I’ve been writing Battle Reports since late July 2011. I played at least a dozen games (probably more) in 2005-2006 when I first got into Pirates CSG, but since getting back into it in 2011 I’ve recorded almost every game I’ve played in some way. In this blog I will be posting battle reports of my adventures. Check out my best battle reports in the Compendium and my biggest games in Huge Game Legacy.
Day 2 of DTW kicked off with a 2 player, 40 point game between myself and my friend Captain Randy (twayne1047). This day was a bit of a wild west, as originally there was supposed to be at least one more player attending (who may not have had a fleet, or possibly never have played), but it turned out to be just us. I was also originally anticipating at least one other additional player at the event that is pretty knowledgeable about the game, so my fleets were a bit overkill for this Saturday of gaming. However, I had been really looking forward to testing them out and this was a somewhat rare opportunity to do so in non-solo play. I had also been itching to play some more complicated fleet ideas and whatnot.
We used the Las Vegas house rules (through the “RtSS legal” part) and placed 3 terrain per player – almost all fog.
Captain Randy followed with the Spanish:
La Santa Isabel + RotF Luis Zuan, tribal chieftain, helmsman
Bonnie Liz + Genny Gallows, Powder Pete, 1 crew
Spanish native canoes
I chose the Spanish home island (HI) to be west of mine, as I anticipated whirlpooling into the east. However, I forgot about round earth, partly since it wasn’t used the day before and I haven’t been using it in T3.
I did a quick overview after my first turn:
It felt as though the game would end almost as soon as it had started. Banshee’s Cry loaded a 5 from the first island she explored (Mycron for two actions on the first turn), then she explored the adjacent island in the east so she could soak up any potential negative UT’s before Cassandra went in for some loot. She found the Pirate Globe, which flipped all coins on wild islands face up for the rest of the game. She didn’t load the 5,3,3 on the island, leaving Cassandra to dock and load those three coins. Cassandra then got an action from Mycron/Patagonia to go back home through the whirlpool, not taking any damage. The Spanish explored, triggering the Pirata Codex and wiping out all the remaining UT’s. However, neither La Santa Isabel nor Bonnie Liz would be able to catch Cassandra or the BC to stop them from getting home.
Round 3 saw Cassandra and Banshee’s Cry dock home their 16 gold for a shutout win!
The Grim Express: 16 gold
Spanish: 0
Many times in the past when using Calypso, I don’t get her roll to work on the first turn. Here it was a boon when combined with going first. In addition, I found 16/30 gold on the islands I whirled towards, making it easy to win without having to steal any gold with Grim or deal with the Santa Isabel.
The good news about it being a quick “whirlpool ride” of a game meant that we would easily be able to fit two more games in that day!
The first Wizkids Pirates game of Dice Tower West 2024 was at 5 players, 40 points! Three of the players were brand new, and I had extras on hand to help them make their first fleets. It would be an introductory game with a few house rules to simplify and streamline the setup.
We placed 3 islands per player, 1 terrain per player, and each player contributed 8 regular coins of any total value (many of which were chosen randomly). We didn’t have room for the standard 3L-6L distance, so islands could be any distance apart. Home islands were chosen in reverse turn order. We did use flat earth rules (edges of playing areas as impassable boundaries), and generic crew could use their abilities on ships of any nationality (partly since we mostly just used paper crew chips).
Here is the setup!
Here are the fleets in play order:
French Corsairs:
Bey’s Revenge + captain
Desert Wind
L’Intrepide
Le Bon Marin
English:
HMS Goliath
HMS Sultan
HMS Granville + captain
French:
La Ville de Paris
Tepant
Cleopatre + oarsman
English Pirates:
HMS Nautilus + captain, 1 other crew
Gibraltar (flotilla)
Bloody Jewel + helmsman, explorer
Lynx + helmsman
Modified version of Guide Grim to the Goodies
-I removed The Hag of Tortuga, both events, all UT’s, and replaced the Banshee’s Cry+crew with El Chico. Also added an oarsman to Morocco to fill out the fleet at 40 points.
Desert Wind got into an altercation with the Granville on the former’s attempt to steal gold from the Sultan, but neither ship could do much damage initially. The Nautilus/Gibraltar combo took a few masts off Tepant, but sailed into the fog bank to avoid a larger conflict with the Ville de Paris. Many ships scattered across the map in search of treasure.
The French Corsairs continued to harass the English, with the Bey’s Revenge getting involved. The “pure French” were the only fleet to struggle with gold collection, as La Cleopatre was sunk by the Nautilus/Gibraltar combo.
The English split up their schooners, with the Granville raking the Bon Marin and dismasting her. Nautilus/Gibraltar hits twice on Morocco, but she has enough rowing speed to dock home her second haul of loot.
Neither Corsair galley took reef damage.
Over the course of a few turns, the French Corsairs managed to dismast the Granville and capture her, while Bey’s Revenge started towing the Bon Marin. Nautilus/Gibraltar took out 2 masts on the Cassandra, but she was able to dock home her 3 coins and start repairing. Morocco has finished repairing from her encounter with the same enemy. At the top of the frame, the slow French attempt a blockade of the English Pirates’ home island. However, Bloody Jewel (just out of frame north of them) would speed through it without being dismasted, netting a couple more coins for the English Pirates.
Both Granville and Bon Marin were towed home successfully by the French Corsairs, and repaired one mast each. Sultan made a move towards Granville, but thought better of it when realizing a failed ram could pin her indefinitely to a docked Granville at her new captor’s HI. At the end of the game, the English and French Corsairs did get into a larger scuffle than their initial battle, with HMS Goliath captured in the fray. As the English HI was closest to Grim’s, this allowed the Cassandra to swoop in and steal 3 treasures. The game ended due to time constraints before she could get it home, but it would still count since treasure on ships counts in multiplayer games. The other final coins in play would also count – one each on Nautilus and Morocco.
Final Scores:
Guide Grim to the Goodies: 50 gold
French Corsairs: 28
English and English Pirates tied: 18 (English Pirate player had to leave a round early, so not sure who would have had more units in play)
French: 0
A solid intro game of Pirates CSG at Dice Tower West 2024! All players had fun learning and playing the game, and everyone was able to fire the cannons today (my lone shot was a Jolly Mon miss lol). Grim’s HI hoard netted me 7 from the English, so the only result change if that hadn’t occurred would be the English firmly in third ahead of the English Pirates (25-18).
Stay tuned for more, as more Pirates games are due to be played at the convention!
Here is the updated bracket. In between each matchup are the scores by game; the higher fleet of each matchup has their score first (bottom fleet is second score) regardless of who went first.
Thanks for watching and feel free to stay tuned for the rest of the tournament.
Here is the updated bracket. In between each matchup are the scores by game; the higher fleet of each matchup has their score first (bottom fleet is second score) regardless of who went first.
Thanks for watching and feel free to stay tuned for the rest of the tournament.
This was 3 games between two competitive fleets. It was a play-in round for Tournament #3 (T3), which is an 8 fleet competitive tournament I’ll be playing from February to April 2024.
Made a couple illegal fort plays; sorry about that. (you must have a ship in your fleet of the same faction of any fort you build, unless your fleet is only minor factions which these were not)
Game 1:
Game 2:
Game 3:
Interesting that the fleet that went first won each game. UPS 4.1 wins the series gold score 34-24, but that’s not what counts here! I think UPS 4.1 can easily win if they go first and get a good island, but that relies on a bunch of luck. Looking forward to seeing Kill that UPS face one of my American Pirate fleets in Round 1 of T3; it will be interesting to see if an anti-UPS fleet can actually win a tournament or if it’s mostly just relegated to being a UPS counter.
For the first time ever, I played Pirates CSG on Christmas Day! Big thanks to kogz03 (Stefan) for hosting! In this 2 player 100 point game, we used the Vegas house rules with the exception that we would place 5 terrain each instead of 3.
Kogz rolled to go first, leading to me picking a home island in the north. He settled just east of me and we were ready to go!
Kogz03’s Pirates
Revenant + Captain Mysion (F&S version), captain, helmsman, shipwright, oarsman
Black Pearl + Calico Cat (SM version), Hammersmith (F&S version), crew
Raven’s Neck + Le Requin, captain, helmsman, crew
Recreant + helmsman, 2 crew
Bloody Jewel + Genny Gallows, explorer
Banshee’s Cry + silver explorer
Jolly Mon + The Hag of Tortuga (CC version)
A7XfanBen’s Americans
Blackwatch + Commodore Matthew Perry, captain, helmsman, stinkpot shot
New Orleans + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Nene-nui + helmsman, explorer
Tombstone + helmsman
Kentucky + Commodore Edward Preble, captain, helmsman
Julius Caesar + captain, explorer
Coins: Grease Barrels, Runes of Thor, Jack’s Compass, 1,3,4,5,7
I lucked out with Preble on turn 1, giving an AA to Nene-nui so she was able to zoom out to the center island and explore in the first round. I found Rum and 7,3,1 at the island, with Rum stopping the ship for a turn but bumping the overall haul I could take to 14 total gold. Kentucky, Revenant and Recreant redocked, but many other ships scattered.
Raven’s Neck got SAT from Le Requin and shot a couple masts off Nene-nui with her first move action, then ducked into the fog bank with the second move action. Revenant and Recreant approached the middle, leading me to pounce. Kentucky and Blackwatch teamed up to sink Recreant, while stinkpot shot froze all of Revenant’s crew for the next Pirate turn! At the upper left, Julius Caesar and Tombstone have drained the northwestern island of its treasure (Runes of Thor + 4,1,1), but the Black Pearl looms via round earth….
With Revenant hitting on her 2L jib cannon and Raven’s Neck getting another SAT, Blackwatch is sunk!
I started a pivotal turn by rolling for Preble’s AA, but neither roll worked (Reroll via Kentucky). This prompted me to flip Runes of Thor and force the roll to a 6, giving me a much-needed AA to speed the Nene-nui back home with her impressive gold haul. I then went all-or-nothing with the Julius Caesar. Black Pearl (BP) had dismasted Tombstone, and the JC’s best shot to dismast the BP was with a Broadsides Attack. It missed with a 2, all but ensuring I would lose the western battle. I didn’t expect my cannon luck to improve, and so the Kentucky and New Orleans docked home for safety rather than pressing the attack on the Revenant + Raven’s Neck. I thought about building Thompson’s Island to help JC and repair Tombstone, but didn’t want to risk losing the fort gold to a BP double shoot via Calico Cat’s SAT.
Sure enough, the Black Pearl unleashed a devastating cannonade on Kogz’ turn, sinking both American ships at the island and sending 6 gold to the depths!
With half my fleet sunk, it would be tough to get much of the last gold scraps remaining, with Bloody Jewel and Banshee’s Cry having emptied out most of the southern islands. BC had already used Jack’s Compass to get home and still had Grease Barrels for a little boost on the next return trip. Raven’s Neck explored the middle island, with Revenant acting as escort.
It seemed as though my best play was to get eliminated to force an earlier gold count, since Kogz still had some coins on different ships. However, this process was started too late. I also thought about building Thompson’s Island in the southwest on a theoretical final turn of play to secure the last coin on that island, but BP could outrace Nene-nui there. Kentucky and New Orleans doubled back and opened fire on Revenant.
Revenant went in guns blazing, but felled two of her own masts via Mysion’s gunners backfiring! It was a Vegas-style gamble of a shoot action, with two 1’s rolled before the final cannon hit Kentucky for double damage on a 6! Raven’s Neck pulled up and finished off Kentucky, leaving New Orleans to battle alone.
Black Pearl sinks the Nene-nui!
New Orleans did manage to sink Revenant, but Kogz had already turned the tide. Various sources of income were all over his home island – Perry’s Ransom payout, silver, and Genny’s bonus in addition to regular gold.
Black Pearl sinks New Orleans to end the game!
Scores:
Kogz03: 22 gold
A7XfanBen: 14
The Christmas Pirate reigns supreme! A well-earned victory that saw him win on gold and completely eliminate my fleet as well. The final SW coin was a 2, so snagging that with a fort play wouldn’t have changed the results. Even hitting on that crucial Broadsides Attack may not have been enough for me to win. I was really happy to use stinkpot shot successfully and use the Runes of Thor to force an AA to work at a good time. Hopefully I’ll be able to use the ability of New Orleans next time I use her.
How Stefan stole Christmas! ;P Haha! After playing on Christmas Eve in 2017 and having a Sleigh game last year, perhaps it was time to play on 12/25. Happy Holidays and thanks for reading!
First time in Las Vegas for Epic Scale Pirates CSG!
11/26/2023
Captain Randy and I met up at Sunset Park in Las Vegas for the first Epic Scale game ever played in Nevada! The Epic Scale fleet has a new home after my move from Washington state. We did a draft to make 80 point fleets. As usual, we’d be using the Las Vegas house rules.
Video introduction:
Randy rolled to go first, so I picked my home island (HI) first. Here are the mixed fleets!
Captain Randy:
Revenant + captain, helmsman, musketeer, oarsman
HMS Interceptor + explorer
Crocodile + captain
Grinder + explorer
HMS Sea Phoenix + helmsman
Ben:
Muninn + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist, oarsman
Emerald Rose (custom made by PDXYAR) + Lawrence, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Terror of Gibraltar + helmsman
Fathom + helmsman, explorer
Le Coeur du Lion + helmsman
-I’ve been wanting to change up my fleets and strategies a bit, so here I was looking to run gold with the Fathom by cancelling the Mercenary keyword with Lawrence. He could use his abilities on the Emerald Rose due to her “Free Ride” ability to let crew of any nationality use their abilities on the ship. For the draft, Muninn was my first overall pick as the main warship. Terror of Gibraltar is a bit of an underwhelming ship, but helped keep the minor faction theme and added another oared ship. Coeur filled out the points since I was getting tight on cargo if I added more crew to the main ships.
4 coins per island and we were ready to start playing Epic Scale for the first time in Las Vegas! Ironically there was a bit too much wind for the ships to handle in the first half of the game, but we were able to weigh down the coins and islands/terrain with some objects as the game went on.
My fleet completely scattered away from my central HI location, while Randy had two groups of ships. Revenant, Interceptor and Sea Phoenix headed “west”, while Grinder and Crocodile went south.
I was in the mood for some decisive action! Muninn emerged from fog to blast away at Interceptor and Revenant, but only shot 2/6! She did manage to set the Interceptor aflame. Making matters worse, it appeared that my poor cannon luck would be in full swing today, as Emerald Rose shot 0/3 to completely miss the Sea Phoenix! Overall it was 2/9 shooting on cannons with an average rank of <2.5. The Muninn also failed to do ram damage on the Interceptor, making it a very poor combat showing.
As expected, swift retribution followed! Revenant used her ability to shoot through the Interceptor, and was aided by the English to sink the Muninn.
Fathom docked home a couple coins after Lawrence cancelled her Mercenary keyword as planned. Terror of Gibraltar stole a coin from the Grinder after the latter explored in the east, but took some damage for the gesture. Coeur du Lion is exploring at the outskirts. Captain Randy looks at coins with feigned despair as HMS Sea Phoenix explores for the first time.
What I lacked in cannon luck, I made up for with fog bank exit location rolls. Terror of Gibraltar (ToG) got a perfect roll to dock home her stolen loot. Emerald Rose shot a few masts off the Revenant, with HMS Interceptor struggling to contribute due to her shipboard fires. Fathom dove underwater in anticipation of chasing down HMS Sea Phoenix, who had 3 coins aboard.
From another angle:
Revenant stayed put to not have her captain cancelled by Lawrence, shooting at Emerald Rose. Emerald Rose was crippled, but managed to dismast Interceptor on the next turn. Coeur gets home with a couple coins, while Crocodile struggles to get into action with no helmsman to boost her speed. Fathom and ToG both have their sights set on HMS Sea Phoenix.
Fathom surfaces to ram and board the Sea Phoenix! A 5 is stolen! ToG gets another ideal fog exit roll and does the same, grabbing a second 5! Interceptor is doomed to burn as Revenant is dismasted by Emerald Rose. A turning point in the game (with the benefit of hindsight, and if there were stats such as predicted gold score on each round).
Grinder rams ToG to steal back a 5!
The late-game excitement continued, as HMS Sea Phoenix came to my HI to steal a 3! This marked the second time in as many days that I was robbed at my HI by an English ship! (my favorite faction) Alas, perhaps that’s a bad idea – karma against A7XfanBen doesn’t work too well. 😉 For I had the gold advantage with the goodies that Fathom brought back – her 6 gold (an extra 1 from Sea Phoenix ramming her back to try and steal the 5) transferred to Coeur (who then explored my HI) would make a big difference. Coeur then rammed the Sea Phoenix to steal the 3 back, dismasting her in the process and effectively ending the threat. Revenant was able to row at S+S and shoot her musketeer since she wasn’t derelict, but her and Crocodile couldn’t quite do enough to win the endgame. I think Sea Phoenix stole a 1 as well that got transferred to Crocodile, but I was content to let it slip away, especially with darkness falling on the game by this point.
Scores:
Ben: 20 gold
Randy: 14
Blackbeard’s descendant showing off his haul:
What a contest for the Epic Scale fleet’s first time in Las Vegas Nevada! This was one of the better Epic Scale games I’ve played so far. It had a good amount of combat and piracy in it, and if things had just gone slightly differently, Randy would have won. I was really happy with how all of my ships contributed to the victory – Muninn didn’t last long but helped neutralize Interceptor, ToG and Fathom both played essential roles exploring and stealing gold, Coeur quietly added to my total and had a clutch transfer (from Fathom) and a ram of Sea Phoenix at the end, and Emerald Rose was a workhorse throughout.
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I met up with Stefan (Kogz03) to play at this meetup in south Las Vegas! We were able to teach 2 new interested players, making it a 4×80 game! (4 players, 80 points) We used the Las Vegas house rules. I made a couple quick beginner fleets for the new players. Stefan and I probably had an advantage with our named crew, but we didn’t know if anyone would want to join us (fleets made in advance) and I think it can be best to avoid named crew for a player’s first game. Here are the fleets in the order of play:
Marco’s Frenchmen
La Ville de Paris + captain, helmsman
Tepant + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Cleopatre + captain, helmsman
L’Intrepide + explorer
La Courageux + captain
Le Bon Marin
Ben’s Spaniards
El Corazon Dorado + Victor de Alva (F&S), helmsman, Contessa Anita Amore (23)
El Neptuno + captain, tribal chieftain (24)
La Santa Ana + Dominic Freda (LE version), captain, helmsman, oarsman (22)
Concepcion + helmsman, explorer, oarsman (16)
Spanish native canoes
Coins: Rats, Fireworks, Weapons, 5 0’s
-My strategy was to bump up the 0 values with my gold bonus ships, which works better in a 1v1 game due to the 0’s taking up a greater percentage of the total coins in play. Rats would hopefully make it an even more low-scoring game that I could benefit from while hurting an opponent. Fireworks would be quite useful on any of my captained ships (especially Neptuno!), unlike something like HMS Gallows that already has essentially perfect cannons. I’ve always loved the high-cargo Spanish 4 masted square rigged ships, which evoke themes of Spanish treasure galleons from the Age of Sail. I often like to use them in tandem, with the Neptuno acting as a third galleon of sorts, but with some armament as well.
Spice’s English
HMS Goliath + captain, helmsman, oarsman
HMS London + captain, helmsman
HMS Sultan + captain, helmsman
HMS Lady Provost + helmsman, explorer, oarsman
HMS Bletchley
The English draw first blood! HMS London blasts masts off the Concepcion after she loaded some loot.
Fleets scattered about, with L’Intrepide snagging coins from the middle, leaving a 0 coin for HMS Bletchley to find. The Lady Provost has explored for 4 coins, denying the Spanish native canoes that island as HMS Sultan also round earths to provide escort protection. The Divine Dragon starts her night by shooting poorly, but eventually manages to dismast the Courageux.
The Tepant wades into the fray, deepening the Franco-Cursed conflict:
Both of my “bonus galleons” got home with 3 coins apiece, while the Neptuno explored for 3 coins of her own. El Corazon Dorado had her hands full watching both the London and Sultan. My canoes scattered, unlikely to get any gold with how fast it was flying off the wild islands. In the east, the Cleopatre takes a third mast off the Flying Dutchman while Intrepide docks home her coins. The Cursed have Grinder and Sea Duck explore.
With the nearby Spanish 4 masters all docked at home, HMS London heads east to continue her cannon barrage! She shoots 3/4 to sink two canoes and dismast the Bon Marin!
Victor de Alva didn’t give his Corazon Dorado an extra action all game, but that didn’t stop him from blasting 2 masts off the London. Concepcion is looking to “plus up” a 0 she left behind on her first gold trip. Neptuno is looking to offload her gold to Freda’s Santa Ana (to get the +2 bonus on at least one coin) and receive the Fireworks UT in return, potentially setting up a deadly weapon where Neptuno could hit on 4-6 at L+L range. HMS Lady Provost gets the English on the board, while the Goliath searches for treasure of her own. The eastern firefight has calmed down slightly – Tepant shot masts off the Divine Dragon, who explores rather than continue the bloodshed. The Cleopatre raids The Cursed home island (HI) of a coin, but is staring down a bunch of 2L cannons on the FD and Grinder.
Unfortunately time was running out, so we had to call for a last round – Stefan would get the final player turn so all players could have an equal number of turns. With this knowledge and the multiplayer rule that gold on ships counts towards victory, it got more desperate in a hurry. The following picture shows the second to last round of play.
London pivots to starboard and shoots at Corazon! Lady Provost makes a beeline for my home island, with a raid imminent! That would wreck my plans of having a gold factory and getting Neptuno set up for firework carnage (since I wanted to offload the gold but also stop Lady P if possible). Maybe the combo will work another time!
On the final round, the Spanish desperately tried to maximize their gold score while denying Lady P from stealing anything. However, Corazon only shot 1/3, and Neptuno missed all 5 shots at L+L range, with no 6’s rolled. She did dock home her 3 coins, while Santa Ana sped north to load the final coin from her previously explored wild island, in case it would matter in the final count. With 1 mast standing, Lady P was able to sneak around Corazon at S+L+S speed and steal a coin, which would count for the English in the scores.
The carnage continues out east! Cleopatre was dismasted by a Broadsides Attack from the Flying Dutchman! This allowed Grinder to capture the Cleopatre, but Tepant and Ville de Paris were on the scene to make sure The Cursed didn’t get their stolen coin back. Both ships were shot to the ocean floor! Overall the French had very good cannon luck in this game – lots of their shots hit, while a lot of enemy shots against them missed. Alas, they had only explored one island and it wasn’t very valuable.
Nearly at an end:
On their final turn, The Cursed broadsided the Ville de Paris and had Sea Duck pick up a final coin that would count towards victory.
Scores:
Spanish: 26 gold
The Cursed: 22
English: 14
French: 3
A rousing adventure to start two new pirate careers! This 4×80 game featured shooting, stealing, and plenty of good action! The gold bonuses proved key, as I believe they accounted for at least 6 of my gold. Stefan also found the Rats UT, which took a couple gold off his total. The Lady Provost’s raid only stole a low-value coin – if she had snagged the 5 instead, it would have been a very close 22-21-19 Cursed victory! However, the Spanish made up for their lack of EA and cannon luck with a big gold haul. I feel like a bunch of recent games have seen UT luck not go my way, so it was nice to have that strategy pay off a bit – I might even use a similar fleet in the future to try the Fireworks combo again. Neptuno using it could be spectacular, but Santa Ana or Corazon Dorado could have made good use of it as well.
Thanks again to all who played! For anyone reading that wants to play, let me know if you’re in Las Vegas! 😀
Kogz03 English
HMS Titan + Thomas Gunn (RotF version), Lawrence, Administror Scott Bratley
HMS London + Hermione Gold (RotF version)
Aberdeen Baron + helmsman
HMS Hound + explorer
Ben’s English
HMS Phoenix + Admiral James Norrington, helmsman, oarsman (20)
HMS Lord Kenyon + captain, helmsman (15)
HMS Rye + explorer (10)
-towing Gibraltar (7)
Honu Iki + explorer (8) (for a lot of battle reports I just paste my fleet notes from a document into the BR, which is why sometimes there are point totals for me but not opponents)
Due to the limited table space available, it would be a tight setup. However, this promised to make the games fast and furious, and made it far more likely we’d be able to finish a second game before the Panera Bread closed at 9.
First turn carnage!! Hound and Aberdeen snag 7 coins between them, but I had to pounce to stay alive in the game. Rye snagged the final coin from the southwestern island, with Gibraltar dismasting the Hound! (I intended to capture for her gold) Phoenix (who redocked to stay safe), and Lord Kenyon (LK) teamed up to nearly dismast the Titan! Norrington’s cannon bonus was irrelevant against a fellow Briton, but LK was devastating, eliminating the maximum 3 masts from her shoot+ram barrage.
Honu Iki has explored the southeastern island.
Aberdeen couldn’t quite reach home, leaving her open to a cannonade from the Gibraltar flotilla, which knocked out 3 masts but wouldn’t prevent her from docking home her booty on the next turn. HMS London dismasted the Honu Iki, while the Titan docked at home.
Rye captured Hound after dropping her tow of the flotilla. LK risked getting a 1 on her ram roll of HMS Titan, but the gamble paid off. The Titan’s final mast fell overboard from the concussive impact, allowing Phoenix to capture the ship! (I was also gambling that the final face down crew on the Titan was some kind of captain, not an oarsman, which proved to be Thomas Gunn)
Aberdeen Baron docked home her coins. HMS London arrived on the scene to contest my capture of the Titan, but couldn’t get all cannons in range of Phoenix and took out 2 masts. This allowed Phoenix and Gibraltar to dismast London my turn, with Titan firmly switching sides with a double repair after getting towed home. Bratley would be worth 5 gold to me, but I wasn’t finding any good values even with my capture of the Hound. Since Rye had no helmsman but LK did, LK took up towing duties of the Hound while Rye went off to get meager loot from the southeast and possibly rescue Honu Iki.
With the English being my favorite faction, it felt strangely cathartic to capture some of my favorite ships in the game (Hound and Titan) and nearly snag London as well. However, the gold race was not in my favor, with Kogz finding the 6 and 4 he had contributed, among others. Hound and all the southeast gold was mine, but Aberdeen was able to get the northwest island’s gold home in just a couple short turns, with LK not wanting to dismast and end the game since I would prematurely lose. (almost nothing on my HI until the final round)
Kogz English: 26 gold
Ben’s English: 17 gold (12+5 from Ransom)
What an interesting game! I’ve had games similar to this in the past where one player can dominate the combat but lose the gold race, but usually it’s not this lopsided. (usually either a closer gold score, or the combat winner is able to control the endgame and win)
For our second game, Kogz switched to an all-Guichuan setup. I only brought one fleet and would be running the same setup. I answered a few questions about Kogz’ fleet beforehand; both players knew the entire crew setups of the other fleet before the game began.
Kogz’ Guichuan
Guichuan + The Headhunter, Davy Jones (DJC version), El Fantasma (OE version), helmsman, shipwright, explorer, oarsmen x3
We redid the island setup and actually remembered to add terrain! I rolled to go first this turn, and tried to pick a home island that had quick access to 3 of the 4 wild islands.
I did reach 3 islands on my first turn, but could only explore 2 of them since LK had no explorer. However, Fantasma was ready for slaughter, saccing to dismast Rye and then round earthing to dismast the Phoenix!
I made sure to have a huge homecoming party and all-out attack on the Guichuan! Rye rowed into position where she was within S for cancelling, but also got all of Gibraltar’s dangerous cannons in range. Combined with LK, 3 masts were shot away. Honu Iki dropped off 3 coins, while Phoenix rowed for home at S+S but couldn’t quite hide behind LK and was likely doomed.
Sure enough, Guichuan stayed in the fight and sank the Phoenix. Fantasma sacced another oarsman to repair and shoot, with Gibraltar’s flag being shot off. Fear affected both Rye and LK (6’s to limit their base moves to S on my next turn).
The English spent another turn blasting away, taking the Guichuan down to 3 masts. Fantasma sacced again to explore the northeast island and then round earthed to deposit the coins. This allowed Rye to dock home her coin and repair, while LK looked to get the rest of the gold that the Rye had found on turn 1.
Guichuan repaired two masts in a double action. LK and Honu Iki have drained the southern islands, while Rye has designs on round earthing to the northwest to snag the best coin from the final unexplored island!
Rye was able to grab a coin while Guichuan was busy copying Extended Range to blast away at the LK. We took a look at how much gold each of us had, knowing that we had contributed the same 38 total gold between us as the last game. I calculated that I could just edge out the win if I held steady with the gold currently in my possession, thankful I wouldn’t have to risk going back to the northwestern island again.
Guichuan cleaned out the NW island and LK and Rye managed to make it back with their loads!
English: 20 gold
Guichuan: 18
A very close finish! I think going first and being able to divert my ship resources across the map made up for the early loss of the Phoenix and not having any extra actions available in my fleet.
A nice pair of 60 point games! We both won, and got to use some pieces we’d been looking forward to playing. Catch us soon in Vegas for more adventures!
PS: A quick heads up that we’re planning a big Pirates weekend at Dice Tower West from 3/8-3/10/2024. Let me know if you’d like to attend and hope to see you there!
