November Finale – 11/30/2019

Likely my last physical game of Pirates CSG for quite some time!

This is a report for a nice family game played with relatives near the end of the Thanksgiving weekend.  We set up for a game with 4 players at a 40 point build total.  It ended up being rather long and complex for a game featuring relatively basic fleets and no UT’s or terrain.  Round Earth was the main house rule.

We used Ross’ 5 beach island as the sole wild island, with 3 coins per beach.  As usual, each beach had to be explored individually.

-All game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet.

Here are the fleets, in the order of play:
French Pirates
Bruja + captain, helmsman
Musarde + captain, helmsman, explorer, oarsman

Franco-Spanish (FS)
L’Epee de L’Ange (Epee for short) + captain, helmsman
San Pedro + helmsman, explorer

Americans
USS Atlanta + Master CPO Charles Richard (OE version)
Dark Fox
USS Plymouth Rock + shipwright

Cursed Pirates (Ben’s fleet)
Flying Dutchman (PotC 001 version) + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Lechim Namod

And they’re off!

Could I wreak havoc with my nasty beast?

The Bruja round earthed while many ships looked for gold early. Lechim Namod (LN) is submerged, hoping to feast on the Americans shortly.

The squid surfaces! The Dark Fox loses a mast, while the Flying Dutchman empties a nearby beach of treasure.

The Bruja shot 0/4 on the FS, allowing the Epee to return fire on her way home, hitting once.

Already facing some tough decisions, the American commander got an incredible clutch roll of Fear. Getting a 5 on it with the Dark Fox, Fear cancelled the abilities of LN, disabling the Sea Monster keyword to unpin the Dark Fox, allowing her to escape with a coin! The Atlanta shot 1/2 to knock a tentacle off LN, after which the Plymouth Rock was essentially sacrificed to give the Atlanta more time. Her shipwright was transferred to the Atlanta, which became important later. LN flailed away and took off the Plymouth Rock’s only mast, with the FD coming over to capture the sloop.

Here come the Cursed Pirates! Love the colors in this picture and that you can make out the ship names.

The Bruja found her mark, hitting twice on the Epee to eliminate two masts and two cargo. The crew were eliminated, allowing the Epee to unload a coin on the next turn. The San Pedro went out for more gold, having already deposited 2 coins along with her +2 bonus.

LN moved out of the way to allow the FD to capture the Plymouth Rock.

A deal was briefly discussed between myself and the Americans, with the Atlanta potentially allowed to get home with 2 coins if the Americans didn’t contest the capturing of the Plymouth Rock. Nothing was really agreed upon, and I decided to do what a pirate would and attack anyway. The FD shot 1/2 to eliminate another mast from the Atlanta.

It soon became apparent that the Bruja might finish the job for me, as the dangerous Pirate ship lumbers towards the Americans!

The Flying Dutchman was still carrying 3 coins, so I wanted to get her and the prize home and let LN potentially interfere in the looming Atlanta-Bruja battle. At the upper left you can see that the Musarde has round earthed after getting some coins home for the French Pirates.

The Atlanta managed to evade cannon fire and fled for home, taking a mast off the Bruja as well! The Dark Fox moved to block the Bruja, but was rammed by Lechim Namod, who resurfaced but had trouble maneuvering past the rocks.

I started to realize that capturing the Plymouth Rock was largely pointless, as the FD barely got home at L+S after dropping the tow.

The Bruja moved to block the Atlanta from docking, dismasting her and eliminating a coin with cargo-wrecking in the process. However, on the American turn, the Dark Fox rolled a 6 for Fear on both the Bruja and LN! O_O This was a strange game where Fear was quite successful, even the dominant ability in the game.

The Atlanta repaired with the shipwright she acquired from the Plymouth Rock, and the Dark Fox landed a 6 to hit the Bruja and take her down to 1 mast! Between Fear and her 5L shots, the Dark Fox went 3/4 on 6’s this turn, proving she may not be one of the worst speedy ships in the game. There are 3 coins between two of the “northern” beaches, which are likely to be contested by the Epee, San Pedro, Musarde, and Flying Dutchman. LN has submerged and slowly creeps towards the French ships.

The Bruja dismasts the Atlanta again, with the mast falling on Master CPO Charles Richard. 🙁

LN surfaces to ram and pin the Musarde, who now carries 2 coins.

Another coin will certainly be contested:

LN dismasts the Musarde! However, the Dark Fox is back, ready to scare the big squid for perhaps the 3rd time in the game?

With her explorer the San Pedro managed to load the coin out from under the Flying Dutchman. However, then it was the FD’s time to shine! She did her job well, dismasting the San Pedro easily. Both players declined to board, myself especially because I wanted to be able to use the San Pedro’s crew. (I was thinking that Massacre would override my house rule of letting me as the potential winner choose what option to use, but either way I wanted to capture the ship with all her cargo intact, as she could be valuable in the late endgame coming up.)

The Bruja used round earth to return home, allowing the Atlanta to do the same. The Atlanta unloaded her remaining coin after one of the most harrowing and impressive journeys I’ve ever seen a ship go through in a relatively short and small game. I’ve always thought of her as a bit underrated, and here she was both resilient and lucky.

The Atlanta repairs, the Bruja prepares to do the same; LN knocks a mast off the Dark Fox, and the FD captures the San Pedro. I wanted LN to keep the Musarde pinned until the FD could capture her somehow or steal her gold, but that was looking somewhat unlikely due to how long it would take for the FD to get home with the San Pedro and sail back out again.

The Dark Fox moved to position herself in L range of the LN but out of the LN’s S tentacle range. However, I decided to break the pin on the Musarde, with LN ramming the Dark Fox derelict. The Musarde was now free to row at S+S; I was hoping she might actually get into a better position for the FD to track her down as she approached her home island, especially given round earth making my home island close to that of the French Pirates.

The Dark Fox hit with Fear yet again before being sunk by LN, getting a 5 to stop the Musarde for an additional turn. The Bruja and Epee repair, and it looks like it will be a final showdown in a chase towards the French Pirate HI.

The FD finally docked home the San Pedro, netting my fleet an extra 3 gold total. This brought my fleet to 4 ships total, but I was worried I didn’t have enough gold to win.

The Atlanta prepares to round earth as LN submerges, not wanting to pin the Musarde just to get blasted by the Bruja and/or Epee.

The chase was… anticlimactic! The Atlanta, FD, Epee, and LN all couldn’t reach the Musarde in time. The partially repaired San Pedro used round earth to ram, but didn’t even win the boarding party. XD The Bruja played bodyguard, but barely needed to block the Atlanta, let alone fight her or the FD.

The Atlanta rammed the Bruja for fun, but it killed the hardworking shipwright who kept the Americans in the game to some degree.

The Final Standings:
Franco-Spanish: 18 gold
Cursed Pirates (me): 12 gold
French Pirates: 11 gold
Americans: 6 gold

The Musarde only brought back 3 gold, so her changing hands would not have affected the victor. (ex: Cursed Pirates with 15 and French Pirates with 8)

Thanks for reading! 😀

Quick Game with 2 Players at 50 Points

I rolled to go first with this English fleet:

My opponent rolled a 1 to go second, with one of the new skull dice I received as a gift from Captain Randy when we played in Las Vegas.

My opponent went with:
Poor Adams + helmsman
L’Epee de L’Ange + helmsman
San Pedro + explorer
+explorer on HI

My ships were chosen somewhat randomly, though I like the red-green-blue contrast among them.

An intimidating sight: a square rigged fleet heads out!

I got to the beaches first, with the Merlin and Lord Kettering looking to cut off the beach that was most likely to be contested.

After the San Pedro grabbed some gold and the Poor Adams headed towards the rocky area, the Epee was left wide open.  Percival Blake gave the order for a Broadsides Attack, and surprisingly it hit!  The Lord Kettering needed 4 shots to sink the Frenchman, but she did go down.

The attention then shift back to the other side of the big island, where the Poor Adams was about to load the final coin from the first beach to be landed on.

HMS Lord Kettering:

With the St. George, San Pedro, and Lord Kettering all docking home their gold, it was a race for the final two coins in play (both 1’s).  The Merlin pursued the Poor Adams, but missed both shots as the PA maneuvered among the rocks.

The Merlin managed a few hits in the chase back to the mixed fleet home island, but both the Poor Adams and San Pedro got home safely.  I won the game 12-11!  The San Pedro increased the losing score by +4, so if one of my coins had been worth a little less, the outcome would have been a tie or victory for the mixed fleet.

Thanks for reading about this quick game!  Feel free to post about your own games in the Battle Reports thread!  😀

Señor Frog’s in Las Vegas – Game with Captain Randy!

For the first time, I played a physical game of Pirates CSG with another member of the Pirates community!  Captain Randy lives in Las Vegas, which coincided perfectly with my week long vacation there!!  😀

I was trying to pack light, so I wouldn’t have much on hand.  However, reusing a box I received in a trade with PirateAJ14, I was able to bring 4 English ships, their deckplates, and my entire plastic bag of English crew chips for use in the game.  Randy supplied the islands and gold (as well as his own fleet), and we got to talking!

Randy suggested the perfect place to play – at Señor Frog’s just outside of Treasure Island, right on the water near the two sailing ships they used to use for a pirate show!  With the water and fountains in the background I made sure to try and get some very unique pictures.  Check out HMS Dauntless “on” the water!  🙂

We have to thank Señor Frog’s for hosting us!  And once again I thank Randy for actually buying something so it didn’t look like we were just there to play the game!  XD

All the ships I brought:

We decided to do a 60 point game.  I went with some good English ships and crew, with all of them moving at the same speed.

How bizarre!!  Playing a game of Pirates CSG… in the desert… on a fake pond… with the epic Palazzo in the background!?  O_O

In a dry region we had found our oasis:

We placed 6 wild islands along with a bunch of terrain.

I rolled to go first, and fittingly enough I was wearing my HMS Victory shirt to a game where I was playing the English!

Captain Randy had a nice Spanish fleet with plenty of named crew.

La Resolucion + Luis Zuan (RotF captain version), Master Gunner Rogelio Vazquez, Joaquin Vega (linked), helmsman

El Principe de Asturias + Master Bianco, captain, helmsman, explorer

San Pedro

The English sailed out, with fountains and lights blazing in the background:

The Empress of India was the first ship to reach an island.  Making the situation even more unique, the sun was setting as we played!

I was going to send the Oxford to an island closer to my home island, but decided it would be better to try and take control of the middle area.  She headed for the middle island, while the Dauntless abandoned the Empress of India (all my ships with captains however) and whirled to the “southwest”.

The weather in LV was PERFECT.  The Empress of India just needed to avoid getting hit with a water spout!  XD

The opportunity for some crazy pictures presented itself.  Here’s the Empress of India with the huge Palazzo hotel and casino in the background:

The ship to our left seemed quite operational, with her lines and rigging lighting up the night:

The Principe and San Pedro gathered gold, while La Resolucion potentially looked to take on one of the larger English ships.

As the Empress of India docks home 2 coins, you can see part of the epic Venetian in the background.  The glass partition almost looks like purple water on the horizon.

As darkness descended, the game started to get more interesting.  The Dauntless did not whirl back to the north, as Thomas Gunn the Younger feared a quick strike by La Resolucion.  However, the Durham might not make it home in time….

With the Durham carrying home a full island’s worth of gold, the Spanish strike!  The Resolucion didn’t do a lot of damage, but it opened the combat!

Now we had a real night game going on!

HMS Durham pulled off a nice maneuver to save herself and comrades, simultaneously docking home her 4 coins, shooting at the Resolucion (no hits due to Joaquin Vega), and blocking the Spaniard from attacking the other English ships on the next turn (unless she wanted to brave the reef).

A turn later, and the “moon” was lighting up our game table.  🙂

Masts both big and small!

Now it was the Durham’s turn to shine in front of the Palazzo:

Too loud for much video, but I wanted to try!  😀

We talked about commandeering their vessel, but thought better of it when we didn’t see any sails on her.  XD

The Durham takes the fight to the Spanish!  She only eliminates one mast from the Resolucion, who retaliates by shooting and ramming!

Down go all four of the Durham’s masts! (she also lost her oarsman in the boarding party)

HMS Dauntless docked home a few coins, with Thomas Gunn eyeing the Resolucion with revenge….

But maybe a fountain would take them out first?

The Empress docked home another load of gold, while the Dauntless maneuvered to tow the Durham…

… and dismast the Resolucion!

Thomas Gunn completed the battle by capturing the Resolucion:

With the lighted ship conveniently lighting up our game table, the Dauntless went back to towing the Durham.

Had to get a shot of the biggest ship in play with her masts lined up with the masts of the ship in the background:

The English had won the battle, but will they win the gold race?

Soon afterwards, we had emptied all the islands!

My English totaled 36 gold:

Captain Randy’s Spanish finished with 30 gold:

My English had won a 36-30 victory!  It was a solid game, and a more fun time than it may look like here.

Thanks again to Randy for the game, the podcast we did after, driving me around, and the pinball!  😀

We Pirates had a grand old time!  😀

Here are some more pics from the travels.

HMS Dauntless against the Palazzo:

Here is the ship we played closest to, with the Wynn in the background:

The same shot at night:

Señor Frog’s at Treasure Island!

A shop in the Treasure Island hotel had some goodies that would be perfect for games.  Treasure chests for coins… or a big skull with a coin slot in the top that could be put on pillars/stilts so the gold would come out the bottom and land on an island below.

Pirates of the Caribbean pinball!