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Thinking up a few more ships
HMS Shannon
Faction: England
Rarity: UC
Type: Ship
Points Value: 14
Number of Masts: 4
Cargo Space: 4
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 3S, 2L, 2L, 3S
Ability: Schooner. Once per turn, one of this ship’s cannons may shoot again if it misses.USS Norfolk
Faction: America
Rarity: C
Type: Ship
Points Value: 10
Number of Masts: 3
Cargo Space: 3
Base Move: S+L
Cannons: 3S, 3S, 3L
Ability: Schooner.HMS Java
Faction: England
Rarity: C
Type: Ship
Points Value: 10
Number of Masts: 3
Cargo Space: 3
Base Move: L
Cannons: 3S, 3L, 3S
Ability: This ship cannot be sunk, but she can be scuttled.USS Chesapeake
Faction: America
Rarity: C
Type: Ship
Points Value: 10
Number of Masts: 3
Cargo Space: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 2S, 3L, 2S
Ability: Schooner. English Ships get +1 to their cannon rolls against this ship.
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Of the four ships here, Norfolk is the only fictional one- she’s based off the historical USS Essex, which raided British whaling vessels in the Pacific until her capture by HMS Phoebe in action off Valparaiso, Chile. Norfolk, in the Aubrey Maturin series, has a less glamorous end when she’s wrecked in a storm off the Galapagos Islands (she was replaced by the Acheron in the movie), so since no real test of her crew’s skill or armament was made I tried to make her stats fairly average (though a bit faster than most, compare the Boston from RV.Chesapeake here is meant to bring her in line with the historical USS Chesapeake (though the RV one is quite good). Unfortunately, Historical Chesapeake had an unfortunate career of being bullied by the British, first being bombarded by HMS Leopard in the Chesapeake-Leopard incident that almost sparked the War of 1812 early and then being captured by HMS Shannon in an attempted sortie. Shannon here is probably a bit upsized (she and Chesapeake were about evenly matched in terms of firepower and displacement), but I’ve already done a lot of British 3-masters so I decided to diversify with a 4-Mast schooner. I gave her the Cannoneer to signify her skilled and well trained gunners, which certainly didn’t help Chesapeake during their encounter.
On the subject of 3 mast British ships, we have HMS Java, another victim of USS Constitution during the War of 1812. She gave good account for herself despite being outgunned and most of her crew being inexperienced greenhorns- one incident (recounted in the sixth book of the Aubrey-Maturin series, with the two bearing witness as passengers) sees Constitution dead to rights with a stern rake but Java’s crew forgot to reload the cannons on that side. Ultimately Java was defeated and scuttled by the Americans, though it took some time to assess the full extent of her damage before the call was made.
Yes, that is exactly why I have the Surprise as high as she is- it would also leave some room for a generic crewman to help make the Surprise a little more effective in whatever role she’s placed in, though adjusting down I could probably take her to 13 points instead of 14.
Adding some more ships. Since the series I’m drawing from is primarily focused on the Royal Navy, expect a lot of British ships
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ShipsHMS Polycrest
Faction: England
Rarity: UC
Type: Ship
Point Value: 8
Number of Masts: 2
Cargo Space: 2
Base Move: S
Cannons: 5L, 4S
Ability: L-Range cannons cannot hit this shipBellone
Faction: France
Rarity: C
Type: Ship
Point Value: 11
Number of Masts: 2
Cargo Space: 3
Base Move: L+S
Cannons: 3S, 3S
Ability: Schooner. If this ship wins a boarding party, she may take as much treasure from the enemy ship as she can carry.HMS Leopard
Faction: England
Rarity: UC
Type: Ship
Points Value: 13
Number of Masts: 4
Cargo Space: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 4S, 2L, 2L, 4S
Ability: If this ship has a captain crew, she gets +1 to her cannon rolls.HMS Lively
Faction: England
Rarity: C
Type: Ship
Points Value: 10
Number of Masts: 3
Cargo Space:3
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 3S, 3S, 3S
Ability: Schooner This ship may dock at an enemy Home Island and load one treasure. If able, she must leave on your next turn.Marengo
Faction: France
Rarity: R
Type: Ship
Points Value: 18
Number of Masts: 5
Cargo Space: 3
Base Move: L
Cannons: 3S, 2S, 2L, 2S, 3S
Ability: Once at the beginning of each of your turns, roll a d6. On a result of 6, one ship in your fleet may be given two actions this turn.HMS Boadicea
Faction: England
Rarity: C
Type: Ship
Points Value: 10
Number of Masts: 3
Cargo Space:2
Base Move: L
Cannons: 3S, 3L, 3L
Ability: Forts cannot hit this ship.HMS Worcester
Faction: England
Rarity: R
Type: Ship
Points Value: 10
Number of Masts: 5
Cargo Space: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 4S, 3S, 3S, 3S, 4S
Ability: Eliminate one of this ship’s mast if she rolls a 1 on any cannon rollHMS Surprise
Faction: England
Rarity: UC
Type: Ship
Points Value: 14
Number of Masts: 3
Cargo Space: 3
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 3S, 2L, 3S
Ability: When this ship hit another ship, you choose which mast is eliminated.
Link: Captain Jack Aubrey, Dr. Stephen Maturin
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Crew
Captain Jack Aubrey
Faction: England
Rarity: R
Type: Crew
Points Value: 6
Ability: Loyal: England. Hostile: France. Captain. Before you give this ship an action, roll a d6. On a result of a 5 or 6, this ship may be given the same action twice.
Link: Dr. Stephen Maturin, HMS SurpriseDr. Stephen Maturin
Faction: England
Rarity: R
Type: Crew
Points Value: 5
Ability: Explorer When another face up crew on this ship would be eliminated, turn it face down instead.
Link: Captain Jack Aubrey, HMS Surprise
—-Points costs for this are probably going to be all over the board and mainly speculation, but at the very least I can give some explanation.
I tried to make the Polychrest “bad” because in the books she is very bad- handles poorly, leaky, has a weird design meant to compensate for a rocket weapon that never got off the drawing board. Her only claim to fame is running around beneath some French batteries and getting pummeled long enough for the heroes to steal a French ship and escape. I’d compare her to the Dark Fox from DJC, but Dark Fox has some speed while Polychrest does not. This being said, her point cost could be lower and I couldn’t really find a special ability that fit her (I thought of Forts cannot hit this ship, but they clearly did hit the Polychrest after she ran aground).
Bellone plays a minor role in book 2 of the Aubrey-Maturin series as a French Privateer that briefly captures the two on their way back to England before being overtaken by a British squadron. Gold Capture would probably fit the narrative better, but I thought it would drive the point cost way higher than a 2 master should probably be at, so I chose the hoarding gold ability instead.
Lively gets the HI Raider ability based on her brief role in Book 3 when she is used to launch a raid on a French base to rescue Stephen from French torturers. Other than that she’s not a particularly remarkable frigate in the series.
Leopard is based off the historical HMS Leopard (the ship that caused the Leopard-Chesapeake Incident for those familiar with their history). Both historically and in the series she was getting long in the tooth and no longer fit for the line of battle, earning her the nickname “horrible old Leopard” in the latter. Still, she has some merit in there, so crewed right she is an average ship for her class.
Marengo is the leading ship of a French squadron in the third book, a big 74-gun ship of the line comparable some of the other 5-mast ships in game. The heroes fight her in the much smaller Surprise and only manage to win when an Indiaman flanks the Marengo and chases her off. I gave her the Admiral ability because it felt fitting for a ship in command of a squadron of other ships to be able to direct them properly even from afar.
HMS Boadicea was in charge of a squadron tasked with taking Mauritius from the French in Book 4. While she doesn’t engage any shore batteries, I figured if the plot is about taking an island, the ship in-game might as well have an ability to reflect that (based off the Boston from PotRV)
HMS Worcester is another 74-gun ship of the line, but she was built at bottom dollar by a corrupt and dishonest shipyard. She ends up nearly breaking apart in a storm and limps back to port for scrapping- since Pirates doesn’t have weather conditions outside of events, having Worcester risk shooting herself to pieces felt somewhat fitting.
Finally, there’s Surprise and our two leads. Surprise is basically the poster child of the series- an aging but still effective frigate that is beloved by her captain and crew and has proven herself time and again against tall odds. She has a decent battery of guns and a good string of luck, so I wanted to reflect that in her design and how she plays with the crew. Jack Aubrey himself is the quintessential British captain- loyal to the Crown and a charismatic leader of men, though sometimes dense and terrible with money and remaining faithful to his wife. Stephen Maturin is also an expert in his trade, being a trained physician and naturalist rather than just someone who’s handy with a saw, and the two have a very close friendship that seems them through a decade and a half’s worth of adventures (pretty much every English ship I’ve listed here they served on at some point in the series). They’re linked to Surprise since, again, that’s the ship they’ve spent the most time on and it’s the most well remembered ship in the books.
Edited for adjusted points
Okay, Thought up some stats for more ships from the Aubrey-Maturin series (also the movie)
Cacafuego
Faction: Spanish
Rarity: R
Type: Ship
Point Value: 12
Number of Masts: 4
Cargo Space: 5
Base Move: S+L
Cannons: 3L, 4S, 4S, 4L
Ability: Galley. This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls.
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Acheron
Faction: France
Rarity: R
Type: Ship
Point Value: 20
Number of Masts: 5
Cargo Space: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 3S, 3L, 3L, 3L, 3S
Ability: Two hits from the same shoot action are required to eliminate one of this ship’s masts
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Cacafuego was a little more speculative, since her only claim to fame in the books was “got captured by the Sophie”. She’s based off the historical xebec-frigate El Gamo (which lost a similar battle against the HMS Speedy), and the closest approximation to that I could think of was a galley. Her guns might be better, though how her historical counterpart was taken was that Speedy pulled in so close and was so small Gamo’s cannoneers couldn’t depress their cannons low enough to do more than shoot up her sails.
Acheron was essentially Constitution under a French flag, so I used PotRV’s Constitution as a base as Acheron displayed similar durability against cannon fire at long range. I debated between that ability and the Ignore First Hit ability, but decided to go this route for a more tough, dangerous ship.
(Edited for Adjusted Points)
She’s the first ship introduced in the Aubrey Maturin Series, which covers the two during their careers in the RN during the Napoleonic Wars. I gave her the advantage against Spain as the big action she’s involved in in the book she appears in (Master and Commander) has her surprise and capture a Spanish frigate that outmasses and outguns her by a considerable margin (be the equivalent of Sophie here taking on a 4-mast ship solo and winning).
I’ve been thinking up some stats for other ships that appear in that series, so I’ll be back later
Hello,
I was just thinking of some custom ships and thought I might throw one or two out there for review. A little Historical Fiction reference for anyone out there.
HMS Sophie
Faction: English
Rarity: C
Type: Ship
Point Value: 9
Number of Masts: 2
Cargo Space: 3
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 3L, 3S
Ability: Schooner. This ship gets +1 to her cannon and boarding rolls against Spanish ships.
I’ve been working to rebuild my collection so it’s quite limited, but I do have a few fleets that I’ve been playing around with.
These are 40 point fleets BTW
Americans:
Bonhomme Richard (15) John Paul Jones (7) Captain (3)
Hornet (8)
Carolina (7)French
Le Soleil Royal (13) Capitaine Arathiel (5) Phillipe du Brisac (2) Chainshot Specialist (2) Vicomte Jules de Cissey (0)
Le Favori (13)
Le Corageaux 10They’re not really optimized and I still need to recover the majority of my collection, but I’ve enjoyed using them to get back into the game
