12/9/2015
I did a test game with a new concept – one island, with ONLY Unique Treasures! This was also the first game I’ve played this month of December, which means that for the first time ever, I’ve played at least one game in every month of the year!
This was the order of play:
Pirates:
Black Diamond + captain, helmsman
Pillage
Morgawr
Spanish:
El Argonauta + Rollando, captain, helmsman
El Corazon Dorado + captain
Americans:
Yankee + helmsman
Lady Washington + helmsman
Niagara + captain, helmsman
The setup was simple, with each home island 2L away from the single wild island, which had 11 UT’s on it and lay underneath an arch.
The Yankee was the first to reach the island, but no fleet had an explorer.
The Pirates began the second turn by attacking the Yankee with the Black Diamond! Funny enough, all four shots missed but the ram succeeded to slightly damage the schooner. However, the Pirates also lost the boarding party and their helmsman. Morgawr moved to the Pillage’s starboard side to guard the little ship against the powerful Spanish.
The Spanish took their second turn, and the Corazon Dorado was considerably more successful than the Black Diamond, hitting three times to dismast the Yankee.
The Argonauta gave Broadsides Attack a go against Morgawr, but it missed!
The Americans began their turn by giving the derelict Yankee an explore action! Here’s what she found:
The most important ones were Barbary Banner, Buried Treasure, and Rum, which in this case amounted to 12 gold, the total amount in play.
In order to get in range of the Yankee, the Corazon Dorado sailed right into range of the Lady Washington, who hit 2/3 in a nice shoot action. The Yankee was done, but the Americans just needed to tow her home, and their HI was the nearest. The Niagara shot and rammed the Black Diamond, taking out her 3S cannons. (The Black Diamond is one of my oldest ships and her gaff mast was broken long ago so it’s attached to the mizzenmast.)
As the Black Diamond’s foremast falls across the deck of the derelict Yankee, it’s obvious this game will be filled with carnage.
Next, the Black Diamond tried to use her ship’s ability to steal all of the Yankee’s treasure, but miraculously the Yankee won the boarding party! In the background, Morgawr has hit the Argonauta with her fire ability.
Both Spanish ships come around their enemies! Both are looking the cut off the healthy Pirates in the event that they try to tow the Yankee back to their HI. The Corazon shoots and rams the Lady Washington, but only takes out a mast. The Argonauta sails around Morgawr, missing another Broadsides Attack on the way by.
The Lady Washington towed the Yankee, while the Niagara simultaneously moved to block the Black Diamond’s path to the Yankee and shoot at the Corazon Dorado.
The Pirates then struck again. The Black Diamond took the last masts off both the Niagara and Corazon Dorado. The Pillage rammed a mast off the Lady Washington, while Morgawr hit with another fire attack against the Argonauta.
The Argonauta was losing masts quickly, and things looked best for the Pirates.
The Black Diamond maneuvered to sink the Lady Washington, knocking the Americans out of the game.
War at sea. Masts and sails litter the battlefield, while only three ships and one sea monster continue the fight, with one ship mostly aflame.
With three fire masts, the Argonauta rolled once for each possible effect. Then, with her last cannon, she managed to finally hit with BA (dismasting the Pillage) before coming into contact with the derelict Yankee, who still had all the gold aboard. (Though by this point Plague was on the Pillage)
Without her helmsman, the Black Diamond couldn’t quite begin towing the Yankee before the Argonauta explored her to grab the gold. With her explore action, the Argonauta managed to eliminate some of the fires.
At this point the Pirates had to chase the Argonauta, but Morgawr was in range on the next turn to dismast the 5 master.
This gave the Pirates the win, but I think I played it wrong. I think Rollando’s ability would allow the Argonauta to take all of the Yankee’s UT’s (or whichever ones she wanted, especially the gold ones), which would save a turn versus exploring the derelict. This turn was important, because I think it would have let the Argonauta get home before Morgawr was in shooting or pinning range. Either way, it was more of a test game. This all-UT setup should be explored further at some point. A fun and quick game that saw lots of splinters! I believe that by the battle’s end, only 6 of the original 28 masts were standing, and that includes Morgawr’s perfect health. In terms of actual wooden masts, only 2 out of 24 masts that started the game were standing at the end, meaning that 92% of masts were knocked down!