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New month means a new Mega Pack! Return to South China Seas 2 is now generally available:
Black Totem v.2
This ship may begin the game as a member of the Cursed nation instead of its own. If it does, change its flag to Cursed during set-up; it is now a member of the Cursed nation (any crew aboard the ship retain their original nationalities). If Cursed, the point limit for cargo on this ship is reduced by 1.
Added this under your keyword section in the CD first tab; reminded by my CG4 launching 🙂
If Calico Cat OE 038 and Captain SM 008 are both aboard Cat’s Claw OE 032 and shoot at a non-Pirate ship, will the ship’s cannon rolls be at +2?
Yes, those stack because the abilities are different
I am hyped to announce the next Pirates CSG release!
Dutch Golden Age
Featuring a variety of important historical ships and crew from the 1600s, with both warships and exploratory vessels. There are some big names among the crew, including a Dutch legend (not de Ruyter, he might come later) and someone who had a lot of things named after him! Naturally there is some focus on the Anglo-Dutch Wars, but also on famed Dutch naval exploits of the early 17th century.
That’s just one example (Bruce Grey + Accused, and Emperor Blackheart + Zeus being other examples) of how the flavor text is not reflected in the rules.
Flavor text has nothing to do with any gameplay elements whatsoever.
From the Complete Game Rules: (might not be in all pack variants)
Flavor text (fiction found on the backs of cards) has no bearing on game play; it is there merely to tell part of the game’s story. Reference a card’s ability text to see what it can do in the game.
Calico Cat OE038 does not have the “captain keyword” or text form of the ability. So she is not a “captain” in any way shape or form? Is that correct?
Yes
Does that also mean that if I wanted to benefit from the Cat’s Claw OE032 ability, I would need to include a 3 point generic Captain instead?
Yes
I haven’t played in 21 years, so this may seem like a silly question… but when is a Captain a Captain?
This one is in The Pirate Code. From page 20:
-If an ability refers to the “Captain keyword” it may be triggered by any crew with the Captain keyword or the text form of the ability. It is not triggered by crew with “Captain” in their name or title unless they also have the ability.
-If an ability refers to a “captain crew” it may be triggered by any crew with the Captain keyword, the text form of the captain ability, or the word “Captain” in its name or title. Non-English language equivalents to the Captain title (Capitan, Capitaine, and Rais) count toward this effect, but different ranks and titles (Admiral, Commander, Commodore, etc.) do not.The new Grenades equipment!
Grenades
Point Cost: 1
Ability: If this ship has any crew, once during each of your turns you may choose an enemy ship touching this ship. Roll a d6; on a 5-6, the target’s controller replaces one mast with a fire mast and eliminates a crew; if the roll is a 1, eliminate a crew from this ship.
If you just want 36 packs of RV, HWG usually has the lowest prices.
Today marks 8 years since VASSAL Campaign Game 4 started!
I just finished the latest Pirate play turn, and they’ve begun spending gold as usual… launch phase underway….
If multiple copies of Necklace of the Sky are in play, can a faction load and use second/third/etc copies of it after the first has been used, or does the effect apply to all copies in play rather than being tracked individually?
“Load this treasure face down. Give this ship a move action, but do not move her. Instead, reveal this treasure and dock this ship at any wild island. Then unload this treasure at that island; for the rest of the game, no ship in your fleet can load this treasure.”
Attention Jade Rebellion fans! Sign up before midnight western time tomorrow to secure your copy of Return to South China Seas Part 2!
Buccaneer’s Booty Box – Mega Pack a Month Subscription Loot Box!
Set sail in huge capacious junks as the Jade Rebellion continues to surge! In this non-collectible Mega Pack, you can sail the South China Seas with a pair of my new 7 masted junks and a six masted junk. This release also features the debut of THREE new generic cargo: Merchant, Archer, and the Grenades equipment! Plus 5 named crew from the Zheng He treasure fleets of 1400s Ming China.
The Poop Lady
Type: Crew
Nationality: America
Point Cost: 8
Ability: At the beginning of each of your turns, roll a d6. On a 5-6, all crew abilities on this ship and all ships within L of her cannot be used until the beginning of your next turn (except the ability of this crew).Once per turn when this ship is given a shoot action, one of her cannons may shoot a stinkpot at a target within S range. You must declare which cannon will shoot the stinkpot before rolling the d6. If the stinkpot hits, do not eliminate a mast; instead, the target’s crew cannot use their abilities next turn.
Flavor text: This putrid woman has managed to sabotage her own ship and many poor enemy vessels. After her fecal tossing tantrums have ended, sometimes she becomes so desperate for a “poop party” that she blows up her “collection”, splattering human feces across a vast area and causing sickness and vomiting to all unfortunate enough to be nearby.
His gold bonus would apply to both the ship he’s on and the target of the trade, yes?
Yes
Suppose the players managed to pull off three trades with Dutch and Japanese ships, does the ship he’s on get a collective +3, or would it be more like three separate +1’s
Technically either way works as it depends on how treasure bonuses are tracked/collected, which is deliberately left ambiguous in the Code. “This tally may be recorded using any number of mutually agreed-upon methods”
Also I’m noticing, he’s Loyal: Japan, despite being a Dutch crew.
Indeed; by design and based on history. 😀
A crew from Seas of Japan Part 3!
Jan Joosten
Nationality: Dutch
Point Cost: 3
Ability: Loyal: Japan. Merchant. This crew can use their abilities on Japanese ships. If this crew trades with an enemy Dutch or Japanese ship, one treasure on each ship is worth +1 gold.
Link: De Liefde, William Adams, Jacob Quaeckernaeck, Melchior van SantvoortMerchant: 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: After landing in Japan with William Adams, he was given the name Yayōsu and now lives near Edo Castle. Joosten has become one of the hatamoto and engages in the red seal ship trade with a license from Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Introducing: the Merchant ability!
The idea of a crew that is a Merchant or Trader (leaning towards Merchant for the name). The Age of Sail is littered with people who weren’t pirates or warlords, but the game doesn’t have many ways or abilities to reflect on amicable relations.This is something I’ve developed for Seas of Japan Part 3 that I’m quite stoked about. I’ve become a little obsessed with it. This has the potential to open up vast new possibilities in gameplay, especially in terms of logistics, diplomacy and duplicity. The wording is extremely intentional, so if you think something is a possibility because of it, it probably is….
Merchant: 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.
Current cost: 2 pointsClarifications:
“Once per turn”: This means once per player turn, as opposed to “once during each of your turns” or “once per round of turns”.
“If this crew or ship”: This means only the crew must be within S of X game piece, so the ability can be used while the crew is on an island. “Or ship” is mostly added to clarify that the ability can be used normally while the crew is assigned to a ship.
“Is within S”: The crew with this ability must be within S of ALL parties involved in the trade. You cannot have a trade “chained” by game pieces within S of one another but not the crew – they all have to be within S of the Merchant crew. (unless of course there are additional Merchants that would make the situation legal)
“Any ships, home islands, or forts”: Including both enemy and friendly game pieces of those types. Since each is plural, it also means you can do 3 (or more) way trades, or broker deals between third parties without the Merchant player being one of the parties to give or receive a cargo (however, since it says “each game piece”, the Merchant player still has to agree to the trade!).
“May agree to trade”: Trades must be fully consensual when a deal is struck.
“Any number of cargo”: That number could be zero, allowing for gifts/bribes/tribute/payments to be given and received.
“Between the game pieces”: For example, a ship trading with a fort, or ship to (enemy) home island.
“non-identical” : This is to prevent friendlies from swapping oarsmen along with another item to basically make it a one-way trade.This keyword is subject to change if it is found to be broken/etc.
Additional explanation:
“If the trade is between friendly game pieces, all friendly game pieces involved must unload at least one cargo”: This is to prevent the ability from being used primarily to expedite friendly gold logistics with gift transfers (which can get really powerful, as the Hoist keyword shows, and would therefore increase the ability cost too much).“you cannot trade between friendly ships and your own home island.”: This is to prevent the ability from breaking the gold factory meta – if not for this clause, you could simply park a ship next to your HI and trade a crew for a coin already on your HI, dock to give it +2 (or more) gold, then reload the crew via the free transfer rule and do it again next turn.
By allowing its usage on any player’s turn, it opens up new options for trade and friendly relations. It’s not just about the player who controls the crew – other players may want to get in the Merchant’s good graces so they can trade with another 3rd party (as long as the Merchant agrees to broker the deal of course).
Random exposition and thoughts:
I want it to be as flexible as possible, which is why I opened it up for ship-island/etc transfers rather than just ship to ship (especially because many historical merchants would have stayed in port and hardly gone to sea). This way you could pay gold from your home island to swap it for a useful crew on a nearby ship via mutual exchange.I think allowing wild islands into the equation gets weird, both logistically and in the case of the Merchant being outnumbered by enemy crew on the island (+you shouldn’t be able to trade freely if you have an enemy Marine right next to you on the island).
Obviously there is nothing in the rules that would prevent players from making tentative trade agreements before having their game pieces within S of the Merchant. The key is that the trade is mutually agreed upon when the game pieces are within S – by that point, the situation in the game may have changed….
I think it will open up the game for both more player interaction (almost always a good thing to have more of, as Pirates can often just be “turn taken, everyone sits around, next turn taken, etc”), and certainly more opportunities for actual piracy. (which the game arguably doesn’t have enough of given the original boarding rules, although my Restarting Rules help with that a bit) I’ve often found that players want more combat in their games, and I think the wild options for duplicity this opens up could promote more secret player conversations, and retaliatory attacks. Players might get suspicious of whispered conversations had by other players and then they might go full pirate to interrupt a deal/etc. A face down Merchant could be a way to put someone on the spot with a trade option. Plus, someone with completely unwanted cargo (ex: Plague UT that another player wants to use as a weapon) could accept a “loot box” where they don’t know what face down coin they’ll receive from someone else as payment . The face up/down differences could be interesting too, where 3rd parties who aren’t privy to the trade details wonder what’s being traded, or they see the face up cargo but not the face down one being traded. Plus, saying things out loud vs private convos – 3rd parties might want to know what’s being traded, and if the traders don’t fess up, that could lead to hostility. A player could bluff that a face down crew is a Merchant and use it to lure a player into a trap. All the risks involved make the crew less likely to be used, which should help keep the cost cheap. I think it will shine most in multiplayer games.
If you request a face down coin, I think it would be fair to ask that player to show it to you privately to trust their end of the deal (but of course, nothing in the rules or ability requires them to show it to you).
There’s a fun “reputation” mechanic that would naturally develop with Merchants, because players would be less likely to trade with a Merchant/player that has duped someone in the past (likely even extending across separate games in a play group, due to the human element). That incentivizes players to be “good” in their dealings.
If both players agree to the trade and the cargo are facedown, the trade happens simultaneously and then both players can see if they got what they expected. Since it’s at such close range, if either player isn’t happy, combat might erupt. This could lead to any number of new possibilities: players being overly generous as a sign of goodwill, or getting another player involved as an enforcer – if someone doesn’t hold up their end of the deal, maybe a 3rd player is waiting to whack any dishonest merchants
It might make the spying abilities even better, since those could be really useful for ensuring that a player can verify that the other party even has what they claim to have.
Between the factors of player interaction, opportunities for realistic trade and piracy, and the lack of “ideal” use cases (to keep it from being too powerful/expensive), I think it’s worth the risk. The game has arguably been broken since Spanish Main, and I don’t think this will come close to Banshee’s Cry/mermaids/Captain Jack Sparrow/etc; if anything it might be quite impractical in 90%+ of situations where it even becomes plausible to trade.Imagine a trade like Captain Nemo for a powerful UT….
Ex-Patriots could be interesting with this, switching sides for payment.I do think in most games/situations, trading will either be too much of a hassle, or not much of an advantage. It can also be high risk, which will likely dissuade players from engaging with the ability to some extent. Which is all fine with me, since it helps keep it cheap.
I’m excited about how this might open up gameplay, especially with diplomacy and alliances in multiplayer games.
Does Runes of Defense activate upon a successful ram? The UT says “when one of this ship’s masts is eliminated”, but under the ram rules it also says “remove from the game”.
If it does work and the ship is moved away after the ram damage is undone by the rune, I assume boarding can still occur as normal even though the ships likely aren’t touching anymore?
Is there a cleaned up version of vulkan’s 2 masted Junk? I do not see it listed.
Unsure, those are his files
Taicang – The first-ever 7 masted ship of any kind in Pirates CSG history!
Nationality: Jade Rebellion
Point Cost: 18
Masts: 7
Cargo: 8
Base Move: S
Cannons: 5S-5S-4L-4L-5L-4S-4S
Ability: Junk. Once per round of turns, if this ship carries treasure and is within S of any ship or island, you may randomly trade one treasure from this ship with up to two treasures from that ship or island. One of this ship’s treasures is worth +1 gold for each different island this ship docks at before docking at your home island.Flavor text: One of the large Liáng Chuán (supply ship) vessels operating under Zheng He. Although her primary cargo is food and drink for the thousands of sailors in the fleet, she has enough room in her cargo hold for a cache of tributes received from the many countries and ports visited on recent voyages.
The abilities are historical (as always for game pieces in my Age of Sail set) – the first new ability represents the sheer volume of trading conducted on Zheng He’s voyages. The second is what I call a “Tribute collection ability”. The Ming visited various ports across many countries and had many tributes to bring back to China. It should say “each different island”, so I’ll put that in the errata/notes so it can’t be broken by redocking constantly. Very fun to try to translate history into usable and useful game abilities!
I recall asking this question at the MT rules thread but can’t recall the answer.
If a ship physically cannot move a segment during a move action due to other ships (or other objects/game pieces) being in the way, is it stuck or can it move the closest possible distance even if the direction isn’t game-legal?
I think a better example than this would be if the ship in question had rank-6 cannons and couldn’t do ram damage (meaning shots normally wouldn’t help, so perhaps the ship can be “frozen” via boxing it in).
If you want this new Carrack ship design and the first Portuguese game pieces ever published for Pirates CSG, sign up for the Buccaneer’s Booty Box by 11:59pm PST on March 15th!
Is there a rule document that indicates the point value associated with each keyword/ability. ?
Also a formula to determine the point value of a game piece or a ship based on its specific stats?
Not a rule document, but you can figure out some of the crew ability costs pretty easily, although some changed over time. You can see some of them at the Customs Database (some are my values rather than printed costs) or Cadet-Captain Mike’s Pirates page (some might be incorrect).
There are some points calculators on PSMList for ships along with documentation for each. I’ve found them to be quite useful, especially when taking an average across all of them rather than relying on one specifically.
Fittingly enough, this month’s Mega Pack theme is RtSCS (Return to South China Sea), and this month marks 20 years since the original SCS set came out!
Here are some previews….
Ooooh. A new Red Seal ship. That’s quite the speed and cargo for this one, and not too expensive point cost wise. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the mega pack!
Thanks! Your copy is en route to you 🙂
Nagoya
Nationality: Japanese
Point Cost: 10
Masts: 3
Cargo: 5
Base Move: S+L
Cannons: 3S-4L-5L
Ability: This ship can use Parley against Jade Rebellion and Portuguese ships.
Link: Murayama TōanI really want a cursed fort but I don’t know enough about them to make a balanced one. Does anyone have the stats for one you’ve made by chance?
I have some custom Cursed forts in my Epic Seas custom set.
And if you do, would you mind if I used the stats to get a custom one printed. Thank you in advance.
I’m fine with that, though if you mean to purchase one from my store here, you would have to provide artwork files for that product as none of them have any artwork.
