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That’s not quite what I meant. The issue is that movement is traced from the bow and that large ships are longer than an S-move. So when I finish the first S move the stern of the ship is still overlapping the island.
Indeed. I think it’s still something that is far less of an issue in the physical game. I’m pretty sure I had this exact conversation with Xerecs a while back. Part of it is because on VASSAL, it’s all measured from one point on the bow, rather than the foremost tip of where one of the two hull pieces touch the water. (Which allows for greater turning options than having one point of rotation/movement in between those areas. Magnified for larger ships because they have a greater space between the hull pieces.)
Had a fun one last night.
Almost pure Crimson Coast match between pirates, Spain, and France. France’s fleet had Madame LaFontaine which was the one piece not from CC.
French Fleet
La Magnifique
– Capitane Arathiel
– Capitane Gaston de St. Croix
– Claude Perrier
– Helmsman
– Madame LaFontaine
L’Artesien
A battle focused fleet, centered on my favorite warship of all time, La Magnifique.
Pirate Fleet
Duke
– Geoffrey Flores
– Helmsman
– Cannoneer
Amity
– Explorer
Rover
A balanced pirate fleet, with the Duke being built specifically to try and counter La Magnifique.
Spanish Fleet
El Neptuno
La Bahama
El San Francisco
– Helmsman
La Rosario
El Castillo del Infanta
El Puerto Blanco
An all gold running Spanish fleet, hoping to lock down gold in the second half of the game using their forts and avoiding the flagships of the other two fleets with a divide and conquer approach.
UTs: Buried Treasure, Witch’s Brew, Missionary
——
Things immediately went wrong for the pirate fleet. On turn 2, St. Croix gave La Magnifique an extra move action and the French fleet decided to immediately go for broke. Moving L+S+L+S was enough to set up for a broadside, but if they missed, they would be a sitting duck to a return fire from Florex next turn. They didn’t. With a roll of 6, over half of the pirate fleet’s points were gone two turns in.
Spain meanwhile had a better start. Rosario and San Francisco both found rich wild islands on their first try, and Bahama and Neptuno set up a blockade of the pirate HI. The Rover unloaded two 4-gold coins, and one was immediately stolen. The Amity doubled back with its cargo to try and intercept the Bahama. Ghost ships are actually ideal for ramming and boarding situations like this.
La Magnifique gave chase to El San Francisco, and thanks to another successful SAT roll, came bearing down on it as it docked at another wild island. Spain’s only move to try and save it was to build El Castillo Del Infanta there at the end of their turn. Meanwhile, El Neptuno pulled up alongside the Amity to chase it away. The pirates however, successfully stole back their 4-gold coin and simply slipped through the Bahama out of range of even El Neptuno’s guns.
France brought her guns on El Castillo del Infanta, which contained the coins from two wild islands now. A poor showing made Perrier flip to bring a cannoneer into the fray, then Arathiel Sac’d Perrier for a second shot. It was enough to make the fort abandoned, but not destroyed. L’Artesien uncovered buried treasure and loaded gold from a wild island worth about 15 in total.
El San Francisco took as much from the fort as it could carry and made a break for the HI. Meanwhile El Puerto Blanco was established on an island near the pirate base, with the plan being to use the Bahama to ferry gold there from the pirate HI. However, when the Bahama made a break for the fort, a shot from the Rover and another ram from the Amity rendered it derelict. Improbably, a one master and a ship with all 5-rank guns had managed to hold off the Spanish blockade.
La Magnifique caught El San Francisco the next time their SAT roll was successful. They stopped short of sinking it, seeing how much gold was on board, and diverted L’Artesien over to collect it. Spain’s attempt to beat L’Artesien to the prize was foiled by La Magnifique after yet another SAT roll allowed it to catch and sink La Rosario. Over by the pirate HI, El Neptuno sniped Rover’s mast from long range and went to capture it, bringing her to El Puerto Blanco for a repair. It was when El Neptuno returned to tow the Bahama when the climactic showdown happened.
La Magnifique again made an aggressive move, willingly putting itself in range of 3 of El Neptuno’s long guns as they charged headlong. With no chance of running, El Neptuno made its stand. Two of the long range guns hit, and the Rover moved to a support position, with El Puerto Blanco to the south. Arathiel brought a three gun broadside to bear against El Neptuno’s stern on France’s next turn, and was successful. Down to one mast, El Neptuno rammed La Magnifique, and was successful. The Rover, out of range to fire, moved in position to shoot next turn.
On LaFontaine’s reroll, La Magnifique won a second action. It sunk El Neptuno and then rammed Rover, knocking Spain out of the game. The Amity was the only ship left against France, and despite its speed and ghost ship ability, La Magnifique, with one last broadside, knocked it out of commission just as it was approaching its HI. However, it didn’t have enough to sink the Amity, so as the game ended the pirates kept the gold anyway. Not that it mattered.
Final score: Spain 15, Pirates 16, France 28
Madame LaFontaine, the one thing (besides the Missionary UT) preventing this from being a pure Crimson Coast battle, was probably MVP. France would probably have won anyway but it’s likely El San Francisco would have successfully evaded Magnifique without her, which would have prolonged the game by quite a lot.
Ghost ships are actually ideal for ramming and boarding situations like this.
You mean to stay ghostly until you need to board?
Meanwhile El Puerto Blanco was established on an island near the pirate base, with the plan being to use the Bahama to ferry gold there from the pirate HI.
Nice! I don’t know if I’ve thought of that before. Makes me want to try it!
Very nice report!
“Mommy I broke it.” XD LOL!
BREAKING THE GAME | + A Global Biological Terrorist Attack Threat
lol, if the cursed get their way and some of their stuff falls into line it’ll be “Mommy I don’t feel good….”
lol, if the cursed get their way and some of their stuff falls into line it’ll be “Mommy I don’t feel good….”
🙂 I told you it was going to get MORE nuts!! XD
Finally managed to hook my brother on the game. We’ve had a few games and I don’t remember the full details, but here’s two highlights:
300 IQ Self-explosives
I’m Spain, my brother Pirates. I’m winning a standard game, needing seven more gold to win via the more than half rule. Problem is, La Bahama, which is close to my HI, is only carrying four gold. My other ship, El San Francisco, is trapped at El Puerto Blanco, blocked in by the Panda, El Ladron, and Venture. EPB carries 13 gold. The 3 I used to build it plus a 3, 2, 4, and a 1. I loaded the 3, 2, and 4 on El San Francisco to make a break for it, but it doesn’t look good with the three ships nearby.
That’s when I notice there’s 3 face down treasures on the Venture. I put explosives into the game, and so I realize he’s picked it up. So, I act like I’m trying to fight my way out of the fort and ram the Venture. He flips explosives and it works, sinking my ship… and by rule, magically depositing 4 coin on my HI, allowing me to win next turn.
The Twelve Trials of L’Hercule
I finally tracked down a cheap copy of L’Hercule a while back, and broke it out for its first game against my brother using a Spanish fleet, with El Neptuno as its flagship.
This was a quick game settled by battle before any coins were on home islands. I took out El San Francisco with L’Hercule, losing no masts in the fight. Castro gives Neptuno a second action, allowing my brother to move it 6S and shoot at long range. Two shots hit. I send L’Hercule into the fray and take out two of Neptuno’s masts. He fires back, taking out a third mast of L’Hercule. My next shot takes two more masts off of Neptuno. He rams L’Hercule, making it derelict, except…
I flip up my Oarsman. L’Hercule is not derelict after all, and all four cannons are still live. Neptuno sinks and the game ends. I was really happy because that was exactly the kind of fight I expected when I brought L’Hercule in for its first game.
He flips explosives and it works, sinking my ship… and by rule, magically depositing 4 coin on my HI, allowing me to win next turn.
That is epic and great strategy! Reminds me a little of VASSAL Tournament 2 where Xerecs and I had to be aware of where specific amounts of gold were to plan our actions each turn.
Nice use of L’Hercule as well. You probably also enjoy/would enjoy the Concordia and Dreadnought. 🙂 I don’t think it would be an optimal crew setup, but both of those ships could also carry a Marine and musketeer, so you could fire with 7 cannons without having any masts up. (and without getting into Carbon Charlie/etc)
Oh yeah, Dreadnought’s on her way now actually. One setup with L’Hercule I might try is simply putting 2 marines on her. I typically stick to 40 point games and Marines add up really quickly, but that hasn’t stopped me from using them a lot.
I typically stick to 40 point games and Marines add up really quickly, but that hasn’t stopped me from using them a lot.
Wow. I’ve barely found myself considering using Marines at 80-100 points. There’s just always something I’d rather have in the fleet it seems.
Brief CG4 update: Second point count of the game which led to 2 new records being set! +A modified crew setup and another threat!
Today and tomorrow is the 3 year anniversary of starting Command the Oceans. It lasted over 3 months and became the biggest recorded Pirates CSG game of all time. If you haven’t checked it out yet, one idea I plan to do in the future is read each battle report on the calendar day it was originally posted. For example, reading the rules and introduction post today, and then each battle report on the day it was posted, finishing on December 15th. If you read the reports, that could be a good way of keeping it from being completely overwhelming. 😀
“Concept” Game with 3D Printed Ships, Wooden Ships, AND Wizkids Ships
(better to respond on that post than here)
Two new attacks. 57 ships launched.
Near the beginning of the month a member on the Pirates Facebook group posted a challenge to sink the Sleigh using as few points as possible. Sinking the Sleigh would be difficult, the ship cannot be shot at, and cannot sink. A canceller would get around that nicely, but the problem would be catching the Sleigh and getting her in range. The ship has a 3L printed base move, and when her hold is full that doubles to 6L. Additionally her cannons have a range 6L and are all rank 2. While she can’t eliminate masts she can put ships out of commission easily enough with Joysides and with Whitebeard putting ships to sleep.
So, how to tackle this beast? My initial thought was to bring along some subs and sea monsters, ships that could avoid being hit by cannons. My thoughts then turned to events, namely becalmed and mermaids. However, those would only temporarily stop the sleigh, what I needed was a way to keep her in place so my ships could get to her. I thought a Kraken might be the answer, but I was concerned about the high point cost, so I shifted my focus. It was then that I hit upon the idea of ships that cannot be hit by L-Range cannons. With all L-range cannons, the Sleigh would not be able to use the devastating Joysides Attack and derail my ships, but Whitebeard still posed a problem. I then recalled the original version of Davy Jones, the copying ability. Jones would simply copy Whitebeards ability and use it against the Sleigh, it would then be a question of which two ships would accompany Jones’s chosen vessel.
My final fleet consisted of the Locker with Davy Jones, the Cygnet with Hermione Gold(RotF) and Administrator Scott Bratley (BC, canceller), and the Bazana with Nemesio Diaz and a captain.
The Sleigh (proxied by HMS Gallows) went first, as per the Challenge, and moved 6L to the far side of the map, near some thematic Icebergs. My fleet went next, with Jones pinning the Sleigh in place with Whitebeards ability, while the Cygnet and Bazana got underway.
The Sleigh was unable to move, can could not hit either the Cygnet or Bazana, but could freeze them still with Whitebeard. However, it was a losing battle, what with Jones keeping the Sleigh where she was until the Cygnet and Bazana got within range. With double cancellers the two ships shot and sank the Sleigh, with the Cygnet suffering minor damage to an iceberg.
Finally, my first battle after a very long time.
Fun fact – I played versus my wife.
Fleets- I made her a Pirate fleet consisting of:
1. Darkhawk II with Genny Gallows, explorer, helmsman;
2. Banshee’s cry with explorer;
3. Bloody Jewel with explorer;
4. Star of Siam with explorer;
5. Mermaid.
My Cursed fleet:
1. Sea monkey with explorer;
2. Sea duck with explorer;
3. Sea rat with helmsman and explorer;
4. Nightmare.
(Should have made photos… 🙁 )
Highlights of the game:
Sea monkey sinks Star of Siam,
Mermaid and Jewel preventing Sea rat from quickly reaching my HI,
Darkhawk with Genny for the win.
Ah how late I am. XD I’m glad I don’t have a real life “deployment battle report”. O_O LOL!
@Xerecs: Great thinking on how to stop the Sleigh! You know you did well when the Sleigh doesn’t even have a chance to do much of anything!@Bartek: Not too surprising the Pirates won with their best ships in play. Next time have her use the Thirty Tyrants and Empty Sky to even the odds. :p
At long last, this game is finally made public.
My battle report from yesterday:
Players – 7
total time – 5 hours
total starting treasure – 56 tokens totaling 105 gold
My fleet:
HMS Grand Temple (OE) with captain
HMS Victoria (OE) empty
Triton’s Bane (OE) with explorer
Ships remaining – 2, Triton’s Bane went derelict so I scuttled it with 5 gold worth of treasure on board.
Ships sank – 6 (all sank by the HMS Grand Temple)
Gold collected – 24
Finish – 1st place!
After thoughts – Swap out Triton’s Bane for 8 points to give the HMS GT a helmsman and shipwright and give the HMS Victoria a captain and explorer and use it as a gun/gold hybrid.
Just finished the reports from my trip to Vegas and LA! I played with Captain Randy plus Xerecs and his brothers! 😀
The latest VASSAL Campaign Game 4 battle report is finally here! https://pirateswithben.com/the-biggest-game-of-all-time-the-reign-of-terror-has-begun/
Check out the last SIX reports for what I’ve been up to this month! 😀 Just yesterday played a game with Tiffany O’Brien in person!
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