Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
That goes way back to the early days, but I think one of the original intents was to maintain a clear distinction between the coins with a numerical (printed) value and UTs that produce a value, by allowing bonuses to apply only to the ones with printed values.
Interesting. I think it makes more sense when using a “replacement” method for gold bonuses, such as a 5 becoming a 6 from outside the game. I’ve become accustomed (and prefer) using the method where new coins are introduced from outside the game while keeping the originals (5 and 1 separate on the HI), which makes it easier to house rule bonuses applying to UT’s.
In The Pirate Code, it says this about gold bonus abilities that add value to a treasure:
-These abilities have no effect on the values of unique treasures.
Why is that? How would a player/layperson know not to apply the bonus based on the simple ability text?
One of this ship’s treasures is worth +2 gold when she docks at your home island.
If 058 Captain Jack Sparrow trades a coin to avoid his ship being affected by Blood Money/Bloody Gold, I assume the receiving ship has to then eliminate a crew to satisfy the UT requirement?
CJS: When this ship is given an explore action, you can swap a treasure on the wild island a crew on any friendly ship.
Blood Money: Instead of loading Blood Money, put it face-up on the wild island. Then reveal all treasure on the island. Each time a ship loads a non-unique treasure from the island, eliminate a crew on that ship that has a point value equal to or greater than the value of that treasure. Eliminate Blood Money when there is no non-unique treasure on the island. Spanish ships are not affected by Blood Money.
Similarly, if CJS trades a coin instead of loading one from an island that Cursed/Savage Natives is on, can the receiving ship only load that one coin for that turn? I can’t tell if the Cursed/Savage Natives UT’s are triggered per explore action, or per turn. (ex: if it’s per explore, you could redock and explore again for a second coin)
Cursed Natives: When revealed, roll a d6. On a result of 1–3, eliminate the crew on this ship that has the lowest point value; on a 4–6, eliminate the crew that has the highest point value. Then this ship can load one more treasure (only). Then put Cursed Natives face down on the island; this ship must leave the island on your next turn. Cursed ships and crew are not affected by Cursed Natives.
Can CJS trade Cursed/Savage Natives to another ship? It just says “the island” rather than “this island”, so it seems you might be able to trade it to another ship docked at an island.
In regards to the Becalmed event:
-When affected by Becalmed, a ship with an Oarsman, a keyword such as Galley, Longship, Turbine, or Turtle Ship, or any other ability that allows movement while derelict may move as if it had no masts remaining.
Why as if it had no masts remaining? The event just says “unless she can move when derelict”, but gives no indication that the base move should be reduced to S, or that the assumption is as if the ship had no masts. I understand the thematic reasoning, but I don’t think the ability text of the card supports the Code ruling.
Sleigh pic came in 3rd for the January photo contest 🙂
Went with a Command the Oceans pic for this month
I don’t remember offhand, and can’t check at the moment, but are they numbered or uniquely marked in any way on the back sides?
Only the MI symbol for the ones from MI, but the SS islands are numbered.
The player(s) placing them will know which islands they were placing, but other players will not.
Interesting, that makes sense to me. So if you end up placing an MI you didn’t contribute (due to the random choice), you can check out the effects for yourself before placing it. Would be a funny way to potentially get tipped off about an opponent’s strategy!
Zeus at $355 as of now! Also seeing The Kraken up for grabs….
Thanks to all who entered the Fleet Challenge! The submission deadline has passed and I count 10 entrants! 🙂
My tentative plan is to review the fleets on Saturday, and announce a winner on Sunday. (likely videos for both)
I’d say Kero could come down to 4 points.
Those canoes will be a boon to Cursed gold running. I’m tempted to say any canoes with more than 1 cargo space each should probably cost at least 10 points, but I might be too biased from how good the American ones are. I like that these are closer to “hybrid canoes” than the original Cursed ones from SS, which aren’t very effective.
That is an awesome fort! Love the flavor text too. I’d love to use it… maybe it will appear in CG4….
I’m curious about this as well:
Are the effects of Mysterious Islands considered public knowledge to other players, or is the contributing player the only one who knows what the islands do until they’re revealed?
It seems that a player could look at the back of any islands they place as part of the random draw when executing the Setup rules. (“players take turns randomly choosing an island”)
Interesting idea; I feel it adds another dimension to the game: make sure you are checking the time and have gold to win when time goes out… I’ll have to try something like that…
It’s been a lot of fun! It’s mostly to expedite the decision making and add an extra element into the game. Plus, in a real life situation you wouldn’t always have 5+ minutes to ponder what to do in important moments.
What UPS means?
It generally refers to any fleet that uses the ability of 058 Captain Jack Sparrow (CJS) to fling coins home to ships waiting at your home island. A few ships have it too, but CJS is usually the most competitive way to optimize that fleet archetype. The fleet idea for it was pioneered by darrin back in the 2000’s at Miniature Trading. You can see details on it in this post I made, with the original by darrin still viewable and many battle reports involving variants of the strategy in VASSAL Tournament #2. This year I will be testing out some counter fleets to oppose UPS fleets.
Being able to flood your home island with a bunch of loose 1s and 2s weakens the HI-Raiders too much, unless you allow them to choose what they take, or they’re allowed to make change up to some value (like combining enough low coins to max out at the 7 again).
My preference with HI Raiders is to make their choice random. (usually by splaying out the coins quickly, then assigning a d6 roll or double roll to coins 1-6 from left to right – feels less gamey than having the loser shuffle a certain way or the raider potentially being able to pick out a scratched coin back or get a coin they spied with Cassandra/etc.)
I have played some games where they can choose what they take, but that can get overly swingy in the endgame and I think it can make them too powerful. Though, I’m mostly biased after seeing how it can directly affect results in the 11 player game I played.
Is the “nearest” part of Hidden Cove always measured from the ship you intend to teleport with it? Is it always the player’s choice whether it’s the nearest unexplored WI or nearest WI with no treasure on it, or does it have to be the closest of those two options regardless of what they want?
Reveal this event at the beginning of one of your turns: As a free action, dock one of your ships at the nearest unexplored wild island or the nearest wild island with no treasure on it.
MI #15 says: “1-2: The next time you give this ship a move action, she can move only S.”
I assume that means S overall and ignores bonuses? (or changes base move to S)
For the Dead Man’s Chest/Pension UT’s, must the crew be on your ships in order to be eliminated and get the gold? (or are they considered “in your fleet” if on a wild island or your home island) If they do have to be on ships, is there an exception for crew inside forts you control? Even if crew on islands won’t count towards the new gold, can you eliminate them anyway (perhaps to avoid them falling into the hands of another player) via the UT?
When Dead Man’s Chest is unloaded at your home island, you can eliminate any number of crew in your fleet; each is worth 1 gold.
Similarly, is a crew considered to be “in your fleet” if you load an enemy crew from a wild island via the free transfer rule, and then just unload it right after? Or is a non-Marine crew on a wild island not considered part of any player’s fleet?
Does the gold from Dead Man’s Chest/Pension show up in coin form on your home island from outside the game, or is it a total number assigned to the face up UT? (thinking about how Kharmic Idol can eliminate it later on – would that gold disappear as well) Pension eliminates itself afterwards, but the DMC does not.
After observing some recent new UPS fleets, I decided to try and revisit an “old” idea of mine, getting a +4 bonus on a gold coin. This lead to an afternoon of head-scratching and bemoaning as I tried to make the combo work at a 40 point limit. I met with some success, but feel as though the fleets could still be optimized further. I’ll share the two that I think have the best odds here however.
Neat! I think it’s difficult partly because getting the +4 on multiple coins in a turn is hard. Maybe Mycron gives Patagonia’s action to Bonnie Liz on turn 2 – first action to unload with +4, pick up 3rd oarsman with free transfer, then BC swaps, sending home a third coin overall that is then +4’d with BL getting another action to unload.
Nice use of Gaspar Zuan, though it feels a little unfortunate he has to take up points in the fleet to make it work. Can’t think of a better ship to use to get 3 bonuses on though. I’ll have to mess around with some Paradox setups – saves points but you don’t get Powder Pete.
Switching islands on the first round is an idea I haven’t thought about enough in regards to UPS, so I’m glad you brought it up. Perhaps the coin distribution could be gamified to an extent where you can win on turn 1 if you get lucky enough (using the 16+ more than half rule of course). With +3 on each coin, any of three 5’s contributed would be worth 8 gold. If you find a single 5 on the first island, send it home and then go to a second island and try to find another 5 (Hai Peng best due to her max regular speed being more than 3L). 8×2=16
Maybe throw in Barbary Banner so you’re essentially including 4 5’s in the treasure distribution – odds are decent that you’ll find at least 2 of the 4 essential coins within the first 2 islands you go to….
Pandora’s Box seems like a risky inclusion. But I suppose it could bring in more gold via a UT like Barbary Banner or Sunken Treasure. Or bring in the Altar and finish off a victory with the crew you’ve sent to the island. Could instead do Pirata Codex for maximum UT elimination. (Jailhouse Dog tough since it would be loaded first and takes up a space)
This makes me curious about having the unloading ship at home be the Banshee’s Cry + Jonah, Genny Gallows, oarsman. Oarsman takes up space initially, but not after being swapped for a coin. Then she receives Sunken Treasure… (Coeur can’t load Sunken Treasure with Auraa+Aristide so the HI ship has to be swapped)
On another note, today’s live game is really making me think about countering Becalmed by making sure an oarsman is on the primary ships needed to win a game. I suppose you could load an oarsman from the HI via the free transfer rules after getting hit with Becalmed in order to get around it.
F&Sx36 marked down by $50.
I see that the Plague UT can eliminate a Ransom crew. If Plague is used to eliminate the Ransom crew in a hostile manner (such as intentionally ramming the enemy ship to take out their crew), does the player who used Plague to eliminate the Ransom crew receive the 1 gold payout?
Can you cancel the Eternal and Fear keywords granted by the Manawa nö Köwhatu UT? (“This ship gains the Eternal and Fear keywords.”)
For the units in play tiebreaker, must the unit(s) be capable of an action of some kind when the game ends, or as a game piece in general? (such as when the game started) I can think of some situations such as a ship that can’t be given any of the actions, but could explore if it was moved into contact with an island. Similarly, abandoned forts can’t be given shoot actions with no cannons. Another strange one would be an Eternal sea creature that has no segments and has been moved away from the home island – unless it is “killed” again, it can’t be given an action.
A “unit” is defined as any game piece that can be directly given at least one of the four primary actions (move, shoot, repair, or explore). This includes ships, sea creatures, flotillas, forts, and crew with the Marine keyword, but does not include events, equipment, treasure, or non-Marine crew
The latest combines a UPS counter with a cheap form of UPS on the back end. XD
I do the same with linked crew/ships.
Links are covered in The Pirate Code, page 4:
–Links function even if crew are facedown.
—If a linked crew is facedown and its link is required to make the setup legal you must indicate to your opponents that a link is present, but you are not required to indicate which specific link is in use. If necessary, a Privateer may be asked to verify it is legal without revealing the crew.
I just pulled out an oarsman from a revolution pack to check this for you. It says on the card “If derelict, this ship gains a base move of +S. This crew takes up no cargo space.”
I’m aware of that, but the question is about whether or not the “takes up no cargo space” ability functions while face down (or if you have to reveal it in order to get that benefit). Normally crew can only have their abilities apply while face up, but I thought there was an exception to crew that don’t take up cargo space.
Woelf will be able to provide clarity. 🙂
Does a facedown Oarsman crew not take up cargo space? I seem to remember that being the case from a previous rules question answered long ago, but just want to be sure.
I did another demo game, and it was a lot more fun and a lot better. I think I’m ready to introduce this game to the party.
Glad to hear it!
Sometimes it can be fun to change up the default rules too, beyond the regular 3 islands per player and 4 coins per wild island. Just depends on how long you have for the game, and how much action you want there to be. (more gold and more islands = usually a longer game)
I collect oceans edge and revolution packs. They’re the ones I have the most fond memories of.
That should work out well, as RV and OE are often the cheapest sets (and/or most widely available at this point).
Welcome aboard, and I hope your upcoming game(s) are fun!
Those are pretty powerful abilities on Javelin and Spearhead; it’s possible both should see a point cost increase. Spearhead would arguably be worth 9 without her ability, so I could see her going to 12-13 for playtesting. Feels like a high-reward hybrid ripe for World Hater, or even just a cannoneer/musketeer.
Various pack auctions end on Monday, including RotF, DJC, and MI!
One of Darrin’s old fleets (the Miniature Trading member who invented the UPS fleet archetype as far as I know) made me peruse the Mysterious Islands again and ponder some effects.
MI #15 seems particularly wild, especially in the case of Unique Treasures. “5-6: Randomly move one treasure coin from this island to your home island.” Perhaps I’ll start with a question that might put you in a good mood, before this gets ugly. XD 😉 It’s been rather amusing to think about all of this today.
Ex: Bad Maps is flung home via the MI. I assume you can look at it since it’s your treasure. An enemy ship then raids your home island, ending up with the Maps (allowing the controller to move their own HI in a 1v1 game). Can you use Bad Maps to “ram” friendly turtles to get a bunch of them home safely all of a sudden without having them move to touch the HI?
What happens if Cursed Natives is revealed during an HI raid?
Can flinging home the Altar of the Loa cause it to be operational? It seems that it would work, after giving an explore action to explore your own HI.
Does the effect of the Rum UT last for all player turns following it being loaded, or just the controller’s next turn? I’m thinking about it being found during an HI raid after the MI effect gets used, then a 3rd player using All-Powerful to try and force the drunken crew to go back for more with a repeat theft attempt.
When using Bad Maps, does it function as a linear movement that can be blocked by islands/terrain/ships, or can the opposing player move things up and over/under stuff as long as no contact is made by the end placement?
-If the island ends up close enough to another island, can a ship (such as a 10 master with a wide bow) dock at multiple islands at the same time?
A [custom] UT could give itself a negative value, but it would have to explicitly say so.
Due to that, I assume that Rum can’t be worth negative gold if there are 7+ crew on the ship that finds it?
Can you unload a facedown Abandoned Crew on your home island, then voluntarily reveal it to make it crew? (including during an opponent’s turn)
Does the Trees UT get loaded onto a ship using it at all?
