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.
The Cursed Americans went first, followed by the English Pirates. The Rosario was the first ship to reach an island, but the Prince of Chichester was the first to explore.
The Prince got away with three coins and knocked a few masts off the Juggernaut, who then rammed her and killed her explorer.
(Terrible picture but at least you can see where things are.)
The Prince was also rammed by the Albany, who stole two 4’s from the Prince, leaving the battered ship with just one 2. The Prince took out the Rosario (who herself was carrying a few coins) before sinking from the Juggernaut’s long-range cannons. In the meantime the Princess zipped home with 8 gold for the English Pirates.
At this point the Bombardier had failed Myngs’ SAT (with reroll) since the first turn, and thus was unable to get into action very effectively. The Albany received an extra action from Stern and took out all three of the Bombardier’s masts, capturing her on the following turn and towing her home to repair her.
At this point, the Princess slipped under the radar and brought home more gold for the English Pirates, which proved to be just enough. The last treasure coin was loaded aboard the Albany, and the game was called after the Princess was sunk, with only the Cursed Americans left standing. However, the English Pirates had collected more gold and won the game by a narrow 14-12 margin!
A quick but close game that featured a few interesting crew combinations I had been wanting to try for a while (on the Bombardier and the Albany). Unfortunately you have to double the cost of the SAT with Ismail since there’s not enough cargo on the Bombardier, but I really like the Albany setup getting EA, captain, helmsman, +1 to boarding rolls and a free reroll all for just two cargo spaces, which still leaves three spaces available with which to steal gold.
The fleets went in the order of play as shown above.
The Snipe grabbed a 5 from a nearby island but the other English ships were too slow to get anywhere on the first turn.
The San Pedro quickly emptied an island for the Spanish as the other two Spaniards docked as well.
The Algiers headed east as the Freedom’s Hand docked at the same island as the Augusta.
The Shetland and L’Ange both headed east as ships made the short journey home to unload their gold.
The L’Ange dismasted the Albion and shot away one of the Shetland’s masts as well.
The Snipe traded her explorer for the two coins aboard the Albion.
The Albion was sunk by the L’Ange, who turned around and kept shooting at the Shetland even as she captured the Snipe.
The English got revenge by sinking the Snipe with the Shetland, though it was too late for the English to win.
The L’Ange sunk the Shetland, ending the game! The Spanish won with 17 gold, with the Mixed-nationality fleet coming in second with 8 and the English in third with 5.
Players design 100 pt fleets, mixed nations allowed. The privateer for the battle sets up islands in a pattern along the lines of this…
Black-islands
Green-terrain
White-neutral sea monsters
Red/Yellow-starting positions of ships (in this case yellow was Player 1 and red was Player 2)
(No forts were available, or else they would go on the middle four islands)
rizz wrote:
Now for the good stuff. Place 4 randomly selected gold coins, and 1 randomly grabbed UT on each island. No one has a home island at this time. The first island each player explores will become their new home island; all gold on that island is automatically theirs, as is the UT, apply the UT effect if applicable.
After both players take a turn, then the creatures get a turn. Each time the creatures get a turn, roll a d6 for each creature still alive, compare this number to a fog bank in play, the creature will move its full move in the direction rolled. If it encounters an island, iceberg, reef, or Sargasso Sea, it will stop moving until its next turn (ignore fogbanks for creature movement). At the beginning of a creatures turn, if ANY ship is within any attack range for the creature (this is checked before movement), instead of moving it will attack that ship (or the closest ship if more than one is in range). It will continue to attack this ship until either; 1 it is out of range, 2 it is destroyed, or 3 another ship moves closer.
Since the gold is a randomly selected amount, there is no “half way” rule for ending the game, it will continue until there is no gold left, or only one player remains (this puts HI raiders at a premium). Another variant we do here is throw four NPC forts out on the islands marked in orange.
The fleets started sailing. The Franco-Spanish (hereafter referred to as FS, not to be confused with F&S) explored first by marking their home island (HI) with El Cervantes. Other FS ships quickly docked at islands in the outermost ring, all of which were mysterious in this game.
The FS set up shop in the east, while the Philadelphia explored an island in the northwest which became the HI of the Americans. After the first turn the sea monsters and icebergs began moving! A house rule was quickly instituted which let the sea monsters stay submerged until they were in range of an enemy ship or would have to surface to ram.
As more ships docked and loaded gold, one mysterious island effect that is borderline “broken” in a game of this size captured all attention. The Peacock rolled to move 2 coins from EVERY other wild island to the island that she was docked at, creating a mother lode of gold on a northern island.
On her next turn, the Peacock explored, only to find a ton of UT’s that had been transferred via the MI effect! This slowed the game down as everything was resolved. Holy Water and Metal Hull made the Peacock borderline invincible, but trouble was brewing for the poor little ship. Natives were transferred to the island, making the huge amount of gold somewhat harder to access. Pandora’s Box was the real killer (literally), spawning an outbreak of the Plague, killing all of the ship’s crew (the Peacock grabbed some Wine from the box to numb the pain). In order for the Castaway to actually have effect it was ruled that he came aboard the ship to captain it (literally the crew was a captain) after the Plague had already struck. After it was all said and done, the ship was stuck for two turns from Natives and could only move S. I guess the captain saved himself from the Plague by drinking of mixture of Holy Water and Wine!
In the meantime, a shark introduced himself to the Philadelphia, who would soon run in the other direction.
The FS soon had a crowded HI, with ships coming and going with new gold. Despite their fighting crew the Ange de la Mer and Rosal managed to contribute to the findings.
An iceberg and the Teach began consistently moving northwest, directly towards the American HI. This was an ominous sign and unbeknownst to the players, a foreshadowing one as well. In addition, the Leviathan seemed to enjoy the bright new lines of the dangerous Concordia.
Tragedy soon struck in the form of a huge lightning storm. Odin’s Revenge (a gift from trox I might add) toppled a mast from every ship in play, leaving the Harlequin derelict and all alone in the southernmost part of the sea. The FS were still around their HI and therefore didn’t lose much momentum at all, quickly repairing the ships already docked at their HI. In terms of percentage of masts lost this also benefited the FS more because the Pawtucket was the only American ship other than the big Concordia that had more than 2 masts.
The Flying Fish made her way home via whirlpool as the Philadelphia came home to repair her foresail. The Pawtucket used round earth rules to get home more quickly. Once again the Teach and Leviathan moved directly towards American ships.
The FS experienced a little bad luck of their own, with the Lion being smashed by a hostile iceberg just off their HI. As with Odin’s Revenge, however, the FS were able to repair quickly without much time lost. The St. Denis came in for repairs as well, bringing even more gold to their HI.
The Peacock was finally able to get moving due to Jailhouse Dog eliminating Metal Hull, restoring her to her full S+S+S speed. She darted out of the way of Slarg Gubbit, eager to get revenge on the FS and give them some of their own medicine in the form of the plague!
However, the Peacock’s plan was quickly foiled via MI farming. The Rosal rolled a 6 to slam the Peacock into a nearby iceberg, taking out her second mast and leaving her dead in the water. With Plague still aboard it was unlikely that any ship would want to go near her.
The American player (who happened to be me, lol) was running into a lot of difficulties around his home island. Teach and Leviathan were seemingly on a mission to sink his entire fleet! An iceberg was also nearby, giving the Americans a handful of bad luck just as they began to bring in some gold. As soon as she repaired and set back out again the Philadelphia was rammed by the Teach, although since she had already left her explorer at home the Teach didn’t get to eat any poor Americans. The Concordia purposely positioned herself right next to the Leviathan, losing two masts in the process. Montana Mays knew the strength and relative invincibility of his ship (with DNT even aboard to cancel the Leviathan’s stinkpot-esque breath attack that could shut down Eternal and make the ship vulnerable), and therefore he wasn’t afraid to lose a few masts if he could still win the battle.
The FS soon tried their hand at more luck with MI farming, but they soon learned their lesson and got burned, with the St. Denis losing all four of her masts to the same MI.
As the St. Denis and Philadelphia limped home to their respective HI’s, the Concordia shot the Leviathan to pieces, leaving only the head of tail of the great beast. Leviathan shot back and dismasted the Concordia, although the Concordia would still be able to fire with all of her cannons. Earlier in the game the Harlequin had found Albatross, which was soon transferred to the Concordia and rendered her mediocre guns even less effective.
No wonder the Concordia can still shoot when derelict! American blood and steel take on nature’s most terrible creature:
The Concordia docked at her HI, giving her immunity to the annoying Leviathan, shooting off the tail in the process. The Teach continued to harass the American HI, even moving around the island to chase the poor Philadelphia. The damaged Pawtucket and Flying Fish shot at her from their HI but missed again and again. The bad luck experienced by the Americans in this game was borderline unprecedented. To make matters worse, two icebergs blocked their path to the southeast, which you can just see in the next picture on the far right.
As the Pawtucket repaired, the sea monsters finally gave the Americans a break, letting the Flying Fish and Philadelphia sail in opposite directions. The Flying Fish headed off without crew (due to Natives) to the rich northern island. The Philadelphia was sunk by the L’Ange de la Mer, who was headed home with gold from that northern island. The Rosal and Cervantes looked to capitalize on the Americans’ weaknesses, but the partially repaired Concordia loomed just out of range. In the relatively deserted south, the Lion captured the Harlequin and began the long journey home at S+S.
Both factions were content to run gold for the time being as the Concordia guarded the northern island. The Americans had the advantage of their HI being closer to this major island, but it would be interesting to see if that advantage could turn the tables on their history of bad luck and how it affected their early game. Speaking of which, the FS were nearly intact outside of Odin’s Revenge and enjoyed considerable wealth flowing in from neighboring wild islands.
Due to space constraints during setup, the sea monsters’ deckplates were placed next to the FS fleet’s deckplates, which made the admirals think that this coincidence had affected the minds of the sea monsters, as they had only attacked the Americans.
The Leviathan used the round earth rules to ram and board the Mer. Both rolls failed, and the serpent was quickly eliminated by the French flagship.
While the shark and sea serpent were harassing the Americans, the two squids (Slarg Gubbit and Lusca, where did those names come from?) were busy moving back and forth aimlessly. Gubbit got in the way of the Americans a few times but didn’t directly attack them. Eventually they seemed to grow fond of each other and moved directly together. After a few turns of mating they headed off in opposite directions, desperate for human blood.
A few turns later:
Since Montana Mays protected his crew from elimination, the Concordia began towing the Peacock, handing off Plague to the already dangerous American flagship. The American shipwright went the opposite way, coming aboard the Peacock in order to get her sailing again. The Flying Fish was busy making trips to the northern island, but the Pawtucket wanted no part of the Natives. Earlier in the game the Pawtucket’s helmsman became linked to Manawa no Kowhatu, giving her Eternal and Fear.
As the Lion returned home with the captured Harlequin, a similar situation occurred for the second time (the first being around the time of Odin’s Revenge), with almost the entire FS fleet crowding around their HI as ships came in for various reasons.
This brief period of peace allowed the Pawtucket, Concordia, and Peacock to sail east as the Flying Fish continued to take gold from the northern island. Both fleets had considerable gold, with less than a dozen still on wild islands.
As the FS fleet spread out once again, the Americans knew they’d have to do some fancy maneuvering to gain the upper hand with a numbers disadvantage. The Peacock sailed south with Wine, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The Concordia and Pawtucket sailed north, with the Concordia eyeing the Mer with Plague aboard (Luis Zuan had been killed aboard the Rosal earlier in the game via a UT). The Pawtucket was quickly sunk by the Armada and Mer, although the Mer moved into perfect positioning in the process.
The Concordia unloaded her deadly Plague, killing the Mer’s captain and helmsman. She also had a very successful shoot action, rolling 4/5 to dismast the schooner!
The St. Denis took advantage of her L-range guns and moved to avoid the range of DNT, sinking the Concordia! This placed her alongside the Pawtucket to repair. (via Eternal)
The Rosal let go of the Armada and grabbed gold from the northern island. With the Concordia gone the Lion and Harlequin also moved into the area.
With the FS HI deserted, the Peacock seized her chance and intended to exchange Wine for any treasure she wanted. However, her captain (from the Castaway UT) had forgotten about the shipwright she inherited from the Concordia, which meant that she had no space with which to load the gold! (The treasure you exchange for Wine still takes up cargo space) Perhaps he had gotten drunk with the Wine! XD
The St. Denis dismasted and captured the Peacock, who would have been hit anyway once Wine was off the ship. The endgame was nearing, with the northern theater holding all of the tension.
The Concordia and Cervantes were the only ships in the area capable of putting up a fight. The Cervantes SAT’d away as the Concordia sunk the Mer. At this point the game was called since there were only 5 coins left on the once-rich northern island and both players knew they were all 1’s.
Both players counted up their treasure, with the FS getting the majority of the 5’s and 6’s. The Franco-Spanish beat the Americans by a score of 67-41!
The scenario worked well for the most part. The sea monsters could perhaps move based on different icebergs/fog banks that are facing different directions so a roll of 1 doesn’t always move them north. Also, with so many wild islands (10 after the HI’s are explored) the game could revolve around gold running a little bit too much.
This was a great game that saw some interesting new UT’s such as Castaway and Odin’s Revenge. The Americans suffered from bad luck with icebergs, sea monsters, and shoot actions early on while the Franco-Spanish benefited from finding a handful of high-value coins. The late-game UT ploys by the Americans failed to overcome the difference, as the superior Franco-Spanish gold running and powerful escort ships won the day!
The first of these two games remains one of my finest efforts in a non-solo game, and really proves the ineffectiveness of a particular strategy that often appeals to new players.
2/27/2015
Two more games: one was 80 points, the second one was 40.
The game used a unique setup, inspired by the “Other World” scenario from the scenario compilation on BGG. The two home islands were on a small table separate from two other tables, which contained 4 wild islands apiece (8 total) with 6 random treasures on each island. Both fleets would have to brave whirlpools in order to get to the other oceans to get treasure.
One table had the islands in a line with 4 whirlpools on the outside, while the other table had the islands in a square with just one whirlpool in the center.
The fleets sailed out, with the Cursed Americans weary of the considerable firepower contained in the Imperialist fleet, who had crewed every ship with a captain. The CA’s (Cursed Americans) had gone first and were eager to get away from the initial ocean and out into the wild of the other worlds.
In a strange opening to the game, an iceberg adjacent to a whirlpool moved into it, and a new house-rule was created on the spot. The iceberg was sent flying through the whirlpool and into another ocean! Each whirlpool was labeled 1-6 and a die roll was made to see where the iceberg would end up.
With the Virtuous Wind moving S+S+S and approaching the CA fleet, the Whydah, flagship of the CA fleet, gave the Flying Fish an order to deter the Wind from attacking. Knowing it would turn into a suicide mission, the captain aboard the Flying Fish complied, turning to port and knocking a mast off the Spaniard while also positioning herself to block the Wind’s movement.
The Lenox was the first ship to brave a whirlpool, losing her oarsman in the process. She warped to the ocean with four whirlpools.
The Monaque and Lord Lineton sank the Flying Fish as the rest of the CA fleet fled towards the whirlpool. The Virtuous Wind ran home to quickly repair her one mast.
The Sea Duck followed the Lenox into an ocean, but came out through a different whirlpool. The Edinburgh Trader and Philadelphia warped to the other ocean, the one with a single whirlpool.
The Lenox had acquired a few high-value coins and wanted to make a deposit back at her home base. When she arrived via whirlpool at the home island ocean, however, she found the hulking Monaque (towing the dangerous Mont Blanc) and HMS Lord Lineton standing in her way! The Sea Duck had managed to move the Monaque in the opposite direction via a lucky mysterious island roll, but things weren’t looking good for the CA’s.
The Squalo stayed in the HI ocean (rather than follow the move boosting Hag on the Whydah) since she didn’t have any crew to sacrifice to the whirlpool and only had two body segments.
With four gunships and two of them (the Virtuous Wind and Lord Lineton) with the HI-raiding ability, the Imperialist strategy now became obvious. They would try to blockade the CA home island and steal their gold rather than risking the whirlpools on the way to and from the wild islands. The Cursed American admiral aboard the Whydah hadn’t expected such a low-volume gold strategy with 8 wild islands and two oceans to choose from, and so had to make a quick change of plans.
The Whydah went after the Edinburgh Trader, the only ship that the Imperialists had sent to a different world. Knowing that the Philadelphia could teleport the Trader home if the Whydah could derelict the Trader, the CA’s planned to break the blockade by suddenly forcing two ships (the Philadelphia and Edinburgh Trader) to appear at their HI, with the Imperialists unable to continue the blockade with an opening now created at the CA HI. Also, the Trader could repair and then begin firing on her old allies, who wouldn’t be able to return fire as long as the Trader stayed docked. The CA’s saw it as the best possible plan, since they would get massacred if their runners all came home against the Imperialist gunships. The Whydah sailed through a whirlpool in pursuit of the Edinburgh Trader.
With the Philadelphia off grabbing gold in the same ocean, the Whydah struck. With 3 cannons of 4 in range, she connected for two hits on the Edinburgh Trader, who had to wait a turn to explore since she only had a captain and helmsman aboard.
Meanwhile, back at the HI ocean, trouble was brewing. The repaired Virtuous Wind joined the Monaque and Lord Lineton in an impressive display of firepower. The Lenox cautiously sailed outside their range as the Sea Duck joined her, also with gold aboard.
The Edinburgh Trader fled into a fog bank, and with the Philadelphia nearby, the CA’s took a risk and sent the Whydah back home to support her gold runners. The CA’s were relying on the Philadelphia to ram the Trader derelict, and then capture her on the following turn.
When the Whydah appeared through the whirlpool, the Squalo took advantage of the Hag of Tortuga’s presence and swam L+L underwater to arrive astern of the Virtuous Wind. The CA’s wanted to make as many points of contact with their HI as possible so the Imperialists wouldn’t be able to completely surround their HI. The Lenox and Sea Duck used round-earth rules to divide up and make the Imperialists focus on multiple targets.
On the next turn the Sea Duck slipped her gold home as the Imperialists turned their ships around. The Squalo stayed submerged, using the Fear keyword to successfully cancel the Virtuous Wind’s ship and crew abilities. The Whydah lurked outside of range.
In the other world, the Philadelphia managed to ram the last mast off the Edinburgh Trader, who was now dead in the water!
On the next turn, the pent-up tension that had been building for many turns finally exploded! Suddenly there were four ships docked at the CA home island! The Philadelphia warped herself home with the Trader, who immediately used her action for the turn to begin repairing. The Monaque looked on helplessly as the Philadelphia docked home her prize. The Philadelphia and Trader both had gold on them, bringing even more action to the CA home island!
On the previous turn, the CA admiral completely forgot about the HI-raiding abilities of the Lord Lineton and Virtuous Wind. Both ships swooped in and docked at the CA HI.
The Fear keyword is so seldom used that the ability wasn’t read correctly (forgetting that it affects ship abilities as well as crew abilities). The Virtuous Wind’s crew were too scared to steal any of the treasure from the CA home island! The Lord Lineton, however, pounced on a 5 that had been brought back by the Sea Duck. The Sea Duck and Squalo teamed up to dismast the Virtuous Wind.
The Philadelphia and Trader hastily repaired their lost masts. The Squalo turned around, but the crew of the Lord Lineton weren’t impressed. The Whydah sailed into range of the Monaque but only hit once.
With the Lord Lineton worried about the gold she had on board, the derelict Virtuous Wind, and the not-so-scary Squalo, the Lenox was able to sneak into port on the quiet side of the CA HI.
The Lord Lineton tried to save the Virtuous Wind, but the CA’s now had a numbers advantage. The Lineton was dismasted by the Lenox and fully repaired Edinburgh Trader.
The Monaque dismasted the Whydah but was unable to sink her. The Mont Blanc killed Squalo, leaving the CA’s with one less advantage.
Seeing another opportunity to use her ability, the Philadelphia scooted out and grabbed the Whydah and got her back home so she could repair. The Monaque sailed for home, disappointed with the outcome of this chaotic battle.
The Monaque and Mont Blanc sunk the Lenox, while the Edinburgh Trader used her long-range guns to sink the derelict Lord Lineton and Virtuous Wind. This cleaned up some of the mess of the battle, leaving only four ships (plus the Mont Blanc) left in play. The Whydah and Monaque, flagships of their respective fleets, repaired and prepared for a final battle.
The CA’s sailed in line of battle with the slow Whydah at the end of the line.
The Monaque attacked first, dismasting the Philadelphia. The Trader and Whydah ganged up on the French five master and crippled her, but not before she sank the hated Philadelphia using her special “shoot through ships” ability. The CA’s won this final confrontation by a hair, but the game was already over with so much gold on the CA home island.
The CA’s had collected 29 gold, along with 3 from the 5 that the Lord Lineton had stolen. With the Edinburgh Trader captured the Imperialists only had the 2 from the Lineton’s heist, giving the Cursed Americans a 32-2 victory!
Although only half of the islands were explored and most of the action took place back at the HI ocean, this was still a fun and hard-fought game. It was nice to see usage of the Philadelphia’s ability, the Fear keyword, and home island raiders. The chaos in the HI ocean at the end of the game made this one memorable as well.
Cursed Americans: Whydah + captain, helmsman USS Lenox + helmsman, explorer, oarsman Sea Duck + explorer
This was also an “Other World” game, but with a much different map. There were two whirlpools near the HI’s, and only one other ocean. The other ocean contained three whirlpools and four wild islands.
The French Pirates went first and sent each of their ships through a different whirlpool. However, the Intrepide quickly sailed back into the whirlpool when the entire Cursed American fleet emerged right next to her!
Every ship in this game docked at a wild island, but only the treasure runners had any gold to speak of. The random treasure used happened to be almost all 1’s and 2’s, making for some disappointing hauls.
With the wild islands so far apart there wasn’t any action in the other ocean. The treasure runners headed back as the Whydah made a feint towards the Lyon.
The Hades’ Flame and Sea Duck were the first to bring gold back, with the Lenox following soon after.
The Whydah slowly made her way back with an extra 1 gold as the Sea Duck and Lenox headed out for blood. Eager to break the peace, the Cursed Americans wanted to cut off the Intrepide before she could return home.
Unfortunately for the CA’s, they couldn’t quite ram the Intrepide, who sneaked into port. At the beginning of the turn the CA’s paid their price for sailing their ships right past an iceberg, losing one mast on the Lenox.
With the CA’s plan failing, the French Pirates took advantage and sunk the Lenox and captured the Sea Duck. The Whydah approached the French HI looking for revenge.
The Lyon sailed out and promptly dismasted the Whydah with the help of her musketeer, ending the game!
The gold was tallied up, with the CA’s bringing home 7. The French Pirates had found the lone 6 among a pile of 2’s and 1’s, giving them a resounding victory!
The setup featured just four islands, but instead of 16 coins worth 30 gold we used 24 coins of random amounts. In this way we had two wild islands with 12 coins on each island. Reefs and fog banks were set up to encourage conflict, with two icebergs ominously dominating the middle of the ocean.
Both fleets set out in clusters, with neither side wanting any part of the first iceberg.
The Pirates were the first player, which allowed the Foresight to explore the first island and take 5 coins. The Bruja was escorting her with the abysmally slow Splinter predictably bringing up the rear.
As the Bruja and Foresight made sail for their home island, the French continued west and struck first, with the Lyon taking out all three masts on the Splinter.
Seeing an opportunity to hurt the French fleet, the Bruja turned around and attacked the nearby Monaque, who had rounded the first island as the Splinter sank beneath the waves. The Bruja hit twice, killing both the captain and helmsman aboard the Monaque. In the meantime the Foresight got home and the Coeur de Lion explored the far island.
The Bruja was now double-teamed by the Monaque and Lyon, who sank her with their powerful guns. The Foresight was now in trouble, with no expensive named crew to convert to gold via Barstow and with a plethora of French cannons in her way of getting back to an island. The Foresight tried to run, but when the Lyon blocked her path she decided she just had to attack, missing all three shots against the Lyon.
The Lyon shot back and hit twice before the Foresight retaliated with a successful shoot-and-ram, using Barstow to capture the French captain.
However, by now the Intrepide had towed the dangerous Mont Blanc into range, which effectively ended the game.
The Pirates had more gold on their home island, but the French proceeded to NOT sink the Foresight in order to accumulate more gold on their HI while the Foresight lamely tried to sink the entire French fleet with just one cannon. After this brief simulation the French came out on top, by a score of (if I remember correctly) 16-12. Not a bad game at all, with a good balance of shooting between the two fleets! I was very happy to use Barstow, if only to explore with the Foresight and capture a crew that wasn’t able to be brought back.
A rather unique setup was used, with the two home islands combined into one in the middle of the sea. Four wild islands with 6 random treasures apiece were arranged in an X away from the HI’s. Whirlpools and fog banks formed in the west and east, with an iceberg in the north and south.
The English used their speed to sail out quickly, with the Cheshire the first to reach an island and explore. All of the French ships headed for wild islands, with the smaller ships heading northwest and the gunships heading northeast.
The Edinburgh Trader, Cheshire, and Galway all brought home their first loads of gold. Knowing the Intrepide was the best treasure runner the French had and that their gold game would be crippled if she could be sunk, the Richards sailed north and waited for an SAT from Myngs. In addition, the French player blurted out that the Intrepide had found “quite a lot” of gold on the northwest island, furthering the bloodlust of the Richards’ captain. Myngs brought her within range and with two shoot actions, the Richards sank the Intrepide and took two masts off the Monaque!
The Frenchman was deking, for the Intrepide was carrying only 5 gold between 3 different coins!
This left the Mont Blanc dead in the water, but it also left the Richards in an unenviable position between multiple hostile ships and an iceberg.
The French exacted revenge on the next turn by sinking the Richards, while the Cheshire ducked into a fog bank. With the fast Lyon, shoot-through-ships L-range guns of the Monaque, the Extended Range keyword of the Mont Blanc, and the doubled ranges of the Coeur’s guns, the French had considerable “zone control” of the northern half of the ocean. The English would try to get around this with their superior speed and strategy.
The three English gold ships explored different islands as the French convened on their HI, with the Lyon dropping off a coin and the Monaque repairing.
The Coeur turned north to tow the Mont Blanc as the English continued their steady accumulation of gold.
With the Galway slowed down by her cargo of 1 gold, the Lyon was able to corner her and send her to Davy Jones’ Locker.
With only half of his original fleet remaining and powerful French ships still dominating the middle of the sea, the English knew they’d have to get creative to get even more gold, which was to be found on the “French” islands, in the north. The Cheshire ducked into a fog bank and the Edinburgh Trader followed her lead, staying out of range of the newly repaired Monaque.
At this point, a rather unique situation began to develop. Revealing his strategy, the English player sent the Cheshire through a whirlpool to access the northwestern part of the sea without having to contend with the French gunships. The Edinburgh Trader emerged from the fog and grabbed the last treasures from the northeast island. Both ships then darted back into the fog in anticipation of docking home their gold, but an unwelcome surprise awaited them at their home island!
The French were blockading the English HI, with considerable help from their own HI (which blocked the northern side) and an iceberg, which split their fleet in two but covered part of the southern side. The English had so much gold on their HI that it was obvious who would win, but the situation was definitely worth playing out just for fun!
The English waited in the fog until they got the right iceberg roll (a 3). Luckily for them the iceberg moved south, allowing the Cheshire to come home with 3 additional coins (she left her explorer on the northwest island in order to load an extra coin). This left the Edinburgh Trader to fend for herself, and she proceeded to ram the Lyon. The Lyon and Monaque sank her on the following turn, ending the game at last! The English were victorious with a 34-12 win!
As a side note, the first of these two games was technically my 206th game of Pirates CSG (since 2011, I don’t know how many I played before that – probably 1 or 2 dozen), which breaks the record formerly held by islander on BGG. Maybe I’ve played this game more than anyone else, ever. Just kidding! Still, it was nice to finally get to the top since I write so many reports and most of the folks at BGG (understandably) don’t have any reports of the huge numbers of games they’ve played. (At the time of this republishing in June 2019, I’m at 430 total plays!)
All of the islands were mysterious, and the fleets set out to do battle!
The Lyon caught the Virtuous Wind and took off 2 masts, but the Spanish Americans were quick to retaliate, using both the Wind and the Montezuma’s ability to dismast the dangerous 3 master.
The Montezuma captured the Lyon, but in the meantime the St. Joan and Intrepide had been running around getting gold for the French.
The St. Joan used her speed to grab gold under the nose of El Alma as the Virtuous Wind returned home to repair. The Montezuma tried to tow the Lyon but was pursued by the Intrepide towing the Mont Blanc.
The St. Joan had found a 5 and 3 on the far-away island, which gave the French the 16-0 win!
This game featured a ton of terrain, some of which was strung together to make an island completely inaccessible without sailing through the fog. The Spanish chose the Cursed’s HI to be close to their own, in order to exploit the HI-raiding abilities of the Wind and Lord Lineton.
The Lord Lineton was chased by the Juggernaut as the ships split up.
With all ships except for the Golden Peacock headed for the western fog, a conflict was inevitable.
The Juggernaut caught the Lord Lineton and set her on fire!
True to their nature the Cursed kept up a hot fire and slaughtered the Spanish explorer and set the San Salvador aflame. The Lineton’s crew managed to put out their own blaze but the Englishman was dismasted.
The Virtuous Wind started towing the dangerously flaming San Salvador, taking a mast off the Juggernaut in the process. The Juggernaut struck back with a vengeance, which meant that she had landed at least one firepot on each of the three enemy ships!
By this point the Golden Peacock had brought home 11 gold for the Cursed, giving them the win (11-0) after the Juggernaut finished off the Virtuous Wind and therefore the Spanish-English.
(As a side note, you may have read that I think fire is overrated in this game. Although it can be devastating, even landing three separate firepot hits didn’t actually help the Cursed win the battle because it didn’t spread to eliminate their other masts (the San Salvador was already derelict when her fire spread).)
Franco-Spanish Americans: (referred to as the French) Monaque + captain, helmsman USS Montezuma + captain La Cazadora + helmsman
This game featured a very tight island setup, with a strange terrain formation in the middle consisting of one iceberg and two fog banks.
The Montezuma encountered trouble at a mysterious island and lost both masts. She was towed home by the Monaque and repaired. However, the swarm fleet could only benefit from such a close-knit group of islands, meaning that some ships reached islands on the first turn, which made up for their lack of explorers.
The Monaque and Montezuma combined to sink a few of the swarm ships, and the Cazadora succeeded in dismasting the Whisper and towing her home. However, some ships like the Dragon and Intrepide got through to give the swarm fleet an early advantage in the gold race.
House rules were implemented that let icebergs and a mysterious island sink the Fureur and Dragon. At one point the Intrepide came out of the fog and slammed right into the iceberg, knocking off a mast and pushing her right back into the fog! The Dragon was sunk after farming an MI to throw the Montezuma into a different iceberg. The Rosario waited patiently in the fog, hoping the Monaque would abandon her mission.
The Rosario finally emerged from the fog and darted home with the last two gold coins. The gold was tallied up, and it came out to be a tie, 15-15! Since there was no more gold on the ships, the “most masts standing” tiebreaker was invoked, giving the French the victory over the swarm fleet!
I didn’t mention it in the original battle report, but this game was my first-ever playing against a real opponent in a non-solo game. My first player taught! It was a pair of introductory games at college.
I’m back already!
Two games were played, both 40 point games. The fleets for the first game were as follows:
The home islands were close together, with each fleet eager to start the action. The Annapolis was the first ship to explore, but she was quickly set upon by the Virtuous Wind and captured by the Cazadora. The rest of the American fleet headed east.
The guns of the legendary Virtuous Wind (even the slower Spanish version!) made their mark on the next turn by sinking the Philadelphia.
With the Americans already at a large disadvantage the Alma grabbed gold from a southern island as the Chesapeake raced to get away from the dangerous Virtuous Wind. In the meantime the Annapolis was repaired and she sailed out behind the Cazadora.
The Virtuous Wind couldn’t catch the nimble Chesapeake and settled for exploring an island instead. The Chesapeake grabbed gold in the north while the Concord cornered the captured Annapolis and looked to sink her former comrade.
With a ram the Cazadora dismasted the docked Chesapeake, leaving the Americans with only the Concord!
With no real hope in sight the Concord made a suicidal attack against the approaching Virtuous Wind, ramming off a mast. Her captain was cancelled by the Alma and it was all but certain who would come away victorious.
The Concord was taken out by the Virtuous Wind, ending the game with a 10-3 victory for the Spaniards!
The English went first and headed out to the nearby islands. The Hades’ Flame grabbed gold as the Fool’s Hope headed towards the middle of the sea to create chaos.
Unlike the last game terrain was featured in this one, with an unlucky iceberg roll taking out the lone mast on the Snipe. The Richards flew through a whirlpool in pursuit of the agile Hades’ Flame. The Fool’s Hope struck the English with force by sinking HMS Resistance with one broadside! After sinking the Englishman the Fool’s Hope towed the Snipe to take possession of the gold coin (worth 4 gold) she was carrying.
With no captain the Richards was forced to futilely chase the faster Hades’ Flame, with the ghost ship getting the better of the encounter. The Galway continued to ferry gold home as the Fool’s Hope looked to intercept the quick little blockade runner.
The Richards gave up chasing the Flame and grabbed gold from a southern island. The Hades’ Flame, frustrated from finding such low value coins (all 1’s and 2’s), zipped through a whirlpool in search of foreign gold. In the meantime, the Galway evaded the Fool’s Hope as the big Pirate ship tried to avoid the iceberg that had dismasted the Snipe.
With no chance of getting home without encountering the Fool’s Hope, the Richards decided to sail straight towards it. The Galway accompanied her.
In a surprise move the Fool’s Hope once again towed the Snipe, but then ran into a fog bank!
The Richards and Galway tried to escape but it was too late. The Fool’s Hope came flying out of the fog (using a free action to let go of the Snipe so she wouldn’t be permanently lost in the fog) to smash into the Richards. A combination of guns and boarding knocked over all four masts and killed the English helmsman.
The Galway fled in terror as the Fool’s Hope sent the Richards to the bottom of the sea, giving 2 gold to the Pirates and 1 to the English.
The Fool’s Hope towed the Snipe home as the Hades’ Flame and Snipe brought back their final coins. With the docking of the captured Snipe all available gold had been unloaded to home islands, a rather uncommon occurrence.
The gold was tallied up, with the Pirates coming out on top 17-13! The Pirates had terrible luck finding gold, with both 4’s being found by the English early in the game. However, capturing the Snipe effectively won the game for the Pirates, providing the difference in a very good and close-fought game!
Ever since I ran the Gimmick Challenge I’ve wanted to play both of the entries that volt submitted. These fleets are both treasure-oriented and therefore not the best matchup. I also wish I had more time to play them against other fleets. Unfortunately time waits for no one.
I didn’t have time to find the Saragoza so the Reconquistador is a proxy. I don’t have the Song – the Hai Peng is another 2 masted junk from POTC.
Chain of Fools rolled to go first. Because of the nature of the Oarsmen Inflation fleet, the Intrepid was willing to take a more aggressive stance than volt outlined in the fleet’s description. As the strategy goes the Banshee’s Cry was Hidden Cove’d to the middle island where the American Native Canoes loaded up on gold. One canoe found Smuggled Goods and so only 3 of the 5 canoes sailed with gold aboard. The Bonnie Liz sailed north while the Bloody Jewel and Mermaid raced southeast.
Since the middle island was already empty and the northeastern island was closer than the southern island, the Raven’s Neck was Hidden Cove’d immediately so she could start transferring gold home. After Gilbert sacced an oarsman the Oarsmen Inflation fleet had 13 gold on their home island at the end of turn 1! After swapping Davy Jones’ Key the Raven’s Neck island contained three 2’s and a 5.
The Blood Jewel and Mermaid emptied the southern island while the Bonnie Liz did the same up north, sailing home after an SAT from Calico Cat. The Canoes were also racing home with more gold. The Intrepid continued to sail east in an attempt to cripple the Raven’s Neck.
The Raven’s Neck and Captain Jack Sparrow only needed to transfer one 2 (+3=5 total gold) home in order to gain an 18-0 victory!
Although the Chain of Fools fleet had a lot of gold on its way, the speed of CJS and the +3 gold ships was not to be beaten. Using CJS in conjunction with Hidden Cove and a sac captain and +X abilities is truly a cheap way to win, but it is very effective. Oarsmen Inflation and the UPS fleets are quite impressive. I still like the chain-exploring gimmick of Chain of Fools a lot, and given time (and a different setup/opponent/# of players, etc.) I think Chain of Fools would prove to be a very effective fleet.
I’ve been preparing for the huge multiplayer game. There will be 12 fleets.
Normally for multiplayer games there are 3 islands for each player (36 total in this case) and 6 treasures per player. However, partly due to space constraints and partly due to the fact that less wild islands may lead to more battling and excitement, there will be 30 islands total instead of 36. However, each fleet will still bring 6 coins apiece for a total of 72 coins. This will leave 4 gold on each island instead of the usual 3 for a multiplayer game (72 gold/18 wild islands).
I think the order of play will go in the order that I have laid out the fleets in, which was completely random.
I’ve listed the fleets below (not in the order of play). However, most of the fleets from MT have been modified in some way. The only events allowed are Divers and Rafts, which means that no fleet is using Hidden Cove or Becalmed. In addition I had to make a few edits to make things work. Lastly, I’m going to try to include some of the UT’s that are in the linked fleets, but with 6 coins instead of 8 and so many islands that a fleet won’t be able to get to, some will not be included.
Finally, some of these fleets are between 40 and 45 points even if they don’t technically have a 0LR +5 crew listed. At this point it’s trivial details and is necessary to save time, plus the fleets are already messed up after taking out all of the Hidden Coves, lol.
A modified version of volt’s “Gimmick #2 – Chain of Fools” fleet:
Bonnie Liz + helmsman, explorer
Bloody Jewel + helmsman, explorer
USS James Madison + tribal chieftain
American Native Canoes
A fleet using stuff I just got (literally a few days ago) from volt, selvaxri, and rhyrneson:
Cannibal King + Hammersmith (F&S), oarsman
Kray-kin (I wanted to use my first kraken anyway since I’ve been waiting ages to get ahold of one. However, I forgot about her universal crew-cancelling ability! When I saw it I realized I HAD to use it in a game like this with so many crew (12 fleets worth!))
A modified version of USS Kettering – Deadly Weapon:
USS Kettering + Brent Rice, captain
Minuteman
Peacock + oarsman
A modified version of the El Garante/Native Canoes fleet:
El Garante + Amore, Nemesio Diaz, Duque Alfonso de Castilla, helmsman, tribal chieftain
Spanish Native Canoes
American Pirates:
Roanoke + Captain Blackheart, Commodore Perry, helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x2
Amity + explorer
Bandido
A new Barbary Corsair fleet:
Nubian Prince + Murat Rais, captain, helmsman
Winds of Vengeance + explorer
Golden Peacock
A new Jade Rebellion fleet:
Grand Mountain + Dragon Eyes, Li Quin, helmsman, Stinkpot Shot (can’t wait to use this one haha)
Virtuous Wind + captain, explorer
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve set up all 30 islands, 10 of which are mysterious and can’t be chosen as home islands, and I’ve put down some terrain. There will be 6 of each type of terrain. I’ve strung some reefs together up north to almost block the passage between two islands. Of the six icebergs four of them are stuck together in two different pairs to form larger icebergs that will move as one berg. Once I get some pictures the whole setup will become more clear.
I don’t know if this is the biggest multiplayer game (in terms of the total number of fleets) ever for Pirates CSG. Even if it’s not, it may be the biggest conglomeration of fleets from MT involved in a single game. There are multiple fleets from myself and darrin, as well as fleets from lordstu and volt, not to mention the Garante/Canoes combo was from woelf.
I’m super stoked for this game! Part of the reason I’m posting this now is so the actual report won’t be as long, though I’ll probably just edit this post and add it on so it’s not confusing. It may take more than one day to complete. With so many fleets out there I can’t wait to see what happens! From my previous reports you can already see what havoc is created with fleets like UPS and El Garante/HMS GT/Roanoke, etc. Imagine all those with a bunch of other fleets, Dragon Eyes, tons of UT’s, and a brand-new kraken thrown in! Looking forward to some multiplayer mayhem!
~~~~~
The game has gotten under way! Here’s a few pics of the setup once the HI’s were picked and the treasure distributed.
Looking northeast with the EA Gold Runners fleet in the foreground:
Looking northwest with UPS v 4.0 at the bottom:
Turn 1:
The Bandido (from the Roanoke fleet) was the first ship to reach an island, but she didn’t have an explorer. Her friend the Amity reached another island and was the first ship to explore.
UPS v 2.0 has no chance of winning this game automtically because it relies on the “more than half the starting gold” rule. However, the Hai Peng/CJS/Aristide combo is still quite powerful in multiplayer. On the first turn the Hai Peng found the Dead Man’s Chest UT, which pretty much sunk the hopes of lordstu’s DMC fleet (which isn’t a very good fleet for multiplayer games anyway). The HP sacced her oarsman to explore two different islands, and she didn’t find any negative UT’s. Paradis de la Mer was built on the second island she visited.
The Bonnie Liz (from the modified version of volt’s fleet) found Natives on a northeastern island near their HI. With a helmsman and explorer aboard the Bonnie Liz she would be out for turns 2 and 3. The Bloody Jewel explored a nearby island and found Jail, Letter of Marque, Enemy of the State, and a 5! Her crew were transferred to the jail back home (lol) and the Jewel was turned into a Mercenary ship. With all five American native canoes nearby it was easy for them to transfer the 5 directly to their home island, with the first use of the chain already in place on turn 1!
The EA Runners fleet is the last fleet to go each turn and the Joya del Sol was frustrated by a Mysterious Island that wouldn’t let her explore.
An interesting situation brews in the northeast as the American canoes start working their magic.
Turn 2:
On the second turn the icebergs started moving. To make them more relevant a die is rolled at the beginning of every fleet’s turn, but each iceberg can only move once per overall turn. In this way it is likely that every iceberg moves every turn, but not into multiple ships or anything crazy like that. The two double icebergs move as one when either of their rolls come up.
The Jade Rebellion was the first fleet. The Virtuous Wind found Wine on an island she explored, which was ironic because she already has the HI-raiding ability. It will be interesting to see if she can pull off a combo using both her ability and the UT on the same turn at some point in the game. The Grand Mountain took the first shot of the game and eliminated one of the American canoes.
The Peacock towed the Minuteman (part of the modified Kettering fleet) into position in the west and sank the Banshee’s Cry. The best ship in the game was the first ship sunk in this game. The Minuteman also took a mast off the Raven’s Neck. With the Dead Man’s Chest already aboard the super fast Hai Peng and the Cry sunk, the DMC fleet was all but out of it on the second turn.
Speaking of the Hai Peng, she could only send one coin home on the second turn, using it to build Dead Man’s Point on the island west of the HP’s HI.
The Raven’s Neck got back at the Peacock by taking off her mizzenmast.
The Coral (from UPS v 4.0) found Wolves on an island north of her HI. With no musketeers or Marines anywhere in the game, a new house rule was created on the spot. Wolves would be eliminated if hit three times on the same turn. The Longshanks tried her luck with this but only hit once.
The American canoes now helped out the immobile Bonnie Liz, using their ability to transfer another gold coin to their HI. This was the perfect time for a chain, with a friendly ship immobilized by Natives (and therefore unable to bring the gold home herself) at a nearby wild island. The chain-exploring strategy was working perfectly thus far! In the meantime, the USS James Madison (carrying the tribal chieftain) stayed at the HI because the Grand Mountain (with Dragon Eyes aboard) was lurking and there were no other islands right nearby for the James Madison to explore.
The Star of Siam (part of the EA Runners fleet) found my brand-new Plague UT! Sean Gallows died and the Star left the other gold on the island because she couldn’t dock it at her HI and she didn’t want to transfer it to the Joya because this would kill all the crew aboard the Joya as well.
The western situation heats up as the Peacock and Minuteman engage the Raven’s Neck. You can see the gold already accumulating on the HI of UPS 2.0.
The situation in the northeast develops rather slowly. Somehow the tiny canoes and weakened Pirate ships stay safe from the dangerous Grand Mountain and Cannibal King. The canoes have moved home a coin from the docked Bonnie Liz.
Turn 3:
The Grand Mountain started off the third turn by sinking the Bloody Jewel, who was already missing a mast from a bad MI roll.
The Nubian Prince initiated combat against the Garante fleet in the northwest, picking off two of the five Spanish canoes and sending 1 gold to the bottom of the sea.
The Cannibal King wanted to board the Bonnie Liz and steal her remaining gold, but she came out of the fog bank on the wrong side.
The Peacock/Minuteman combo knocked two more masts off the Raven’s Neck and one off the Morocco.
The USS Kettering sneaked up behind the Golden Peacock of the Barbary Corsairs. With only two of her three masts in range the powerful longship sank the Golden Peacock and all 9 gold she was carrying! With the BC HI nearby and the Peacock’s galley ability Brent Rice just decided to sink her. This was a huge blow to the Corsairs, leaving them with the Nubian Prince but only one other gold ship, the S+S-moving Winds of Vengeance.
In the southeast, the Coral had used the MI effect from the island with Wolves on it to move the Roanoke temporarily out of range. Captain Blackheart of the Roanoke didn’t appreciate this and sacced one of his oarsmen to move twice and blast two masts off the Longshanks. In the meantime the Amity docked home 3 coins and Spices to double the highest-value coin.
With the incredibly dangerous HMS Grand Temple looming in a fog bank, the Hai Peng of UPS 2.0 ducked into the same fog bank to protect herself.
The Grand Temple emerged on her turn and headed straight for Paradis de la Mer. With an SAT from Crimson Angel the GT had 12 shots at the powerful fort. She hit Paradis 4 times before doing any considerable damage, but by the end of it the fort was abandoned, with just one more hit needed to destroy it!
The Morocco docked at an island as the Raven’s Neck continued to battle the Peacock, dismasting her with a ram. However, the Minuteman was still in play and wouldn’t go down so easily.
With the only nearby island available filled with Wolves and with the dangerous Roanoke attacking from the east, UPS 4 was in a terrible spot. With two masts off the Longshanks they only had 2 cannons in range of the Wolves (with the Coral being the other gun), not enough to eliminate them. UPS 4 had no options whatsoever. They decided to risk everything (as they had no choice) and start over by putting their entire fleet (including the usually docked Sea Crane) through a whirlpool. They came out of it in the far northwest corner (near the Garante fleet) with Captain Jack Hawkins of the Longshanks the only casualty. In this way UPS 4 went from being the fleet farthest to the southeast to being the fleet farthest to the northwest, the complete opposite side of the sea!
The chain of American canoes brought home a second coin from the still-immobile Bonnie Liz, leaving her with only one more coin on board.
The EA Runners ended the days action by using the Joya’s newly docked gold to build El Puerto Blanco on the island where the Star of Siam was docked.
The Nubian Price has engaged the Spaniards, with a sacrificial canoe now blocking her passage past the fog bank to save time for the rest of the fleet. El Garante has loaded Holy Water from a canoe to protect her numerous crew from harm (as if 5 masts and Nemesio Diaz weren’t enough!). UPS 4 has emerged from the whirlpool mostly intact after their skirmish with the Roanoke and Wolves.
The hardest-fought action of the game so far, with the Peacock and Raven’s Neck broken and splintered by the conflict.
If there’s a ship that can crush Paradis de la Mer on one turn all by herself, look no further than the HMS Grand Temple!
The Grand Mountain and Cannibal King draw closer as the American canoes desperately try to get more gold home from the immobile Bonnie Liz:
Three turns have been played so far, with quite a lot of action and intrigue! Hopefully more turns will be played tomorrow.
~~~~~
Turn 4:
On the beginning of the fourth turn, Kray-kin rolled a 6! This cancelled all crew abilities for all 12 fleets for the entire turn, which would mess with strategies and plans in a big way. Because of the lack of crew options, not much happened on turn 4 that was significant. The Minuteman sank the Morocco, while the Sea Crane sank herself by docking at a MI and having terrible dice luck. A house rule was used where MI’s could sink ships.
Turn 5:
The Grand Mountain took out the second American canoe.
In the northwest the Nubian Price got a good broadside in range of the Garante but her captain was cancelled by Nemesio Diaz.
The Kray-kin surrounded the Hai Peng! UPS 2’s most valuable ship was trapped by the kraken.
The Minuteman continued her firing, sinking the Raven’s Neck and knocking the Dead Man’s Chest fleet out of the game (1st fleet eliminated).
USS Kettering sank the Winds of Vengeance just as she had the Golden Peacock, single-handedly crushing any hope the Barbary Corsairs had of winning the game.
The Grand Temple used an SAT from Crimson Angel to sail east and sink the Roanoke in a perfect shoot action. This left the Amity and Bandido vulnerable without the protection of a gunship.
UPS 4 was having a rough time in the northwest corner after abandoning their plans when confronted with the Roanoke and Wolves. The Sea Crane had been sunk and the Longshanks had only one mast and no crew. Her and the Coral were docked at the same island, but the Longshanks explored first in because of the possibility of finding a negative UT. It was worth considering because the Longshanks picked up Pandora’s Box! With so many fleets available only so many UT’s could fit on the Longshanks, and in the end she ended up carrying Homing Beacon, Mines, Enemy of the State, Maps of Hades, and Metal Hull.
The Garante sailed straight for USS Kettering and dismasted her with a combination of ramming and shooting, with the Kettering and Nemesio Diaz cancelling each other out. The Kettering was captured on the following turn which left this American fleet as the second to be eliminated. The Minuteman was still floating but unable to be given move actions.
As the Grand Mountain passed by the modified Chain of Fools fleet the James Madison (still docked) took a mast off the Jade 6 master.
The “plagued” Star of Siam sailed through a whirlpool to arrive in the northeastern portion of the sea.
Turn 6:
The Grand Mountain started the sixth turn by sinking the Bonnie Liz and another (3rd) American canoe.
In the south, the Kray-kin easily sank the Hai Peng, but UPS 2 used Raft to put the remaining two coins and 4 crew on the nearby island. The Coeur and Rover docked at the island to try to farm it’s mysterious qualities. They were successful in both cases, sending home 2 of the 4 coins on the island. How ironic that the fleet that uses CJS to send gold home was now using it’s perpetually docked one masters to send gold home automatically via a MI! The Intrepide missed the derelict Rye, but she was still blocking Kray-kin from getting to the Coeur and Rover.
The Algeciras (from the EA Runners fleet) made the mistake of taking on the still-firing Minuteman, and she was sunk by the American flotilla.
With the Longshanks moving at S speed because of Metal Hull, the Coral was the only relevant ship left from UPS 4. She used the round earth rules to go from the west part of the sea to the east, emerging just south of where the Grand Mountain and American native canoes were.
The EA Runners scuttled the Algeciras, while the Joya del Sol went through a whirlpool to the deserted center area.
Turn 7:
The Grand Mountain sank yet another (the 4th) American native canoe.
The Cannibal King finally got ahold of the Amity and put two of her three masts in the water. Kray-kin surrounded the Intrepide to get her out of the way.
The Amity used the Ghost Ship keyword to move through the Cannibal King and explore an island just to the northeast, where the last American canoe had docked and near where the Coral had just emerged.
The Grand Temple sank the Amity, flipping Divers to give GT 2 all the gold from the ship. With an SAT the Temple also sank the Cannibal King by using Lawrence to cancel the pesky Catamaran keyword.
The Joya del Sol docked at a previously unexplored island. All of her crew deserted after meeting the Missionary on the island. This left the EA Runners fleet with no crew, let alone EA crew! Meanwhile, the Star of Siam finally caught up with the Grand Mountain and infected the big ship with the Plague, taking out Dragon Eyes, Li Quin and a helmsman.
Turn 8:
The Nubian Prince sank the Longshanks, leaving UPS 4 with only the Coral. The Coral sailed alongside the last remaining American native canoe and they began exchanging shots.
Kray-kin sank L’Intrepide, while the Rover was sunk by a Mysterious Island effect, leaving UPS 2 with only the Coeur.
The Grand Temple caught the Bandido and sent her to the bottom, which meant that GT 2 had eliminated the entire Roanoke fleet, which was the third fleet eliminated.
A Spanish canoe found Turtles on an island in the northwest. The Star of Siam purposely took back Plague from the now irrelevant (moving S with no crew) Grand Mountain and sailed off in search of new enemies to infect.
Turn 9:
Kray-kin rolled a 5, stalling the game quite a bit. The American canoe got the better of the Coral and dismasted her, marking UPS 4 as the 4th fleet to be eliminated. Because of Wine the Virtuous Wind couldn’t be shot at while within S of the James Madison’s HI, which left the James Madison to resort to other tactics.
Turn 10:
Kray-kin rolled a 6, marking the second turn in a row that no crew abilities could be used.
The Virtuous Wind pulled off her combo! Exchanging Wine for a 7 (originally transferred from the Bonnie Liz by the canoe chain) and stealing another coin, the Virtuous Wind was able to take two coins in one turn. The James Madison failed to steal any back, losing both the ram and board on her turn. This eliminated the tribal chieftain,, though with only one canoe left it wasn’t very important.
The Garante sailed up behind the Nubian Prince and took off three of her masts by cancelling her ability with Nemesio Diaz (I house-ruled that Holy Water protected the Garante’s crew from Kray-kin’s cancellation).
Finally, the Joya del Sol returned intact from her whirlpool adventure, alas four less crew and two more gold coins than she left with!
Turn 11:
The Grand Mountain managed to sink the last American native canoe, while the Virtuous Wind took off away from the James Madison.
The crew of the once-glorious Nubian Prince decided to dash her on the rocks of an unfriendly MI. With her fleetmates sunk, her helmsman dead and 3 of her 4 masts missing the Corsairs gave up and the Prince was wrecked. The Barbary Corsairs were the 5th fleet eliminated.
The Grand Temple, still intact after shooting her way through Paradis de la Mer and the Roanoke, used another SAT to fly through a whirlpool and emerge in the northwest, where she began blasting turtles out of the water and sinking a Spanish canoe that had a treasure on it. The Garante hit her once in three tries in a retaliatory attempt, but the Garante was too far to get more guns in range and her trusty canoes were nowhere to be found to boost her cannons.
Try and catch me!
Turn 12:
The Kray-kin sank the Coeur to end the game! With 6 (therefore half) of the fleets eliminated, the game was over! I wanted to play until there were no ships or gold left but due to time constraints I played by the regular multiplayer rules.
The final gold count:
1. EA Gold Runners: 34 gold
2. Roanoke fleet: 26 gold
3. Jade Rebellion: 16 gold
3. UPS v 2.0: 16 gold (listed lower because they were eliminated)
5. HMS Grand Temple v 2.0: 14
6. Garante/Canoes fleet: 9 (including 7 turtles still swimming in the water lol)
7. Modified version of Chain of Fools: 7
8-12. UPS v 4.0, USS Kettering fleet, Kray-kin fleet, Dead Man’s Chest UT fleet and the Barbary Corsair fleet all finished with 0 gold.
This was a fun game! The EA Runners overcame the discovery of two of the nastiest UT’s in the game, Plague and Missionary. They were lucky not to be shot at, with the exception of the Algeciras being sunk by the Minuteman, which was largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The Amity and Bandido performed quite well for the Roanoke fleet, while the Roanoke herself deterred UPS 4 from doing much in a similar area where the Roanoke fleet was. The Jade Rebels would have finished with 8 gold (and Chain of Fools with 15) if not for the Virtuous Wind’s late-game dash. UPS 2 did fantastic early on but was crushed later in the game by the power of the Grand Temple and the Kray-kin. HMS GT 2 did quite well for themselves by using Divers at an opportune time and grabbing 4 gold with the derelict Rye. The Garante/Canoes fleet actually did quite well considering they were attacked by the Nubian Prince and didn’t have any fast treasure runners. Given time they could have explored another island and/or unleashed the Garante on more enemy ships. The Chain of Fools fleet was a bit outnumbered and was dogged by the Jade Rebellion all game long. Finding Jail, Enemy of the State, and Natives on the first turn doesn’t help either! I was surprised that UPS 4 and the Barbary Corsairs didn’t get any gold. UPS 4 had to deal with Wolves to the north, the Roanoke to the east and eventually UPS 2 and Paradis de la Mer to the west! Their ships were eliminated later on by a Mysterious Island, Pandora’s Box, and an American native canoe haha! The Corsair gold runners were dominated by the Kettering which didn’t leave much hope of getting gold. The DMC, Kettering, and Kray-kin fleets didn’t stand much of a chance of winning this game in the first place, but they certainly added to the fun and created some havoc for each other and the opposing fleets!
Still, it was nice to finally get to the top since I write so many reports and most of the folks at BGG (understandably) don’t have any reports of the huge numbers of games they’ve played. (At the time of this republishing in June 2019, I’m at 430 total plays!)
