Changes and Plans

What have I done with the site since last the blog post?

-Added social icons, updated About Ben page

-Added Other Sites page

Earlier today I made a short little video summarizing the changes and what I’d like to see from the site going forward.

 

Plans

I’d like to post at least one battle report (BR) per week, sometimes more depending on the circumstances and the game or games in question.  As you can see from that separate blog, I’m starting with the very first battle report I ever wrote and will be posting them in chronological order.  My battle reports have become a bit scattered and random over the years, due to:

1. Pojo is the only place to find the reports from before 2013’s Century of the Empires game, the first game I took pictures for.
2. photobucket disaster in summer 2017 – all links from that stupid site trashed.
3. Postimages changing their url’s from .org to .cc in 2018 – all picture links broken, and I have only gotten the campaign game BR’s back up in new posts in the BR thread at Miniature Trading.

So, all in all the state of battle reporting is in shambles unfortunately.  It has been two huge setbacks in just the past 10 months, resulting in me not trusting any image hosting site no matter what.  As a result, I may or may not have full battle reports with pictures here.  I may do mostly video battle reports and just save the files.  That way, I can just repost one mp4 file on a different website if the primary host goes down, rather than having to redo dozens, hundreds, or thousands of picture link url’s.

 

-Need to customize sidebars to category pages (blog vs. BR’s)

This refers to how on the right side of this page, the recent posts and other things refer to any blog posts, not just the Daily Blog stuff.  I’d like to separate them, so the sidebar on the Battle Reports blog page only refers to other BR things.

 

I would love for my site to become the “ultimate” conglomeration of all things Pirates.  Files, info, data, reviews, stats, content, pictures, BR’s, record, etc.  As of now, the community is still scattered in a way; I suspect that a lot of members in the growing Facebook group do not have accounts at Miniature Trading, and vice versa.  Then you’ve got BoardGameGeek, Pojo, the Yahoo groups, the subreddit, and others (check out the Other Sites page).  That’s all fine, but it also leads to a scattering of information and data.  I like the thought of hosting a lot of files at this site if possible, giving credit of course for ones that aren’t mine.  I would love for a LOT of useful information to be had here at Pirates with Ben.  In fact, a giant “information” page is one of my priorities for a new page that was never part of my weebly site.  That said, a lot of work still to do!  Let me know if there are things you’d like to see here on this site, or what I could improve on!  a7xfanben@gmail.com

 

Deal of the Day: Long gone. Current eBay options. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

*Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents.  XD

 

Pirates CSG Card of the Day

Set number: 7 – Mysterious Islands

Collector’s Number: 078 – Le Rocher Noir

• Collector’s Number: 078
• Faction Affiliation: France
• Rarity: C
• Type: Ship
• Point Value: 11
• Cargo Space: 2
• Base Move: S+L
• Cannons: 3S-3S-3S
• Number of Masts: 3

This ship can shoot at submerged ships within S of her.
Flavor: Capitaine Nash has nerves of steel, and what sometimes seems like a death wish, as he insists his vessel carry only the most dangerous cargo in the Mysterious Islands.

The Rocher Noir is not a bad ship, but she’s not exceptional either.  You’ve got very good speed and average cannons, with a niche ability that really narrows down her role, which is hunting for underwater targets.  If you don’t think your opponent will be using sea monsters or submarines, I wouldn’t recommend her.  However, as a sub-hunter she’s certainly fit for the job.  With very little cargo, that’s pretty much it – a fast midsize gunship that should be used to attack underwater threats.

Standard 40 point games: At least a captain, and probably a helmsman to ensure you catch whatever you’re hunting.  (14 or 16 total points)

Medium size games (50-100 points): Same thing, but definitely with a helmsman here.  (16 total points)

Large games (over 100 points):  Hmmm… with the cargo filled up quickly there’s not a lot of exciting things you could do…  I suppose an S-boarding captain would be fun, but you won’t have much margin for error.  France’s only world-hating crew is not combined with the captain ability, but you could add him and forego the helmsman.  I’d probably save him for a larger ship and just keep it simple with captain/helmsman/oarsman.  (16+ total points)

Game Piece Rating: 6/10.  The speed is the only true standout attribute that saves this ship from mediocrity.  There are better ways to deal with submerged “ships”, and the Rocher Noir is quite limited to her niche role.

 

Picture of the Day

Here’s a little preview of sorts for what I hope is to come in some weeks or months.  Yet another piece of cardboard molding I have acquired as part of the plans for Ocean Terrain Contest #3 and beyond.  All will be revealed in due time….

 

A lot of things have taken my attention away from OTC3, though for good reason.  This site has become one of those things.  Ultimately I care far more about promoting and “saving” the game than making custom islands and terrain, and thinking about the dangers of foam and spray paint don’t really get me enthused to work on stuff for the contest.  XD  That said, I’m glad I made a bunch of stuff last year (most of it unveiled in the Command the Oceans game), but there are still a handful of things I hope to work on (if not complete) before the deadline on August 1st.

 

It’s a Pirates’ Life for Me.

Ben

 

PS: Songs of the day – No Woman Has Ever Handled My Herschel + That Black Bat Licorice