The Cursed had an uneventful Turn 64, but are saving up.

In the Caribbean, English ships go to and from the home island. New gunships are departing while old ones come in for repairs. At the left, a long-awaited sight: HMS Westminster returns! The English on the other hand are shocked to see the ship, who spent a long journey in Karkuda repairing at the French Harbor. Her remaining crew tell the English fleet about how massive and impressive the French Harbor and fleet is. The English and French are probably the factions closest to having an alliance without actually having one right now…

… although the potential for a Franco-Spanish alliance continues to grow! Vaccaro has a personal meeting with Guy LaPlante, incredulous at the topics that came up. LaPlante has now spoken with the Spanish admiral in addition to the Santo Columba’s captain.

Speaking of the Santo Columba, she went through the Caribbean whirlpool! However, she rolled a 2 to emerge in the Sea of Allost! This is not what the Spanish had hoped for, but the captain was too eager to wait for LaPlante’s guidance through the whirlpool. Not only is this the first time a Spanish ship has traveled via whirlpool, but it’s also the first direct Pirate-Spanish contact of the game! The Pirates ready their guns, but ask what business the Spanish have. The captain of the SC quickly responds that they are on a mission after an unfortunate conversation with a French diplomat. The Pirates perk up and welcome the Spanish, as they’re allies of France.

The Santa Ana’s extra action propels her towards the whirlpool following Vaccaro’s conversation with LaPlante. Other French gunships head southeast, and the Spanish put forth 3 more after cashing in some textiles and combining it with gold: the Corazon Dorado, Monte Cristo, and Lepanto can be seen at the Spanish HI.

Hoping to play more consistently after this brief little hiatus! It’s just a combination of being busier on certain days of the week, and almost all non-Pirates stuff (well, Pirates stuff too actually XD) taking far longer than I ever anticipate.

Nemo continues to speak with Gaston and the French captain of the Aube.

However, he grows frustrated, as even he cannot explain the mysterious disappearance of Eileen Brigid O’Brien and the Celtic Fury. Mid-conversation, he abruptly goes below into the Nautilus and orders the submarine to dive!!

The Nautilus speeds into the Mercenary sub hideout, and the doors close for the first time since they were opened! Nemo is gone!

Over on the south side of the hideout, the Devil Ray and Mobilis have also gone into the hideout, with the doors closing behind them! The Mercenaries surface inside, unloading some food and cashing in textiles for gold.

The French begin their turn. Finally coming to terms with the likelihood that the Mercenaries are no longer under their employ, Gaston orders the Aube to open fire! The big warship shoots at the sub hideout but the cannonballs simply bounce off the thick metal doors!!

The French surround the sub hideout and blast away! However, the other ships can’t dent it or get at the subs either. Gaston plans to run a close blockade to contain the Mercs and punish them.

The French spend just over 200 of their 300+ gold to get 12 new ships! Le Loup-Garou is tasked with exploring other potential oceans, while most of the others are launched for war. Some may head to The Flat, while others might defend local islands or the Harbor itself. The Favori is meant as a dual-purpose cargo ship: she will carry resources, but will also be a priority ship for army units. (S2=shipwright, etc… I’m having to use tiny crew chips instead of any existing ones (though I’ve mostly run out of those too) just because of space constraints… with the tiny ones I can fit many more deckplates in those areas than if I had the big square chips for all the crew)

6 of the ships are launched in the Harbor, with the other 6 launched at The Flat.

The Americans open fire on the Pirates! They also attempted to surround them, but don’t have quite enough gunships in the area to fully contain them. The Americans concentrated on stopping the Pirates from going due north on their next turn, which would be problematic with many cargo ships and the American HI nearby. At the right, the James Madison has knocked out a reef, giving the Americans easier access to the Castle!

Under Preble’s urgent command, the President scored some hits on the Xiamen’s Claws, the most offensive invader thus far. The Americans are furious a Pirate ship was able to invade and strike Preble’s ship directly. In a rare sight, the canoes are given a shoot action, and they respond with 2 hits in 3 attempts. At the right, the Nene-nui and Enterprise head to the Castle with army units and an important fort upgrade. Above the President, the Colonial Trader simply sailed in the opposite direction she had been heading, in order to make room for the Concordia. That ship and others will try to enter the fray next turn.

However, in the actual battle area, the Americans had an abysmal turn at the guns. I can honestly say it was one of the worst single-turn offensive efforts in the history of my games. An absolutely pitiful performance, it left the Pirates in good position for a counterattack for their turn, and may signal a momentum shift compared to the first Pirate-American battle. At its worst, the turn saw the Americans not just missing, but missing badly. One string of six shots saw five of them miss with a 1! O_O

At the bottom, numerous American gunships turn around after hearing the commotion to the west. The Mercury will guard the southeastern approach to the Castle against the French and/or Mercenaries. In the middle, the Carolina has unloaded the first American troops to enter the Castle! The Jackson will unload more next turn, with 3+ additional ships headed there as well.

Going on a big launch, the Americans put forth 10 new ships! This was a direct response to the Pirates’ second invasion through the whirlpool. The fully repaired Pirate gunships were traded in for their point values, combining with their crew to make up 105 of the ~200 gold the Americans spent. Notice some of the best American ships (Kettering and Ghost Walker) and some of the worst (Oregon, Shark, Superior, etc). It was a bit of an odd launch, but for a good reason: the Americans are running out of ships. That’s right, this game has gotten to be so big that some factions may even run out of ships to launch! O_O In that case, there are still minor faction ships out there in addition to various customs, so it’s not like a faction will lose the game due to lack of quantity. However, as more and more factions approach the point at which they exhaust themselves, the biggest factions in the game by overall ship count (Big 4 of English, French, Spanish, and Pirates) do gain somewhat of an advantage long-term.

The repairing Ranger is the only Pirate capture not traded in yet, as 10 new American gunships prepare to take on the Pirates. At the upper right, an ominous sight for any opponent: the newly repaired Albany and Constitution have headed out, bringing their 9 combined rank-2 cannons back into play.

Darkness falls on the Sea of Allost as Turn 65 begins. I didn’t roll a 1 for a random resource change, so lumber is worth 6 again, though the roll of 2 will only hold for 2 more turns. The Tunnel is becoming quite crowded, with the Akua Lapu (not visible), Celtic Fury, Crusher, and Fleur de la Mort all entering.

Up north, the newest Pirate squadron sets sail for the whirlpool!

Back to Karkuda! The Pirates attack! Attempting to push the Americans back in order to make room for new gunships arriving via whirlpool, the Pirates suffer almost as bad a turn as the Americans. They fail to do major damage, although the Lenox is set on fire.

The Gruesome, Minerva and Devil’s Kiss all rammed. This battle could see more ramming and boarding than others, since even though no ram damage makes it less of an offensive move, the battle may be even more crowded and close-fought than the previous one between these factions. In this case the Pirates are literally just trying to surge forward and push the Americans back towards their HI. The more room there is around the whirlpool, the more Pirate gunships can flood the area and make a victory more likely.

My personal favorite of the battle so far. The Devil’s Kiss and Georgetown are burning, while fallen Pirate masts threaten to cover up the whirlpool entirely. The Lucky Seven has been the luckiest Pirate ship in the battle so far, hitting 3/4 (with a musketeer) against the Georgetown. However, the Freedom, Black Cat and Ningpo were not nearly as effective.

Four more mediocre Pirate gunships come through the whirlpool! However, the final ship to emerge is a surprise: the Queen Anne’s Revenge! Blackbeard himself enters the fray, using an EA from Sean Gallows to ram the OE James Madison. However, the QAR missed, and the JM managed to tie the boarding roll with a 6 (9 total with the boarding bonus) to avoid having a crew captured! At the bottom left, two Pirate HI raiders go through the opening south of Luck Island, and El Dorado follows them. Having suffered heavy damage without even shooting, the Mystic has returned to Pirate waters where she can repair at Dead Man’s Point.

Showing they mean serious business, the Pirates spend 230 gold on a megalaunch! A full dozen ships are launched at Dead Man’s Point, and ALL of them are launched for the war against the Americans. The Pirates bought back the 7 ships the Americans had traded in, so they will get another chance at glory. The Mocha, Cacao, and Pillage are all pretty basic gunships that follow the trend the Pirates have set in recent launches. However, the Pride is one of their fastest warships, while the Belladonna adds another HI raider to the mix. Notice that they are extremely well-crewed, with every ship having at least one extra crew in addition to the standard captain and helmsman. Those oarsmen and shipwrights will come in handy to combat whirlpool travel damage, while the firepot specialists may mean a permanent end for some American vessels.

Yet again Dead Man’s Point is extremely crowded. The Pirates have an amazingly balanced and effective resource system, and they continue to put out squadron after squadron of new ships. They continue their strategy against the Americans: throw huge amounts of points at the American fleet and they will have to retreat or be worn down into surrender. Some Pirate ships will reach the whirlpool next turn, with more coming after that. Then, another big wave will arrive. All told, the Pirates may throw over 30 ships at the Americans in this multi-layered battle. It will be interesting to see if the Americans can hold up over time, and if they will be able to continue their Castle operations or cease them altogether. The French aren’t fully aware of the Pirate attack, but an alliance exists between those two. If the Pirates can convince the French to break their truce with the Americans, the Americans will be in big trouble, with two of the strongest factions in the game hammering them from two angles.

An overhead look at the fort, with 12 new Pirate ships in play. At the upper right, the Fancy and Smiling Jim have been running resources all game (literally, since they were in the starting Pirate fleet!), but now they have been given captains and will be on patrol duty. The logjams at the kingdom entrances are not worth 2 ships having just 3 cargo spaces between them, as recent Pirate launches have seen more effective cargo ships launched.

These events took quite a while to play out, with the three largest factions in the game (France, America, Pirates) becoming even larger with about 10 new ships each! Some faction turns alone can take over an hour with launchings, so a full turn can take more time than I have available for this game in a day. The game keeps ballooning to higher and higher point levels, which will likely result in another point count within a week or so. However, keeping in mind the general deadline of Thanksgiving, I may have to enforce artificial endgame rules to avoid suddenly stopping the game when there is still thousands of points sailing around. This is because I know from past experience that playing an “endgame” with a game of this size could easily take over a month alone, not to mention if it gets bigger. The most likely solution would be to have islands gradually stop producing resources. I feel that this actually makes sense too, since factions have really been taking a lot of stuff from these wild islands lol, to produce such astronomically large fleets. XD

Was listening to some Tchaikovsky while I wrote this, and I suppose it would work for reading as well!

The Cursed had another uneventful play turn, but continued moving their ships west towards the edge of the Sea of Allost.

However, that picture doesn’t show what they launched! The Guichuan is here!! Possibly even more importantly is who comes aboard to helm the ship…

… DAVY JONES!!!! The DJC version of Davy Jones comes aboard the second 10 master to enter the game. He will partner with the Headhunter to make a very imposing ship. In addition, since the Cursed have the Eye, they can see any ability on any of the three oceans, which means that DJ will be able to copy ANY ability, not just ones the Cursed have been exposed to! I wanted to add more named crew to the ship, but with the Headhunter/DJ/captain/helmsman quartet coming in at 23 points, there wasn’t a lot I could do. Various generic crew will make the ship more of a threat, including being an 11-gun ship. The Locker and Pyre are also launched with some crew. You may remember that Behemoth is also in play, but as I’ve done in the past with the Cursed during CG’s, they can have more than one Limit game piece in play at the same time.

In the Caribbean, the English make way for the French and Spanish, both of whom seem to be in a hurry. The captain of the Metal Dragon speaks with Guy LaPlante, and the English try to form an alliance with the French! However, though LaPlante says an alliance is likely, he cannot guarantee Gaston and Lenoir will be completely on board with it (pun intended).

English ships surround the whirlpool, and their squadron of gunships will likely take the plunge soon!

At this point the English have quite a fleet, but many of their gunships will likely depart the Caribbean soon. I’m a little sad that current circumstances may see somewhat of an exodus from the Caribbean, but I certainly haven’t reached the final part of the game yet, so I’m hopeful it will be active once more.

A full squadron of eight Spanish gunships follow Vaccaro’s lead southeast towards the Caribbean whirlpool….

As Vaccaro himself meets up with LaPlante! Vaccaro is wiser than the captain of the Santo Columba, who went through the whirlpool only to end up in the Sea of Allost. Vaccaro will follow LaPlante’s lead through the whirlpool to avoid exiting at a random whirlpool.

The French enact a close blockade of Nemo’s sub hideout! The French aren’t taking any more chances with the rogue Mercenaries.

The captain of L’Ange de la Mer gets bored and explores the southeastern edge of Karkuda! Beyond my shipwreck cove, he spots a new wild island!

The French have a bit of a logjam at the Harbor. At the left, fortifications at The Flat are complete for now. The French now have 11 infantry units and 1 artillery unit stationed on the island in addition to the 5 cannons of Paradis de la Mer. Not to mention the 27 gunships defending the area on patrol duty. O_O XD Indeed, this French defense of The Flat is one of the most impressive displays of firepower I’ve ever seen in a game. At the whirlpool, the LLG (Le Loup-Garou) spins out attempting to find a new whirlpool. Next to her is the Possession, as LaPlante has returned from his important Caribbean excursion!

And now for the American turn. XD

The Americans have troops at the Castle! The Jackson and Nene-nui unload infantry and artillery, while other troops make their way to the ramparts. How exciting!

The Atlanta and Bartlett have more army units coming soon, while the Carolina takes a shortcut to leave the Castle.

Carolina coming through, with the Atlanta’s name visible along with the artillery unit she’s carrying:

And the opposite!

Wayne Nolan is desperately trying to unload the Enterprise’s fort upgrade so he can then turn the powerful warship against the hated Pirates on the battlefield. Near the Enterprise you can see about 8 American gunships trying to get to the battle. The Niagara is the only one of those to shoot so far, blasting away at the Lucky Seven.

And now we really get into the thick of the action. The Americans have rallied with a war cry of “FIRE!!!” and it’s working well! The Georgetown used her reverse captain ability to shoot at and then ram the Freedom. The Niagara shot 1/2 to take a mast off the Lucky Seven, while the James Madison (a cargo ship but playing the role of block ship here to try and stop the Pirate advance) hit 1/3 to damage the Black Cat. The Appalachian was ineffective against the Devil’s Kiss, but the Saratoga is ready to back her up.

Right in the hottest part of the fight! Preble is not running away this time! The American admiral will lead from the front!! In a thematic display of leadership, the President went a whopping 4/4 to shoot masts off the Gruesome and Xiamen’s Claws, the latter of which was later captured. Just like the Georgetown to the south, the Lenox put out her fire mast. The Gruesome has been completely dismasted, while the Minerva is shattered and has lost all 3 of her crew. (her captain was possessed by Wraith, unbeknownst to the Pirates or Americans) The Hudson cannot compete with the Silverback’s L-immunity, but the Minuteman flotilla managed to knock a mast off with her 2S guns finding an open lane to shoot through. Some debris is beginning to pile up, but this is still the opening of the battle, so there will be MUCH more….

A beautiful shot of the American war fleet answering the call to arms! Indeed, the effective shooting allowed for the XC to be captured early in the turn. This made some room for the Quigley, Concordia, Julius Caesar, Blackwatch, and Grampus to approach the battle faster. The Minuteman (ship) helped dismast the XC, which is why her bow is pointed away from the battle.

The Minuteman (flotilla) and James Madison combine to go 4/6 and severely damage Blackbeard’s ship! The QAR loses two masts and will likely retire as her crew are a big asset for the Pirates. Also notice the nice color on the various sails.

The ten American gunships launched last turn sail out! They will inject some life into the American resistance, which did FAR better this turn than last turn. The Americans were taken off guard at first, but now they are in do-or-die mode and Preble roused them to an effective turn. The 6 gunships at the top of the frame (Superior is behind the Oregon) aren’t likely to be too effective, but the Americans just need them to stem and hopefully HALT the Pirate advance. However, the two cancellers (Ghost Walker and Kettering) could provide a solid advantage for the Americans, especially with their abundance of L-range guns as well.

An overview of the battle area, with the Pirates the next faction to go as the next round begins….

With all that effort down south, you’d think the Americans would have exhausted their fighting capacity. However, with one of the biggest fleets in any game ever, that is not the case! The Americans are holding their line strong against any potential French attack, with 13 gunships stationed north of the Castle.

With the southeastern island finally revealed, here is the Sea of Karkuda! 

Huzzah for a battle report on Trafalgar Day!  Well not quite by the time this is posted, but oh well haha. This has become somewhat of a tradition for me, as I try to honor such an important event each year in my own way through playing this game. I was even able to play through most of the battle time (afternoon), though in EST haha.

The Pirates have purchased another ladder so the Madagascar and Otter can unload textiles from The Flat without adding to the logjam at the kingdom entrances.

The Pirates venture further into the Tunnel:

At the other end you can see that Bonny Peel and Le Requin have nearly taken the Akua Lapu into Cursed waters:

Another batch of Pirate gunships approach the whirlpool:

On the battlefield, carnage mounts as the Jaguar’s Spirit, Chico and Bonny Kate make their entrances.

The Gilded Monkey used an AA to nearly reach the American home island! Her cannons dismasted the Lynx, and the Pirates continue to anger the Americans by hitting them in places they feel safe. First it was Preble’s flagship, and now it’s nearly an HI raid despite so many American gunships in the area.

The Pirates were mostly ineffective on their turn. With the QAR pinned to the James Madison, Blackbeard cannot escape to repair.

A big problem for the Pirates is that their ships simply cannot dismast or sink American ships yet. The battle has quickly turned into an attritional struggle with little damage being done each turn.

The JR’s use the Huginn to sink the captured Sea Crane before she can be towed home by the Needle! The Jades would rather see the ship at the bottom of the ocean than in the skeletal hands of the Cursed.

This shows how effective the Cursed L-movers have been lately. Tsuro and Tabby (McWarren) are throwing JR ships into the wall of fog that blocks the Tunnel. At that point it is quite likely that the ships will roll to move into a different fog bank or emerge on the wrong side of the wall. This delays Jade efforts and may even prevent an attack on the Cursed.

The Cursed spend a bunch of gold to launch the Rook’s Folly, Pestilence, and a set of their native canoes!

On to the English!

The Metal Dragon exits the Caribbean whirlpool at the Sea of Karkuda! Suddenly the ship is in the middle of the second Pirate-American battle!

Very intrigued and also excited by the possibilities this discovery holds, the Metal Dragon uses an AA from CRGO to return to the Caribbean. There the crew tell the English fleet about the battle. After some quick conversations a big decision is made!

The English enter the fray and they’re here to fight!! Four English gunships arrive in the Sea of Karkuda, ready to kill some Pirates. The Resolution, St. George, Ark Royal and Henry VIII represent the first multi-ship English presence in Karkuda, in addition to a continuation of English policy to explore other oceans through the Caribbean whirlpool. Having secured a truce with the Spanish, the English are now free to get revenge on the Pirates, which has been on their minds since the Pirate whirlpool squadron attacked. Blackbeard’s raid has only compounded English hatred of pirates.

The Spanish turn begins and sure enough they follow LaPlante through the northern whirlpool of Karkuda! The Santa Ana gets an EA to move south while the Santo Columba is the second Spanish ship in the sea.

The French try to find a new whirlpool, but LLG rolls a 3 to emerge in the Caribbean, a whirlpool the French are already familiar with.

The Americans take their turn, with the battle area looking even denser. Indeed, in the middle of this picture it’s almost a solid block of ships from the bottom of the frame to the top.

The Lucky Seven is dismasted, and the Georgetown is completely covered and obscured by multiple masts of debris:

The Black Cat also lost a mast, but some Pirate ships are simply out of range since they’re behind other ships.

Incredible destruction. The Minerva joins the Gruesome on the list of Pirate derelicts. The Hudson stopped towing one of the Minuteman flotillas and sailed north since the Silverback is immune to her L-range guns. This allowed the fresh USS Emerald to enter the battle, and Commodore David Porter connected with a Broadsides Attack! This took out 1.5 of the Silverback’s final two masts, and later in the turn the Ghost Walker cancelled her ability to dismast her.

SLAUGHTERFIELD:

The Americans are deploying a stalling and logjam strategy. If they tow Pirate derelicts or eventually sink them with constant cannon fire, the Pirates will have additional room on their next turn that they can use to put fresh ships on the front lines. The current logjam and unexpected English entrance is severely limiting how many new ships can arrive from the whirlpool each turn as well, furthering the American strategy thus far.

With derelict and weakened Pirate ships everywhere they look, some American ships are actually retreating since they’re not needed yet. The Hudson and President hope to repair at the HI, while the Concordia gets out of the way so the Adventurous can continue towing the Xiamen’s Claws. The Kettering, Quigley, Minuteman and others are ready to assist immediately when needed.

The QAR is dismasted!

The Thrud is dismasted as well, though not by the Fly. After that ship missed both her shots, the Swamp Fox came over and shot away both masts in a single die roll via Broadsides Attack.

Predictably, the Americans are able to dismast the Gilded Monkey right after her encroachment of American territory. As the Lynx repairs, 4 ships team up to wreck the schooner, with the Roanoke being given her first shoot action of the game to finish the job.

The Americans are almost there! They have troops on the Castle, and now just need to unload the fort upgrade from the Enterprise!

Total American domination of the Castle, with their numbers growing by the turn:

Things are considerably calmer north of the American HI. The Aaron Burr, Hancock, and Albany actually turn away from the southern battle, hearing that it is a complete mess and that the American ships in reserve will be able to hold off the Pirates for considerably longer than what was anticipated in a worst-case scenario. However, with Pirate-hating abilities, the Flying Fish and Constitution inevitably head towards the battle area. The Franklin may go either way depending on the circumstances. The captured Ranger was finally traded in after being repaired, and USS Lamon comes into play! She’s the second submarine launched outside of the Mercenaries after the French hired Nemo and the Nautilus.

Turn 67 begins! A full, scheduled resource change was necessary! For the first time in the regular changes, a 1 was rolled for value! Every resource was worth its face value, while a 6 is now the only value roll to not appear yet. In addition, the duration was for a whopping 8 turns, tied for the second-longest of the game!

The Pirates hardly manage any damage against the Americans, but put forth 4 new ships from the whirlpool.

Blackbeard’s ship is now dead in the water, but if the Americans and English can’t combine for 6 hits on their turns, El Dorado can warp the ship to the kingdom next turn using her ability. At the upper right, USS Destiny has been sunk! However, the little sloop is not large enough to make a lot of room for the Pirate advance, which is completely stuck. The unexpected entry of English warships has only complicated matters further, as the Pirates now face opposition from all sides.

Finally unable to put forth a large squadron at Dead Man’s Point, the Pirates still manage to launch 5 new gunships at the end of their turn, though the Snipe will not go to Karkuda. With immunity to ships within S, the Sister’s Rage and Black Arrow will be extremely annoying to the Americans, while the Princess and Morte de Yarborough provide additional cheap firepower.

After a brief lull in the new arrivals, many Pirate ships are poised to enter the whirlpool next turn. This includes many larger ships that can pack more of a punch than the Pirate ships currently in Karkuda. However, with such a ludicrously crowded battle area, how many of them will even be able to make the journey anytime soon? This further proves how effective the American strategy has been: if the Pirates fill Karkuda with their own derelicts which prevent them from getting to the Americans, they may be forced to scuttle those ships (thus losing them for the rest of the game, not a fun thought for any faction) just to make room for new arrivals that can continue the fight.

The Pirate squadron nearly reaches the western end of the Tunnel:

Indeed, you can see the Celtic Fury and other ships from the other side. The Victoire and Harbinger are still guarding that entrance, while the Akua Lapu slowly ventures into new territory….

With horrendous timing, the Jades find that their island has changed resources from food to textiles! The new resource change has food at 4 gold apiece and textiles at 2, so the Jades may finally have to look elsewhere for resources in order to continue their gold flow.

O_O With a megalaunch, the Jades reach deep into their pockets and put forth a big new fleet! The Barbary Corsairs are here!!

This picture shows all the new ships. ALL SEVEN BC 4 masted galleys were launched! They are carrying very effective and diverse crew complements, so they’re ready for anything. Aruj Barbarossa will command the Corsairs (under the command of the Jades of course) from the Nubian Prince. The Crescent Moon’s crew give the Jades a second AA crew in addition to a fast, medical barge lite. The right column contains various other ships, nearly all of which are ready for war. Their crew complements are also quite optimized, and all BC named crew are now in play. The massive launch costed the Jades 318 gold of the 525 they had, so they still have 207 left! They had 369 saved up but added 156 to that by cashing in 39 food tokens at 4 gold apiece. They would have spent more but ran out of room to put ships at their HI! To that end, more BC ships are likely coming soon. With only a couple JR and Viking ships left to launch and the independent Mercenaries somewhat having “first dibs” on their own ships, the Jades were almost forced to go to the Corsairs at some point.

The English fire their guns in Karkuda for the first time! They’re not too effective, but the Ark Royal succeeds at a Broadsides Attack to cripple the already derelict Queen Anne’s Revenge!

Wow! Continuing the English policy of exploration through whirlpool travel, HMS Forge takes the Westminster’s route to the northern whirlpool of Karkuda! The English hope to cement an alliance with the French!

England’s most daring and experienced whirlpool explorer, the Metal Dragon, takes the plunge once again. However, the result is awful. A 1 is rolled to emerge from the southeastern whirlpool in the Sea of Allost! The Zephyr also goes for random travel in an attempt to find new seas, but gets the same result.

Oof! Just like the Jades, the English get a nasty resource change considering the new value roll. At Diamond Rock, spices have run out and are replaced by more textiles, the same resource that made the English rich early in the game!

The English are simply in between right now. Between their point advantage and the current truce, they are not worried about the Spanish. However, they want revenge on the Pirates. After the Metal Dragon got lucky last turn by discovering the Pirate-American battle, the English have sent some ships there. However, between the battle area being extremely crowded and it not evidently being the same area where the Pirate HI is, the English are hesitant or unable to send more ships there. Additional ships are ready to take the plunge, and many options exist for combating the Pirates. They can try to force the issue in southwest Karkuda, or go through the northern whirlpool of Karkuda and try to find the Pirates from there, possibly with French help (the English aren’t aware of the Franco-Pirate alliance). Or, with this turn’s result, they can risk the Sea of Allost and send gunships directly into Pirate home waters. Then there’s the issue of the Spanish exodus, which the English have a hunch may result in complicated relations going forward….

O_O The English cash in spices and spend 189 gold on seven ships!! Showing serious interest in a Pirate beat down, the English invest major money in anti-Pirate activity. On the left, Governor Lynch, HMS Raven, and Jun Suong all get +1 to cannon rolls against Pirate ships. We know how much Norrington despised Pirates, and his Dauntless is outfitted with some serious firepower and extra weaponry. On the right, the third 10 master of the game is launched! With Nemo currently blockaded and his Mercs struggling, it’s only natural that the Shui Xian’s crew would go to the highest bidder. The English crew her with some brilliant options, with Owen’s reroll complementing Portland’s SAT. Now that I’m writing this report I realize that CRGO is already in play aboard the Caradoc, so we’ll pretend that it’s his brother. XD (the Pirates will likely do this with Jack Hawkins since the Jades just got the BC version of him) Woodes Rogers is another anti-Pirate Englishman, while the Hibernia is similarly crewed to take whirlpool travel head-on. The Swiftsure filled out the points and will patrol the Caribbean.

Of the 7 new ships, 6 are ready for the War against Piracy! Indeed, it may be called just that if the English declare war on the Pirates. The SX will get a head start with the Mercenary keyword, but the English gunships will follow with major firepower. Between this, the English squadron to the south, and the 6 English gunships already near Pirate ships in two different oceans, a major clash between England and Pirates is looking more and more likely.

In a reversal of fortune, the Spanish find luxuries instead of textiles on Paradise Island! This is incredibly good for the Spanish, who have generally struggled to find consistently valuable resource production from the island, which is their only source of wealth. In addition, this recent resource change would have favored the English over the Spanish, but with both major Caribbean islands changing, the opposite is now true.

Spanish gunships continue to leave the Caribbean! The Asesino de la Nave, Granada, and Corazon Dorado appear at the northern Karkuda whirlpool.

At this point the game is getting very “global”, with many factions in oceans not native to their HI’s. It’s become a complex and intriguing affair, with many more developments still to come.

The French find that their eastern food island has run out of bananas! XD

General French operations, with some gunships headed south and the Possession failing to find the Sea of Allost. LaPlante rolled a 5 to emerge from the southwest Karkuda whirlpool, but since there was no room for the ship to be placed there, the ship simply didn’t go anywhere but still rolled (successfully) for damage. In the middle, the Sunrise Fire S-explored the original French island on the Pirate turn. Off her stern, the French lighthouse island produces luxuries, now the most valuable resource in the game. That island will no doubt see more ships than usual dock at its lone beach in the coming turns.

I purposely left the flash off here, to show the dense forest of masts on the battlefield. From the area south of Luck Island to the American HI to the Castle in the east, it is nearly a solid block of ships. O_O

The Americans shot well on their turn, dealing major damage. The Black Cat and Devil’s Kiss have been dismasted, while one more hit on the Ningpo will do the same to that vessel.

The Queen Anne’s Revenge sank and Blackbeard is dead! Well-placed shots from the James Madison and Minuteman flotilla doomed the QAR after she was hit by a BA from the Ark Royal on the English turn. The other Minuteman flotilla in the area teamed up with the Ghost Walker to dismast the Fuchuan. On the left, the Swamp Fox has gone 2/2 with Broadsides Attacks, her second blast knocking two masts off the Poison Dagger who was then finished off by the Fly.

North of the battle, various maneuvers are carried out despite the logjams. The Lynx captured the Gilded Monkey, while the Adventurous reached home with the Xiamen’s Claws. The President and Hudson are home for repairs, and the Montezuma and Lenox hope to join them soon. Those 4 ships are eagerly replaced on the front line by the Septem Maria, Kettering and Quigley. Three VERY intimidating 5 masters are waiting in reserve, but the Pirates are being soundly defeated at this point. The trend of failed whirlpool attacks has really emerged… the Pirates have had success with a few small Caribbean raids, but Ralph David’s attacks in Allost and both battles at the SW Karkuda whirlpool have gone miserably for the aggressors. In fact, this second Pirate loss may become so embarrassing and one-sided that it may make the Pirates change their policy….

The Enterprise has unloaded the fort upgrade at the Castle!! The Americans will now be able to launch ships from the Castle as if it were a fort. However, some repairs still need to be carried out for the Castle to reach its true potential. The Americans also move their army units S into different positions, further optimizing the defenses. They now have infantry on almost all the ramparts, and the Colonial Trader will eventually arrive with more.

Preble got his AA roll this turn, and the last action of the turn went to the Springfield of all ships. The Springfield is a “cheerleader” ship (she gives friendly ships within S +1 to her cannon rolls) not meant for the front lines of battle. However, the Pirate attack necessitated block ships to stop the Pirate advance early on, and the Americans have done a great job so far despite their occasionally poor shooting. In this case, a very strange thing happened: the Seminole has the same ability of the Springfield, and is within S of the ship. Therefore the Springfield was able to use her own ability from a different source in her two shots against the Satisfaction, a new Pirate arrival. Incredibly both shots were 4’s, which meant they both hit to knock a mast off the Satisfaction but they would not have hit if not for the Seminole being within S! O_O Just a bizarre happening that would only happen in a game of this size, since those ships are hardly EVER worth the points even in large games with 100+ point build totals.

I will conclude this report with some confessions and give an idea of what to expect going forward.

-With this game ballooning to completely unprecedented heights (over 7,000 total points now I would guess, DOUBLE the previous all-time CG high set in VASSAL Campaign Game 1), I have become less motivated to play turns. I love the game more than anyone on earth, but a single turn of play is a very intimidating endeavor. It just takes SO LONG to complete a turn, and launches and resource changes only compound that time.

-The game has had an emotional and physical toll on me. The lack of motivation comes from often starting play as soon as I’m ready to in the morning, and playing nearly non-stop for many hours, sometimes at the rate of 8+ hours a day spent on the game. The longest battle reports have taken me over 2 hours to write, which means that the game has sometimes resembled an overtime job in terms of the time commitment. On the longest days (mostly just Wednesday and Friday) I would estimate that I’ve sometimes spent 12-14 hours in a day on this game alone between playing, planning, thinking strategy, writing the battle reports and posting them on all 3 sites and then putting pictures from the day’s play on Instagram and BGG. I’ve made debatable sacrifices in other areas that I may come to regret if I continue at this current pace.

-The physical toll comes from sitting and kneeling in often cramped positions on the floor for multiple hours a day, as 80+% of the points are concentrated in the Seas of Allost and Karkuda right now. The inevitable tipping things over and setting them back up again is further made annoying by the sheer scale of the game, as I move 250+ ships in a single round of turns. (there may be over 400 ships in the game by now but the Jade, Cursed, and French battle fleets have been largely inactive for the past handful of turns which helps a bit lol) Xerecs is the only one who can even remotely relate to what this game has entailed, but even his CG’s have been non-solo efforts and none of them have gone over 6,000 points to our knowledge lol. Combine that with the game exceeding even my greatest ambitions (I vaguely thought 5,000 could be possible back in September but now at around 7,000 it’s just crazy), and even a player as dedicated as me is now in completely unknown territory.

-The time pressure of trying to finish the game by Thanksgiving has made me worry that I will not be able to reach a satisfying conclusion by then. As a result, there is a POSSIBILITY that the game will continue past Thanksgiving weekend and into December. O_O I would say the odds of this happening are currently about 50/50. Once I make a decision on that I will announce it of course. It all depends on how the next 4 weeks go. I’m also working on Thursdays now at a shift that is not conducive to playing, so Thursdays are nearly out for the next 2 weeks (at least), whereas before I had that day almost completely free. The potential for an extra month of play can also take some stress and pressure off of me and help my life to be a little more balanced compared to going crazy over the game for the next 4 weeks. It could also result in a more satisfying conclusion (last fleet afloat for real this time, but likely still with some artificial resource droughts), which is something I’ve REALLY struggled to achieve in these physical CG’s lol (in fact, not since the RISK game in 2012 has one of my physical CG’s concluded appropriately). So basically, there is a CHANCE that the game could conclude just a few days before Christmas if it gets that far. O_O

Some final notes:

-At 67 turns, this game has exceeded both my Century of the Empires game (62 turns) and Economy Edition (45 turns) for the longest physical campaign game I’ve played. Back in September I thought 100 turns was likely, but the sickeningly massive influx of points since Turn 50 has completely made turns take forever so I have no idea what kind of turn count I’ll end up with.

-I now have over 1,250 pictures for this game, which is more than double the 454 for Economy Edition. (which was my previous high for a CG)

Turn 68 has begun.

The Pirates pounce on the Metal Dragon and Zephyr! After those English ships came through the whirlpool closest to the kingdom, the Pirates predictably tried to take them out. However, the Metal Dragon barely has a mast standing and will likely return to Caribbean waters next turn. This will only serve to make English-Pirate relations even worse than they already were.

In the ridiculously crowded American-Pirate-English battlefield, the Pirates manage to get two 4 masters through the whirlpool and into Karkuda. The Thirty Tyrants and Jape are back! After being defeated and captured by the Americans in the first battle of this whirlpool, they have returned for revenge. What’s left of Pirate cannons in the area actually shot pretty well this turn, with the Springfield, St. George and Resolution losing masts. Two of the three Minuteman flotillas had their flags knocked off. In the first Pirate scuttle attempt in this battle, the Devil’s Kiss failed her roll. However, the Pirates aren’t likely to scuttle their more valuable gunships, since they don’t want to lose them for the rest of the game. It’s such a messy logjam right now that some ships on both sides cannot even be given actions on their turn, whether move OR shoot! O_O

El Dorado returns to Allost, as the Pirates don’t want to lose her ability. Her captain informs the waiting Pirates that the battle is going poorly but sheer numbers may help in the long run. However, with no more room at the whirlpool, these Pirate gunships are stuck here for now.

The Pirates have done it! The Celtic Fury hoists a ladder from one of her main masts and it reaches the ceiling of the Tunnel!!

Didn’t mean for this one to have such a contrast in the foreground vs. background, but the flash made that happen.

The Pirates have the only ship type in the entire game tall enough to reach the top of the Tunnel: a 10 masted junk! O’Brien’s betrayal of Captain Nemo is paying big dividends for Captain Mission, who was stuck in his operations at the Tunnel before she showed up.

I love this picture, since it’s from a rare (and difficult) angle and really shows the scale and size of the Tunnel. It’s a big and imposing natural structure, and this picture does it justice better than most of the others. Imagine being in the crow’s nest on one of these large sailing ships and seeing what you see here! O_O At the left you can also see some of the Pirate ships waiting at the whirlpool.

The Jades spend all of their 231 remaining gold on 14 new Barbary Corsair ships!

Here are the impressive crew setups on the various vessels. At this point the Jades have launched nearly all the Jade Rebellion, Viking, and Barbary Corsair ships in the game.

A VERY impressive fleet, which also makes the western half of Allost more crowded than ever! Perhaps they will soon recommence hostilities against the Cursed?

I actually like this picture better since I find it more impressive. The Jades certainly have the prettiest and most colorful fleet, and this is a great shot that shows what the minor factions are capable of.

If things go as planned I hope to play a bunch on Friday and Saturday! I also hope to do another point count somewhat soon, but I’m trying to catch it on a peak that I’m not sure about yet.

Theme music for this short BR!

The Cursed are up next! A plan is revealed! The romance of the seas has returned!!!!! Davy Jones copies Calypso’s ability!! 

After failing for a couple turns, the roll is finally successful! A whirlpool appears within L of the Guichuan at the Roost!!

Now the main question would be: where will the other whirlpool be placed?? It must be within L of a wild island… with the Eye, the Cursed can see everything on all the oceans!! Therefore they know where to put the whirlpool near any wild island they choose!!

With a frothing swirl of seawater, the second whirlpool is created by Davy Jones/Calypso in the Sea of Karkuda!! It’s near the French food island and almost right at the entrance to the Harbor!! O_O

Shal-Bala is here!! Flying all the way to the Sea of Karkuda, the dragon arrives with a hideous screech!!

Beating its huge wings and launching itself at French ships, Shal-Bala tosses them away from the whirlpool!!

The dragon raises its wings in triumph, with most of the French ships out of the way…

… uh oh… this could only mean one thing…. O_O

THE CURSED ARE HERE!!!!!!!! O_O In an utter shock to the French, the Cursed have arrived in the Sea of Karkuda!! No less than 10 ships come through the whirlpool, not counting the Silver Coffin flotilla. Fantasma himself leads the squadron from the Divine Dragon!

From inside the Harbor walls: the French have a Cursed Invasion right on their doorstep!!

Using the Kraken ability to “chain” between ships, Terrox surrounds the Geographe!

In a flash the kraken is nearly inside the Harbor walls!

Terrox’s advance makes room for more of the Cursed horde! The Leviathan, Nightmare, and Hellfire emerge from Allost, making it a 13-ship squadron that has arrived on this turn.

At Broken Horn Island, the Cursed are elated to find food instead of lumber! With the current resource values (lumber 1 and food 4), this will certainly help their launching efforts. At the upper right, many more gunships and creatures are preparing to take the plunge next turn….

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to play as much as I wanted today and yesterday.

I also forgot to mention last time:
-The Cursed do not have to roll for effect when using whirlpools. (thematically this is due to their somewhat supernatural nature, in addition to the recent influence of Davy Jones, and by extension, Calypso herself)

The English do some damage in Karkuda:

Spending all of their 26 gold, the English launch yet another anti-Pirate ship! HMS Victoria is one of England’s finest warships and carries Myngs’ Marauders, which will help the ship shoot through others with those great L-range guns. That ability is especially helpful in giant campaign games with densely packed battle areas.

In the Caribbean, English warships make their way towards the whirlpool:

The Spanish attack!!! The Santa Ana slips around the northeast corner of the Castle and sets the Gold Eagle on fire!

The Santo Columba shoots at American infantry on the Castle! One of the units is taken out, and the Spanish use S-boarding to eliminate another!!

THE SPANISH CLAIM THAT IT’S THEIR CASTLE!!!! That is the reason for all this!! After the French discovered the Castle, they had a hunch that it was a Spanish Castle abandoned in Karkuda, and they sent Guy LaPlante to the Caribbean (after finding out the Spanish were there from the English) to tell them about it. The Spanish were extremely angry when they found out that a faction had begun any kind of operations at the Castle. Now that they have arrived on the scene, they are going ballistic. The Castle is indeed an old abandoned Spanish castle from long ago. However, the Spanish see it as rightfully theirs forever. They want to take it from the Americans at all costs!! Here you can see three more gunships arriving in the area, with the Acorazado and Serpiente the latest ships coming through the whirlpool.

The Spanish spend all of their 20 gold to launch La Resolucion with a captain, helmsman, and firepot specialist.

The French have recently dropped off some infantry units on their islands in the far east:

But you don’t care about that, do you?! It’s time for BATTLE!! The Geographe starts the French combat phase of their turn with a paltry 1/5 (with reroll) against Terrox:

Other French ships fare better! The Cyclops, Madness, and Demon Gate lose a mast each to the Glaive, Carcajou, and Sabre!

French ships tag team the Bloody Blade! The Corse is given Deleflote’s action to dismast the ship! Shots from the Musarde and Corse also take 2 masts off the Divine Dragon. However, that is about all the French could muster on their turn, as most of their gunships are near the sub hideout or The Flat.

But they’re on the way! Here you can see about 6 French gunships headed north as they hear the emergency shots fired near the Harbor. Gaston is willing to cut the blockading squadron at the hideout in half, but stays on blockade duty since he knows the value of his admiral ability.

Even in this time of emergency, French cargo ships get resources home since it’s the best thing they can do. The French do have some solid army units on the outermost docks, but they’re not in range here. The French will likely try to employ a stalling strategy similar to the Americans in the southwest, setting up block ships while waiting for powerful help to arrive.

Given how few cannons they had available in the area, the French fought well after the surprise Cursed invasion shocked them. The Corse was especially key, as her 8 shots with Deleflote did most of the damage against the Bloody Blade and Divine Dragon.

The French are finally forced to mobilize!! Many of their gunships at The Flat turn around and head for the Harbor!

Lenoir has half of his epic line of 5 masted capital ships turn east. Five 5 masters will head towards the Harbor, with five staying on duty at The Flat. In addition, at the right you’ll notice that the entire 10-gunship “backup” squadron has also turned around. The French must combat the Cursed threat!

With five 5 masters, the Hercule, and a few support ships, the French defensive line is still strong. However, they must now divert their forces to save their home. It will be interesting to see if Spanish ships get in the way of the French (they already have a bit just south of The Flat), and if that worsens the somewhat strong relationship between those two factions.

Lenoir speaks with the captain of HMS Forge, and the French hastily agree to an alliance with the English! I will say that this was a spur of the moment thing, and it’s not exactly a strong bond right now. However, we’ll see how it develops over time.

Making their way towards the battle area are various French gunships. One thing’s for sure: if the Cursed don’t retreat soon, the Harbor entrance is about to get VERY crowded! 

The entirety of French operations:

This was actually a bit of a premature report. The French turn isn’t technically over. Combining some food with lots of saved up gold, the French have 441 gold to spend. O_O This is part of the reason I had to stop here, since I didn’t have time today to launch a lot of stuff. However, clearly the French will launch at the Harbor, and possibly even at The Flat as well. They will be well-prepared to defend their homeland!

Going forward, I must warn that this glacial pace will continue, at least for now. It’s doubtful I’ll be able to play much this week, and possibly not at all next Friday-Monday. However, there is clearly a ton of developments just around the corner! Let me know what you think of the game so far, and possibly who you’re rooting for! (even rank the factions in your winning order preference with reasons why if you want)

This report is for the big American turn of Turn 68!

The Americans’ actions signal a shift in their strategy! The Speedy Return captures the Lucky Seven, who doesn’t get wrecked on the reef. Barring any crazy Pirate moves that interfere, the Philadelphia will warp the Lucky Seven to the American HI next turn. At the left, getting the LS out of the way allowed the James Madison to turn south and begin towing the Georgetown.

This exposes the JM and Georgetown to Pirate cannons without firing on the American turn, but it should be worth the risk since the Pirates only have 2 masts standing on those 3 nearby ships.

More captures as the Shark tows the Poison Dagger! The Swamp Fox missed a Broadsides Attack that would have sunk the Thrud, while the Fly hit 2/2 to take a mast off the Full Moon.

Commodore David Porter gives the BA order, and the Emerald hits! This severely damages the already-derelict Silverback. At the left, the Fuchuan has been hit 3 times as a derelict. The Pirates were already struggling in this battle, and now the Americans are really putting the hurt on them by capturing some derelicts and pulverizing the hulls of others.

The Lenox and Montezuma come home for repairs, while 4 other ships carry out repairs. At the bottom of the frame, the Minerva and Gruesome were also captured!

Check out the new-look middle of the fight! With the Gruesome and Minerva out, both sides will have more room to maneuver and shoot. The Americans immediately take advantage of this, with the Kettering cancelling the Calchas’ ability. The Calchas was sunk by a combination of 4 shots from different ships. In addition, the Ningpo was dismasted by the Minuteman flotilla. Furthering the successful turn, the Quigley and Blackwatch teamed up to dismast the Satisfaction!

This time with the flash, showing the chaotic nature of a battle at sea:

The Americans respond to Spanish aggression! The Gold Eagle used her reverse captain ability to score a hit on the Santa Ana before moving away to the Castle and extinguishing her flames. The York followed up with 2 hits of her own to damage the Spanish flagship. On a rampart of the Castle itself, an artillery unit is moved into position. At the left, the United States lumbers towards the battle area.

With this birds-eye view you can glimpse more army unit movements. The Americans are sending most of their infantry and artillery at the Castle towards the northeastern walls and ramparts to combat the Spanish!

Nearly from the infantry perspective! I will continue to use some enhanced ranges from higher altitude positions with the Castle, though it’s not nearly as tall as Diamond Rock of course. The northeasternmost wall of the Castle is indeed cracked a bit.

A meeting of the minds! The captain of the Pequod speaks with Amiral Stephan Dupuy of the Ville de Paris. Unlike some of the other conversations, I can tell you what they talked about. The American fleet lined up opposite the Spanish line would like to help their comrades in what could become a Battle for the Castle. However, to get around the northern side of the Castle, the French would have to move out of the way. The negotiations were tense and brief, and tensions between the Americans and French are rising a bit. A state of war does exist between the two factions, though they still have an indefinite period of truce after the Second Fight at The Flat.

The French line defending The Flat (and now blocking American access to the east part of the Castle from the northwest) has been severely weakened by the departures heading east to combat the Cursed threat.

Most of the American fleet, with the situation in the southwest continuing to be quite one-sided thus far. The Americans captured a lot of Pirate ships this turn, which may force the Pirates’ hand to either retreat or send more ships to the battlefield now that some space has opened up at the whirlpool.

The Americans spend all 121 gold they have to launch 7 new gunships! You can kind of tell they’re running out of ships, as they dip into one masted sloops for gunship support. However, the ships are very well-crewed and all of them carry firepot specialists! You can probably guess where the Americans launched them from…

The first launch at the Castle! All 7 new ships come into play at the Castle, which had a “fort upgrade” dropped off at it so ships and crew could be launched there. This will inject some life into the American resistance to stop the Spanish from retaking the Castle that once belonged to them. It’s worth noting that there is a limited amount of space at the inner harbor area of the Castle walls, so no more than 10 ships could be launched from the Castle in a turn if it was empty. Here the Gold Eagle, Bartlett, and Atlanta were already in the way in 3 of the areas, but the Americans also ran out of gold anyway. Still, the massive size and powerful position the Castle holds could be an interesting dynamic going forward, especially since nearly all the factions are connected in some way by now…. (Americans vs. Spanish, Americans vs. French, French allied with Pirates, French vs. Cursed, Pirates vs. English, etc etc.)

I will say that the upgraded “forts” (including the Castle) cannot have army units hired there. That rule was not in play earlier when the Pirates brought some units into play at Dead Man’s Point, but I intend to use it for the rest of the game. I want the army units to come from the home base since it makes more sense. Besides, the Americans found the Castle abandoned, so it’s not like random soldiers just started coming out of the woodworks when they got there even with money paid out. XD

This is just a look at how detailed, complex, and intense a single faction turn can be! Imagine a whole round of all eight factions! Now you see why it takes so long!