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This is the official Battle Reports thread here at Pirates with Ben. Any and all reports of your games can go in this thread – do not create a new thread unless it is for a large campaign game with 3+ reports. My BR’s will generally be submitted here from now on, where I’m currently reposting one old BR per week every Friday.
Right now I’m playing The Hourly Campaign and that should continue for years or decades on end. As of this post on 11/13/2018, the latest game I completed was the Savage Shores 10th anniversary game with Xerecs.
I know I posted the first video report for CG4 somewhere on the site, but I can’t find it, and I don’t want to post it in the wrong place. So…… This seemed like the best spot.
Just played a game with one of my brothers. 70 point game, and we used my islands from the Oceans Terrain Contest. That gave us 4 islands as wild islands. To spice things up a bit, all but one island had more than one stack of coins on it, each assigned a die value. When a ship would dock to explore, it would roll a d6 fist, and the result was the stack of coins it would look at.
I used a fleet featuring the Fluer De La Morte, Neptune’s Hoard, La Monarca, and the Bloody Jewel. Griffin and Crimson Angel commanded the FDLM, while Blackheart commanded the Hoard with a helmsman and some SAC food.
My brothers fleet featured La Santa Isabel with Dominic Freda, Banshee’s Cry with explorer, Buscador with helmsman, La Joya del Sol, Lady Provost, and Bonnie Liz.
His fleet got off to a good start, hitting an island on their first turn, and quickly draining it of all coins, and finding only helpful UT’s over the course of their next couple turns.
I split my fleet, with the Hoard and FDLM staying together and heading toward my brothers fleet and the middle island. The Bloody Jewel went East, toward unexplored islands, and the Monarca docked on the far side of the middle island, taking the last coins there.
Despite her rather poor cannons, the FDLM dis-masted the BC and BL, then set her sights on the LP and Santa Isabel, looking to capture Dominic Freda. Her efforts were foiled however by bad cannon rolls, and Runes of Loki. The Joya del Sol and Santa Isabel teamed up to dis-mast the FDLM, and I eventually scuttled her.
Meanwhile the Bloody Jewel ran into a bit of bad luck, finding Pandora’s box and Rum on the same island, and got a SECOND Rum to keep her there for two tuns. While she was stuck, the Monarca made he way further East, and explored the farthest island, finding some good coins. Blackheart and Hoard had also moved East, but turned back West when the FDLM was dismasted to menace the Spanish-English. Before doing so however, Blacheart cleared away some UT’s on the Monarca’s island, which resulted in the Hoard gaining a Deck Cannon, Monkey’s Paw and the ‘Heart of Stone’, which Blackheart took for himself.
The Isabel and Joya docked at Kanohi island, with the Isabel finding the Frond of Fisaga along with some optional UT’s which she left on the island. Seeing this, Blackheart tried in vain to sink her, but missed key cannon shots. With his plan foiled, Blackheart took to lurking off the Spanish-English HI, keeping the Isabel and Buscador docked there in fear.
The Joya explored the second stack on Kanohi island, and found several coins, as well as some UT’s that had been flung there by the Hoard. Elizabeth’s Piece of Eight, Cotton’s Parrot, Homing Beacon and Message in a Bottle were all found in this second stack of coins. The MiB flung the Joya to the middle island, within striking distance of the Hoard….
Sensing that the game had reached a turning point, Blackheart ordered the Hoard into action, SACing one of the oarsmen he had brought along. The Hoards cannons betrayed him however, and the Hoard was only able to eliminate two masts from the Joya, even with a ram.
Incredibly, the Joya did not stand and fight, but instead tied to make a run for it, but was just too slow. The Hoard caught up, and dismasted the Joya del Sol. Blackheart was overcome with rage, and nearly sank the Joya, before remembering that she had a hold of gold still on her. Maneuvering around some terrain, the Hoard captured the Joya del Sol!
The Santa Isabel and Buscador tried in vain to catch up to and dismast the Hoard, but to no avail, as Blackheart managed to bring her home, and dismasted the Buscador in the process!
The pace of the game accelerated quickly after that, with the captured Joya del Sol being able to give extra actions to the Hoard and Bloody Jewel with Elizabeth’s Piece of Eight. The last few coins were fought over furiously, with Cursed Natives being flung away by the Hoard to open up a pocket of gold on the far east island. The Isabel tried to grab this pocket of gold, but was sunk by the Hoard!
That left the Buscador to contend with the majority of my fleet still intact. There was a brief scuffle between Spanish as the Monarca and Joya del Sol rammed and boarded to steal the last coins in play from the Buscador. The Buscador escaped with one mast standing and was able to get home and end the game!
Gold was counted up and my fleet came out on top, 113 to 75!
If the Joya del Sol was not captured, and if the Isabel was not sunk, the game would have turned out MUCH differently…..
Wow, you should have taken pictures given the awesome islands in play!
Flung is such a funny word haha, great usage of that in the BR. Sounds like Blackheart took over! That’s a lot of gold for the game size. Interesting rule with the stacks.
I did that simply because the islands wee large, and it felt silly to have only one stack of coins per island. 😀 Maybe next time I use the islands for a game, I’ll take pictures. I’ll hopefully be playing that scenario game I mentioned on the Podcast today. That I’ll take pictures for.
I did that simply because the islands wee large, and it felt silly to have only one stack of coins per island.
One thing I’ve done in the past is have different coins in different areas of an island. A ship can only load coins from where it docks. This is easier when you have islands with multiple beaches to dock at, but you could also let crew leave the ship. Perhaps a crew can move L per turn on the island, and can carry one coin at a time back to the beach.
but you could also let crew leave the ship. Perhaps a crew can move L per turn on the island, and can carry one coin at a time back to the beach.
Sounds like a rule for a campaign, and would lend itself well to islands that have paths cut into them, like my arch island, or the Bone Temple island.
Sounds like a rule for a campaign, and would lend itself well to islands that have paths cut into them, like my arch island, or the Bone Temple island.
Indeed; it’s kinda similar to the army unit land movement rules for the World game. I think it makes sense too, since a person might be able to run about as fast as a sailing ship’s average cruising speed.
Well this was a dumb ending:
England vs Pirates, nearly pure Spanish Main game. (I used OE Calico Cat and Griffin because I love how they work together, as well as forts.)
Pirates: Shadow, Longshanks, Zephyr. Griffin, Calico Cat, Helmsman and Gaspar Zuan aboard the Shadow.
England: HMS Leicester, HMS Albion. Admiral Morgan, Governor Lynch, Lynch’s noose, Helmsman, Captain aboard the Leicester.
England had the advantage at first. Admiral Morgan put in work, going off three times in the first five turns. They captured the Longshanks and were towing it to a nearby island when Calico Cat went off allowing the Shadow to catch and, by a miracle, land four shots in a row.
The Albion is able to plop down Ramsgate. The pirates ignore it. It’s clear they’ve won. The Zephyr eventually catches the Albion and rams it, ending the game.
But this game has weird rules about the end of the game. The pirates should not have rammed the Albion because between their HI and fort they only had 12 gold. There was 16 gold in Ramsgate. England wins.
But this game has weird rules about the end of the game. The pirates should not have rammed the Albion because between their HI and fort they only had 12 gold. There was 16 gold in Ramsgate. England wins.
It can get a bit strange. The gold in Ramsgate is still very much in play, so the Pirates needed to go after that first. I assume the English transferred gold to Ramsgate to get that much in there?
Sounds like a fun game with neat setups; I would have expected the Pirates to win with their speed and cargo advantage.
England got really lucky as Ramsgate was built on an island that had 12 gold on it (6/4/1/1) and then the Albion transferred 4 more.
One thing which hurt the pirate fleet unexpectedly is Longshanks. She’s usually a great treasure runner despite her effect but Shadow explored the first island, hoping to pick up Ghostly Encounter. Which it did, along with 2 other UTs, meaning Longshanks couldn’t pick up the last coin.
Hey guys, here’s my battle report from the beginner’s game I mentioned 2 days ago. I unfortunately don’t remember the exact crew list of each ship except for mine. The points limit was 40, mixed fleets were allowed, and crew of any nationality were allowed on any ship for simplicity’s sake and to account for small collections.
I was using my Raven pirates fleet: I was running the eponymous Raven’s Neck as a hybrid, with a captain and helmsman along with a firepot. Up next was the Bloody Jewel with an explorer, and for a support gunship I had the Recreant, crewed by a captain and helmsman.
Opponent 1 had an interesting boarding-focused fleet, with the DJC Harbinger soaking much of the points since it had Jack Hawkins, some dude that would steal all of a ship’s gold upon a successful boarding action, a shipwright, and a helmsman. His secondary ship was the Zephyr, crewed by a captain.
Opponent 2 had a monstrous loadout, sporting the HMS Grand Temple and the Divine Dragon.
Opponent 3 had another HMS Grand Temple as well, but he chose not to crew his ship, adding another empty ship alongside the Temple; the Musarde.
Opponent 4 had an American fleet, with the OE Constitution and the USS Oregon. She put El Fantasma (SAC version), a helmsman, and an oarsman (might 6 had more, don’t remember) in the Constitution, and a helmsman with an explorer in the Oregon.
Here is what the game state looked like two turns in:
The Temples were the highlight of the game, commanding the attention of two players. #2 was attacked by both #1 and 3, with the Harbinger dealing light damage and killing the Temple’s Cannonneer, and the second Temple ramming the first. The Zephyr also rammed and boarded but, unsurprisingly, was unable to do anything.
I opted to leave the American fleet alone. The less I had to deal with El Fantasma and his 5 masts of doom, the better. Instead, I kept the Jewel constantly moving, making huge drops at my home island.
In the final few turns, there were only two coins left in the game and the fighting had escalated. #2’s Temple was pinned by the Zephyr, but he sunk it in a powerful volley after crippling the Harbinger in an earlier turn, taking off 3 masts. The Harbinger ran away to the center island, her hull punctured and her crew tired.
The Divine Dragon made #3’s Temple a derelict, and next turn it began to tow it back home. #3, with only one ship left, chose to unload his gold at home and remain there.
The American fleet finished clearing out their starting island and sat in their docks, waiting for the game to end. Seeing as how there wasn’t much more to do, I pulled the Recreant up to the Harbinger and shot it, landing 2 hits and turning it into a derelict.
With 1 player out of the game, it was decided that the game had ended, and all the gold was tallied up. I came in first, in no small part thanks to the excellent Bloody Jewel, at 15 gold. The Harbinger and the American fleet came in at a close 2nd and 3rd place, with a tie for 14 gold. The Americans gained the edge and cinched a 2nd place victory due to having a superior number of masts. Opponent #2 ended up with 3 6 masters, but never got to use them as the game was over before he had a chance to repair his captured ship.
some dude that would steal all of a ship’s gold upon a successful boarding action
That’s my monkey Skyme!
Skyme and Hawkins are linked too, so they work well together, though they’re pricey. Reverse Captain used to be my favorite ability until I realized it didn’t work with normal Captain.
Skyme and Hawkins are linked too, so they work well together, though they’re pricey.
Due to how the linking rules wok, the Spanish main version of Skyme will only link to the Spanish main version of Jack Hawkins, since his link text specifies ‘Captain Jack Hawkins’ and thee are no other ‘Captain Jack Hawkins’, just Jack Hawkins.
However, you may link both versions of Skyme the Monkey to the Spanish Main version of Jack, since his link text specifies ‘Skyme the Monkey’ and the two versions of Skyme are spelled the same way, therefore both versions may link to ‘Captain Jack Hawkins’.
Woelf lists Captain Jack Hawkins and DJC Jack Hawkins as being the same for the no-duplicates rule, but maybe link rules aren’t quite the same.
I do like the Captain Jack and DJC Skyme pairing a lot, regardless.
Opponent 3 had another HMS Grand Temple as well, but he chose not to crew his ship, adding another empty ship alongside the Temple; the Musarde.
Yikes, that sounds like only 28 points. That’s one thing I’ve had to explain to newbies – if you have even one or two less points than you can have in your fleet, that could honestly make the difference between winning and losing.
Wow, OE Fantasma on the Constitution sounds brutal. 🙂
The Temples were the highlight of the game
No surprise there, they have a way of doing that.
Due to how the linking rules wok, the Spanish main version of Skyme will only link to the Spanish main version of Jack Hawkins, since his link text specifies ‘Captain Jack Hawkins’ and thee are no other ‘Captain Jack Hawkins’, just Jack Hawkins.
However, you may link both versions of Skyme the Monkey to the Spanish Main version of Jack, since his link text specifies ‘Skyme the Monkey’ and the two versions of Skyme are spelled the same way, therefore both versions may link to ‘Captain Jack Hawkins’.
No. Page 4. This is why the Code should be checked constantly, to avoid spreading misinformation.
I do like the Captain Jack and DJC Skyme pairing a lot, regardless.
I like it more now, kinda pricey but neat. Crew with Hoard are tough since they take up a valuable space you wanted the extra gold to be in.
I’m gonna use this comment to chronicle the long game I’m playing until my copy of Aruj Barbarossa arrives, with altered rules. I briefly explained how I’m playing it over on the Game Ideas thread, but basically:
– Malta (Spain/England/France) vs Barbary Coast
– Malta has one HI, Barbary Coast has 3.
– 24 turns a day (one per “hour” until Barbarossa arrives. He’s expected between one and two weeks from now.)
– I’ve added a “food” mechanic. Each city has to feed itself. Coins can be spent on food, 2 food per coin. Each HI goes through one food per turn. (Based on how Day 1 went, I think in the future Malta will go through 3 per turn for balance now.)
– 4 wild islands, gold completely random. They replenish at a rate of one coin per turn, with a max of 4 coins per island.
– Malta ships can “blockade” Barbary HIs if they’re within L of it. A blockaded Barbary port that runs out of food becomes captured, and remains under Malta’s control as long as they have a ship within L. Malta wins if all 3 Barbary islands are captured before Aruj Barbarossa arrives to turn the tide. The Corsairs win if at least one island is still under their control when he comes.
Initial fleets:
Malta:
Le Bon Marin, with Khaleed Youssef on board
HMS Algiers, with Sir Watkins Doyle on board
El Duque, with Admiral Alarico Castro and Duque Vaccaro on board
Barbary Pirates:
Tigers Eye, with Jack Hawkins and DJC Skyme the Monkey
Algiers, with an explorer
Whisper
Day 1:
Day 1 started out OK for the Corsairs. Bon Marin ran into the Marines UT, meaning that Youssef was eliminated before he could do any work. However, the Barbary Algiers ran into England’s HMS Algiers, whose effect for an extra action went off twice in a row, allowing it to catch up to and capture its Barbary counterpart right after it loaded up on gold.
Meanwhile, more bad news for the Corsairs: The French enlisted the help of marine Benoit de Marseilles, and placed him at the nearest island to their own islands, really hurting their economy. El Duque sailed over to the island nearest “Tunis,” and established El Castillo Del Infanta. Suddenly, the cash and food strapped Corsairs were down to two wild islands.
However, Jack/Skyme/Tiger’s Eye proved to be a deadly combination. They weren’t able to recover the Algiers, but successfully boarded it and stole all of its gold before Malta could unload it. As the Spanish captured “Tunis,” the Tiger’s Eye was busy eliminating the French marines, freeing up a wild island. Then, thanks to Hawkins’s leadership, it stormed 6S across the sea to board Le Bon Marin and steal all its treasure before it could unload.
The stolen treasure has been enough to keep the other two Barbary HIs afloat, and with El Duque tied up holding down “Tunis,” things are stable for the Barbary Corsair faction. However, Day 2 will be a test. The French have constructed L’Aube, and outfitted her with a superb crew. While the Tiger’s Eye will be able to avoid it, the rest of the fleet is suddenly in big danger. But the recruitment of a Firepot Specialist may be just the sort of trick they need to survive.
Fleets after Day 1:
Malta:
El Duque, Algiers, HMS Algiers, L’Aube, Le Bon Marin
Barbary States:
Whisper, Marrakech, Tiger’s Eye
Fleets after Day 2:
Malta:
Algiers, HMS Algiers, HMS Oxford, Le Bon Marin, L’Aube, Le Favori
Barbary Pirates:
Tiger’s Eye, Queen of Sheba, Marrakech, Terror of Gibraltar, Whisper
El Duque was sunk by Hawkins, Admiral Castro going down with it. England’s assumed control for Malta, with Admiral Blake joining the coalition and nearly taking down the Tiger’s Eye in the process.
Rule Changes: 24 turns is too much. It’ll go to 12 per day, so the ships “go home” once night falls. Day 3 and 4 will be “skipped” as I’ve already played 48 turns. I’ll play Day 5 tomorrow, Day 6 Sunday, then skip Mon-Tues if the game is still going.
– 24 turns a day (one per “hour” until Barbarossa arrives. He’s expected between one and two weeks from now.)
Wow, that’s a lot! Will be interesting to see if that affects how it goes – I’d expect some kind of resolution before Barbarossa shows up. Should be Khalid and Defoe for the named crew.
Very interesting first day, I like your reporting style.
Final update re: the long game between Malta and the Corsairs.
The initial rules unfairly favored Malta, however Malta made some pretty bad moves in the first two days that kind of evened things out (like purchasing the all L-range L’Aube when the Corsairs had the immune-from-L-range Tiger’s Eye.) So despite the disadvantage the Corsairs had been hanging in there.
Disaster struck on the third day as everything went wrong for the Corsairs. First They lost the Terror of Gibraltar to a L’Aube early in the day, then a perfectly timed Marine landing took out the Whisper. And finally, the Tiger’s Eye got a bit desperate and tried to take on the HMS Oxford only to miss with all but one gun and for the Oxford to sink it on the next turn.
MVP of the match was probably the HMS Algiers. At one point it was able to carry 6 pieces of cargo at once. (Admiral Blake, Watkins Defoe, First Mate Ismail, and 3 gold coins)
MVP of the match was probably the HMS Algiers. At one point it was able to carry 6 pieces of cargo at once. (Admiral Blake, Watkins Defoe, First Mate Ismail, and 3 gold coins)
Took me a while to figure out how that worked, but very impressive!
So uh Marines aren’t as bad as I thought they were. Maybe.
Did a series of games of France vs Corsairs.
France had Le Favori, La Baionnette, and Le Bon Marin. Their only crew was Benoi de Marseilles and Michel de Bordeaux on Le Favori. Corsairs had Morocco, Whisper, and Tiger’s Eye with a helmsman on Morocco and Barbarossa and a firepot on Tiger’s Eye.
The French fleet won a best of 3 2-1 and the Marines were key in both games. They were far more versatile than I thought they would be, with them allowing Le Favori to blow up two masts from the Tiger’s Eye in game one. In game three the Marines landed on an island Whisper had docked at and blew it up, then defended it until Le Bon Marin could arrive.
The marines also made boarding parties hell for Barbarossa. Even with the L-range protection, the Corsairs were only ever able to get one successful boarding party off. Because getting within S+S+S (in order to board next turn) also means getting within the S+L+S the Favori needed to spring the Marines on them. Also, when Barbarossa was able to get off a firepot, Le Favori’s marines just returned fire without Le Favori being given an action and risking scuttling.
I really like how the French fleet performed. I guess it would probably be better with those 13 points for the Marines being spent on something like La Courageux and a captain but the marines put in a ton of work in getting their wins.
The French fleet won a best of 3 2-1 and the Marines were key in both games.
Thanks for the writeup, that is very impressive what they were able to do in those games! Makes me want to try Marines again sometime.
Well I certainly had a good day today.
In my eternal quest to make a Corsair fleet with offensive ability that doesn’t use Tiger’s Eye, I put together one using myself (Barbary Corsair version of course) on board the Desert Wind with Griffin and a Chainshot Specialist, with two cheap gold runners.
Tested this against a solid but not great Spanish fleet. Game 1 was close, and El Neptuno had a chance to put it away early but couldn’t quite get a second 6.
Game 2 was a slaughter. The Desert Wind single-handedly took out all three Spanish ships (El Neptuno, El Villalobos, San Theodora) before any gold runner for either side got to their HI. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a 2-master be so deadly. I got slightly lucky, as the 4-rank gun hit way more often than it should have, but the build does kind of make its own luck with the reroll from Griffin and SAT ability from me.
It is here! One of the biggest, longest, and most outrageous battle reports I’ve ever done! 354 pictures, so it might take time to load! XD
The site is behaving strangely for me again, so I’m posting the first one here.
My latest game was really weird!
I finally figured out how to make the Command the Oceans tag archives page not have a sidebar. Makes for a much more immersive and grand experience, especially with the full size pictures. The change also applies to all the other Tag archives, which I like better than I had thought. Feel free to say if you prefer having a sidebar or not on the site. (the Forum sidebar will be staying either way because I love it and it allows for the simple forum search function which was a great feature at MT)
In regards to the big game I’ve been alluding to, I hope to be making more content than usual for it, but no promises.
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