman to crew the HMS Grand Temple!
With the Galapagos down to one cargo space open with her recent crew acquisitions, the English needed some more treasure runners to assist the slow Patagonia. They built HMS Discovery and HMS Tweed, both literally acquired yesterday in a trade with manicdrake!
The only English ship not docked at their HI in the above picture is the Polaris, who sank the captured Habana! This served to lessen Anglo-FS tensions, since the Spanish didn’t want the Habana in enemy hands. It also served as a way for the English to get some revenge on the hated Americans, for Hampstead still sailed the Overton. Between all that and the three new English ships, one of which was the mighty Grand Temple, the English were taking on a powerful position in the game.
The Overton wouldn’t be able to get all of her guns in range of the Polaris because of the wind, so instead Hampstead sailed her downwind and inflicted major damage on the Santa Ana!
Olano killed the Wolves, which allowed the San Agustin to take treasure once again. However, what she found was similarly horrible: Plague and Enemy of the State! The San Agustin had no crew aboard, but the UT’s meant that Spain’s only gold runner had issues.
On the previous turn the Granada had set the Sea Lion alight and dismasted her. On the next turn, the Sea Lion burned to the water line, and the Manila sank the Forward! Finally, the Jade Rebellion empire was no more! Note the Granada fleeing to the fort to repair, which is also what the Santa Ana has in mind. Bianco’s Haulers mean the Santa Ana can’t be shot at by the Overton while docked at the fort.
As the new gold runners set a course for the northwestern island, Calico Cat’s EA gives the GT her last two masts, and next turn she’ll be ready to sail for England once again!
With the repairing Santa Ana invulnerable, the Overton has turned for home, but the Polaris may be waiting for her. The Argus, the last French ship remaining, passes by the Granada on her way to the southern or southwestern island. The Manila is still burning a little bit, but she still has three masts standing. The BC’s new philosophy is to avoid combat if it’s impractical, so the Crescent Moon maneuvers around the Spanish 5 master. With her fire mast and (so far) extremely ineffective guns, the Manila isn’t likely to continue hostilities. The eastern and southern battles have concluded, and the English are the only faction not completely worn out at this point. The Jade empire is gone, but Dragon Eyes is still stranded on their former home island. Speaking of Dragon Eyes, he was the first to feel an ominous rumbling, which wasn’t from cannon fire but rather from the earth itself that he was standing on!
The pent-up pressure was released, and the former Jade home island was consumed by multiple explosions from below! Lava bombs flew high into the sky, and descended onto ships and forts in the nearby vicinity. Dragon Eyes and the gold on the island was long gone, but a new island with volcanic peaks took its place!
Here you can see the devastation. The Manila, Overton, Argus, and Granada (out of the picture) have been set on fire, as well as both Spanish forts. Ships were also thrown off course by the ensuing shock waves and water waves. The Polaris lost her starboard outrigger, and you can see the Crescent Moon has been thrown off course despite being undamaged. The Argus was tossed against the side of the BC home island, while the Santa Ana was driven backwards away from the fort.
Fortaleza Dorada on fire. The rules for flaming forts will work like this: instead of the fort rolling for each fire every turn, it rolls one die regardless of how many fire masts it has and regardless of whether the fort is given an action during the turn. The roll follows the regular rules for fire masts. The fort will be automatically destroyed if the fire consumes all 8 areas (not how many guns the fort has). Just like in my Economy Edition game, fleets can place a shipwright inside the fort to give it repair actions. If this is done, a shipwright can only put out one fire per turn, but no flag is raised in the fire’s place until another repair action is given.
Here you can finally see the Granada, who was heading north when the eruption occurred. She’s now heading east, and the Overton has been blown from heading west to heading north.
With their fleet and forts aflame and in shambles, the Spanish are desperate. With no enemy ships around, the San Agustin unloads the Plague onto the Pamplona, killing Olano! The Pamplona is given an explore action to take Enemy of the State from the San Agustin so she can ferry treasure once more.
At the top of the frame, the fire in Fortaleza Dorada spreads. At the bottom, the Manila puts one fire out but another spreads, for a negative overall effect.
The Santa Ana and Granada are both headed towards El Castillo del Infanta to repair, but the fort is in more trouble than they are!
After a brief discussion, Calico Cat and Griffin come to an agreement. With their HMS Grand Temple and no English crew aboard, the Pirates set sail for the first time, betraying English orders and firing a full broadside at the Galapagos!!!The hired Pirates have turned on the English! Almost as soon as the English take the former Jade ship, the Pirates have commandeered her! With the loss of all crew members, HMS Galapagos, the final English ship in SCS waters after the JR-English war, sinks beneath the waves in her own harbor. How ironic that it’s at the hands of Tsai’s old flagship (the way he would have wanted it if the FS didn’t invade the area), though not in his command, but in the command of pirates.
With an extra action from Calico Cat, the Grand Temple moves on and dismasts the Polaris!!
In an instant, half of the English fleet and all of their gunships are gone. The Polaris and Galapagos are finished, while the Grand Temple has been commandeered by pirates while the stunned one masted treasure runners look on.
The Grand Temple lays in shadow, an ironic twist given her turn to the “dark side”. The burning Overton hopes to return to the American HI.
And with that, the Jolly Roger was raised!! Calico Cat and Griffin signaled their secret fleet that now was the time to strike! Pirate ships swarmed the area, including some ships and Pirates that the English really didn’t want to see:
Revenge + Captain Villanueva, helmsman
Greed’s Hammer + Mistress Ching, helmsman
Black Mongoose + captain, shipwright
Empress + Captain Sao Feng, captain, helmsman
Mocha + Kanhoji Angria, helmsman
Plague of the East + helmsman
Plague of the North + captain
(Notice some SCS crew and the Jade-inspired POTC crew)
Captain Sao Feng leads the Pirate fleet, which is a ragtag bunch of former Jade Rebels turned true rebels against the JR empire. Now that the once-strong empire has fallen, the Pirates are looking to seize their chance at controlling the area. Their hatred of the English stems from their jealousy at the English initially getting the better of the Jades during the JR-English war, which many of these Pirates fought in. These Pirates deserted the Jade Rebellion cause during the war since they had faith that the English would win. When the Jade Rebellion won the war, they were forced into hiding and exile. Feng is the best example of this band of Pirates: “There is no honor in remaining with the losing side. Leaving it for the winning side, that’s just good business.”
The effect wasn’t obvious at first, but it’s now apparent that the volcanic activity created two natural whirlpools and three reefs!
During this day of action, a whopping 15 ships were sunk in the 8 turns that were played, including 8 ships from SCS. The wind has now blown due east for 5 consecutive turns, and the game’s end is starting to approach…
1/14/2016
4 turns were played (30-33). The wind blowed east on turn 30 and southeast on turns 31-33.
The Pirates have begun their assault. The Discovery has been dismasted, while the Grand Temple shoots at Fortaleza Dorada and the Polaris at the same time. The Revenge rams the Patagonia and steals some of her gold.
At the bottom of the frame, the Mocha has blocked the San Agustin from docking at her HI. The burning La Manila is making her way towards Fortaleza Dorada, which is also on fire.
The Argus burned to the water line, which officially eliminated the French from the game! Their HI became a new wild island.
In her attempt to eliminate her fire masts and repair at the fort, the Manila must cross one of the reefs created by the volcanic activity, but she rolls a 1!
The Spanish have truly fallen hard. The Manila is now a flaming wreck, blocking part of the southern sea from the north.
Fire has consumed more than half of Fortaleza Dorada, and the smoke can be seen for miles around.
Using the wind to her advantage, the Pamplona rams the docked Crescent Moon and gives her the Plague, killing all four of her crew!
With no helmsman or weather gauge, the San Agustin can’t quite make it home. This allows the Pirates another chance to catch her…
The Pirates are cleaning up the west by wrecking everything in their path. The Black Mongoose has sunk the Discovery, while the Empress will soon do the same to the Tweed.
The San Agustin was sunk when the Grand Temple turned around and used an extra action from Calico Cat to arrive at the Spanish home island!
The Spanish still have hope in the east: the Santa Ana and Granada have almost finished repairing, while El Castillo del Infanta managed to put out her fires. However, the Plague-ridden Crescent Moon is now looking to get revenge on the Spaniards. At the top of the frame, notice the Overton docked at the former French HI, but she’ll need to explore next turn.
In the far southwest, the Greed’s Hammer and Plague of the East look to plunder the Spanish gold island, while the Mocha rounds the sandbars and heads east. The Grand Temple has begun moving north, towards the end of the Pirate/English battle.
The Patagonia put up a fight and set the Revenge on fire, but the Pirate forces are far too much for the little galley. The Empress has finished off the Tweed.
Fortaleza Dorada has finally been destroyed!
The Spanish know they must act quickly to have any hope of survival, so they send their ships on different missions. The Granada will try to set the Grand Temple aflame with her firepot specialist, while the Santa Ana takes care of the Crescent Moon and her Plague. Continuing the Spaniards’ unfortunate woes however, the Santa Ana only hits 3/6 on the Crescent Moon!
The Corsairs get revenge and eliminate the final three crew (Carlos Pavon, Bianco’s Haulers, and a helmsman) on the Santa Ana!
The Overton explores the former French HI-turned wild island, and finds the Whirlpool UT! This drags her into the nearest whirlpool, which is just to the south. However, mysteriously, she doesn’t appear at the southwestern whirlpool as she should. Instead, she seems to have disappeared!
The waters of the northeastern whirlpool where the Overton disappeared began to froth and bubble. Foam and steam flew in the air, and suddenly, demonic beasts and bloody ships came flying up from beneath the ocean!!!
(The above picture was purposely taken like that, to illustrate how quickly the Cursed came up – in a flash!)
Grinder + El Fantasma, helmsman, oarsmen x3
Skin Flayer + Sammy the Skull, White Crew, Wraith, helmsman, oarsman
Brachyura + captain, helmsman
Cyclops + captain, helmsman
Shal-Bala
Squalo
The Pirates immediately summon all of their ships to attack the Cursed! The Grand Temple leads the charge, while the Revenge, Black Mongoose, Empress, and Plague of the North follow. The Patagonia was sunk, officially eliminating the English from the game!
The Pirate ships in the southwest explore the Spanish gold island, but the Greed’s Hammer finds The Red Skull, turning her into a Cursed ship!
After 33 turns, who could have pictured a scene like this?
1/15/2016
Turns 34+ have been played! The wind shifted from the SE to the NW on turn 35, but after that it was a whirlwind and I didn’t keep track of the wind or turn count.
At the top of the picture, Squalo has sunk the Granada. The Santa Ana and Pamplona run from the Grinder and Mocha respectively, knowing that they stand the best chance when fighting together. The Grinder has sunk the Crescent Moon, eliminating the Barbary Corsairs from the game.
With her recent turn to the Cursed, the Greed’s Hammer fires and sinks the Plague of the East. In the background, the main battle has begun.
With the sun setting on the game and glinting off the switchblades of the Skin Flayer, the Cursed are in control. The Skin Flayer and Cyclops team up to crush the Grand Temple, while Brachura waits behind them. White Crew eliminated all of the Pirates aboard the GT, but Wraith couldn’t reanimate any of them.
The Pirates have arrived! However, they do minimal damage. The Revenge makes an ill-advised ram against the Skin Flayer, and loses her crew. The hulk of the Grand Temple is blocking the path for either faction to proceed.
The Cursed launch another attack, and it’s just as deadly as the last. The Revenge is dismasted, while the Grand Temple is finally sunk! Shal-Bala swoops on the Empress, and the Pirates are down to three usable ships.
The Grinder sacs another oarsman to sink the Santa Ana! The Pamplona is waiting, while the Mocha also wants to sink the Grinder.
The Pirates manage to dismast the Skin Flayer, but their time is running out!
Shal-Bala takes care of the Plague of the North, but the Black Mongoose and Cyclops continue to miss each other at point-blank range. The Greed’s Hammer has arrived via whirlpool, while an impatient Brachyura has whirlpooled to the south to approach the battle from a different angle.
Total carnage on the high seas!
The Pamplona went 1/2 against the Grinder, but soon afterwards paid the price.
Shal-Bala prepares to savage the Black Mongoose:
In the meantime, Squalo looks to take a bite out of the GT’s mast!
The Grinder has finished off the Pamplona, but now the Mocha is upon her.
The Black Mongoose is finally derelict!
Brachyura has sunk the Empress, and the Pirates are all but finished.
Or are they? A forgotten shipwright on the Black Mongoose gives the Pirates another chance!
As Shal-Bala flies off to deal with the Mocha, Brachyura unleashes her fury on the Black Mongoose. The Greed’s Hammer had captured the Revenge, and they scuttled her. The Hammer then sunk the Plague of the North, ending the northern battle with no Pirate survivors.
The southeastern area will see the final action take place:
The Pirates continue to show their resilience as the Mocha dismasts the Grinder!
Shal-Bala is given a shoot action, and the game ends!!
The Cursed have won this short experimental cumulative game!
After around 40 turns, nobody could have predicted this! None of the original starting factions are in the game, while one island has been completely transformed by nature. Dark times have fallen upon the area, with Pirates and then Cursed taking turns to dominate the waters. Debris is strewn over the northern area, while a shipwreck blocks a trade route south. What a crazy game!
This was a good game, and I’m happy that I finally did some things I’d been meaning to do. The biggest one was trying out one of the various wind rules. I liked it quite a bit – it affected gameplay but not overly so. It didn’t make or break every situation.
One interesting aspect of the wind is for gold runners – in general, on a trip to a wild island they’ll have the advantage one way, but usually have it hinder them on the other way (to or from their HI). This balances things nicely, but for longer voyages it can be a major nuisance, or a major help (and when it’s a major help, the voyage won’t turn out to be so long after all!). I waffled back and forth on how to determine the wind’s +S/-S for extra actions: at first I had the wind only affect one of the actions, but later on I wanted it to be more prominent so sometimes I had it affect both actions. For example, when the Santa Ana gets an extra action, her first move with the wind might be L+S+S, but the second could be the regular L+S even if she’s still going with the wind. To make things more complicated and more interesting, sometimes ships would be going into the wind with their first action but with it for their second, so the net effect was neutral. Also, ships were occasionally able to “tack” in order to gain an extra S by sailing slightly out of their way to go with the wind for a moment before continuing on the original direction with that extra S boost.
I’m glad the game looked good – it’s my first cumulative game I’ve played using exclusively 3D islands and terrain (excluding those whirlpools and reefs at the end). This made it look more realistic, something I was going for when I started the game with a semi-historical scenario of sorts. It was also my first cumulative game that I played on a table, and I mostly enjoyed that aspect of it. The fabric used was the unique one – I have 4 more “regular” fabrics but this 5th one is the silky, shinier one that kind of looks more like water in the way it can shimmer. (the pictures don’t usually do it full justice) There were also certain aspects that looked very cool – the forts on fire, the burning wreck of the Manila, and the classic shiny blades of the Skin Flayer glinting in the sun.
I will admit that the game became somewhat rushed towards the end. The Jade Rebellion held out for far longer than I expected them to, so that delayed the entrance of the Pirates and Cursed. When they did show up, my other priorities and events conspired to give them less of a showing, but the game was still completed and it worked out fine. However, as a result of this rushing at the end, I do have one regret about this game of something that I wanted to include but couldn’t: fireships. I still need to try this out. With the semi-historical nature of the majority of this game, they would have fit reasonably well, especially as a last-ditch effort by the Jade Rebellion or perhaps the English. I was happy to get lots of fire into the game in general, and having forts ablaze is something I look forward to seeing more of.
With all that said, I have a feeling that my next cumulative game will take place not on a table or a floor, but on VASSAL.
This game featured three players in a 50 point game. The fleets went in this order:
French Americans: (referred to as the Americans)
Le Musarde + Griffin (house ruled), helmsman
USS Georgetown + captain
Pawtucket + explorer
English:
HMS Malton + Hermione Gold, Sir Meyer Hampstead
HMS Ark Royal + Thomas Gunn, Commander Temple, oarsman
Spanish:
San Pedro + explorer, oarsman
L’epee de L’ange + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Algiers + explorer
The setup was purposely very tight, with islands about L apart. Each island had 5 gold on it. Round earth rules were used.
The Ark Royal missed a Broadsides Attack against the Pawtucket!
The Ark Royal missed a Broadsides Attack against the San Pedro!
The Malton steals a 1 coin from the Epee with S-board.
The Ark Royal and Musarde shot each other to pieces, leaving the Ark Royal as the only ship in the area with a mast. The Epee has been dismasted, but between her ship ability and an oarsman, she can still shoot with all 4 cannons.
The Epee went 3/4 to hit the Malton and Pawtucket!
Commander Temple’s ability transported the Ark Royal and Musarde back home, where the Malton was arriving. However, the Georgetown was also there.
The Georgetown dismasted the Malton. The Ark Royal sailed out for a rescue, but missed the Georgetown and was also dismasted. The English were forced to use a captured French ship, the Musarde. The Epee had been sunk by the Pawtucket, while the San Pedro finally finished rowing home and the Algiers made all speed towards the northern action.
At this point, each player revealed their gold to see if the 1 was worth fighting over. The scores were hard to believe: 14-13-13! (14 for the Americans and 13 each for the English and Spanish)
The Musarde neutralizes the Pawtucket while the Algiers chases the Georgetown.
The Algiers stole the coin, and thus began a series of boarding parties where the coin changed hands back and forth.
The Georgetown finally got the better of the Algiers, but the Musarde was waiting.
The Georgetown defended her gold, and the Americans won!
1. Americans: 15 gold
2. English and Spanish: tied with 13 gold
It’s finally happened! A Sealed Pack Game was played. The old rules called for one pack for every 10 points of the build total, but this game featured 3 packs per player for a 40 point game. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
Here are the fleets, in the order of play. Players 1 and 3 received 1 pack of DJC and 2 packs of OE. Player 4 received 1 pack of BC and 2 packs of OE. Player 2 (myself) received 1 pack of BC and 2 packs of FN (since I don’t have the Super Rares from those sets). All crew (including named crew) could use their abilities on any ship, regardless of nationality.
(I’m trying to use better names for the fleets than Fleet 1, Fleet 2, etc, partly because I think it helps you remember which fleet is which when reading the report. This results in some fleet names that aren’t entirely true.)
Empties: (this player didn’t receive any captains, helmsmen, or named crew in their packs)
Dragon’s Breath + explorer
Pioneer
USS Oregon
El Algeciras + shipwright
US Vikings: (USV)
Minuteman + captain, firepot specialist
Devil’s Kiss
Loki
Franco-Spanish: (FS)
La Resolucion + captain
Le Musarde + Griffin, helmsman, shipwright
Between the nature of a Sealed Pack Game and the number of players, the setup had to be laid out with time constraints in mind. Four home islands were featured at one end of a “short” rectangle (the opposite of some of my typical setups), with my new “shipwreck cove” custom terrain at the other end guarding a lone wild island. However, to mix things up, the shipwrecks on the reefs held gold in two places, on the Thrud and the Flying Dutchman. The wild island held 5 coins and there were 3 apiece at the two wreck locations, where ships would have to roll for effect on the reef to “dock” at the gold. In addition, to make a true SPG, the gold from two of the packs was used.
The first player is at the top, and then play continued from the bottom up.
Feel free to right click and open the full size pictures in a new tab for a fully immersive experience. 😀
The fleets set out, and it was apparent that the new shipwreck obstacle would see heavy congestion, as I had planned. Only two spots on the entire line of reefs were able to be traversed by ships: the first is in the foreground between the wrecks of the Xi’an and Deliverance, and the second is north of the Deliverance wreck right where the Jamaica has lost a mast to the reef.
The FS were battle-hungry, with two captains and overall the best pack pulls of all four players. The Musarde opened fire on the nearby Pioneer, but even with Griffin’s reroll she only hit once. The Pioneer exacted revenge by crushing the Musarde on the next turn.
A shot of the Minuteman, who is sailing as an escort for the Devil’s Kiss and Loki, the goldships of the USV fleet. The Minuteman’s captain keeps an eye off the ship’s larboard quarter with Brachyura looming, but he’s also aware that the Cursed player is the most combat-averse of the four players, hence why it was ironic that they pulled the giant crab.
The Jamaica is the first to reach the wild island, as the Maman Brigitte approaches the dangerous reefs. The Cursed player opts to keep Brachyura in the same spot, perhaps looking to ambush whichever player comes out first with gold.
The Musarde turns for home to repair, but the FS know they’re powerful in this strange game with such a lack of useful crew. The Resolucion navigates the reef and dismasts the Jamaica.
The many guns of the once-powerful Deliverance have fallen silent, but the good old Resolucion has a lot of life left in her! At the upper right, notice the three coins sitting on the deck of the Thrud.
The game continues to develop. The Jamaica explored while derelict, but the Resolucion quickly moved in to board and take a coin. The Minuteman has docked at the eastern side of the wild island, while her comrades slowly approach from the south. At the left, the abysmally slow Oregon follows her fleet mates, who are searching for gold. The Dragon’s Breath has found some on the Thrud, though she loses a mast to the same reef that wrecked the Thrud in the process. To the right, the Maman Brigitte has successfully moved onto the reef, while the Musarde is the only ship at any home island.
At the left, the Dragon’s Breath has lost masts to the powerful Resolucion, and the Empties fleet has their hands full dealing with a captained ship with essentially rank-1 cannons. The Minuteman has circled the wild island in the hopes of towing home the derelict Jamaica, but the Pioneer will soon spoil that wish by sinking the ship and her remaining 6 gold. Speaking of the Pioneer, she docked at the Flying Dutchman’s gold after the Maman Brigitte, so the Maman can explore first. Brachyura has… skittered?… to the left, and the Devil’s Kiss finally docks at the wild island to load its last coin while the Loki turns around with no more gold available (at least not to explore!).
Brachyura moved towards the weakened Dragon’s Breath, but was soon called upon to tow the Maman Brigitte instead, as the poor Cursed vessel had lost her remaining three masts to the reef and had no oarsman to get home with. The Resolucion continued her trek home, crippling the Oregon on the way by.
The FS and the Empties continue to clash:
Brachyura towed the Maman Brigitte home, meaning that both the Empties fleet and the Cursed fleet had 3 coins each on their home islands.
On her way home, the Resolucion used her powerful guns to derelict all three remaining ships in the Empties fleet (the Oregon had been sunk), knocking them out of the game! This gave the Loki of the USV fleet a free shot at the Empties’ home island.
The Minuteman is too fast for Brachyura to catch, but the Devil’s Kiss won’t be so lucky…
And the crab attacks! Unfortunately for the Cursed the attack was harmless.
Feel free to comment which picture you like better, the above with the flash or the below without.
The Minuteman soon came to the rescue, although the Titan’s defensive ability meant the battle wouldn’t be easy.
At this point, the Loki stole 2 coins from the HI of the Empties, and hoped to round earth it back to her HI. The Devil’s Kiss added her coin to the one that the Minuteman deposited. The Resolucion finally docked home her coin, and the Maman Brigitte finished repairing.
The Empties fleet lies in ruins, allowing their gold to be plundered by Vikings.
The final part of the Sealed Pack Game featured a short showdown between the two fleets with captains. However, the Minuteman and Devil’s Kiss formed a line to block the Musarde from boarding the Loki, so the USV fleet returned home their stolen loot.
And there you have it! The Cursed pull out a win by towing the Maman Brigitte’s three coins (4, 4, and 3) home with a giant crab! After losing the Jamaica early and having the Maman dismasted by the reef, the Cursed showed good resilience. The USV gold ships were too slow to get high-value coins, but the Loki’s HI raid gave them second place. The FS could have done better, especially if it had been a longer game. The Empties got off to a good start, but poor maneuvering and poor crew options doomed their fleet against the powerful Resolucion, who was truly a threat to be feared in this Sealed Pack Game.
I decided to mix things up again. For the two weeks or so between Thanksgiving and about a week before Christmas, my traveling collection is extremely small. I brought along 4 ships from each of the Big 6 factions, for just 24 total ships. I’ll be around my entire collection very soon, so I wanted to do a unique game using just what I had on hand.
The game was a cumulative one, where gold is spent along the way to purchase new ships and crew. Since each faction was extremely limited in how much they could theoretically spend, the game would be the opposite of my epic huge games, which run until something goes wrong or I have to end it prematurely.
Each faction was given 15 points for a starting fleet. If a faction was eliminated from the game, any ships that they hadn’t already launched could then be launched by any faction. No ships could be launched after they were sunk.
Here are the starting fleets, in the order of gameplay:
Crusher + helmsman, oarsman
Abomination
L’Auguste + helmsman
Yankee + helmsman, oarsman
El Corazon Dorado + a helmsman on the home island
Divine Wind + helmsman, oarsman, and one helmsman on the home island
The setup was very simple, but it worked well. Six home islands were arranged in a general hexagon, with one wild island in the middle. The wild island was the same island used as the lagoon island in Economy Edition. Once again it would be the center of attention. At the start of the game, there were 12 coins on the island, with half of them being UT’s. The treasure replenishment rule was that at the end of every player’s turn (not at the end of each round), the island would fill up to 4 coins if it had less than 4. These coins would not be Unique, so the only UT’s were the ones present at the start.
The island from Economy Edition is loaded with gold once again:
And they’re off!
The Pirates went first, and no ship had an explorer, so the Crusher was the first to explore the island. The UT’s were inserted randomly, which explains this crazy mix:
The most important one was Pandora’s Box – with 5 other fleets, things didn’t look good for the Pirates! The UT’s to the right of Pandora’s Box were the ones selected by the other fleets. Missionary took out the crew, while Maps of Hades and Albatross promised to plague the Pirates if they could even get out of this mess. Rum was worth 6 gold after Missionary took the crew off, but another fleet selected it in order to freeze the Crusher in place. Separate from Pandora’s Box was Enemy of the State, which could easily end the Pirates’ game as soon as it had started. Therefore, the Pirates picked Jailhouse Dog out of the Box and eliminated the negative UT. The Crusher was spared, but only just. To end the turn, a 3 was rolled for Lost, and the Pirates smartly put a fog bank under the Crusher to avoid having her attacked while her crew sobered up from the Rum. Two whirlpools were placed as well, to try and take advantage of Protection from Davy Jones. Another nice side effect for the Pirates was that since the crew were gone, the Crusher was able to take an extra coin, and she did very well.
One whirlpool near the wild island, another at the Pirates’ HI. Shades of Economy Edition? Calypso wasn’t in this game but… how ironic indeed.
The Abomination is the last ship to explore, as the others head back.
The Pirates then cheated (on accident), using the whirlpool to immediately dock at home and unload their considerable haul of gold. They built the Black Diamond and crewed her with a helmsman. As a result of their devious ways, the Pirates would have their next turn cancelled to even out their would-be moves.
The French were the second fleet to launch a ship, sailing out Le Republicain.
The Pirates pay for their mistake while the other fleets race back for more gold. Despite the shorter nature of this cumulative game, each fleet still didn’t want to make any enemies early while their fleet was still weak and small.
At this point, Maps of Hades forced the Cursed to give an action to the Crusher. However, the Cursed did exactly what the Pirates would have done anyway! The other fleets took this as a sign of a possible alliance between the two factions.
A handful of turns passed, consisting of peaceful gold running.
More purchases were made, with HMS Gallowglass, Lady Washington, and La Serpiente joining the game.
The middle island became even more crowded, and it was obvious that tension would increase at some point. The Cursed launched the Hellfire while the Pirates added the Pillage.
It came as no surprise when the Pirates instigated the first conflict! The Black Diamond rammed and boarded the Divine Wind, stealing all of her treasure!
Making the Cursed/Pirate alliance just about official, the Hellfire followed suit by aiming a fire shot at the Divine Wind with the only gun she had in range. Typical of the Cursed’s ineptitude, she rolled a 1 to eliminate Fire Shot and set herself alight!
The French launched the biggest of their four ships, the Tepant. Even more impressive, they crewed her with Gentil de la Barbinais, a captain, helmsman, and oarsman. The Tepant was the biggest threat on the sea, and her Eternal keyword made her a huge target to be captured, which is why the French made sure an oarsman was aboard.
I love how the Tepant looks… but what’s that big ship lurking in the background?
El Argonauta! The 5 master was the biggest ship available in the game, but the Spanish couldn’t afford to put any crew on her at the time of her launching. Still, she was a huge presence that also added valuable cargo space to the Spanish fleet.
After a bunch of turns, many ships have made their entrance. Just for fun, I decided to do a point count or two during the game to get a feel for how big the game was. This picture shows the game at 196 total points.
The Hellfire headed home for repairs, but most of the ships were making full sail towards the center island!
War finally breaks out! The French attack their neighbors to the north, the Americans! The Tepant deals a blow to the Yankee:
The Yankee can’t get home to repair but she knows she’ll be sunk if she just grabs gold, so she continues the conflict by attacking the Auguste! The Lady Washington picks up gold, but things aren’t looking good for the Americans.
The English avoided an early elimination, but they and the Cursed are struggling in the gold game. The Black Diamond is back with her stolen loot, while the Crusher and Pillage are coming back with more.
With their considerable amounts of gold, the Pirates are the first to “complete the fleet” by calling upon Morgawr. The Black Diamond is dangerous with Captain Barbossa aboard.
The Auguste makes it out, but the Tepant continues to fire upon the Yankee, dismasting the schooner and leaving the Americans with just one ship.
The English are fully repaired, but with the hostile Cursed Pirate alliance on either side of their HI, they don’t have a reliable way to grab gold from the middle. The Tepant captures the Yankee and the French complete their fleet by adding L’Argus. The Americans launch the Horizon, but they only have enough points for a captain and not a helmsman.
The Hellfire managed to get her foremost cannon in range of the Divine Wind once again, but this time she hit. The English were stuck, with hostile ships blocking their route to the middle island. With the French/American conflict to the southeastern side of the island, the Pirates sailed their ships northwest to avoid it, further complicating matters for the English.
The Cursed launched the Jikininki, while the Americans headed north to avoid the French.
On the next turn, the Argonauta used her own haul of gold to get The Inquisitor, a captain, helmsman, and oarsman. This made her the greatest boarding threat in the game and almost as dangerous as the Tepant overall. There was enough gold to buy two additional captains, which the Corazon Dorado and Serpiente would pick up on their next trip back. In the meantime, the English beefed up their ships by adding a captain and firepot specialist to the Divine Wind and a captain and helmsman to the Gallowglass.
As the Yankee begins repairing at the French HI, note the imposing Cursed Pirate impromptu line of battle sailing south.
The weak American fleet is no match for the Argonauta! With a single Broadsides Attack the Spanish sink the Lady Washington.
At this point the fleets were reaching their relative maximum sizes, since each faction only had 4 ships to choose from. This ushered in rising tension, as the fleets didn’t have as much need to run gold. The arms race was just about over, but the war was just beginning!
The English decide to go round earth and attempt to dock at the wild island on the east side. The Cursed Pirates are plotting something, but what?
The Cursed and the Pirates were both very wary of the impressive French fleet, especially with the addition of the Yankee and a new captain on the Republicain. The Cursed Pirates knew they had enough power to stomp out the French, but they wanted the element of surprise. This was difficult, since the Hellfire and Jikininki had sailed directly south to join up with the Pirate fleet. The French sensed that they might head east, which was exactly what the Cursed Pirates were planning.
In an attempt to trick the other fleets into believing they weren’t allies, the Cursed and Pirates decided to fake that they were attacking each other. The Pirates told the Cursed to knock out a mast on the Black Diamond with the Hellfire. The Hellfire’s crew loaded the guns and ran them out, praying for a miss. However, the Cursed also realized that if they only took one shot at the Black Diamond (rather than all 4), the French would suspect that something was up. As a result, the Hellfire loosed a full broadside, toppling the mizzen and gaff masts of the Black Diamond!
The Pirates were confused and annoyed. This made them trust the Cursed less, even if the Cursed’s logic was correct. Either way, the Pirates began plotting among themselves. They asked themselves why they even needed the Cursed in the first place, especially since the Cursed were so close to the Pirate HI.
The Pirates have turned! Between the Cursed’s previous turn and the strength of their fleet, the Pirates decided to attack! The Black Diamond surged forward to dismast the Jikininki, while the Crusher and Pillage teamed up to take on the Hellfire. Any plans to attack the French together were long gone, and the Cursed Pirate alliance was no more.
As chaos erupts in the southwest, the English turn around after seeing the French and Spanish dominating the eastern side of the island. They’re hoping the Pirate/Cursed conflict will open up the western side. The Cursed gold runner Abomination is caught in a difficult situation, unable to help out in the southern battle but also needing to supply the Cursed with more gold.
The Yankee is fully repaired at last. At the lower right, the Horizon has round earthed to the southeast to get revenge on the French. She’s so white she looks like a ghost ship!
The Crusher lost a mast to the Hellfire, but the Pirates easily won the battle and began cleaning up the area. Capturing the two Cursed ships gave them 6 total, one more than the 5 ships in the French fleet.
Another point count revealed that there was 280 total points in play, which was probably about the game’s maximum size.
In a surprise move, the Tepant used this opportunity to hurt the Pirates a bit, dismasting the Pillage. The French knew the Pirates wanted them out, but the French also had to deal with the remnants of the American fleet. The Horizon was quickly rammed by the Yankee, a captured American ship.
These latest conflicts were part of a larger event: the game was exploding! The Spanish realized they were the most dangerous fleet in the north, and saw vulnerable ships sailing alone. The Corazon Dorado sailed south to dismast the Auguste! Then the Serpiente and Argonauta teamed up to knock out two masts on the Abomination. In the southeast, the Horizon was putting up the final American resistance, shooting a mast off the Republicain.
The Spanish finally utilize their full firepower!
And just like that, the Americans were the first fleet eliminated! The Yankee captured the Horizon, and the French jumped at the opportunity to launch the final American ship, the Niagara. This meant that the French fleet owned 3 of the 4 American ships! (the Lady Washington was sunk earlier) The French couldn’t buy American crew for the Niagara, but they did load her up with Fire Shot.
Up north, the Spanish dealt with counterattacks. The Tepant blasted three of the Corazon’s masts away, but the Abomination couldn’t dent the Argonauta or her crew. The fleets didn’t know it at the time, but they would be living through the chaos until the game’s end.
And the chaos was just beginning! The Pirates would take a long while to regroup, but the English looked to capitalize by going to the middle island. The Cursed were soon the second fleet out of the game when the Spanish dismasted the Abomination.
In a daring move, the French sailed the Tepant even farther north to sink the Corazon Dorado right in the Inquisitor’s face! The Argonauta had lost two masts to the Abomination, but the Spanish vowed extreme retaliation. Miraculously for the French, it appeared as if the Auguste could make it home on oar power, since the Pirates were still regrouping and repairing.
Looking from east to west this time:
The Serpiente captures the Abomination, but the real highlight of the turn saw the Argonauta take on the Tepant! Long time allies met in rivalry as the Spanish faced the French. The Argonauta loosed a Broadsides Attack, but it missed. The ram roll also failed, but the Argonauta won the boarding party to eliminate all of the Tepant’s crew with the Inquisitor! This severely restricted the Tepant’s effectiveness, and her lack of an oarsman also meant that she could be easily captured.
Battle of the behemoths; flagships of France and Spain meet on the high seas!
Elated to finally be back at the golden island, the English team up to sink the Abomination and deny the Spanish from using her! The Gallowglass shot first and missed, but that allowed the Divine Wind to use her ability and sink the ugly 4 master.
The Tepant fired to take the Argonauta down to 2 masts, at which point the Spanish called it quits for fear of elimination. They turned the Serpiente and Argonauta around to repair. This left the door wide open for the English, who quickly dismasted the Tepant and planned to take her!
The Niagara blocks Morgawr from sinking the Auguste, who is rowing home with a few coins aboard. The Pirates are nearing the end of the recovery process. The whirlpools they created with Lost way back at the beginning aren’t helping.
Suddenly the south is heating up again! The Pirates have finally gotten around to attacking the French after their Cursed alliance detour stopped them for a handful of turns. In a strange coincidence, almost every remaining ship in the French fleet is coming or going from their HI, and the repaired Pirates approach from the west for a crowded area. The Yankee is towing the Niagara, who was dismasted by Morgawr. The Horizon and Republicain are ready to provide whatever help they can, while the Argus and Auguste are almost back with gold.
While the action shifts to the south, two developments unfold up north: the Spanish launch La Hada and crew her with a captain and helmsman, while the English have captured the Tepant!
All of the action lies in the northern and southern parts of the center:
Morgawr and the Black Diamond hit the Yankee hard: (the Yankee isn’t having a good day!)
The French took their turn, and managed to go 4/4 between the Yankee and Republicain to dismast the Black Diamond!
An overhead shot, showing the debris strewn everywhere.
The English use some strange chain-towing tactics to maneuver the Tepant out of La Hada’s range.
At the top and bottom, the Spanish and Pirates repair.
Morgawr sinks the Yankee, but the French get their gold home.
Total devastation. At the left, La Hada has engaged the Gallowglass. The Jikininki has failed to eliminate all four of the Divine Wind’s crew. La Serpiente approaches from the northeast, looking to join the fray. The Horizon has begun towing the Black Diamond, meaning the Pirates have lost their flagship. The French are in a state of disarray themselves, with the Republicain looking to repair while the Auguste actually repairs. The Argus rescues the Niagara, knowing she can’t be attacked if Morgawr is close by.
The Divine Wind and Gallowglass team up to dismast the Hada and set her alight! La Hada had a very short life in this game. At this point, no one seems to care about the gold in the middle – everyone is in survival mode.
The Pillage and Hellfire are finally ready to sail, but the Argonauta is still repairing.
The Crusher attacks, using the Scorpion blade to dismast the Republicain just before she can dock to repair.
La Serpiente takes La Hada’s place, leaving one mast on the Divine Wind. The Jikininki misses the boarding party again.
The English continue to best the Spanish in combat, but they know they’re not a match for the Argonauta.
As the carnage mounts, the endgame approaches.
The Argonauta is finally repaired, but the Divine Wind has already fallen to the Jikininki. The Gallowglass knows there’s no hope and sails for home. Throughout all of the chaos both English ships lost all 6 of their combined crew. The Tepant and Hada also suffered heavy casualties, though the Tepant’s came at the hands of the Inquisitor. To the southeast, the Crusher is the Pirates’ best hope, but she’s fighting the Horizon and Auguste at the same time. Reinforcements are arriving, but it may be too late to save the Black Diamond.
In an attempt to recapture the Black Diamond, the Pirates go after the ship towing her, L’Argus. Morgawr rams the sloop derelict, allowing the Pillage to capture her. Crusher has gotten the better of the Horizon, and looks to tow the Black Diamond. The Hellfire lost her helmsman in the Pirates/Cursed engagement, so she’s slow in this battle.
Jikininki rams the Gallowglass, officially taking the English out of the game! The Argonauta approaches the scene of the battle, though by this point it’s a debris field of corpses, masts, and shattered, derelict hulks.
The south is more lively, but that battle is winding down as well. The French are desperate. The Niagara wants to tow the Black Diamond home, but can’t without getting blasted in the meantime. Instead she starts a fire on the Pillage. The French try to surprise the Pirates by sending the Auguste west for a raid on the Pirates’ HI, where she hits the Hellfire on the way by.
The Pirates regroup, but inexplicably leave the burning Pillage to recapture the Black Diamond herself. She does, but the Niagara is still firing at her. The Hellfire turned around and dismasted the Auguste but couldn’t sink her. The Auguste rowed into the fog bank. The Pirates would like to use Jikininki to kill the Argonauta’s crew, so they don’t want her going in alone.
Here’s the debris and wreckage from a more horizontal angle:
The Argonauta tows the Serpiente first, and then captures the Tepant. The Niagara has won her battle against the Pillage, setting her completely ablaze. Morgawr hunts down the Auguste.
Morgawr sinks the Auguste, and Jikininki dismasts the Niagara, knocking the French out of the game! Now there are two: Pirates vs. Spanish. The Argonauta tows the Tepant through the wreckage, knowing she’ll need help if she wants to stand a chance in this final battle. The Crusher and Hellfire are fully repaired, and they set a northeasterly course.
The battle begins! The Argonauta hits Morgawr, but the Tepant is still repairing and has no crew.
The Argonauta is pinned by both Morgawr and the Crusher, and though the initial Pirate attacks fail in general, they will win easily.
Utter devastation:
At long last, the Pirates have won this tiny cumulative game!
This was a unique experience. There’s been at least one other cumulative game (I believe two) from back in 2011/2012 that didn’t see a ton of points, but I’m pretty sure this is the smallest cumulative game I’ve played. Despite it’s short nature, I would recommend giving something like this a try. Especially if you’ve never played a cumulative game before, this would be a good way to get started.
I must admit that I was disappointed not to use three of the 24 ships available: HMS Malton, HMS Ark Royal, and the Banshee’s Wail. However, perhaps I’ll find a way to fit them in even when I’m around my entire collection again.
I did a test game with a new concept – one island, with ONLY Unique Treasures! This was also the first game I’ve played this month of December, which means that for the first time ever, I’ve played at least one game in every month of the year!
This was the order of play: Pirates:
Black Diamond + captain, helmsman
Pillage
Morgawr
Spanish:
El Argonauta + Rollando, captain, helmsman
El Corazon Dorado + captain
Americans:
Yankee + helmsman
Lady Washington + helmsman
Niagara + captain, helmsman
The setup was simple, with each home island 2L away from the single wild island, which had 11 UT’s on it and lay underneath an arch.
The Yankee was the first to reach the island, but no fleet had an explorer.
The Pirates began the second turn by attacking the Yankee with the Black Diamond! Funny enough, all four shots missed but the ram succeeded to slightly damage the schooner. However, the Pirates also lost the boarding party and their helmsman. Morgawr moved to the Pillage’s starboard side to guard the little ship against the powerful Spanish.
The Spanish took their second turn, and the Corazon Dorado was considerably more successful than the Black Diamond, hitting three times to dismast the Yankee.
The Argonauta gave Broadsides Attack a go against Morgawr, but it missed!
The Americans began their turn by giving the derelict Yankee an explore action! Here’s what she found:
The most important ones were Barbary Banner, Buried Treasure, and Rum, which in this case amounted to 12 gold, the total amount in play.
In order to get in range of the Yankee, the Corazon Dorado sailed right into range of the Lady Washington, who hit 2/3 in a nice shoot action. The Yankee was done, but the Americans just needed to tow her home, and their HI was the nearest. The Niagara shot and rammed the Black Diamond, taking out her 3S cannons. (The Black Diamond is one of my oldest ships and her gaff mast was broken long ago so it’s attached to the mizzenmast.)
As the Black Diamond’s foremast falls across the deck of the derelict Yankee, it’s obvious this game will be filled with carnage.
Next, the Black Diamond tried to use her ship’s ability to steal all of the Yankee’s treasure, but miraculously the Yankee won the boarding party! In the background, Morgawr has hit the Argonauta with her fire ability.
Both Spanish ships come around their enemies! Both are looking the cut off the healthy Pirates in the event that they try to tow the Yankee back to their HI. The Corazon shoots and rams the Lady Washington, but only takes out a mast. The Argonauta sails around Morgawr, missing another Broadsides Attack on the way by.
The Lady Washington towed the Yankee, while the Niagara simultaneously moved to block the Black Diamond’s path to the Yankee and shoot at the Corazon Dorado.
The Pirates then struck again. The Black Diamond took the last masts off both the Niagara and Corazon Dorado. The Pillage rammed a mast off the Lady Washington, while Morgawr hit with another fire attack against the Argonauta.
The Argonauta was losing masts quickly, and things looked best for the Pirates.
The Black Diamond maneuvered to sink the Lady Washington, knocking the Americans out of the game.
War at sea. Masts and sails litter the battlefield, while only three ships and one sea monster continue the fight, with one ship mostly aflame.
With three fire masts, the Argonauta rolled once for each possible effect. Then, with her last cannon, she managed to finally hit with BA (dismasting the Pillage) before coming into contact with the derelict Yankee, who still had all the gold aboard. (Though by this point Plague was on the Pillage)
Without her helmsman, the Black Diamond couldn’t quite begin towing the Yankee before the Argonauta explored her to grab the gold. With her explore action, the Argonauta managed to eliminate some of the fires.
At this point the Pirates had to chase the Argonauta, but Morgawr was in range on the next turn to dismast the 5 master.
This gave the Pirates the win, but I think I played it wrong. I think Rollando’s ability would allow the Argonauta to take all of the Yankee’s UT’s (or whichever ones she wanted, especially the gold ones), which would save a turn versus exploring the derelict. This turn was important, because I think it would have let the Argonauta get home before Morgawr was in shooting or pinning range. Either way, it was more of a test game. This all-UT setup should be explored further at some point. A fun and quick game that saw lots of splinters! I believe that by the battle’s end, only 6 of the original 28 masts were standing, and that includes Morgawr’s perfect health. In terms of actual wooden masts, only 2 out of 24 masts that started the game were standing at the end, meaning that 92% of masts were knocked down!
Spanish:
Napolitana + captain, helmsman, oarsman, fire shot
Batavian Bat + oarsman
San Pedro + explorer, oarsman
Antamasia + captain, helmsman, oarsman
English:
HMS King Edward + captain, helmsman, explorer, fire shot
HMS Dover + captain, helmsman, explorer, fire shot
La Santa Ana + Fernando Sanchez, Bianco’s Haulers, helmsman, oarsman
There were 4 home islands, 4 wild islands, 2 whirlpools, and a string of terrain in the middle of the sea. Each wild island had 6 coins on it. Round earth rules were used.
The Corsairs quickly used round earth to explore a southern wild island that the Harbinger and Comet appeared to be headed towards.
The Pirates split up, while the English stick together.
The Harbinger is back in action!
But the Cursed Corsairs go 5/5 between the Freedom’s Hand and the Cat’s Claw to dismast the new ship! (the Claw had a successful ram)
Early-game carnage:
The Comet shoots a mast off the Cat’s Claw, but the Corsairs have other issues.
As the English explore the northwestern island, the Pirate Antamasia wants no part of them. The English send the Santa Ana through a whirlpool to raid the Corsairs’ HI. The submerged Pyre failed to ram a mast off the Meresman.
The Freedom’s Hand engages the Antamasia at S+S range while the Santa Ana is free to return home with stolen loot after Bianco’s Haulers prevented the ship from being shot at while it was docked at the Corsairs’ HI. The Harbinger is rowing home as the Spanish fleet accumulates gold.
Above the mainmast of the King Edward, the proud HMS Dover docks home gold. In the distance, the Pyre has surfaced to engage the Meresman, but she’s unsuccessful.
The Pirate Antamasia answered with a 2/2 to beat the Freedom’s Hand.
Only a few coins remain on islands as the endgame approaches.
The final count for this game with 4 players:
1. English: 27 gold
2. Pirates: 22
3. Spanish: 19
4. Cursed Corsairs: 6
