The setup featured just four islands, but instead of 16 coins worth 30 gold we used 24 coins of random amounts. In this way we had two wild islands with 12 coins on each island. Reefs and fog banks were set up to encourage conflict, with two icebergs ominously dominating the middle of the ocean.
Both fleets set out in clusters, with neither side wanting any part of the first iceberg.
The Pirates were the first player, which allowed the Foresight to explore the first island and take 5 coins. The Bruja was escorting her with the abysmally slow Splinter predictably bringing up the rear.
As the Bruja and Foresight made sail for their home island, the French continued west and struck first, with the Lyon taking out all three masts on the Splinter.
Seeing an opportunity to hurt the French fleet, the Bruja turned around and attacked the nearby Monaque, who had rounded the first island as the Splinter sank beneath the waves. The Bruja hit twice, killing both the captain and helmsman aboard the Monaque. In the meantime the Foresight got home and the Coeur de Lion explored the far island.
The Bruja was now double-teamed by the Monaque and Lyon, who sank her with their powerful guns. The Foresight was now in trouble, with no expensive named crew to convert to gold via Barstow and with a plethora of French cannons in her way of getting back to an island. The Foresight tried to run, but when the Lyon blocked her path she decided she just had to attack, missing all three shots against the Lyon.
The Lyon shot back and hit twice before the Foresight retaliated with a successful shoot-and-ram, using Barstow to capture the French captain.
However, by now the Intrepide had towed the dangerous Mont Blanc into range, which effectively ended the game.
The Pirates had more gold on their home island, but the French proceeded to NOT sink the Foresight in order to accumulate more gold on their HI while the Foresight lamely tried to sink the entire French fleet with just one cannon. After this brief simulation the French came out on top, by a score of (if I remember correctly) 16-12. Not a bad game at all, with a good balance of shooting between the two fleets! I was very happy to use Barstow, if only to explore with the Foresight and capture a crew that wasn’t able to be brought back.
A rather unique setup was used, with the two home islands combined into one in the middle of the sea. Four wild islands with 6 random treasures apiece were arranged in an X away from the HI’s. Whirlpools and fog banks formed in the west and east, with an iceberg in the north and south.
The English used their speed to sail out quickly, with the Cheshire the first to reach an island and explore. All of the French ships headed for wild islands, with the smaller ships heading northwest and the gunships heading northeast.
The Edinburgh Trader, Cheshire, and Galway all brought home their first loads of gold. Knowing the Intrepide was the best treasure runner the French had and that their gold game would be crippled if she could be sunk, the Richards sailed north and waited for an SAT from Myngs. In addition, the French player blurted out that the Intrepide had found “quite a lot” of gold on the northwest island, furthering the bloodlust of the Richards’ captain. Myngs brought her within range and with two shoot actions, the Richards sank the Intrepide and took two masts off the Monaque!
The Frenchman was deking, for the Intrepide was carrying only 5 gold between 3 different coins!
This left the Mont Blanc dead in the water, but it also left the Richards in an unenviable position between multiple hostile ships and an iceberg.
The French exacted revenge on the next turn by sinking the Richards, while the Cheshire ducked into a fog bank. With the fast Lyon, shoot-through-ships L-range guns of the Monaque, the Extended Range keyword of the Mont Blanc, and the doubled ranges of the Coeur’s guns, the French had considerable “zone control” of the northern half of the ocean. The English would try to get around this with their superior speed and strategy.
The three English gold ships explored different islands as the French convened on their HI, with the Lyon dropping off a coin and the Monaque repairing.
The Coeur turned north to tow the Mont Blanc as the English continued their steady accumulation of gold.
With the Galway slowed down by her cargo of 1 gold, the Lyon was able to corner her and send her to Davy Jones’ Locker.
With only half of his original fleet remaining and powerful French ships still dominating the middle of the sea, the English knew they’d have to get creative to get even more gold, which was to be found on the “French” islands, in the north. The Cheshire ducked into a fog bank and the Edinburgh Trader followed her lead, staying out of range of the newly repaired Monaque.
At this point, a rather unique situation began to develop. Revealing his strategy, the English player sent the Cheshire through a whirlpool to access the northwestern part of the sea without having to contend with the French gunships. The Edinburgh Trader emerged from the fog and grabbed the last treasures from the northeast island. Both ships then darted back into the fog in anticipation of docking home their gold, but an unwelcome surprise awaited them at their home island!
The French were blockading the English HI, with considerable help from their own HI (which blocked the northern side) and an iceberg, which split their fleet in two but covered part of the southern side. The English had so much gold on their HI that it was obvious who would win, but the situation was definitely worth playing out just for fun!
The English waited in the fog until they got the right iceberg roll (a 3). Luckily for them the iceberg moved south, allowing the Cheshire to come home with 3 additional coins (she left her explorer on the northwest island in order to load an extra coin). This left the Edinburgh Trader to fend for herself, and she proceeded to ram the Lyon. The Lyon and Monaque sank her on the following turn, ending the game at last! The English were victorious with a 34-12 win!
As a side note, the first of these two games was technically my 206th game of Pirates CSG (since 2011, I don’t know how many I played before that – probably 1 or 2 dozen), which breaks the record formerly held by islander on BGG. Maybe I’ve played this game more than anyone else, ever. Just kidding! Still, it was nice to finally get to the top since I write so many reports and most of the folks at BGG (understandably) don’t have any reports of the huge numbers of games they’ve played. (At the time of this republishing in June 2019, I’m at 430 total plays!)
All of the islands were mysterious, and the fleets set out to do battle!
The Lyon caught the Virtuous Wind and took off 2 masts, but the Spanish Americans were quick to retaliate, using both the Wind and the Montezuma’s ability to dismast the dangerous 3 master.
The Montezuma captured the Lyon, but in the meantime the St. Joan and Intrepide had been running around getting gold for the French.
The St. Joan used her speed to grab gold under the nose of El Alma as the Virtuous Wind returned home to repair. The Montezuma tried to tow the Lyon but was pursued by the Intrepide towing the Mont Blanc.
The St. Joan had found a 5 and 3 on the far-away island, which gave the French the 16-0 win!
This game featured a ton of terrain, some of which was strung together to make an island completely inaccessible without sailing through the fog. The Spanish chose the Cursed’s HI to be close to their own, in order to exploit the HI-raiding abilities of the Wind and Lord Lineton.
The Lord Lineton was chased by the Juggernaut as the ships split up.
With all ships except for the Golden Peacock headed for the western fog, a conflict was inevitable.
The Juggernaut caught the Lord Lineton and set her on fire!
True to their nature the Cursed kept up a hot fire and slaughtered the Spanish explorer and set the San Salvador aflame. The Lineton’s crew managed to put out their own blaze but the Englishman was dismasted.
The Virtuous Wind started towing the dangerously flaming San Salvador, taking a mast off the Juggernaut in the process. The Juggernaut struck back with a vengeance, which meant that she had landed at least one firepot on each of the three enemy ships!
By this point the Golden Peacock had brought home 11 gold for the Cursed, giving them the win (11-0) after the Juggernaut finished off the Virtuous Wind and therefore the Spanish-English.
(As a side note, you may have read that I think fire is overrated in this game. Although it can be devastating, even landing three separate firepot hits didn’t actually help the Cursed win the battle because it didn’t spread to eliminate their other masts (the San Salvador was already derelict when her fire spread).)
Franco-Spanish Americans: (referred to as the French) Monaque + captain, helmsman USS Montezuma + captain La Cazadora + helmsman
This game featured a very tight island setup, with a strange terrain formation in the middle consisting of one iceberg and two fog banks.
The Montezuma encountered trouble at a mysterious island and lost both masts. She was towed home by the Monaque and repaired. However, the swarm fleet could only benefit from such a close-knit group of islands, meaning that some ships reached islands on the first turn, which made up for their lack of explorers.
The Monaque and Montezuma combined to sink a few of the swarm ships, and the Cazadora succeeded in dismasting the Whisper and towing her home. However, some ships like the Dragon and Intrepide got through to give the swarm fleet an early advantage in the gold race.
House rules were implemented that let icebergs and a mysterious island sink the Fureur and Dragon. At one point the Intrepide came out of the fog and slammed right into the iceberg, knocking off a mast and pushing her right back into the fog! The Dragon was sunk after farming an MI to throw the Montezuma into a different iceberg. The Rosario waited patiently in the fog, hoping the Monaque would abandon her mission.
The Rosario finally emerged from the fog and darted home with the last two gold coins. The gold was tallied up, and it came out to be a tie, 15-15! Since there was no more gold on the ships, the “most masts standing” tiebreaker was invoked, giving the French the victory over the swarm fleet!
I didn’t mention it in the original battle report, but this game was my first-ever playing against a real opponent in a non-solo game. My first player taught! It was a pair of introductory games at college.
I’m back already!
Two games were played, both 40 point games. The fleets for the first game were as follows:
The home islands were close together, with each fleet eager to start the action. The Annapolis was the first ship to explore, but she was quickly set upon by the Virtuous Wind and captured by the Cazadora. The rest of the American fleet headed east.
The guns of the legendary Virtuous Wind (even the slower Spanish version!) made their mark on the next turn by sinking the Philadelphia.
With the Americans already at a large disadvantage the Alma grabbed gold from a southern island as the Chesapeake raced to get away from the dangerous Virtuous Wind. In the meantime the Annapolis was repaired and she sailed out behind the Cazadora.
The Virtuous Wind couldn’t catch the nimble Chesapeake and settled for exploring an island instead. The Chesapeake grabbed gold in the north while the Concord cornered the captured Annapolis and looked to sink her former comrade.
With a ram the Cazadora dismasted the docked Chesapeake, leaving the Americans with only the Concord!
With no real hope in sight the Concord made a suicidal attack against the approaching Virtuous Wind, ramming off a mast. Her captain was cancelled by the Alma and it was all but certain who would come away victorious.
The Concord was taken out by the Virtuous Wind, ending the game with a 10-3 victory for the Spaniards!
The English went first and headed out to the nearby islands. The Hades’ Flame grabbed gold as the Fool’s Hope headed towards the middle of the sea to create chaos.
Unlike the last game terrain was featured in this one, with an unlucky iceberg roll taking out the lone mast on the Snipe. The Richards flew through a whirlpool in pursuit of the agile Hades’ Flame. The Fool’s Hope struck the English with force by sinking HMS Resistance with one broadside! After sinking the Englishman the Fool’s Hope towed the Snipe to take possession of the gold coin (worth 4 gold) she was carrying.
With no captain the Richards was forced to futilely chase the faster Hades’ Flame, with the ghost ship getting the better of the encounter. The Galway continued to ferry gold home as the Fool’s Hope looked to intercept the quick little blockade runner.
The Richards gave up chasing the Flame and grabbed gold from a southern island. The Hades’ Flame, frustrated from finding such low value coins (all 1’s and 2’s), zipped through a whirlpool in search of foreign gold. In the meantime, the Galway evaded the Fool’s Hope as the big Pirate ship tried to avoid the iceberg that had dismasted the Snipe.
With no chance of getting home without encountering the Fool’s Hope, the Richards decided to sail straight towards it. The Galway accompanied her.
In a surprise move the Fool’s Hope once again towed the Snipe, but then ran into a fog bank!
The Richards and Galway tried to escape but it was too late. The Fool’s Hope came flying out of the fog (using a free action to let go of the Snipe so she wouldn’t be permanently lost in the fog) to smash into the Richards. A combination of guns and boarding knocked over all four masts and killed the English helmsman.
The Galway fled in terror as the Fool’s Hope sent the Richards to the bottom of the sea, giving 2 gold to the Pirates and 1 to the English.
The Fool’s Hope towed the Snipe home as the Hades’ Flame and Snipe brought back their final coins. With the docking of the captured Snipe all available gold had been unloaded to home islands, a rather uncommon occurrence.
The gold was tallied up, with the Pirates coming out on top 17-13! The Pirates had terrible luck finding gold, with both 4’s being found by the English early in the game. However, capturing the Snipe effectively won the game for the Pirates, providing the difference in a very good and close-fought game!
Ever since I ran the Gimmick Challenge I’ve wanted to play both of the entries that volt submitted. These fleets are both treasure-oriented and therefore not the best matchup. I also wish I had more time to play them against other fleets. Unfortunately time waits for no one.
I didn’t have time to find the Saragoza so the Reconquistador is a proxy. I don’t have the Song – the Hai Peng is another 2 masted junk from POTC.
Chain of Fools rolled to go first. Because of the nature of the Oarsmen Inflation fleet, the Intrepid was willing to take a more aggressive stance than volt outlined in the fleet’s description. As the strategy goes the Banshee’s Cry was Hidden Cove’d to the middle island where the American Native Canoes loaded up on gold. One canoe found Smuggled Goods and so only 3 of the 5 canoes sailed with gold aboard. The Bonnie Liz sailed north while the Bloody Jewel and Mermaid raced southeast.
Since the middle island was already empty and the northeastern island was closer than the southern island, the Raven’s Neck was Hidden Cove’d immediately so she could start transferring gold home. After Gilbert sacced an oarsman the Oarsmen Inflation fleet had 13 gold on their home island at the end of turn 1! After swapping Davy Jones’ Key the Raven’s Neck island contained three 2’s and a 5.
The Blood Jewel and Mermaid emptied the southern island while the Bonnie Liz did the same up north, sailing home after an SAT from Calico Cat. The Canoes were also racing home with more gold. The Intrepid continued to sail east in an attempt to cripple the Raven’s Neck.
The Raven’s Neck and Captain Jack Sparrow only needed to transfer one 2 (+3=5 total gold) home in order to gain an 18-0 victory!
Although the Chain of Fools fleet had a lot of gold on its way, the speed of CJS and the +3 gold ships was not to be beaten. Using CJS in conjunction with Hidden Cove and a sac captain and +X abilities is truly a cheap way to win, but it is very effective. Oarsmen Inflation and the UPS fleets are quite impressive. I still like the chain-exploring gimmick of Chain of Fools a lot, and given time (and a different setup/opponent/# of players, etc.) I think Chain of Fools would prove to be a very effective fleet.
I’ve been preparing for the huge multiplayer game. There will be 12 fleets.
Normally for multiplayer games there are 3 islands for each player (36 total in this case) and 6 treasures per player. However, partly due to space constraints and partly due to the fact that less wild islands may lead to more battling and excitement, there will be 30 islands total instead of 36. However, each fleet will still bring 6 coins apiece for a total of 72 coins. This will leave 4 gold on each island instead of the usual 3 for a multiplayer game (72 gold/18 wild islands).
I think the order of play will go in the order that I have laid out the fleets in, which was completely random.
I’ve listed the fleets below (not in the order of play). However, most of the fleets from MT have been modified in some way. The only events allowed are Divers and Rafts, which means that no fleet is using Hidden Cove or Becalmed. In addition I had to make a few edits to make things work. Lastly, I’m going to try to include some of the UT’s that are in the linked fleets, but with 6 coins instead of 8 and so many islands that a fleet won’t be able to get to, some will not be included.
Finally, some of these fleets are between 40 and 45 points even if they don’t technically have a 0LR +5 crew listed. At this point it’s trivial details and is necessary to save time, plus the fleets are already messed up after taking out all of the Hidden Coves, lol.
A modified version of volt’s “Gimmick #2 – Chain of Fools” fleet:
Bonnie Liz + helmsman, explorer
Bloody Jewel + helmsman, explorer
USS James Madison + tribal chieftain
American Native Canoes
A fleet using stuff I just got (literally a few days ago) from volt, selvaxri, and rhyrneson:
Cannibal King + Hammersmith (F&S), oarsman
Kray-kin (I wanted to use my first kraken anyway since I’ve been waiting ages to get ahold of one. However, I forgot about her universal crew-cancelling ability! When I saw it I realized I HAD to use it in a game like this with so many crew (12 fleets worth!))
A modified version of USS Kettering – Deadly Weapon:
USS Kettering + Brent Rice, captain
Minuteman
Peacock + oarsman
A modified version of the El Garante/Native Canoes fleet:
El Garante + Amore, Nemesio Diaz, Duque Alfonso de Castilla, helmsman, tribal chieftain
Spanish Native Canoes
American Pirates:
Roanoke + Captain Blackheart, Commodore Perry, helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x2
Amity + explorer
Bandido
A new Barbary Corsair fleet:
Nubian Prince + Murat Rais, captain, helmsman
Winds of Vengeance + explorer
Golden Peacock
A new Jade Rebellion fleet:
Grand Mountain + Dragon Eyes, Li Quin, helmsman, Stinkpot Shot (can’t wait to use this one haha)
Virtuous Wind + captain, explorer
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I’ve set up all 30 islands, 10 of which are mysterious and can’t be chosen as home islands, and I’ve put down some terrain. There will be 6 of each type of terrain. I’ve strung some reefs together up north to almost block the passage between two islands. Of the six icebergs four of them are stuck together in two different pairs to form larger icebergs that will move as one berg. Once I get some pictures the whole setup will become more clear.
I don’t know if this is the biggest multiplayer game (in terms of the total number of fleets) ever for Pirates CSG. Even if it’s not, it may be the biggest conglomeration of fleets from MT involved in a single game. There are multiple fleets from myself and darrin, as well as fleets from lordstu and volt, not to mention the Garante/Canoes combo was from woelf.
I’m super stoked for this game! Part of the reason I’m posting this now is so the actual report won’t be as long, though I’ll probably just edit this post and add it on so it’s not confusing. It may take more than one day to complete. With so many fleets out there I can’t wait to see what happens! From my previous reports you can already see what havoc is created with fleets like UPS and El Garante/HMS GT/Roanoke, etc. Imagine all those with a bunch of other fleets, Dragon Eyes, tons of UT’s, and a brand-new kraken thrown in! Looking forward to some multiplayer mayhem!
~~~~~
The game has gotten under way! Here’s a few pics of the setup once the HI’s were picked and the treasure distributed.
Looking northeast with the EA Gold Runners fleet in the foreground:
Looking northwest with UPS v 4.0 at the bottom:
Turn 1:
The Bandido (from the Roanoke fleet) was the first ship to reach an island, but she didn’t have an explorer. Her friend the Amity reached another island and was the first ship to explore.
UPS v 2.0 has no chance of winning this game automtically because it relies on the “more than half the starting gold” rule. However, the Hai Peng/CJS/Aristide combo is still quite powerful in multiplayer. On the first turn the Hai Peng found the Dead Man’s Chest UT, which pretty much sunk the hopes of lordstu’s DMC fleet (which isn’t a very good fleet for multiplayer games anyway). The HP sacced her oarsman to explore two different islands, and she didn’t find any negative UT’s. Paradis de la Mer was built on the second island she visited.
The Bonnie Liz (from the modified version of volt’s fleet) found Natives on a northeastern island near their HI. With a helmsman and explorer aboard the Bonnie Liz she would be out for turns 2 and 3. The Bloody Jewel explored a nearby island and found Jail, Letter of Marque, Enemy of the State, and a 5! Her crew were transferred to the jail back home (lol) and the Jewel was turned into a Mercenary ship. With all five American native canoes nearby it was easy for them to transfer the 5 directly to their home island, with the first use of the chain already in place on turn 1!
The EA Runners fleet is the last fleet to go each turn and the Joya del Sol was frustrated by a Mysterious Island that wouldn’t let her explore.
An interesting situation brews in the northeast as the American canoes start working their magic.
Turn 2:
On the second turn the icebergs started moving. To make them more relevant a die is rolled at the beginning of every fleet’s turn, but each iceberg can only move once per overall turn. In this way it is likely that every iceberg moves every turn, but not into multiple ships or anything crazy like that. The two double icebergs move as one when either of their rolls come up.
The Jade Rebellion was the first fleet. The Virtuous Wind found Wine on an island she explored, which was ironic because she already has the HI-raiding ability. It will be interesting to see if she can pull off a combo using both her ability and the UT on the same turn at some point in the game. The Grand Mountain took the first shot of the game and eliminated one of the American canoes.
The Peacock towed the Minuteman (part of the modified Kettering fleet) into position in the west and sank the Banshee’s Cry. The best ship in the game was the first ship sunk in this game. The Minuteman also took a mast off the Raven’s Neck. With the Dead Man’s Chest already aboard the super fast Hai Peng and the Cry sunk, the DMC fleet was all but out of it on the second turn.
Speaking of the Hai Peng, she could only send one coin home on the second turn, using it to build Dead Man’s Point on the island west of the HP’s HI.
The Raven’s Neck got back at the Peacock by taking off her mizzenmast.
The Coral (from UPS v 4.0) found Wolves on an island north of her HI. With no musketeers or Marines anywhere in the game, a new house rule was created on the spot. Wolves would be eliminated if hit three times on the same turn. The Longshanks tried her luck with this but only hit once.
The American canoes now helped out the immobile Bonnie Liz, using their ability to transfer another gold coin to their HI. This was the perfect time for a chain, with a friendly ship immobilized by Natives (and therefore unable to bring the gold home herself) at a nearby wild island. The chain-exploring strategy was working perfectly thus far! In the meantime, the USS James Madison (carrying the tribal chieftain) stayed at the HI because the Grand Mountain (with Dragon Eyes aboard) was lurking and there were no other islands right nearby for the James Madison to explore.
The Star of Siam (part of the EA Runners fleet) found my brand-new Plague UT! Sean Gallows died and the Star left the other gold on the island because she couldn’t dock it at her HI and she didn’t want to transfer it to the Joya because this would kill all the crew aboard the Joya as well.
The western situation heats up as the Peacock and Minuteman engage the Raven’s Neck. You can see the gold already accumulating on the HI of UPS 2.0.
The situation in the northeast develops rather slowly. Somehow the tiny canoes and weakened Pirate ships stay safe from the dangerous Grand Mountain and Cannibal King. The canoes have moved home a coin from the docked Bonnie Liz.
Turn 3:
The Grand Mountain started off the third turn by sinking the Bloody Jewel, who was already missing a mast from a bad MI roll.
The Nubian Prince initiated combat against the Garante fleet in the northwest, picking off two of the five Spanish canoes and sending 1 gold to the bottom of the sea.
The Cannibal King wanted to board the Bonnie Liz and steal her remaining gold, but she came out of the fog bank on the wrong side.
The Peacock/Minuteman combo knocked two more masts off the Raven’s Neck and one off the Morocco.
The USS Kettering sneaked up behind the Golden Peacock of the Barbary Corsairs. With only two of her three masts in range the powerful longship sank the Golden Peacock and all 9 gold she was carrying! With the BC HI nearby and the Peacock’s galley ability Brent Rice just decided to sink her. This was a huge blow to the Corsairs, leaving them with the Nubian Prince but only one other gold ship, the S+S-moving Winds of Vengeance.
In the southeast, the Coral had used the MI effect from the island with Wolves on it to move the Roanoke temporarily out of range. Captain Blackheart of the Roanoke didn’t appreciate this and sacced one of his oarsmen to move twice and blast two masts off the Longshanks. In the meantime the Amity docked home 3 coins and Spices to double the highest-value coin.
With the incredibly dangerous HMS Grand Temple looming in a fog bank, the Hai Peng of UPS 2.0 ducked into the same fog bank to protect herself.
The Grand Temple emerged on her turn and headed straight for Paradis de la Mer. With an SAT from Crimson Angel the GT had 12 shots at the powerful fort. She hit Paradis 4 times before doing any considerable damage, but by the end of it the fort was abandoned, with just one more hit needed to destroy it!
The Morocco docked at an island as the Raven’s Neck continued to battle the Peacock, dismasting her with a ram. However, the Minuteman was still in play and wouldn’t go down so easily.
With the only nearby island available filled with Wolves and with the dangerous Roanoke attacking from the east, UPS 4 was in a terrible spot. With two masts off the Longshanks they only had 2 cannons in range of the Wolves (with the Coral being the other gun), not enough to eliminate them. UPS 4 had no options whatsoever. They decided to risk everything (as they had no choice) and start over by putting their entire fleet (including the usually docked Sea Crane) through a whirlpool. They came out of it in the far northwest corner (near the Garante fleet) with Captain Jack Hawkins of the Longshanks the only casualty. In this way UPS 4 went from being the fleet farthest to the southeast to being the fleet farthest to the northwest, the complete opposite side of the sea!
The chain of American canoes brought home a second coin from the still-immobile Bonnie Liz, leaving her with only one more coin on board.
The EA Runners ended the days action by using the Joya’s newly docked gold to build El Puerto Blanco on the island where the Star of Siam was docked.
The Nubian Price has engaged the Spaniards, with a sacrificial canoe now blocking her passage past the fog bank to save time for the rest of the fleet. El Garante has loaded Holy Water from a canoe to protect her numerous crew from harm (as if 5 masts and Nemesio Diaz weren’t enough!). UPS 4 has emerged from the whirlpool mostly intact after their skirmish with the Roanoke and Wolves.
The hardest-fought action of the game so far, with the Peacock and Raven’s Neck broken and splintered by the conflict.
If there’s a ship that can crush Paradis de la Mer on one turn all by herself, look no further than the HMS Grand Temple!
The Grand Mountain and Cannibal King draw closer as the American canoes desperately try to get more gold home from the immobile Bonnie Liz:
Three turns have been played so far, with quite a lot of action and intrigue! Hopefully more turns will be played tomorrow.
~~~~~
Turn 4:
On the beginning of the fourth turn, Kray-kin rolled a 6! This cancelled all crew abilities for all 12 fleets for the entire turn, which would mess with strategies and plans in a big way. Because of the lack of crew options, not much happened on turn 4 that was significant. The Minuteman sank the Morocco, while the Sea Crane sank herself by docking at a MI and having terrible dice luck. A house rule was used where MI’s could sink ships.
Turn 5:
The Grand Mountain took out the second American canoe.
In the northwest the Nubian Price got a good broadside in range of the Garante but her captain was cancelled by Nemesio Diaz.
The Kray-kin surrounded the Hai Peng! UPS 2’s most valuable ship was trapped by the kraken.
The Minuteman continued her firing, sinking the Raven’s Neck and knocking the Dead Man’s Chest fleet out of the game (1st fleet eliminated).
USS Kettering sank the Winds of Vengeance just as she had the Golden Peacock, single-handedly crushing any hope the Barbary Corsairs had of winning the game.
The Grand Temple used an SAT from Crimson Angel to sail east and sink the Roanoke in a perfect shoot action. This left the Amity and Bandido vulnerable without the protection of a gunship.
UPS 4 was having a rough time in the northwest corner after abandoning their plans when confronted with the Roanoke and Wolves. The Sea Crane had been sunk and the Longshanks had only one mast and no crew. Her and the Coral were docked at the same island, but the Longshanks explored first in because of the possibility of finding a negative UT. It was worth considering because the Longshanks picked up Pandora’s Box! With so many fleets available only so many UT’s could fit on the Longshanks, and in the end she ended up carrying Homing Beacon, Mines, Enemy of the State, Maps of Hades, and Metal Hull.
The Garante sailed straight for USS Kettering and dismasted her with a combination of ramming and shooting, with the Kettering and Nemesio Diaz cancelling each other out. The Kettering was captured on the following turn which left this American fleet as the second to be eliminated. The Minuteman was still floating but unable to be given move actions.
As the Grand Mountain passed by the modified Chain of Fools fleet the James Madison (still docked) took a mast off the Jade 6 master.
The “plagued” Star of Siam sailed through a whirlpool to arrive in the northeastern portion of the sea.
Turn 6:
The Grand Mountain started the sixth turn by sinking the Bonnie Liz and another (3rd) American canoe.
In the south, the Kray-kin easily sank the Hai Peng, but UPS 2 used Raft to put the remaining two coins and 4 crew on the nearby island. The Coeur and Rover docked at the island to try to farm it’s mysterious qualities. They were successful in both cases, sending home 2 of the 4 coins on the island. How ironic that the fleet that uses CJS to send gold home was now using it’s perpetually docked one masters to send gold home automatically via a MI! The Intrepide missed the derelict Rye, but she was still blocking Kray-kin from getting to the Coeur and Rover.
The Algeciras (from the EA Runners fleet) made the mistake of taking on the still-firing Minuteman, and she was sunk by the American flotilla.
With the Longshanks moving at S speed because of Metal Hull, the Coral was the only relevant ship left from UPS 4. She used the round earth rules to go from the west part of the sea to the east, emerging just south of where the Grand Mountain and American native canoes were.
The EA Runners scuttled the Algeciras, while the Joya del Sol went through a whirlpool to the deserted center area.
Turn 7:
The Grand Mountain sank yet another (the 4th) American native canoe.
The Cannibal King finally got ahold of the Amity and put two of her three masts in the water. Kray-kin surrounded the Intrepide to get her out of the way.
The Amity used the Ghost Ship keyword to move through the Cannibal King and explore an island just to the northeast, where the last American canoe had docked and near where the Coral had just emerged.
The Grand Temple sank the Amity, flipping Divers to give GT 2 all the gold from the ship. With an SAT the Temple also sank the Cannibal King by using Lawrence to cancel the pesky Catamaran keyword.
The Joya del Sol docked at a previously unexplored island. All of her crew deserted after meeting the Missionary on the island. This left the EA Runners fleet with no crew, let alone EA crew! Meanwhile, the Star of Siam finally caught up with the Grand Mountain and infected the big ship with the Plague, taking out Dragon Eyes, Li Quin and a helmsman.
Turn 8:
The Nubian Prince sank the Longshanks, leaving UPS 4 with only the Coral. The Coral sailed alongside the last remaining American native canoe and they began exchanging shots.
Kray-kin sank L’Intrepide, while the Rover was sunk by a Mysterious Island effect, leaving UPS 2 with only the Coeur.
The Grand Temple caught the Bandido and sent her to the bottom, which meant that GT 2 had eliminated the entire Roanoke fleet, which was the third fleet eliminated.
A Spanish canoe found Turtles on an island in the northwest. The Star of Siam purposely took back Plague from the now irrelevant (moving S with no crew) Grand Mountain and sailed off in search of new enemies to infect.
Turn 9:
Kray-kin rolled a 5, stalling the game quite a bit. The American canoe got the better of the Coral and dismasted her, marking UPS 4 as the 4th fleet to be eliminated. Because of Wine the Virtuous Wind couldn’t be shot at while within S of the James Madison’s HI, which left the James Madison to resort to other tactics.
Turn 10:
Kray-kin rolled a 6, marking the second turn in a row that no crew abilities could be used.
The Virtuous Wind pulled off her combo! Exchanging Wine for a 7 (originally transferred from the Bonnie Liz by the canoe chain) and stealing another coin, the Virtuous Wind was able to take two coins in one turn. The James Madison failed to steal any back, losing both the ram and board on her turn. This eliminated the tribal chieftain,, though with only one canoe left it wasn’t very important.
The Garante sailed up behind the Nubian Prince and took off three of her masts by cancelling her ability with Nemesio Diaz (I house-ruled that Holy Water protected the Garante’s crew from Kray-kin’s cancellation).
Finally, the Joya del Sol returned intact from her whirlpool adventure, alas four less crew and two more gold coins than she left with!
Turn 11:
The Grand Mountain managed to sink the last American native canoe, while the Virtuous Wind took off away from the James Madison.
The crew of the once-glorious Nubian Prince decided to dash her on the rocks of an unfriendly MI. With her fleetmates sunk, her helmsman dead and 3 of her 4 masts missing the Corsairs gave up and the Prince was wrecked. The Barbary Corsairs were the 5th fleet eliminated.
The Grand Temple, still intact after shooting her way through Paradis de la Mer and the Roanoke, used another SAT to fly through a whirlpool and emerge in the northwest, where she began blasting turtles out of the water and sinking a Spanish canoe that had a treasure on it. The Garante hit her once in three tries in a retaliatory attempt, but the Garante was too far to get more guns in range and her trusty canoes were nowhere to be found to boost her cannons.
Try and catch me!
Turn 12:
The Kray-kin sank the Coeur to end the game! With 6 (therefore half) of the fleets eliminated, the game was over! I wanted to play until there were no ships or gold left but due to time constraints I played by the regular multiplayer rules.
The final gold count:
1. EA Gold Runners: 34 gold
2. Roanoke fleet: 26 gold
3. Jade Rebellion: 16 gold
3. UPS v 2.0: 16 gold (listed lower because they were eliminated)
5. HMS Grand Temple v 2.0: 14
6. Garante/Canoes fleet: 9 (including 7 turtles still swimming in the water lol)
7. Modified version of Chain of Fools: 7
8-12. UPS v 4.0, USS Kettering fleet, Kray-kin fleet, Dead Man’s Chest UT fleet and the Barbary Corsair fleet all finished with 0 gold.
This was a fun game! The EA Runners overcame the discovery of two of the nastiest UT’s in the game, Plague and Missionary. They were lucky not to be shot at, with the exception of the Algeciras being sunk by the Minuteman, which was largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The Amity and Bandido performed quite well for the Roanoke fleet, while the Roanoke herself deterred UPS 4 from doing much in a similar area where the Roanoke fleet was. The Jade Rebels would have finished with 8 gold (and Chain of Fools with 15) if not for the Virtuous Wind’s late-game dash. UPS 2 did fantastic early on but was crushed later in the game by the power of the Grand Temple and the Kray-kin. HMS GT 2 did quite well for themselves by using Divers at an opportune time and grabbing 4 gold with the derelict Rye. The Garante/Canoes fleet actually did quite well considering they were attacked by the Nubian Prince and didn’t have any fast treasure runners. Given time they could have explored another island and/or unleashed the Garante on more enemy ships. The Chain of Fools fleet was a bit outnumbered and was dogged by the Jade Rebellion all game long. Finding Jail, Enemy of the State, and Natives on the first turn doesn’t help either! I was surprised that UPS 4 and the Barbary Corsairs didn’t get any gold. UPS 4 had to deal with Wolves to the north, the Roanoke to the east and eventually UPS 2 and Paradis de la Mer to the west! Their ships were eliminated later on by a Mysterious Island, Pandora’s Box, and an American native canoe haha! The Corsair gold runners were dominated by the Kettering which didn’t leave much hope of getting gold. The DMC, Kettering, and Kray-kin fleets didn’t stand much of a chance of winning this game in the first place, but they certainly added to the fun and created some havoc for each other and the opposing fleets!
El Garante + Countess Anita Amore, Nemesio Diaz, Duque Alfonso de Castilla, helmsman, tribal chieftain
Native Canoes
El Algeciras (OE version)
Since deathmatches are pretty self-explanatory I thought I’d do my first (and possibly last) pictures-only battle report! It was actually one of the longer and harder-fought deathmatches that I’ve seen.
Hope you enjoyed! I’ll be back sometime this week with another game. I’m going to try and set an unofficial record for the biggest multiplayer game ever! I’ve used as many as 9 fleets in a game once before; now I’m looking at 10 or hopefully more! Part of the reason I’m doing this is because all the fleets I’ve played so far this run have been 40 point fleets and they’re all still out. I can relatively easily combine them into one game, although obviously I can’t use every fleet that’s been played so far because a lot of them use the same ships (especially UPS and the Grand Temple).
Due to time constraints I am only planning on playing one game per matchup from here on out.
*If you haven’t looked at these fleets you really should! I’m not going to repost entire fleet descriptions in the report. It would also be nice if there were more comments and votes on the fleets.*
The islands were set up in a pyramid fashion to change things up. HMS Grand Temple v 3.0 (now referred to as GT3) rolled to go first, followed by the Gold Race fleet. Since the Gold Race fleet was entirely Pirate, the Headhunter’s world-hater was nullified. However, GT3 figured it wouldn’t matter with no opposing ship having more than 2 masts.
Turn 1:
The GT and Oxford couldn’t hit any of the Pirate ships docked at their home island.
The Gold Race fleet followed the 1st turn protocol laid out by darrin in his fleet description. However, I noticed a few issues. When trading away bad UT’s with Pedro Gilbert, the ship “must load the traded treasure“. However, with Jonah and so many crew/equipment on the ship, there’s no space with which to load it. Halfway through the first turn I decided that the Banshee’s Cry never started the game with English Letter of Marque aboard, which let the Cry trade later in the turn. For the first island she decided to keep Enemy of the State since the Cry didn’t plan on docking at her HI at any point in the game.
In addition, this fleet may be the most confusing fleet I’ve ever played. Evident by selvaxri’s comment above, Captain Jack Sparrow is probably the biggest conundrum in Pirates. (On another note, how does the crew/treasure swap work thematically?) I didn’t get it at first either and evidently I’m still having trouble with how powerful he is because in this game I made another mistake. Not only is the gold NOT loaded by the ship carrying CJS, the traded crew doesn’t go on the ship either, it just sits on the island in place of the coin. I thought there was an issue where since Jonah makes the oarsman take up space, there wouldn’t be any space with which to load the traded crew (which you would want to sac with Pedro anyway).
Lastly, Sunken Treasure probably shouldn’t be in the fleet because as darrin alluded to in his introduction to UPS v 2.0, CJS can’t trade away UT’s that are loaded face up.
On the first island that the BC explored, she found Enemy of the State, Sunken Treasure, and two 2’s (not enough to win). After trading a 2 home (which got +3’d by the Bonnie Liz), the BC sacced a crew to move to the next island to the north. Here she found Natives, which was traded away by Pedro for a 6 from another island. In addition to trading Natives away via Pedro, she traded a 4 home via CJS, giving the Pirates 12 gold at the end of the first turn.
Turn 2:
The Grand Temple sacced an oarsman but still couldn’t reach the Banshee’s Cry. The Oxford was partially blocked by the Pirates’ HI and sailed around it, sinking the Rover in the process.
The BC dumped her explorer and oarsman on the second island to make room for another explorer from home, which in hindsight was actually unnecessary because the crew isn’t actually loaded. She then traded a 2 home for a 17-0 victory!
Because of the cargo complications (which I’m still wrapping my head around, lol), I don’t know if I played Darrin’s Gold Race fleet 100% correctly. However, it still won by the end of the second turn without the Grand Temple firing a shot!
The next three game series would be between my Hai Peng Fort Frenzy fleet and a fleet that was created recently with some of my new ships. The first game was particularly long and exciting, even complex to a degree.
Turn 1:
The American Pirates (abbreviated AP’s) went first, using Hidden Cove to catapult the Amity out to the middle island. She explored and found Barbary Banner.
This Hai Peng can move 4S and 4L total distance because of Mycron on the Patagonia. She couldn’t quite reach the furthest island, and since the Amity had already docked at the middle island, the Hai Peng was forced to sail to the northwestern island. However, she found Holy Water, Pirate Globe and two 2’s. This was a problem because all forts cost at least 3 gold and therefore the Hai Peng couldn’t build a fort on the first turn. The HP took one of the 2 coins and traded the other one home via CJS and the Lezard.
Turn 2:
The Bandido docked at the northeastern island, while the Roanoke was not yet in range of either the Hai Peng or the Banshee’s Cry. With a helmsman and Blackheart the Roanoke could move up to L+S+L+S, quite fast but technically only half the total speed of the Hai Peng.
The reveal of Pirate Globe on the first turn proved to be very beneficial to the Hai Peng fleet (Hai Peng Fort Frenzy or HPFF). The Globe revealed that on the western island where the Banshee’s Cry was about to dock, there was Maps of Alexandria, Jailhouse Dog and two 5’s. On the northeastern island where the Bandido had docked there was a 5 and three 2’s. Because the Bandido was about to take treasure from her island and that island was closer to the AP’s HI (plus the fact that it had more gold on it), the HP sailed off to the island where the Bandido was docked. With 8 total move segments she was able to get there easily and also position herself in a way that let her shoot at the Bandido while staying out of range of the Roanoke. One of her two shots hit to dismast the Bandido. She then sent the 5 home to build Paradis de la Mer on the island as the Banshee’s Cry docked at the western island.
(The gold is already on the AP’s HI because I forgot to take a picture at the end of the turn.)
Turn 3:
The Amity docked home her 10 gold including the 5 from Barbary Banner, giving the AP’s a 10-2 gold advantage. Knowing that of the 11 gold that was on the northeastern island (with Paradis), only 7 could be transferred home (making the score 10-9 at a maximum), the Roanoke made the decision to keep sailing west towards the Banshee’s Cry.
The Hai Peng couldn’t quite make it to the western island where the Banshee’s Cry was docked, partly because she had docked on the other side of the island on the previous turn to shoot at the Bandido and avoid the Roanoke. As a result the HP couldn’t build a fort on this turn either, with three islands either emptied or having a fort on them already. The HP also realized that there wasn’t enough gold in Paradis de la Mer to win by simply transferring it home via CJS, not to mention that the oarsmen aboard the Lezard would run out anyway. Knowing that the HP would have a shot at the western island on the following turn, the Banshee’s Cry sailed away from the island because it would be easy for the Roanoke to sink her on the next turn and take the gold with Divers. The Banshee’s Cry and Hai Peng both made sure they were out of the Roanoke’s range.
Turn 4:
The Bandido was scuttled since Paradis would have sunk her anyway, leaving the AP’s with the Roanoke and Amity. HPFF forgot about the explorer on the Roanoke, and the Roanoke used him to grab both 5’s from the western island, saccing one of her two oarsmen to make enough space. Jailhouse Dog was used to eliminate the Holy Water that the HP had loaded. This was a blow to HPFF because they had wanted to use Jailhouse Dog to eliminate Barbary Banner to deny the AP’s 5 extra gold. The Roanoke’s foremast cannon was just out of range of the Banshee’s Cry.
HPFF now realized that to win the game they would have to steal at least one of the 5’s on board the Roanoke. The Banshee’s Cry had nowhere to run and no islands to explore, so she rammed the Roanoke out of desperation, losing both rolls and one of her two oarsmen. The Hai Peng sailed back to Paradis and transferred home the original 5 used to build the fort by leaving two 2’s as the gold necessary to keep the fort in operation. The gold count was now 10-7 in favour of the AP’s.
Turn 5:
The Roanoke sank the Banshee’s Cry, while the Amity wasn’t fast enough to ram the HP. The Hai Peng sent home 2 more gold from Paradis, leaving 4 gold permanently in the fort (10-9, AP’s winning).
Turn 6:
The Roanoke started to sail home. The Lezard, with no more oarsmen to transfer and no gold to unload at her HI, finally set sail. At this point the game was up to the HP and the Lezard (but realistically only the HP) to steal gold from the Roanoke and get away with it. The HP still had the 2 in her cargo hold from early in the game. This Hai Peng is so fast that she was able to go all the way home from Paradis and still sail back out again and catch the Roanoke.
Turn 7:
The Roanoke moved twice by saccing her second oarsman. The HP dropped off her 2 coin at her HI, giving HPFF an 11-10 lead.
Turn 8:
The Roanoke sacced her explorer to move twice once again, leaving her about a centimeter from her HI.
The moment was finally at hand! The Hai Peng was faced with her greatest challenge yet. With Mycron she was able to move and shoot twice before ramming the Roanoke. She missed both shots on the first action but hit both times on the second action, leaving the Roanoke with three masts. The Hai Peng rammed the Roanoke on the port side to avoid a potential ram by the Amity on the following turn. However, the ram roll failed, leaving the Hai Peng at a slight disadvantage going into the boarding action. With great drama the boarding action failed! The Hai Peng only lost an oarsman but in reality she had lost the game, as the Roanoke ended the game on the next turn by docking home her two 5’s to give the American Pirates a thrilling 20-11 victory!
This was one of the more interesting games of this winter so far. It was definitely one of the longest 40 point games I’ve ever played, with 9 total turns counting the Roanoke’s final turn. During the game I noticed some problems with my HPFF fleet. I’ll look to correct them as I go along.
Game 2:
HPFF rolled to go first, and the HI setup was reversed with the AP’s in the south and HPFF in the east. Instead of two oarsmen on the Banshee’s Cry one was swapped out for an explorer.
Turn 1:
The Hai Peng couldn’t reach the western island and so was forced to dock at the northwestern island, where she built the Devil’s Maw.
Turn 2:
The Banshee’s Cry explored the middle wild island and found Jailhouse Dog, Barbary Banner, Maps of Alexandria, and a 2. She took the gold and the Hai Peng was able to see what treasures were on the remaining two islands. She sailed to the northeastern island and built Paradis de la Mer.
The Amity reached the western island and took the gold from it. In the first big move of the game, the Roanoke was Hidden Cove’d to the middle island. The AP’s had decided to use HC with the Roanoke rather than to run gold with it. This extra boost of movement got the Roanoke within saccing striking distance of the Hai Peng. Blackheart sacced an oarsman and the Roanoke sunk the Hai Peng while she was docked at Paradis!
Two turns in and the Hai Peng is gone.
Turn 3:
After a great start HPFF was now in big trouble. On the bright side, Mycron could now give the Patagonia’s action to the Banshee’s Cry, which let her return home at L+L+L+L speed from the middle island. In the meantime Paradis de la Mer exacted some revenge on the Roanoke by hitting twice with both of the cannons that were in range.
Since the Devil’s Maw was an easier target, the Roanoke turned west and sacced herself into range of the Pirate fort, hitting twice in five tries between two shoot actions. She could only get two of her three remaining guns in range for the first action. It was now up to the Roanoke to take out a fort since they held all the gold left in play that was needed for the AP’s to win.
Turn 4:
The Banshee’s Cry zipped out to Paradis and grabbed the 5 coin, which was the last coin that could leave the fort since the two 2’s had to stay. This is actually one of the biggest weaknesses of the HPFF fleet because they can only get so much gold home from the forts they build. The Devil’s Maw took a mast off the Roanoke with her three remaining cannons to establish a slight numerical advantage.
The Amity returned home with 8 gold, making the score 8-7 in favour of the AP’s. The Roanoke sacced her explorer to shoot twice at the Devil’s Maw but only hit once in four tries.
Turn 5:
The Banshee’s Cry docked home the 5 from Paradis to take the lead 12-8. The Devil’s Maw connected for a hit on the Roanoke, leaving the flagship with just one mast.
On the AP’s turn the Roanoke sacced her valuable helmsman to shoot twice at the Devil’s Maw. The risk paid off as the Roanoke hit both times to make the fort abandoned and render it useless!
Turn 6:
This is when the game started getting down to the wire. With the Hai Peng long gone and the Roanoke with one mast standing, the lesser ships would finally decide the outcome of the game.
Since the Roanoke was still around the Devil’s Maw island that the Banshee’s Cry had to get to in order to load the winning gold, HPFF decided to use Mycron’s action for the Lezard, who had been sailing northwest ever since her partner in crime (the HP) had sunk. HPFF was worried about the speed (S+S+S) of the Bandido to ram the Banshee’s Cry out of commission. The Lezard was given an extra action which she used to ram the Bandido, needing just a 2 to hit. She rolled a 1, leaving the AP’s with 5 masts in the area and HPFF with 2.
With no crew left to sac and no helmsman, Blackheart fired the Roanoke’s last cannon at the Devil’s Maw, but it missed. The Bandido sailed around the Lezard and rammed her in return, but somehow the Bandido also rolled a 1.
Turn 7:
With the Roanoke now in ramming range, the Lezard now rammed her and succeeded in taking out her last mast. The Roanoke was now derelict. The Banshee’s Cry used Mycron to approach the crucial northwestern island, which was actually the first island to be explored in this game.
The Amity returned the favour by ramming the Lezard, leaving three ships (two derelict) all in contact with one another.
Turn 8:
The Banshee’s Cry docked at the Devil’s Maw and loaded 4 gold, which would be enough to win the game for HPFF.
This was already a great, close, hard-fought game, but now it really started getting ridiculous. The Banshee’s Cry had measured multiple times and determined that there was nowhere at the northwestern island that she could dock without being in ramming range of the two Pirate ships. She docked on the far side of the island anyway.
The Bandido came around the north side of the island and rammed the Cry. Needing a 2 to dismast the Cry and probably win the game for the AP’s, the Bandido rolled another 1! The Amity sailed around the south side of the island, rammed the Banshee’s Cry and rolled a 1! O_O The boarding rolls were ineffective and the Banshee’s Cry had inexplicably survived!
Is this die cursed?
The infamous and now apparently invincible Banshee’s Cry:
Turn 9:
The Banshee’s Cry was trapped between the Amity and the Bandido, and if you read my report from the game using El Garante a few weeks ago you’ll remember the moment where the huge ship was trapped on both sides by ships that had rammed her. I feel that it would be very unfair for a fleet to lose in such a way and therefore the “no ship may turn more than 90 degrees” house rule was temporarily broken to allow the Banshee’s Cry to move. She took off with the help of Mycron and there was no hope of the Amity or Bandido of catching her.
The Bandido used a shoot action to finally destroy the Devil’s Maw, and the Amity used her explorer to grab the 7 gold that was in the fort.
Turns 10 and 11:
The ships raced for home with their gold, but it was no contest. The Cry docked home 4 gold to give HPFF a 16-8 win!
This was one of the craziest games I’ve played so far this run and one of the better ones I’ve played overall. It was even longer than the last one between these fleets (11 turns and 9 for the first one). They seem to be unnaturally evenly matched, which makes for awesome gameplay. HPFF appears better on paper, but the advantage of having Hidden Cove is HUGE. This really evens out the fleets and even gives the American Pirates the upper hand in some ways.
It was good to see the smaller ships see action after the Roanoke and especially the Hai Peng were knocked out of the game. HPFF showed their mettle by winning the game even after their main ship was sunk on the second turn.
Despite the game’s length and overall excitement, I think I’ll always remember this game as the failed ramming game (or the ram game maybe?). I believe there were SIX ram attempts on ships with one mast, and only two of them succeeded! Mathematically you’d expect 5/6 to work. Perhaps shoot actions aren’t the only time where huge amounts of 1’s are rolled… XD
Game 3:
The third game featured the HPFF HI in the west and the AP HI on the northeast island. HPFF rolled to go first.
Turn 1:
The Hai Peng explored the middle island, finding Holy Water, Maps of Alexandria (thus turning over all the other treasure on the islands), a 5 and a 1. She sent the 5 home and kept the 1 and Holy Water. Then the HP went south and explored another island, sending another 5 gold home which came right back in the form of the Devil’s Maw.
Turn 2:
The HP now went to the northwestern island and grabbed Jailhouse Dog in order to potentially cancel Barbary Banner, which was on the eastern island near the AP HI. The HP sent a 2 to the Lezard. The Banshee’s Cry loaded 4 gold from the Devil’s Maw. At the end of the turn Paradis de la Mer was built on the northwest island.
The Amity used Ghost Ship to sail through the northwest island and ram the docked Hai Peng. The ram and board were successful, leaving the HP with one mast and the Amity with 1 gold in her cargo hold. The Bandido docked at the eastern island. The Roanoke was Hidden Cove’d to the middle island from which she sacced an oarsman to sink the Banshee’s Cry to the south. Divers was flipped to give the AP’s all 4 gold on their HI. The Roanoke was 4 out of 5 on her shoot action, with her last two hits coming against the Devil’s Maw.
Turn 3:
HPFF began the turn by opening fire with their two forts. This was probably the most triumphant game I’ve played with forts. The Devil’s Maw blasted the Roanoke 3/3 to leave her with two masts remaining. Then Paradis de la Mer let loose a flurry of shots on the Amity, shredding her to pieces and leaving her derelict! Once again the rage of the gunners on Paradis had gotten revenge on the AP’s for attacking the Hai Peng. When the smoke cleared from these battles the Hai Peng had already sailed away and was almost to the Bandido in the east.
The Bandido explored and took Barbary Banner and a 5 and a 2. The Roanoke retreated, with no interest in engaging the Devil’s Maw.
Turn 4:
The Hai Peng dismasted the Bandido with her first action and captured her and explored the island with her second action. This left the Roanoke as the only AP ship left that could move.
Turn 5:
The HP towed the Bandido back the way she had come to the northwest, desperate to stay out of the Roanoke’s range. The Roanoke sailed north, dismasting the Lezard, which had sailed out to capture the Amity.
Turn 6:
The Lezard had plenty of oarsmen aboard (including her French one) and captured the Amity. HPFF had now captured two of the three AP ships and the Roanoke only had two masts standing. The Hai Peng sailed south with the Bandido in tow (still moving S+L+S+S+L+S because of the bonuses and Mycron), once again avoiding the Roanoke. The Roanoke turned south but was just out of range.
Turn 7:
The Hai Peng docked, bringing in 14 gold between her and the Bandido. This gave Hai Peng Fort Frenzy a 16-4 victory and means that they win this series 2 games to 1!
This was an amazing series that was hotly contested. These fleets are very evenly matched, with both of the first two games taking a long time and going down to the wire. The third game finally featured a near-perfect game from HPFF, which shows how fast and powerful it can be. Hai Peng Fort Frenzy beats the American Pirates 2 games to 1.
Sure the Cursed are an easy pick, but as of the time this was submitted, nobody had utilized the terrible Cursed LE ships.
The Tarantula has almost literally no chance of using Papa Doc’s possession ability, and even if she does, he probably won’t possess any useful crew.
The Sarcophagus also moves S and has the Fear keyword, if the ship can get within range at some point. Cavendish and Stinkpot Shot take up cargo space to limit her gold running potential.
The Dance actually serves a key role – eliminating enemy crew through boarding, which forces them to be able to pick up more gold!
Severe strengths (not weaknesses!) of this fleet include the high number of cargo available, and the oars which limit the effectiveness of Odin’s Revenge. The Missionary is designed to eliminate enemy crew so they can take more treasure with the open cargo spaces.
Thanks for reading about Taking Out The Trash; comment and vote!
I came up with a few preliminary ideas, including the Pirates, the Cursed, and the Americans. The Pirate ships generally had way more cargo than I was willing to have, and their selection of pricey named crew was too useful. The Cursed were a bit too easy, so I decided on the Americans.
At one point after reviewing volt’s rules for the challenge, I realized: why not make it even more difficult and try to force myself to use the absolute minimums? This would prove to be a great starting point in limiting how effective my fleets could be.
The next section details my thought process as I went through each rule.
quote:
Rules:
1) Your fleet must consist of more than 1 ship
So, ideally to make the crappiest fleet out there, we’d want a maximum of 2 ships.
quote:
2) Your fleet must contain a minimum of 3 total masts.
On those 2 ships, one has to have 1 mast and one has to have 2 masts. Or, have a fleet of three 1 masters.
quote:
3) Each ship must have at least one crew that is usable on that ship. (I said usable, not useful heh)
The one crew should be as useless as possible. Anything that grants abilities like helmsman, captain, Eternal, or any action generating abilities is completely out of the question. Only utterly horrible abilities (preferably expensive ones) can be used in the fleets I make. Even crew like Tariq the Black are extremely useful in a challenge like this because that captain ability is simply too good, even at a 2 point premium. The standards need to be lowered beneath the floor. As a result, compared to what I would expect to see in this challenge, any fleet with a captain ability is going to be a “good” fleet.
quote:
4) At least one of the ships in your fleet must be able to dock at your home island. (Sorry no Merc fleets, heh)
Not a big deal. Definitely a good restriction!
quote:
5) There must be at least one free cargo spot in your fleet.
Okay, so we’re aiming to have ONLY ONE open cargo space in the entire fleet. Anything else is too good!
quote:
6) All tournament legal cards can be used in this challenge, as well as the RtSS set.
7) You must use all of your 40 points in your fleet.
Alright, now onto the fleet!
Some of these choices may look exceedingly random, but there was actually a bunch of strategy that went into figuring out this fleet.
Assumption: All the fleets that this fleet faces will also be Garbage fleets. Therefore, I’m just going to assume that the other fleets also tried to go with the minimums described in the rules.
What does this result in? A bunch of fleets with exactly one open cargo space in the fleet. That ship tries to run gold, while the other ones can’t. All they can do is fight. However, when fighting, I want my ships to have the absolute lowest possible chances of winning. Therefore, the Burning Man is the perfect flagship. The Burning Man is slow, expensive, and weak. The Ghost Ship keyword is huge: if the ship is ghostly, opponents can’t kill the one crew (Pierce Hollow, LOL) on board the ship via boarding. Why don’t we want opponents to board? If they do, they’ll eliminate Pierce and open up a cargo space! What?! An open cargo space! What a nightmare! We can’t afford to have any cargo space open for gold, since then we would have a chance at winning the game, and we don’t want that!
Not only is Pierce Hollow’s ability completely useless on a ship with only two cargo spaces, but she’s also the only crew on the ship in the first place, so there’s not even any other crew to reduce values on!
I originally had some grape shot, grapple shot, and Letters of Marque on the different ships, but since they can easily be eliminated from the game (freeing up cargo spaces), I went with Stinkpot Shot instead.
Next up is USS Seminole. It doesn’t get much worse right here: 13 points for a 1 master with a 5S cannon and only one cargo space. The Seminole is incapable of doing just about anything: she’s just here to provide that single open cargo space. She was originally empty, but I had to add an oarsman to fulfill the rule that each ship must have a crew on it.
The last ship is the Plymouth Rock, owner of one of the most hated abilities in the entire game. Half the time she moves L, half the time she moves L+L. This is quite fantastic for a garbage fleet, which is why I was hesitant to include her. I originally had the Plymouth Rock with the only open cargo space, but then I realized that she would be one of the better gold runners out there. As a result, I switched the equipment and crew so that the Seminole was the “gold runner”. Now the Plymouth Rock can sail around aimlessly, although she can use her L+L speed and explorer ability to find a UT that you may have already seen. Hopefully a ram will take her out of the game to speed the game up so this fleet can lose more quickly. Also, to my knowledge Perry’s ability is completely optional, and you could bring in 3 extra points rather than 5 if you wanted to. Instead, he’s not bringing anything in. He’s just a crew waiting to be eliminated or captured to give your opponent more gold!
The Burning Man is just about useless. With no captain and only L speed, she’ll have a hard time using her Stinkpot Shot. If it hits, the useless crew on the opponent’s ships probably won’t be worth cancelling, especially since it’s only on their turn. The Seminole is a treasure runner with L speed, 1 cargo space, and extreme fragility. Lastly, the Plymouth Rock is a ship that can’t run gold or fight, and is easily eliminated from the game.
Still, it was nice to finally get to the top since I write so many reports and most of the folks at BGG (understandably) don’t have any reports of the huge numbers of games they’ve played. (At the time of this republishing in June 2019, I’m at 430 total plays!)
Part of the reason I’m doing this is because all the fleets I’ve played so far this run have been 40 point fleets and they’re all still out. I can relatively easily combine them into one game, although obviously I can’t use every fleet that’s been played so far because a lot of them use the same ships (especially 
