A 3 player 40 point game was played on 5/17/2015.

Fleet 1:
Valeroso (just acquired in a trade from selvaxri) + captain, helmsman, explorer
Trinity + helmsman, explorer
Exploding Shot on the home island

Fleet 2:
Antamasia + captain
Augusta
Carcajou

Fleet 3:
L’epee de L’ange + captain, helmsman
Algiers
Freedom’s Hand

The order of gameplay was the same as the order of fleets above.

After playing the rules inconsistently for a few years, new house rules were officially instituted, and I’d like them to be permanent for my games. When a boarding party is won, not only does the winner get to pick whether they take a treasure or eliminate a crew, but they also get to pick whatever treasures they want. If you won a boarding party on an enemy ship laden with gold, would you really settle for the cheap trinkets presented to you by the guilty captain? I wouldn’t!

I’ve quickly grown tired of seeing brown wooden tables as the background for my ocean in the battle reports, so for the first time ever, the Plunder Pack game mat was used. As you can see, some of the creases and folds were still present, but they didn’t affect gameplay.

As for the home islands, they are beautiful custom creations by none other than rossinaz. I may experiment this summer with making my own custom islands, but as usual I will focus on playing first. Either way, between the mat and new islands, this is one of the most aesthetically pleasing reports I’ve done yet.

The first player deliberately left Exploding Shot on their HI to maximize the Valeroso’s trip to a wild island. Between her and the Trinity, Fleet 1 loaded 5 coins on the first turn.

The Augusta marks an island explored as the Carcajou crests a wave.

Unfortunately, Fleet 3 just barely couldn’t make it to a wild island on their first turn, but with two galleys and a dangerous French gunship looming, they looked to be competitive.

Fleet 1 was the first to bring back gold, depositing it on their beautiful new home island.

The Antamasia and Carcajou looked to take gold from different islands, but the inaccurate guns of L’epee (LDA) took a mast off the Carcajou. The Valeroso loaded up Exploding Shot.

The Augusta brought home gold for Fleet 2, but the LDA shot away the remaining mast on the Carcajou.

At this point, the game started heating up. The Trinity, still with both movement bonuses, moved S+S+S to ram and board the Antamasia, but an unsuccessful boarding attempt killed her valuable helmsman.

Fleet 2 exacted revenge on the LDA, with the Antamasia going 3 for 3 to leave the French gunship with just one mast.

The Valeroso catches a wave as she sets the Algiers on fire with an exploding shot.

The LDA ran a suicide mission, taking out two masts from the Antamasia while stealing a coin. The Trinity moved S+S to take the coin from the LDA, putting a target on her back. The Augusta grabbed the Carcajou and got her out of the way, and she repaired on the next turn, bringing home gold along with the treasure from the Antamasia.

Seeing an opportunity, the Valeroso dumped her equipment on the last wild island that still had gold on it in order to load both treasure coins. The Algiers and Freedom’s Hand brought back gold for Fleet 3, extinguishing the fire aboard the Algiers. The Trinity began sailing for home with her gold coin. At this point, Fleet 1 had all 3 of the last coins left in play.

For the endgame, everyone went after Fleet 1, desperate to get as much gold as possible.

A huge ramming and boarding parade began in earnest, with the Trinity being caught quickly moving just S as she had lost a mast to the Antamasia a few turns earlier. The Freedom’s Hand caught up to the Valeroso, who had swapped her explorer for Exploding Shot as a free action at the beginning of her turn. The Augusta and Algiers can be seen circling islands in anticipation of cutting off Fleet 1.

Rough seas made for an even more chaotic environment!

The Valeroso just barely couldn’t make it home, allowing the Augusta to steal a coin, at which point she immediately turned and ran. The Trinity had given up her action for the turn to swap the higher value coin to the Valeroso, who could move L+S compared to the Trinity’s pitiful S. In addition, the Trinity was in rough shape, being rammed by the Freedom’s Hand and Antamasia as her masts fell overboard. The Valeroso docked a coin home and simultaneously set the Augusta alight, upon which the fire spread quickly.

The Carcajou and Antamasia teamed up to sink the Trinity and coin, which was only worth 1 gold. However, there was still a 2 on the burning Augusta, which was quickly set upon by the galleys of Fleet 3. Fleet 1 watched in amusement as the Valeroso poured in a heavy fire, content to see the gold sink beneath the waves to be lost forever.

Greed, chaos and gunpowder:

The Algiers and Augusta were sunk on the next turn, but not before the Algiers gave the final coin to the Freedom’s Hand.

The Freedom’s Hand was promptly sunk by the Valeroso, ending the game at last!

Gold was tallied up, with plenty of booty to go around:

Fleet 1: 19 gold
Fleet 2: 15
Fleet 3: 11

Unfortunately, I think the order of play mattered a bit too much in this game, but this hasn’t been the case in many of my games. Despite this, it was a great game, hard-fought and hotly contested until the bitter end!

You’ll be seeing more of the islands (made by rossinaz) and probably more of the play mat soon!

English Pirates: 
Bombardier + Thomas Gunn, First Mate Ismail, Sir Christopher Myngs, firepot specialist, fire shot
HMS Prince of Chichester + Hermione Gold, explorer
Princess + helmsman, explorer

Cursed Americans: 
USS Albany + Commodore Peregrine Stern, Wayne Nolan, helmsman
Juggernaut + El Fantasma, captain, helmsman
La Rosario

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.

Here’s a simple 40 point game that was played.

English:
HMS Shetland + helmsman
HMS Comet + oarsman
HMS Snipe + explorer
HMS Albion

Spanish: 
Augusta + helmsman
Napolitana + captain, oarsman
San Pedro + explorer

Mixed:
L’epee de L’ange + captain, helmsman
Algiers + explorer
Freedom’s Hand

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.

Other Worlds Part 1

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.

Game 1

Cursed Americans: 
Whydah + Hag of Tortuga, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Squalo
USS Lenox + helmsman, explorer, oarsman
Flying Fish + captain
Sea Duck + explorer, oarsman
Philadelphia + Gus Schultz

Imperialists: (English/French/Spanish – the main imperial nations of the Age of Sail period)
Monaque + captain
Mont Blanc
HMS Lord Lineton + captain, helmsman
Edinburgh Trader + captain, helmsman
Virtuous Wind + captain, helmsman

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.

Game 2

French Pirates: 
La Lyon + captain, helmsman, musketeer
L’Intrepide + explorer, oarsman
Hades’ Flame + explorer

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!

Two more games have been played, with a build total of 60 rather than 40.

Game 1

French:
Monaque + captain, helmsman
La Lyon + captain, helmsman
Le Coeur de Lion + helmsman, explorer
L’Intrepide + explorer
Mont Blanc

Pirates:
Foresight + Barstow, Hammersmith, oarsman
Bruja + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Splinter + helmsman, explorer, oarsman

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.

Game 2

French
(Same as the above French fleet)

English:
HMS Richards + Sir Christopher Myngs, captain, helmsman, oarsman
HMS Cheshire + helmsman, explorer
Edinburgh Trader + helmsman, explorer
HMS Galway

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!)

Game 1

French:
La Lyon + captain, helmsman
L’Intrepide + explorer
Mont Blanc
St. Joan + explorer

American Spanish:
Virtuous Wind + captain
El Alma
USS Montezuma + captain

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!

Game 2

Cursed Corsairs: 
Juggernaut + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist
Squalo
Golden Peacock + explorer

Spanish-English: (referred to as the Spanish)
Virtuous Wind + captain
El San Salvador + explorer
HMS Lord Lineton

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).)

Game 3

Multi-nation swarm fleet: 
Dragon
Paradox + helmsman
L’Intrepide
La Fureur
La Rosario
USS Annapolis + helmsman
Whisper

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!

Find more games here!

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:

Game 1

Americans
Concord + captain
Philadelphia
Chesapeake
USS Annapolis

Spanish
Virtuous Wind + captain
El Alma + explorer
La Cazadora + helmsman

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!

Game 2

Pirates:
Fool’s Hope + captain, helmsman, cannoneer
Hades’ Flame + explorer

English:
HMS Richards + helmsman, explorer
HMS Resistance + explorer
HMS Galway
HMS Snipe + explorer

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!

Feel free to check out more Battle Reports!

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.

Chain of Fools

At the far left the Bandido is a proxy for the Mermaid.

Oarsmen Inflation

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.

As always, thanks for reading!