Blog #20: Community goings-on, the best crew ever, and an aesthetic anniversary
No new changes to the site. Hoping to do an extra blog post soon. Future pages still in the beginning stages.
Occasionally I think I’ll feature other people’s content a bit, to spread the love and try to stimulate activity. Here is some “news” from around the community:
Game Piece Rating: 10/10. Yup, I’m skipping straight to the rating today. XD There is no doubt that helmsmen are the best crew in the entire game. For the most part, the most important attribute or stat in this game is SPEED. You can almost never have enough of it, and most ships are without it when they are launched. Helmsmen can give just about any ship a very needed speed boost. Unlike the extremely useful Captain and Explorer crew, which are generally best on either gunships or treasure runners respectively, helmsmen are FANTASTIC and pretty much essential to BOTH. Gunships need them to get the first shot and catch enemy ships. Gold runners need them to be first to an island and to escape effectively. When you get down to it, helmsmen are pretty much the backbone of any crew setup or fleet strategy. Their only real competition comes from captains and cancellers. Captains are a point more and not very useful to most gold runners, while cancellers are (usually) 5 points and not quite as flexible and downright useful in every game like helmsmen are. The particular helmsman selected by the random number generator happens to be American, and they are a faction that could really use a speed boost since they have a lot of great gunships and some slowish gold runners.
Fast fleets are also a hallmark of competitive play. If you’re trying to simply win at all costs, it’s quite likely that every ship in your fleet will have a helmsman, regardless of anything else. A lot of the best fleets in the game are the fastest fleets in the game, and helmsmen are a big reason why. One of the biggest mistake I see new players make is their lack of helmsmen. They sometimes opt for cannoneers or shipwrights, which is understandable given their experience level. However, it is important to learn how essential speed is to winning games. If you’re crewing a ship, when in doubt, add a helmsman. 😀
You can find helmsman on eBay, or better yet, just print your own. (should be formatted for printing, though no guarantees. You can also switch out some of them for shipwrights/etc if you like. Point costs directly on the chips help new players learn. :)) A few of my games have become so large that I don’t have enough helmsmen in my relatively large collection to even play, so I have to rely on proxies. If you just print your own generic crew, you don’t have to rely on opening packs or buying them. It’s a great way to get started, and you can give them away to ensure new players aren’t at a disadvantage when they pull a smokepot specialist out of a pack instead of a helmsman. 🙂
Picture of the Day
Inevitably a focus on my Economy Edition game, which just started play 3 years ago today.
The Maui’s Fishhook (MF) uses her hoist arm to grab gold from the Arch:
The Americans illegally hired a submarine to be the first in the Lagoon: (check out the battle reports for details! XD)
The MF departs the big triple archway:
The Devil Ray surfaces, alone in paradise:
I love how the “sunlight” glinted off the MF’s shiny areas:
In this game, shiny silver was worth 3 times its printed value, with shiny gold at 2 times its printed value. (due to the shiny silver having more glitter on it XD) These coins are found on the Silver Explorers from the Ocean’s Edge (gold) and Rise of the Fiends (silver) super rare packs.
I have finally gotten the Podcast page up and running! In addition, you may have noticed that the newest episode has been recorded! Godmason and I were live on youtube for the entire 3 hour Rise of the Fiends Set Review, and we got a few viewers and comments.
The big episode required a bigger post than normal, especially with all the extra details and all various places I promote it at. Indeed, the “back end” aftermath of an episode can take multiple hours. I convert the file to an MP3 with Fre:ac audio converter, and then upload it to ShoutEngine and Archive.org. The MP4 file is usually uploaded to youtube, but in this case the live stream took the place of that upload. Then, ShoutEngine’s feed distributes the podcast to various other podcast sites and apps, such as iTunes. Then I format the update post with all the links for Miniature Trading, Pojo, BoardGameGeek, and usually reddit. Sometimes I post it in the main Yahoo group as well, and this time I posted it on r/podcasting and an extra BoardGameGeek thread! Then of course, Instagram and Facebook. Whew! 🙂 Lots of stuff to do for every episode!
As I talked about before, I’ve had some serious trouble getting the Podcast page the way I want it here on my fansite. After almost literally nothing worked, I finally caved and just did a youtube playlist.
A rundown of the issues:
I wanted to have a page where people could play the audio files (only) in a playlist directly embedded on the site. Such as a ShoutEngine playlist, or maybe Google Play. However, both plugins I tried failed, and they are supposed to be two of the best and most popular podcasting plugins. Complicating matters was the fact that they both wanted me to host their podcast with them, but I’m already using ShoutEngine and Archive.org and don’t want/can’t have another feed to iTunes. Therefore, I wasn’t able to just dump the RSS feed from ShoutEngine into either of the plugin options, which felt silly because it’s the most basic function the plugins should be able to provide. You should just be able to install a plugin, paste the rss feed, and get your stuff up on the page you want.
Then there were more problems. Even when I did try to import the existing episodes from ShoutEngine, one of the plugins wasn’t able to connect to the ShoutEngine host! I even tried manually just uploading the MP3 files, but there were not one but TWO problems with that! O_O One problem said “HTTP error” and the other said the file size was too large. Honestly the whole thing has been ridiculously difficult, and I’ve had it with trying the various (poor) options. It seems impossible to get what I want, which is a simple audio feed based on the ShoutEngine RSS. At this point I’m just going to leave the page as-is with links to the audio sites. I’ve already spent too much time on it, and besides, I’ve promoted and distributed the podcast ALL OVER THE PLACE. XD It’s even still on Podiant and Soundcloud to some extent, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you could find the Pirates CSG Podcast on around a dozen websites and apps. O_O XD
It’s Memorial Day, so enjoy my patriotic video made for VASSAL Campaign Game 3! 😀
Deal of the Day: Gone now, but there’s always eBay. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
Faction Affiliation: Spain Rarity: U Type: Ship Point Value: 9 Cargo Space: 2 Base Move: S+S Cannons: 3L, 3L, 3L Number of Masts: 3
When this ship hits another ship, you choose which mast is eliminated. Flavor: Once, when the skill of the Santa Catalina’s cannoneers was maligned by an English harbormaster, they demonstrated their ability by firing a cannonball through his hilltop villa’s single plate glass window.
Here’s a basic midsize gunship. Incredibly basic actually. Just plop a captain and helmsman aboard and you’re good to go. No cargo left to do anything else, but she’s a solid budget option with adequate speed, firepower, and a combat ability.
Any game size: Captain + helmsman. (14 total points) You could add an oarsman for insurance since he wouldn’t take up space. I’m well aware you could increase the cargo in a few different ways, but there’s really no point, so just keep it simple.
This ship has appeared briefly in at least one of my campaign games, but she’s mostly just a ship to pad numbers with.
Game Piece Rating: 6.5/10. Nothing special, but not bad at all. She might be slightly above average simply because she’s not a conundrum like some of the ships Wizkids released – her ability and all of her stats flow together to form a very clear picture of what she is: a midsize basic budget gunship option.
Since it’s Memorial Day, what better time to post a picture of the Americans dominating? (spoilers ahead) They had a very strong showing in Economy Edition back in 2015, where you can see them about to eliminate the English here.
Colorful with the red white and blue!
I played as the Americans in VASSAL Campaign Game 3, which went very well as you saw in the video above.
Utter domination, as has become my penchant in the VASSAL campaign games.
Hello all, I hope you are doing well and have a great day today.
This is the 17th blog post overall, and I hope to have more video/audio blogs this coming week.
As I get even more serious about my passion for Pirates CSG, I have thought about ads and paid traffic a bit. According to Gary Vaynerchuk, Facebook ads are still very underpriced, and that is something I’ve thought about before. I’m also eventually going to be looking into other potential solutions of this nature.
eBay prices are down. Recently, a Super Rare (SR) pack for Rise of the Fiends (RotF) only went for $6.50! The Elsinore (a Limited Edition from Frozen North) went for just 99 cents at the minimum bid! HMS Regent went for $6.51 (not too bad), but some Ocean’s Edge LE’s went for barely more than a dollar each. Finally, a decent lot of South China Seas stuff went for only ~$10, but that was likely due in part to the shipping cost (it showed $20 for me). This could be an anomaly more than anything else, but it could also signal a decent time to buy and be on the prowl for good auction deals.
Deal of the Day: Gone now. Currently on eBay. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
Pirates CSG Card of the Day
Set number: 3 – Revolution
Collector’s Number: 122 – Pirate cannoneer
2 points
Once per turn, one of this ship’s cannons may shoot again if it misses.
Time for another mini-review of a generic crew. Cannoneers have been around since the first set of Spanish Main way back in 2004, but understandably they never caught on like the more essential quartet of captain/helmsman/explorer/oarsman. They do provide a nice little boost to any gunship, but I wouldn’t recommend them too highly.
Cannoneers are not that different from Musketeers, but I like cannoneers better because they provide similar value for 1 less point. In addition, musketeers give you an extra 3S cannon, which I refer to as “mediocre” because it’s strictly average and I have always had pretty bad luck with 3S guns in general. Neither crew is always worth the cost. For more information from the Rules Arbitrator himself, I’d highly recommend checking out Woelf’s comparison of cannoneer vs. musketeer.
Game Piece Rating: 5.5/10. Really nothing special, and dwarfed by both superior generic crew and special abilities like world hater (+1 to cannon rolls against other ships), which provide much more bang for the buck and apply to all of a ship’s cannons.
Campaign games are a great way to get exposure to less competitive crew like cannoneers and the other generic crew you don’t use often. Take for example some of these English gunships launched during my 2015 Economy Edition game. Since point costs and being frugal don’t matter as much in campaign games where new ships and crew are introduced, you can afford to splurge on “luxury” firepower options. XD Notice how many ships have crew and equipment in addition to the mandatory captains and helmsmen.
Picture of English deckplate area for EE (Economy Edition)
Picture of the Day
This is from another game of VASSAL Tournament #2, a hotly contested desperate game that Xerecs and I played a year ago today.
Close, tight, desperate, fun, mathematical, intense – all the things you might hope for in a 40 point tournament game!
Today I’m hoping to add a Podcast page, if I can figure out how it works. So far I haven’t been able to simply input the RSS feed xml thing from ShoutEngine to get a feed or player up. Eventually I’ll figure something out. What I just figured out with this post was the picture/paragraph problems I’ve been having. It was just a matter of changing the picture alignment from “Align left” to “no alignment”. For whatever reason, that seems to have solved the problem!
What have I done with the site since the last blog post?
Changed footer (now has image)
-Makes the site nicer to look at, and puts less emphasis on the text down there.
Changed blog pages to max of 10 posts/page (should make loading them faster in future)
-Now that I’m at over 2 weeks of daily blogging (this is Blog #16), I’ve noticed that the category page for Daily Blog was loading slower. Especially with youtube videos and pictures embedded, I think 10 should be the max. I don’t like having to click to different pages for stuff like this, but it might be necessary for load times. Let me know if the site ever loads too slowly for you.
Added Recent Posts section to homepage
-What I want on the homepage is a line or something, and then the full text of the most recent post from the Daily Blog. So far I’ve only figured out how to add the recent posts widget that links out to the 5 most recent posts, but it’s a start. If I can’t figure out the former, the current scheme seems fine.
Unfroze the menu!
-This is the big one I’ve been talking about, and yesterday I finally figured it out! Now when you scroll on pages, the top menu shouldn’t come with you. XD Makes the pages easier to read, and you can take in more of the page you’re looking at without having 15-30% of it taken up by the main menu. I can also change it back if I make radical changes to the menu style and format, but if anything the menu will only get bigger as I add more pages, so it seems best when fixed at the top.
I’ve also got a new youtube video! This is another suggestion from the youtube comments. I should be able to video/audio blog more next week, so I’m looking forward to that. It’s faster, and possibly provides more reach through sharing. My first video blog already has about 30 views and 5 likes (more likes than I usually get XD), so thank you all for watching that.
I also like the idea of an “Ask A7XfanBen Show”, which Xerecs has already shown interest in.
Deal of the Day: Long gone from 2018. Current eBay selection. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
Ability: Junk. Mercenary. Dories. American crew can use their abilities on this ship.
Huang Bai
Mercenary Points: 5 Link: Zhànfǔ
Ability: Ex-Patriot. Hostile: Spain. Once per turn, you can eliminate one of this ship’s crew to give her an extra action. After looking at treasure on a wild island, you can trade any one treasure from that island for a random treasure on any other wild island. This ship must load the traded treasure.
Flavor: Unwilling to cede the end of the Jade Empire, Huang Bai nonetheless realizes the need to pause and rebuild—as a mercenary. His first customer, America, is eager to pit him and “Golden Axe” against the expanding Spanish empire.
O_O Oh wow!! First time getting RtSS, the only unreleased set, and what do you know, a 10 master appears!!!! XD O_O
Well then. This will have to be a longer entry than usual, though I’ll avoid doing a full Miniature Review. XD If you’re largely new to the game or any of these keywords, you may want the Master Keyword List for this.
The Zhanfu is elite in being the only 10 master that has a base move faster than L. This makes her stand out immediately, because with a helmsman and extra actions she can FLY at S+S+S+S+S+S (6S!), which is crazy for a ship this large (and quite unrealistic haha). The Dories keyword allows her to actually get gold for the Mercenaries, though after a captain and helmsman come aboard, she’ll only have 4 spaces left. Still a decent strategy if you want to use her in small games with gold, but her real strength lies in her ability and super-gunship nature in huge games.
Huang Bai is actually a very good crew. Sac is perfect for a 10 master, since it can make the Zhanfu deadlier than ever, while his other ability is good for hybrid use. Though, paying 5 points in general for an Ex-Patriot Sac crew is a solid deal either way. He could lose the island treasure trading ability and still see lots of usage. Ex-Patriot is important here because it gives him the opportunity to serve any faction, including ones like the Corsairs and Vikings who never got a single source of the sac ability. In that regard he’s almost as useful as the incredible Shap’ng Tsai, who essentially gave all factions a sac captain.
*Being a Mercenary ship that can’t dock, a shipwright is a good option for any of the following setups if you can fit one in.
Standard 40 point games: Captain, helmsman, oarsman/explorer. This gives the Zhanfu a chance to be a hybrid in a smaller game, with 3 or 4 spaces open for gold and the minor crew to protect the two vital crew. If you went this route, I’d recommend filling the rest of the build total with at least one gold ship. If you happen to use the Zhanfu in a 40 point deathmatch, it would probably be better to use some variation of the setups below. (31 total points)
Medium size games (50-100 points): Huang Bai, captain, helmsman, explorer, 2-3 oarsmen. With 3 oarsmen aboard, you’d only have one cargo space open to start the game. (since Bai links and the first oarsman doesn’t take up space) However, your cargo would increase as you began saccing crew, up to a max of 3 if you kept the explorer (who you could also sac of course). I think this is a potentially underrated 10 master hybrid setup for mid-size games. The Zhanfu would be flying all over the map causing chaos, yet still able to pull in some profit along the way. (38/39 total points)
Large games (over 100 points): Huang Bai, Captain Nemo, Ibrahan Ozat, captain, helmsman, oarsman or explorer. This is the exact setup I used in VASSAL Campaign Game 3. This maxes out the Zhanfu’s point cap space, with a whopping 25 points of crew aboard. (spoilers ahead) This particular setup was devastatingly effective in CG3 , as the Zhanfu spearheaded the eliminations of the French, Spanish, and English. O_O Granted, she didn’t face much combat competition in that game, but it still goes to show how effective she can be with the proper crew at her helm/disposal (disposal due to Huang Bai “disposing” of crew with his sac ability). I also used the Zhanfu in VASSAL Campaign Game 2, where she proved her worth. I proxied the Shui Xian for the Zhanfu in Economy Edition. You can tell I like to use 10 masters in campaign games. XD Lately on VASSAL, I’ve had a penchant for it.
Shockingly enough, these great crew setups don’t even utilize the Zhanfu’s primary unique ability at all! There are tons of great American crew that would be a great fit for this behemoth. Of them, Brent Rice, Canceller DNT, and any of the extra action/SAT (same action twice) crew would be the best. Crenshaw would be a surprisingly good choice as well, since he’d boost the ranges on 6 of the most accurate cannons aboard. America does lay claim to two cheap Eternal crew, but the Mercenary keyword will prevent it from working, so save it for your Constitution, Enterprise, etc.
Game Piece Rating: 9/10. How can this ship get much less? Sure she’s obscenely expensive, but she should be. Her cost is just low enough to allow usage in reasonably competitive 40 point games, making her a powerhouse at pretty much any build total. In large games of 100+ points and campaign games, she clearly shines. Her cargo and cannons may not be the best among her 10 master peers, but speed wins games and is the most important attribute in the game. S+S speed on a 10 master is nearly criminal, but unfortunately the Zhanfu didn’t quite get away with it since she was never produced.
Huang Bai: 8.5/10. Sure he has Ex-Patriot along with a somewhat unfitting treasure ability, but giving Sac at 5 points to all the factions is a boon for competitive play. Bai may not see usage like fellow 10 master commander Tsai (comment below if you get the reference), but he’s underrated simply due to being from Return to Savage Shores. If he had been a crew from Mysterious Islands or Savage Shores, he’d be much more well-known and respected. (and feared, I might add)
Should I rate them as a combo? XD Probably not since Bai is not required (unlike The Headhunter on the Guichuan for example), but they’d still get at least a 9/10 from me when paired. A really great combo that fans of 10 masters, campaign games, the Americans, and the Mercenaries should try out.
Since the Zhanfu doesn’t exist in physical form, the best way to use her is a proxy 10 master or on the VASSAL module. Here she is in VASSAL Campaign Game 3, where I used her effectively. (spoilers ahead) In this picture she is about to eliminate the final Spanish presence in the game, and later she would play the main role in knocking the English out of the game (their home island shown at the left).
The Zhanfu acting as a 1-ship elimination strike force.
Picture of the Day
No game today, but I’ve actually played Pirates both of the past 2 years on this exact date. Here’s the 10th anniversary of Davy Jones’ Curse game between myself and Xerecs. (the 10th anniversary was on 5/31/2016)
2 years ago today on VASSAL vs. Xerecs
This picture is from last year, when Xerecs and I finished a game during VASSAL Tournament #2.
I really want to make this fansite work well. I want it to drive traffic and attention to Pirates CSG, since more attention on the game means a higher chance of coming back in some form someday. I have made some minor changes to the site and will be making more changes today. You may have noticed the new logo, which I also use for the Pirates CSG Podcast. The top menu is also a little different – I increased the text size but decreased the vertical padding, so it’s more compact. I haven’t figured out how to unfreeze it from the top yet, but it’s already better. Looks like making the default content font pure black worked. I might keep experimenting with the size.
Great news! I have Blog #13 (the first video blog) on iTunes! 😀 I hope to make this blog as accessible as possible, so you don’t even have to read or watch anything to get the information!
Deal of the Day: Long gone since 2018. Current eBay options! This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
-Also, as I updated the last blog post with, the seller gave a response to my question about the tournament packs in the OE box.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
Faction Affiliation: France Rarity: C Type: Ship Point Value: 11 Cargo Space: 3 Base Move: S+S Cannons: 2S-3S Number of Masts: 2
This ship cannot be shot at by ships within S of her.
Flavor: French sailors ordered to serve aboard the “Coward of Calvados” throw themselves into battle with ferocious courage to prove that the ship was not named for them.
You may have heard how much I hate this ability because it’s extremely annoying, overpowered, and slows the game down when trying to figure out if/how you can be in range of pesky ships like this. That said, the Lache is not a horrible gunship. She combines largely average stats with a great ability and high price tag. She won’t nearly be your first choice of French 2 masters, but in big games she could be a nice weapon to have around.
Standard 40 point games: Captain, and probably helmsman. You need the extra speed, but 16 points is a lot to spend on a mediocre vessel. If your opponent doesn’t have a lot of speed in their fleet, you might be able to get away with just a captain and run this ship as a hybrid with 2 cargo spaces open. (14/16 total points)
Medium size games (50-100 points): Captain, helmsman, optional oarsman. (16/17 total points)
Large games (over 100 points): Captain/helmsman/firepot specialist. That 2S cannon at the bow is a good place for a FPS (Firepot Specialist) and spending more than 20 points on this ship is probably a wasted attempt. (18 total points)
Game Piece Rating: 5/10. The ship is alright on cargo, speed, and firepower, but her high cost makes her somewhat forgettable. The ability helps make her stand out, but she just isn’t a great ship.
Here are the English at their home island at the start of Command the Oceans. Like the island? Check out Ross’s Facebook page where you might be able to snag some for yourself!
Truly a beautiful setting. My pictures for this game have come a long way since 2013.
Now that I’ve completed my first full year on youtube, I’m quite happy with my progress. That’s right, yesterday’svideo blog was uploaded to youtube exactly one year after my first youtube video. 🙂
No big changes to the site, but there are some minor behind-the-scenes stuff I’d like to figure out. Some of the pages I’m excited about adding will take much more than one day to finish and publish, but the current content on all the pages is a lot more than the bare bones stuff I started with. Right after this post I’m going to try and unfreeze the menu from the top because it has gotten big and shouldn’t scroll with the page. At the bottom of the blog posts the text seems to glitch a bit with the picture for some reason, creating or deleting line breaks that don’t exist in the editor. Not a big deal at least. I’m also experimenting with making the font size a little bigger, mostly because it has seemed a little small, but also because that seems to be glitching a bit too!
Deal of the Day: Long gone as this was originally posted in 2018. Current eBay options for your perusal. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
-I have messaged the seller on eBay to ask whether or not all of the boxes come with tournament packs, as it looks like one in the picture. If they respond I will give their response in that day’s blog post and possibly update this post as well. You can hit “contact seller” on the right side of the listing to ask them yourself. It says “more than 10 available” so no real rush, but considering the high shipping on Hills’ lot, this is worth it even without a tournament pack.
If they have tournament packs, this could be one of the better Pirates deals EVER. You’re only paying about a dollar per pack, but throw in free shipping and a potential tournament pack (OE LE’s are rare and expensive, though bad in gameplay) and you’ve got something pretty special in my opinion.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
EDIT: I have gotten a response, though it’s not entirely reassuring. XD
Once per turn, roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, this ship may be given an extra action.
Flavor: A magnificent creature drenched in the blood of her enemies. Crimson Angel is from either heaven or hell, depending on your point of view. She attacks crowns and pirates alike, seemingly loyal to none but her own. Even then, she rewards betrayal with swift and deadly vengeance, but her word is legend on the Crimson Coast.
This crew has always been a bit of a conundrum, since Admiral Morgan introduced EA (Extra Action) as 5 points in the first set, Spanish Main. EA also appeared at about 5 points on most other crew, so Crimson Angel is simply overpriced compared to her peers. However, EA is amazing. It’s definitely one of the best abilities in the game, to the point where I’d be willing to pay 6-7 points for it (I’d be willing to pay 5-6 points for SAT/Born Leader). In that regard, Crimson Angel is still useful.
There’s just one major problem: her OE version is far better, giving you SAT and World Hater for just FIVE points! O_O Normally they’re worth 7 combined, with SAT at 3 and WH at 4. This makes the OE version one of the best crew deals in the entire game, and a PERFECT crew for any gunship. The OE version is underpriced, while the CC version is overpriced, making it a no-brainer if you have them both. They’re both Rare, but OE is a much more common set than CC (especially nowadays), so you’re more likely to end up with the better version anyway. As a result, the CC version has been largely forgotten for good reason.
As far as using Crimson Angel on specific ships, she’s best on a large gunship that can accommodate her relatively high cost. A gunship that costs at least 11 points would be best, to save point cap room for a captain and helmsman. That said, the OE version would be better on the same gunship for a point less.
Game Piece Rating: 4/10. I hate to give her this low of a rating, but getting EA for 6 points and having a far superior version of the same character available makes her first version somewhat disappointing. Don’t get me wrong though; EA as an ability would get an 8.5/10 or 9/10 rating from me, but this particular crew doesn’t measure up to the considerable competition.
-You can pick up the (superior) OE version here. Couldn’t find the CC version individually through a quick search, but it’s not a crew to seek out quite as much.
Picture of the Day
Time for Throwback Thursday. This was a fun 4 player game played three years ago today on May 24th 2015. I taught two of the three other players, so it was their first game. (they’ve played a bit since but don’t have lasting interest) I think I won based on pure gold luck, but everyone played pretty well I believe. HMS Talon (commanded by one of the beginners) dominated the attention. XD
You may have noticed a new page in the menu! The Sets page is the newest addition from the old weebly site, but now it’s better than ever. I have expanded the descriptions for the sets to include my opinions on them, in addition to my ratings based on the Rankings thread godmason started at MT (Miniature Trading). Today I hope to make a SEPARATE page for the factions, which may include expanded information as well. This is all part of my plan to make Pirates with Ben the #1 source of information and inspiration on the web for Pirates CSG content! 😀
After I complete the Factions page, I have plans for two other “big” pages I’m excited about. Neither are part of the weebly site, so it should make this site even better than that one. I’m trying to make black the default font color for all the text, so some of the links may appear black instead of blue/purple.
As I talked about on MT, I found one of the game’s graphic designers while searching for Cursed Seas pictures. Go ahead and check out the cool stuff there. I always have fun finding new Pirates content – I’ve been in the community since 2011, but I still find new gems and info sometimes! It’s great!
Feeling really great today and excited to make progress on various things. With that, not much more to talk about here today! 🙂
Deal of the Day: Long gone since 2018. Current eBay options! This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
Faction Affiliation: France Rarity: C Type: Ship Point Value: 13 Cargo Space: 4 Base Move: S+L Cannons: 2S-2S-2S Number of Masts: 3
This ship may dock at an enemy home island and load one treasure. If able, she must leave on your next turn. Flavor: L’Heros sails with unofficial orders to find and sack enemy ports. She is often spotted sailing out of a harbor at night, laden with ill-gotten loot.
NICE!! We got a real treasure here. This is one of the cooler ships in the game, and a great option for France. As you can see, pretty much everything is a strength, so this is what I call a “stacked” ship. Good cargo, great speed, great cannons, good ability, fair price. Nothing to complain about. XD
If I were you, I would definitely use this ship as a hybrid. She is just begging to be a multipurpose ship, and she can fill the role well. With just a captain, you could have good combat capability with 3 cargo left over for gold. That gold could come from a variety of sources – wild islands, enemy ships, even enemy home islands! The possibilities are high with a ship like this, and she may remind you of the similarly excellentVirtuous Wind.
Standard 40 point games: Captain and probably helmsman. S+L is a great base move, but the Heros will often want even more speed to excel at what she does. (16/18 total points)
Medium size games (50-100 points): There are a number of French crew that could do well on L’Heros, but unless you go the full-gunship route, I’d recommend trying to keep cargo spaces open. In that case it pays to have a bare minimum crew setup. Here I’d go with captain/helmsman/oarsman. (19 total points, still 2 cargo spaces open)
Large games (over 100 points): You could max out her point space by combining Jordan Dumas with Amiral Louis Cartier. This gives the ship more of a boarding focus, but allows for serious carnage with S+L+S+L speed and up to six 2S shots in a turn. Lots of options with this great ship. Even a basic setup with a firepot specialist and cannoneer or musketeer in addition to the captain/helmsman could be quite effective. Just make sure you decide during setup whether or not you want her to play a hybrid role. (20+ total points)
Game Piece Rating: 9.5/10. L’Heros is a nearly perfect ship, only held back slightly by her cargo hold, which is good but not quite enough to pull off the perfect hybrid role. She’s also a bit pricey for a 3 master, so you’re making a somewhat large investment in a ship that doesn’t have a ton of durability. Still, an amazing ships and one of my absolute favorites. You can see why SCS is such a great set!
Picture of the Day
Ironically enough, the most memorable picture I have of L’Heros is her getting dismasted by the English during my Century of the Empires game way back in 2013! 🙂
This picture has always held special significance for me. I believe it’s the first Pirates picture I ever took of a combat situation, as the previous pictures for CotE were broad overviews showing the ocean. This was the first time I ever got up close in the action, which is something I’ve done a TON since then of course. The whiteness/brightness of the picture doesn’t stand the test of time well anymore with amazingly beautiful games like Economy Edition and Command the Oceans out there, but it’s still one of my all-time favorites.
That’s what happens when the French take on the English! XD
Fun fact: That same area of floor space shown above is now approximately where a big bag of my custom islands and terrain sits. Near it is my current collection of cardboard that I hope to use someday. I have moved the foam to a different location, as I will not have time to do much else for my OTC3 entry. For me it’s fun to see different setups for games in my room, knowing how different the room looks today. 🙂
After getting some feedback on the light vs. dark text dilemma, I’m still a little uncertain which way I’ll go. However, if all the searching I do ends up saying one is better for reading, I’ll probably go with that. In this post I made the text all black instead of the dark gray, which I think is easier to read.
I didn’t have time yesterday to add a new page to the site, but I hope to add one today. I’ve also got a new page coming (hopefully soon) that wasn’t at the original weebly site.
Another milestone was reached recently – Historical custom of the day #100! Despite not knowing about Yi Sun-sin before that day, I think he was a great choice for the landmark number.
After it was suggested more than once on youtube, I made another fleet making tutorial video. This one is about making a Spanish-only fleet from Spanish Main. Check it out and let me know your thoughts. I’d like to make more videos like that, since fleet making tutorials have been requested in various places.
Deal of the Day: Gone now, but you can probably still find some RotF SR’s on eBay.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
This ship gets –1 to the result of every die roll you make for her. At the beginning of each of your turns, roll a d6. On a result of 6, the player to your right places Albatross on another of your ships. Albatross cannot be unloaded unless the ship it is on sinks.
This is a basic negative UT that can be quite annoying. The bird appeared in a large game I played a long time ago, and was quite a thorn to one of the fleets throughout the game, especially when it came to rolling for SAT (Born Leader) and EA (extra action ability on a 5-6). However, there are much more negative UT’s such asMissionaryorWolves.
Game Piece Rating: 2/10. A negative UT that is quite annoying to roll for and unlikely to switch ships often. For the fleets that want negative UT’s, this won’t be the first choice. In my opinion, kind of just an obnoxious addition to the game.
Picture of the Day
Here’s a picture I really love from a small game I played. Even dismasted and aflame, the Nox is a pretty ship haha. Love the reflection off the coins on the island, and how the Fool’s Hope being in the foreground makes her look bigger by looming large.
The Fool’s Hope takes out the Nox!
As of now, I’m looking into various things, not just Pirates related. Honestly I need to make more money, but I don’t want Pirates CSG to be the only way I do that, if I make any money at all from it haha. I have a lot on my mind, so I just need to hustle and have speed in order to do what I want and need to do. I’ll still be blogging and working on the site every day, but other things definitely require my attention and time. As always, thank you for reading.
What have I done with the site since the last blog post?
-Added Gameplay page from weebly (opens in new tab so you can keep reading this! :))
-Disqus comments should now be enabled, but I don’t want to download their low rated plugin full of ads. Facebook comments working, G+ who knows. I commented through Disqus yesterday but it doesn’t seem to show up all the time. Google+ may be the least popular of the three so I can always just disable that. Ideally I’ll have a comment system where people can comment without signing into anything. I would LOVE for comments and feedback, so don’t hesitate to start the discussion! This is a work in progress and I will update things as I improve them. For now, Facebook is your best bet (and possibly the only option by the looks of it today…).
I’m wondering about whether or not the main menu should scroll with pages. Right now it’s similar to how the top row or rows of a spreadsheet can be frozen in place, which can be very useful. However, I think the menu is already large enough to be a hindrance when scrolling, and it’s only going to have more and more stuff.
I like the light text on dark background look because it’s different than what we’re used to seeing on websites.
I wanted my site to stand out from the crowd and be a bit different.
However, as you can see from the link, it may actually be worse for reading text! Even by looking at their examples I can tell a bit of a difference. I may do more research on the matter. Since I’ll be publishing a TON of text-based content on this site and blog, perhaps it’s best to just stick with light background and dark text. Looking for feedback on this as well. I haven’t figured it out yet, but there may also be ways to change the theme colors/backgrounds. Though, I probably shouldn’t have some pages with a dark background and others with white since it could be jarring.
Deal of the Day: Long gone. Current eBay offerings This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents. XD
Faction Affiliation: Pirate Rarity: SE Type: Ship Point Value: 12 Cargo Space: 5 Base Move: S Cannons: 3S,2S,2S,3S Number of Masts: 4
Crew of any nationality may use their abilities on this ship.
Flavor: Captain Hart and his crew of pirates believe in two things: gold will make you happy and rum will make you even happier.
Nice, got lucky with an interesting and rare SE (Special Edition) ship! Lots of sets had common SE box ships, but MI SE boxes were more rare. Onto the ship! The Empty Sky is clearly trash compared to what players got spoiled on in the early sets, with the Darkhawk II and Neptune’s Hoard (among many others) being far superior 4 masters.
She does have strengths, namely her cannons, cargo, and ability. Her abysmal speed is such a detriment that it really holds her back quite a lot. However, with a captain and helmsman she can be a reasonable hybrid ship.
Standard 40 point games: Hammersmith, or just a captain and helmsman if you don’t have him. (17 total points)
Medium size games (50-100 points): Hammersmith + Gentleman Jocard and an optional explorer. This really gets you cargo – H saves you a space by combining abilities and Jocard gets you an extra space. Without the explorer you can have 5 cargo at S+S with good guns ready to fire – not a terrible deal for 20 points. The explorer would make Jocard less beneficial on paper (at least in my opinion, since you’re just filling up his space with a 1 point crew), but speeds up exploring (you’re not likely to catch and board enemy gold runners with slow speed) and adds insurance to protect the more important named crew.
Large games (over 100 points): Here I like Hammersmith, Coconut, and Calico Cat. This maxes out the Empty Sky’s point cap, and gives her a plethora of abilities while saving cargo to preserve her hybrid status. Coconut’s reroll is perfect for Cat, while exploring for gold remains a solid option. The SAT-boosted speed turns the ship into a legitimate threat, though at this point level you could be facing multiple super gunships at once.
Honestly I’ve never been big on the Pirates getting international crew, since they already have the best crew selection of any faction in the game. That said, there are some potential combos… you could combine Hammersmith with English Griffin to make her an even better hybrid. Dominic Freda is another great named crew.
Game Piece Rating: 5/10. The Empty Sky looks nice and has some good attributes, but really can’t sail around to save her own life. Unfortunately, the base move of S is almost a death knell as it is for most other ships that move at a snail’s pace. However, her strengths keep her from being unusable, and she remains quite an interesting novelty among the pack of largely boring SE box ships.
Picture of the Day
Speaking of the Deliverance, here’s the rare version I do own. Command the Oceans (my solo campaign game from 2017) pioneered the use of tiny screen pieces as ladders. The Deliverance is receiving some crew replacements from the Pirate Kingdom (their home “island” in that game) so Havana Black can keep his sacrificial operations alive as part of the whirlpool squadron. Whew, what a run-on paragraph this could become if I got into the details. In that case, I guess it’s not surprising that the battle reports for this game take up nearly 500 pages in a google doc! O_O
Get some crew replacements! Havana Black is hungry! 😉
