3 Time Zones, 3 Players – VASSAL game of December 29th, 2017
Just played a 3 player VASSAL game with Anthony and Xerecs! With Anthony in Italy, myself in New York, and Xerecs in California, we played over 3 time zones for a total time differential of 9 hours! O_O
Anthony went first with a Jade Rebellion fleet:
Grand Path + captain, helmsman
Sea Duck
Dragon’s Talon + helmsman
Xerecs used the same amazing type of ships he almost always seems to use:
HMS Grand Temple + Bonny Peel, Sir Christopher Myngs, helmsman, oarsman
Longshanks + helmsman, explorer, oarsman
We introduced Anthony to terrain and UT’s, with 6 total islands and 6 pieces of terrain.
The Grand Temple got an SAT from Myngs to dismast the Amity, who had turned ghostly:
The Grand Temple used the whirlpools to head south, while the Dragon’s Talon and Sea Duck got some gold. The Grand Path and Terror sailed past Xerecs’ home island in opposite directions.
The Longshanks transferred the OE version of the Dead Man’s Chest UT to the Grand Temple (I thought it was the PotC version), allowing the GT to sink the Terror and eliminate my “Merc Pirates” from the game. The Jades were busy getting gold, but were soon set upon by the English as well.
The Grand Path sunk the Grand Temple in a matchup of capital ships, after which the Longshanks went on the run with some gold.
The Longshanks got home with coins, after which the Grand Path did the same after some light skirmishing.
Ironically, all the ships with captains docked at wild islands while the Joya was sailing towards the Dover!
The explorer of the Joya appeared to have a death wish, trying to sink the Dover without the actual captain ability! However, the Dover missed all 3 of her shots in a classic shoot action gone wrong by yours truly!
Even more improbable, the Joya went 3 for 3 on the Spanish turn to cripple the Dover!! O_O
The Dover scurried home to unload coins and repair, handing over combat duties to the more well-equipped HMS Bolingbroke.
It took 3 turns, but the Bolingbroke went 4/9 to finally dismast the pesky Joya del Sol. The Dover and Asesino went back for more gold.
The Bolingbroke captured the Joya del Sol and the last coins were collected.
Final score:
1. English: 23 gold
2. Spanish: 14 gold
This was a good basic introductory game, and we’re planning to play again soon!
I played a game on Christmas Eve after teaching a new player how to play Pirates! I don’t have the Sleigh or Captain Whitebeard (not that they’re legal of course), but getting them out for a brand-new player would be pretty brutal anyway.
In a strange irony, I actually played inside the same shopping mall where I bought my first packs at a FYE store (since closed) way back in early 2005!! O_O My Pirates’ Life coming full circle at last! XD
The game was played at a 40 point build total, and I rolled to go first: (all game pieces found in the Master Spreadsheet)
English
HMS Durham + captain
HMS Frolic
HMS Europa + Commander Temple
English Pirates
HMS Victor + captain
Greed’s Hammer + captain, helmsman
Accused + oarsman
3 wild islands with 4 coins each:
The Durham and Greed’s Hammer (GH) head to the same island. The Europa got lucky with extra actions in this game, but couldn’t do much with them. (she was going to combine an EA with Temple’s ability to yank a derelict home, but wasn’t very useful in the meantime)
I let the Europa explore the island with an extra action (no room for gold), while the Durham shot a mast off the GH.
The GH maneuvered to dock at the island while shooting at the Durham, hitting both times to cripple the English flagship.
In the meantime, the Victor, Accused, and Frolic were all busy getting some precious loot:
Without a helmsman to boost her speed, the captain of the Durham decides to not go full speed, electing to keep the mainmast cannon in range to knock another mast off the GH (and thus preventing a possible sinking on the Pirate turn).
This Durham pales in comparison to the original, but she’s not a bad ship overall.
The Durham and Frolic get plenty of gold for the English, while the Pirates gather treasure as well.
In the end the Europa left Temple on the island to pick up the final coin there, while the Frolic and Accused have the last loads of treasure for their fleets.
My English ended up winning 19-9, since I got luckier with the treasure distribution. However, the game was mostly about teaching a new player the basics and having fun, which we did. Thanks for reading!
Only PotC game pieces were allowed, except for generic crew.
Xerecs‘ Pirates
Fleur de la Mort + Cursed Captain Barbossa, Captain Sao Feng, Cursed Crew 2, helmsman
Revenge + Capitaine Chevalle, captain, helmsman
Ranger + helmsman, explorer
Song + helmsman
A7XfanBen’s English
HMS Phoenix + Admiral James Norrington, helmsman, oarsman
HMS Hyena + Lord Cutler Beckett, helmsman, explorer
HMS Success + captain, helmsman
Edinburgh Trader + captain, helmsman
The game featured plenty of UT’s, many of which were found early on. Beckett got his first two AA rolls, giving the Edinburgh Trader and Phoenix a fast start. The Hyena found Marines and Cannibals on the same island!
The Phoenix shot two masts off the Revenge from L+L range, but that precipitated a major brawl between the 4 most heavily armed ships. The Success dismasted the Revenge but took major damage in the process. The Fleur couldn’t capture Norrington from the Phoenix, who shot 1/3 to take a mast off the Fleur.
The Pirates used Dead Man’s Chest to get 4 extra gold, and the Edinburgh Trader found TWO Aztec Medallions on the same wild island! Not rolling a 1 for either, she found Elizabeth’s Piece of Eight. However, it was likely too late.
The Fleur de la Mort captured Admiral James Norrington!
The Trader unloaded her coins, and the game was over! The Pirates won 40-16!
What did you think of the Pirates of the Caribbean Pocketmodels 10th Anniversary Game?
This was a 4 player game on VASSAL between myself, xerecs, repkosai, and wifey. We used Cadet-Captain Mike’s random setup tables, rolling 6-5-1 for free ships totalling 10 cargo and four free crew. Since the game was played in 2 chunks and I was only 1 of 4 players, this is the best summary I can muster.
The play order went from left to right as the fleets appear at the top: xerecs with a mostly Pirate fleet, repkosai with a mixed fleet, a7xfanben with a Cursed fleet, and wifey with a mostly English fleet. We did round earth and included plenty of UT’s!
The fleets scatter, and the gold race begins!
Repkosai’s Black Pearl (xerecs used that ship as well) found Pandora’s Box, bringing some craziness into the game. Wifey’s Monarca found one of the worst islands in recent memory, with negative UT’s, 0 coins, and Bad Maps, which is why the island in the southeast nearly round earthed to a different part of the map!
This was taken after we resumed play this past weekend, and Repkosai has lost the Black Pearl and Gibraltar, while wifey’s Monarca and my Lilu also sunk (the latter with copier DJC Davy Jones aboard, who was copying Emperor Blackheart’s All-Powerful keyword to be just like the OE Davy Jones). Xerecs’ Flying Dutchman has just docked home a captured Benito de Soto (via Bonny Peel) for a big 9 gold chunk. Wifey’s HMS Grand Temple found misfortune in the form of UT’s and was set upon by my Cursed fleet, but escaped and rid herself of the Runes of Death via whirlpooling, repairing soon afterwards. The Cursed gathered gold for a while and here they’ve struck, coming out of the fog to dismast Xerecs’ Black Pearl.
The south became the location of a hot action, with the Hades’ Realm finally revealing her secret weapon: Captain Nemo! I was trying to use Nemo in conjunction with OE El Fantasma (sac captain) in order to sac any crew for extra actions that didn’t benefit the HR (department) while aboard. To make it more complex and fun, Wraith was aboard the Fiddler’s Green to reanimate sacrificed crew for additional usage! The Cursed had the good fortune of discovering the Eye of Insanity early in the game, using it on the Fiddler’s Green to copy El Fantasma with Wraith and give the FG the captain ability. (in)Human Resources won a boarding party against the Black Pearl, allowing Nemo to capture Emperor Blackheart! This was important but also ironic, because I had previously used Davy Jones to copy EBH to essentially use the OE Davy Jones (which is what I originally had before remembering the Lilu was 11 points compared to 12 needed for OE DJ). The Cursed once again had access to an All-Powerful crew! In addition, this gave them an incredible cast of characters all on the same ship: Fantasma, Nemo, and Blackheart, some of the biggest characters from this game.
Here the Fiddler’s Green and Hades’ Realm team up to take down the Flying Dutchman. The Jikininki was also disposed of by the Cursed, a ship notably included by xerecs in a clever (and somewhat gamey) way of exploiting the setup rules, as she’s the only ship (not including sea creatures) in the game to not have any cargo space.
Repkosai’s Resolucion has captured Xerecs’ Black Pearl, giving us a second irony since repkosai had a BP earlier in the game before it was sunk. The Cursed have captured the Flying Dutchman and scuttled her to take advantage of Eternal.
After briefly collaborating with repkosai in a secret alliance, I unfortunately turned on him because it was the best move I could make that gave me the best chance of winning the game. Nemo’s captive EBH rolled a 6 to toss the Resolucion onto a reef, where she lost 3 of her 4 masts. The Hades’ Realm knocked the last one off before moving on to the BP. The Fiddler’s Green returns to the scene to get gold, but wifey has arrived! Alas, the Concorde and Grand Temple weren’t crewed enough to take on the juggernaut that the HR had become.
Ironically the human resources department grew to a massive size, with the HR using Nemo to snag Carlos Pavon off the Resolucion and a helmsman from the Concorde. The partially-repaired Flying Dutchman won a boarding party against the BP to get Hammersmith in Bonny Peel’s hands. I needed as much gold as I could get, and Hammersmith’s 5 and the gold loaded by the Fiddler’s Green would help. Wifey’s remaining ships gave their best effort but without captains were easy prey for the now-unstoppable Hades’ Realm.
In the end, Xerecs got THREE 7’s, a 1, and Benito de Soto’s 9 gold payout, earning the win despite my fantastic second half that ended in domination of the sea but not of profit.
This was a very fun 4 player game that saw a lot of funny moments, ironies, and good gameplay. Xerecs got high gold values, and managed to pull off his plan of nabbing a very high-value crew in Benito. My plans were foiled early, but flourished late in the game. It would have been enough with a different treasure distribution, but I had a lot of fun! Repkosai got two 7’s himself, but was really smashed by xerecs’ Pirates and later betrayed by the Cursed. Wifey played a good game but was plagued by incredible misfortune, with a horrid treasure distribution dooming her chances of victory. With that, we look forward to more adventures on the high seas!
Points In Play AND Gold For the Win (new endgame rule)
This was a 3 player game on VASSAL between myself, repkosai, and wifey.
With some inspiration from this epicness, we decided to play by a new rule. The winner of the game would be whoever had the most points in play PLUS gold. Essentially, you’d start with X points and try not to lose any, and get gold along the way to maximize your score.
We kept it simple for the first time trying out the idea, with standard 40 point fleets. Also, since the new rule could potentially make the gold race irrelevant, we contributed high value coins (only worth 4 gold or more). Here was the turn order:
Repkosai’s Corsairs
El Leon + Castro (SAT version), captain, helmsman
Wicked Kareen + captain, helmsman
Queen of Sheba + helmsman
Wifey’s Spaniards
Asesino de la Nave + captain
El Duque + captain, helmsman
La Monarca + explorer
The Duque and Raven are the first to reach islands:
After some maneuvering, the Leon knocked the flag off the Doombox flotilla before being attacked by the Cutlass and Raven. Barstow nabbed the Spanish captain, but the Raven couldn’t dismast the Spanish ship. To make things more complicated, the Asesino was approaching.
The Unconventional Pirates dismast the Leon and nearly do the same to the Asesino! The Monarca lurks north of the wild island the Pirates looted with the Paradox and Cutlass.
The Pirates clean up with a big turn! The Paradox captured the Leon, while the Raven dismasted the Asesino and the Cutlass did the same to the Monarca. At this point I had realized that my strategy of capturing crew for gold with Barstow wasn’t a very effective strategy with the new endgame rule, so I adapted and tried to capture as many ships as possible to control a lot of points. However, the Spanish were certainly winning the gold race, as the Duque brought home her second haul.
The Pirates capture the Asesino and Monarca, giving them 6 ships to double the size of their fleet!
The Pirates repair two of their new ships and maneuver so the Paradox can tow the Asesino, allowing the Raven to unload her captured captain. The Duque passes by in a convenient route, allowing the Pirates to attack her as well!
The Duque was captured, giving the Pirates 7 ships and their flotilla! The Leon was sent through a whirlpool to steal gold from the Queen of Sheba, which she did with moderate success. Another captured Spanish ship from a different fleet, the Monarca, grabbed a coin from the northeastern island. The Pirates had already begun celebrating – check out the welcoming parade for the Leon and Monarca! With the Spanish eliminated and the QoS docking home her gold for the Corsairs, the game was over with no gold left to collect.
The points and gold of each fleet were tallied up!
1. Pirates: 139 total points (93 in their fleet, so they more than doubled their starting build total)
2. Corsairs: 49
3. Spanish: 36 (all from gold)
The Pirates ruled the seas in this game, using a dual strategy of gold capture crew and later adapting to capture ships normally to maximize the size of their fleet.
I must say, I like this new endgame variation, and not just because I won. It’s rather practical, and adds more realism to the game. Ships were very important, and losing a ship could be as bad or worse than losing a cargo full of resources. It really emphasizes keeping your fleet healthy, and trying to make a decisive engagement with another player so you can take ships and crew (and therefore points) from their fleet and add them to your own. In addition, it makes sinking ships less practical, and incentivizes the winners of battles to keep derelicts afloat and capture them. This is also more realistic, as ships didn’t sink from cannon fire very often in the Age of Sail. Finally, it makes combat more enticing since the gold scores aren’t the end-all be-all like they usually are. This is great because various people expected the game to be more of a combat game and wish there was more battling, and because gold running is usually more boring than the combat. I’d love to hear feedback on this “Points In Play AND Gold for the win” idea! Please comment below your thoughts on it!
Just played a game with Repkosai using Cadet-Captain Mike’s random setup tables! Repkosai made the rolls to avoid my bad luck giving us a more boring setup. He rolled a 5-4-6, which gave us: “Free ships totalling 8 masts; One generic crew on each ship, plus two generic crew & one named crew (all free)”.
With that, it was clear that you could afford many of the lesser used small ships with high point costs.
Repkosai went first with an American fleet:
Enterprise + Commodore David Porter, cargo master, helmsman
USS Kettering + captain, helmsman
I went with one of the strangest fleets I’ve ever constructed, and possibly one of the oddest fleets of all time:
Barnacle + helmsman
Loki + helmsman
HMS Swiftsure + captain, stinkpot specialist
Seven Brothers + helmsman
Sea Storm + captain, helmsman
Dharma + Bonny Peel, helmsman
Kalaallit + captain
Le Jongleur + helmsman
Round earth rules. I made sure to include various UT’s, including some wacky and potentially game-changing ones!
The Americans head northwest, while the mixed fleet immediately scatters. My strategy was to raid the American HI with the Loki and Jongleur after the Enterprise docked home. The Sea Storm was a suicidal pest, while the Dharma and Swiftsure were more tactical gunships (especially the Dharma, with Bonny Peel potentially being a nice surprise between the named crew in the opposing fleet and the Longship’s +1 boarding bonus). The KL was a hybrid, but ran gold at the start. The Seven Brothers and Barnacle were the most direct gold runners, and I wanted the Barnacle to find at least one of the UT’s I dumped in…
In an annoying circumstance for both sides, the Enterprise picked up Enemy of the State! Not only could the Americans not unload her gold, but the mixed fleet couldn’t steal it via HI raiding! At the extreme south and east of the sea, the Dharma and Loki look to round earth and surprise the Americans. The Swiftsure and Sea Storm watch the Kettering, almost as eager to stay out of range as they are to pounce.
In the south, the KL finds Ammunition and Driftwood. In the north, the Barnacle finds a UT and some good gold, along with the Dead Man’s Chest UT. The DMC was included since the unique setup rules allowed me various free generic crew. I purposely included only 1’s for regular coins, in order to maximize my personal benefit if the DMC was used properly. With 3 of the islands explored and only one left, the Swiftsure knows what she must do….
With the Enterprise unable to dock, the Americans headed northeast to try and eliminate the Dead Man’s Chest UT from the Barnacle. I made a comment about blowing the game up, but little did the Americans know, I meant it literally! In what looked like a bizarre and suicidal move, the gold-laden Barnacle rammed the huge and powerful Enterprise! The other UT the Barnacle had found was… Explosives! I rolled a lucky 6 and both the Barnacle and Enterprise were blown up!! Luckily the Enterprise had found some Driftwood of her own (separate from that on the KL), which saved Porter, who grabbed onto a log just in time for the explosion to simply throw him to a nearby wild island.
However, this was just the beginning of my nefarious plans, as the Seven Brothers finally explored her island to find another crazy UT: PLAGUE! The Swiftsure had the fastest base move in my fleet, and immediately zoomed up to the SB and grabbed the Plague. This eliminated the Swiftsure’s captain and stinkpot specialist, but the Plague was more valuable in deterring the Kettering from interfering with the endgame, which was approaching quite rapidly. As for my other ships, the KL is headed home with gold, the Jongleur looks to grab some gold from the SB so she’s not trucking it home at just S speed, the Dharma is unable to attempt crew captures from the Kettering due to bad fog rolls, the Sea Storm heads north again to provide bait for the Kettering, and with no gold on the American HI available for stealing, the Loki looks to pick up a coin left over from the KL’s haul.
The Kettering loaded Porter aboard, and the Sea Storm let herself sink so the Swiftsure could ram the Kettering and unload the Plague to kill all the American crew. (the Kettering wouldn’t have caught the KL in time anyway, who was busy unloading gold from the Mercenary ship Jongleur) The Dharma eventually got in on the action against the Kettering, but soon it was evident that the mixed fleet had prevailed. In a very strange setup, the mixed fleet had won 13-0.
This is a great example of what happens in Pirates – just as Gore Verbinski said, “everything that can go wrong will go wrong”. Not a single strategy in either fleet worked properly. The Enterprise wasn’t able to run gold or fight, and was simply blown up without firing a shot. The Kettering managed to do some damage late in the game, but to no avail. My fleet wasn’t able to steal gold from the American HI, capture crew with Bonny Peel, or use many of the ships as intended.
It was a fun game, though lopsided as I tried to exploit the setup rules as much as possible, going with the maximum number of ships and generic crew. I believe my fleet totalled 126 points against just 53 for Repkosai, which is one of the only flaws of the random setup tables. However, we both enjoyed the game and hope to use the tables again in the future!
4 wild islands with 8 coins apiece, and 4 home forts with 8 cannons apiece.
The game begins, and the Libellule proves feisty indeed! I know how much of a game-winner the gold bonus abilities are, and with a lucky SAT from Roimata I was able to cripple my other fleet on the first turn! The Libellule missed her shots and ram, but the boarding part was what mattered. The chieftain was eliminated and rolled a 6 to eliminate 3 of his native canoes!!
Another SAT, and more carnage in the north: the Libellule wreaks further havoc, blasting masts off the Alquimista and Queen of Sheba and eliminating a canoe.
With more extreme luck on my part, the French absolutely dominate! The Libellule is a one-ship wrecking crew, eliminating the Spanish by taking out their last canoe and dismasting the Alquimista! The Arrogant looks to salvage the Queen of Sheba, while the French have even more luck! The Mermaid finds Turtles in the southeast! However, this allows the Cursed Blade to fly under the radar….
After capturing the Alquimista and QoS, Roimata sets her sights on the Arrogant.
The female named crew of the Libellule prove effective once more, as the Arrogant falls and so do the Corsairs! At this point, the Libellule has single-handedly eliminated half of the starting fleets and captured 3 ships.
The Turtles reached the French home fort, where the Alquimista and QoS looked to repair. The French hastily made plans for a possible attack….
The Pirates continue to run gold, while the French amass an empire relative to the tiny build total! Here they control 45 points total, more than twice what they started with. With 5 now-healthy ships, they look to the southwest and the Pirate fort that is burgeoning with shiny coins.
The Cursed Blade is about to round earth to the southeast, while the Alquimista stays behind to finish a little gold factory operation.
The fun of round earth! The Cursed Blade gets Homing Beacon, but can’t quite use it.
The Mermaid tries to block the Cursed Blade’s route home, while the Libellule waits for an SAT from Roimata to start the assault on the fort.
Attack!! Sudden chaos at the Pirate home fort! The Cursed Blade got home via Homing Beacon (not using round earth), but the French attacked in full force. The first bombardment took out 3 of the fort’s 8 cannons, while the Arrogant, Mermaid, and Alquimista tried to get into position.
The Cursed Blade dismasts the Mermaid and damages the QoS. The fort sank the Libellule, ending her string of luck and taking out the surefire MVS (Most Valuable Ship) of this contest. The Alquimista and Arrogant battled the fort for a few more turns, but eventually were overcome by the superior firepower. The Arrogant barely escaped…
… but she was cornered by the Cursed Blade to end the game! Despite the 10 gold from Turtles and 6 gold from the Alquimista’s bonus, it wasn’t even close. The Pirates had found all the good coins for a whopping 59-31 victory!
This was a fun and unique game that saw absolute domination by a single ship until the actual gold was counted. Repkosai enjoyed the introduction to the Water World rules, and we look forward to playing more unique games in the future! Hope to see you on VASSAL on August 11th-13th!
4 wild islands with 6 coins apiece, and a bunch of terrain with round earth rules:
The English reached the middle island first, but the French were quickly upon them! The French were helped out by Odin’s Revenge, put into the mix by the Spanish. The Vengeance had explored the southern island but got tossed to the middle by Message in a Bottle.
Despite dismasting the Bonne Chance, the English were quickly out of the running! Repkosai scuttled both of his ships, and it was down to the French and Spanish. I was quite happy with how things were turning out, as the Academia and Espada de Dios were able to clear out an island while the other fleets fought.
The Courageux is towing the Bonne Chance, while the Vengeance is looking to dock home her gold. Little do the French know, the Spanish have a devious and evil plan…
With perfect timing, the Academia sails up to the French home island right after the Vengeance docked home her gold, and Fernando Sanchez suddenly emerged from below decks! A coin was loaded aboard the Academia, who can’t be shot at while docked.
The Espada de Dios quickly followed suit with her own raid, revealing Bianco’s Haulers to ensure maximum protection. The Academia stole the final French coin, and the Vengeance and Courageux couldn’t do much but look on in bewilderment.
The Spanish raiders docked home their gold for an even bigger windfall than their first, since the northeastern island didn’t have high value coins on it.
This shows the beginning of the endgame, where things got more complicated and strategic. The Espada looks to explore the northwestern island, while the Vengeance is about to NOT dock home her second haul of gold, knowing the Academia can steal it.
The Academia gives up her useful Relics UT to avoid getting blasted by the Vengeance, who heads south as the Academia ducks into a fog bank and hopes the Vengeance will return soon. The Bonne Chance finally begins repairing, while the Espada is about to unload gold.
This is where things got more convoluted. The Courageux went into the fog near the Spanish HI, while the Academia grabbed the final coin from the southern island. The French were playing a bit of cat-and-mouse, unable to dock at their home island while other coins were still in play for fear that the Spanish could take what they wanted. At this point the game was more complex than I can describe.
Eventually something had to give, and it did! The Academia manages to dock home her 3 coin, but the Espada is cornered. If the French could capture one of the Spanish HI raiders, they could potentially use it against the Spanish to tip the gold scale in their favor! Alas, it was not to be, as both fleets rolled poorly and eventually the Espada escaped just in time.
After a few more shenanigans, the French docked home their gold and the game ended. The final gold count was decisive:
A fine victory for the Spanish! This was another improbable gimmick victory for me, though since they’re becoming more common I may have to make a thread about this phenomenon. This particular game went as well as it could have for the Best Raiders of Spain, between the other two fleets fighting to the death right from the start, good UT luck, and a perfect execution of the HI raiding combo at the right time. We hope to play more multiplayer games in the future, and it was great to see a new VASSAL player!
The French headed north, and the Vikings west. The Elsinore picked up some fun stuff, including Potions and Brews. The Hercule took a mast off the not-careful-enough Freya, who was barely saved by Potions and Brews causing a lucky miss at the end of the broadside. This allowed the Freya to return fire with FOUR shots from just one mast, which has to be close to a potential record heh. Two of the shots hit, and the ram roll was successful to take the Hercule down to one mast as well.
The Hercule was dismasted and the Freya managed to escape through some convenient fog banks! Indeed, the setup benefited the Vikings here as the Freya used the fog banks as a chain to move safely back to her home island to repair. The Elsinore headed southwest, but the Arrogant was waiting for her.
I managed to flip Tia Dalma to help the Elsinore survive getting attacked by the Carcajou, but the Elsinore was eventually sunk. However, this happened only after the latest UT shenanigans! The ever-helpful Woelf answered my question about the timing and interaction, which could have worked out well for the Vikings either way. In a funky circumstance, Tia Dalma and the Elsinore’s helmsman were thrown in jail back at the Viking HI after Manawa was linked to the helmsman, which therefore eliminated Manawa! Whew! XD
This worked out fine for me, as I was tentatively planning to leave the Elsinore’s crew on the wild island for the Freya to pick up later in case the Elsinore was sunk (at this point I suddenly realized my fleet had good synergy since both ships had the same ability – Tia Dalma could use her cancelling on the Freya!). However, Jail put them right back at the HI, where the Freya was already repairing, and indeed the Elsinore was sunk!
The Arrogant returned home with a coin, while the Carcajou began towing the Hercule. The Freya managed to sink the derelict Hercule, netting the Vikings 1 gold from LaFontaine’s Ransom keyword. I did indeed swap out Olof Linstrom for Tia Dalma, figuring the canceller would be more useful than yet another cannon. (the Freya still having 5 shots in 2 masts even after Olof’s departure from active duty)
A somewhat predictable endgame saw the Carcajou corner the slow Freya after the latter loaded a valuable coin, and the French finished off the inaccurate Viking ship! The French had won a 7-3 victory!
This was a game that saw a fun Unique Treasures interaction, some interesting combat, and a rather strange but fun Viking fleet. More games have already been scheduled, so stay tuned!
