[Ben]

@hepitude: Welcome aboard matey!  Do your kids have any favorite factions yet?

[Ben]

Edit: I opened just one Revolution pack tonight. Got the rare Bonhomme Richard! Weird though, the other ship is actually two different ships. Deck plate of Hades’ Flame and sides and sails for Executioner….

Mismatched cards are unfortunate, but we have a thread you can post them in for an off chance you’ll eventually find some kind of match.

[Ben]

I wanted to share my enthusiasm and good news with you guys. My big order from Hills Wholesale Gaming arrived today! I’ve yet to open the box, but I got 40 packs of Spanish Main, 36 of Revolution and 36 of Oceans Edge! A significant increase to my very humble collection. I also have 36 packs of Caribbean coming, so well on the way to diverse and interesting games.

Awesome!  That will substantially increase your fleet building and creativity options.  Sometimes I miss those days of getting new stuff for the first time.

SM print run differences are some of the most noticeable – the first run had a “faded” look where the cards are lighter and less vibrant.

[Ben]

Eating Breakfast beneath a Phallic cloud.

Lol so bizarre!  It was a fun year for Pirates!

[Ben]

Woelf, do you know if there’s a specific reason that crew on scuttled ships are eliminated rather than removed from the game?  I’m not sure if I really grasped that until rereading the rule just now.

[Ben]

@Shamsy: For your towing questions, the answer is YES to all!  If you give the towed ship a repair action, I believe that would immediately break the tow because the towed ship would no longer be derelict, and the Code states “If a ship is considered derelict it can be towed, even if it is still capable of movement.”  Once a mast is up the ship is not considered derelict, so you may want to give the towing ship an action before the repair occurs.

EDIT: I had one more question as I couldn’t find an answer… can you ‘stack’ generic crew and benefit from an ability more than once? Specifically, I’m thinking having multiple Musketeer and Helmsman. I get that multiple captains would be pointless and that cannoneers can be stacked but only one per cannon on the ship.

Nope, it’s known as the No-Stacking rule.  Page 16 of the Code covers it. Cannoneers cannot be stacked either.

[Ben]

As a fun little experiment I made an “example entry” for the challenge to better illustrate the kind of thing I was looking for (though not really that complicated).

Grim Zeus combo
(40) Zeus + Crimson Angel (RotF LE version), Grim the Savage (FN version), Gentleman Jocard, helmsman
(12) Tiger’s Paw + Calypso, Ms. Cheng
(28) Frontier + Nikos Chelios, Ralph David (RV version), helmsman, oarsman

Here we have a rerolling Tiger’s Paw creating whirlpools with Calypso that the Zeus uses to steal a ton of gold from enemy HI’s. The Frontier tries to steal enemy treasures and +2 each one, using her hoist crane to explore the home island without docking at it due to Ex-Patriot/Mercenary (preferably offloading one at a time for maximum +2’s). The Zeus provides deterrence through pure firepower while the Frontier can also run gold conventionally to keep the fleet effective. The Paw cannot be boarded while she has panels and provides a unique spot for Calypso to call home. In a perfect game Grim would steal a ton of gold that is then taken off slowly by the Frontier for a crazy amount of bonuses. This fleet uses 3 of the challenge-required crew (who likely work synergistically to boot) along with 4 additional named crew. The key players stay face down as long as possible with some surprise element likely. (an opponent is likely to guess that it’s Grim on the Zeus, but Chelios and the non-RotF Ralph David could be a small shock)

[Ben]

With 2022 upon us the deadline has passed! Thank you to all who submitted fleets! I was a little disappointed to only see 5 entries, especially with the prize up for grabs to incentivize participation.  Alas, no silver will be distributed!

Now it is time to grade the fleets!

@zone: Nice use of DJC Davy Jones who will also likely see some abilities worth copying in enemy fleets. The Hangman’s Joke will be somewhat reliant on popping out of a fog bank that is close enough to a wild island. Between the randomness of exit location and her lack of a helmsman, it could be an issue. Partly for that reason I would prefer the explorer on her rather than on the Alligator, who is less likely to need or use it. Fog hopping does make up for lack of speed, but not having anything other than Mist Walker (which is two words) moving faster than S+S could hurt in the long run.
I like that you included a picture! Have you played the fleet in a game?

Rating: 3.5/5

@tilorfire27: Very interesting build! I like the use of Hargreaves, stinkpot shot, and the Minuteman. Impressive that you got two American cargo masters in the fleet with neither on the Roanoke. I don’t know if the Roanoke would be able to get in range of all the targets she would need to potentially neutralize. She’ll be moving L+L with a total range of about 4L for shooting purposes. The chain shot should help, but as soon as it misses or you face multiple enemy ships closing in (quite likely at this build total), it will become a simpler firefight.

My main concern is that the entire fleet feels like walking on thin ice. Roanoke getting hit once, Minuteman sinking or BC getting boarded could all be disastrous. The UT’s sound great in theory but I’m not sure how they’re supposed to be acquired. The Jolly Mon might be able to get something to the Roanoke. However, lack of gold also makes Carbon Charlie even harder to use. I also think Roanoke will be far too busy sailing around dealing with targets and threats to spend a single turn docked at her home island, so I’d rather see a different crew used than him. I think a helmsman would actually be far more useful. I think I would find L speed (while towing Minuteman) to be too limiting for the sheer volume of things the Roanoke has to accomplish by herself in a game like this.

I assume you used Chang Pao instead of Brent Rice because you’re more likely to encounter Americans than Jades?

Rating: 3/5

@xerecs: Rocinante is the spelling from the RtSS spreadsheet. She may indeed want to ram, since a successful boarding party could allow for the stealing of a 3rd treasure. Great setup and strategy with the MF. 2 cargo spaces still open for coinage is also nice. I could see the Santa Isabel teaming up with the MF to help the MF dismast ships.

One interesting swap would be taking out the Santa Isabel and Haulers in favor of the Alquimista with Nemesio Diaz. A tiny bit less firepower, but Diaz might end up being better than the Haulers for defense while also providing a way to cancel enemy oarsmen so the MF can snag ships without having to board for crew elimination. If the MF encounters multiple ships with oarsmen it could become frustrating, especially since her middling mast count could provide opportunities for dismasted enemies to beat her in boarding parties (as she tries to eliminate oarsmen). The Alquimista’s +2 bonus could also be perfect with the Rocinante’s hoist and stealing capabilities.

I love that you used 2 hoists, but especially love the use of THREE of the challenge crew options. It’s good that I have to fish around for negatives in your fleet. The Santa Isabel is a pretty typical choice for you, and an easy include with a basic setup only made semi-interesting by the inclusion of the Haulers. Was Ramsgate excluded for any reason? Wouldn’t hurt to include all 5 possible forts. With a fleet so ready to explore islands, I’m surprised by all the negative UT’s. I’d probably not include Natives or Maps of Hades. Decent chance Rocinante finds one of them early on, which could cause big problems. Standard treasure rules are 8 coins worth 15 gold (not 16).

As to your last note on a +5: Lord Thomas Gunn from OE could provide Reroll for 3 points on the MF, allowing 2 points elsewhere though I’m not sure how useful it would be. (maybe explorer on LSI and stinkpot shot on MF to deal with oarsmen)

Rating: 4.5/5

@j-w-darkhurst: I would be interested in seeing your other fleets, though it may take me ages to comment on them. Thank you for mentioning that Miranda links to all Spanish ships, since the Master Spreadsheet didn’t have that. Nice use of skirting the No-Duplicates rule with the Santa Anas, which I had to look up and confirm via Woelf’s post.

Wow, that is a really effective fleet! Ironically I think you have by FAR the most conventionally “good” fleet submitted, as it will have no problem winning games. However, as far as creativity and uniqueness goes, the fleet is lacking the “it factor” or newness I was looking for in this fleet challenge. Nothing really blows me away or surprises me. Knowing the importance of helmsmen, I think I would have approached Anita’s +5 points differently. Instead of the cargo master I’d add helmsmen to the San Cristobal and CC Santa Ana, with the last point going to an explorer on the CC Santa Ana or an oarsman on the SCS Santa Ana. I think it would be more important to get the best coins from more islands rather than the slight bit of “cargo overkill” I’m seeing that sacrifices speed. In addition, all four ships have at least 5 cargo to start, so a cargo master is probably just unnecessary (in my opinion). I do like the theme.

Regarding your note on these exact setups, I wouldn’t underestimate how long this game has been around and the sheer volume of people that have played it and the various combos that are likely to have been used. For example, using a Reroller (including Miranda himself as Cadet-Captain Mike alluded to in 2012) on a ship with SAT is as old as the early sets. One way to differentiate one of the setups would be to crew the Santa Isabel with Nemesio Diaz, Fernando Sanchez (who links to Diaz) and the Haulers. Maybe too slow (a problem potentially solved by Calypso), but a real nasty combo where you have 4 spaces for stolen loot with Diaz and the Haulers making the SI a defensive powerhouse of sorts just re-parking at an enemy home island (though you could argue that the canceller is just overkill with the Haulers there). The CC Santa Ana setup might actually be the most unique, mostly because she’s probably usually run with at least a helmsman and/or explorer.
Lastly (I hope this doesn’t sound too harsh!) I wasn’t really worried about whether any of the fleets submitted were faction-pure; in fact, to make these unique, creative and wacky combo ideas work, you often can’t go faction pure (the Guichuan + FN Grim the Savage and Bianco’s Haulers combo is an extreme but really good example). Also, it looks like Zone/Davy Jones’ fleet is all-Cursed.
Kudos for creating a fleet that with a few tweaks might even be pretty competitive at the 80 point level!

Rating: 3/5 (you would win if I was judging on pure effectiveness, but that wasn’t the goal)

 

The final submission comes from ARabidPickle, which I’m counting since he was having a login issue when he tried posting the fleet before the deadline.
“Fun with Commander Temple 85pts
HMS Titan 17
Lord Thomas Gunn 6
Helmsman 2
Total 25
HMS Caradoc 13
Commander Temple 6
Helmsman 2
Oarsman 1
Total 22
St. George 10
Lawrence 5
Total 15
HMS Patagonia 4
Commander Portland Spencer 7
Lord Mycron 6
Robinson 0
Administrator Scott Bratley 0
Total 17
Le Bon Marin 6
Total 6
The strategy is to derelict opposing ships and using Lawrence to cancel any abilities that Would prevent Commander Temple from capturing. Lord M helps Temple by letting him make contact with derelicts then explore in the same turn to capture.”

@ARabidPickle: Solid English fleet. Most of the setups are pretty basic/expected but I like the inclusion of the Caradoc and St. George at first glance. Why is Portland on the Patagonia? As it says in The Pirate Code: “-If you use this ability, this ship cannot be given any other actions this turn regardless of how many it could generate or would normally have available. This restriction also applies to free actions such as making a scuttle attempt or transferring crew to or from an island.” Not sure what your goal is with him on the Patagonia. Boarding protection for Mycron?

I think Lawrence might be better off on the Caradoc (if she lost her oarsman) or the Titan. That could even allow for the addition of a second canceller if you swapped the St. George for HMS Rye, which also has an extra cargo space and could be used as a gold runner.

Rating: 3/5 (this could be 3.5 if Portland was explained or swapped for something that worked better)

 

Final Scores:
1. Xerecs: 4.5/5
2. Zone (Fear the White Mist): 3.5/5
3. Tilorfire27: 3/5 (tiebreaker goes to most unique/creative here)
4. JW Darkhurst (The Spanish Saints): 3/5
5. ARabidPickle: 3/5 (would be tied with the All Saints fleet if not for Commander Portland’s placement)

The Winner is Xerecs! Congratulations! You now have the opportunity to host the next Fleet Challenge if you’d like!  😀

[Ben]

Question about piece legalities for this challenge: Are the Unreleased pieces meant for SS/RtSS legal for use? I know you listed specific banned pieces, and said that RtSS was allowed, but does that extend to the Unreleased sections?

No, Unreleased is not part of RtSS whether it was meant for the set or not.

[Ben]

In-person game with Ben when he visited.

I’m flattered!  Especially with the epicness of CoEC.  We’ll have to make our next game more memorable.  (hopefully next month if I’m in San Diego at all hehe)

[Ben]

Master Spreadsheet changes: Fixed Phillipe du Brissac’s link (Maurice Aristide instead of Maurcie), changed name of Blackgate (no space). (new .xlsx is linked on the homepage)

[Ben]

@Gigi: Glad to hear you enjoyed the Corsair clone fleet!  Thanks for the kind words about the podcast.  I agree with your thing of the year as well!

[Ben]

Weird, I was looking at an OE Smokepot specialist and it said 2 points. Misprint I guess?

It’s an error addressed on page 2 of The Pirate Code.

 

Anyone else on the fence still has until the end of the year PST to submit a fleet!  We need more submissions to unlock the booty!

[Ben]

@Xerecs: Nice fleet.  I like the idea of Peter Miles on a switchblade, though I think the Salient has 2 cargo open (CRGO links and oarsman doesn’t take up space).

[Ben]

@zone: Smokepot Specialist is a 3 point crew, which brings the fleet total to 81.  However, you still have until the deadline to make edits so the fleet is legal.

[Ben]

2021 Year in Review posted!  😀

[Ben]

Finally got around to writing my Strategic Elements post that I was looking forward to for a while. 🙂

[Ben]

So I guess the question is… were I to stick to Spanish Main, Crimson Coast and Revolution, would I be missing out on vital improvements and exciting new things in the game? Would I be limiting my game experience?

Vital improvements: Not really.  But it’s good to have the latest Pirate Code for reference as it has provided more fairness than some interpretations of how rules and abilities interact.

Exciting new things in the game: Definitely.  You’d completely miss 5 out of the 10 factions, lots of ship types, various exciting and wild named crew (Calypso, FN Grim the Savage, etc), all the 10 masted junks, and whirlpools!

Limiting your game experience: Yes, but that’s fine if you prefer to keep things more simple and if you prefer the historical/Age of Sail things in the game!

[Ben]

I have completed my new Haves and Wants list and can finally trade again!  😀

My High Priority Wants:
USS Denver
USS Morning Star
Bilge

[Ben]

Oh I’ve seen all your videos, some of them more than once… I like hearing other people’s takes on certain ships or factions or strategies. I listen to your podcasts while I’m driving.

Thank you, very glad to hear it!

[Ben]

Pirates CSG Podcast #53: Chatting with PirateCaptainAndrew! (doubleAAsauce)

You can listen to the audio via Anchor!

 

You can also listen on Archive.org.

Questions of the Day: What set do you think Hill’s Wholesale Gaming will restock next? (if any)
Andrew: What is your favorite ship type and why?

The podcast is moving to Anchor! The podcast is switching hosts to Anchor due to ShoutEngine shutting down.
Welcome PirateCaptainAndrew/doubleAAsauce to the podcast!

3D printing files: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4777771
Mystery picture: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/5646355/a7xfanben

Past podcasts: https://anchor.fm/a7xfanben/

Thanks for listening!  Feel free to answer the Questions of the Day!

Take the podcast survey! https://goo.gl/forms/CsnwVmi3qhtqik323

Feel free to rate and review the podcast on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pirates-csg-podcast/id1258016060

Pirates packs on eBay: https://ebay.us/S14uSE

Sign the Petition!  https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/bring-back-pirates-of-the-cursed-seas

[Ben]

When it comes to the Cursed Faction, I tend to try to push their gimmicks to the absolute maximum.

In that case I applaud your efforts here in that regard, as such a thing is almost impossible to do with “only” 80 points.  XD  Oftentimes when I’ve made Cursed gimmick fleets in the past, the build total quickly balloons to 100+ or 150 points before I can reach a satisfaction point with the fleet.

If you haven’t already you might enjoy reading about VASSAL Campaign Game 4.

[Ben]

I enjoyed the video battle report. There were a few game mechanics and terms I am not familiar with, which just reminds me how early I had to drop out of playing. You clearly put a lot of thought into the fleet where I think I’d just throw together a few ships and crew and see what happens.

Thanks for the feedback and for watching!  Indeed, my mindset nowadays (after over 450 plays of this game) is stuff like “what can I pull off”, “how can I cause shock”, “could I really win with this crazy fleet”, etc. XD  I want to stretch the boundaries of what people expect from fleets and gameplay, and win with new or very infrequently used combos.

[Ben]

Imagine, a genuine 6-7 player game…

Witch actually has a playgroup where they do 10 player games.  O_O  But it requires him to make all sorts of house rules and extra win conditions so the game doesn’t take super long.  XD  I hope to play in that group at some point.

[Ben]

Seeing this I’m now putting some serious thought into a trip north to Bellevue. IF it were to happen, it probably wouldn’t happen until some time next year, possibly after the Summer.

Epic!  If it happens we’ll just make sure to plan it really well in advance.

[Ben]

Thank you to Xerecs for inspiring me to do my first video battle report:

 

Another BR!  (very engaging 100 point game)

[Ben]

Are the 0LR+5 crew legal for this challenge?

As stated:

Items not on the ban list are available for use (with the exception of the Sleigh and Captain Whitebeard of course).

[Ben]

Punched copies of Specter and Delusion

[Ben]

Q2) Davy Jones (DJC) copies the Fog-Hopping ability and moved into a fog. Since his ability is reset on the next turn, can the ability be recopied and ‘hop’ out of another fog with a move action? Does the ability need to be recopied or is it carried over from the last turn?

Copied abilities generally do not carry over, so he would have to copy it again to exit from a different fog bank.   If he doesn’t use it on that next turn, he can only exit from the fog bank he started in.

@Woelf: Just confirming that a copier would indeed need to copy the Fog Hopper ability on the turn prior to hopping in order to use it?

Also, why does the Code expand on the main rules for forts regarding their shooting? (rules first, Code second below)

Lines of fire drawn from forts are not blocked by other ships, sea creatures, or islands.

Lines of fire drawn to and from the fort are not blocked by ships, the island, or any part of the fort itself, but they are blocked by fog banks and icebergs.

This means that ships essentially have the “shoot through ships” ability when targeting forts. Is this because Wizkids was supposed to put that clause in the original fort shooting rules?

Also, just confirming that you cannot voluntarily eliminate cargo?  (such as dumping equipment overboard)

[Ben]

Ahoy!  Today is a Pirates CSG Stop Lurking Day!  If you haven’t posted yet, today’s the day to introduce yourself!  And feel free to include the details of your last Pirates CSG purchase!  😀

[Author]

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