The fleets went in the order of play as follows:

French Pirates:
Le Flamberge + Guy LaPlante, helmsman
Satisfaction + helmsman
Orca

Cursed Pirates:
Nightmare + captain, helmsman
Bruja + captain, helmsman

The setup featured home islands at opposite ends, and three wild islands in the middle. The island in the center of the ocean was surrounded by a combination of fog and reefs, but it had 8 coins compared to 5 coins each for the other two islands.

The eastern island is off to the right of the frame.

Ships headed for the islands. The Flamberge ducked into a fog bank to avoid the Bruja.

As the Orca struggled to exit the fog in the correct direction, the Satisfaction and Nightmare cleaned out the eastern island. The Flamberge actually beat her comrade (the Orca) to the middle island, meaning that the western island was the last to be explored. The Bruja, with no cargo space available, waited to ambush the French Pirates.

The Satisfaction gambled, hoping that the Bruja’s average cannons would either miss at least half the time or not get completely in range.

And she paid the price! The Bruja sailed up and broadsided the Satisfaction, eliminating all three masts, both coins, and her helmsman.

The Bruja sunk the now-empty Satisfaction as the Nightmare returned home with gold. Now with 2 ships, the French Pirates looked to unload some gold of their own. Luckily for them, the Flamberge and Orca had 10 gold between their 2 coins! Still, the French Pirates were facing an uphill battle after their main gold runner was sunk.

The Flamberge returned home, taking a mast off the Bruja on the way by. Guy LaPlante led a boarding party which killed the Bruja’s helmsman. The Bruja had no choice but to duck into a fog bank. The Flamberge headed west this time, as the Orca and Nightmare sailed in and out of the fog.

Here, the Bruja has repaired, while the Flamberge and Orca make trips to the western island, which they’ve discovered has a lot of high-value coins on it.

With the Bruja and Nightmare now heading to the western island, the Flamberge and Orca go back to the center.

LaPlante was getting bored, and decided to attack! His cannons took out three masts from the Bruja, and his S-boarding stole a coin from the Nightmare.

However, the Cursed got their revenge on the next turn, with the two ships teaming up to crush the Flamberge. The Bruja’s Fear keyword was a 5, meaning that the Flamberge was almost useless for the following turn. The Nightmare’s ram and board meant that the coin changed hands again back to the Nightmare.

The Flamberge headed home, and the Nightmare took the Bruja under tow.

As the Bruja repaired, the Flamberge was unlucky enough to hit a reef and roll a 3, meaning that she was derelict and pretty much out of the game. The Nightmare returned to the center island to grab the last coin.

1. Cursed Pirates: 26 gold
2. French Pirates: 25 gold

Wow! That last 1 coin mattered, giving the Cursed Pirates the victory! The French Pirates found some coins of very high values, but the Cursed Pirates had more gold overall.

Warning: Unfortunately I can only find one picture from this game, so the republished report is extremely flawed with basically no pictures.

This game was played on 11/16, and featured similar fleets as the last game, but this time the build total was 80 points.

The fleets went in the order as follows; note some changes from the last game:

Mercenaries:
Gladius Dei (cazador) + Caesar (cazador), helmsman
Terror + captain, helmsman, shipwright
Bashaw Folly + Osvaldo de Deus Celemente, oarsman
Devil Ray, oarsman

Gladius Dei
Nation: Mercenary
Type: Submarine
Points: 15
Masts: 3
Cannons: 4S,4S,5S
Cargo: 4
Move: L
Link: Caesar
Mercenary, Submarine
This ship gets +S to her base move and +1 cargo spaces if she doesn’t carry crew.

Flavor: The “Sword of God” is rumored to have been built by the Vatican in an attempt to safely move Catholic wealth and artifacts around the globe.

Caesar
Nation: Mercenary
Type: Crew
Points: 9
Link: Gladius Dei
Limit, Ex-Patriot, Navigator
As a free action, friendly Mercenary-faction ships may unload treasure at your home island if they are within S of it. Gold unloaded in this way loses one point of value, to a minimum of zero.

Flavor: “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” – Mark 12:17 – Caesar draws Ex-Patriots to himself like few others, often leading cooperative efforts to gather the wealth needed by his fellow exiles. Caesar takes twenty percent of the haul as his dues; what few know is that he gives half of that to parishes of the Roman Catholic Church.

French:
Froide Vengeance (selxaxri) + Phillipe Jordan (el_cazador), Mademoiselle Josephine Godiva, helmsman, shipwright
Le Gaule (cazador) + Michel Dubois (cazador), chieftain
Native Canoes (cazador) + one canoe with Exploding Shot
La Crete Argentee + helmsman

Froide Vengeance (proxied at 15 points for this game)
Nat. French
Masts 3
Cannons 3L-2S-4S
Cargo 3
Movement L
Icebreaker
This ship may tow Icebergs.
Still at war with the English, one general who skirted the floes of the northern waters concocted a hare-brained scheme- blockading the british fleet using the floes themselves.

Phillipe Jordan
Type: Crew
Nation: France
Points: 8
Link: (The Submarine)
Ex-patriot, Captain
This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against any ship.

Flavor: Jordan’s anger at the French Admiralty’s decisions has led him to dock at French ports as rarely as possible, instead resupplying at islands and foreign ports.

Le Gaule
Type: 5-mast
Nation: France
Points: 17
Masts: 5
Cargo: 4
Move: S+S
Cannons: 3L,2S,2S,2S,3L
Link: None
When this ship sinks another ship, give this ship a free move action.

Flavor: After decisive action against the Cursed near the coast of French Indochina, this legendary vessel has come to the Atlantic to fight the English.

Michel Dubois
Type: Crew
Nation: France
Points: 4
Link: None
Captain, Explorer

Flavor: Dubois fights for gold and will turn down opportunities to sink the English in favor of obtaining more money.

Canots Indigènes
Nation: France
Points: X (13)
Masts: X
Cargo: 1 (x5)
Move: S+S
Cannon: 3L (x5)
Link: None
Native Canoes, Captain

Flavor: The natives of Indonesia have been trained in the art of war by French capitaines, and they pursue the monsters of the deep.

Chef de Tribu
Nation: France
Points: 13
Link: None
Tribal Chieftain
Before you give any of this chieftain’s canoes an action, roll a d6. On a 5-6 they may shoot at submerged ships.

Flavor: This chieftain’s men have had conact with the Monster Hunter’s guild.

Cursed:
Tenfold (cazador) + Onox (cazador), Koloktos (cazador), Gentleman Jocard, helmsman
Lamprey (cazador) + explorer
Hare’s Luck + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist
Calypsos

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

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

Onox
Type: Crew
Nation: Mercenary
Points: 5
Link: Ganondorf’s Revenge
Ganonite, Ex-Patriot, Black Mark, Captain.
Pirate crew may use their abilities aboard this ship.

Flavor: Onox is secretly recruiting men for Ganondorf’s future Second Gerudo Empire. It is said that there is no ruthless, traitorous fiend he won’t turn down.

Koloktos
Nation: Cursed
Points: 8
Link: None
This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls. This ship may dock at an enemy home island and take as much treasure as she can carry. She must leave (if able) on her next turn.

Flavor: The dark magic that powers this automaton has given it a keen sense of when to raid enemy ports.

Lamprey
Type: 2-mast longship
Nation: Cursed
Points: 8
Masts: 2
Cargo: 3
Move: S+L
Cannons: 5S,5S
Link: None
Longship

Flavor: This abomination from the Frozen North seems to have suffered permanent damage to her firing accuracy.

Pirates:
Rusty Hook (captain_vendari) + Tetra (cazador), Purlo (cazador)
Dead Man’s Revenge (xerecs) + captain
Torpedo (xerecs)
Skipping Stone + helmsman

Rusty Hook 
Nation: Pirate
Points: 15
Masts: 4
Cargo: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 3L, 2S, 2S, 2S
Ability: You opponent cannot initiate a boarding party against this ship.
Flavor Text: ???
Link: Donovan Richtarian

Tetra
Type: Crew
Nation: Pirate
Points: 6
Link: Arbiter
Hostile: Cursed, Captain, Explorer. Hylian crew may use their abilities aboard this ship.

Flavor: Tetra had been captaining for years before Hyrule emerged as a sea power. While not all of her work has been ethical, she is effective at what she does and is always willing to lend Hyrule her aid against the Cursed.

Purlo
Type: Crew
Nation: Hyrule
Points: 5
Link: None
Hostile: Cursed, Helmsman. Once per turn, this ship may randomly take one treasure from any ship she touches.

Flavor: Purlo was a con artist in Castleton until he was caught by the Ranging and Enforcement corps. Noting his skill, they referred him to the navy, where he began a new life leading boarding parties and raids.

Dead Man’s Revenge
Pirate
20 pts
Masts: 3
Cargo: 2
Movement: L+L
Canon: 3L-2S-3L
Ability: Shipburner – Once per game if this ship is within S of enemy ships, roll a d6. On 4-6 she explodes, remove her immediately from the game and for every enemy ship within S, eliminate one mast, replace another with a fire mast, and eliminate one crew, cargo or equipment. On a 1-3 remove all of this ships masts and eliminate all her crew.

Torpedo
Pirate
18 pts
Masts: 2
Cargo: 1
Movement: L+L
Cannon: 4S-4S
Ability: Portburner – This ship may dock at an enemy Home Island, and roll a d6. On a 4-6 she explodes and is immediately eliminated from the game. Roll another d6 the result is the number of treasure coins removed from the Home Island. On a 1-3 she may take one treasure and leave on her next turn if able.

English:
HMS Fatalis (cazador) + Hermione Gold, helmsman
HMS Puma (cazador) + Thomas Gunn, explorer
Edelweiss (cazador) + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist
HMS Growler (cazador) + explorer

HMS Fatalis
Type: 3-mast hoist
Nation: England
Points: 16
Masts: 3
Cargo: 5
Move: L
Cannons: 4L,4L,4S
Link: None
Hoist
This ship eliminates two masts with one hit.

Flavor: The HMS Fatalis was comissioned to pillage and plunder and and rifle and loot; occasionally she even burns the town down. She’s really a fright.

HMS Puma
Type: 4-mast
Nation: England
Points: 13
Masts: 4
Cargo: 4
Move: L
Cannons: 3L,3L,3L,3L
Link: None
This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against crew, forts, and ships within S of her.

Flavor: The HMS Puma’s captain has little patience and will often sail straight into combat, even though the Puma carries long-range cannons.

Edelweiss
Nation: Gallia/England
Type: 3-mast Windcatcher
Points: 18
Masts: 3
Cargo: 3
Move: S+S
Cannons: 2L,3L,2S
Link: Alicia Melchiott, Welkin Gunther
Windcatcher. Two hits from the same shoot action are required to eliminate one of this ship’s masts. This ship ignores the first hit she takes each turn if she has all of her masts.

Flavor: Purchased from the Americans and modified by Gallian nautical engineers, the Edelweiss has proved a capable ship. Her high price is all that has precluded further orders by the Principality of Gallia.

HMS Growler
Type: 3-mast square rigged
Nation: England
Points: 10
Masts: 3
Cargo: 4
Move: L
Cannons: 3S,3S,3S
Link: None
Schooner. This ship gets +L to her base move if she starts her move action within S of an island.

Flavor: The Growler, called by some the Prowler, slinks along coasts and archipelagos, looking to use her relatively shallow draft to seize a first strike.

I purposely made the setup the opposite of the last game. The play area featured 5 separate home islands around the borders of the sea, which would once again utilize round earth rules. A whopping 17 coins were placed on the middle island. The northern and southern island both received 8 coins, while a wreck of HMS Sultan received 5. Some UT’s were present, which would affect the game once again. All of the icebergs used were either 1’s, 2’s, or 3’s, with a total of 9. The custom icebergs would again function as “1” icebergs. Two whirlpools and a few reefs were placed as well.

You can see the double arch to the left of the middle island, beneath which the shipwreck lies. The arch to the right is a difficult one to use since it’s so low and difficult to maneuver in, but it adds a nice scenic touch. The Mercenaries picked their home island last, but luckily for them, nobody picked the northeastern HI, which was closest to the arch. Everybody else wanted to avoid the low arch with their tall ships, while the Mercs knew they’d have no problem with it in their sleek submarines. The English are at the lower right, while the west is comprised (bottom to top) of the Cursed, Pirates, and French.
On the very first turn, the Mercenaries have entered the arch! The Bashaw Folly is short enough to make it through, while the Gladius Dei and Devil Ray lead the way. The Terror has gone slightly to the south out of the frame.

This is a fantastic view of this great setup. At the left foreground, the dangerous reef that the Sultan fell victim to. At the far left, the edge of the huge iceberg can be seen. The main arch in the foreground is a double archway, and you can see how the wider arch slopes a bit, leaving more clearance towards the right (I thought of doing that while making the arch so it’s not universally accessible at every point of the arch!). At the far right, the other archway is taller but rather narrow. In the middle of the ocean, a gold-laden island beckons. Beyond, you can see the Mercs making their way through the other arch, which is wavy inside from all of the water ricocheting back and forth. To the right of the arch, you can just see the submerged Terror going the long way.

All of the fleets have begun sailing! The Froide Vengeance grabs the huge iceberg and starts towing it. At the right, HMS Puma sails north instead of west with the rest of the fleet.

On the second turn the Gladius Dei is the first ship to dock at the middle island!

The Tenfold uses her hoist to explore the southern island, finding some nice UT’s: Wine, Power Cannons, and English Royal Decree.

With HI raider Koloktos already on board, the Tenfold transfers Wine to the Lamprey:

The French canoes have explored the northern island, finding Spices in addition to an abandoned musketeer.

The Terror has rejoined the Mercs. At the left, the two Pirate gunships guard the Torpedo, who prepares to explore the Sultan wreck.

The Mercs have deduced that no other fleet can explore the middle island next turn either, and therefore the Devil Ray surfaces to dock, while the Gladius Dei submerges and allows Caesar to place a trade current behind the eastern arch.

First blood goes to the French! The Froide Vengeance turns around and hits 2/2 against the Rusty Hook. In addition, the Hare’s Luck turned around and shot at the Skipping Stone, but was foiled by the Catamaran’s defenses!

The Pirates tried to get revenge, but failed miserably. The Rusty Hook executed a shoot and ram against the Froide, but only succeeded in taking out one mast, while the boarding party was a tie. The Dead Man’s Chest sails north to help the Rusty Hook, but that leaves the Torpedo vulnerable to the nearby Calypsos. The Skipping Stone shoots 1/2 against the Hare’s Luck.

There are some developments in the south as well: an iceberg moved right into the path of the Fatalis and Edelweiss, forcing the English to take a different route to avoid possible attacks by the Tenfold or Terror. The Growler has explored the southern island as the Cursed turn around. HMS Puma also turns, realizing that the French native canoes have taken most of the northern gold, and if the Puma went through the whirlpool, she would be an easy target for Le Gaule.

To start the next turn, the Devil Ray became the first ship to explore the middle island!

The most important one was Wolves, which meant that the Devil Ray couldn’t take any gold. Also, the other abandoned musketeer was on the island as well, meaning that the first abandoned musketeer, aboard a French canoe, was the only way to take out the wolves and access the treasure on the middle island!

Trouble in the south! The Bashaw Folly takes advantage of one of Caesar’s trade currents to surprise the Edelweiss, just getting both cannons in range. Celemente’s Broadsides Attack hit! The Edelweiss’ defenses were irrelevant for the time being, and the submerged Terror wasn’t far behind.

Although a conflict had begun in the south, the west was still the location of the hottest action. As you can see from the next picture, total chaos has erupted. The French moved first, using the Froide Vengeance to first tow the huge iceberg right into the Rusty Hook! This left the Hook with one mast standing. Then, Phillipe Jordan’s +1 cannon bonus gave the Froide a perfect 2/2 to send the Rusty Hook to the bottom! For the second straight game, the Rusty Hook had been easily sunk by the aggressive French. The French weren’t done though. The Gaule sailed up to the Devil Ray and surprised the Mercs with a brutal attack! The Devil Ray was no match for the French gunship, and sunk below the waves. The Gaule then used her unique ability to move again, which put her in range of the Skipping Stone. The Gaule’s guns opened fire once again, shattering the outrigger of the Skipping Stone and leaving her with just one mast. At the far left, the Dead Man’s Revenge has taken an iceberg hit, further increasing the woes of the Pirates.

For the second game in a row, Wolves and Le Gaule have destroyed the plans of the Mercs.

The Cursed were up next, right before the Pirates. The Hare’s Luck shot with her final cannon, and miraculously landed a firepot on the Skipping Stone! This left the catamaran a burning derelict.

The Cursed gave the Tenfold a move action to deposit her gold on the home island. The Lamprey continued west to the puzzlement of the other fleets. In the background, Calypsos has taken a mast off the Torpedo and stolen her lone coin.

The Pirates are in major trouble.

The Pirates took their turn, which made their situation even worse, as if that were possible! The Skipping Stone was automatically scuttled having all fire masts, and the Rusty Hook was gone. The Torpedo actually managed to hit Calypsos with her remaining 4S cannon, but was pinned and a sitting duck.

Where did the Dead Man’s Revenge go? As you may have guessed, she blew up! True to her name, the Pirates wanted revenge against the French, who had ruined their plans for the second game in a row. However, once again, the Pirates couldn’t do much of anything about it. The Dead Man’s Revenge maneuvered herself near the reef edge of the arch and the big iceberg, just barely getting within S of both the Froide Vengeance and Gaule. Her captain missed with both cannons, and the shipburner ability failed, eliminating the DMR from the game and leaving the French as healthy as before.

The English had enough firepower to get revenge on the Mercenaries, blasting the Bashaw Folly with the Fatalis while the Edelweiss was towed by the Puma.

The overall situation. The Mercs have already lost the Devil Ray and Bashaw Folly, while the Pirates have essentially been eliminated from the game.

The Terror joins the Gladius Dei while the French regroup and unload treasure.

Calypsos has finished off the Torpedo, and the Tenfold grabs the coin. The Lamprey appears to be on a round earth mission, but which home island is she after?

The Cursed suddenly make their intentions clear! The Tenfold uses Power Cannons to stun the French and sink the Froide Vengeance with an improbable 3/3, which also nets them a coin from the middle island due to the English Royal Decree. The Lamprey emerges from the south to come out of the northwest, looking to exchange Wine for a high-value coin!

The English have brought back a small amount of gold via the Growler and look to get the Edelweiss back in action.

After the early-game battles, the sea doesn’t look crowded enough…

With help from a trade current, the Terror has emerged from the depths to attack Le Gaule! The Mercs were hoping to kill the tribal chieftain and therefore gain some control of the canoe that carried the vital musketeer. The attack knocked over two masts and killed Michel Dubois, leaving the Gaule vulnerable. The Terror declined to use Fear out of the fear (pun intended) of cancelling the chieftain, which can actually make the canoes more dangerous.

The Gladius Dei has resurfaced at a safer point of the island in case the French try to eliminate the wolves.

The canoes team with Le Gaule to sink the Terror, leaving the Mercs with just the Gladius Dei.

But the French also have to deal with the Cursed! Luckily for the French, the Tenfold misses her shots against the canoes. The Lamprey unloads Wine for a 3 at the French HI.

As the game progresses, one thing is clear: the English are coming.

Le Gaule didn’t have access to the captain ability, but the canoes did, and the Tenfold lost a mast. The Gaule won the boarding party to steal the 3 that Calypsos originally took from the Torpedo. The canoes also wounded Calypsos.

Calypsos runs a suicidal interference mission, pinning the Gaule but failing to remove a mast or kill the chieftain. The Tenfold uses the opportunity to move away from the action and grab some gold from the shipwreck without having to roll for the reef. At the top of the picture you can see the Lamprey escaping.

The English have entered the center area, and the Gladius Dei is forced to submerge in their presence. The Edelweiss has finished repairing and it won’t be long before she joins her fleetmates. However, most of the gold lies on the home islands of the Cursed and French, while the middle island is largely untouched. The French still have the abandoned musketeer, the key to the late game chaos that approaches.

The canoes take another mast off the Tenfold, while the Gaule repairs with an abandoned shipwright (from the northern island) transferred to her by the Crete Argentee, whose bonus was important in the sinking of the Terror and the shots against the Tenfold and Calypsos, who is now dead. Seeing the gold on the Cursed HI, the Gladius Dei is hoping to take out the Tenfold, but needs to avoid the dangerous canoes on the way.

The Lamprey brought back her gold from the French HI, and the Tenfold unloaded her shipwrecked treasure, giving the Cursed a gold advantage. Then, they both sailed south to round-earth their way to the northwest, where the French began sailing. At this point, the Fatalis was pretty much going after the French, while the Growler sailed north to try and grab the last coins from the northern island. The English had the luxury of being able to split their forces, but they needed to since there were so many threats. Also, the Cursed and French both had more gold than the English.

The Puma takes out two canoes, with the Edelweiss following her under the arch. As with the previous game, the French chieftain continually failed to allow the canoes to shoot at submerged ships, and the Gladius Dei pursued the Tenfold. The game was becoming more urgent in nature, with exciting developments occurring.

The Tenfold and Lamprey split up in the north! The Lamprey sailed east to deter the Growler, while the Tenfold headed west, making it fairly obvious she intended to raid the English HI rather than the French. This was probably the Cursed’s plan all along, but the French confirmed it by docking the Gaule home. She unloaded treasure and provided a deterrent to any would-be raiders. The Gaule was temporarily invulnerable, but the Crete Argentee was not, being dismasted by the Fatalis.

A tense situation, with ships scattered everywhere: Le Gaule has fully repaired, while the Lamprey rams the Growler and takes a coin from her. The Puma came under attack by the canoes, but fought back with her comrades to eliminate all but the one canoe which had the musketeer. The remaining factions essentially couldn’t eliminate that canoe, since it held the only way to get gold from the middle island. The Cursed could gamble and try to eliminate it, but were greedy and wanted a piece of the middle island too. The Gladius Dei is to the far southwest out of the picture while the Tenfold approaches the deserted English HI. The Fatalis and Edelweiss sail towards the Cursed HI, hoping to cut off the Tenfold.

On the next turn, the matchup was finally seen: the Gladius Dei with Caesar aboard taking on the Tenfold! Of course, it didn’t last long, with the Gladius Dei eliminating the Tenfold’s final mast with a submerged ram before the Tenfold used Turbine to raid the English HI. The final canoe knocked the Puma down to one mast, while the Fatalis and Edelweiss prepared to sink the Tenfold. In a clutch 1v1 victory, the Growler fought back to dismast the Lamprey and take back the gold!

The Gladius Dei rams again, this time on the surface. The GD steals a coin.

The severely weakened French have no choice – it’s the best opportunity to get at the middle island! The last canoe’s musketeer fires and misses! In the meantime, the Growler is limping home after going through the northern whirlpool, near where the Gaule approaches the middle island. The Tenfold also speeds towards the island, so the Fatalis and Edelweiss do the same. It’s a showdown in the center!

As the musketeer misses again, everyone draws closer except for the Puma, who captures the Crete Argentee hoping to take advantage of her bonus.

The French miss yet again, which can only serve to help the English. The battle begins, with the Edelweiss hitting the Gaule as the Puma misses the Lamprey. The Fatalis tries to corner the Tenfold, who is essentially uncaptureable with Turbine and no cancellers present.

As the Gladius Dei returns to the island, the French go next and finally eliminate the wolves! The Gaule docks but since Dubois is gone she can’t explore! Naturally, the Cursed are somehow the first fleet to explore the middle island, even though they were the last fleet to reach it in the game and were already winning! The Tenfold loads a whopping 17 gold in addition to the 1 she stole from the English, making her a target of the English once again.

However, the Tenfold was also subject to the other UT’s on the island, and Plague killed all of her crew, while the other UT’s wouldn’t help at all. To top it all off, the Whirlpool UT sent the Tenfold through one whirlpool and out another, which actually shortened her journey home.

The Fatalis is the second ship to take gold from the middle island.

As the Growler repairs, the Edelweiss emerges from a whirlpool to chase the Tenfold!

At long last, the Mercenaries are finally able to load some gold! The Puma attacks Le Gaule, while the Fatalis plays a hybrid role with gold aboard, keeping a lookout for the Tenfold, soon to emerge from the west with round earth.

Having lost her helmsman, the Tenfold was no match for the Edelweiss, who sank her and eliminated all 18 gold from the game. The English breathed a sigh of relief now that the Cursed couldn’t get any more gold (the Lamprey had been sunk as well), but they still had to stop the French. However, with the Cursed and Pirates out of the game, the English didn’t want to trigger any endgame conditions by eliminating the French before they could get gold back (I tried to keep it consistent with the previous game). Therefore, they decided to let the final canoe go while trying to capture the Gaule. The Gladius Dei was out of range and untowable anyway, so the English concentrated on the Gaule.

The last canoe has left the musketeer on the island for the final coin in the game, while the English will inevitably capture the weakened Gaule.

An epic picture! The stealthy and submerged Gladius Dei is about to hit an old trade current on her way home, while through the archway, you can see part of the beautiful center island and the Gaule’s mainmast, which has fallen dramatically against the hoist of the Fatalis.

The Mercs use Caesar to deposit their gold! It won’t be nearly enough to win, but it’s a small victory nonetheless.

As the French canoe runs home the Puma tows the Gaule, completing the English plan.

The game’s final turn saw the French deposit their final coin with their only game piece still under their command, while the English formed a defensive formation around the Gaule to prevent her sinking. The English returned home her gold and that of the Fatalis, but it wasn’t much.

The final count:

1. Cursed: 20 gold
2. French: 9
3. English: 8
4. Mercenaries: 3
5. Pirates: 0

What a game! I think for some reason I enjoyed this game slightly more than the previous one, but funny enough they turned out oddly similar in a lot of ways. The Tenfold was center stage once again, and the Cursed are victorious! (xerecs will be happy haha) The English played another good game where they had firepower and enough time to repair and do good in the late game, but once again it wasn’t enough. The final French canoe gave the French 9 gold instead of 8, so those fleets were about equal. The French used the Crete Argentee, their main addition, to good effect, but lost the Froide Vengeance in the middle of the game. The Mercenaries were thwarted once again by Wolves and the French, but the Terror and Bashaw Folly made gallant attempts to slow the other fleets. The Pirates struggled mightily, being set upon early by the Cursed and French. The shipburner (dud) and portburner (not used) abilities provided nothing for their substantial costs, while I’d still like to see the Rusty Hook get another chance at some point. Overall, this was another fun game that saw lots of experimenting with custom ships and crew!

ALL terrain/islands – 5 fleets, 20 points

11/13/2015

I recently had a few more ideas for games.  One of them was quite “out-there” if you will – a “Full Ocean” game with ONLY islands and terrain.  There would be almost NO open ocean, and there was only a little bit because I ran out of the terrain I had on hand.

To continue the trend of using small fleets, this time a 20 point build total was used.  There were five fleets, going in this order:

Providence + Brent Rice, captain, oarsman

Rum Runner + Hammersmith, explorer, oarsman

La Manila + captain, helmsman, explorer, oarsman

Le Pluton + captain, helmsman

HMS Interceptor + Hermione Gold, explorer

You can see that each fleet opted for just one ship that had at least 4 masts, in order to combat the extremely dangerous setup:

The French were the only fleet crazy enough to pick a home island completely surrounded by terrain, and the Pluton began the game in a fog bank!

On the first turn, the Manila was the first ship to reach an island, using a whirlpool to take three coins.  This began the woes of the Americans, who were headed towards the same island.  As a side note, icebergs were allowed to move over other pieces of terrain, and push each other around.  Unlike the Other Worlds game from earlier this year, icebergs would simply move over whirlpools instead of being drawn into them.  Also, icebergs were only rolled at the beginning of each “round” starting with the second turn, rather than every player’s individual turn.

The Manila was also the first ship to have trouble with the terrain, losing a mast to an iceberg.

The Pluton received a lucky fog roll for the second turn in a row to dock at a northern island.  The Interceptor and Rum Runner explored as well.

The Pluton navigated a Sargasso Sea to quickly unload her haul, and the Manila docked her gold home as well while avoiding further damage.  The Providence finally docked, but the Americans were disappointed with what the Manila left them.

The setup continued to take a toll on the ships.  The Rum Runner suffered an unlucky iceberg hit right before she was able to dock home her gold, and the Pluton risked a reef to quickly sail over to the other middle island, losing one mast.

The Providence continued east to take what was left of the Pluton’s northern island.  In the meantime, the Pluton avoided taking more damage from the reef and quickly had 6 coins sitting on her HI.  This annoyed the Pirates, who saw the French as their main competition at this point.

Each fleet had been relatively isolated so far, but trouble was brewing in the east as the English opened fire on the Spanish!

The Manila kept sailing straight ahead and crashed into the Interceptor’s starboard quarter!  A stormy sea made this fight even more dramatic as the two big ships exchanged shots!

The Americans were the only fleet yet to bring back treasure.  The Rum Runner had just returned with her second haul when the Pluton made a surprise move and whirlpooled her way towards the eastern battle, where the English had the upper hand.  The French wanted to grab the remaining three coins on the wild island while the combatants were distracted.  Hammersmith, on board the Rum Runner, saw this and told his crew not to let the Pluton out of their sights.

Icebergs continued to chase the Providence as the Rum Runner emerged from a whirlpool to chase the Pluton.  Conceding defeat to the English, the Manila docked at the eastern wild island that began all this conflict and loaded all three coins.  The Interceptor quickly dismasted her, but lost her explorer in the failed boarding attempt in addition to the mast she had lost in battle, knocking her speed down to L+S.

The French had arrived!  The Pluton struck, using S-board to steal all three coins from the Manila.  She also shot a mast off the Interceptor, which disappointed the Pluton’s captain.  The Pluton was ready to take off, but the faster Rum Runner wasn’t far behind.

At this point, four of the five ships were concentrated on the eastern edge of the sea, while the Providence was all alone in the west.  The Interceptor attacked the Pluton, but failed miserably.  She only knocked out one mast between the shoot and ram, and to top it off, Hermione Gold was killed in the boarding party.  At this point the English looked to be out of the game, but they were willing to give any assistance possible to the Pirates in order to subdue the hated French.

A closeup of the carnage in the east:

The mostly deserted west.  The majority of the gold in the foreground is on home islands, and you can see some open spaces where icebergs have moved out of their original positions.

The Pluton ducked into a fog bank, with the Rum Runner in hot pursuit!  The Interceptor started the game as the swiftest on the seas, but was now relegated to moving L in an attempt to get home and repair.

A view of the entire setup – the Providence has fully repaired.  The Pluton chose a lesser of two evils, coming out of the fog to sail in between two icebergs.  This path was relatively free of obstacles, since she could ignore the whirlpool and dock home within two turns.  The other path was fraught with the peril of no open ocean, including an iceberg and up to three reefs.

However, to start the next turn, the Americans got in on the action by blocking the Pluton’s path!  The Providence emerged from a whirlpool ready to fight.  The Rum Runner caught the Pluton and despite missing all of her shots yet again (possibly 0 for 9 at this point, much to Hammersmith’s disgust), the ram succeeded to dismast the Pluton and finally knock the French out of the active game.  They were rich, but they wouldn’t get any richer.  The Pirates had finally caught the Pluton, but they hadn’t finished their goal yet.

The Providence towed the Pluton and tried to shoot at the Rum Runner, but the Pirates parleyed a 1 (stolen from the Pluton on the previous turn) to the American home island instead.

Then, with great fury and anger, the Rum Runner sailed full speed into the Providence’s larboard quarter, knocking the ship sideways!

The Rum Runner’s cannons finally found their mark at point blank range, and together with the extreme force of the ram, heeled the Providence out of the water!  A devastating broadside killed the American oarsman and showed that the Pirates were determined to win this fight, if not on anger alone.

Wanting no part of the Pirates, the Providence sailed through a whirlpool to chase down the last island that had more than 1 coin left on it.  At this point there was one island with 2 coins and two islands with 1 coin each.  The Pirates took the remaining gold off the Pluton, and the Interceptor finished repairing.

An iceberg sank the Pluton as the three remaining ships took gold from the three remaining islands.  The coins weren’t valuable anyway, so the game quickly ended.

When it was all said and done, the French made a surprisingly good decision to brave the terrain and pick a HI in the middle of the ocean, and they won despite the efforts of all four other fleets trying to stop them.

French: 22 gold
Pirates: 16
English: 10
Spanish: 7
Americans: 6

This was a very unique game that saw a brand-new setup idea.  I generally liked it, but when I play it again in the future I’m definitely going to use a larger build total, which should be quite fun and chaotic.  Also, I may change how the icebergs function a little bit, especially in regards to whirlpools.

There will be another report within the next few days!

Warning: This is a short report of one of the worst games I’ve ever played.

Custom pieces courtesy of el_cazador and yours truly in the case of the equipment.

2 fleets, 60 points:

Spanish:
Las Espadas de Oro + Victor de Alva, Duque Marcus Vaccaro, Master Bianco, Bianco’s Haulers, helmsman, explorer, oarsman
La Resolucion + captain, helmsman

Las Espadas de Oro
Type: Switchblade
Nation: Spain
Points: ? (22)
Masts: 4
Cargo: 6*
Move: S+S*
Cannons: 2S,5S,5S,5S
Link: Master Bianco
Switchblade. This ship may ignore any hit she takes each turn if she carries treasure; put a treasure coin from this ship on the nearest wild island after ignoring a hit.

Flavor: Master Bianco finds himself torn between saving his ship or saving his treasure.

*These are not by any means her final stats. This was a test game.

La Resolucion
Type: 4-masted ship
Nation: Spain
Points: 15
Masts: 4
Cargo: 3
Move: L
Cannons: 3S,4L,4L,3S
Link: None
Extended Range. This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against ships within S of her.

Flavor: Captain Ladron smuggled experimental British cannons out of Singapore and outfitted his ship with them. He has resolved to put them to good use against enemies of the Crown.

English/Mercenaries:
Edelweiss + Thomas Gunn the Younger, helmsman, oarsman, Bow Chasers
HMS Growler + helmsman, explorer
Gladius Dei

Edelweiss
Nation: Gallia/England
Type: 3-mast Windcatcher
Points: 18
Masts: 3
Cargo: 3
Move: S+S
Cannons: 2L,3L,2S
Link: Alicia Melchiott, Welkin Gunther
Windcatcher. Two hits from the same shoot action are required to eliminate one of this ship’s masts. This ship ignores the first hit she takes each turn if she has all of her masts.

Flavor: Purchased from the Americans and modified by Gallian nautical engineers, the Edelweiss has proved a capable ship. Her high price is all that has precluded further orders by the Principality of Gallia.

Bow Chasers
Faction Affiliation: Neutral
Type: Equipment
Point Value: 5

This ship gains two additional cannons that can only shoot from the foremost mast of the ship. The cannons follow the rank of the foremost mast of the ship, but they have the Extended Range keyword. The cannons can only fire in a straight line directly forward of the ship’s bow. Other pieces of equipment cannot be used with Bow Chasers.

HMS Growler
Type: 3-mast square rigged
Nation: England
Points: 10
Masts: 3
Cargo: 4
Move: L
Cannons: 3S,3S,3S
Link: None
Schooner. This ship gets +L to her base move if she starts her move action within S of an island.

Flavor: The Growler, called by some the Prowler, slinks along coasts and archipelagos, looking to use her relatively shallow draft to seize a first strike.

Gladius Dei
Nation: Mercenary
Type: Submarine
Points: 15
Masts: 3
Cannons: 4S,4S,5S
Cargo: 4
Move: L
Link: Caesar
Mercenary, Submarine.
This ship gets +S to her base move and +1 cargo spaces if she doesn’t carry crew.

Flavor: The “Sword of God” is rumored to have been built by the Vatican in an attempt to safely move Catholic wealth and artifacts around the globe.

Proxies: Matthias Vospero=Resolucion, Saber=Espadas de Oro, USS Mercury=Edelweiss, Nova Scotia=Growler, Fathom=Gladius Dei

Both fleets featured good speed, especially with their treasure runners. The islands were placed 3L apart for the first time in a while.

The Espadas and Growler were the first to explore, as the Edelweiss looked to corner the slower Resolucion. The Gladius Dei stayed submerged and sped towards the furthest island out of the picture.

Using her Bow Chasers to great effect, the Edelweiss shot 4/4 to dismast the Resolucion!

This seemed to leave the Espadas as easy picking, but the Spanish switchblade docked at the island and simultaneously towed the Resolucion. Bianco’s Haulers protected the Espadas from the Edelweiss’ guns, so the English sank the Resolucion instead. The Growler is home with gold.

The Espadas needed another EA from de Alva, and she got it. This allowed her to get home, but the game was all but decided.

The Espadas couldn’t wait at home and hide from the Edelweiss while the other gold runners brought back more gold, so she headed out again. The Edelweiss knocked off all her masts and left her moving S on oar power, just barely keeping the Spanish in the game so that the English could return home some gold with the Growler and Gladius Dei.

English: 32 gold
Spanish: 12 gold

Next time I’m going to put a lot more effort into the setup and have more fleets. For various reasons, this game was rushed from both a setup and gameplay standpoint. It turned out rather boring and went by very quickly.

@el_cazador: The game wasn’t bad because of your custom pieces. I think it was mostly the setup, and the fact that the Edelweiss managed to get the first strike against both Spanish ships. I changed the switchblade’s stats based on my hunch, but further testing is needed to determine what the ship should end up looking like. The Resolucion didn’t get a chance to fight, while the Edelweiss dominated. Even if the Edelweiss hadn’t gotten the first strike, I think the Spanish would be very hard-pressed to win the game. The Edelweiss may be undercosted, as Vega’s ability on top of the Acorazado’s ability is truly difficult to deal with. Also, my Bow Chasers may be underpriced as well, partly because the Edelweiss’ fore gun is a 2L. I may test the equipment out more to determine if any changes should be made. The Growler should be fine; the Gladius Dei’s Mercenary keyword is the only thing keeping it from being overpowered. Again, more testing is needed before ANY changes are made.

Another game of Waterworld was played.  This time, the setup featured a single fog bank in the middle of the sea, which each fleet would emerge from on the first turn.  Two arches made for some nice pictures, and the original arch from Economy Edition made a surprise appearance.  Each of the four wild islands had 4 regular treasures and 1 unique treasure.

There were seven 15 point fleets this time, with 0LR’s again not being permitted.  They went in this order:

Sea Phoenix + captain, helmsman, oarsman

Silent Death + captain

Calypsos

Black Bear + helmsman

USS Destiny

Rum Runner + helmsman

Matthias Vospero + captain

L’Eroica + captain, helmsman

The Sea Phoenix took the first action and reached the arch made famous by Economy Edition.

The Silent Death is visible through an archway:

This one’s not the best quality, but you can see the Jade Rebellion flag to the left as the Americans approach the arch from the other side.

After the Sea Phoenix explored, the Black Bear planned to ram the ship and use her ability to steal gold!

The Black Bear also won the boarding party, and stole both coins from the Sea Phoenix!

From the mizzen top of the Matthias Vospero:

The arch has returned!

The Vospero soon joined in on the action, taking a mast off the Sea Phoenix:

The Destiny has docked on the other side of the arch, but a monster approaches…

The Eroica managed to maneuver to the far side of the southern island, denying Calypsos the chance to easily ram the ship and steal her gold.

The Rum Runner and Silent Death peacefully loaded gold, but the game was still in its early stages…

For a small measure of revenge, the Sea Phoenix rounded the arch’s lowest point where the gold sat and dismasted the Destiny, who was promptly rammed by Calypsos, who stole both her coins!

The Black Bear ran for safety as the Vospero turned around and eyed the Silent Death.  The Rum Runner wanted to run away as well.  The French Eroica had the misfortune to find Barrel o’ Monkeys.

As ships ran away from other ships, it became evident that more conflict was approaching.  The Black Bear ducked into the single fog bank, which would immediately disappear as soon as a ship rolled a 1 to emerge from it.  The Rum Runner turned around, knowing that she had a large load of gold, potentially enough to win the game.

After taking a mast off the Silent Death, the Matthias Vospero turned around to attack the Black Bear, who had emerged from the fog to chase the Sea Phoenix.  The Vospero now appeared to be in control up north, while major trouble was brewing in the south.

The Eroica used an SAT to fire off 6 shots at the Rum Runner in addition to a ram, which left the schooner with 1 mast standing.  This was a nightmare for the Pirates, who didn’t want to use Parley and give up their gold.  To make things worse for the combatants, Calypsos eagerly swam towards the battle.

The Eroica dismasted the Rum Runner and captured her, with the Barrel o’ Monkeys changing hands inconsequently several times in the process.  The French were happy to have won the battle, but as soon as they had, Calypsos was staring them in the face ready to fight!

Up north, the Matthias Vospero dominated both ships, capturing the Black Bear.  She illegally captured the Sea Phoenix, who had an oarsman on board.  A turn later the Sea Phoenix was removed from the game and the coin she had loaded was put back on the island you see her docked at.

The Silent Death had rolled a 1 to eliminate the fog bank, and after a brief trip to the eastern island, she returned to the center where the Vospero began chasing her.

Calypsos pinned the Eroica and knocked off a mast, and the Eroica fought back gallantly, blasting the sea monster!

After a furious fight and yet another SAT from the Eroica, Calypsos lay in pieces over the sea!  Even the Eroica’s crew were surprised by their stunning victory, though they lost her helmsman in the engagement.  If Calypsos had better luck and the Eroica slightly worse luck, the Cursed would have had a real shot at winning the game with just a single L-speed sea monster, since they could have grabbed the impressive treasure still aboard the Rum Runner!  However, it was not to be, and the Cursed would have to settle for losing once again (so close!).

After a brief game of cat and mouse, the Matthias Vospero cornered the Silent Death and knocked the Corsairs out of contention.  The Eroica had no choice but to confront the Vospero, since the Vospero could easily catch her now that the Eroica’s helmsman was gone.

The Vospero captured the Silent Death and explored the nearby island for a sudden influx of gold!  The Eroica arrived to knock a mast off, but it was too late.  The Vospero took out the Eroica, and the game was over.

In the end, the Spanish captured 12 gold (three 4’s) through the Silent Death, and when combined with the gold from the Black Bear and Matthias Vospero, they won by a large margin:

Spanish: 23 gold

French: 11 gold

Everyone else: 0

The French played a good game but were hampered by Barrel o’ Monkeys and Calypsos.  The Spanish played a good game and showed how useful and important it is to capture enemy gold ships in Waterworld, but I’ll probably remember this game as the game that almost saw the Cursed win single-handedly with nothing but a sea monster moving L the whole game.

A few months back brettb45 mentioned a game called “Water World” that one of his friends came up with.  

I love this idea, and I love it even more now that I’ve tried it out!   For my first Water World game, the game would again feature seven 10 point fleets.  However, things were changed up a bit, and the fleets went in the opposite order:

Proud Tortoise + captain

Golden Peacock + explorer

Tiger + helmsman, oarsman

Sea Crane + oarsman

Bazana, El Raton

L’Eroica

Sea King + captain, oarsman

The setup was very unique, with no home islands in the Water World setup.  In addition, I don’t have any forts with me, so all the gold would have to be stored on ships!

The fleets started out in the center in a ring, with four wild islands and 16 total coins.  In order to avoid cheesy tactics of running away, it was ruled that strict flat earth rules were in effect, and the islands marked the corners of a square boundary.  It was going to be an interesting game!

The Golden Peacock was the only ship able to explore on the first turn, but she quickly lost a mast to the Sea King.

The Golden Peacock began the process of running away, and the Sea King began a process of bad dice luck!  In the meantime, each of the other three islands had two hostile ships docked at them, with things inevitably turning ugly immediately after.

The Sea Crane dismasted the Raton.  The Proud Tortoise dismasted the Tiger.  The Sea King hit the Golden Peacock again.  The Bazana missed the Eroica.

Now things got really interesting.  The Proud Tortoise, with a cargo hold already full, didn’t want to chance losing her captain in a failed boarding attempt to kill the Tiger’s oarsman and then capture the Tiger on the next turn, so she simply sunk the American galley and both her coins.

The Sea Crane captured the Raton, giving the Pirates a decent amount of gold.  However, they were soon in the middle of a chase, with the Golden Peacock still running from the relentless Sea King.

The Bazana landed a hit on the Eroica after the Eroica rammed the Bazana and stole some of her gold.

With no gold on them, the two western islands sank beneath the waves.  The Golden Peacock tried to distract the Sea King with the allure of the Sea Crane’s gold, but the Sea King was hot on her tail.  However, this brought the Sea King in range of the Sea Crane, who simply stayed put and shot off the mainmast. The Proud Tortoise sailed into the middle area, looking for more combat.  The severely damaged Eroica took the Bazana in tow.

The Proud Tortoise finally left the Golden Peacock derelict, and the Sea Crane knocked the English out of contention by hitting the Sea King.  The French were sneaky good in this game, with the Eroica getting an SAT as she made her way towards the southeastern island.

At this point, the weakened Sea Crane was content to sink the Sea King and wait for the rest of the game to play out.  She wouldn’t be able to compete with the Proud Tortoise for gold, as the PT took the Golden Peacock in tow. Only two coins remained in play.

The Proud Tortoise attacked the Sea Crane, but it failed!  The Sea Crane then tried to ram the Proud Tortoise out of the game, but also rolled a 1!  Bad luck with the dice resulted in a draw, but the already rich Golden Peacock returned to her island she had visited as a Corsair ship, dumped her explorer, and filled up her cargo hold to make herself even more “Golden”.

This left only one treasure left in the game, and the Eroica was already docked there.

The Proud Tortoise sunk the Raton, but her 1 wouldn’t have mattered anyway.  The Sea Crane tried to capture the Golden Peacock, but it was too late, as the Eroica loaded the final treasure to end the game!

The Golden Peacock turned out to have a lot of gold on her, giving the Jade Rebellion the win in this first Water World game!

Jade Rebellion: 17 gold

French: 13 gold

Pirates: 7

Everyone else: 0

I played three games today (11/2), but so it’s not overwhelming I’m going to post them at different times. Also, each game was very unique and featured some interesting setups, not to mention that they were all very good games, so I don’t want any of them to be overshadowed!

The first game was an idea I’ve wanted to try for a while. Being such a big fan of huge games, it may come as some surprise that I like the idea of using 10 point fleets. That’s right, not 30, not even 20, but 10! It’s worth noting that I only have my somewhat limited “traveling collection” right now, so I couldn’t use some of the dirt-cheap ships.  All game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet.

It was a 7 fleet game at 10 points each, with no 0LR’s allowed. The fleets went in this order:

Honu Iki + captain

Le Rochefort + captain, helmsman

Bazana
El Raton

Sea Crane + explorer

Black Bear + helmsman

Tripoli

Noble Swan + captain, oarsman

The setup featured 7 home islands and 7 wild islands, with islands being about 1L apart from their neighbours. Since most terrain is either extremely dangerous or completely harmless against such small ships, none was used. Mysterious Island effects were not used.

This one is blurry, but some of the ship have reached islands. Everyone tried to avoid being near the Noble Swan during the setup, as she needed to be hit 3 times (a tall order for this game) since she was immune to ramming.

The Noble Swan trashed the Bazana with a shoot and ram, and it appeared that hopes would be dashed very quickly with every fleet being so fragile.

The Noble Swan’s next target was the Sea Crane, who lost a mast. At the top of the picture the Rochefort has missed hitting the Tripoli.

Major fighting occurred on the next turn, with the Noble Swan finishing off the Sea Crane and eliminating the Pirates from contention. The Rochefort got the better of the Tripoli, while the Black Bear eliminated the Spanish from the game by ramming the Raton and stealing her gold. At the right, the Honu Iki is the only ship yet to be involved in combat.

With such small fleets, every ship was disproportionately valuable, so the Black Bear and Rochefort took their respective prizes in tow. In the meantime, the Noble Swan sunk the Sea Crane, and it appeared that nothing could stop the turtle ship from dominating the game.

From left to right: the Americans gain a ship by repairing the Raton, and the Spanish have scuttled the Bazana to remove themselves from the game. The Rochefort has left the Tripoli to return home on her own oar power, and the Honu Iki carries her second load of three coins.

The Noble Swan attacks the Americans! A shot tears through the Black Bear’s foremast, but the ram against the Raton is unsuccessful.

A turn later, and the Americans are the third fleet to fall to the Noble Swan!

At this point, the French had gotten the Tripoli and Rochefort back home, and the Rochefort headed back out for another coin.

The Honu Iki had no choice but to try and get more gold, but the Noble Swan inevitably took her out.

The Honu Iki carried gold, so the Noble Swan had to try and tow her back. The Jade Rebellion’s aggressive playing left them with just one cargo space open on their only ship, so they would have to tow ships home to win. The French had other plans, and all three one masters converged near the JR HI.

The Noble Swan made quick work of the Rochefort, but was only moving S because of the Honu Iki behind her. The French boxed the turtle ship in, with the Tripoli’s 4S cannon the best hope the French had to end the game.

After another miss by the Tripoli, the Noble Swan just barely couldn’t make it home! A final shot rang out, and the Honu Iki sunk! This denied the JR’s a few coins, but it wouldn’t matter.

In the end, the Honu Iki’s peaceful runs at the beginning of the game won the day for the English, though not by much:
English: 15 gold
French: 14
Americans: 12
Pirates: 4
Jade Rebellion: 3
Spanish and Barbary Corsairs: 0

Hope you liked the change of pace using 10 point fleets! More reports coming soon, so stay tuned!

Turtle Mania

Had a funny and wild idea for a game – make it all about turtles!  Here’s a game with only turtle ships, using movable Great Turtle islands, with all 3 of my Turtles Unique Treasures!  XD

I scoured my collection and was surprised by how few turtle ships I actually own.  However, I was able to use enough for a small multiplayer game.

House Rules

-Turtle ships with turtle panels cannot have their masts eliminated by ramming.
-All fleets must contain at least one named crew.
-The Giant Turtle follows the same rules as the Great Turtles, except that it cannot be chosen as a home island.

The Fleets

(in play order)

Pirates
The Pirates rolled a 6 to go first, doing something I’ve never seen before.  I threw the d6 on the adjacent table I’m using for deckplates and supplies.  It bounced off the table, hit off a box, and then spun on a corner like crazy!  It was probably spinning for 3-5 seconds before resting on a 6.  This was the night before the game when I did the setup, but it would not be the last luck the Pirates encountered….

The Pirates went with a super fast gunship in the Proud Tortoise, along with two other ships that would mainly focus on gold.  Of course, these are the only Pirate turtle ships I own, so there weren’t many options.  XD

Tsai’s Jade Rebels
Due to the low cargo of turtle ships, the Sea Snake looked like one of the best gold runners in play. Tsai’s SAT would help to make the fleet more versatile and dangerous.

Franco-Cursed
Easily the weirdest fleet of the four, this odd alliance was born of necessity, as I don’t have more than one turtle ship for either faction and I didn’t want to have 3 of the 4 fleets be from the Jade Rebellion. The Crypt is about as loaded as any turtle ship ever has been, with SAT/Fear/Eternal complementing the ship’s 2S cannon and captained S+S speed. (plus Massacre and Oarsman, yikes!) The Crypt was the scariest ship in any fleet, but this fleet has nearly no cargo spaces open for gold.

Katsura-chan’s Jade Rebels
The other Jade fleet had TWO named crew, giving the Dragon’s Talon a near-automatic 2L weapon and the Hansan Island some extra speed.

I wanted to keep the setup basic, with no terrain or round earth.  True to the original multiplayer rules, each island held only 3 coins.  None of the fleets wanted a Great Turtle as a home island, so all the wild islands are movable turtles!

The Pirates start the game!  The Proud Tortoise and Inferno look like polar opposites.

Tsai’s SAT hit on the first turn, allowing the JR Proud Tortoise (PT) to dock at an island.

The Cursed saw the Pirates as a big threat, with the Crypt heading for the Beast’s Belly.  This prompted Hammersmith to turn his PT around to guard the BB.

The Inferno explores and finds Turtles!!  XD  LOL!  She loads the other 6 gold.

The Beast’s Belly explores in the north and finds the other 2 Turtles UT’s!!!  This means the Pirates have all 30 Turtles in the water heading for their home island!!   O_O

The first 2 ships to explore find all 3 Turtles UT’s!  The Pirates have epic luck and are already set up to win the game easily!

They weren’t even done!  The PT shoots a panel off the Crypt, as Fantasma watches in awe at the sight:

As you might imagine, the other three fleets panicked.  It looked like the game was already over.  The 3 non-Pirate fleets hastily made an alliance – all of their ships would do everything in their power to stop the Pirates.  The race was on!

The Floating Stone runs over a turtle while the Sea Snake tries to block the Inferno.  The JR PT found a 3, but sails towards the Pirate fleet without depositing it at home first.

Fantasma’s SAT allowed the Crypt to eliminate 2 turtles, but both of her shots missed the PT.

The Dragon’s Talon and Hansan Island are making all speed towards the east:

The Pirates manage a decent turn, but it’s pretty obvious that many turtles will die on the short journey to the Pirate home island.

SAVE THE WEE TURTLES!!

Fantasma was going crazy on the Crypt, with Fear helping against the PT and his SAT allowing the ship to eliminate two more turtles.  The Floating Stone took advantage of the Fear effect (which shut down the Turtle Ship keyword), shooting off the PT’s mast.

Tsai’s Jade fleet was making quick work of the Giant Turtle’s turtles, with additional reinforcements about to arrive:

The Beast’s Belly gets home first for the Pirates, but their other 2 ships are stuck behind turtles!  XD

This is where things started getting intense, and a little confusing.  The Dragon’s Talon arrived and shot a panel off the Inferno.

In addition, there were now 2 Floating Stones and 2 Proud Tortoises in the same battle!

TURTLE MANIA!!

Unfortunately the BB’s ability began to put a bit of a stain on the game.  It was almost as if the Beast’s Belly could ram to eliminate masts, but it took out a crew as well without any boarding happening.  The Jade PT was the first victim.

It was an all-out turtle massacre.  Sea turtles were being run over left and right as 3 fleets ganged up on the Pirates in an attempt to stop them from amassing a huge amount of gold.  The PT and Inferno lost panels as the Dragon’s Talon and Crypt shot as much as they could.

View from the Pirate HI:

The Inferno got home with her coins.  The Sea Snake has turned for home to repair.  With most of the turtles killed and no Pirate ships with gold remaining, the first crack appears in the alliance as the Dragon’s Talon captures the JR PT.

The Beast’s Belly uses her ability to dismast the Dragon’s Talon, but is finally smashed herself by the Floating Stone.  A few turtles make it home, with Fantasma’s Crypt stopping as many as possible from reaching the shore of the Pirate home island.  The Dragon’s Talon and captured JR PT are rowing west towards some gold and that fleet’s HI.

A messy scene!  At the top of the picture, the Hansan Island has been dismasted, while the Pirate PT finally reaches home at the bottom.

This is when the game got even weirder, and more confusing!  The Cursed fleet captured two turtle ships, with Katsura-chan’s Jade Rebels still in control of Tsai’s PT. (Katsura-chan herself killed in action)

In the end, only 4 turtles out of 30 made it home safely.  O_O  Fleets were regrouping and trying to understand what had just happened!

I actually looked at all the gold remaining in play to see if any fleet could beat the Pirates.  The Pirates had 15 gold on their HI, but there was 17 left in play.  The game would continue!

It was getting really bizarre.  Mastless turtle ships were running amok.  Without an oarsman to prevent the state of dereliction, some were easily captured if you could catch them.  A kind of tag was played between Tsai’s Jade fleet and Cavendish’s Jade fleet.  Things flip-flopped many times in the second half of this game, with captures and recaptures too many to remember.  That’s why you see turtle ships at the left pointing in odd directions – once you capture a ship, you can give it an action on your turn, if able.  Since all the ships in the game can row at S (or sometimes S+S with a helmsman) via the Turtle Ship keyword, there was a lot of capturing and then moving away immediately afterwards.  Then get recaptured on the next turn, and move in the direction your new owner prefers.  XD

And that is where a new (?) concept or game idea was born: chain capturing.  At the upper right, the Floating Stone of Tsai’s fleet was able to capture the remaining two ships of the other Jade fleet by herself (Hansan Island had been recently sunk).  Back and forth they went, with each fleet controlling 1 or 2 ships each turn of the three pictured.  Eventually Tsai’s fleet was able to chain together enough successful moves, and the captured Dragon’s Talon was within capturing distance (S+S rowing distance in this case) of Tsai’s own ship, the Proud Tortoise.  The PT was reclaimed for his own Jade fleet (this is hard to even put into words because of how confusing it is lol), completing the chain of captures that led to the elimination of the other Jade fleet!  XD  This is one of those bizarre occurrences that would only happen in a very similar situation, with lots of oared ships that are “capturable” (aka no oarsmen) and moving amongst each other and jockeying for towing position on just about every turn.

Tsai is now back in his own fleet, and the other Jade fleet has been eliminated!

After a successful game, Hammersmith’s PT is finally smashed apart by the Franco-Cursed.

However, the Beast’s Belly quickly put a stop to them.  The Crypt and Floating Stone lost their masts to the annoying ability, while the Inferno and PT went home to repair.

The Sea Snake has finally reached the Great Turtle explored by the JR PT way back on Turn 2, with that PT rowing for home past the Giant Turtle.  The other 2 Jade ships are exploring the western Great Turtle.

And with that, the Jades have the ingredients for a potential comeback win!  All of their ships carry gold, with the 17 enough to upset the Pirates!

However, the Pirates will have something to say about that!!  They are repairing in earnest, with the French Floating Stone joining their ranks.

The Jades have a shot at winning, but they are very s l o w . . . .  3 of their 4 ships have no sails up.

Fantasma scuttled the Crypt so she could get home to repair faster!  (via his Eternal ability)

Darkness and light…

The race is on!!  The final part of the game will see a showdown!

… but a quick one at that.  XD  Hammersmith’s PT is back in action, quickly zooming south to capture the Sea Snake.  He then moved on to the Jade PT, and it looked like the Jades were in big trouble.

The Jade PT was captured as well, with the newly brainwashed Tsai using SAT to propel the ship towards the Pirate HI.  The JR Floating Stone dismasted the Pirate PT, but now half of the Jade ships were in Pirate hands.  Up north, you can see the Crypt having a brief fight with her old fleetmate.  Perhaps it was only natural that the Cursed and French would end up fighting each other in this game?  Not a big surprise after all, given the events of Command the Oceans.

The Pirate captures of the Jade turtle ships sealed their victory!!  It was over.  The Pirates had held on and won with 15 gold!  (all other fleets with 0)  Although only 4 turtles survived the triple onslaught of turtle ships attacking them, the Pirates won based on early luck.  They had it made from the start, going first and somehow finding all 3 Turtles UT’s before any other fleet could explore.  They did well to hold on throughout the long second half and preserve the shutout, with all three of their ships performing well.

The top right of the map is truly a turtle graveyard – all the eliminated turtles sit in a pile, while the debris from the chaotic battle drifts on the waves.

This was one of the weirder and more wild games I’ve played.  The sheer amount of ships changing hands was astounding.  By the end of it, the Pirates controlled 6 ships.  Only once did a fleet sacrifice an action to move a Great Turtle, so that mechanic didn’t really affect anything.

Thanks for reading!  I hope you enjoyed this report!  Feel free to comment below: What was your favorite aspect of this game?