Could you explain a bit more about the points system? I like that dismasting ships could be a viable winning strategy, but how do we balance it?
I think I first got the idea from here, then expanded. I played a game (BR not republished yet) where we tested it out – one of my all-time favorite conceptual house rules.
Adding the main concept to the Game Ideas page.
In terms of balance, it becomes difficult to have as much gold in play as points. For example, you’d have to include 80 points of gold to have a 2 player 40 point game with an equal distribution of points and gold. There are many things you could do to balance things, such as half of your points in play instead of 100%, or higher gold values like 8-10 instead of just 1-7.
My conclusions after that 2017 game:
I must say, I like this new endgame variation, and not just because I won. It’s rather practical, and adds more realism to the game. Ships were very important, and losing a ship could be as bad or worse than losing a cargo full of resources. It really emphasizes keeping your fleet healthy, and trying to make a decisive engagement with another player so you can take ships and crew (and therefore points) from their fleet and add them to your own. In addition, it makes sinking ships less practical, and incentivizes the winners of battles to keep derelicts afloat and capture them. This is also more realistic, as ships didn’t sink from cannon fire very often in the Age of Sail. Finally, it makes combat more enticing since the gold scores aren’t the end-all be-all like they usually are. This is great because various people expected the game to be more of a combat game and wish there was more battling, and because gold running is usually more boring than the combat. I’d love to hear feedback on this idea!