First time in Las Vegas for Epic Scale Pirates CSG!
11/26/2023
Captain Randy and I met up at Sunset Park in Las Vegas for the first Epic Scale game ever played in Nevada! The Epic Scale fleet has a new home after my move from Washington state. We did a draft to make 80 point fleets. As usual, we’d be using the Las Vegas house rules.
Video introduction:
Randy rolled to go first, so I picked my home island (HI) first. Here are the mixed fleets!
Captain Randy:
Revenant + captain, helmsman, musketeer, oarsman
HMS Interceptor + explorer
Crocodile + captain
Grinder + explorer
HMS Sea Phoenix + helmsman
Ben:
Muninn + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist, oarsman
Emerald Rose (custom made by PDXYAR) + Lawrence, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Terror of Gibraltar + helmsman
Fathom + helmsman, explorer
Le Coeur du Lion + helmsman
-I’ve been wanting to change up my fleets and strategies a bit, so here I was looking to run gold with the Fathom by cancelling the Mercenary keyword with Lawrence. He could use his abilities on the Emerald Rose due to her “Free Ride” ability to let crew of any nationality use their abilities on the ship. For the draft, Muninn was my first overall pick as the main warship. Terror of Gibraltar is a bit of an underwhelming ship, but helped keep the minor faction theme and added another oared ship. Coeur filled out the points since I was getting tight on cargo if I added more crew to the main ships.
4 coins per island and we were ready to start playing Epic Scale for the first time in Las Vegas! Ironically there was a bit too much wind for the ships to handle in the first half of the game, but we were able to weigh down the coins and islands/terrain with some objects as the game went on.
My fleet completely scattered away from my central HI location, while Randy had two groups of ships. Revenant, Interceptor and Sea Phoenix headed “west”, while Grinder and Crocodile went south.
I was in the mood for some decisive action! Muninn emerged from fog to blast away at Interceptor and Revenant, but only shot 2/6! She did manage to set the Interceptor aflame. Making matters worse, it appeared that my poor cannon luck would be in full swing today, as Emerald Rose shot 0/3 to completely miss the Sea Phoenix! Overall it was 2/9 shooting on cannons with an average rank of <2.5. The Muninn also failed to do ram damage on the Interceptor, making it a very poor combat showing.
As expected, swift retribution followed! Revenant used her ability to shoot through the Interceptor, and was aided by the English to sink the Muninn.
Fathom docked home a couple coins after Lawrence cancelled her Mercenary keyword as planned. Terror of Gibraltar stole a coin from the Grinder after the latter explored in the east, but took some damage for the gesture. Coeur du Lion is exploring at the outskirts. Captain Randy looks at coins with feigned despair as HMS Sea Phoenix explores for the first time.
What I lacked in cannon luck, I made up for with fog bank exit location rolls. Terror of Gibraltar (ToG) got a perfect roll to dock home her stolen loot. Emerald Rose shot a few masts off the Revenant, with HMS Interceptor struggling to contribute due to her shipboard fires. Fathom dove underwater in anticipation of chasing down HMS Sea Phoenix, who had 3 coins aboard.
From another angle:
Revenant stayed put to not have her captain cancelled by Lawrence, shooting at Emerald Rose. Emerald Rose was crippled, but managed to dismast Interceptor on the next turn. Coeur gets home with a couple coins, while Crocodile struggles to get into action with no helmsman to boost her speed. Fathom and ToG both have their sights set on HMS Sea Phoenix.
Fathom surfaces to ram and board the Sea Phoenix! A 5 is stolen! ToG gets another ideal fog exit roll and does the same, grabbing a second 5! Interceptor is doomed to burn as Revenant is dismasted by Emerald Rose. A turning point in the game (with the benefit of hindsight, and if there were stats such as predicted gold score on each round).
Grinder rams ToG to steal back a 5!
The late-game excitement continued, as HMS Sea Phoenix came to my HI to steal a 3! This marked the second time in as many days that I was robbed at my HI by an English ship! (my favorite faction) Alas, perhaps that’s a bad idea – karma against A7XfanBen doesn’t work too well. 😉 For I had the gold advantage with the goodies that Fathom brought back – her 6 gold (an extra 1 from Sea Phoenix ramming her back to try and steal the 5) transferred to Coeur (who then explored my HI) would make a big difference. Coeur then rammed the Sea Phoenix to steal the 3 back, dismasting her in the process and effectively ending the threat. Revenant was able to row at S+S and shoot her musketeer since she wasn’t derelict, but her and Crocodile couldn’t quite do enough to win the endgame. I think Sea Phoenix stole a 1 as well that got transferred to Crocodile, but I was content to let it slip away, especially with darkness falling on the game by this point.
Scores:
- Ben: 20 gold
- Randy: 14
Blackbeard’s descendant showing off his haul:
What a contest for the Epic Scale fleet’s first time in Las Vegas Nevada! This was one of the better Epic Scale games I’ve played so far. It had a good amount of combat and piracy in it, and if things had just gone slightly differently, Randy would have won. I was really happy with how all of my ships contributed to the victory – Muninn didn’t last long but helped neutralize Interceptor, ToG and Fathom both played essential roles exploring and stealing gold, Coeur quietly added to my total and had a clutch transfer (from Fathom) and a ram of Sea Phoenix at the end, and Emerald Rose was a workhorse throughout.
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