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“a7xfanben”
Is Ehlek a loa from real life Voodoo or a custom you made that references the loa?
He just references them, I didn’t look up actual Loa to turn into customs when I made him. He and the other Barraki are based on these guys.
These are some nice looking ones again. Met Agwe could see use in CG4 or THC, I’d probably try and get his ability to apply to the Guichuan, or use his first ability in conjunction with a fog-hopper….
O_O Ho-boy….This is awesome. Might I add:
“Ehlek”
Some say that to be attacked by Ehelek is to be witness to the wrath of the Loa.
as well as:
“Fiends of the Blood Islands”
Loa’s Wrath: Do not load this treasure, instead place it face up on this island. For every ship that comes within S of this island roll a d6. On a 1-4 that ship cannot be given actions on her next turn. Loa’s Wrath has no effect on ships that have Loa’s Protection.
Loa’s Protection: Load this treasure face-up, it cannot be removed from this ship. Loa’s Wrath has no effect on this ship.
I like all these newcomers, the canoes might be my favorite of these here.
On a flavor level, this might have some implications for stuff that JWDarkhurst and I have been working on.
Things like the mentioned scenario happen fairly frequently in my Summer games, although it’s usually about rights to dock and trade with another faction at a trading port. A few times military help is offered, most recently in 2019 the Americans attempted to recruit the French and English to work together to take on the Spanish (eventual second place finish). The French refused, since they had a lucrative trade agreement with the Spanish; the English agreed, on the condition that the pirates be eliminated first. The Americans agreed, although they didn’t really want to fight the pirates, and didn’t fight them much. The English did, and as a result of the Americans not honoring their word, didn’t fight with them against the Spanish. The Spanish and Pirates eventually eliminated the Americans.
I haven’t tried or had experience with what you’re describing in smaller games, but I’d probably be okay with it.
Question about specialist crew (fire, stink, etc.). When you decide to use one during a shoot action, would they be able to use any cannon bonuses a ship has to offer? For example, a firepot specialist on the same ship as Bruce Grey. Would the specialist be able to use the +1 to cannon rolls that Grey provides to augment their shot?
I’ve always treated the specialist crew as functioning similar to musketeers, in that you can’t apply cannon bonuses to their shots, or increase their range.
@Woelf & @Ben,
I was looking at the no-duplicates list and saw that Crimson Angel was missing. Her spelling doesn’t change from CC up to Rise of the Fiends, and she’s got 4 different versions. I assume she would fall into the same name, same person category. Just a heads up.
CG4 continues! The most action seen yet in the game!
Sure, I’m down to try it on VASSAL. I’m getting some hardware upgrades in the next couple days and the Virus has forced an interesting situation for me. I’ll shoot you a message, either on FB, Discord or here.
Made an edit to the main rules, regarding gold on home islands and what happens when a ship with gold sinks.
Got out the ships yesterday, and played the Defence of St. Helens for the first time. I allowed custom game pieces to be used and played a total of 4 rounds of the deathmatch scenario.
The defending forts were:
Ramsgate, placed on the forward most island.
Paradis de la Mer, placed on the righthand guard island.
The center island and lefthand guard island were occupied by two custom forts. On the lefthand guard island stood Atero.
Atero
Spanish
10 Gold
Cannons: 3L-3L-3L-3L-2S-2S-2L-4LAbility: This fort’s cannons cannot be eliminated (flags still may be). If not flags remain, this fort cannot shoot.
On the center island stood La Iglesia en el Acantilado junto al Mar
La Iglesia en el Acantilado junto al Mar (La Iglesia)
Spanish
7 gold
Cannons: 3S-3S-3S-3S-4L-4L
Ability: Extended RangeI defended three times, first against JWDarkhurst. I was using a Custom ship:
USS Vengeance
American
Points: 25
Masts: 5
Cannons: 3S-2L-2L-2L-3S
Cargo: 4
Movement: L+S
Ability: Captain. SAT.The Vengeance was crewed by Captain Tyler Robinson, who gave her S-board and allowed her to roll two dice ANYTIME she’d need to roll one. Robinson was joined by a helmsman and cannoneer.
JW was attempting to get past with:
Terror+ captain, helmsman, and cannoneer
HMS Greyhound+ Thomas Gunn(rotf), and oarsman
Crescent Rose
Pirate
16 points
Masts: 3
Cannons: 2S-3S-2S
Cargo: 4
Movement: L+S
Ability: E.A.Crewed by Griffin(OE) and helmsman.
The Vengeance saw the Rose as the biggest threat, and quickly overwhelmed the ship, though not before the Rose was able to take a mast off of the Vengeance. The Greyhound tried to be sneaky and camp out near one of the forts, but was forced to change tactics and run for it when the Rose was sunk. Despite putting some distance between herself and the Vengance, the Greyhound was still sunk by the powerful warship. This left the Terror and little hope for JWDarkhurst. The Terror tried to breach one of the first gates, but was sunk by a combination of Paradis de la Mer and the Vengeance.
I then matched up against Gingerninja, who came at me with:
USS Missisippi+ Commodore Edward Preble
Pyre+ Brine(custom, captain+helmsman), Sargasso Nightmare and navigator
Ophidious
Ginger managed to use his navigator a few times, but the Mississippi was sunk quickly by the Vengeance, leaving the Pyre and Ophidious against the much more capable Vengeance. With some careful maneuvering, he was able to get past Paradis de la Mer and the second block, but was unable to advance any further, as the Vengeance was able to sink both the Ophidious and the Pyre.
On the third attempt I was joined on defense by JW, and Gingerninja was the sole attacker, with 120 points to our combined 80.
JW sunk all of his 40 points into one ship, like I had:
Premier Republique
French
Points: 26
Masts: 4
Cannons: 3L-2S-2S-3L
Cargo: 4
Movement: L
Ability: Man-o-War. This ship cannot be shot at by ships within S.Man-0-War: Once, before you give this ship a shoot action, roll a d6. On a result of an odd number, her cannons become rank 2 for this turn. On a result of an even number, she eliminates two masts with each hit.
The Premier was manned by Capitain Francois Moreau, helmsman, Amiral Stephan Dupuy, and Madame La Fontaine. Moreau would serve as the ship’s captain, and would give a cannon bonus against any non-French ship.
With 120 points at his disposal, Gingerninja put together a wicked fleet of 3 ships:
King Jones
Cursed
Points: 20
Masts: 5
Cannons: 2L-2S-2S-2S-2L
Cargo: 4
Movement: S+S
Ability: Eternal. Extended range.Ginger had manned the King Jones with the DJC versions of Sammy the Skull and El Fantasma, helmsman, cannoneer and oarsman.
HMS Endeavour+ Lord Thomas Gunn(OE), Sir Rupert Hargreaves, Admiral Morgan, helmsman
USS Kettering—towing Gibraltar flotilla+ Connie Marsh(captain+helmsman), Commodore Edward Preble
Ginger kept his fleet together, and concentrated on the Paradis side of the map after easily wiping out Ramsgate. Paradis gave him some trouble, knocking a mast off all three of his ships. The Kettering presented a significant problem, as neither of the defending ships had cancelling of their own, only L-range cannons. The attacking fleet downed the first gate reasonably easily, but was hesitant to surge into the middle zone, wary of the lurking Vengeance and Premier, along with the extended range of La Iglesia on the center island.
Not willing to cede the first shot, the Vengeance surged forward with a successful SAT, and dismasted the King Jones, careful to keep out of reach of the Kettering. The Vengeance used her second action to get back to what was conceived to be relative safety. Unfortunately the Endeavour got Morgan’s Extra Action, and surged through the gap and laid waste to the Vengance, sinking her. The Kettering benefited from Preble’s fleet action and used her movements to sail broadside to the Premier, and with a combination of her own cannons and the Gibraltar sank the Premier. This left La Iglesia to defend against most of Ginger’s intact fleet.
La Iglesia didn’t last however, as the Endeavour still had an extra action left to her and used it to eliminate all but one flag from the fort. With the way clear, Ginger decided to NOT advance quickly for the final gate, but to instead sail back and destroy completely Paradis de la Mer and Atero. Paradis fell quickly to the Kettering and Gibraltar, while the Endeavour made sail for Atero. The Kettering was able to turn around quickly, leaving Gibraltar behind and was able to land the first hits on the fort. The Endeavour sailed in and took the fort down to two flags standing. With all 8 cannons still available Atero opened fire on the Endeavour, but was only able to eliminate three masts from the English warship. With time almost up, and experiencing a close call, Ginger dedicated the Kettering to Atero, and used another extra action from Morgan to sail the Endeavour to the final gate, which still stood. The Endeavour was able to knock the gate down and sailed across the finish line on turn 14 of 15 to win the game.
I had played defense for three rounds now, and wanted my own chance to attack. So Ginger and I switched, with him going to defense; keeping his set-up with the King Jones as his 40 points. JW didn’t change his fleet either, running the Premier back with hopefully better results.
With 120 points now at my disposal, and customs allowed, I decided to field test my custom faction, the Ionics.
Three Virtues
Ionic
Points: 17
Masts: 5
Cannons: 3S-3S-3S-3S-3S
Cargo: 5
Movement: S+S
Ability: EAThe Virtues was manned by Amakav, a re-rolling Ionic captain; Onua, who would give the ship +1 to cannon rolls against non-Ionics; a helmsman, cannoneer, and a Disk Launcher equipment, which gave the ship an additional 2L cannon.
Kaita
Ionic
Points: 21
Masts: 5
Cannons: 2L-2L-2L-2L-2L
Cargo: 5
Movement: S+S
Ability: Crew of any nationality may use their abilities on this ship. This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against non-Ionic ships, crew and forts.Serving aboard the Kaita were Ackar a 3 point SAT and one of his linked crew, Kinaa, who provided helmsman and explorer. They were joined by Helyrex and Kazi, who provided re-roll and cancelling, respectively. Rounding out the crew was a generic cannoneer, in case any 1’s were rolled.
Toa
Ionic
Points: 26
Masts: 5
Cannons: 3S-2L-2L-2L-3S
Cargo: 4
Movement: L
Ability: Eternal. This ships cannons cannot be eliminated (masts still may be). If derelict, she cannot shoot.Onboard the Toa were J’ree, an extra action captain; Pohatu, a helmsman SAT combo, a cannoneer, oarsman, and the Ballista equipment, which gave the Toa 3 additional cannons.
With a formidable fleet at my disposal, I set out. Unlike Ginger and JW who had sailed for the Paradis side of the map, I pointed my ships toward the Atero side of the map, since Atero would be much easier to silence than Paradis. The Premier was confident, and sailed out to meet my ships, and managed to catch the Three Virtues, dismasting her. What JW did not count on were my ships landing almost all of their EA/SAT rolls. The Kaita sailed forward, cancelled her S-immunity and sank her in one volley.
This left the King Jones to contend against 3 healthy warships, each equipped with EA/SAT. Ginger decided to pull the Jones back, and wait for me to come to him at the final gate. The Toa tried to clear the first gate; she did damage it, but failed miserably on the Ballista equipment, rolling two 1’s and missing on the other. The Kaita now sailed in, took the Virtues under tow and knocked down the first gate.
I then did a little re-organizing, taking a cannoneer and the Disk Launcher from the Virtues and placing them on the Toa. Leaving the hulk of the Virtues behind, the Kaitia and Toa, both now minimally damaged, sailed into the center area, and decimated La Iglesia before the fort could fire a shot. The King Jones then engaged, taking the Toa down to one mast and knocking two off of the Kaita from extended range. It would not be enough however as both ships once again succeeded at their respective EA/SAT rolls, and sank the King Jones with little trouble. The way was now clear, but my ships still took two turns to get through the final gate, ending the match with me victorious.
We finished the last match laaate at night, and so adjourned for sleep, but made were ready to continue the following day. JW was still upset come morning at the performance of his beloved Premier, and had some things to do, so didn’t participate in the continuation. Ginger and I decided to forgo a scenario and instead played ~3 100 point deathmatches, with the condition that neither side use cancelling abilities and nothing Custom.
He was using:
HMS Endeavour+ Lord Thomas Gunn, Sir Rupert Hargreaves, Admiral Morgan, helmsman
HMS Titan+ Hermione Gold&Trevor van Tyne, Mullroy, helmsman, shipwright
HMS Bartlesville+ Thomas Gunn (rotf), firepot specialist, First Mate Ismail, shipwright.
I came at him with:
El Acorazado(SM)+ Luis Zuan(MI), Joaquin Vega, Captain Alarico Castro&Duque Marcus Vaccaro, helmsman and cannoneer.
Constitution(rV)+ Montana Mays(OE), Jonathan Haraden, Chief PO Charles Richard, helmsman and cannoneer.
Darkhawk II with Hammersmith(FS) and Calico Cat(SM)
The first round I won handily, getting the first shot in and sinking the Bartlesville and damaging the Endeavour. The Titan tried to even things out, but a 1+2 combo of El Acorazado and Constitution were too much for the English to handle.
Second round the English got the first shot in, dismasted both the Zado and Constitution, but were severely damaged as a result. The Darkhawk II got a timely SAT from Calico Cat and was able to finish off the English, making me the winner once again.
Third round involved a little bit of strategic maneuvering on the side of the English, who gave ground (sea?) until both ships got their respective EA’s. They got the first shots in, damaging El Acorazado, downing two masts and setting another alight. The Titan tried to even things by bringing cannons to bear on the Constitution, but missed just enough times to do minimal damage. The Zado put out her fires, and with help from her fleetmates was able to sink the English for a third straight victory.
I’ve done this once with a FS 36 pack box, sometime between 2015 and 2016. My brothers and I split opening the packs, nine a piece, and we’d keep whatever we pulled. Highlight for me was pulling Lord Mycron out of the last pack.
I still have some duplicates hanging around from that, but I haven’t traded or sold them, since duplicate ships is how I get Custom Ships to come off of the paper.
Suprematie is already pretty good, so I don’t think she needs improving…..but I would like to see her go from S to L speed. 😀
That’s one way to get some mileage out of the Cursed. They have a handful of decent ships, and they can be somewhat decent in larger games.
These are all interesting, though I think the Feu could come down one or two points. She’s a great midsize gunship.
That is a good ship. The abilities complement one another nicely, and she’s decently quick for a fiver as well. If you want to keep her abilities more or less the same, then her point cost would need to go up, maybe to 26 points.
Nifty idea, kind of reminds me of a flotilla, but much better. I think occasionally increasing a ships range would be better than giving a general +1 to cannon rolls. Wording would look like: Once per turn roll a d6. On a result of 5-6 choose one of this ships S range cannons, that cannon has L range for this turn.
When I do play regular games with my brothers, we tend to use around 10 islands as well, but vastly much more terrain. We’ll either place it so that it touches islands and forms “chains” or we literally will close our eyes and toss a terrain on the table and play it where it lands.
This sounds like the bones to a campaign game rule-set. I’m not in favor of a limited number of ships available to purchase, but my physical collection is larger I think. I do like the idea of certain named crew being available only after a certain time has passed though.
If you get the rules worked out and whatnot then I’d be down to try this out on the VASSAL module.
Also, Economy is a custom campaign game rule-set, originally put down by Miniature Trading user Cannonfury. I think there’s a link in the game ideas thread to it. I mention this because that’s what i thought you were talking about when I saw the thread title.
Reminder to all, the deadline for the Pirates League is this Saturday at midnight PST. Send me a message if you want to sing up.
It’s fine for him to keep the helmsman ability, just use either the keyword Helmsman or This ship gets +S to her base move.
With the proposed edits, Kenway seems to be coming out to about 10 points. Assassin=5, Crew of any nationality may use their abilities on this ship=3, Helmsman=2.
Seems okay, but I think the wording and language for the ability need to be cleared up. Simply saying “Cannot be boarded” is rather vague. I would recommend changing the wording to: This ship cannot be boarded unless she initiates the boarding attempt.
Any nationality crew can use their abilities on any ship in this fleet.
Does this mean that a Jade crew would be able to use their abilities on another pirate ship if Kenway was in the same fleet? If it does, then this is far too powerful.
Does the second half of Assassin happen in addition to, or instead of the usual result? If it’s in addition to, I could see the keyword being worth about 5 points, since +1 to boarding rolls is about 2.
Acts as a helmsman.
Does this mean that he has the helmsman ability, or does it mean something else?
I’ve posted about it on other pirates sites, should have posted here first…… Anyway, the previous deadline to sign up has come and gone, and at that time only one person had signed up for the league. I’ve decided to extend the deadline to midnight PST of the 29th of this month. Hopefully that’s enough time for some more people to sign up.
Considering size, I think this one is okay. Presumably you’ll have L+S move going out to get treasure, and L on the way back with coins. 11 points seems like a good place to put he, since the Pirates are the most numerous faction out there.
These all look decent to me, but; I think the Cobalt might just too expensive. Bringing her down a little would make her more interesting I think.
I would make the range for the Harbor Guardian’s ability a single movement length, not two. That way you could bring her down in cost a little, which would benefit her greatly I think.
The Axiom’s ability confused me at first. I like what it does but I think it could be re-worded.
Yes, loading the canoes would be a free action.
Any cargo a canoe is carrying is unloaded onto the ship as well, so yes, it would also count against the loading ships cargo limit.
No, a canoe DOES NOT regain the cargo it was carrying if it is unloaded from a ship.
Other than all canoes must be given the same action, I don’t know of any other limitations on Native Canoes. Loading is a free, optional action. You don’t HAVE to load a canoe onto a ship with this ability. Unloading is giving an action to the carrying ship, and has noting to do with giving the canoes actions.
To unload the canoes you need to give an action to thhe carrying ship, not any of the canoes, so yes, you could unload the canoes and then immediately give them actions.
It took me a little longer than I would have liked, but I have finalized the rules for the Pirates VASSAL League.
Rules
All regular game-play rules will apply to league games; except for game winning conditions (see winning a game, under matches); Gold will be placed face-down on a home island, not face-up. Gold on a ship will not be split between players after a ship sinks; it goes down with the ship.
The no duplicates rule, 2 action limit, and all other rules will still apply.
Set-up
All Pirates League games will be 60 points, and will use 7 islands. All games will be played on the VASSAL module. Islands will be placed at least 2L away from one another. Two of every type of terrain (except for trade currents, whirlpools and Icebergs) will be placed on the map, at least S away from an island.
Both players will contribute 10 coins. Players MUST include at least one coin with a printed gold value, but players are otherwise free to include as many Unique Treasures as they wish.
All pieces made by Wizkids including the Unreleased pieces found in the Pirates Master Spreadsheet may be used.Players will build their 60 point fleet using the ships they have drafted.Draft
There will be 12 rounds to the Draft. All players will enter into a lottery drawing to determine draft order. Players MAY agree to swap their pick, but must inform a league manager.
Going in draft order, players will select ships to add to their roster of ships. Once a ship has been selected by a player, it MAY NOT be selected by another player.For example, player A has the first pick of the draft, and may choose any ship to add to their pool of ships. Player A decides they do not want the first pick of the draft, and player B does. Both players agree to swap picks. Player B now has the first pick of the Draft and chooses the HMS Dover as their first pick. Player A is now next up on the board, and may choose any ship EXCEPT the HMS Dover.
Matches
Each match will be a best of three games. Players will roll dice to determine who will go first in the initial game, and will alternate for the second. For example,
Player A and Player B are going to play their match. They both roll dice. Player B rolls higher and goes first for the first game, with player A going second. In the next game, player A will go first and player B will go second.If a third game is necessary, the winner of the second game will go first in the third game.
Winning a game:
A game ends when all available gold is no longer in play (placed on a home island). Gold inside of forts is still in play unless the opposing fleet is unable to give their ships actions (either because all of their ships have been sunk, or are derelict with no way to move).Gold is still considered to be in play with fleets that make use of a home island raiding ability; until the ships or crew have been removed from the game.
Tiebreakers:
In the event of a tie gold score, remaining points in play will be added to the gold score to determine the tiebreaker.Playoffs
When all regular season matches have been played, the players with the best win-loss record will compete in a playoff tournament.
The tournament will be broken down into rounds, consisting of up to 5 matches between playoff players. To advance to the next round of playoffs, a player must win 3 matches against the opposing player. If a player loses 3 matches, they are eliminated from the playoff round.Winning the playoffs:
The player that advances to the final round of the playoffs and defeats their opponent becomes the champion and is declared the best player of Pirates CSG.An individual ability that can stack with itself would be okay in theory. Whether or not it will break the game depends on what the rest of the ability does.
I was thinking about an ability that would allow only a couple versions of a generic ability to stack up, and I was thinking about chieftains for Native Canoes.
As it is though, I think multiple Chieftains can be used at once in a game. If they were all transferred to the same ship, would there be any kind of problem with stacking?
Does the action limit apply to a Treasure Ship’s ability to move after loading treasure? So if a treasure ship uses an ability to gain a second action, then uses it to explore, can it now move S away per the Treasure Ship ability?
What you’re outlining seems to be legal. The movement is a free action if I recall correctly, which would not apply to the action limit. Now, you wouldn’t be able to give your treasure ship a move action after using the loading/unloading movement ability. As per your example, you’ve already given the ship two actions.
Small wording issue for me. “ramming cannot eliminate this ships masts”. It means more or less the same thing as what you put in Blockade runner, but that is the wording WK used, so it jars me just a little when it ISN’T written that way.
Ships look fine, other than that. I would suggest maybe make the Lucrehulk slower, since you say its a barge in the flavor. Also, it would be in keeping with some of the other ships that have that ability.
Hmmm. On a second look, I think I would rather have this for the ability of the resurgent:
If this ship rolls a 5-6 on a cannon roll, eliminate an extra mast from the target ship.
That way the ability is more useful and could see more use.