Multiple Scenario Game
Another game will probably start tomorrow, one involving multiple scenarios from a link on Boardgamegeek. There will be a total of 8 scenarios used in this large game, which will feature 4 150 point fleets, with the English, Pirates, Spanish, and French participating. The 8 scenarios are Bermuda Triangle, Colonists of Catan, Shipwreck Graveyard, The Midas Touch, Paradise Island, The Other World, Rain Squalls, and Treasure Island II. Both Paradise Island and the island with the Catan gold will be in the Other World. I’m going to use fog banks for the rain squalls, and move them like icebergs. The Midas Doubloon will be a 7 instead of a 6 so that it will be the highest value treasure coin in the game.
5/19/13: The multi-scenario game has finally gotten under way, with three turns being played so far. The main ocean has the 4 HI’s, 4 wild islands for the Treasure Island II scenario, and 2 MI’s for more gold. The Other World is much smaller, containing Paradise Island and Catan island, with Paradise Island surrounded by reefs. Each world has 2 whirlpools in it, along with other terrain, including 3 rain squalls. There are 6 shipwrecks, with 2 located on the reefs around Paradise Island and the other 4 in the main ocean.
The English have gone off to explore some islands and grab some gold. First, the Endeavour took out all of the Spanish native canoes over the course of two turns. The Aberdeen Baron is headed towards a whirlpool located in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. The Alexandria found Turtles, but the Pirate ship White Rose has taken out two of her masts. HMS Hound has acquired one of the four coins necessary in order to build the map to locate Treasure Island.
The Pirates have had a rough going so far. The Raven was mauled by the French five master Le Gaule, who later went on to dismast the Pandora. The Darkhawk II has put an oarsman aboard a Carrion Crow shipwreck, allowing the Crow to fire her cannons at any passing ships. The Bonnie Liz has grabbed a coin from the island that the Alexandria, White Rose, HMS Bretwalda, are clustered around. Now that there are 10 turtles in the water by that same island, it’s becoming a busy area!
The Spanish have had a similarly abysmal start. Their Native Canoes are gone, and their strategy of using the Augusta to mark unexplored islands as explored without her docking at them hasn’t borne much success. The Spanish were going to use the canoes to surround their flagship, El Garante, to take advantage of her ability that gives her +1 to her cannon rolls for every friendly ship within S of her. Now the Garante is sailing west, following the Algeciras and the Martillo de Dios, who is towing the Diablo. Their other three 4 masters, La Santa Ana (CC), La Resolucion (SM), and L’Aguila, have sailed into the Bermuda Triangle to try to get to the Other World through a whirlpool. However, the Santa Ana has already been flung way northeast across the sea after getting stuck, and now L’Aguila is stuck, too. The Resolucion successfully avoided the Triangle’s peculiar effects, and even went through the whirlpool without losing anything. However, things fell apart for her after that…
The French have had the best start of all four nations. Although they go last each turn, they’ve had a flurry of successes in the early going. Their fleet is very scary. They have set sail with all 5 of the French 5 masters that are in my collection, and all of them are stacked with crew. With La Magnifique and her sac-captain Arazure in the lead, they are a sight to behold. Le Gaule has already dismasted the Raven and the Pandora, and she has captured the Pandora, who has treasure aboard. The Magnifique has captured the Raven, while the Ville de Paris stands guard for the time being. Le Soleil Royal has gone east towards the Spanish, and the Augusta promptly sailed into a fog bank to avoid her. The Soleil Royal has crew-killer guns that have been enhanced by the world-hating of La Gentil de Barbinais. Le Superbe has taken two colonists (all she had room for, after taking on a captain, helmsman, and explorer) through a whirlpool into the Other World. The Spanish ship La Resolucion arrived in the Other World via the same whirlpool on the next turn, and the Superbe has already shot away 3 of her 4 masts.
With only a few points left for pure gold-runners, the French have sent Le Coeur du Lion to the nearest wild island, Le Pique to the next-closest, and La Dijon off to Paradise Island, where she will arrive next turn.
Additional Comment:
5/19/13: After 2 more turns, things have gone badly for the French and the Pirates.
The English took out 2 masts on the White Rose, and she and the Bonnie Liz are both heading back the the Pirates’ HI. The Alexandria is sailing with gold (and Wine) alongside the Turtles, with the Bretwalda and Durham nearby. HMS Hound has dropped Enemy of the State and Exploding Shot off on the Endeavour, and is headed home with gold. The Aberdeen Baron is approaching Catan island, and HMS Gallows has dismasted the Spanish ship L’Aguila.
The Pirates keep getting their ships shot up. Most recently the Tejon and Proud Tortoise have been dismasted by the Ville de Paris, although the Doombox and Darkhawk II combined on the following turn to respond with 3 hits on the Paris. The Pirates are trying to regroup and repair, while the Cursed Blade has headed to the Other World in search of gold-grabbing opportunities.
The Spanish have used Homing Beacon to get the San Francisco home quickly. The Santa Ana has begun sailing back south after the Bermuda Triangle threw her way off course. The trio of the Augusta, Algeciras, and Diablo combined to dismast the Soleil Royal after a daring ram and board by the Algeciras. Both the ram and board worked, and via this miracle the Royal had lost a mast and Barbinais before the others shot away her remaining masts. The Resolucion lost her final mast to the Superbe in the Other World, and has been captured by the French.
As detailed above, the French finally lost some masts on 2 of their 5 masters, and it’s taking a handful of turns for them to tow the 2 Pirate ships home. The Augusta rammed Le Pique, so now she’s derelict next to the Soleil Royal. The Coeur du Lion is almost back home with her gold coin. La Dijon has taken a coin from Paradise Island, where she also found Protection from Davy Jones, which will help her get home safely, since she only has one mast after going through the first whirlpool to get to the Other World.
Additional Comment:
5/22/13: Haven’t been able to get on here for battle reports the last few days… oh well. The game has progressed some more, with the English and French taking over the seas.
All 10 turtles made it safely to the English HI, since the wild island they were discovered on was the one closest to the English HI. The Alexandria came home to repair 2 masts, and the Endeavour and the Gallows teamed up to sink the Spanish ships Augusta and El Garante, the Spanish flagship. Just in the last 2 turns, Fort Brompton and Ramsgate have been built on the 2 wild islands nearest the English HI, giving them a rather formidable line of defence that they will probably need.
The Pirates are almost out of it. The Cursed Blade captured the Aberdeen Baron, who was carrying 10 gold as well as the Midas doubloon, but when she tried to go back to the Pirate HI via the nearest available whirlpool, the French jumped her. The French took both ships, but the Doombox (towed by the Proud Tortoise) sunk the Cursed Blade before she made it back to the French HI. The Baron was towed back, raking in a total of 19 gold for the French (since the doubloon gives +1 to all other gold coins on the ship, of which there were a 4 and a 6, both from Catan island).
Meanwhile, the captured ships Resolucion and Pandora had brought back a 2 and a 4 to complete the French map of Treasure Island II. However, the wild island that resulted from the die roll that got the 5’s and 6’s is the island that Fort Brompton is on, so the French will have to destroy the fort if they want the high-value coins (the English can’t take the coins). On the turn after the Endeavour sunk El Garante, La Magnifique let loose a Broadsides Attack on the Endeavour, sinking her with one die roll! One flagship sunk by another, only to be sunk by a third flagship! 
At the French HI, La Ville de Paris is repairing for the second time, while the Aberdeen Baron also repairs.
It doesn’t look good at all for the Spanish. They had L’Aguila, El Algeciras, and the captured Le Pique sunk in recent turns. Le Soleil Royal was recaptured by the French, and she was towed back to her HI, where she is repairing. The Martillo de Dios went to the Other World to help out the Santa Ana, and they both went to Paradise Island. They loaded gold, but on their way out, the Santa Ana was wrecked on a reef (I think this is the first true in-game wreck of my Pirates CSG career!). The Martillo de Dios has headed back to the Spanish HI, but she may return to the wreck, since there is valuable gold still on the ship, not to mention the powerful canceller, Nemesio Diaz (the Dios didn’t have cargo space to load anything more than she was already carrying, especially since the Paradise Island gold takes up as many cargo spaces as it’s worth in gold).
At this point, it looks like the game will come down to a battle between the French and the English, unless they avoid each other and simply grab the rest of the treasure. The French have more gold and more masts, but the English will be fully repaired soon, and have the advantage of two forts, if they let the French come to them.
Additional Comment:
A plethora of things have led me to neglect Pirates lately, but this game will eventually be finished!
6/1/2013
The multi-scenario game ended today, in quicker fashion than what was expected. The French looked around and decided that they probably had the most gold of any fleet, and looked to end the game as quickly as possible. They sunk the final Pirate ship, the one masted Rover, knocking the Pirates out of the game for good. Next, they finished repairing their ships and sailed east towards the Spanish and English HI’s. Coincidentally, the repairs were finished for each ship on different turns, so that when the game ended, the French actually had a line of battle with all of their big ships. Before the Martillo de Dios could head through a whirlpool and return to the wreck of the Santa Ana, the Superbe used Poseidon’s Breath to move 10S and sink the Diablo flotilla. To sink the final Spanish ship, the French flagship La Magnifique sacced an explorer to move L+S+L+S and Broadsides Attack the Dios to the bottom of the sea. The game ended, with at least half of the players eliminated from the game.
The treasure was counted, and the results came with two surprises: the French had even more gold than anybody realized, while the Spanish actually beat out the powerful (and relatively healthy) English for second place:
1. French: 61 gold
2. Spanish: 21
3. English: 20
4. Pirates: 5
It was a fun game, and most of the scenarios worked out nicely. Despite using many of them simultaneously, the game didn’t become too complex. The shipwrecks and rain squalls were the low point, as neither of those aspects really came into play. Overall, an enjoyable game, not to mention that it was about time the French finally won! 