@admin
Active 2 hours, 29 minutes agoForum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Apophis
Set: Pirates of the Epic Seas
Release: Halloween 2026 (October 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 003
Nationality: The Cursed
Point Cost: 15
Masts: 4
Cargo: 3
Base Move: L
Cannons: 3L-2L-2L-1S
Ability: Sea Monster. Once per round of turns, eliminate one cargo from a ship or fort within L of this sea creature (you choose what the cargo is eliminated from, the controller of the game piece chooses which cargo is eliminated).Flavor text: Reborn and thus summoned by the combined powers of the Demon King and Kalfu, this enormous beast has battled with Ra himself. His movements are said to create earthquakes and thunderstorms. Also known as The Lord of Chaos, the legions of Cursed fiends are excited to see what havoc he can wreak on the established powers of the world….
The release very nearly featured one sea creature instead of two. Early in the game piece selection process, I was heavily debating what combination of ship types and cards to go with. I was close to including the Molten Dream as a 3 mast frigate, with her linked crew the Skag Host. However, I decided to knock Immamou from a 3 master to a 1 masted turtle ship, which freed up a card. I also did some pretty inspiring research on various serpentine beasts, which is when I found Apophis from Egyptian mythology. Given the incredible lore behind it, the scary and nasty nature of a Halloween-themed release, and focusing on the Cursed faction, I decided I really should go with two sea creatures for this Mega Pack. 🙂 So now the Cursed get their first new sea serpent of my Pirates CSG Relaunch, in addition to their second hydra!
Apophis is “the ancient Egyptian deity of chaos”, and fought the sun-god Ra on a daily basis (!). I could have gone way overboard with this one, but wanted to keep things semi-reasonable and playable in 60 point games haha! The Cursed have grown far more powerful than they were in the days of Ocean’s Edge and Savage Shores/etc. Their ranks have grown immensely, and now they have characters that can literally summon evil gods of empires past to do their bidding. O_O A combination of hellish demons, new malevolent deities, and an absolute hostile takeover of voodoo magicians have enabled them to resurrect ancient legends in their quest for an eternal Cursed Age.
The ability is perfect for its underworld earthquakes and as an “Eater of Souls”. Originally it wiped out a cargo from anything within L, but then I realized you could whittle away at an enemy’s home island treasure which would be broken, especially for a game piece that can submerge. The point costs for my new sea creatures like this one and Lerna are based on being able to use them with Captain built-in to the Sea Monster keyword, as it appears in my New Master Keyword List. The ability can only be used once per round, which for errata purposes I define as a round of turns starting from the first player and ending with the last player (not measured from the controller’s turn until their next turn). This could be used as an interrupt, triggered on an opponent’s turn. For a beast of this magnitude and eminence, I wanted the segment firepower high, with even a rank-1 added on the tail to make it more formidable.
As this is essentially a historical sea creature from mythology, I wanted to be as faithful to the ancient Egyptian references as possible. I find it amazing that we have good-quality paintings to see exactly how the serpent was depicted, so I wanted to pay homage to that. A final touch was a little bit of watercolor and battle damage texturing to make it slightly less basic. Overall I’m stoked to see what kind of havoc that The Lord of Chaos can cause in your games!
Lerna
Set: Pirates of the Epic Seas
Release: Halloween 2026 (October 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 002
Nationality: The Cursed
Point Cost: 18
Masts: 6
Cargo: 1
Base Move: S+L
Cannons: 5S-4S-3S-4S-5S-3S
Ability: Sea Monster. Hydra. Fear. At the beginning of each of your turns, eliminate one crew from a ship within S of this sea creature.Flavor text: Leave it to The Cursed to animate horrors so profound that legends have been written about them. This foul creature has such a virulent scent that living things perish in its mere presence. However, The Cursed have had trouble controlling the beast and its poisonous fumes – something that could change if Valmung teams up with The Necromancer.
Hydra: A hydra is a type of sea monster. The following abilities are specific to hydras and override the Sea Monster keyword: Measure a hydra’s movement from the middle head slot on its base. Hydras may move and shoot using the same move action. A hydra may be given repair actions at sea or at any island, including while it is submerged.
The Lernaean Hydra is finally here in full! A different version of Lerna was playtested in my “Concept Testing Game” from 9/14/24. The beast from Greek mythology has changed somewhat significantly since then. I wanted the new ability to be as thematic and lore-accurate as possible, so it will affect friendly ships as well (likely only if there are no enemy ships to choose from). It has Fear, as it guarded an entrance to the underworld and required Hercules himself to slay it. One of the great and horrid creatures from the ancient world… this was one of the few game pieces created for this release that I designed this decade, rather than in the 2010s when I made the majority of my Epic Seas set (so far).
I think the speed should really help it affect games a bit, compared to the slower base moves of Pyrannus and Mušmaḫḫū (the other hydras come to life for the relaunch). The cargo space would allow Valmung to come aboard. A submerged strategy could be nasty in an enemy formation, since both Fear and the deadly scent ability would work while underwater. It’s a toxic menace with staying power! I love name-dropping crew/ships/characters in flavor text, which works perfectly for the last sentence because The Necromancer is one of several Cursed named crew in my Epic Seas set that may have some kind of “summoning” role in the Cursed quest to annihilate human life….
I’ve always associated the color purple with The Cursed faction. I also associate it with the poison type from Pokemon, so it felt natural to go wild with purple for Lerna’s artwork. All of its maws are emitting the poisonous breath and horrific scent. I wanted the gaping mouths to be more hideous and intimidating on this one compared to my past hydras, with a tongue behind the huge teeth. The water around it is being poisoned as well, with the frothing water around the segments turning purple. The body shadow is a slightly different shape from the other hydras. Scales are still present on the segments (similar to Pyrannus), but I added a new cracked glass texture to the overall dark gradient to make it more unique as well.
Call of the Sea
Set: Pirates of the Epic Seas
Release: Halloween 2026 (October 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 001
Nationality: The Cursed
Point Cost: 27
Masts: 5
Cargo: 3
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 2L-4S-3L-4S-2L
Ability: When you give this ship a move action and can draw a straight line (that does not cross a game piece, terrain, or islands) from this ship’s bow to a whirlpool, you may move this ship into that whirlpool as the move action; she must exit at a different whirlpool. This ship gets +1 to her d6 rolls when within S of a whirlpool. Once per turn, you may choose a sea creature within S of this ship; this turn, that sea creature gets +L to its base move and +1 to its cannon rolls.
Link: ValmungFlavor text: One of the most “possessed” ships to ever sail, the Call of the Sea is rumored to be a living, sentient being. Her decks moan as she speeds to destinations no mortal man would dare pursue. When the ocean is in turmoil, the ship thrives. Ever since Valmung assumed command of the ship and her few crew, the ship has taken on a special role: summoning demons of the deep to carry out Cursed deeds.
Total insanity! Given the plethora of exciting 3-card Cursed ships/creatures in my Epic Seas fantasy set, it was a tough choice to pick just one as the flagship of this release. I really wanted it to be a 5 masted ship or a 6 masted junk, but this one “called” to me the most for a variety of reasons – it would be the one game piece in the release to cost 20+ points, it weaponizes terrain, it has a spooky theme fitting for Halloween, and the artwork would go hard since it’s a ship borne from the depths of seaside hell…. Plus, The Cursed got very few 5 masted sailing ships in the original sets, so this makes up for that a bit.
Her crazy set of abilities drive the majority of the massive point cost, as they should. The first ability is probably the most powerful, as it potentially lets the ship zoom any distance across the table into a whirlpool. Of course, the sheer amount of stuff in the way will make it somewhat situational, possibly incentivizing the controller of this ship to place islands and terrain relatively far apart during the Setup phase. It will also be key to consider the order of operations on your turn when using it – if you’re able to move a friendly ship out of the “line to whirl”, or possibly sink an enemy ship that’s in the way first/etc. Most of these game pieces were originally created sometime around 2017-2019, but the “must exit at a different whirlpool” part was added after I selected this ship in September. This is to prevent the ship from simply warping over to a whirlpool right next to an enemy ship, then not even using it and blasting away with Captain/etc. I want the ship to stick to her theme and only get called to the sea when she’ll actually utilize the whirlpools. In theory, with a double action available, she could zip into one whirlpool, then take her second and final action of the turn at the other whirlpool.
That tactic pairs perfectly with her second ability, which could be used for cannons, boarding, EA/SAT rolls, etc. An interesting idea I thought of was gambling on an EA crew – you could wait until after exiting the second whirlpool to roll, thus getting +1 to the roll which would then succeed on a 4-6. Big risk though if there are enemy ships waiting on the other side of the second whirlpool, unless you had some kind of Admiral’s Action/Lord Mycron/etc to back it up.
Her final ability functions as a sea creature cheerleader – notably not limited to just Sea Monsters, nor to just friendly creatures. That ability might pair well with her linked crew you can see below, who I envision potentially jumping from the CotS to a friendly sea creature and back as the game goes on. I’ll admit, the biggest problem with this release is probably that the ability text barely fits on the cards!
I haven’t made fantasy ship artwork in quite a while, I think not since the first Cursed Mega Pack from fall 2024. At first it was slightly intimidating since it differs so much from historically accurate ship art, but once I finished one of the 1 masters I really went gung ho and enjoyed it as expected. Call of the Sea is certainly one of the most unique ships I’ve made, and the art is no exception. I outlined my artwork priorities for the ship prior to getting started:
Sails: radial gradient with light middle, green/gray outside, heavy texturing + holes. Hull: dark blue as dominant color plus purple and gray swirl/texture pattern, decent armament with possible color variation of guns/gunports. Stern gallery/etc could have light blue highlights. Decks: dark brown middle, blue outside, light blue plank lines.
Overall I’m happy with how it turned out. I really wanted to emphasize the “born from the sea” nature of the ship with a lot of blue and purple. The biggest priorities for specifics were the hull texturing and look, and the tattered and worn sails. The hull texture is a mysterious mass of swirls, coupled with a blue-purple gradient and only a bit of the actual wood showing through in light blue and dark blue streaks. Purple lanterns at the bow, both on hull and forecastle. She’s got a substantial armament, purposely a bit asymmetrical with some of the cannon placements. Purple-tipped gunport lids, and some double and triple cannon ports to change it up from the typical historical stuff I’ve done.
The sails are a bit reminiscent of the movie Flying Dutchman, but with their own shapes and deep-sea white/green/gray gradient. I may have gone a little overboard with the electric blue outline around the masts, but I think it accentuates the strange and ethereal look I was going for. I also like how it reminds me of bioluminescence, which I was amazed at when I saw it in person years ago near San Diego.
The numbers reset starting from 001 for this release because Epic Seas is a very different set than Age of Sail (my historical set that most of the Mega Packs come from). (the Cursed Mega Pack released for Friday the 13th in 2024 has high numbers because I was doing it differently back then, but since then I’ve realized I should just go sequentially in order for physically released game pieces)
Valmung
Set: Pirates of the Epic Seas
Release: Halloween 2026 (October 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 008
Nationality: The Cursed
Point Cost: 6
Ability: Eternal. Cannoneer. This crew can be assigned to and use their abilities on game pieces with the Sea Monster keyword.
Link: Call of the SeaFlavor text: Valmung is a tall creature with a raspy voice who can expel smoke from gill-like holes in his face. He came up as a “serpent rider” and has nursed at least one beast of the sea back to full health.
Valmung was the first named crew chosen for the release, mostly due to his link to the capital ship. He combines a few good abilities into one cargo space, and thus would pair well with Call of the Sea. Assigning him there would leave her regular 3 cargo spaces open and still 21 points in the cap space, allowing for a lot of other wild stuff to come aboard. Alternatively, he can help out a Sea Monster – be it Lerna, Apophis, or any of the original Cursed Sea Monsters that have cargo. It’s a little wild to me that in the original sets the Americans received more crew with Eternal (2 overall) than The Cursed, whose only original crew with it is RotF El Fantasma. Valmung gives them a great option for ships, and really opens up some interesting Eternal possibilities on Sea Monsters.
The 2026 Battle Report for VASSAL Campaign Game 4 is here!
Massive Coordinated Joint Strike Decimates one of the Major Fleets! CG4 turn of 2026
Finally made another edit to the All-Time Records post, now that another insane CG4 turn is coming to a close.
If you are already subscribed and are not receiving the emails with the monthly poll/updates (latest one was just sent out), please let me know! You can also whitelist thepirategamellc@gmail.com in your email settings.
Full 5+ hour session on VASSAL when my Pirates attacked Xerecs’ Conglomerate in CG4:
TLDW version with details will be in the full BR, coming as soon as October!
Various new historical game pieces come to life!
Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 – Pirates CSG Mega Pack for September 2026
The Fancy is here! Trying to talk more about combos and the background design/history/etc of the game pieces in these videos, since the “how to build” portions are mostly complete from earlier videos.
Giles Shelley
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 109
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 5
Ability: Merchant. One of this ship’s treasures is worth +1 gold when she docks at your home island.
Link: NassauMerchant: Once per turn if this crew or ship is within S of any ships, home islands, or forts, the controllers of each game piece may agree to trade any number of cargo between the game pieces as a free action (if applicable, up to their available cargo space). If the trade is between friendly game pieces, all friendly game pieces involved must unload at least one non-identical cargo; you cannot trade between friendly ships and your own home island.
Flavor text: From New York to Sainte-Marie, his ventures have brought riches to his benefactors and many pirate friends.
One of the final additions to the release. I was really excited to find out about this guy. Having a Merchant crew in the Pirate ranks should make for an interesting dynamic, especially for games or players that involve flavor in their plot. His linked ship looks like it should be a 3 master, so it missed the cut. I almost justified giving him a bunch of crew links, but stopped because some of the combos might starting getting ridiculous given how a lot of these pirates all seemed to know each other. Plus, his connections seemed like more of a passing thing than a long-term partnership. I like trying to base crew to crew links on relationships where they served together on the same ship (vs. being on different ships in the same fleet, or having only one short voyage together/etc). Many of the named crew in this release (and my sets in general) have long flavor text, so I wanted to change that up and keep his short and mysterious.
Robert Culliford
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 106
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 5
Ability: This ship gets +1 cargo spaces. This crew takes up no cargo space. This crew cannot be captured by abilities. If this ship is towed, place this crew on the nearest wild island. This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against French ships.
Link: William May, Edward Coates, John Swann, Ralph Stout, James KellyFlavor text: Originally teaming up with Captain William Kidd, Culliford mutinied and struck out on his own. His association with William May led to his first command, the “Horne Frigate”. However, his crimes against the Gujaratis led to a prison stint. After escaping, he commandeered an East India Company ketch but was marooned soon afterwards. Ralph Stout rescued him before perishing himself. After another run-in with Kidd, he engaged in piratical activities yet again before being captured by the English. Even Marshalsea prison couldn’t hold him, as he has now vanished….
Completely insane life story, and very well-connected… it was hard to fit everything into his flavor text! The ability concerning his ship getting towed works perfectly both ways: if it’s a friendly ship starting the tow, it ties into his marooning/mutiny background, while if an enemy ship starts the tow, it’s him being an escape artist!
Seaflower
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 104
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 4
Masts: 1
Cargo: 2
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 5S
Ability: Crew placed on this ship cost no points towards this ship’s point cost, but they always each take up one cargo space; this ability cannot be copied.
Link: Joseph FaroFlavor text: Rumor has it that Joseph Faro ferried the notorious pirate Henry Every to Ireland aboard this vessel.
Couldn’t find much info on this sloop. She gives the Pirates another cheap vessel to play with, and serves to differentiate ship point costs in this release and provides a cheap alternative to the somewhat expensive (for her size) Amity. The ability is based on getting both Every and Faro aboard for a voyage, which normally wouldn’t be possible with Every’s point cost….
I didn’t see any evidence of Seaflower being in combat, so to change it up from the other ships of this Mega Pack, she has clean lines and a fresh look. The more historical ships I make the harder it gets to make them look unique, so I try to find every reason I can for variety and differentiation!
Joseph Faro
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 112
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 4
Ability: Captain. Place this crew face up during setup. Reduce the cost of all other crew placed on this ship by 1.
Link: Portsmouth Adventure, Seaflower, Dirk ChiversFlavor text: Hailing from Newport in the Rhode Island colony, Faro made it as far as the Indian Ocean to watch Every’s capture of the Grand Mughal Fleet. Being denied a share of the prize money, he was nevertheless rescued by Every later on and may have assisted in his disappearance….
This guy was originally 1 point without the Captain ability, because the 2 point “reducer” crew in the original sets only really ever get used if they’re absolutely necessary. However, I didn’t want to suddenly make a full upgrade crew that makes those original 3 Pirate crew suboptimal to use in small games. Plus, Faro had multiple commands in his career, so the Pirates get 4 named captains in GAOP2!
Amity
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 103
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 9
Masts: 1
Cargo: 3
Base Move: S+S+S
Cannons: 2S
Ability: This ship may repair at sea or at any island. This ship ignores terrain when she is given a move action.
Link: Thomas Tew, John IrelandFlavor text: The sloop belonging to Thomas Tew mounts eight cannons. For a 70-ton vessel she has done remarkably well plying the pirate trade. A single dhow capture netted her crew over £1000 per sailor.
I broke one of my “rules” with this ship – normally I don’t like recreating things that are already in the game, with Amity getting a 3 mast variant in the Fire and Steel set. However, given that she was apparently a sloop in real life, I wanted to create a more historically accurate version. In addition, she fits perfectly into this release for many reasons – she had a more notable career than some of the other ships, has a faster base move, brings another new linked crew into the game, and can still fit the F&S version of Tew if one wanted to go that route. Everything comes from history as always – her speed is based on Tew attacking early in the Mughal fight, she was repaired in Madagascar (shipwright ability), and Ireland kept her safe from terrain until (ironically) she was left on a reef by Dirk Chivers (1 masters are immune to reef damage anyway, so Ignores Terrain fits even more perfectly as an ability). I love the coffee/brown color scheme, with Amity showing some battle scars along with Tew’s flag (which lacks historicity similar to Every’s, but is hard not to include).
John Ireland
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 110
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 4
Ability: Navigator. This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against targets with all their masts.
Link: Amity, Thomas TewFlavor text: Claiming to be forced into piracy against his will, Ireland nevertheless has maintained relations with many scoundrels in his seafaring days, among them Thomas Tew and Richard Bobbington. Regardless of his true affiliation, he has proved to be a valuable pilot.
A very unique ability set that might not pair well. He does have some intriguing links, and I was happy to include some color for his crew art based on a painting of (I think) Amity and others chasing down the Mughal convoy.
Susanna
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 102 (Lord Horatio Nelson is #101 due to my numbering scheme for the Age of Sail set changing in 2025)
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 5
Masts: 2
Cargo: 4
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 4L-4S
Ability: This ship gets -1 to her d6 rolls.
Link: Thomas WakeFlavor text: A 10-gun vessel commanded by Thomas Wake, she was too slow to participate in the capture of the Ganj-i-sawai. After Wake and many others became sick and perished in Madagascar, the remaining crew took her to Saint Augustine where some of them were killed by Malagasay natives.
This ship had problems and didn’t seem to accomplish much, so I wanted her game status to reflect that. Her poor luck will follow her wherever she goes…. One could argue her cargo could be upped to 5, but I didn’t want her to just become another automatically great Pirate gold runner with a negative ability that barely comes into play given her typical role (like Bloody Jewel/etc). She looks as ragged as one would expect, with yellowed sails peppered by shot holes, a shoddy deck situation, and some gunport lids either askew, closed or missing. I rarely opt for a missing sail because the black background contrast can be jarring to see, but I wanted to finally try that again given the decrepit state of the ship. The pirates have been too sick to replace that sail, with the yardarm dangling suspended in the rigging.
Thomas Wake
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 108
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 5
Ability: Captain. After looking at treasure on a wild island, you may trade any one treasure from that island for a random treasure on any other wild island. This ship must load the traded treasure.
Link: SusannaFlavor text: Wake joined Henry Every and other pirates for the pursuit of the Mughal convoy in the Indian Ocean. With his ship too slow to keep pace, he and his crew missed out on the immense winnings. Their bad luck continued, with most of the crew dying of illness on Madagascar following a visit to Adam Baldridge’s pirate trading post.
Susanna’s captain just barely fits aboard the ship (point cap space of 5), though I realize most players probably won’t put him there. Overall a solid addition to the Pirate named crew ranks.
Pearl
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 100
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 7
Masts: 2
Cargo: 4
Base Move: S+L
Cannons: 3S-3S
Ability: Filching Gold.
Link: William MayFlavor text: After New York Governor Jacob Leisler was executed for treason against the crown, the new governor Benjamin Fletcher gave William May a privateering commission. May’s vessel is armed with 16 cannons, and has been seen operating from Rhode Island all the way to the Indian Ocean.
I decided to spell out the keyword text on the ship’s deckplate since I had plenty of room for it. This is a prototypical pirate ship – fast, armed enough to get what she wants, capacious and with a theft ability that will aid in her plundering. Pirate ships feel like a great excuse to get a little wonky with the art sometimes – multiple sail colors, ragged deck arrangements, etc. Here the crew have rigged a few new sails but others are getting rather old and worn. Relatively standard armament, but with a curved hull gradient, new clipped picture for the stern galleries, and subtle lanterns at the bow so the Jades aren’t hogging all the fun hull lighting!
William May
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 107
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 5
Ability: Captain. This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against the French.
Link: Pearl, Charming Mary, Robert Culliford, Edward CoatesFlavor text: Joining the mutiny led by Robert Culliford against Captain Kidd, May found himself captain of multiple ships during his pirate career. Making several trips between New York and Madagascar, he harassed the French, gave a prize to Culliford, sailed his new brigantine from Rhode Island, and assisted Henry Every in the capture of the Gunsway. He was able to escape capture by the English and retired to Whitehorse Tavern.
Another interesting pirate life story, May was one of many who went all the way from the northeast coast of America to the Indian Ocean and back.
Fancy
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 099
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 15
Masts: 3
Cargo: 4
Base Move: S+L
Cannons: 3L-2S-3L
Ability: If this ship has a crew with the Captain keyword, she gets +S to her base move. This ship cannot be towed by opposing ships.
Link: Henry EveryFlavor text: Originally an English vessel, Every’s pirate ship was razeed in the Bight of Benin in 1694. Since then she has become one of the fastest sailers in the Indian Ocean. Every continues to recruit more pirates to his cause, which he hopes will lead to capturing a grand prize from a Mughal convoy en route to India.
The King of Pirates is finally here! This new Mega Pack has a heavy focus on the 1690s, with Henry Every himself at the center of it all. His ship is one of the ultimate pirate vessels, capable of blazing speed for devastating raids. Not only was Every one of the most successful pirates of all time, he managed to disappear with his fortune. Thus his ship cannot be captured without cancelling/etc – originally that ability was on Every, but he’s already a “kingpin” type crew with a bevy of abilities (creating a crew like him is one of those “should be overpowered” type moments). By putting the last ability on the ship instead of the crew, it helps balance the point costs of the combo and limits how OP Every could otherwise become (ex: on a 10 master). Initially I was hesitant to make it a 3 mast frigate design vs. an original 3MA model, but that changed perfectly when I read she was razeed – 3MF suits her as a model type well enough, knowing that her fore and aftercastles were cut down from the regular high sterns of 1600s ship designs.
I love how the artwork turned out – I saved this ship for last and made sure I had enough time to make her special. A worn but realistic wood deck, bronze/brass cannons, and some fancy lanterns with extra glow at the stern. The sails have some of my favorite texturing I’ve done so far, along with battle damage worthy of her tangle with the Ganj-i-sawai. Although Every’s pirate flag is unknown to history, I wanted to include a 1724 attribution of it for fun. The hull has a mix of planking, weathered texture, some details, and some guns I really like. The gunports have a blood red outline, with brass muzzles for the cannons along with gunport lids of a light brown color for contrast against the dark hull.
Henry Every
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Golden Age of Piracy: Part 2 (GAOP2) (September 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 105
Nationality: Pirate
Point Cost: 10
Ability: Captain. Hoarding Gold. This crew cannot be captured by abilities, and cannot be eliminated or removed from the game unless this ship sinks. If this ship wins a boarding party, she may capture the crew with the lowest point cost instead of eliminating it. A captive becomes assigned to this ship, takes up no cargo space, and can use its abilities.
Link: Fancy, Alexander DalzeelFlavor text: From his humble beginnings in the Royal Navy to becoming immensely wealthy as the “King of Pirates”, Every was the subject of the first worldwide manhunt. His capture of the Ganj-i-sawai made him possibly the richest pirate ever. Known as “Long Ben” to his crew, his exploits became even more legendary after his mysterious disappearance.
Every is the centerpiece of the entire release, and was always going to be a legendary crew. As arguably the most successful pirate of all time, he should almost be overpowered based on historicity alone. He is an “ultimate pirate”, capable of elevating any ship to a buccaneer’s dream vessel. He took Fancy to heights of fame and fortune, hence the Captain ability. Hoard for stealing a huge amount from the Mughal convoy. He got away with his loot and disappeared, hence he cannot be captured or removed/eliminated. He also recruited pirates to his cause, so he’s got a low-point “Nemo capture” ability as well. I think he’ll pair exceedingly well with Fancy, with 5 points left over in the cap space to add a helmsman and possibly some combination of SAT/explorer/oarsman/etc.
They are both part of this month’s Mega Pack, Rise of Atlantis Part 2!
Where can I buy this?
It is this month’s Mega Pack! (Rise of Atlantis Part 2)
Was catching up on some older The Shogunate YouTube videos and came across his naval one. Saw the promo and was immediately like, here take my money. Very cool. Excited to play with my kids. Who are also samurai super nerds like me. Please keep expanding the Sengoku period ships. Like maybe a samurai style castle island. Anyways, thanks for all your hard work.
Thanks matey! Will ship your stuff tomorrow. I’d love to do some kind of Japanese island or fort, but no plans for it currently (maybe someday).
