Four Player Game at 100 Points
Las Vegas, NV
July 5th, 2021
Ahoy everyone! This is a game I played with Captain Randy and his friends Curren and Drew in Las Vegas on 7/5/2021. It was a four player game with 100 point fleets. Flat earth rules. The report was written more than 2 weeks after the game, so some details are fuzzy and this report is extremely biased from my perspective playing in the game.
I played The Cursed:
Sea Hag + tribal chieftain, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Native Canoes
Hangman’s Joke + captain, helmsman
Sea Rat + helmsman, explorer
Cutlass + helmsman
Raptor Maw
Namazu (from Return to Savage Shores)
Captain Randy used the Pirates:
Zeus
Neptune’s Hoard
Akua Lapu
Angelica
Curren used a Spanish Jade Rebellion fleet:
Baochuan
El Acorazado
Morning Star
Native Canoes
Drew used a French fleet:
Le Bonaparte
Behemoth
La Dijon
Le Bon Marin
Le Pique
Le Coeur du Lion (with Deleflote aboard)
I was using the Raptor Maw for the first time!
The one whirlpool in the center led to another world containing 5 whirlpools and 8 wild islands!
On the first turn a dragon standoff developed between Raptor Maw and Angelica. Randy was just jealous he doesn’t have the LE yet. I was still hoping we could do some “play for keeps” rules after I captured his Morning Star two days prior…. XD
I pulled out, not wanting to lose the Cutlass to the Akua Lapu:
After eliminating a Spanish canoe, the Zeus quickly whirled out of the main ocean, making a huge discovery in the Other World: Altar of the Loa, one of the most powerful UT’s in the game!! O_O (I had gone kinda crazy picking chaotic UT’s from Randy’s pile during setup lol)
Namazu surfaces to hit the Akua Lapu with a tidal wave attack! Raptor Maw swoops on the Akua Lapu but fails!
Could a clash in the center be brewing?
Moving on from the Altar, the Zeus found a UT that improbably and randomly eliminated Emperor Blackheart!! O_O However, the Castaway turned out to be Calico Cat, allowing the junk to still have a source of double actions.
Maps of Alexandria or Pirate Globe was found, revealing quite a crazy assortment of UT’s across the map! O_O
A second dragon standoff occurs, with the Cutlass eyeing Neptune’s Trident:
Raptor Maw with Namazu in the background:
However, then I made the mistake of sending Raptor Maw into French territory….
The Spanish made up the support for the Baochuan:
My Cursed fog hoppers hopped into the Other World, but they were joined by the Baochuan:
I hadn’t seen the full crew setups in the French fleet. It was optimized for nasty combos, with the Bonaparte’s canceller basically freezing the Raptor Maw in place by cancelling Sea Dragon after Deleflote allowed the Bonaparte to move S+L+S x2 for max range.
Both dragons fell on hard times here, with Angelica losing body parts to the Baochuan:
The Hangman’s Joke explored the Lost UT to place some extra terrain. In hindsight I probably could have made better choices, but either way the Cursed fleet was almost entirely united in an accidental homecoming party of sorts.
I had some cargo logistics to work out….
The Baochuan returned home with a large load of treasure, establishing the Spanish Rebels as the favorite to win!
At this point the Zeus had returned to the main ocean as well, with the “French Behemoth” lurking near the center:
At this point a coalition to take down the Spanish Rebels was discussed. However, it wasn’t formalized and the players were having a hard time getting on the same page, as you’ll see….
I saw my own path to victory being long term and somewhat under-the-radar, so I was willing to bide my time and continue operating as-is until the opportune moment came to strike….
Various ships continue to run gold as the lengthy game draws onwards….
The French and Pirates got into an ugly fight. Ugly because the Zeus cannot hit the Bonaparte with her S-range cannons. The Bonaparte continued circling the Pirates and picking off masts while the opposition was powerless to do anything. Hard to watch. 🙁
Two of my 2 masters returned to the Other World to max out gold income:
The Pirates were able to get some gold home, and the Zeus was busy blocking the Bonaparte as the Neptune’s Hoard approached their HI. At the whirlpool you can see my Sea Rat, the only home island raider in play. A plan was coming together. Namazu and the Sea Hag team up to eliminate 4 masts from the Morning Star.
You know something is broken when the Zeus is a terrible counter against it.
Around this time the Other World became an interesting Wild West kind of theater. I was still sending random Cursed canoes there out of desperation for more gold, hoping the whirlpool wouldn’t swallow it on the way home. The Hangman’s Joke and Morning Star are on a collision course….
A situation was finally starting to develop off the coast of the Spanish Rebel home island. The Sea Hag has dismasted one of the French gold runners.
She was captured and dragged into the fog bank where the Sea Rat was lying in wait to rob the Jades. Namazu has slowly made its way over the sea to help out.
The Hangman’s Joke captured the Morning Star:
However, Behemoth was coming:
Le Bonaparte decimated the Pirate fleet, killing Angelica and sinking the Akua Lapu and Neptune’s Hoard. I was still doing cargo logistics with the Cutlass and a canoe, though it wouldn’t end up mattering at all….
We had finally reached the endgame! Now it would go down. My story was: could I steal enough gold from the Spanish Rebel hoard AND get away with enough of it to win?
By this point the Other World was kind of a depressing mess:
The Bonaparte captured the Hangman’s Joke:
However, I had plenty of firepower to make a stand!! The Sea Hag let loose with Neptune’s Trident and excellent shooting, taking the Baochuan down to 1 mast!
Now it was time to raid! I essentially had a second (though temporary) HI Raider, with the Cutlass acquiring the Wine UT earlier in the game. She snagged a 7 from the Spanish Rebel hoard, with the Sea Rat not far behind. In the meantime there’s chaos! The Zeus sank the Baochuan, but was then dismasted by the Acorazado! The Sea Hag has the Plague and loses masts.
At this point Namazu and the Cursed canoes were gone, leaving few ships left in my fleet:
I couldn’t lobby hard enough for round earth rules before the game, and now it would have come in really handy. The Cutlass didn’t have a good place to run, while the Sea Rat stole a coin but was besieged by ramming attacks.
I made a good run at it, but who was there to ruin it? Le Bonaparte of course!! O_O 🙁 Although the Sea Rat escaped into a fog bank, Behemoth and the Bonaparte had arrived. The Cutlass was cornered and fell to the French on the final turns.
The game ended soon afterwards. Here are the final scores:
- Drew’s French: 48 gold
- A7XfanBen’s Cursed: 41
- Curren’s Spanish Rebels: 38
- Captain Randy’s Pirates: 35
Wow, some nice close scores and nobody got blown out! It was interesting to see the Spanish Rebels fall towards the end, with some stolen coins preventing them from holding on. I made a good run at it and thought I might have had it, but of course the French swooped in to claim victory.
This game serves as a great exhibit of why Le Bonaparte should be way up high on any potential ban lists. Ugh!