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.
It was finally time to debut the Maelstrom map that my friend Gino got me for Christmas! 😀 Two games at 60 points would be played, both using the Maelstrom house rules. The first was a Maelstrom of Gold, with the second being a quick deathmatch before we ran out of time. We played at Laughing Dragon MTG in Issaquah Washington. It was a really fun meetup – I got to see Luke for the first time in a while, with Xerecs (Billy) and Kyle getting the opportunity to play against Luke for the first time. This was also the second day in a row where Xerecs got to play a fellow PNW pirate for the first time. This was the first test of the Maelstrom house rules, so it was a bit of an experimental “wild west” game, with a couple small clarifications needed during the game. However, I was pleasantly a little surprised by how well it went overall.
We still used the Seattle house rules for any non-Maelstrom stuff. Here is the setup! (fleets are below)
If you’d prefer to check out parts of the game in video form, here is all the footage I recorded:
Here is a quick peek at the fleets in play order – all game pieces found in the Master Spreadsheet.
Xerecs was using Le Gaule, Longshanks+Calypso, and HMS Cordwainer (unreleased ship)+Lord Mycron.
Kyle went all English, with HMS Oxford, HMS Durham (FN), and HMS Granville among his ranks.
I felt it had been a while since I used a fleet with only minor factions in it, so I went with a relatively basic Corsair Mercenary fleet (alternatively called Barbary Mercs/etc).
Wicked Kareen + captain, helmsman (15)
Queen of Sheba + captain, helmsman, explorer (12)
Tasmanian Devil + captain, helmsman, fire shot (20) (should not have had fire shot due to only 2 cargo)
Shaihulud (13)
Luke had the Americans, bringing the Intrepid, Carolina towing Minuteman, and Rattlesnake.
After Xerecs passed giving actions on his first turn, the counterclockwise movement of fleets began. My Queen of Sheba and Wicked Kareen explored on the first turn, loading up a bunch of valuable gold.
Looking from the southwest, you can see the English have split up. Intrepid stays at home.
I was seated in the east, so most of the pictures will be from that perspective. Intrepid got a second action, whirling “backwards” after one move action to slam the Oxford! She took the English schooner down to 1 mast, but they were quickly ambushed by Le Gaule, who received an assist from Calypso to whirl into the combat area. OE Jordan Dumas was aboard to let Bonny Peel captain the ship, and she was ready for action. With the help of Lord Mycron and S-boarding, Bonny Peel managed to nab both 7 point crew from the two ships – Hermione Gold from Oxford and Montana Mays from the Intrepid! We were in for a swashbuckling adventure, with things just getting started. At the right, Queen of Sheba has explored another island and exchanged her lowest value coin from the previous island for the best coin of that island. Wicked Kareen has emerged from fog, not getting the 50% chance roll that she would end up on the wrong side of the fog bank and therefore “stuck” in the fog bank with no way to sail against the strong counterclockwise current. However, Kyle was making some good points about intentionally staying in fog until the coast was clear, since there was a lot less freedom of movement emerging from fog banks than usual.
The Americans have explored two islands. Intrepid returns home for repairs, while Le Gaule returns home for repairs and to unload Bonny Peel’s valuable hostages.
With two 7’s aboard, I was desperate to get the Wicked Kareen home (especially with no visible HI raiders present). She emerged from the fog bank and took a whirlpool shortcut into home waters, losing a mast in transit. In the northeast (far right), Tasmanian Devil and Shaihulud take up escort positions surrounding the Queen of Sheba. I believe the galley had even more gold on her than Wicked Kareen (I think 7,6,4). Intrepid and Gaule repair, while Kyle continues playing a very patient game.
Minuteman shot a mast off Wicked Kareen on Luke’s turn. He tried to position Rattlesnake to block incoming shots from hitting the Carolina/Minuteman.
Le Gaule takes center stage once again! She whirls into action, dismasting the Wicked Kareen and capturing her captain! Wicked Kareen rows S+S towards home but cannot reach it. HMS Durham got an extra action from Admiral Morgan and has switched fog banks, sinking the Rattlesnake on her way there.
Carolina ditched Minuteman to whirl home, with the flotilla shooting masts off Le Gaule. HMS Durham sank the Wicked Kareen! Intrepid is now fully repaired, but Le Gaule will have to pull into port for another repairing session. At the top, my close trio is making full sail towards the whirlpool in the northwest.
I was being way too aggressive with the setup, sending my trio of ships through the whirlpool towards home in an eager attempt to get Queen of Sheba’s gold unloaded safely. However, Kyle used HMS Durham coming out the back end (normally suboptimal) of a nearby fog bank to shoot and sink the galley! At this point I knew I was out of it, with only a loaded Mercenary ship and a 0-cargo sea monster in my fleet.
Luke was using the Intrepid to look for gold, using his amazing “schooner swing” tactic to move pseudo-backwards in a clockwise direction.
Le Gaule ended up aflame from a brutal engagement near the center, but Xerecs managed to come away with the Intrepid from it!
In the background, HMS Oxford is home repairing, the Longshanks has sailed out on her own, the English 3 masters have returned to a familiar fog haunt, and my Mercenary pieces are now out to hunt rather than escort.
Le Gaule became a full inferno, but the Longshanks managed to save her with the help of Lord Mycron giving an action to allow Longshanks to tow the Frenchman home. HMS Durham has captured the Carolina, while the Tasmanian Devil engages the Granville.
By this point, Luke was out of the game. Kyle (and the rest of us) wanted to get the second game in (we were approaching less than 45 minutes until the store closed), and sent his final ship through the center of the Maelstrom to become the second player out and end the game!
Scores:
Luke: 21 gold
Xerecs: 17
Kyle: 5
Ben: 1 (from taking out a Ransom crew)
Congrats to Luke on an interesting victory! Xerecs had a gold capture worth 5 gold on Le Gaule when the game ended, so he would have won if the game had gone on much longer. However, this was Luke’s first game in a while and possibly the last game I’ll play with him that I’ll be able to document, so it was somewhat fitting.
The second game had to be played at absolute mach speed, with players picking up their area in between turns. The Maelstrom of Death awaited!
Luke went first in this deathmatch, with some proxies in his fleet. The flotilla represents Death’s Anchor, while the other 1 master is the Lizard’s Sting.
I couldn’t resist using one of the ships involved in the movie battle. 🙂
Golden Medusa + Hammersmith, Anamaria, Eternal Gus Schultz, F&S Lenoir, oarsman (30)
Black Pearl + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist, stinkpot shot, oarsman (22)
Fancy + captain (8)
Kyle went with the same 60 point fleet from the last game. Xerecs went with HMS Grand Temple and the SCS Santa Ana, both with large crew complements of course.
The fleets began the process of circling each other, with Kyle and I not getting closer to the center except for the mandatory 1 ring closer at the end of each of our turns.
Xerecs caught Luke and crushed his main ship. My Fancy was sunk by Luke’s Fallen Angel/flotilla combo, but the others were fast enough to stay out of range.
Once the ships entered the center 3 rings, the game quickly devolved into an abrupt shooting match. Various ships were sunk, with the Black Pearl doing heavy damage to Kyle’s fleet once she caught up. Gus Schultz’s Eternal triggered on the Golden Medusa, sending the ship to the outer ring. The problem was, nobody else had Eternal, so it was kind of hard for me not to win. :/ (I figured at least one other person would bring something with Eternal, and didn’t realize it would be such an auto-win if they didn’t, due to the “countdown” nature of the maelstrom sucking ships towards the middle) We didn’t really have time to play the rest properly but I won since I had a fresh ship that would take many turns to “re-sink”.
I’ll rework at least one of the deathmatch rules, namely Eternal. Perhaps the ability gets “transformed” into something else that costs a similar amount of points, such as +1 or +2 to boarding rolls. In addition, there is a pretty severe incentive in the deathmatch rules to stay on the outside and avoid conflict as long as possible, letting aggressive players burn out and hit the center before you do. It would lead to everyone just biding their time and never approaching the center on purpose. Perhaps a more free deathmatch scenario would work better, where ships are not forced towards the middle and certain death every turn.
In addition, I’d like to experiment with opening up the movement around the maelstrom to go in either direction, especially for a regular game with gold. However, I’d say that the house rules generally worked pretty well, especially in the first game. Thanks again to Gino for the map, and thank you for reading!
Xerecs was in town for BrickCon, which is where he got the hat from!
Lastly, please consider supporting my efforts with this game by buying through my eBay affiliate links whenever you would normally buy Pirates CSG stuff from eBay. Purchases made through the links will give me a small commission which helps out the website and the things I do to help keep this game alive. Thank you!
In this fun night of pirating, I met up with former Wizkids employees and players from both Washington and California! We played the evening of September 9th, though this is being published on Talk Like a Pirate Day 2023. We met at Uncle’s Games in Redmond, with not a single table at Mox Boarding House Bellevue available due to what looked like multiple tournaments happening on a busy Saturday.
As usual, we used the Seattle house rules. Phillip rolled to go first, followed by Xerecs, Chris, then me. Here are quick snapshots of the fleets in play order.
Phillip went with an all-Junk Cursed fleet. Among others, Guichuan had OE Davy Jones and Divine Dragon had OE Fantasma.
Xerecs and Chris happened to bring fleets with similar strategies. Xerecs had Intermediario, Behemoth, and Seleucis along with the San Cristobal, Le Superbe, and Paradox. Paradox carried multiple chieftains, with Xerecs bringing in 15 native canoes! That included the Cursed canoes, along with the unreleased sets of English and French canoes from Return to Savage Shores.
Chris also had Intermediario, Behemoth, and Seleucis! However, his supporting cast was different, composed of Pequod, L’Intrepide, Gog-Cloctoth, El Toro (OE), the 2 masted Nightmare, and 10 native canoes!
After enjoying the success of the kraken cancelling in Tampa after Gasparilla, I wanted to try them in an even larger game, knowing that a ton of crew would likely be in play. However, Behemoth’s copy ability would allow me to have not two but THREE sources of kraken cancelling, making it quite likely that I would be able to shut down crew every turn. O_O
The Kraken (24)
Kray-Kin (21)
Behemoth (19)
Frontier + OE Montana Mays, RotF Gus Schultz, Wayne Nolan, helmsman, oarsman (29)
Plague of the South + helmsman, explorer (13)
Le Bon Marin + helmsman, oarsman (9)
Banshee’s Cry + Jonah, Captain Davy Jones, navigator (12)
Le Coeur du Lion + Princess Arii Auraa, Capitaine Baudouin Deleflote (11)
Bloody Jewel + Calypso (12)
UT’s: Curse of Davy Jones, Jack’s Piece of Eight
The Plague of the South was a fun combination of some cool stuff I’ve gotten from friends – the deckplate was made by Gazerbeam543 (who features in some of my 2022 battle reports), while the model was 3D printed by PirateCaptainAndrew.
I also got to meet Jason Mical for the first time! He was one of the primary flavor text writers for the game, and you can learn more about that in the podcast we did together. Mike Mulvihill was there too!!
Mike also brought along Seth Johnson, who mostly worked on other Wizkids games back in the day but did a little bit of flavor text and playtesting for Pirates. A full pirate crew!
The former Wizkids folks stayed to watch a few rounds and then headed to dinner. The four of us were ready to set sail! There was a fun little prize pool for the winner too – Xerecs’ brother JW Darkhurst put up a Crimson Coast pack as a reward, while Jason put up a Bloody Throne + Scrye the Explorer pack!
The San Cristobal wipes out some hostile canoes as Xerecs’ canoes round earth towards his home island (HI):
Fleets headed out, but the kraken cancelling slowed them down.
Both Xerecs and Chris would be using Seleucis as a kind of “monster Mycron”, often giving the squid’s move action to Intermediario or Behemoth.
8 of Xerecs’ canoes are in fog. Kray-kin surrounds Sea Rat, while Plague of the South and Le Bon Marin explore nearby islands. Frontier gets a double action via Deleflote to go through a whirlpool, load gold with her free action hoist explore, then return home via whirlpool.
I had found both UT’s I contributed, but between the krakens and 3 of my ships already carrying gold, I knew I would be a big target.
Rules gaffe on my part: I’m still getting used to how the krakens and their cancelling works, so I forgot that although you can select which players’ turns you roll for the cancelling on, if it works (on a 5 or 6), it still cancels the abilities of ALL crew in play, regardless of player. Kraken cancelling hit on the very first turn (Phillip), which affected all the Jonah-type abilities in play, meaning that ships overloaded on crew/equipment would have to toss people overboard to make setups legal. As a result, by the time this picture was taken, Deleflote and Captain Davy Jones should have already been out of the game (they would soon be tossed). Sorry! However, I don’t think this affected the results much if at all, partly because of what happened next. Next time I make a kraken fleet, I will make sure that no ships are overloaded with Jonah/Auraa/Robinson/etc helping out. 🙂 The early-game crew chaos also affected Xerecs’ fleet, since Paradox had to toss chieftains which restricted his ability to move canoes throughout the rest of the game.
Phillip’s crew are able to function on round 2, allowing Divine Dragon to go nuts! She sinks the Frontier (revived with Gus Schultz’s Eternal) and dismasts the Plague of the South. This took out 3 coins when the Frontier’s treasure was removed from the game.
On the next turn, although Plague of the South wasn’t able to reach home, Frontier got her gold home via hoisting it to land. Kray-kin sank the Sea Rat.
Long shot of the ocean:
This was a game filled with tentacles. 3 Behemoths, 2 krakens, and additional squids. At some points, this area of the map looked like a sea creature party!
Delusion gets some gold home as the west settles down:
The Kraken was able to chain over and eliminate one of Xerecs’ gold-carrying canoes. San Cristobal heads home for repairs. As expected with this many points in play and still only 8 coins contributed per player, the loot was drying up quick. The Pequod had some of the last available coins in play, prompting me to get Kray-kin back in action. To the right of them, I believe that’s my Behemoth that has been nearly killed after surfacing to sink a canoe carrying a coin. As the endgame began, it became more and more worth it to risk big assets in an attempt to influence the gold race. Ships and crew became more disposable as the gold dwindled. Remarkably, there were no home island raiders in play, meaning that gold was safe once on HI’s.
Phillip was eager to get into more fights with The Cursed, sending the Guichuan and Divine Dragon further and further east in search of targets. He got one of his main wishes, killing Kray-kin! With a perfect 5 roll, Fear cancelled the beast’s Kraken keyword, allowing Guichuan to send it to the depths! DD has captured Pequod, but they will face further challenges if The Cursed want to get any of her coins home.
A Behemoth rams the Guichuan head on!
Between Sunken Treasure and numerous coins getting +1 to their value by his Spanish canoes, Chris was looking like the clear favorite to win.
Carnage intensifies as Chris and Phillip go at it. Guichuan loses masts to El Toro and Behemoth, while Intermediario rams the Divine Dragon.
From very early in the game, Xerecs still controlled one of the last coins in play – one coin on a Cursed canoe.
The Cursed were eventually crushed, with Guichuan going into a fog bank and Divine Dragon dismasted.
Intermediario had stolen a coin or two from the DD, prompting The Kraken to surround the squid! A tentacle battle!
More shots ring out, with my creatures taking injuries:
As we approached the end of the game, Xerecs massed nearly his entire fleet in the far west in anticipation of escorting his final coin home from the canoe-heavy fog bank.
With little else to fight over, the area quickly became popular again. Gog-Clocthoth has rammed San Cristobal, while other ships and creatures begin flocking to the scene.
The middle area is a confusing debris field.
With his heavy escort providing cover, Xerecs was finally able to get the double action he needed to yank the coin from the canoe and get it home!
Scores:
Chris: 40 gold
A7XfanBen: 21
Xerecs (Billy): 19
Phillip: 7
That concludes the 4×150 game! It was an interesting game, with some good lessons for the future.
-Krakens should probably not share fleets with ships that use point reducers for crew overstuffing.
-I think with build totals this high, the game could use maybe some additional coins in play, or possibly more islands. No players were close to being eliminated, and various ships didn’t really see as much usage or play interaction as one might like. However, both of those things would make the game take longer, something that players could discuss in house rules well in advance of the game.
-The game’s results felt static throughout the game – this was probably partly a fluke and partly because there were no HI raiders in play. However, it felt like only the first third or so of the game mattered – I think the standings were basically static for the entire second half of the game, with limited chances for each player to move up or down in the gold race. I think 100 or 120 might be a good upper limit for games where the setup is mostly standard (3 islands per player and 8 coins per player). Once you get to 150, it’s a lot of points for maybe not enough gold. The longer length of the game could be mitigated by limiting the player count (ex: 2 or 3×150 with more gold), or changing up the parameters a bit. (ex: 4×120 with 5 or 6 coins per island, or 4 coins per island but 4 islands per player instead of 3)
I actually haven’t done much game theory thinking about point totals compared to islands/gold in play and the ratios for each. However, this game got me thinking about it and I’ll probably try to do more analysis of that kind of thing in the future. (for reference, 4×100 is a personal favorite of mine, so perhaps it’s a good guide for the ratio of points in play to gold available. Similar ratios would be 5×80, 6×60, 3×150, etc.)
I did record a few combat situations, though just a little bit of raw footage.
Lastly, please consider supporting my efforts with this game by buying through my eBay affiliate links whenever you would normally buy Pirates CSG stuff from eBay. Purchases made through the links will give me a small commission which helps out the website and the things I do to help keep this game alive! Thank you!
3×60 Wizkids Pirates CSG game in Tacoma WA – Ben vs. Phillip vs. Chris
Fleets
Ben: Ultimate Saber Attack Combo (Bonny Peel, Decatur, OE Jordan Dumas, helmsman)
Libellule + Jules de Cissey, explorer
Le Triton
Phillip:
Guichuan + The Headhunter, Davy Jones (OE), Cavendish, Grim the Savage (FN), helmsman
Chris:
HMS Apollo (RotF LE) + Thomas Gunn (RotF), Sir Christopher Myngs
Maui’s Fishhook + Hermione Gold (RotF), Trevor van Tyne
HMS Patagonia + Bratley, Mycron, Robinson
Wizkids Pirates game with Mike Mulvihill, Tiffany O’Brien, Becky and Jared Wilson!
8/19/2023
This was one of my favorite opportunities with Pirates CSG thus far. A Wizkids Pirates game with some of the original crew! With my friend Tiffany O’Brien helping to coordinate, I was able to play a game with Mike Mulvihill (lead designer and game piece creator for the majority of the sets!), Tiffany (former Wizkids Product Manager when Pirates was being made), Becky Wilson (former Wizkids Marketing & Communications Manager in the last chunk of the Wizkids Pirates era), and Becky’s husband Jared! O_O Huge thanks to them for playing, and to Tiffany for being so awesome and helping to bring us all together! 😀 We met up at Mox Boarding House Bellevue, one of my favorite venues for playing. A video version of this battle report is at the very bottom of this page if you prefer that style.
They hadn’t played in quite some time, so I made fleets for all the players – therefore, all crew started the game face up for simplicity and because I knew what all the crew in play were. The fleets were made mostly based on the player’s faction preferences that they sent me beforehand. We played almost purely standard rules, with the exception of picking home islands in reverse turn order (rather than picking each others), and having some islands less than 3L-6L apart due to space constraints with 15 islands on the map. We placed 3 terrain each, with a few within S of an island. We simply used random coins, with no UT’s. No forts would be used either. Flat earth rules with the border being an impassable boundary.
Tiffany rolled to go first! She was stoked to be playing as her own character in the game, created by Mike. Eileen Brigid O’Brien! Tiffany was truly “in” the game! It was truly a remarkable thing to witness – one of the original Pirates contributors playing in a game with her own character 15 years after the game went out of print.
Ben’s Pirates Cannibal King + Hammersmith (F&S version), explorer, oarsman (20) Skipping Stone + Gentleman Jocard, Genny Gallows (SM version), Genny’s Red Rampage, explorer (20)
-I had been wanting to use the Cannibal King for a while ever since I got a new one from generous PCSG community veteran Ve1m. My original copy in New York is broken to some degree, so it was cool to get an intact CK for use in Washington. That ship started the fleet, and then I figured I would complete it with another Pirate catamaran, the Skipping Stone. Cannibal King would try to rob opponents of gold after perhaps one trip to an island, while Skipping Stone would mostly gather gold in the traditional way. However, Skipping Stone still had some bite between her 3L cannons, +1 boards, and Reroll ability. She had 5 cargo total w/+1 and link, 3 that take up space for 2 total open spaces.
Jared’s Cursed Corsairs Bey’s Revenge + captain, explorer (17) Pestilence + captain, helmsman, oarsman (23)
-Jared had only played a few times but is an experienced gamer, and wanted something with more flair or complexity. He had the option of that Pestilence setup or a 23 point combo of Royal James + explorer and the Lechim Namod squid, choosing the former. That way he had some ship type keywords, Reverse Captain, and the Scorpion/Fear keywords to play around with.
With that, we were ready to set sail on the seas of nostalgia!
Ships mostly scattered to different islands in search of loot. Tiffany’s Nene-nui was the first to explore. The Algeciras whirled into the northwest to join the Cannibal King in the hunt for gold, but lost a mast in transit.
Hammersmith couldn’t resist the tempting Spaniard prize. He led the CK’s gunners in a brief broadside off her starboard quarter, leaving the Algeciras derelict. In the meantime, one of his explorers ran off onto the beach to snag some booty. Skipping Stone has explored the southwestern island and loaded the best two coins from it. Bey’s Revenge and Congress are exploring, while Nene-nui gets Tiffany/Eileen on the scoreboard.
A few rounds later, showing Hammersmith’s capture of the Algeciras as the CK returns home via whirlpool. The French are busy exploring the southeast, while Tiffany prepares to transfer her gold to the Nene-nui due to her Ex-Patriot keyword preventing her from docking the Congress at home.
Now the gold piles started to accumulate. A few ships were headed out for more.
The Cursed attack the French! Pestilence does battle against La Ville de Paris, but the French get the better of the encounter in the long run. The French gunners respond to being pinned with a powerful broadside that sinks the scorpion! Intrepide and Cleopatre return with gold, while the Congress is spotted near their HI.
The Congress gets in action! La Cleopatre is dismasted!
The Americans captured the Cleopatre with the Nene-nui, netting them a valuable home island raider for the late game. In the west, Skipping Stone and Concepcion have both docked home their second loads of treasure, netting Ben and Mike a pair of +2 gold bonuses each. More combat was brewing in the east, with Cannibal King shooting, ramming and boarding the Bey’s Revenge. A shot landed, but Hammersmith lost the boarding party, meaning one of his generic crew was killed in action.
That delay meant L’Intrepide was going to reach and be able to explore the northeast island before CK, so she went into a fog bank to wait until the gold had been loaded. Hammersmith wanted to steal it with the ship’s Hoard ability. Congress was headed northeast as well, and despite earlier American-French tension, Tiffany and Becky made it quite obvious they were likely working together for the rest of the game.
Nene-nui has whirled into the northwest to snag one of the lone remaining wild coins. With Cleopatre fully repaired and Becky and I both encouraging Tiffany to rob the other’s home island, Skipping Stone returned home to protect my gold. Mike’s Concepcion takes the center whirlpool to the southeast in pursuit of one of the other wild coins, but is immediately set upon by the Ville de Paris, who punishes the Spanish for encroaching on French territory. Intrepide and Congress are taking coins from the northeast island, while CK and Algeciras head towards fog to lie in wait for an ambush.
Jared wasn’t out of the game either! Down to one ship, he still played a role in the endgame phase. Bey’s Revenge slammed into the Congress and shot off two masts. Intrepide can take the last wild coin in the east with ease since the French have already explored that island. My ships are eager to influence the final coins in play, but a relatively healthy La Ville de Paris is a monstrous presence this late in a 40 point game.
Having lost her helmsman to the Congress earlier in the game, Cleopatre was only moving L. Skipping Stone shot off one of her masts as she approached my home island to steal gold. In the east, conflict erupts once again. With the Ville de Paris protecting the Intrepide, my Pirate raiders set upon the weakened Congress, taking out masts and crew (including Eileen! Tiffany is alive and well). Algeciras boards to steal one of her coins, but won’t be able to carry any more. Nene-nui and Concepcion return home, the former with a coin.
With such momentous players participating, I had to get some kind of video footage from this special event. 🙂
The typical desperation of the endgame in full swing! La Ville de Paris smashed up CK, blasting away her outrigger defenses and a mast. The Bey’s Revenge unsuccessfully boards the Algeciras, while Congress rows away at S+S, still with one coin aboard.
La Resolucion was approaching. She hadn’t seen combat yet, but the hyper-accurate Spanish warship could loom large against this cluster of weakened ships. Critically, Intrepide has docked home all her gold.
Cleopatre managed to steal a coin and start sailing away until the Skipping Stone’s gunners were finally awoken by a furious Genny Gallows rampaging through the gun decks. 2 more shots found their mark, leaving the raider derelict. However, Nene-nui was there to back up the schooner.
Nene-nui towed Cleopatre so as to keep her out of Skipping Stone’s cannon and ramming range, frustrating Jocard and Gallows who did not like seeing their booty stolen. The eastern battle has continued, as I decided to stand and fight, with little chance of escaping home with the stolen coin on Algeciras. CK went after the Congress again while Bey’s Revenge dismasted Algeciras.
Nene-nui was able to tow Cleopatre home on the American turn, completing a somewhat unlikely home island raid made more possible by the Skipping Stone’s combat futility and lack of captain ability. The Algeciras was sunk, and CK dismasted. The last coin or two were resolved soon afterwards, and the game was over!
Scores:
Becky’s French: 26 gold
Mike’s Spanish: 25
Ben’s Pirates: 21
Tiffany’s Americans: 18
Jared’s Cursed Corsairs: 13
A close finish with tons of gold collected! Congrats to Becky on the win! I thought it was cool how we all had a solid pile of gold at the end – everybody was easily into double digits. It was quite a good Wizkids Pirates game. Thank you again to Mike, who gave me some extra busts he had. Thanks again to everyone who played, and thank you for reading!
Ahoy mateys! I met up with Kyle for a pair of epic scale games, as we were Seafair Pirates for a day! Seattle Seafair is an annual tradition featuring hydroplanes and the Navy’s Blue Angels, and we figured it was a great event to showcase an outdoor game in the beautiful summer of the Pacific Northwest. We played at Aubrey Davis Park on Mercer Island, getting a good view of the jets on numerous occasions. It was also a great opportunity to get more attention on the game, and I handed out about 9 OE packs to about 5 interested parties throughout the afternoon.
When I play epic scale it’s usually a very casual game, so although we used a few of the usual house rules, they were mostly confined to the terrain changes. We did a draft to pick our pieces, with 80 points for the first game. Most of the past epic scale games have seen a crazy mishmash of factions for most of the fleets, so my goal with the draft was to have a bit more of a faction theme this time around. I rolled to go second, so I drafted first. I ended up with Revenant, Emerald Rose (a custom 3 master made by PDXYAR, the originators of the epic scale fleet), Grinder and A Fearsome Creature for a Cursed Pirate fleet. I was tempted to pick the 11 point Flying Dutchman as my final ship as the more pragmatic option, but couldn’t resist using a kraken in epic scale for the first time! That meant I had 23 points to spend on crew, so I got Emperor Blackheart for the Revenant, who would also have a captain. Emerald Rose had a captain and helmsman, with helmsman and explorer on the Grinder.
The Emerald Rose is a really nice looking ship! At some point I’ll have to repair her port quarter main deck area, but it works fine for now with the quarterdeck attached to hold the port side in place.
Kyle drafted HMS Interceptor, President, Nautilus and Proud Tortoise for a wide variety of ship types.
4 wild islands with 4 coins each; we placed 5 terrain each.
On the second turn, Emperor Blackheart got a 5 with All-Powerful! He sent A Fearsome Creature through a whirlpool, then used the second action to move away from the exit whirlpool to surround the Proud Tortoise!
So close to the gold! But the turtle ship is likely doomed.
Kyle flips Mercer to give HMS Interceptor a Sac action coming out of a different whirlpool!
Emerald Rose is dismasted and her captain killed in the ensuing boarding party!
Proud Tortoise scored a hit, but was no match for the kraken.
The turtle ship was ripped apart by the giant tentacle arms, with wreckage strewn about.
Grinder had picked up a couple coins from an island near my HI, but the whole island was only worth about 4 gold (I think the coins were 2,1,1,0). She hid in nearby fog on the way back home to avoid the dangerous President, but more action was brewing in the east!
Blackheart brings the Revenant through the whirlpool and uses his extra action to move and shoot, taking advantage of the ability to shoot through ships. However, she only goes 1 for 5! (even with some interested little kids providing their “newbie luck” and rolling some of the the dice for me heh – they rolled better when Kyle attacked lol)
I filmed the second action of the Interceptor’s counterattack:
Blam! Just like that, most of the Pirate fleet is decimated.
President sails out of the fog bank and sinks the Revenant!
Interceptor captured the Emerald Rose but dropped the tow to search for treasure. President and Nautilus began setting up a blockade of my home island, which in the past has sometimes signaled that I will win the game….
A Fearsome Creature guards the whirlpool to let Grinder collect more gold in peace.
The remainder of my fleet whirls home with 2 coins on the Grinder, who loses another mast to whirlpool travel.
However, the President sinks the Grinder and her coins!
With only the slow kraken left in play, my best hope was to surround the HMS Interceptor and sink her gold before she could unload it at home, or just end the game as soon as possible. Interceptor was moving L+S (rather than L+L+S) with a mast missing, which helped a bit.
Incredibly, on the first attempt to dash the poor kraken on the reef next to Kyle’s HI, I rolled a 2! This eliminated all of A Fearsome Creature’s remaining segments, killing the beast and ending the game!
Cursed Pirates: 3 gold
Mixed alliance: 0
It was a bit of an odd game and abrupt ending, so we decided to play another. This time we’d have 60 points to make a fleet using mostly only the stuff we had already drafted. The setup would have 3 wild islands instead of 4, and 4 terrain placed per player instead of 5. The kraken and submarine were removed from the fleets, with a few small crew edits as well. Kyle had a ton of room for crew so he took Lawrence and an oarsman (latter proxied by Fitzgerald as we were already using the rest) and put them on his HI.
This time I rolled to go first.
HMS Interceptor provided some deja vu on Kyle’s first turn, saccing to dismast the Emerald Rose! This second sacking of the cool custom made by PDXYAR angered the Cursed Pirates, who vowed revenge!
Indeed, retribution came swiftly. Blackheart whirled into action once again, with his Revenant much more accurate on the cannon volley this time around. Revenant moved to tow the Emerald Rose out of the way of Grinder’s aft gun, so I had all 8 available cannons in range between both of my shooting ships. Grinder hit 1/2 on the President.
Mercer threw the Interceptor’s captain overboard to propel the ship home via the whirlpool (Sac needed to reach the whirlpool with 2 actions at S+S speed). President followed, but Emperor Blackheart’s rage was not satisfied. He followed them back, determined to win a conclusive engagement. President survived, but Interceptor did not.
Carnage all over the park today!
President began repairing, Proud Tortoise headed home with gold, and Revenant headed away from danger and toward a new island.
Grinder was towing the Emerald Rose home for repair, with the Revenant whirling back to home waters.
Proud Tortoise raced northeast to try for more gold, but would be looking at facing the entire fleet of dangerous rank-2 cannons in the Cursed Pirate fleet on the return trip.
The game ended soon afterwards – Emperor Blackheart got a 6 to toss the President into harm’s way, where the Emerald Rose finally got some personal revenge, blasting her apart and sinking her with help from the Revenant. On the next turn he got a 5 for All-Powerful, allowing the Grinder to corner the Proud Tortoise and shoot away her shell panels. At this point Kyle conceded, with no way of getting the PT home alive. I knew I had 7 gold on my HI and Kyle couldn’t have more than 6 (he had one coin and I mentioned to him that PDXYAR didn’t make any 7 coins for epic scale), so I didn’t need to keep the PT alive and collect more gold to ensure victory.
Cursed Pirates: 7 gold
Mixed alliance: 5
The pictures don’t show it but there was quite a crowd by the time we left!
We also had a great view of the Blue Angels throughout the games – pictures don’t do it justice but we saw some really cool low flyovers as well.
-Revision to the Duplicates Rule (changes underlined): -There cannot be duplicate Wizkids ships in play until a faction has purchased every single standard ship (including flavor duplicates (such as all three versions of the 5 master HMS Apollo, for example, but not including customs)) available to them. Once a faction has every official Wizkids ship in its fleet in play, that faction can launch duplicates of those official Wizkids ships. Only one duplicate ship is allowed, but if a faction has two of every ship in play, they can begin a third set of duplicates. However, once a ship is sunk, it MUST be replaced before duplicates can be launched again (This is also known as the “complete the fleet” rule). Unreleased game pieces designed by Wizkids are not included in the Duplicates Rule. Wizkids faction fleets cannot have duplicate custom ships. Since the Dutch and Conglomerate factions have no official Wizkids ships, their entire fleets of custom ships are subject to the Duplicates Rule. For example, if ALL custom Dutch ships are in play at once, they can begin a second set of each custom Dutch ship.
-Minor revisions to the Resources errata and how they work (changes underlined): -Resources are represented through tokens; players may choose whatever kind of tokens they wish as long as all players agree. Ships can carry any number of any resource types up to their cargo limit. After a ship rolls for the resource type and loads resources, the ship will load face-up gold coins that correspond to the numbered resource (for example, a ship with lumber on board would have 1’s). When the ship unloads the resources at the home island, the 1’s (in this case) may be unloaded just like treasure. At any point during a player’s turn (usually at the beginning of the launch phase, after the play phase ends), any resources on the home island can be swapped out for the value of the resource in gold. If the value of lumber was 4, the 1’s are swapped for face-down gold 4’s on the home island (HI), which can then be used to purchase ships and crew during the launch phase at the end of the turn. Players may use UT tokens to represent total gold or resource quantities on their home islands, but should keep in mind that a UT worth 400 gold could be stolen by a home island raider with a single open cargo space.
-2 hits/mast rule addition: Flotillas must be hit 4 times overall in order to eliminate their flag (none of the hits have to come from a specific shoot action).
-Encampment clarification: Abilities that remove explored island markers eliminate encampments.
-Face-up Unique Treasure can be loaded and unloaded to and from islands as part of the free transfer rules. (slight clarification)
-Ships can load face-down treasure and resources from their home island with an explore action. Face-up Unique Treasure can be unloaded to islands as part of the free transfer rules. Ships can load face-up Unique Treasure from their home island as part of the free transfer rules.
-If both players agree to it, opposing ships can touch without ramming, boarding or pinning. While touching, they can be given an explore action to transfer cargo freely between them.
-Submarines can do ram damage while both surfaced and submerged.
-Only up to 3 copies of each unique set of native canoes can be in play at a time.
-There are currently only two storm terrain in play, but I have added their rules to the main post as well. From Xerecs’ Century of Economy games: Storms are a Custom terrain piece. At the end of a round of turns, a d6 is rolled. Match the result to the number printed on any Storms in play. Roll the d6 again. Match the result to the number printed around the edge of the Storm and move the Storm L in a straight line in that direction. If two or more Storms collide or move into contact with one another, they merge and move as one Storm. If any part of a game piece touches a Storm, it is immediately placed inside of it. Roll a d6, the result is the number of masts, segments, flags or damage points removed from the game piece. If the result is more than the number of remaining masts, segments, flags or damage points, the game piece is eliminated from the game. If a storm spends more than three rounds over a body of land, it is removed from the game.
Additions to the Ban List: Odin’s Revenge, Kharmic Idol, Pirata Codex, Flood UT, Missionaries UT (those last two are customs)
~~~~~
Clarifying which tokens are for each type of island upgrade:
Encampment: Faction color token used to mark islands explored (under Markers)
Fort upgrade: Shipyard token (under Structures)
Lighthouses=Taverns (under Structures)
Town=Infantry unit (these last three all under Army Units)
Trading Port=Cavalry unit
Military Port=Artillery unit
Starting this turn, factions may start naming islands if they want to. Especially islands they’ve explored or taken control of through island upgrades. For example, an obvious one is “Whirlpool Island”, the island surrounded by whirlpools south of the Spanish HI.
Custom Sets inplay (by the end of this report) with abbreviations and creator name. (from now on, only the set abbreviation will be used for the launch phase specifics – that way you can find the customs used in the Customs Database if desired)
Age of Sail (AoS), Epic Seas (ES) – A7XfanBen
Return of Davy Jones (RoDJ), Fiends of the Blood Islands (FoBI), Spherus Magna (SpMa) – Xerecs
Great Sea (GS), Rise of the Moon Sorcerer (RotMS) – El Cazador
Dark Tides (DT), Seas of Doom (SoD), Eldest Seas (ELS) – JW Darkhurst
Vengeance of the Cadet Captain (VotCC) – Cadet-Captain Mike
Back to War (B2W) – The Grandmaster/PointlessArrow
Dutch East Indies (DEI) – Avery
Treasure Trove of Fenrir (TToF) – Woelf
Lost Isles (LI) – Shockwave
Godmason’s Customs
Marhawkman’s Customs
Obsidian Isles (OI), Siren Islands (SI), Oceans of the Apocalypse (OotA) – projekt355
Islands of Ice (IofI), Age of Extinction (AoE), Search for Golden Shores (SfGS), Rise of the Rebellion (RotR) – Pirate Captain Andrew/DoubleAAsauce
Baltic Sea (BS) – Skelebone
Treacherous Waters (TW) – Ochobrazo2298
Pirates Who Never Met (PWNM), Pirates Who Spent Too Much Time Together (STMTT) – Gazerbeam543
Forgotten Coast (FC) – Riz
Treachery on the High Seas (T), The Golden Age (TGA), – Vladsimpaler
Kraken Sea (KS) – mr_awesome
Lighthouses by The9ofSpades
Pirates of the Sendoran Coast (SC) – Captain Vendari’s customs
That’s a whopping 34 custom sets being used! Nearly all custom creators of Pirates CSG game pieces are represented in CG4 by the end of this turn and report!
The Story So Far
Here is a video describing the general events of the game over the first 5 years of its existence – from April 2018 to spring 2023.
If you’d like more details of some of the early stages of the game, you can also check out Xerecs’ CG4 BRs and the ones I did linked above. If you just need a quick recent events refresher, here’s the last report.
Here are a few things I held back from saying in previous reports that seem fine to reveal now….
Very old (probably from 2019): Jade Rebels probably pissed at the Pirates after Dungeon gave Plague to the Virtuous Wind.
5/8/2020: Dungeon explores island SW of Archipelago, uses Pirates’ extensive spying network to strategically trade Davy Jones’ Key for a Necklace of the Sky (latter grabbed from the middle Archipelago island).
7/13/2020: The Cursed lie to the Spanish that an anonymous source told them that the Americans were coming to attack them. The Cursed are looking for a reason to look pissed at the Spanish so it looks more natural when they go on the offensive.
7/24/2020: “The Cursed Pirates are teaming up to harness the power of the Norse gods to unleash true Hell upon the seas.”
Here is a color-coded “faction locations” map picture from the last round, before PirateAJ14 and Xerecs took their latest turns. The main colored areas are labeled with each faction, with the Pirates having some additional clusters of ship activity in the dark gray areas and The Cursed having a presence next to the Spanish HI.
Here is a giant map picture also showing the entire ocean, this one taken after PirateAJ14 and Xerecs’ latest turns before I started my turn. The Americans have continued to retreat eastward away from the Cursed, while the Spanish have mostly made all speed away from the Cursed 10 masters launched next to their HI.
After a 2 year wait from my previous turn, it was finally time for another epic session of CG4 chaos and carnage! I do recommend watching the play videos for this turn, as I explained things in much more detail and avoided any music-only combat footage and whatnot. I’m trying to make better battle reports (especially for CG4), so feel free to give feedback in the comments at the bottom!
The playing aspects of my turn took a whopping 51 hours, which doesn’t include the time spent planning and strategizing before playing, which was about 12 hours. Then add 9 hours for this battle report, and we get a grand total of 72 hours on this CG4 turn overall. O_O (up from about 42+ last turn)
Pirates
196 Ships, 4697 Points in Play
The Pirates eagerly started another gigantic turn. Becoming more infamous with each passing round, they have used their “Infinite Money Glitch” to become the richest faction in the history of any Pirates CSG game. “Arcane abuse” has completely destabilized all notions of parity, leading to a bizarre situation where many factions may have to team up quickly in order to stop piracy from taking over the entire sea.
Tensions between the Pirates and their neighbors (the Corsairs and Vikings) began four years ago when the factions were fledgling fleets, content to slowly build up a foundation of strength. Now that tension is boiling over into all-out war. It is too soon to say what will ultimately transpire, but the possibility of a prolonged and bloody war is certainly there.
Beginning of turn Abilities and Effects
It was time to start! Each of my CG4 turns begins with much anticipation and excitement. However, there is always a lot of “housekeeping” to do – remembering and reviewing where things left off, consulting my notes for strategic ideas and order of operations optimizations, etc. There are also a number of “beginning of turn” abilities or effects that are resolved early to start getting a picture of what the turn will look like. This involves rolling for all of a faction’s AA (Admiral’s Action) abilities, as well as any Arcane rolls they can do.
The Pirates were disappointed to only get 1/9 AA’s, but their EPoE (Elizabeth’s Piece of Eight) was acting as a guaranteed “Mycron” via the Jolly Mon (a ship who of course was hidden in a fog bank next to their home island). They then used their Global Surveillance Program (GSP) to spy on some Barbary Corsair assets, to make sure they knew full well what they’d be getting into if they committed to a full counterattack on the Corsairs.
The GSP is now better than ever since spying can happen on every faction’s turn! (multiplies spying efforts by 12!) I think it will be best to just do it at the beginning of each faction’s turns for all the factions that took their turn before the current faction playing.
Next it was time for the Arcane rolls! If you’re unaware of this particular “theme” of CG4, I explain it in full in this video:
UT #1: Hidden Trove. UT #2: Evenstar. (both placed on Shadow Thief) UT #3: Eye of Insanity (placed on Sphinx).
393 ships in play x2=786 gold from Hidden Trove. x3 w/Evenstar=2358 gold. x2 w/Silverback John=4716 gold. +876 they already had=….
5592 gold.
O_O Another new record! The most gold ever raked in by a single faction in a single turn. The Pirates estimate their “gold burn rate” at a minimum of 1200 gold per turn, which allows them (hopefully) at least 4 turns of megalaunching without having to use Arcane rolls for gold production. Now they can bring in other UT’s next round….
Trove optimization: 1 Trove + Evenstar = 3 Troves. x2 from John=4716. Vs. bringing in a Trove every turn. No Evenstar-1572 gold (Trove doubled with John)
Evenstar gives 3x gold in the short term to allow for more choice flexibility in the long term. Better than having to constantly bring in Troves to support the crazy spending sprees.
A new “Eye of Insanity meta” is starting to emerge. Each EoI can be used to copy the Arcane, through the Cursed version of Davy Jones. This can be used to bring in additional copies of Nemo’s Plans and Runes of Thor, which can be used to guarantee that those EoI Arcane rolls are 6’s on future turns, which can be used to bring in additional Eyes on other ships. Of course, at any point the Pirates could decide to stop simply “optimizing the system” and go into full brutality mode, bringing in many copies of devastating UT’s such as Neptune’s Trident in one turn and placing them on various attack ships. The combos and possibilities are nearly endless, and the Pirates and Cursed both have a long list of UT’s that they’d like to bring in….
I got in touch with Woelf to answer a question about the Eye of Insanity UT: “A crew targeted by the Eye retains its original ability, so it would still count normally toward other abilities regardless of what got copied.” I asked this because the Sphinx gets +1 to her d6 rolls with a Captain aboard (per her ship ability), but she might have to use that Captain with the Eye. With that ruling answered, she can still succeed at copying the Arcane on a 5 or 6 due to the +1, even if the Captain is used with the Eye.
These “eyes” also pair well with the idea of the Global Surveillance Program….
At long last it was finally time to start giving out normal actions to the other 193 ships in the Pirate fleet!
The Smiling Jim took the Plague from the Noble Swan (lower left of the next picture), finally freeing the prize from her last negative UT. The Noble Swan explored the Smiling Jim to give her Runes of Wealth, a UT that was needlessly taking up a cargo space on a ship that will probably need it for something else in the future.
The Pirates are optimizing their “chain exploring” system at their metals island. They’re going to have ships at both ends of each line have either the Dinghy equipment (which allows you to explore an island or ship within S as a free action) or an “unload within S” ability. That way, no ships in the chain have to remain docked for the chain exploring system to work. This frees up space at both islands, which is great for maximizing how many ships can be launched from those islands. It also opens up a sea lane where ships can easily traverse from the east or west side of those islands to the other without having to sail all the way around the chain. The Pirates expect to have the optimized system finished next turn, at which point their metals income will be automated, likely at 6-7 metals per turn. This is so they don’t have to spend as much time giving actions to their resource runners, and also to minimize traffic jams near those launch points. However, with their near-unlimited gold income via Hidden Trove funding, there is a chance the Pirates will abandon resources altogether and simply outfit those resource runners with crew and equipment so they can fight if needed.
The tavern token that the Raven unloaded at the Pirates’ textiles island last turn is now a full-fledged Plumb Point Lighthouse! This means that all Pirate ships within L+L of the lighthouse get +S to their base move during that action, kind of like a giant trade current.
The Stormy Night rolled a 5 for her ability with the help of a reroll from Norman Spells. It allowed the Pirates to move any enemy ship S into terrain (therefore the enemy ship must already be within S of a terrain piece). The Sultan’s Riches was the easiest target – a Barbary Corsair resource runner approaching a storm. She got sucked in, and had the misfortune of rolling a 4, sinking the ship instantly! She went down with a helmsman and 3 textiles tokens, eliminating 6 points from the Corsair fleet.
The Blackleaf’s Studding Sails equipment malfunctioned, taking down her mizzenmast with it.
Iolkos, captain of the Bombay (custom 6 masted junk), has sent a strange “dowry demand” to Ekimu, the Grand Admiral and Supreme Commander of the Ionic Navy (part of The Conglomerate faction). He did not specify to whom he wishes to be married, having spied no female crew in the Conglomerate fleet at the time of the letter.
The Pirates realized they had made a gaffe with The Leviathan, though not a consequential one. Since the ship “sank” via Eternal scuttling, her Nemo’s Plans and Neptune’s Trident UT’s were removed from the game. It definitely makes The Leviathan less of an automatic (and broken) superweapon, and the Pirates will be more careful about how they use her in the future.
Here’s a broad overview of the Pirate-Corsair situation, showing the Corsair attack from last turn at the center left. The northern half of the Pirate HI is just out of sight to the upper left, while you can see the English HI southeast of the Corsair HI. Things were about to explode.
The Pirates declared war on the Barbary Corsairs on July 3rd!The massive counterattack would now commence!! Here is the video if you’d like to see the raw footage of the entire assault, with both my narrative explaining everything and background music. A picture+caption summary is below if you prefer that.
After the damaged ships moved out of the way as best they could, The Slash (custom 4 master) got things started! She carries my good friend Captain Randy, who was ready to take the fight to the Barbary Corsairs! Both bow cannons hit the Great Desert, a sign of good luck for the Pirates to start the battle so well! Not including the Great Desert, you can count 8 Corsair ships (including the flotilla and two submarines) in the main Corsair attack force. The Pirates wanted to neutralize as many of them as possible. Various options were considered for this counterattack – including committing as few forces as possible. However, the Pirates realized that although going all-in on the counterattack might delay their short-term plans for the WSG (to be revealed soon!), it would be better to completely smash the Corsairs, neutralize the threat, and teach them a harsh lesson.
As the shots began to ring out across these battle-torn red waters, both sides gritted their teeth for the carnage to come.
Next up was the Shadow’s Hand, who carried the Shadowed One – a devastating custom crew from Xerecs! His primary ability: “Give this ship a shoot action. A beam S wide and 2L long leaves this ship in one direction. Replace up to two masts with fire masts for every ship in the path of the beam. This ship cannot be given an action on its next turn.”
A “fire beam” attack of godlike power!! It was time to unleash one of the many Pirate Weapons of Mass Destruction!
6 ships are set alight for a total of 11 fire masts! O_O
Now it was time for another flame weapon! Though far less powerful, it’s one that probably all of us know….
The Queen Anne’s Revenge greek fire attack! From my “movie version” custom from Pirates of the Epic Seas: “Once per turn, you may eliminate one of this ship’s crew to shoot a flame S wide and 2S long directly forward of the ship’s bow. For every ship in the path of the blast, replace one of that ship’s masts with a fire mast.” HMB Sayyida is set alight as the Nubian Prince and Anubis become raging infernos!
With the flashy WMD’s providing some serious firepower, now it was time for the conventional weaponry of the massive Pirate fleet to get to work. Vortex and Slave Revolt set upon the Crown Jewel (Corsair 10 master), eliminating 4 of her masts. With the latter’s Crew Protect cancelled by the Vortex, Vincenzo Gambi led a boarding party from the Slave Revolt to massacre all of the Crown Jewel’s crew. A large number of effective Corsair crew were killed in action: Gazim, Ardagundas, Murat Rais, Sheik Al-Wahed, helmsman, oarsman.
Flotillas took some shots at the Sayyida, while the Crescent Rose used Extended Range (via my Powder Kegs equipment), shooting over the top of a burning submerged submarine to damage the Elephant flotilla. The Misfortune’s Keep sailed into the fray, though her captain ability was cancelled by the Anubis (which is what the Pirates wanted, having intentionally waited until now to approach the Anubis). At the bottom of the frame you can see some support ships doing towing logistics in order to get the derelict Splinter out of the way, making room for gunships to surge forth.
One last look at the severe carnage before the sinkings began:
The Pirate attack was in full swing. More gunships poured into the area, sinking the Anubis, Elephant, and Majestic. This opened a gap that allowed more shots to fall in range of the Crown Jewel, which quickly became a wildly burning mastless hulk. Despite the Crown Jewel’s Iron-Plated Hull equipment preventing some damage, the sheer volume of cannonade put forth by the Pirates crushed her in one turn. At the right, that’s a brand new iceberg brought in by Odin himself! It was an Odin Missile! The Pirates used their Rune combo to eliminate the Grand Desert from the game. Sickening devastation.
With the Slave Revolt and Shadow’s Hand both getting second actions coming out of the whirlpool, I felt that this round was a proper time to finally reveal the meaning of WSG… a foreboding acronym that the Pirates began using amongst themselves years ago….
WHIRLPOOL STRIKE GROUP
A terrifying concept whose true power has still yet to be seen… the WSG is at the core of Pirate combat philosophy. It’s what they’ve been building towards for years now. A massive, multi-faceted strike group that can utilize whirlpools to hit enemy targets anywhere, anytime. There are a number of key pieces to the WSG, among them the Tempest – the custom 5 master that can create a new whirlpool anywhere on the map if she rolls a 6 with her ability. Many of the recent Pirate launches were specifically to build up the WSG, as it fast becomes the largest battle fleet in Pirates CSG history. At the end of last turn I estimated the total size of the force at 50+ ships, with more being launched every single turn.
The criteria for a “WSG ship” is simple – either a ship that can generate its own second action (via Sac/EA/SAT/etc), or supply/support ships that have abilities like the Cheerleader ability (+1 to cannon rolls for friendly ships nearby), or high-cargo supply ships that carry extra oarsmen and shipwrights to replenish the attack ships when they run low on crew or equipment. It is a vast enterprise that the Pirates have been working very hard to optimize. They realize how costly whirlpool travel can be – going into enemy territory and coming back via whirlpool can easily cost a ship an oarsman and a mast, not to mention any damage or casualties sustained while fighting abroad. For that reason, the Pirates have invested heavily in a large supply chain network. They have many ships whose sole purpose is to resupply ships with oarsmen (primarily Sac-powered ships that have a high burn rate of oarsmen, losing them both in whirlpools and while generating extra actions), as well as shipwrights so that combat ships can repair themselves if whirlpools take out some of their masts. The idea is to have a self-sustaining combat force that can fight anywhere at any time for prolonged periods.
There is a massive number of attack ships dedicated to the WSG. Nearly every single “action generator” ship and crew in the Pirate arsenal of game pieces has been launched as a “WSG attack ship”. This is due to the sheer quantity requirements of the WSG – many EA and SAT rolls fail every turn, and sometimes Sac-powered ships have to hang back to replenish their sac fodder stores with new oarsmen. As a result, large numbers of gunships with similar action generation tactics are on hand to keep the strike group strong and flexible. Ex: If 8/10 SAT ships fail to get their SAT rolls, perhaps the EA ships will get luckier to bail them out. Or, Sac ships will make up the difference with their guaranteed double actions. This is also because whirlpool attacks are inherently limited by the 2-action limit: one action is always required to go through a whirlpool, meaning that a ship can only ever be given one additional action on the other side where the combat will occur. As a result, large numbers of attack ships help the odds of a whirlpool attack success by making sure there is enough firepower to achieve decisive victory over the enemy, preferably on the first turn of the attack.
Recently the Pirates have begun to realize just how expensive and demanding it will be to keep the WSG operating in full for many rounds on end. Sometimes supply ships may have to follow the attack ships through whirlpools to attack zones, depleting their stock and strength more quickly. Therefore, the Pirates have begun to launch “resupply” ships – ships that will supply the suppliers. This is to optimize the flow of oarsmen and shipwrights that help keep the gunships healthy and ready for action at all times. As more combat occurs, the demands on the WSG supply system will grow and cargo logistics become quite complicated. My CG4 tracking spreadsheet has a row for nearly all the ships in each of my fleets, with many ships in the Pirate fleet having notes about “needs S+O” (for example) to remind myself that next turn that ship should be supplied with a shipwright and oarsman if possible.
Lastly, the WSG has some extremely powerful weapons in it. If the main bulk of action generator ships cannot do the job… there are WMD’s to back them up. The Pirates have four 10 masters in play right now, as well as various superweapons like the Shadowed One that can provide ample firepower as a last resort if they are not part of the main initial assault. The Pirates are flexing their might, and we could see the WSG become quite the deterrent force over time. With the ability to create whirlpools at will and surge through them with game-changing firepower, no faction on the sea is safe from potential Pirate wrath.
ALL OUT WAR. The Pirates have slaughtered the Corsairs in a grand display of strength. At the upper right, 9 ships (most or all from the WSG) came out of the brand new whirlpool created by the Tempest near the Corsair/English spice island! They wreaked absolute havoc, smashing up the Corsair resource runners and effectively cutting off Corsair access to that valuable island. At the bottom of the frame, Plague of the West got a second action to eliminate masts from the Corsair runners gathering textiles. At the left, one of the most ominous signs of all – the Zeus and Hera have returned home from their excursion to Spanish waters. They’re getting a few brief replenishments but staying near whirlpools in case the Pirate fleet needs their flagships. Off their port sides, you can see newly minted ships of the WSG making their way to the whirlpool area. Another handful of ships wait in the fogpool nearby, primed and ready to enter that whirlpool next round. At the far left, a squadron of 10 warships (mostly stock gunships launched last turn) makes their way around the west side of “Textiles Island” to take up position against the growing Viking fleet in the north.
That marks 6 Corsair ships sunk by the Pirates this turn, with 3 additional ships dismasted and 7 ships partially damaged. By my count the Pirates had 20 ships fire shots at the Corsairs, with 16 Corsair vessels either sunk or damaged. At long last, the full scale combat of CG4 can begin….
The Pirates would also like to make a few PSAs known. They have generally been iterated to the other players, but just for full disclosure:
-Attempts to eliminate the Arcane will be met with extinction.
-Jailhouse Dog (reusable once per round with Nemo’s Plans) will be used to cancel out Fountain of Dreams if it is brought in. Not playing JD to cancel Hidden Trove or Evenstar.
-When using the Sac (Sacrifice) ability where crew are eliminated to gain extra actions, keep this in mind (from the Pirate Code) regarding Captain Davy Jones’ ability to possess crew on 6’s: “If a ship (or crew) has the ability to eliminate a crew to gain an extra action, this ability may be applied. If the roll is successful, the crew is placed on this ship normally and the ship does not gain the extra action because the crew did not remain eliminated.”
Captain Davy Jones is on the Slave Revolt in the Pirate fleet, and he will choose to roll whenever any non-Pirate or non-Cursed game pieces try to use Sac. The Pirates also have some auto-6 capability, so if some high-stakes combat occurs, there is a chance they might use that to force rolls to 6’s in order to shut down Sac for a ship or two (very unlikely however).
Launch Phase
As usual, the Pirates went on a massive spending spree across their 4 launch points. Many new customs will see play for possibly the first time ever! Any custom game pieces launched will have their set abbreviation in parentheses so you can use the reference near the beginning of this post to see who they’re from and in the Customs Database if you want to check them out in full (ctrl+h works really well to find things quickly). There are a few exceptions for very commonly used generic customs, such as Dinghy from PointlessArrow’s Back to War (B2W) set and Gilded Figurehead and Streamlined Hull from Woelf’s Treasure Trove of Fenrir (TToF) set.
Skull Valley: 10 ships, 329 points
Bane (SoD) + Mr. Constantine (BS), Gilded Figurehead, oarsman (she also will have Vesok aboard)
Golden Medusa + Henry Every (OotA), CHO, shipwright (30)
Dark Trance (STMTT) + Three Eyed Roger (STMTT), CHO, shipwright (26)
Cunning Calypso (OotA) + Raveneau de Lussan (AoS), helmsman, shipwright, oarsman (21)
Devil’s Float (STMTT) + Captain Leviathan (BS), Dinghy, shipwright, oarsmen x2 (34)
Grim Spectacle (STMTT) + Captain Sally Silver (OI), Master Gunner Jarvis Johns (OI), The Mad Finn (BS), helmsman, shipwright, oarsmen x2 (46)
Royal Rover (SI) + Hugh S. Shine (RotR), Rosie Richards (SI), captain, shipwright, oarsmen x2 (38)
Pyorremyrsky + Edward Lewis (B2W), CHO, shipwright (28)
Zloty Kot (BS) + CHO, shipwright, exploding shot (22)
Spirit of Freedom (BS) + CHO, shipwright (17)
Gilded Figureheads (32)
Thok (12)
Home Island: 15 ships, 284 points (504 points with island upgrades included) Southern half: (7 ships, 129 points (349 including the island upgrades))
Banshee’s Cry + HE, 3 coin, and fort upgrade (49)
Blinding Sun (STMTT) + Karmiine Klovisk (SC), helmsman, Dinghy (23), carrying town and military port (MP) upgrades (60)
Fickle Fiend (STMTT) + helmsman, explorer, oarsman (14), carrying town and military port (MP) upgrades (60)
Pirates Booty (STMTT) + helmsman, explorer, oarsman (13) carrying town and military port (MP) upgrades (60)
Rum Stealer (STMTT) + Evil Scott (STMTT), CHO (25) WSG supply
Blubber (RotR) + H, oarsmen x4 (12)
HMNV Naval (AoE) + helmsman, Dinghy, shipwright x4, oarsmen x3 (32)
+1 oarsman
This picture also shows the ships launched from the Metals military port (MP), detailed below.
The Mercy and Fancy are dedicated “tugboats”, while those next three are mainly for defending the Arcane. The Arcane is so valuable that she is beginning to have her own defense squadron, which may reach over a half-dozen ships. The Vikings’ recent Hidden Trove acquisition has made them a serious threat to the Pirates’ western border, so the Pirates are beefing up the stock gunship squadron launched last turn with more weapons.
Here we start to see the true scale of the WSG – simply launching half a dozen supply ships for the grand scale of the venture. Just those new ships alone carry 20 oarsmen and 12 shipwrights. However, the Pirates want all their supply ships to have a “permanent shipwright” aboard in addition to any extras meant to be given away – that way the supply ships can repair themselves after whirlpool travel, not just the gunships. The WSG attack ships are likely to operate wholly at sea for very long periods of time, while the supply ships might come back to a launch point eventually to replenish their cargo, or simply be resupplied en route by yet another ship in the supply chain.
Textiles MP: 6 ships, 223 points
34 points of crew and equipment for various ships that docked on the play turn: Darkhawk II, Dragon, Star of Siam, Triton’s Fury, Raven, Pandora, Agnis Crystalis. Anti-Viking Defense Squadron
Cat’s Curse (SI) + Calvin the Wicked (SfGS), Los Diablo Rojo (OI), CHO, FPS, shipwright (46)
Fallen Eagle (BS) + Scout the 3rd (STMTT), CHO, shipwright (31)
Polska (BS) + Kazimierz Lux (BS), HSO, FPS (30)
Death’s Hand (BS) + Anne Bonnie (SI), captain, oarsman, Bow Chasers (AoS) (33)
Revenant + CHO, 2 equipment (30)
Gruesome + CHO, FPS (19)
The Pirates finally let a bunch of their older ships dock at this MP in order to come in for repairs and/or get some needed cargo. On recent turns the Pirates just wanted to max out their launches no matter what, but now they finally feel somewhat satisfied with the size and power of their fleet. This will allow many Pirate ships in need of things to come in and get them rather than waiting off the coast as endless new ships are built in rapid succession. It could be said that the Pirate policy of “maximum launching” is over, but of course it might resume in a crisis situation. Every launch point will still likely resemble spokes of a wheel for many more rounds, as eventually I may want the Pirates to control every single ship ever made for them, both Wizkids and custom. O_O You can see where the WSG attack ships have gone east, diverging from the weaker anti-Viking squadron that heads northwest. Both have formed impromptu lines of battle.
Launch Totals for the turn: 44 ships, 1111 points (1331 points including island upgrades)
Overall Fleet Size: 240 ships, 5797 points (at least 6017 total including upgrades)
The Cursed
51 Ships, 2171 Points in Play
The Cursed also start their turn with various d6 rolls – over a dozen with more every round!
Hidden Trove was now worth 864 gold (388 ships in play after the Pirate combat, but then they launched 44 ships for 432 total). Tripled with Evenstar=2592 gold. Plus what they already had=3943 gold. Just like the Pirates, The Cursed wanted to guarantee megalaunches for a few turns, estimating their burn rate at no less than 1000 gold per turn (so this should cover them for at least 3 turns, potentially less if they put up enough launch points). The Cursed got 5 AA rolls to work (+Barst, a Mycron crew), giving their burgeoning fleet a lot of flexibility.
Magnesis yanked the Ivory Star into the Gauntlet of Pestilence fog bank next to the Corsair home island, killing her oarsman in the gloom.
The Cursed are on a frenetic pace with both launches and island upgrades, upgrading their custom “whirlpool forts” (Figlar Castle and Gunos Fortress, two of each in play) at breakneck speed. To that end, they realized they’d have to do some logistical “magic” this turn. Using one of their trade currents, the Dinghy equipment, and an intermediary ship to support bridging the gap, they managed to get both island upgrades from the Devil’s Child to the Sea Duck, and the DC’s fort upgrade to the Gerudo Gale, the latter of which was already docked at the Gunos Fortress needing the upgrade. Originally the DC was going to upgrade both the island and the fort afterwards, but the Cursed really want to expedite how fast they can get launch points up, specifically the whirlpool forts. Soon they will have no less than FOUR upgraded forts that can essentially megalaunch from any whirlpool in play. O_O Talk about weaponizing terrain! Arguably just as intimidating as the Pirate WSG….
The shipyard token is placed and The Cursed will be able to launch from this fort next turn!
The Spanish get slammed!
The Spanish have been crushed. 7 ships sunk, 1 ship captured, 4 ships left in play. 2/3 of their fleet was wiped out in one turn by the 10 master strike squadron. O_O The Pirates also have their “Anti-Spanish Squadron” sailing north towards the Spanish HI…. War is upon us indeed.
A familiar voice whispered from shadow, aboard the Devil’s Kiss of the Pirate fleet…
“The Dead have taken command of the sea….”
The killing was not over yet. It was time for a new menace to reveal itself….
TaaW=Terrain as a Weapon
Also known as: Weaponizing Terrain
In yet another instance of the Pirates getting help from The Cursed (or vice versa), the Sargasso Nightmare teleported into the area to provide some extra firepower support, making The Cursed an enemy of the Barbary Corsairs if they weren’t already.
Nearly all terrain types have now been weaponized. The Pirates can create whirlpools at will and surge forth deadly legions. The Cursed continue to build up their fog hopping squadron, which will be larger and more deadly than ever before. Odin Missiles rain down from the sky every turn as icebergs from the heavens sink ships. Now even seaweed is something to avoid, because you never know when a swampy Cursed fiend will pop out and shoot you.
The Cursed and Pirates will be using increasingly aggressive rhetoric in their dealings with other factions as their patience continues to wear thin.
All Shall Perish.
Launch Phase
Home Island: 6 ships, 210 points (390 including island upgrades)
For Wisp: helmsman, oarsman, Dinghy (6), +42 for gold+fort upgrade token.
For Maman Brigitte: Streamlined Hull, oarsman (4)
For USS Mercury: equipment (14)
For the Grand Misfortune: Melegaunt (ES), Streamlined Hull, exploding shot, stinkpot shot, chain shot (11)
Obsidian Sun (OI) + Maleficent (OotA), helmsman, oarsman (18)
Pale Moon + Lilith (OI), Tzilacatzin (RotMS), Gilded Figurehead (26)
Insidious (STMTT) + Rapunzel (SI), helmsman, shipwright, Dinghy, oarsmen x3, gold, fort upgrades x2 (26 for ship, 92 additional)
Cursed Chalice (SI) + Merrow, Tidal Fiends, helmsman, Dinghy, oarsman, gold, fort upgrade (21 for ship, 46 additional)
Voodoo Child (STMTT) + Marie Laveau (STMTT), Vodyanoy (BS), Chirox (SpMa), HS, oarsmen x10 (66)
Bloody Cutlass + helmsman, shipwright, Dinghy, oarsman (18)
From Figlar Castle #1: 11 ships, 532 points
End of Days (ES) + Lord Hellsing (ES), Carnal Sinner (ES), Wraith (SS version), Madame Maria (RoDJ), Dhornikov – Prime Executioner (ES), SO, Streamlined Hull (TToF), smokepot specialist, stinkpot specialist, grappleshot specialist, exploding shot, grapple shot, chain shot (114)
Calamity (ES) + Acronius The Calamitous (ES), Jolly the Skull (OI), Phantom (OI), Skell (RoDJ), Streamlined Hull, shipwright, oarsmen x4 (88)
Cataclysm (ES) + Volgaad The Volcano God (ES), Sorcerer Jafar (OotA), Deranged Spider (ES), Vamprah (SpMa), Streamlined Hull, helmsman, shipwright, oarsmen x5 (95)
Blood Sacrifice (MS) + CHS, oarsmen x3 (27)
Moctezuma’s Revenge (MS) + helmsman, Streamlined Hull, shipwright x3, oarsmen x5 (36)
Rat’s Circle (IofI) + CH, oarsmen x2 (17)
Eternal Curse (ELS) + CHS, Dinghy, oarsmen x3 (31)
Arabian Nights (OotA) + The Nightsister (OI), helmsman, shipwright, Dinghy, oarsmen x4 (38)
Spinax (SoD) + CHO, shipwright, Dinghy (26)
Specter (OotA) + Lord Icarus of Destral (DT), Heir to the Satanic Temple (ES), CHOS (36)
Krikun (BS) + helmsman, Dinghy, shipwright x2, oarsmen x3 (24)
One of the most sickening and incredible launches of the game sees The Cursed spend over 500 gold at a single fort. The 10 master expenditures average 99 points each. Even more sinister… it appears that The Cursed may be building their own WSG….
From Figlar Castle #2: 12 ships, 318 points
Farore’s Cataclysm (GS) + Vaati (GS), CHO, Gilded Figurehead (38)
Fiend’s Plot (ES) + CHO, shipwright, Streamlined Hull, Gilded Figurehead (27)
Banshee’s Wail + “Screaming” Mimi, CHO (29)
Dance + Tabitha McWarren (F&S version), helmsman, oarsman (19)
Crypt + Heiress of the Apocalypse (ES), helmsman, oarsman (22)
Siren’s Stone (B2W) + CHO (21)
Black Jar (OotA) + CHO, shipwright x3 (25)
Mauled Mermaid (SI) + Captain Nachtmare (OI), oarsmen x4 (29)
Hellish Stench (ES) + Maxis Penumbra (SoD), oarsman (20)
Man O War (AoE) + helmsman, smokepot specialist (10)
Hanging Tree (RotR) + CHOS (19)
Flesh of Oman (RotR) + Icarax (SpMa), Kaulu Kaikamahine (SI), HSO (48)
The Necromancer placed in fort (ES) (11)
This Figlar Castle whirled into the middle of a fog cluster, which was perfect for what The Cursed had in mind. They’ve put in play a “mover squadron” full of abilities that can wrench enemy ships around against their will.
Cursed PSA that all the other factions know about: The Cursed now have SS Wraith in play (aboard the End of Days), meaning there are two “d6 possess” abilities in play. From the Code: “-If a crew is eliminated and multiple different players have this ability available, each may attempt the die roll using the normal player turn order, starting with the current player, until a roll is successful or all able players have rolled.”
Following through the play order, the Pirates will roll first followed by The Cursed. Just like the Pirates, The Cursed are intentionally going to use this to try and impede Sac and similar abilities from the other factions.
Launch Totals: 29 ships, 1060 points (1240 including island upgrades)
Overall Fleet Size: 81 ships, 3245 points (3721 including upgrades)
Vikings
20 Ships, 488 Points in Play
Since they didn’t have nearly as many beginning of turn rolls as the Pirates or Cursed, I decided not to record the start of the Viking turn. This proved to be a mistake, as the Vikings pulled off a grand coup of luck.
The Vikings got a 6 with All-Powerful Thor! They had tons of options for it, with many hundreds of enemy ships in play, including some nasty pirates nearby. They didn’t want to bring in the legendary Fountain of Dreams UT as they didn’t fully trust all of the other factions – too many variables with what could be brought in.
In the end, the Vikings took control of the Cursed Flying Dutchman! They got a 6 for Kalfu (“Once per turn roll a d6. On a 6 you may change the result of any die roll to a 6.”) (!!!)
The Flying Dutchman roll to bring in a UT and place it on an enemy ship didn’t work, so the roll was forced to a 6 to bring in a Hidden Trove!!
….
It was placed on HMS Alexander!!!! O_O
The Vikings have immensely helped the English by giving them a massive windfall, with Hidden Trove to be worth over 900 gold on the next English turn!!
This was a grand moment of much anticipation. For a few years now, the Vikings and Corsairs have started to consider “gift Troves” for other factions by using their copiers to copy the Cursed Flying Dutchman instead of the Arcane, allowing them to place a UT from outside the game on an “enemy” ship instead of their own ship. However, the Vikings did not expect it to come from All-Powerful, which allowed the Vikings to control the FD and effectively use All-Powerful to copy the FD’s special ability. The English could be rich as soon as next round, and perhaps the greatest thing for the possible “allies” is – there’s no Pirate or Cursed turn in between in which it could be stolen by one of the major powers. An interesting thing about the Pirate-Cursed cooperation is that they go after each other in the turn order, so all 10 of the other factions have their turns in between, uninterrupted by the “great evils”. It’s a double-edged sword because it also allows the Pirates and Cursed to potentially execute absolutely devastating coordinated attacks in back-to-back fashion. However, in the case of UT generation it may help.
This is also a massive deal because it could change some of the power dynamic in the northeast. The Pirates have likely irked the English of late, sending the Blackleaf into the northeast corner with island upgrades to possibly take over the spice island the Corsairs and English have been profiting from. That island was explored with a Dinghy on the Pirate turn, meaning the Corsairs and English are quickly running out of time to prevent yet another Pirate launch point from surrounding their home waters. In addition, the Corsairs have been severely weakened, and could really use some help. They have made contact with the English about combating the Pirates together, but until now the English had very limited means to do so. If this turn made it look like the Pirates were about to completely take over the northeast corner, this Hidden Trove gift from the Vikings to the English could change or delay that. The Vikings also like this outcome for the sake of their positioning. They are located just west of the Pirate home island and textiles MP. The Corsairs are their allies on the eastern side of the Pirate launch points. However, the Corsairs have been so badly beaten that the Pirates might be able to turn all their home waters might against the Vikings, which would mean a quick and certain Viking defeat. However, if the English (east of the Corsair HI) build a battle fleet that draws Pirate attention, the Vikings have a better chance in any local combat zones.
The Vikings had wanted to give a Trove to… the Spanish! They have been on a “gift list” of both the Corsairs and the Vikings for a few turns now. This turn was almost the perfect moment for it, with the Vikings feeling somewhat secure with their new launches and an “extra” crack at the UT generation shenanigans via the lucky 6 on Thor’s All-Powerful. It was all set for the Spanish to get rich instead of the English… until the Vikings realized that no Spanish ship was within docking distance of the Spanish HI. If a Hidden Trove was placed on a Spanish ship, it would have to be at sea where it was likely to be stolen by the Pirates or Cursed (or someone else) before the Spanish could get it home. The Vikings didn’t want to waste their luck on that, and so pivoted to the English instead.
Next it was time for the Viking copier, Jord. Having already given out a Trove to a possible future ally, the Vikings would definitely be copying the Arcane to try and benefit themselves.
Jord rolls to copy Arcane. First Gilded Figurehead, then Jord, then Reroll via Shayna Deux:
*** <a7xfanben> rolls White D6 -> [2] ***
*** <a7xfanben> rolls White D6 -> [5] ***
*** <a7xfanben> rolls White D6 -> [6] ***
Another successful roll!! Used to place a Hidden Trove on the Timperswayd!! O_O 😀
With that, the Vikings raked in another huge windfall, increasing their gold reserves further so they could launch for multiple turns without fear of bankruptcy.
This picture shows most of the Viking ship movements. Their recently launched warships are headed south towards a fog cluster, where the Muninn attempts to spy on Pirate movements to the east. Some of their “lumber squadron” has broken off from their usual trade route to join up with the main force, as the Vikings anticipate needing all the ships they can spare in a possible battle with the Pirates – which they anticipate could be coming soon. Even some resource runners are turning east, simply to beef up numbers and provide support as tugboats or block ships. There is little need to run the lumber trade, with Hidden Troves providing a steady supply of gold from which to fund the fleet.
The Barbary Corsairs and Vikings have been reaching out over the past few years in regards to forming alliances with some of the other factions in play, possibly to combat the Pirates together. However, the Vikings have a more… brusque approach when it comes to communicating. XD It remains to be seen if that impacts their alliance hopes, not just with the English, but other factions as well….
Launch Phase: 6 ships, 195 points (347 including upgrades)
For Timperswayd: Dinghy, town+MP upgrades (3+60)
For Noble Glacier: Shayna Deux (already in play), helmsman, equipment x3 (5)
9x Gilded Figureheads (9)
Eagle’s Brood (LI) + HSEO, Dinghy, gold, fort upgrade (22 + 48 for gold+upgrade, 70 total)
Ratatoskr (IofI) + HSO, Dinghy, gold, fort upgrade (21 + 44 for gold+upgrade, 65 total)
Berserker (IofI) + Blakenos Arnfoot (ES), CHO, Dinghy (29)
The Norse Anvil (LI) + Kould the Conquerer (IofI), CHOS (40)
Naegling + Wilhelm Hadraade (OotA), Galnarl the Terrible (ES), helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull (36)
Ruby Ice (ES) + Zaura Vikman (LI), Powder Kegs (ES), oarsman, stinkpot shot (30)
Without revealing their exact plans, it’s clear that the Vikings are investing heavily in the upgrade game. They hear about what the Pirates and Cursed are doing, and want to get a slice of the pie. There are only so many islands in play (36 wild at the start of play), and the Pirates and Cursed appear to be snatching up a fair number of them. In addition, the Vikings are severely hampered in their launch phases by the physical size of their ships. With most of their ships available being oared, their average ship width is quite big, comparable to the Corsairs and all their galleys. This means they can’t launch as many ships per turn because they run out of space at their home island sooner than most factions would. As a result, more launch points are needed to get the Viking fleet built up at an adequate speed.
Overall Fleet Size: 26 ships, 683 points (895 including upgrades)
Barbary Corsairs
22 Ships, 422 Points in Play(down from 30 Ships, 575 Points in Play at the end of their last turn)
The Corsairs are down in the dumps. They have been absolutely devastated by the Pirates and Cursed, losing 8 ships and 153 points in the time between their last turn and this one. Morale has never been lower. Even compared to when the Corsairs lost a battle squadron to the Pirates years ago. Some of their best fighters perished in the Pirate counterattack, and there is absolutely no way the Corsairs can launch enough new warships to keep up this war effort against the Pirates right now, especially if the Pirates keep pushing east to the Corsair HI.
The Barbary Corsairs attempted to bring in a UT…
Making matters even worse, the Corsairs failed to get the roll – the only one of my factions to not bring in any UT’s this turn. The black days are upon them… depression and hopelessness are starting to set in across some parts of the Corsair fleet. They do not have the gunships available to defend their resource system, which has come under attack by the Pirates and the WSG. (I may be upbeat in the above video, but the Corsairs are anything but)
The Corsairs did their best to regroup and reprioritize, negotiating a tense truce with the Pirates on some strict terms. The Pirates agreed not to attack next turn if the Corsairs made concessions – they would not fire a single shot against the Pirates this turn, nor would they launch a 10 master or a full battle squadron (some new ships could have captains, but not all). The Corsairs are angry at the Pirates, but are more sad and shell-shocked than anything else. They currently also have a female leader (Galina) who is mourning the loss of many Corsair captains, including Gazim, the admiral who perished when Vincenzo Gambi mercilessly slaughtered the crew of the Crown Jewel. The Corsairs are actually rethinking their strategy a bit – their plan just one round ago was to push the Pirates to the brink and wage all-out war with tons of gunships launched from their home island. However, facing extinction, the Corsairs realize they should play the long game and try to get off the Pirates’ radar a bit.
The Nubian Prince was the only burning ship capable of movement, but her fire spread even further above deck, completely engulfing the ship in flame. The Crown Jewel and both submarines are doomed. With those 4 ships all very likely to sink due to the automatic scuttle next turn, it would bring total casualties from the Pirate attack to 10 Corsair ships sunk, 12 if we include the pair of ships sunk by The Cursed. The warships launched last turn sail out to form a wall line of defense against any further Pirate encroachment, with 3 war galleys north of the iceberg and one east of it. The Crescent Moon pulls into port to stock up on some cargo the Corsairs have been planning to give her. Corsair resource runners generally headed east to a rendezvous point near the new whirlpool by the spice island. With nowhere to run or hide, the Corsairs are praying the Pirates don’t go back on the truce and attack them next turn. It is a rough time when your life depends on trusting fickle pirates.
However, the turn was not without hope. Receiving an AA from Kheir-ed-din, the Djinn of the East sped through the new whirlpool and emerged in an area completely new to the Corsairs – and for that matter, any faction. She is the first ship to take The Vortex, a reef formation shaped by a whirlpool in the middle of it. This is a distinct feature of the map, though unlikely to see much use due to the obvious dangers. However, the Corsairs were desperate, and the whirlpool was near an untouched wild island they may have designs on. It’s in between Viking and American outposts, and far from any Pirate or Cursed influence so far.
Launch Phase: 6 ships, 208 points (374 points including upgrades)
Gilded Figureheads x10
Nephila: added Dinghy and shipwright (5)
Crescent Moon: shipwright, oarsmen x2 (4)
Zeitgeist (RotR) + Prince Numidia (RotR), Baahir The Brave (PWNM), Dinghy (30)
Orion’s Belt (SfGS) + Pallamir (ES), Bomb Box (ES), HSO, Dinghy, gold, town and MP upgrade (28+60)
Rabat (ES) + Cleopatra The Wise (PWNM), HSO, Dinghy, town and MP upgrade, gold, fort upgrade token (33+106)
Camel (SfGS) + helmsman, shipwright x2, Dinghy x3, oarsmen x3 (36)
Dieu-Le-Vuit (LI) + Ramoran (ES), CHSO, Dinghy, stinkpot shot (30)
Anubis (OotA) + Rajastos (ES), Vorash (ES), HSO, Dinghy (32)
The Corsairs got busy launching just as many ships as the Vikings did. 4 new 4 masted galleys, as well as a large new submarine and a schooner! They were digging deep into all the various new custom game pieces that have been added to the Customs Database since the last CG4 turn (much like my other factions). Indeed, the sheer quantity of sets and customs out there at this point is likely to satisfy even the smallest of minor factions. This Anubis is a 4 master, not a relaunch of the cancelling 3 master sunk earlier in the round. Although the relaunching rule would allow for the Corsairs to get some of the best combat assets back quickly, I simply dislike the flavor implications of relaunching stuff that just sank less than a round ago.
Overall Fleet Size: 28 ships, 630 points (961 including upgrades)
Point Count
Starting this round, I am attempting to track ships and points in play for each faction on an action-by-action basis. This means that whenever a boarding party results in crew elimination, I immediately subtract that crew’s point cost from that faction’s point total in the spreadsheet I use for the game. It does make combat take a little longer, but I expect it to be fully worth it as it eliminates the need to go around the map at the end of my overall turns and count up everything each faction has in play. This will likely result in some minor discrepancies in the numbers over time as a few crew or equipment eliminations or additions might be missed once in a while, but it’s worth the time saved. The last full point count took about 4 hours, so I’d prefer to avoid doing that each round. I know tracking the points in play is not required, but I really love keeping track of how big each fleet is and seeing the crazy records grow with each round.
Here are the latest faction totals! I know a lot of it is extremely lopsided, but that may change a bit over time if more “gift Troves” can be handed out or procured. There are three fleets in the 25-30 ship range that have the best hope of contending with the Pirates (and/or Cursed). However, almost half the factions (5/12) have less than 10 ships in play. Of course, perhaps that makes them less likely to draw interest from the power factions, possibly allowing them to slip under the radar. The Pirates’ percentage of points in play actually decreased slightly this round, but they could still become a ridiculous statistical anomaly in that regard – if they cross 50%, they’ll be just one faction out of twelve and still in control of a points majority!
Faction
Ships
Points
Ship %
Points %
Points/ship
Spanish
4
57
0.9%
0.5%
14.25
Jade Rebellion
4
43
0.9%
0.4%
10.75
The Conglomerate
30
531
6.5%
4.5%
17.70
English
17
230
3.7%
2.0%
13.53
Pirates
240
5797
51.6%
49.5%
24.15
Cursed
81
3245
17.4%
27.7%
40.06
Vikings
26
683
5.6%
5.8%
26.27
Corsairs
28
630
6.0%
5.4%
22.50
Dutch
6
76
1.3%
0.6%
12.67
Americans
15
215
3.2%
1.8%
14.33
Mercenaries
6
91
1.3%
0.8%
15.17
French
8
123
1.7%
1.0%
15.38
Total
465
11721
25.21
Last turn saw this game become the largest in Pirates CSG history. This turn, the game broke through the 10,000 point threshold. O_O For some years now I have fantasized about playing a game that went into 5 figures worth of points in play. After my Command the Oceans campaign game in 2017 passed 9000, I began to think it was inevitable. Now we have reached it! However, we didn’t just get to 10K points – we blew past it, reaching an astounding 11,721 total points in play.
We are indeed in the Reign of Terror. It remains to be seen just how allied the Pirates and Cursed are, but they currently control over 9000 points, nearly 80% of all points in play. They also own 69% of all ships afloat, meaning you could double the fleet sizes of all other factions and they’d still have more. Next round is likely to see The Cursed become the second fleet in play to reach 100 ships, truly a huge milestone for any massive campaign game fleet. In the meantime, the Pirates will continue their assault on the record books. Already the biggest fleet ever, they will easily blow past 6000 total points next round and look to eventually become the first 300-ship fleet. O_O
Stats by player. Things have ballooned to a size not seen before. Technically I did control more ships during CTO in 2017, but that game never reached a 5 digit point total. Now I’m not the only player playing, and I still control over 10000 points. O_O
Ships
Points
Ship %
Points %
Points/ship
Xerecs
55
861
11.83%
7.35%
15.65
A7XfanBen
375
10355
80.65%
88.35%
27.61
PirateAJ14
35
505
7.53%
4.31%
14.43
10 masters in play: 24 – 4 new this turn, all Cursed. (16 Cursed, 4 Pirate, 2 Viking, 1 Corsair, 1 Conglomerate)
Summary
Concepts introduced:
WSG: Whirlpool Strike Group
TaaW: Terrain as a Weapon
Burn rate: Total gold spent per turn by a faction. Good for a faction to know for when they’ll need more Hidden Troves or are likely to run out of gold. Variable by the turn but generally in the 1000-1200 range for the megafleets that have 3+ launch points.
Here is the grand map! I recommend opening it in a new tab and zooming in to view in full size to give yourself a tour of this crazy game. You’re looking at the first documented Pirates CSG game to surpass ten thousand points. This picture shows nearly 12,000 points in play.
With that, another one of my mammoth turns is in the books! This round saw brutal and decisive attacks on the Corsairs and Spanish by the Pirates and Cursed. Both battles appear to be over, with capitulation nearly inevitable in the short term. However, the Vikings have rivaled the Conglomerate and Corsairs as perhaps the third most powerful faction, even “playing god” to decide who gets rich this turn! Could the Hidden Trove gift to the English backfire, or will the English be eager to join the cause against the Pirates and ally with the Vikings and/or Corsairs? What could happen next? I’d love to hear your predictions in the comments!
As dusk sets across the ocean, a voice of black speech whispers across the waters… “All Shall Perish.”
Comment below your thoughts on the game, predictions for what will happen, and how I can improve my reports! If you’d like to support my efforts with Pirates CSG, feel free to check out my Patreon or buy things through the affiliate links throughout my website. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated. Thank you so much for reading about this game and following along with the epic developments! 😀
20 years ago to the day this game was played, it all began. The movie that changed lives and made fortunes. The movie that led Jordan Weisman of Wizkids to make a Pirate game – the birth of Pirates of the Spanish Main and the CSG subgenre of board games. To celebrate The Curse of the Black Pearl 20th anniversary, Xerecs and I played a 50 point game on VASSAL using only game pieces from the Pirates of the Caribbean set! A brief summary follows, with a full video recording of the short game at the bottom of this post.
He went first as the Pirates, while I followed with the English. I wanted to restrict my fleet to only game pieces actually seen in the first film of the series, which got me to 45 total points using various crew on HMS Dauntless and HMS Interceptor, adding Mercer to get to 48. They would be facing off against the Black Pearl and Hai Peng.
Ragetti helped the Hai Peng snag some Plunder early, while Interceptor used her speed to reach an island quickly as well. However, my own Marines must have been brainwashed by some natives, as they shot and killed the guvna! Governor Weatherby Swann was eliminated. Only upon making this report and seeing the video do I realize that I accidentally cheated on the following turn, with Interceptor sailing home when she should have been stuck at the island due to the hangover from Rum.
On the Interceptor’s sail home, she was intercepted by the Black Pearl! The epic battle happens again!! Black Pearl took off two masts, but the English returned fire for the same on their turn!
However, this time “Commodore” James Norrington was there to intervene! HMS Dauntless came whirling onto the scene, with Mercer tossing Murtog overboard to fuel the ship’s extra action, which sank the Pearl!
From there it was a race to get gold home, with Hai Peng’s blazing speed impeded by the Jail UT which had removed her crew and therefore the captain and helmsman speed bonuses. HMS Dauntless returned to the southwest via whirlpool to explore, but found TWO Aztec Medallions! One of them eliminated the other coins from the island, though I should have flipped the Jailhouse Dog to reverse that.
HMS Dauntless came through a whirlpool again, with Mercer sacrificing Mullroy to sink the Hai Peng! However, the Pirates had won 11-10!
I also played some PotC music on violin that day to celebrate the anniversary, and saw the movie in theater at night to cap the grand day of piracy! 😀
Although I’ll only be playing VASSAL Campaign Game 4 on the Fourth of July, I was able to get a “finishable” game in over the holiday weekend. One of my friends happened to play the game as a kid, and another learned how to play today in their first game. We played a 3 player, 40 point game at Moon Dragon Games in their Egyptian Room – a cool and unique nook of a game store if you ever find yourself a bit north of Seattle.
We kept it simple with no named crew, terrain, forts or UT’s. Flat earth rules with only 3 wild islands and 5 coins per island. Here are the fleets in turn order:
The Frenchman
L’Amazone + captain, explorer
La Mezquita + helmsman, explorer
Morgawr
The Cursed Pirate
Executioner + captain
Lady Newport + helmsman
USS Sea Tiger
The Americans
Constitution + helmsman
Hannah, towing Minuteman flotilla
Hannah is quite a strange ship, being quite fast for a “cheerleader” and one of the most expensive two masters in the game. For a while I’d been wanting to pair her ability with a flotilla, combining the extra firepower with the fast towing speed. An undercrewed Constitution was a good way to fill out the points while paying tribute to the Revolutionary War, especially given that July 2nd is the date of “The Resolution for Independence”.
We were ready to set sail!
2 rounds in: The Amazone, USS Sea Tiger and Executioner all headed north for treasure. Morgawr submerged and escorted La Mezquita southwards, though they were shadowed by the Lady Newport. Both American ships dock at a wild island, to explore next turn.
The Frenchman and Pirate explored, with the Americans breaking for home. However, they were cautious to stay out of Morgawr’s ram range, not wanting to get pinned with gold aboard a few yards from home. Minuteman took a few 4L+L potshots at Mezquita but missed.
Amazone returned home with 2 coins, while Executioner and Sea Tiger headed back with their loot. The Americans docked home their 5 coins between the 2 ships, with Minuteman blasting masts off La Mezquita. The early stages of this game saw quite a few ships changing headings often – more than I usually see.
The Frenchman and Pirate strike a deal to team up against the Americans, but there is a clause where the Pirates can’t take the last coins from the north. Negotiations quickly run awry, with the Spanish miffed that the Executioner sailed into her path home for repairs. The Americans are feasting on Minuteman’s Extended Range, blasting off half the Executioner’s masts. The latter is probably the only ship in play that can realistically make a run at American firepower by her lonesome, but now she is damaged.
With Morgawr lurking and the Amazone having a captain aboard, the Americans were content to sit and wait until the northern gold (the last available coins) inevitably came southwards. Minuteman blasted a mast off L’Amazone and sank La Mezquita. The Lady Newport explored in the north, with the French trying to revise the deal so they could still team up against the Americans as the Pirate brought gold home.
However, as PDXYAR always said, “gold wins the game”. Lady Newport and Executioner loaded up, and it was time for some late-game havoc. The Americans surged east, with Minuteman hitting 3/3 to sink the Sea Tiger. Constitution departed the home island as well, with her crew confident in their abilities to defeat Morgawr.
L’Amazone repairs as carnage erupts in the center. Morgawr sets Constitution alight with its fire breathing attack, but the American crew are in full hero mode, putting it out on the ship’s very next action (the white 6). Hannah rams Lady Newport and steals her 3 coin, though the Minuteman fails to dismast the schooner even with Hannah’s cheerleading bonus, meaning Hannah is still pinned.
The Amazone sails out and is able to get some shots off, hitting the Constitution once. However, American guns are winning the multi-player battle, with Constitution pouring in a heavy fire against Morgawr. Serpent guts are blown everywhere as shots ring out at a rapid pace. Hannah gets lucky and dismasts the Lady Newport with a 4S shot, while Minuteman makes the Executioner derelict.
L’Amazone captured the Executioner, with the latter transferring her coins to the Frenchman with an explore action. However, Minuteman sent the Amazone to the depths and Constitution killed the beast Morgawr to end the game!
Americans: 11 gold
Cursed Pirate: 10
Frenchman: 8
A close-fought and action-packed intro game! After last year’s strong showing by the English, the Americans are back on top in what has become nearly an annual summer tradition. Perhaps next year will see the return of the Anglo-American rivalry of old!
