Ben

Going to be away for a short while soon.

Las Vegas can be our Tortuga….

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/

Basically anytime a ship is about to be rammed the opponent may roll 1 d6. If the die roll is higher than the number of masts their ship starts with (e.g. a 2 master must roll higher than a 2) the ship receives no ram damage and the ramming ship is not pinned but both ships remain touching.

It will definitely make smaller ships better, but I feel…[Read more]

I suspect it’s a game balance issue, it gives the smaller ships a slight chance against the bigger ones, especially in swarm fleets.

But it works against smaller ships more so than against big ones.  Ram damage is one of the biggest reasons small ships aren’t always viable – one ram can dismast a 1 master.  Eliminate that, and various crappy 1 mas…[Read more]

From this post last year:   (emphasis added in both quotes)

If you had an extra/second action available you could use that to attempt to get unstuck on the same turn you were tangled, or you could use your normal first action to make the attempt and then use the extra/second action to do whatever you want with it.

That makes perfect sense to me…[Read more]

-In certain rare situations it is possible for a ship to occupy the exact same position as an iceberg. When this occurs, the ship loses one mast as normal. If the ship moves first it must move entirely off of the iceberg if possible; if the iceberg moves first, the ship remains in place and does not move with the iceberg. In either case, the s…

[Read more]

One of my favorite ideas I’ve had for this game:

Just finished the reports from my trip to Vegas and LA! I played with Captain Randy plus Xerecs and his brothers!  😀

I typically play 3 player games (when not in campaign mode), and determine player order a couple of ways. All players roll dice and highest goes first, with play continuing to the left.

I think that’s the best way to do it.  Once in a while you have the issue of whoever goes first gets attacked (since the starting player can’t shoot at anyone…[Read more]

Boarding in general should/could be overhauled.

I definitely want any future rules to have the house rule that the winner gets to choose whether to eliminate crew or steal treasure, and choose which treasure gets stolen.  However, I’m also in favor of doing away with ram damage, which might make boarding even less likely to happen.  A pretty d…[Read more]

From reading this, it seems I’ve been playing gold bonus ships and crew wrong. When a ship unloads treasure and has a bonus, I get a new coin to represent that bonus and place it on the home island.

For example: La Santa Isabel docks at home and unloads 3 coins. The gold bonus kicks in, giving one of them a +2 to value. I go and get a spare 2 c…

[Read more]

I do believe that fixing, or clarifying rulings would be slightly more important, especially where Creatures are concerned.

What fixes or clarifications would you make there?

Furthermore, players don’t input the gold, the “house” does. We agree upon a number of coins per island, and if and how many random UT’s we use.

During T1 and T2, did you enj…[Read more]

We are back! Report 5 is now up!

Exciting stuff, glad to know that things are progressing!  😉