Lake Union Park Seattle – Debut of Epic Scale Pirates in Washington!
9/24/2022
I met up with Kyle at Lake Union Park in Seattle for the debut of PDXYAR’s Epic Scale supersized version of the game! We had a 60 point game using our house rules. We did a draft to make our fleets. I rolled to go first with the following:
Revenant + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist, oarsman
HMS Interceptor + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Grinder + captain, helmsman
Kyle’s fleet:
Enterprise + captain, oarsman
Muninn + captain, helmsman
HMS Sea Phoenix + helmsman
Le Coeur du Lion
We had a number of passerby check out the game, so we explained the basics of the game in between actions. I was happy to give out some OE packs and my contact cards.
My ships sailed out, looking for nearby gold and anticipating whirlpool usage if I would need to get more. We used some spare bags of the explored island skull tokens to weigh coins down so they wouldn’t blow away. 🙂
It was the perfect weather and setting for a game!
HMS Interceptor about to snag some coins:
Kyle had great luck and timing with the Enterprise’s EA – soon after this it would trigger to allow the Enterprise to dock at and explore a wild island in the same turn.
The Grinder and Revenant teamed up to load the 3 coins at their island worth value – there was also a 0 there.
At last some conflict was upon us! The Interceptor blazed ahead to rake the Enterprise, but only went 1 for 4!
After the Enterprise dismasted her, the Interceptor revealed her oarsman to row S+S towards the reef.
I wasn’t convinced I needed the Interceptor to win, as I had seen 16 gold between the two wild islands I had explored.
This was indeed the case, and I had won by the standard rules by a score of 16-14. There were two 0’s on the islands Kyle had explored. Since our PNW games are normally played under the multiplayer rules where the game only ends when all available gold has been unloaded to home islands or only one player can give future move actions, we decided to keep going a bit between the coins in play and HMS Sea Phoenix being a home island raider that could potentially turn the tide in Kyle’s favor. Plus, we hadn’t seen much combat or excitement, so it was worth playing out a bit.
I was just going to camp at home to protect my gold, so Kyle took lots of “simulated” turns in a row to group his entire fleet near my HI.
Since I had already won by the standard rules I wasn’t interested in a drawn-out maneuvering chess match, so the Grinder took the opportunity to speed out and land a hit on the Sea Phoenix. I figured I should go big or go home, so the Revenant sailed out of her comfy berth and got into the action as well, sending splinters flying across the decks of the Enterprise and Coeur!
Banana for scale!
When the dust settled, the Enterprise, Grinder and Coeur lay mastless. The Revenant was able to survive some shots from the Muninn, essentially ending the game shortly afterwards by dismasting the Sea Phoenix!
- Ben: 16 gold
- Kyle: 14
In the end I simply got lucky with the treasure distribution, as 16 of the 30 gold was on the two wild islands closest to my home island. Ironically I contributed a single 0 and found it, while Kyle contributed two 0’s and found both of them.
It was a great start to playing epic scale Pirates in Washington! I highly recommend Lake Union Park in Seattle if you make it up here, and let us know if you’re coming so we can play at a park together! 😀 The “Queen Anne’s Revenge” is behind us. 🙂
