Today (2/7/2019) I messaged Zev Shlasinger (formerly of Z-Man Games, creators of Merchants and Marauders), who now is part of their board game department.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
2019 State of the Pirates Community Address
Inspired by the annual “State of the Union” address, as the arguable leader of the current Pirates CSG community, I hope to make this an annual tradition.
2018 was a very dark year for the game of Pirates CSG. The potential closure of Miniature Trading prompted me to create a new forum on this website, which is an upgraded version of my old Weebly site. The community has become somewhat fractured, although it was already like that before the Miniature Trading crisis hit.
However, there is plenty of good news. The forum at Pirates with Ben is up and running, and Miniature Trading is still alive! Various parts of the community grew in the past year, with the Facebook group surpassing 200 members and the Discord server being created. However, the scattered community is part of the reason I plan to do things mostly on Pirates with Ben going forward.
Plenty of content is still being created, between my youtube channel and the Pirates CSG Podcast. It is quite possible that 2019 will see a bit of a decrease in video and audio content overall after the explosion of those in 2017 and 2018. Of course, there is still plenty to talk about, and plenty of games to play.
There is a lot of uncertainty in the Pirates world going forward. After a slight dip in some prices, it seems that the market is still one for sellers, with the Shui Xian recently auctioning for $79 and an Obago Deuce commanding a whopping $500 on eBay. Regardless, it seems like a great time to finish the decade strong!
Feel free to respond to this State of the Community address, and add your own thoughts! 😀
Tom Brady is Thanos, and Admiral A7XfanBen is Tom Brady
Tom Brady is Thanos, and Admiral
A7XfanBen is Tom Brady
Warning: Self-congratulatory stuff ahead… I know how big my ego is around playing the game; I’m self aware of how silly it sounds haha. But I’ve won the Pirates CSG games that are most important to me and I love epic stuff more than any Pirates CSG fans I’ve seen, and I can’t help but notice amusing parallels to other things. 🙂
Silly fun post not to be taken seriously!
Spoilers Ahead
Last night (February 3rd, 2019), myself and many others witnessed a thoroughly unsurprising event. Tom Brady won his 6th Super Bowl ring, further extending his legacy as the greatest player in the history of football. As he always does, Tom proved the doubters wrong. After his previous success, especially the historic comeback against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI, NO ONE should have been betting against Tom Brady. He is the god of football, and now there is simply no debating that.
Tom Brady is Thanos
With his 6th championship ring, Tom Brady now has as many Super Bowl rings as Thanos has/had Infinity Stones. At any time now he could do a snap and erase half of all people, or perhaps just half of the NFL. XD Tom is now 6-3 in his nine Super Bowl appearances, breaking a tie with Charles Haley for the most championships by a single football player and moving into a tie with the Steelers for the most championships of any TEAM.
TB12 sitting on his throne with an Infinity Gauntlet of Super Bowl rings. (not my picture – full credit to BeatATrexx on Imgur)
Tom Brady and Admiral A7XfanBen
After winning VASSAL Campaign Games 1, 2, and 3, I became “the Tom Brady of campaign games”. This is because Tom was 3-0 in his first three Super Bowls, and now I am 3-0 in my first three non-solo Pirates CSG campaign games. You can see how I did it in my Epic Videos playlist. CG4 has begun, although it is likely to last FAR longer than any of the previous VASSAL campaign games.
There are a number of additional parallels between Tom’s Super Bowl legacy and my own campaign game legacy. CG1/2/3 were all played in a 2 year period from February 2016 (start of CG1) to March 2018 (end of CG3), which covers the three calendar years from 2016-2018. It took Tom only 4 years to accumulate 3 wins, similar to how it took me only about 2 years (and one month) to accumulate 3 wins.
Opponents
In terms of opponents, Tom was a massive underdog to the Rams in his first Super Bowl (SB). Xerecs and I faced off in CG1, the first-ever VASSAL campaign game. It could be argued that neither player was really a favorite or underdog. I did not control the best faction in the game, the Pirates, nor the French, another very competitive faction. I ended up winning as the Spanish, dominating the game in general. The Patriots were the favorites in Tom’s second SB, just as I would have to be favored to win CG2 against 2 other players. The Patriots were also the favorites in Tom’s third SB, just as I would be to start CG3 (as the most successful and experienced player in that game).
Margins of Victory
A more stark contrast lies in the margins of victory, which are necessarily opposite due to the nature of the radically different games. Tom’s Super Bowls are pretty much always decided by a tiny margin, often by 3 points. With the shortest VASSAL campaign game (CG1) requiring a full 3 months of play to finish, and with Last Fleet Afloat rules in effect, it’s inevitable that my CG wins would be lopsided at the finish. However, there were some close moments, notably when the Pirates nearly attacked the Spanish in CG1, when the Pirates had a points lead over the English in CG2, and when multiple factions had better starts than the Americans in CG3.
Thanos and Admiral A7XfanBen?
What if someday I get to 6 victories in Pirates CSG campaign games? Will I “retire”? Nope, I’m going nowhere! I also don’t like to think about what would happen in a “snap” comparison – by the time I win my 6th, it’s possible that half of the current community will be gone. 🙁 Let’s not let that happen!! 😀
What’s Next?
Tom has already stated that he will not be retiring, so a potential 7th ring is already in his sights. While CG4 and the Caribbean game slowly languish on, I have turned my attention to The Hourly Campaign, a solo campaign game, for want of players. Thanos will presumably look to defend his Infinity Stones in Avengers: Endgame.
The interesting thing about what lies ahead is that Tom lost consecutive Super Bowls and went a full 10 years before winning his fourth. Incredibly, something vaguely similar could happen with me, though of course I am confident in my abilities. It’s certainly possible I may not win CG4, which will likely take multiple years to conclude. Instead, I will try to break from this “Tom Brady and the Patriots” campaign game tradition and continue my undefeated streak. 😀
Click here to get your Tom Brady Thanos gear! If you want to beat me in a campaign game, you better buy some packs (This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated) to get started, cuz I’ve got a 500+ game advantage. 🙂 If you’re like me, the following video will motivate you to WIN. (not my video; full credit to GoobzTV on youtube) Finally, it looks like Joseph Vincent is going to make a sequel to his EPIC 5 Rings video. Edit: It’s here! Tom Brady – Six Rings (An original Documentary)
Here is my hype video for VASSAL Campaign Game 4. If I can win it in due time, I would be 4-0 in Pirates CSG campaign games.
Edit (11/24/2020): Adding this relevant video to this post; hopefully my best one yet.
Sweet Spot – Best Mast Count for Ships?
Originally posted to Miniature Trading on July 2nd, 2016
HMS Viceroy, an average English 4 master.
Sweet Spot For Mast Count?
A day ago I was randomly pondering if there’s a kind of “sweet spot” in terms of a specific ship type or especially a specific number of masts.
Obviously each mast number has tons of great ships associated with it – but could one be called the “best” or slightly better than all the others?
I contend that ships with 4 masts are just about right. This category includes many of the best ships in the game, and this ship size and point cost is the perfect amount for both gunships, gold runners, and especially hybrids.
I could go into more detail, but I’d be interested to hear others’ opinions.
Tough to beat one of the best ships ever – the Pirate hybrid Darkhawk II.
As for the other ship sizes: 1 masters are far too fragile to ramming, 2 masters are often overcosted for what you get, 3 masters are not quite “line of battle” ships and aren’t quite as good at being hybrids as 4 masters, while the 5 masters that can run gold effectively or play a hybrid role are few and far between. Game pieces with more than 5 masts are generally extremely expensive or used almost exclusively in gunship roles. (3 masters would be my runner up for the “sweet spot” designation)
I’ve always had a huge soft spot for 5 masters – they are my favorite ship type. However, they’re generally used in more of a gunship role. Based on the search function, there are more than twice as many 4 masters as 5 masters, so that speaks to the flexibility of 4 masters (an unfair advantage in this discussion perhaps, but a fact nonetheless). There just aren’t that many purpose-built 5 master hybrids – as good as the SC and Swallow are, a lot of people will still understandably use them as pure gunships. Also, there aren’t any 5 masters with more than 6 cargo spaces, while a few 4 masters have more than 6 (and plenty of 4’s with 6 as well). 5 masters are generally the truest gunships, while 4 masters are (in general) better hybrids while still holding their own in a line of battle full of 5 masters.
What is your opinion of the gameplay “sweet spot” in terms of mast count? And why??
My Single Year Plays Record
From Miniature Trading in October 2016
My Single Year Plays Record
A game in progress during VASSAL Tournament #2.
Wow! After last night’s 5 games played with xerecs on the VASSAL module as part of Tournament #2, I’ve tied my plays record for a single year at a whopping 75!
Year/ # of plays per year
2011: 32
2012: 58
2013: 75
2014: 28
2015: 56
2016: 75 (finished with 92; update below)
2011 was essentially half a year’s worth of playing, since I mostly did HFS’s prior to June 2011. Things ramped up soon afterwards, culminating in a whopping (I love that word lol) 75 in 2013. February 2013 still stands as my most active month, with 43 total plays. That was partly because of a tournament and the Acorazado vs. Endeavour one-day deathmatch series. After 26 plays last month I’ve got 16 so far this month, putting me on pace for about 30 (likely less though). The 43 plays in a month isn’t likely to be broken anytime soon. 
However, it makes me wonder which month was my highest for total hours playing Pirates. It could certainly be June 2015, since I played Economy Edition nearly every day, and the game literally started on 5/31 and ended on 7/1, almost perfectly encompassing the whole month of June.
2014 was like my “dark year”. I was less active in terms of playing (with less plays than even 2011), as well as other piratical activities. 2014 was also the only year I didn’t play a huge campaign game (regular in 2011, RISK in 2012, CotE in 2013, EE in 2015, CG1/CG2 in 2016). I then rebounded in a huge way in 2015, and expected to hit around 50-60 plays this year, which would establish ~55 as the number I would shoot for in future years (indeed, my average is 54 per year right now). (Since 2011, 2013, and 2014 were aberrations.) But, the World game has been delayed, leading to two big tournaments! The tournaments are definitely the biggest factor leading to the new record, and it’s quite possible 2016 will be my biggest year for a long time, possibly ever, in terms of total games played! I might hit triple digits!
I record plays on BGG when a decision is reached (aka the game ends), so technically I’ve already broken my record because CG2 hasn’t been recorded yet! 
Though, the record will “officially” be broken soon, likely with the next T2 game, which funny enough features Norvegia heh.
I like numbers and statistics (*at least for Pirates stuff! lol), so I wanted to make this thread. It also previews some of the end-of-year stuff I have planned.
2019 Update
I actually finished 2016 with a whopping 92 plays, which stands as my single year plays record. 2017 was another big year with 76 total plays, making it my second highest single year for plays. 2018 was another dark year but almost inevitable given that the VASSAL tournaments were over and I wasn’t in a position to play many physical games either. However, I’m glad I’ve been able to do considerable campaign game playing recently, and hope to continue that with The Hourly Campaign.
My numbers updated through the end of 2018
Heroic or Downright Atrocious – Surprising ship performances
Originally posted to Miniature Trading on August 18th, 2017
Heroic or Downright Atrocious – Surprising ship performances
This post is reserved for those ships that performed spectacularly well (heroic) or atrocious in individual games, to the point of absolute disbelief. Oftentimes a “hero” ship will be an unexpected one – you expect HMS Titan or the Acorazado to be a big-time ship, so those types of ships aren’t as likely to be mentioned here. (though you still could if they were insanely good and better than they actually are) Of course, on the contrary, unexpectedly bad ships would be ones like the Titan – ships that are supposed to be amazing, but disappointed you in a specific game or did horribly on more than one occasion.
What ship or ships (or crew, if you can manage that!) have been “heroes” or downright garbage in your games?
For me, my Economy Edition game featured at least 3 good examples.
The San Estaban had an absolutely heroic performance for the Franco-Spanish, shooting a whopping 8 for 9 (with rank-3 cannons, which I usually miss with all the time, so I’d expect her to go about 2 for 9) and surviving 2 full-scale Cursed attacks. She then returned home and may have shot some masts off Pirates before succumbing.
On the opposite end of the spectrum was the Black Mamba. In one of the worst performances in naval history, this ship went 0 for 6 in two shoot actions. Think that’s bad enough? Three of those misses were 1’s, which meant that the ship had dismasted herself without doing ANY damage to the enemy.
Finally, the English ship Swiftsure was simply untouchable during the American assault:
| Quote: |
| The Swiftsure was the first ship launched in the game by any faction. Used as a treasure runner by the English, she’s now picked up a captain from their HI since she has a 2S cannon, which is better than the other guns English treasure runners are carrying. She hasn’t done much damage, but the stubborn sloop is putting up quite a fight! Neither the Kettering, Saratoga, nor President can hit her because of her L-immunity. Frustrated, the President has rammed her, but miraculously rolled a 1 to miss the dismast attempt! With Peregrine Stern giving +1 to boarding rolls and the President having a 3 mast advantage, the boarding attempt looked like a lock. However, the Swiftsure rolled a 6 to the President’s 1, winning the boarding party 7 to 6 and killing Stern, one of the most valuable named crew in the game at 9 points!! |
Other atrocious performances include 10 masted ships in general, especially during my RISK game and Defence of St. Helens game. In terms of numbers, I do know that the Shui Xian and Baochuan combined to go 2 for 13 in one turn, despite the Baochuan having Chang Pao aboard. Also, HMS Grand Temple had a rough start to her career with me, but has more than made up for it by now.
I’m sure there are other examples from my games, but I’ll post them as I remember them or rediscover them in the Battle Reports.
Post your own surprising ship performances in the comments below!
A tribute to 2 masted schooners
Originally posted to Miniature Trading on November 23rd, 2017
They’ll never be the best gunships in the game, and not many qualify as the best gold runners either. However, I have a love for the 2 masted schooner ship type. They are sleek, elegant, and even beautiful. They look really cool and fast on the ocean/table, and many of the ones from their first two sets are what I would define as “classics of the game”. Click the pictures to see the game piece pages at Miniature Trading (assuming that site still works as you read this).
Taking a closer look:
The first of MANY excellent 2 masted support gunships in CC and RV, and not just among the 2 masted schooners. The RJ is just perfect as a support ship: great speed, very good cannons, and a nice offensive ability. Throw in a crew from much later in the release schedule, and you even have a decent hybrid option.
One of my very first ships, and arguably the best of the Pirate 2 masted schooners. An even better hybrid than the RJ, the Raven combines wicked speed with good cargo and good guns. Lots of crew options exist, and with the right setup, you can have a “super hybrid”: fight, get gold normally, or steal gold with the immunity to pinning.
One of the best English gold runners, and a stacked ship for cargo in general. She can get a lot of gold from wild islands, or combine that with robbed loot. HMS Goodfellow from RtSS (12 points, 5 cargo, S+S speed, Secret Hold) would have provided some competition for her.
Her ability is not on par with the others listed here, but this is still a good gunship given Spain’s other options at this point cost. A dedicated fort-wrecker can be a nice thing to have againstParadis de la Mer , or campaign games in general (she did well in CG1 against the French).
Along with the Raven, this was the fastest ship of my original collection. Unlike most of these other ships, she’s not going to be a good hybrid or gold runner. However, the Mercure can still be a good “assassin” type ship, with blazing speed and accurate cannons. You could substitute a helmsman for a firepot specialist, or maybe even get Lady Roimata (Captain + SAT) with a firepot specialist and oarsman.
Almost identical to the Royal James, but with a far less practical ability.
The most offensive of this ship type, and one of the most devastating 2 masted gunships in general. Quite pricey, but you get great firepower that can wreck cargo on enemy ships. A captain, helmsman, and musketeer would make this ship quite fierce, or you could try using her as a hybrid with Hammersmith and Coconut .
France has much better options, but this is a fun ship to use with equipment.
An underrated gold runner, I consider this ship France’s answer to the Lady Provost. Not quite as much cargo, but a nice defensive ability.
I’m sick of her, but this is one of the best gold runners in the game.
Almost the same as the Mercure, but slightly worse firepower. A very nice option for towing Minuteman , and again, a firepot specialist on that 2S gun can really give the ship some bite.
That covers the good ones; although there are some subpar 2 masted schooners, this ship type may have a higher percentage of good/great ships than almost any other ship type (5 masters come to my mind as possibly the best on average since there aren’t many mediocre ones). The Flying Fish , Black Arrow , and Glaive (underrated in my opinion) are playable, but the others aren’t as much.
Anyway, really wanted to post this at some point, and I hope you enjoy the aesthetics and gameplay of this ship type as much as I do!
What was your original collection?
What was your original collection?
Originally posted to Miniature Trading on June 29th, 2016
I got into this game back in 2005 (soon after CC came out I believe, but I only remember SM packs in the store), and I purchased a small amount of stuff from the first 6 sets, excluding SCS of course.
This is my original collection of 49 ships that I hold dear to my heart, and these ships are the truest veterans in my entire collection of ~800 punched ships. They’ve been involved in the first-ever Historical Fantasy Scenarios I had, as well as numerous regular games. This was all I had until 2010 or 2011.
English:
HMS Gargantuan x2
HMS Lord Walpole
HMS Birkenhead
HMS Nautilus
HMS Bath
HMS Frolic
French:
La Magnifique
La Possession x2
L’Amazone
La Danae
Le Mercure
Le Republicain
Tiger (always thought she was French for some reason lol)
Le Courageux x2
Spanish:
Santo Columba
La Trinidad
Asesino de la Nave (first 2 packs)
La Bahama
El San Jose
El Pulpo
La Repulsa (first 2 packs)
Americans:
Enterprise
Concord
Louisiana
Boston
Jarvis
Swamp Fox
Dark Fox
Pirates:
Broken Key
Black Diamond
Dark Pact
Batavian Bat (first 2 packs)
Greyhound
Selkie
El Dorado
Muerta de la Corona (first 2 packs)
El Ladron x2
Cursed Blade
Raven
Carrion Crow x2
Coral
Lightning
Algiers
Griffin
The first and biggest ship(s) of each faction were the flagships. The battles between the two Gargantuans vs. the Enterprise and Magnifique were legendary, with the Lord Walpole and Birkenhead often giving the English a victory late in the battle. The amount of Pirate ships sometimes led to a coalition between all the other factions to take them out. The Raven and Mercure were overly fast scout ships that no other fleet could match. In the end, my love of the English usually made them prevail, but it was a fun time indeed.
Of course, your original collection may be quite different than mine, especially if you bought hundreds of ships at once to start out. It could even just be the first pack or first 5-10 packs you opened, or like me, the first batch you had for quite some time before acquiring more stuff much later on.
So, what was your original collection?
My other posts from the thread:
Imagine the gaming experience a player would get if they received an RV pack with Banshee’s Cry, Santa Isabel, and Don Pedro Gilbert! They would forever be disappointed with everything else….
If I had to pick “my” flagship, it would have to be HMS Lord Walpole. HMS Lord Algernon is technically my favorite ship, but more because I wanted it so bad back in the day. That being said, HMS Birkenhead was always right up there with the Lord Walpole, while La Magnifique or the Broken Key would be my top non-English flagship back then.
@Xerecs: Your post reminded me of something I meant to put in my first post of this thread.
How could I forget the “lost 3”?
La Belle Etoile
L’Eroica
Straw Man
The Belle Etoile was simply lost as far as I know. I believe L’Eroica was lost as well, though she may have been badly damaged during construction, after which point I may have thrown her out. The Straw Man was not so fortunate… I had a really bad day and decided to take out my wrath on what I considered my worst ship (from a gameplay, HFS, and artwork perspective). I crushed it in anger, sitting and possibly stomping on it, which I later regretted. I have since acquired another one, but I don’t think I’ve used it and I don’t think I will. With those 3 it would have been 52 ships.
Also, we have some similarities – we both got a Santo Columba, Swamp Fox, and others very early on. I’ve talked extensively about how my collection has grown in a Pojo thread. Ironically that thread was posted 5 years ago yesterday. It also confirms that I did indeed come back from my long hiatus in 2010 rather than 2011. I may have lurked here longer than I thought (perhaps more than the month that I recall), but I don’t remember much of it haha. I bought 55 ships from Strikezoneonline for $10 (+ $10 shipping) in order to get as much quantity as possible. This was literally just to have as many ships as possible for my Historical Fantasy Scenarios. That purchase is also where my 8 Mayfair’s came from.
To think I played HFS’s for almost an entire year (on and off of course) before I joined Pojo… you should have seen it. My room was completely different back then, between then and Century of the Empires (2013 – the first game I took pictures for). There was a lot of what do you call them… “natural obstructions” which made for deep harbors and interesting interactions between fleets. The only thing I specifically remember is a very low circular table that made for a sort of cave/overhang with at least one or two harbors attached to the supports beneath it. Ships would sail from these harbors in lines of battle to engage each other in epic battles on the high seas… it was only around 6 years ago, but when almost everything in your Pirates CSG career has happened since then, it becomes quite nostalgic. For a week or two now I’ve been thinking about recreating that atmosphere for another “flashback” opportunity… I don’t know how epic I can make it, but it will certainly shed light on the sheer scale of it all…
First page of the original thread on Miniature Trading
May start an ambitious project: Pirates CSG History Wiki
Originally posted to Miniature Trading on December 7th, 2017
Pirates CSG History Wiki
I had an idea recently. I LOVE naval history, especially during the Age of Sail. I like reading books about the topic of course, but also the convenience of going on Wikipedia and reading about various wars and battles.
I would like to start a “Pirates CSG Naval History Wiki” that documents games in a new format. It would pretty much be completely derived from Battle Reports, but it would be in a Wiki-style format almost exactly the same as a Wikipedia entry.
I’m mostly doing this out of a pure passion for playing, BR’s, naval history, and my/our own “alternate history” that parallels the actual Age of Sail. It’s a VERY long-term project, and I have TON of other Pirate things to do first. Not to mention that my older (non-campaign game) BR’s are ruined due to the photobucket crash, and I would also like to work on that (likely replacing them with videos instead of redoing picture links only to have postimages.org disappear suddenly). It could be open for others to edit so everyone could add their own battles and games to the full “history of Pirates CSG”.
This is exactly the type of thing that I won’t have time for, the type of thing that will be put off, and the type of thing that won’t ever be finished (although, the latter is partially since you could just keep adding to the wiki with every game if you wanted to). 
However, I wanted to put the idea out there since I’ll probably start it soon and at least figure out how to format the wiki and start doing things slowly but surely. (not expecting any comments here haha)
| xerecs wrote: |
| Interesting idea. Like super battle reports. XD I’ll help when I can, but as you said this is an ambitious undertaking….. |
Yeah… I love the statistical side of things too, so trying to have X ships per side, losses/casualties/etc would be cool to document. I just love the thought of creating our own Wikipedia-style alternate history. It would be fun to tell the story of the battles and wars in a past tense where we can analyze the effect the battle had for the rest of the game/etc. Also, we could keep track of how many battles each faction has won and see how successful each is against specific factions and whatnot. We could also expand the wiki to have pages for certain islands, like The Flat for example. (“The Flat was an island in the middle of the Sea of Karkuda that was fought over by the French and Americans during Command the Oceans…”)
| karningul wrote: |
| It’s not exactly what you’re talking about, but I’d love to see a compilation of the story elements that unfolded over the course of the game. Try to make sense of what happened to the various factions and characters over the life of the game through the little bits of flavor text that were on the cards.
I’m pretty sure no real-life pirate remained in the profession over such a wide geographical range as our Jack Hawkins. |
Check out this wiki started by godmason! I’d like to contribute there as well, but I’m much more a fan of epic games than the flavor text (which I still love, don’t get me wrong).
| pariah wrote: |
| I think it’d be cool. I don’t think it’ll get a huge following, or participation rate, even from the active community; but, for those that do add to it, and for yourself, it’ll be worth it once it gets that half a dozen, dozen, two dozen, etc. on there for the community to look back on. |
I’m not expecting it to; it’s literally almost a long-term gift to myself. XD I just love the thought of having “my own Wikipedia” as far as history goes, but of course for this game since there are already entries on the real battles fought in the Age of Sail. With the new year approaching, I’m thinking about doing an “anniversary” approach: creating pages as the days of past battles approach (for example, I would create an entry for the Experimental cumulative game in January and just go down the list of battles and games throughout the year). Unfortunately I certainly won’t have time to keep up that pace (especially during the summer craziness when a ton of CG’s have been played), but it’s a super long-term project I’m excited to embark upon.
12/28/2017: Endless time commitment ahead… XD
I have a new idea on this. In addition to making pages for battles and wars, I could make pages for individual ships. Through the years almost every ship I own has appeared in at least one campaign game, with collection veterans like HMS Titan appearing in almost ALL of them.
This provides an opportunity for something I might call “Ship Chronicles”. For example, I can recall that the Grendel was beat up by a huge iceberg in the FN anniversary game, and then fought the Cursed in multiple battles in Command the Oceans. Telling a ship’s story could help bring them to life and almost provide an “alternate flavor text” type of thing. Of course the main problem would be using ships again in games after they’ve sunk in others, but I guess we could just say the faction rebuilt the ship.
1/16/2019: Update
As I republish this on my fansite here, I have gotten even busier and have literally dozens of Pirates CSG tasks and goals to accomplish LONG before I’d ever even be able to start a massive project like this. Besides, I’d rather just play THC instead for the time being. I’d love to do this someday, but it will probably be near the bottom of my priority list for DECADES… maybe look for something on this in the 2060’s or something lol. (assuming I should still be around then) In addition, given the potential demise of wiki’s, it would definitely be something I’d have to own myself. I would make sure to own the domain (and maybe more than that) in order to even start something like this that would be a lot of work. Who knows, maybe I could even make it work here on Pirates with Ben?
Feel free to comment your thoughts on this idea in the section below. I’ll make sure to respond!
-Admiral A7XfanBen
My Years at Miniature Trading: By the Numbers
My Years at Miniature Trading By the Numbers
Original thread started at Miniature Trading on December 25th, 2016
2016
Just a random thread idea I had. Not expecting many posts here, but it’s fun to look at. At least I think so.
The plays are almost in two groups of three (rising consistently from 2011-2013 and 2014-2016), mostly because of 2014’s down year and a huge year this year. In addition, 2011 was about 7 months for me rather than a full 12. My trades were pretty consistent until I exploded in December 2014/January 2015. I highly doubt I’ll ever match that burst of activity. The fleets and miniature reviews are a bit random, but I’ve been more active lately with those and of course teaching new players.
I keep track of my plays at BGG, which is why I have such detailed numbers. The fleets, miniature reviews, and trades are all easily accessible from your profile here at MT, while the players taught is more similar to plays and is tough to have high numbers in heh.
The averages work out pretty nice – a little over 50 games a year, a fleet submission at least once a month, trades scattered throughout the summer and winter, and a miniature review once in a great while. 🙂
According to a google spreadsheet Xerecs and I have been using for various things, 63 games out of 91 (69%) were played on VASSAL. There’s a chance I also missed recording a few in the doc, in which case the percentage would be slightly higher.
Found another reason to post here! I finish the year at 92 plays and 27 trades.
From my plays at BGG, I can figure out how many games I’ve played in each month of the year, and then calculate which seasons of the year have the most plays.
For the seasons, I simply did 3 month blocks. Spring (March-May), Summer (June-August), Fall (September-November), Winter (December-February).
The disparities are interesting: of my 341 total plays, only 18 have come in the March-May window, making the spring by far my least common time to play Pirates. Fall would be similarly low if not for the whopping 48 games I played this past September and October alone, mostly as a result of T1. If not for August the three winter months would be the three highest single-month totals. I’m slightly surprised by how much higher the winter is than the summer, though almost all of my campaign games have occurred in the summertime, which still only count as one play each. Hopefully T2 will allow my big January and February numbers to climb even higher!
2017
A year later, and time to fully update my stats.
It was another big year for playing, as I set a personal second best in games played, barely surpassing the total from 2013. It was a REALLY big year for fleets, as I submitted a whopping 16 fleets between June 21st and June 22nd. My yearly total of 37 fleets submitted is by far my new personal record, and continues the “fleet explosion” seen since 2015. I do notice a trend though – since 2013, my fleet total increases by about a dozen on the odd years (12-24-37), but then dips on the even years. 2018 will likely continue that trend, with my creative energies temporarily exhausted. XD
The long slow trading decline continued as well, as I continue to flesh out my collection and don’t need as much stuff. There were some nice additions though, including the Guichuan and various stuff that saw action in Command the Oceans.
I also set a new personal record for miniature reviews. The 8 does include my first ever review of a custom game piece. I was disappointed not to teach more players, but the campaign games (Command the Oceans and VASSAL CG3) are just so fun.
As for my 2018 goals with these numbers, I hope to continue averaging around 50 plays a year (although, I’m basically averaging 60 per year after the 168-game flurry of the past 2 years XD). For the fleets and trades, I’d just like to see double digits. MR’s come and go, so I’m not overly concerned about those. I definitely want to teach more than 7 players to set a new personal best, and naturally my inclination for campaign games should lead to at least one new one of those.
Here are my 2017 plays by month, with February, July, and December unsurprisingly the busiest months. I was disappointed that March ended my active months in a row streak of playing at least one game of Pirates (at 28!), but I hope a new streak has started as of November 2017. (October was a little weird due to CTO)
And finally my cumulative monthly totals. The disparity between the summer/winter months and those of spring/fall only got bigger. Every month other than October and November has more plays in it than the entire spring season of March through May! It was another big February, which now has almost twice as many plays as any other month.
2018
As I discussed in my 2018 Year in Review, 2018 was an absolutely DISMAL year for Pirates. I anticipated that somewhat in terms of numbers because it was the first year since 2015 without tournament play, and I’m so content with my collection that trading almost feels unnecessary (thanks VASSAL! XD). Although my plays were WAY down, I started three campaign games and those are my favorite type of game by far. After massive explosions in my fleet and review numbers, it was only natural for them to fall back a lot, especially once Miniature Trading’s demise became a possibility in late August 2018.
I’m anticipating changes in 2019 that may even drive some of these numbers further down, but I’ve kind of “been there, done that” in terms of producing the above types of content for this game. I’d like to focus on campaign games and making the game more popular rather than endless fleet ideas and small games. My per-year averages will naturally fall quite a bit over time, but I can always compute stats for specific periods of time, such as the ridiculous run from 2015-2017. In addition, I think I’ll start adding new stats: numbers for youtube videos produced (231 in 2018), podcasts recorded (24), and (less likely) Instagram posts. Those three categories all had strong years in 2018, and they’re much more impactful and helpful to the community than my plays or fleets anyway.
Thanks for checking this out, and feel free to share your own stats for Pirates CSG!
-Admiral A7XfanBen