My brother and I got together with one of his co-workers for a game! He’s a very new player, this being his second or third game ever. As such fleets were kept more or less simple with no named crew, no unique treasures and no terrain. We didn’t follow standard island placement at all, resulting in probably more islands than we needed which drew out the game.
Charlie rolled to go first and fielded a fleet consisting of HMS Galway with a captain, La Toussaint L’Ouverture and Le Duc d’Enghien with a helmsman
My brother Darkhurst rolled to go next and arrived with a fleet all from Revolution! Freedom with captain and helmsman, Le Bon Marin, and La Belle Etoile with helmsman and explorer
I went last with a fleet of new to my personal collection ships! L’Heros with captain and helmsman, La Geographe and Panama Sun. All of my fleet was punched and built for the day’s game!
Most of the ocean, with my home island at the bottom, Charlie’s at the top and Darkhurst’s to the right
A few turns in and my L’Heros crosses the bow of Darkhursts Belle Etoile as it attempts to sail west. JW has already gotten some spoils home from the islands around him. I attempted to cut him off with my singular captained ship and hoped that his was too far away to retaliate.
Alas, the Freedom was able to cross the stern of the Heros, but JW’s notoriously bad cannon rolls surfaced once again as the Freedom went 1 for 4 and the Belle Etoile missed as well, leaving the Heros reasonably healthy.
A couple turns later and JW has missed all of his shots between both ships while the Heros hasn’t. Over half of JW’s fleet is derelict and at the mercy of mine!
Charlie was witness to the action and wanted a piece of it! The Galway and Le Duc sailed down from the north and managed to knock a mast off of the Heros! The Heros had captured the Freedom and towed her to the nearby island, picking up some coins in the process. I had designs on repairing the Freedom to give me a second gunship; however I didn’t like the odds of a now crippled L’Heros going up against two healthy ships, especially with valuable gold now aboard the Heros and La Geographe. So I decided to leave the Freedom where she was and race for home.
I underestimated the speed of Le Duc however, and Charlie’s ship was able to close on mine and ram the Heros derelict! We had a crash course on the boarding mechanics of the game and squared off. Charlie won and elected to kill one of the Heros’s two crew.
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The much larger and healthier La Geographe came to the rescue! Taking the Heros under tow and presenting a formidable presence to the Duc just off the coast of my home island.
With the Panama Sun close to give support (though out of frame), Charlie elected to utilize the built in reverse captain ability of Le Duc, eliminating a mast and sailing away. The Galway however weighs in on the action and splits her cannons between the Geographe and the hulk of the Freedom. The Freedom is sunk while the shots against the Geographe go wide.
Some turns later and my fleet is mostly repaired and sails north toward Charlie’s fleet and two as yet untouched islands. Charlie explored one already with the Galway but hasn’t yet explored the other one.La Geographe beast LTO to the island and makes land first, enabling me to explore on my next turn.
La Geographe explores the island, finding several golden goodies. With the island explored the Panama Sun can dock and load the rest of the coins, right out from under Charlie’s fleet!
L’Heros and La Geographe dismast the Galway while the Panama Sun sails north in pursuit of LTO!
With Charlie’s singular captained ship effectively out of the game, the entirety of my fleet descends on LTO. Luck smiles on Charlie as the Heros and Panama Sun fail to ram any masts off of the tiny french ship.
JW was down to just the Bon Marin and had done a decent job collecting the leftover gold from the islands close to his home island. With those now empty he sent the Bon Marin toward my home island with the intent to intercept whatever was left of my fleet after what seemed like the climactic conflict resolved in the north.
Some turns later and JW has decided not to wait around and has dismasted L’Heros with the Bon Marin! LTO helped slightly by shooting a mast off earlier before making a run for it. With Charlie’s Le Duc in waiting and my ships already laden with gold I was now hesitant to fully commit to hunting down the LTO, especially with the large pile of coins on JW’s home island.
Deciding that I had a better chance of winning if I got my gold home I turned the Geographe and Panama Sun around and sailed for my home island.
However I couldn’t resist one last bit of piracy as the Geographe intercepts the Bon Marin and dismasts her with ram, easily winning the boarding party and taking the singular coin that she had taken from L’Heros earlier.
Two turns later all ships with gold on them have arrived at their respective home islands and the game was declared over! Gold was counted up and my fleet emerged victorious with a score of 33! In second place was JW with a score of 30, and trailing in 3rd was Charlie with a score of 16!
My fleet benefited greatly from treasure distribution luck, finding several 3’s and 2’s on my islands, while JW and Charlie seemed to find lower value coins on their islands. A good time was had all around and Charlie seemed eager for another match at a future date!