Another solitaire game has been played. As before, the Water World rules were the basic rules. However, similar to last time, there would be no home forts.
This time, instead of maxing out the cargo space of each ship, each ship had to carry crew up to its point cost! This meant that a 15 point ship would have 15 points worth of crew aboard.
As you can see, this led to some interesting setups! Unfortunately I forgot about some of the Water World rules when making the fleets, partly because I was in a rush.
The English were ready to go with guns blazing. The Auguste looked formidable for the French. Originally their plan was to use Calypso (aboard the Floating Stone) to have the Auguste raid enemy home islands, but there were none! The French then wanted to use Calypso to let the Auguste get to islands before the opposition. Maurice Aristide’s bonus would count towards any gold aboard the Auguste at the end of the game, since it couldn’t be unloaded. Carcharodon was an interesting way to “cheat” the setup restriction – with no cargo space the French were free to add the monster without maxing out the point cost with crew!
The Spanish went with a couple of 3 masted schooners. That face down equipment is actually my custom equipment:
Bow Chasers
Faction Affiliation: Neutral
Type: Equipment
Point Value: 5
This ship gains two additional cannons that can only shoot from the foremost mast of the ship. The cannons follow the range of the foremost mast of the ship, but they have 4 rank and the Extended Range keyword. The cannons can only fire in a straight line directly forward of the ship’s bow. Other pieces of equipment cannot be used with Bow Chasers.
In addition to the extra forward-firing guns, the Sirviente was ready for a fight. She also carried Fire Shot (courtesy of Master Bianco aboard the Cervantes). She had S-boarding, +1 to boarding rolls, and reroll! What a stacked ship! The reroll was multipurpose: use it for a botched S-board, rerolling a 1 with fire shot, or try to get another hit with the chasers. The Cervantes was by far the best gold ship in all the fleets, with 4 open cargo spaces in addition to the Secret Hold, explorer, and S-explorer abilities. The Spanish looked competitive given the restrictions.
The Pirates went next with their own batch of fun. The Greed’s Hammer had an eclectic mix: Barstow, helmsman, oarsman. Barstow would try to grab both coins and enemy crew (crew wouldn’t have to be unloaded b/c no HI’s), assisted by the other Pirate ships. They were ready to fight, and fight they would.
Going last would be the Cursed, with Davy Jones and a captain aboard the Scythe. The Demon Gate got a rare appearance, crewed by none other than RtSS Papa Doc (canceller and +1 to boarding rolls) and a helmsman.
4 wild islands with 5 coins apiece. The other coins are at the low point of the arch on the other side.
On the first turn Davy Jones rolled a 6! The Hibernia opened fire on the Orkney and shot two masts into the water with the help of Nigel Hardwicke!
Careful to stay out of Papa Doc’s cancelling range, the English respond by dismasting the Demon Gate!
Chaos! The Scythe blades the Orkney but misses with her cannon. Her other cannons were destroyed by the Plague of the East! The Pirates were eager to capture Davy Jones and Papa Doc with Barstow, who could turn them into 20 gold total!
A closeup of the action: Davy Jones uses an extra action to blade the Hibernia as well!
Unpredictable seas were a factor today; here the Orkney rolls to port as the Scythe rips down another mast.
In the meantime, the French were struggling. Calypso’s rolls failed, so the Floating Stone simply trailed the Auguste, who found not only Wolves on the southeastern island, but also the abandoned musketeer who was supposed to eliminate the Wolves! This left Nigel Hardwicke as the only way to get the island’s gold, and he was fighting for his life against the Cursed. Carcharodon got bored and swam off to eat people.
More fighting in the southeast as the English get the better of the Scythe. The Orkney’s ram took the Cursed out of the game! However, this made the English a target of the Pirates, who still wanted the Cursed crew for gold payouts. Now that they noticed the English, the Pirates began sizing up the pricey English crew as well…
During all of this, the Spanish Cervantes had made off with some riches. The Sirviente protected her, but knew she’d have to fight sooner or later. The Spanish tentatively headed south towards the French, with Carcharodon following.
Tensions in the south: the Fancy and Greed’s Hammer look to join the fray against the English, who were severely weakened in their battle against the Cursed.
Commander Temple strikes! I didn’t want him to be a complete waste of 6 points, so I house ruled his ability to say “wild island” instead of home island. The English explored the Scythe and warped both ships to the nortwestern arch, furthest from the hostile Pirates.
The only problem was that it left the Hibernia alone to battle the Pirates. She grabbed the Demon Gate to capture Papa Doc and gain his valuable canceller ability.
But the Pirates simply ram, and then own the south! The Demon Gate is captured, while Barstow captures Nigel Hardwicke (ending any possibility of getting gold from the southwestern island, which is fine with the Pirates) after ramming the Hibernia’s second mast off. It was truly a great turn for the Pirates, as the Fancy even rolled a 6 at doubled range to snipe a mast off the Auguste, who had sailed to the southeastern island after discovering Wolves.
But here come the Spanish! With a surprise attack, the Bow Chasers are run out and fired at the Greed’s Hammer! Surprisingly they both hit!
The angry Pirates suddenly split, and give up control of the south to the French, who have moved in with their entire fleet. The Pirates turn their wrath on the Sirviente, but they only manage one hit in four tries! The Greed’s Hammer has no captain and decides to run for it. At the bottom of the picture, the Cervantes is biding her time, hoping for the game to end while she still has all her gold aboard. At the left, the English experienced a miracle at the arch. The Orkney explored and found the Trees UT! This repaired 3 of her fallen masts and the dangerous English gunship was ready to fight once more!
Absolutely relentless, the Spanish pursue the Greed’s Hammer! With improbable luck and help from Miranda’s reroll, they score two more hits!! The Greed’s Hammer sinks!
At this point the game devolved into chaos. The Pirates, more furious than ever, sank the Sirviente. However, the damage was done. South of them, Carcharodon munches on Cursed helmsman. The French are still under the radar, with a gold plan. The Cervantes and Orkney are still important…
The Cervantes turned around, but the Plague of the East hit 2/2. The Auguste had failed an S-board, and was then dismasted by the Fancy. The French had their plan in place though: the Floating Stone dumped Calypso on an island to load 7 gold, while the Auguste carried another 3 with a 1 +2’d by Aristide. The problem was keeping that gold alive.
The Pirates dismasted the Cervantes, but the shark dismasted the Fancy. The Floating Stone looks to make a getaway.
The Orkney managed to miss a bunch of times, but eventually dismasted the Plague of the East and sank the Cervantes!
At this point the Floating Stone had to tow the Demon Gate (with Papa Doc still aboard) in order to contest the Orkney, who easily killed Carcharodon.
Blam! In an impressive display of firepower, the Orkney hits 2/2 with her L-range guns (avoiding the canceller) to pulverize the turtle ship’s defenses.
The Floating Stone rammed on her next turn, but her attack failed. The English were victorious with just 3 gold! They had captured the Auguste with her 1 gold, which was worth 3 with Aristide’s bonous. However, the English had also outlasted all the other fleets, albeit with some help from a house rule concerning Commander Temple and some lucky Trees!
I would recommend these odd restrictions on crew! They make for a nice change of pace, and a fun challenge when building fleets.