EPIC SCALE PIRATES
Playing with Captain Redgoat in Portland Oregon!
8/27/2022
I met up with Captain Redgoat in Portland Oregon! One of the founding and leading members of PDXYAR (also known as “the Portland group” among the Pirates CSG community) for many years, this was essentially a dream come true for me and a bucket list goal accomplished. Although PDXYAR has long moved on from playing Pirates and has been dormant lately, former member Redgoat still had all of the huge foamboard ships and game pieces he made way back in the day! He hadn’t used them in many years and was looking to give them a new home, and thus gave all of it to me! 😀 (I gave him $100 since I didn’t want him to have nothing for it) They are now in Washington where I plan to play games with them at parks near Seattle with my group! 🙂
We did a podcast before setting up for a casual game at 40 points. We drafted the 3 ships each of us wanted, with some basic mixed fleets ready for action. I rolled to go first:
Ben
Grand Path + captain, helmsman
Terror of Gibraltar
La Cazadora
Redgoat
President + captain
Proud Tortoise + helmsman
HMS Sea Phoenix + helmsman
With that we were ready to set sail! Redgoat picked Cathedral Park as the location for the game because it’s where PDXYAR played with the epic scale ships at two of the Portland Pirate festivals back in the day. In fact, you can still see the pictures from 2008 and 2009!
The ships are quite a sight to behold. For reference, the total length of one of the Grand Path’s hull pieces is 24 inches long! The plastic skulls are explored island markers.
(I’m aware the turtle ship is built wrong)
The Terror of Gibraltar sets out. It’s quite a change from the tabletop game since it involves far more exercise. You constantly have to walk around and get down to pick up the ships. Extremely tangible experience every step of the way!
The measuring sticks are fun in their own right. Redgoat said many were broken over the years as a result of the inevitable impromptu sparring matches. How could you not use them as swords??
The Grand Path emerged from fog to hit 3/6 against the President! The schooner dipped into fog, eager to escape the Jade warship’s grasp.
The Proud Tortoise has snagged some coins for Redgoat, but each of my three ships is now poised to explore the other 3 wild islands.
Epic Scale Pirates!!
I was happy to have one of those “homecoming parties” somewhat common in Pirates CSG where a bunch of ships come home nearly at the same time. This was useful for keeping the HI Raider Sea Phoenix at bay.
The President is nearly finished repairing here. I was hoping to get some of the final coins to lock up a probable win, but the Proud Tortoise had grabbed the President’s captain and blasted a mast off the Cazadora!
HMS Sea Phoenix robbed a 5 under the house rule that HI Raiders could look at all the gold and choose which to take. However, she was quickly dismasted by the Grand Path!
Redgoat takes the derelict under tow with Proud Tortoise and hits the GP, but getting any stolen loot back home will require a miracle.
The Terror of Gibraltar finally comes in handy during combat, winning a boarding party to steal back the 5! Boarding is super fun since we just throw the dice at each other. They’re about the size of dodgeballs and of similar weight!
The Cazadora comes home to repair while simultaneously blocking the Proud Tortoise a bit. The Grand Path re-engages the President, dismasting her at last!
The Terror of Gibraltar returns my 5 coin as a Jade civil war breaks out just off the coast!
The Grand Path shot off the turtle ship’s panels and the Cazadora rammed her derelict to end the game! (nothing Redgoat could have done with her rowing around to swing the tide in his favor)
Gold wins the game!
- Ben: 17 gold
- Redgoat: 13
In a strange irony, the numbers mirror the proposed numbers of Obago Deuces in existence! (since under debate as there may be more out there) Supposedly 17 Obago Deuces went to PDXYAR back in the day, with another 13 in existence that didn’t go to the Portland pirates. Almost spooky!
HUGE thanks to Redgoat for unearthing his epic collection of supersized ships, and for entrusting me with their future! Next stop for them will be Washington! 😀 Thanks for reading and come out to Seattle if you want to play some epic scale Pirates CSG!
I’m gonna have to figure out when I can take some time off and head up there for a week or so. Pirates convention anyone? 😀
Super cool to see the giant ships in action! Did you and Redgoat discuss how the ships were made? If it’s not too difficult more ships could reach Epic scale, though I don’t think you’d be able to play a campaign at Epic Scale. Probably. 😀
Yeah we’re definitely planning to get the big ships out to some parks before it gets cold up here!
Yeah, I’ve got another youtube video coming where he talks about that. More could definitely be created. I think a campaign with supersized stuff would be far more pain than it would be worth. Plus you’d want to play indoors since the foamboard doesn’t stand up to the rain/elements well. So you’d need like a warehouse lol.