This is meant to be a comprehensive post of all the information and data I have saved from Miniature Trading. All card info (stats, abilities, etc) can be found in the Master Spreadsheet. You can still view Miniature Trading via the Internet Archive. Example: Pirates CSG Forum. You can navigate to many old threads and even some fleets and miniature reviews, but many URLs were never archived.
I pulled pictures from the Miniature Trading database with httrack in 2018. The first two links are folders of the biggest versions of the pictures, sorted into one folder per set. Hardly any of these pictures were taken by me. Google Drive just shows my name as the default creator. If there are any game pieces missing pictures that had been at MT, httrack didn’t pull them.
ALL Miniature Trading database pictures files pulled from httrack
-Here is a folder you can download to have all the pictures. It includes all the file sizes that the httrack download yanked from the site. “big” are the folders with the full size pictures. Feel free to make your own copy.
Before I figured out how to use httrack to pull only picture files, I made sure to get full page screen captures of all the Pirates sets from the MT database. So for full redundancy I have that too. Enables us to see pictures as if we are still on MT after the site is gone.
I couldn’t find an easy way to put the miniature pictures into the Master Spreadsheet without a) making every miniature entry massive due to the picture resizing the columns and rows (making it hard to see more than 1 or 2 pieces at a time) and b) doing in a timely fashion that wouldn’t require me to upload all 1,000+ miniatures into the spreadsheet individually (this is probably more doable but arguably pointless due to a; people can easily make their own personalized versions of the Master Spreadsheet if they want).
Here is a .zip folder of a large httrack download of Miniature Trading. It is about 1.3 GB in size and contains a TON of stuff. For all I know there may be enough in there to recreate parts of MT somehow. No idea how to use it or what to do with it, but I got around to making a .zip copy so I could share it with everyone.
For maximum redundancy here are links to Imgur folders where I have saved some of the above as well.
Had a funny and wild idea for a game – make it all about turtles! Here’s a game with only turtle ships, using movable Great Turtle islands, with all 3 of my Turtles Unique Treasures! XD
I scoured my collection and was surprised by how few turtle ships I actually own. However, I was able to use enough for a small multiplayer game.
House Rules
-Turtle ships with turtle panels cannot have their masts eliminated by ramming.
-All fleets must contain at least one named crew.
-The Giant Turtle follows the same rules as the Great Turtles, except that it cannot be chosen as a home island.
The Fleets
(in play order)
Pirates
The Pirates rolled a 6 to go first, doing something I’ve never seen before. I threw the d6 on the adjacent table I’m using for deckplates and supplies. It bounced off the table, hit off a box, and then spun on a corner like crazy! It was probably spinning for 3-5 seconds before resting on a 6. This was the night before the game when I did the setup, but it would not be the last luck the Pirates encountered….
The Pirates went with a super fast gunship in the Proud Tortoise, along with two other ships that would mainly focus on gold. Of course, these are the only Pirate turtle ships I own, so there weren’t many options. XD
Tsai’s Jade Rebels
Due to the low cargo of turtle ships, the Sea Snake looked like one of the best gold runners in play. Tsai’s SAT would help to make the fleet more versatile and dangerous.
Franco-Cursed
Easily the weirdest fleet of the four, this odd alliance was born of necessity, as I don’t have more than one turtle ship for either faction and I didn’t want to have 3 of the 4 fleets be from the Jade Rebellion. The Crypt is about as loaded as any turtle ship ever has been, with SAT/Fear/Eternal complementing the ship’s 2S cannon and captained S+S speed. (plus Massacre and Oarsman, yikes!) The Crypt was the scariest ship in any fleet, but this fleet has nearly no cargo spaces open for gold.
Katsura-chan’s Jade Rebels
The other Jade fleet had TWO named crew, giving the Dragon’s Talon a near-automatic 2L weapon and the Hansan Island some extra speed.
I wanted to keep the setup basic, with no terrain or round earth. True to the original multiplayer rules, each island held only 3 coins. None of the fleets wanted a Great Turtle as a home island, so all the wild islands are movable turtles!
The Pirates start the game! The Proud Tortoise and Inferno look like polar opposites.
Tsai’s SAT hit on the first turn, allowing the JR Proud Tortoise (PT) to dock at an island.
The Cursed saw the Pirates as a big threat, with the Crypt heading for the Beast’s Belly. This prompted Hammersmith to turn his PT around to guard the BB.
The Inferno explores and finds Turtles!! XD LOL! She loads the other 6 gold.
The Beast’s Belly explores in the north and finds the other 2 Turtles UT’s!!!This means the Pirates have all 30 Turtles in the water heading for their home island!!O_O
The first 2 ships to explore find all 3 Turtles UT’s! The Pirates have epic luck and are already set up to win the game easily!
They weren’t even done! The PT shoots a panel off the Crypt, as Fantasma watches in awe at the sight:
As you might imagine, the other three fleets panicked. It looked like the game was already over. The 3 non-Pirate fleets hastily made an alliance – all of their ships would do everything in their power to stop the Pirates. The race was on!
The Floating Stone runs over a turtle while the Sea Snake tries to block the Inferno. The JR PT found a 3, but sails towards the Pirate fleet without depositing it at home first.
Fantasma’s SAT allowed the Crypt to eliminate 2 turtles, but both of her shots missed the PT.
The Dragon’s Talon and Hansan Island are making all speed towards the east:
The Pirates manage a decent turn, but it’s pretty obvious that many turtles will die on the short journey to the Pirate home island.
SAVE THE WEE TURTLES!!
Fantasma was going crazy on the Crypt, with Fear helping against the PT and his SAT allowing the ship to eliminate two more turtles. The Floating Stone took advantage of the Fear effect (which shut down the Turtle Ship keyword), shooting off the PT’s mast.
Tsai’s Jade fleet was making quick work of the Giant Turtle’s turtles, with additional reinforcements about to arrive:
The Beast’s Belly gets home first for the Pirates, but their other 2 ships are stuck behind turtles! XD
This is where things started getting intense, and a little confusing. The Dragon’s Talon arrived and shot a panel off the Inferno.
In addition, there were now 2 Floating Stones and 2 Proud Tortoises in the same battle!
TURTLE MANIA!!
Unfortunately the BB’s ability began to put a bit of a stain on the game. It was almost as if the Beast’s Belly could ram to eliminate masts, but it took out a crew as well without any boarding happening. The Jade PT was the first victim.
It was an all-out turtle massacre. Sea turtles were being run over left and right as 3 fleets ganged up on the Pirates in an attempt to stop them from amassing a huge amount of gold. The PT and Inferno lost panels as the Dragon’s Talon and Crypt shot as much as they could.
View from the Pirate HI:
The Inferno got home with her coins. The Sea Snake has turned for home to repair. With most of the turtles killed and no Pirate ships with gold remaining, the first crack appears in the alliance as the Dragon’s Talon captures the JR PT.
The Beast’s Belly uses her ability to dismast the Dragon’s Talon, but is finally smashed herself by the Floating Stone. A few turtles make it home, with Fantasma’s Crypt stopping as many as possible from reaching the shore of the Pirate home island. The Dragon’s Talon and captured JR PT are rowing west towards some gold and that fleet’s HI.
A messy scene! At the top of the picture, the Hansan Island has been dismasted, while the Pirate PT finally reaches home at the bottom.
This is when the game got even weirder, and more confusing! The Cursed fleet captured two turtle ships, with Katsura-chan’s Jade Rebels still in control of Tsai’s PT. (Katsura-chan herself killed in action)
In the end, only 4 turtles out of 30 made it home safely. O_O Fleets were regrouping and trying to understand what had just happened!
I actually looked at all the gold remaining in play to see if any fleet could beat the Pirates. The Pirates had 15 gold on their HI, but there was 17 left in play. The game would continue!
It was getting really bizarre. Mastless turtle ships were running amok. Without an oarsman to prevent the state of dereliction, some were easily captured if you could catch them. A kind of tag was played between Tsai’s Jade fleet and Cavendish’s Jade fleet. Things flip-flopped many times in the second half of this game, with captures and recaptures too many to remember. That’s why you see turtle ships at the left pointing in odd directions – once you capture a ship, you can give it an action on your turn, if able. Since all the ships in the game can row at S (or sometimes S+S with a helmsman) via the Turtle Ship keyword, there was a lot of capturing and then moving away immediately afterwards. Then get recaptured on the next turn, and move in the direction your new owner prefers. XD
And that is where a new (?) concept or game idea was born: chain capturing. At the upper right, the Floating Stone of Tsai’s fleet was able to capture the remaining two ships of the other Jade fleet by herself (Hansan Island had been recently sunk). Back and forth they went, with each fleet controlling 1 or 2 ships each turn of the three pictured. Eventually Tsai’s fleet was able to chain together enough successful moves, and the captured Dragon’s Talon was within capturing distance (S+S rowing distance in this case) of Tsai’s own ship, the Proud Tortoise. The PT was reclaimed for his own Jade fleet (this is hard to even put into words because of how confusing it is lol), completing the chain of captures that led to the elimination of the other Jade fleet! XD This is one of those bizarre occurrences that would only happen in a very similar situation, with lots of oared ships that are “capturable” (aka no oarsmen) and moving amongst each other and jockeying for towing position on just about every turn.
Tsai is now back in his own fleet, and the other Jade fleet has been eliminated!
After a successful game, Hammersmith’s PT is finally smashed apart by the Franco-Cursed.
However, the Beast’s Belly quickly put a stop to them. The Crypt and Floating Stone lost their masts to the annoying ability, while the Inferno and PT went home to repair.
The Sea Snake has finally reached the Great Turtle explored by the JR PT way back on Turn 2, with that PT rowing for home past the Giant Turtle. The other 2 Jade ships are exploring the western Great Turtle.
And with that, the Jades have the ingredients for a potential comeback win! All of their ships carry gold, with the 17 enough to upset the Pirates!
However, the Pirates will have something to say about that!! They are repairing in earnest, with the French Floating Stone joining their ranks.
The Jades have a shot at winning, but they are very s l o w . . . . 3 of their 4 ships have no sails up.
Fantasma scuttled the Crypt so she could get home to repair faster! (via his Eternal ability)
Darkness and light…
The race is on!! The final part of the game will see a showdown!
… but a quick one at that. XD Hammersmith’s PT is back in action, quickly zooming south to capture the Sea Snake. He then moved on to the Jade PT, and it looked like the Jades were in big trouble.
The Jade PT was captured as well, with the newly brainwashed Tsai using SAT to propel the ship towards the Pirate HI. The JR Floating Stone dismasted the Pirate PT, but now half of the Jade ships were in Pirate hands. Up north, you can see the Crypt having a brief fight with her old fleetmate. Perhaps it was only natural that the Cursed and French would end up fighting each other in this game? Not a big surprise after all, given the events of Command the Oceans.
The Pirate captures of the Jade turtle ships sealed their victory!! It was over. The Pirates had held on and won with 15 gold! (all other fleets with 0) Although only 4 turtles survived the triple onslaught of turtle ships attacking them, the Pirates won based on early luck. They had it made from the start, going first and somehow finding all 3 Turtles UT’s before any other fleet could explore. They did well to hold on throughout the long second half and preserve the shutout, with all three of their ships performing well.
The top right of the map is truly a turtle graveyard – all the eliminated turtles sit in a pile, while the debris from the chaotic battle drifts on the waves.
This was one of the weirder and more wild games I’ve played. The sheer amount of ships changing hands was astounding. By the end of it, the Pirates controlled 6 ships. Only once did a fleet sacrifice an action to move a Great Turtle, so that mechanic didn’t really affect anything.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this report! Feel free to comment below: What was your favorite aspect of this game?
A7XfanBen: What is your favorite memory of Miniature Trading?
Xerecs: To players and collectors of the game, would you ever consider making custom game pieces, and make a model for them, using either pieces of existing ships, or use other materials to bring you creations off the paper?
Game Essentials: When playing, try to have the Pirates documents available for reference. Find them all on the bottom of my homepage: https://pirateswithben.com/
I thought of the idea of a “bottleneck” game some time ago. The idea is to have a small waterway that fleets must traverse in order to achieve their goal. I finally tested this for the first time, though it was with a very basic setup in a somewhat rushed game. Despite the lack of time and effort, it turned into one of the better games I’ve played, although more in a bizarre way than anything else.
The setup featured the 4 fleets around the 5 beach island, something that’s fun to do once in a while in a total opposite of having the 5 beach island be a giant wild island full of gold. Flat earth rules with multiple sandbars making up a bottleneck leading to the 2 wild islands, which held 7 coins each. (all UT’s from the above fleets included, so only 7 coins with regular gold values)
My remaining copy of the Prussian Crown is badly broken, so I proxied her with the Stoneheart. As happens far too frequently, I forgot to start the Mercenaries S away from their home beach. They got to pick their beach first since they were going last, and naturally picked the beach closest to the gold. I wanted to give them what was hopefully a slight advantage. Not only were they going first, but that would also mean that they would not be shot at on their first turn. The Santa Molina would potentially be able to shoot at opponents right away. The English fleet looked to perhaps be the strongest (partly because the other Fleet Challenge entry fleets had more restricting limitations), so they picked their home beach last and therefore could have a tough time even getting through the bottleneck in the first place.
The English went first and took a wide turn, hoping to avoid a Pirate attack. The French and Pirates headed for the gold, but the Mercs were in the best position. The Devil Ray used submerged ramming to nearly move S+L+S+S! +L bonus while submerged, helmsman for +S, and the “move S away” from the ram was used to put her even closer to the wild islands after knocking a mast off the Descharges. Then the Santa Molina made her mark on the Pirate fleet, simultaneously blocking all of their ships from entering the bottleneck and shooting 2 masts off the Prussian Crown. (eliminating the PC’s explorer with her ability; Fiore and Tia Dalma cancelling each other out)
Could the Mercs pull off a stunning upset?! They’ve got the start they needed!
Relieved that they didn’t get blasted on Turn 1, the English readied their cannons for an attack on the Pirates. The Victor shot a mast off the Raven, with Ducie Chads ecstatic that the Pirates ended up being the fleet adjacent to the English beach. Cartier gave the Descharges a double move, allowing her to reach a wild island before any other ship! The Mercure used the stern turn from her Schooner keyword to partially block the submerged Devil Ray.
The Prussian Crown utterly fails on her turn, getting three 3’s in a row to miss the Santa Molina! (continuing my Pirates-career-long trend of failing miserably on rank-3 cannons…) The Raven cannot get to a wild island or her own home beach (to repair), so she simply shoots a mast off the Santa Molina. Ophidious rams the Lady Provost to pin the English gold runner! The ram roll fails but the LP loses her explorer to the serpent’s boarding attack.
Ophidious, one of the best sea creatures in the game:
The Devil Ray nearly reached the second wild island, with the Barracuda also submerged:
The Santa Molina had a disappointing turn – she hit 1/3 against the Prussian Crown (killing Tia Dalma, which became important later on) and rammed a mast off the Intrepide, losing a crew in the boarding party.
Ducie Chads takes the Victor into battle against Ophidious! He regrets boarding the beast for its gold parts, and gets killed in action!
Thomas Gunn the Younger is there to save the day, as HMS Lord Walpole hits 3/3 with classic English gunnery to kill Ophidious! (though the creature is Eternal…)
The French were up again, and the Descharges explored. She loaded all of these UT’s along with 6 gold.
Unable to shoot at the submerged Barracude, the Mercure simply tries to block for the Descharges. Wanting to keep the Santa Molina pinned, the Intrepide shoots but misses with a 2.
The Devil Ray surfaces to dock and explore at the second wild island. She finds the remaining coins, and loads the top 4 in this picture. This gives her +3 to her boarding rolls and potential control of Ophidious.
The Barracuda surfaces to shoot at the Mercure, but crucially misses a shot, keeping the dangerous schooner alive. At the upper right, the Santa Molina sinks the Intrepide and the Pirates roll successfully to scuttle the Prussian Crown.
With Ransom crew Cannonball Gallows aboard the doomed PC, the English spring into action. The Lady Provost captures the Pirate flagship, as the English plan to deposit Gallows on their home beach for his 5 gold Ransom payout. The Victor moves to shoot at the Santa Molina, but predictably her captain is cancelled by Christian Fiore. The Lord Walpole takes some shots instead, but only hits once.
At this point the Mercure has taken the Enemy of the State UT from the Descharges (to avoid Mercenary issues at home), who has lost a mast to a shot from the Barracuda. The Devil Ray submerges again and sprints for home, hoping that Christian Fiore can allow her to dock and unload.
The English sink the Santa Molina! This effectively doomed the Mercenaries, as they cannot dock either submarine at home with cancelling the Mercenary keyword with Christian Fiore. In addition, both cancellers are now out of the game. The Mercure turned around and shot at the Barracuda but missed. In a sudden change of strategy, the Mercenaries turned both of their subs around with the purpose of getting more gold. Their thinking was that with Fiore out of the game, their best chance to not finish last in the standings was to amass as much gold on their subs as possible, submerge, and then just wait the game out until it was over.
The Mercure finally connects, setting the Barracuda ablaze with a well-placed firepot!
The English and French are making for home. However, Ophidious is nearly back to full strength! The serpent rams and pins the Lady Provost for the second time in the game, but once again fails to knock over a mast. However, the English were anticipating this, and both English gunships are ready for another fight. At the far left you can see the Descharges breaking for home, using the EA ability to slip past the bottleneck. Cartier and Rousseau are hoping the English focus on Ophidious rather than turning around.
In a strange situation, the Mercenaries submerge the Barracuda but also roll a 1 on her fire mast, dooming the ship. (weird because the ship technically had 2 fire masts while underwater) The Devil Ray dumps both of her crew to load up more gold, preparing to submerge for good next turn….
Although Ducie Chads is not alive to see it, the Victor gets to board Ophidious successfully, loading the serpent’s head aboard ship!! This happened only after the Victor eliminated the other 2 remaining segments via shooting, meaning Ophidious will “die” for the second time in the game.
With Ophidious taken care of, Thomas Gunn the Younger can turn his attention (and ship!) to the French… but Duncan Rousseau uses Parley to avoid getting shot at! Luckily for the French, Screw Engine is the random coin that gets transferred! This means that the Descharges still has both of her coins worth gold.
The Mercure continues her rampage, getting revenge for the early game success of the Mercs against the French! She sets the Devil Ray on fire and steals the Cursed Conch! Perhaps the French can command Ophidious against the English? (even though the Pirates were already using the beast to do the same thing) It’s not often that you see a single ship set two submarines on fire in the same game!
The French crew combo works wonders! Duncan Rousseau bails out Amiral Louis Cartier with the Reroll ability, with the EA allowing the Descharges to dock home her 2 coins! Between the Merc subs, Santa Molina, and English, it’s a bit of a miracle that the Descharges was able to get home safely. To the right, Ophidious’ second “death” should allow the Lady Provost to dock home the captured Prussian Crown.
Game over!! Wait what?? On the last few turns, the English returned home with both the Prussian Crown and the head of Ophidious (on the Victor). The Descharges got another EA to repair her masts, while the Devil Ray submerged. The Mercenaries did not give the Devil Ray an action while submerging her, meaning that they didn’t have to roll for her fire mast. The Mercenaries then sat and didn’t take any more turns, content to stay underwater with a submarine that is on fire but with 3 coins on board! It was a truly bizarre ending to a bizarre game.
Making the rounds, here are how the fleets finished up:
In first (?), the English have 7 gold! However, NONE of it came from any gold! Gallows is worth 5 gold via Ransom capture, while the head of Ophidious is worth another 2. You could say that two Pirate heads won the game for the English!
In second with 6 gold are the French:
In last, the Pirates had nearly regenerated Ophidious again. Of course, the head would have to be imaginary since I don’t have another Ophidious in my collection. I’ve thought about this situation before – in a long enough game, you could go through multiple Ophidious pieces and have all sorts of segments floating around in different fleets!
In third, the Mercenaries have 8 gold on the submerged and flaming Devil Ray. (not counted because they didn’t and can’t unload it at home!)
The final coin in play was ignored, as Targeting Scope was not worth bothering with. In the end, the Mercenary strategy of holding out to not finish last actually worked! Though just barely, as the Devil Ray was an action and a bad fire roll away from sinking.
So the English win 7-6, with the Mercenaries third with 8 on a submerged submarine breaking a 0-0 tie with the Pirates. I didn’t keep playing because I was pressed for time.
At least, that’s how I played it. But actually the Mercenaries won!! XD O_O Per the Pirate Code on Multiplayer Rules:
When any end condition is met, players reveal all treasure on their home islands, in forts, and on their ships. The revealed treasure is added up and the player with the highest gold value is declared the winner.
Since the Mercenaries have 8 gold on a ship, technically they win 8-7-6! O_O
However, I have a lot of issues with that. First off, the Mercenaries would NOT survive getting the gold back home. The fire mast and Mercure alone would have doomed the Devil Ray, let alone the English fleet (now looking like an armada with no competition) intervening at some point. Secondly, counting all 3 coins as “winning gold” on a burning Mercenary submarine 2 hull cracks from going to Davy Jones’ Locker seems like a lame way to cheat the English out of a solid game. With both cancellers gone, the Mercs had no way to dock home the gold.
Third, the Mercs were now benefiting from a rare but completely viable strategy: Submarine Stalemate. Get a bunch of submarines loaded up with gold, eliminate any counters in enemy fleets that could bring them to the surface, and then just sit the rest of the game out while chilling underwater. This is where a house rule that forces submarines to the surface every X turns could come into play. If that happened, the Devil Ray would be a sitting duck for the firepower remaining in the game.
I suppose I should have kept playing. In that case, the Mercs could wait it out until the English got the Prussian Crown repaired. Her ability would suddenly be the determining factor in the game. Since she’s able to shoot at submerged ships, she would be able to blast the Devil Ray and send her gold to the bottom, with the DR having nowhere to hide since she can’t dock at home.
The Santa Molina’s ability was clutch, as it eliminated Tia Dalma and could have paved the way to a more clear Mercenary victory with the enemy canceller out of the game. However, they had to resort to a cheap strategy once Fiore was gone.
In the end, perhaps there can be a dual winner. In my mind the English won, but since I didn’t keep playing, technically the Mercenaries get a bizarre victory. This is the kind of game that makes you love Pirates! I wanted the game to revolve around one faction building a fort on the sandbar by the bottleneck to restrict sea traffic to the islands. However, the complete opposite happened, and it was great!
After this game was one of the absolute best I’ve ever played, I wanted to at least try a very similar setup with the same basic restrictions (4 fleets, 100 point build total). I have so many Fleets that I didn’t even need to create any for the game – I just used some that I created in the past that I’ve actually wanted to try out for a while now! The game would be unique in that each fleet was already made long before I even wanted to play the game this year, and it would be each fleet’s first game. House rules included round earth and turtle ships being immune to ram damage when they have shell panels.
I rolled for faction player order, which would be Jades>Corsairs>Pirates>Cursed. The fleets chose home islands in the opposite order.
The Corsairs didn’t all fit at their beach, so I had to overlap some oars.
Nowadays I only use events in extremely competitive play, so I swapped those out for the Nightmare + helmsman for the 6 points. Cursed Natives was also excluded.
The 5 beach island from Ross in AZ was used, with 10 coins on each beach. 10 UT’s total were present, randomly mixed into the distribution. I didn’t use any shiny gold or shiny silver, so all the coins would simply be worth their printed value. However, I did include some translucent “ghost coins” from the Davy Jones’ Curse Super Rare pack. As with other games, they basically grant the ship carrying them the Ghost Ship keyword. (which can only be activated at the start of the ship’s turn, thus you cannot turn ghostly immediately after exploring and grabbing one of those coins)
The Game
The Jades got play started! Tsai was immediately successful with his SAT roll, and he used it to round earth the Grand Temple into a fog bank right next to the Pirate home island! There was some grumbling among the minor factions as the fleets were chosen and the game was being set up. Not only were the Pirates the only “super faction” (Big 4 or Big 5, for example) participating in the game, they were even using not just one but MANY of their absolute best ships. This caused the minor factions to essentially establish a pregame alliance against the Pirates. However, it would be interesting to see how long they could stick to such a plan….
(Of course this was all my doing, but it would honestly be boring and predictable if the Pirates just ran away with the game and won by a landslide. If anything I think it affected the game for the better as you’ll see!)
Jades looking pretty and colorful:
But maybe the Corsairs are prettier? You decide!
Extremely wary of the Grand Temple’s potential to dominate (up to 12 shots with SAT, 8 of them being at 2L), the Pirates made sure to avoid her. All 3 of their big square rigged ships ducked into fog banks themselves, while the gold runners looked to use their speed and explorers to make a quick but large profit.
The old nemesis (and best friend) of players everywhere: can the Banshee’s Cry do it again?
The Pestilence’s navigator laid down a trade current for the Cursed, who used it to get a boost towards the “on paper” heavy favorites to win, the Pirates. Behemoth flew out of the gate at L+L+S while submerged, with The Hag of Tortuga egging the beast on from the Loki’s Revenge, one of my favorite ships. (I like to let submerged game pieces ignore fog banks since it’s above the surface)
The fleets are off! One turn in, and you can tell it’s going to be a massive hoarding frenzy at the gold-laden beaches.
The Sea Wind’s captain is wasting no time at all! He pilots the junk to a beach, getting his mizzenmast cannon in range and knocking a mast off the Bonnie Liz! The Jades purposely put this ship on the edge of the beach closest to the Pirates in case they would need to shield their uncaptained ships (to the left) from potential Pirate wrath. Since most of my pennants are for the Big 6 major factions, I decided to use the tiny dice for marking islands explored, with gray for the Jades, orange for Corsairs, red for Cursed, and black for Pirates. What did the Sea Wind find??
A solid haul. The Potions and Brews were left behind, but the Figurehead and Doll could come in really handy. As a preview to how good this game turned out, both of those would be used to full effect. 🙂
Jade Rebels in action!! The Admiral Yi continues the attack on the Bonnie Liz, dismasting the ship. The East Wind docks and executes a successful island (or beach) treasure trade with her ability. The Sea Tiger ends up taking the Potions and Brews UT.
Without even doing it on purpose the deck of the Bonnie Liz slipped between the hull and turtle panels of the Admiral Yi:
The Sea Crane brought up the rear, while the Sea Duck headed north.
The Jades had a nice second turn, with 3 ships getting gold already.
But they weren’t done yet!!! The Grand Temple used SAT to fly out of the fog bank and straight into the Pirate gold fleet!!
The brutal attack leaves the Bloody Jewel derelict and the Neptune’s Hoard damaged, with the schooner losing 2 masts and a crew.
The Corsairs were next. Although it isn’t a true swarm fleet, they were able to send multiple ships to multiple beaches, with the Crescent Moon and Whisper docked here. However, you can also see something off to the left…
Wesley sets the Splendor loose upon the Jades! The Sea Tiger opens up the Potions and Brews and uses them, but it doesn’t stop the Corsairs from taking a 3 from the junk.
The Corsairs seem to have established a nice foothold at the island:
Will the Fire Djinn sail off Ocean’s Edge? Not with round earth….
The Pirates get to a beach and explore!
They find a nice mix:
The only rolled a 1 for Lost, which turned out to be really great because you’re not supposed to put the terrain within S of any other islands or terrain. With the crowded setup, there was pretty no place to put much of anything. The UT ended up being far less consequential than it sometimes is. The Pirates dumped a trade current near their HI, having pretty much no good options.
The BC’s crew celebrated with Wine, but not until after they loaded 2 coins, including a ghostly coin.
The Neptune’s Hoard reached the beach after the BC but took 3 of the best coins. The Pirates knew what they were doing, with the Grand Temple’s attack and nearby Behemoth making them think that they could be in for a lot of hurt in the short term if the lesser factions ganged up on them. Don Pedro Gilbert threw his explorer overboard to move into the fog, which nearly guaranteed the safety of the ship’s coins, because the NH could move from the fog to the Pirate HI in one action. Savvy play on the Pirates’ part, because this was a game where if you didn’t get gold home early and often, you wouldn’t stand a chance.
The Pirates are out of the fog for revenge! The Eagle rakes the Grand Temple’s stern, while Mysion gets the Revenant up to point blank range.
Grand Temple sunk!! I seem to have a recent habit of using 6 masted junks in “blaze of glory” attacks before they’re sunk early in the game.
Seeing the “devastating duo” headed north towards his fellow pirates, Captain Jack Hawkins decides to initiate conflict with the Cursed. However, both of the Darkhawk II’s 3L cannons miss the Loki’s Revenge, which could spell doom for the DHII.
With the anti-Pirate pregame alliance, it’s no surprise that early combat saw some “famous fatalities”. The Grand Temple, Bonnie Liz, and Bloody Jewel are all out of action.
And that was just the start! Behemoth rams the Banshee’s Cry!
The great beast is called to the surface to wreak havoc!
Quite the interesting matchup actually – the best ship in the game against a Super Rare and super unique copying squid!
The lone mast on the BC stood no chance against Behemoth’s huge tentacles. Notice the Loki’s Revenge getting into position…
Another big matchup: Loki’s Revenge vs. Darkhawk II! Quite the star-studded combat so far in this game.
The crew in the main topmast of the Sea Monkey had a front row seat to the action, and watched in glee as the Loki’s Revenge completely pulverized Hawkins’ ship!
The Cursed are definitely here! The Sea Rat docks with the help of another trade current, while the Sea Monkey captures the Darkhawk II.
The Sea Rat explored (ahead of the Crescent Moon, who had John Ward and a helmsman but no explorer) and found a decent assortment.
The Sea Duck gets greedy, with her explorer tossed onto the island in favor of an extra coin:
At the end of Turn 2, the feeding frenzy is in full gear!
Having been essentially robbed of both her coins by the Splendor, the Sea Tiger fights back. Partly in an attempt to block the Corsairs from getting to other Jade gold ships. However, the ram and board is a total failure.
The Sea Crane grabbed the final coin from the beach, hoping to double its value of 1 with her ability. Things were already getting interesting from a strategy standpoint. The Sea Wind and East Wind head home with gold, but the Admiral Yi does not escort them. Instead, she throws caution to the wind and captures the Banshee’s Cry!! (right in front of Behemoth!)
The Sea Duck has round earthed to the south, where she will try to get gold.
Continuing the theme of ramming and boarding to steal gold established by the Splendor, the Crescent Moon slams into the Cursed Sea Duck! John Ward grabs a coin for himself and the galley uses her Reroll ability to win the boarding party for a second coin!
Aruj Barbarossa reveals his plan – use round earth to steal a crew from the Cursed with the Fire Djinn’s S-Boarding ability!
Gold Capture successful. Not only does it potentially help the Corsairs’ final gold tally, it also denies the navigator ability from the Cursed.
The Splendor can’t stop!! Wesley initiates another successful ramming and boarding attack, this time against the Sea Crane. The Filching Gold ability (that the Splendor and John Ward have) isn’t usually fantastic, but today it really shined. The Splendor took the Sea Crane’s only coin without even having to win the boarding party. Then when she won the board anyway (possibly with the help of Wesley’s +1 boarding bonus), the Sea Crane lost her explorer. The Splendor also has a nice 2S cannon at her bow, which weakened the enemy before the boarding. All in all, a successful triple whammy against the Jade ship. The Gallows and Majestic complete the squadron of sorts – with the Splendor and Gallows having the captain ability aboard, and the Majestic’s cheerleader ability, this trio could be surprisingly effective in combat for the Corsairs. So far the Splendor hasn’t needed help!
The Whisper explores and finds what could be the mother lode, perhaps the best beach in the game!
The turtles get in the water, but it could be a treacherous journey to the Corsair HI.
The Corsairs have established a wide swath of area around the wild island. Surprisingly formidable galleys raid the Jades and Cursed in the north and south respectively, while the beach closest to the Corsair HI is worth a lot of loot. It’s fun to see what they’re doing – can’t explore beaches before your opponents? Just rob them right after they explore it themselves!
The Marrakesh and Dervish cannot fit between the rock and the fog bank at the bottom left, and so they wait their turn to explore once they can get a decent fog exit roll.
The Pirates do a tiny bit of chain towing to get the Bonnie Liz closer to home and out of the way. The Revenant misses the Admiral Yi with the only cannon she has in range. The Pirates think it’s much too early in the game to sink their own ship (Banshee’s Cry) without a big effort to recapture her.
Sometimes I can’t help but take extra pictures, it’s such a nice looking game. (plus the Revenant is one of the all-time classics)
The Nightmare explores the eastern beach for the Cursed! She finds amazing treasures, with both 7’s that I included!
The Sea Monkey dumps her explorer for an extra coin, but the Fireworks are left behind for now.
The Cursed are looking pretty good: 4 ships with gold on them, and a captured Darkhawk II!
In a massive relief to the Jades AND Pirates, the Cursed suddenly turn their devastating duo away from the combat zone! Behemoth moves L+L+S again (copying Helmsman) and the Loki’s Revenge follows her east. This appears to save the Admiral Yi, Banshee’s Cry, and perhaps some Pirate ships as well. But why?
‘Tis the Corsairs. The events of the last 2 turns have shown them emerging as the sudden favorite to win. They’ve pulled off multiple at-sea heists, have turtles near their HI, and have angered the Cursed with Barbarossa’s capture of the Pestilence’s navigator. The Cursed aren’t stupid, and are certainly playing to win. They recognize the high threat level the Corsairs pose in the gold race, and the Corsairs have even been quite lucky so far. The Cursed need to hinder the Corsairs more than the Jades or Pirates at this point to come out on top, so Behemoth and the Loki’s Revenge are headed either to the whirlpool or round earth to go after the BC’s.
Here we can see the Fire Djinn’s sneaky raid, with her sister ship Crescent Moon successful as well in the upper left. The translucent coin on the Sea Rat reminds me that she’s ghostly until the turn she’ll dock home.
Indeed; although all the fleets have loaded some gold, the Corsairs look like the fleet with the highest potential right now.
The Jades are the first to make a deposit! Both of their 3 masters are back with coinage, while the Sea Crane flees into fog just to escape the Splendor’s rampage.
The Admiral Yi is eager to escape the probable rampage of the Revenant, and flees into a fog bank as well to hide herself and the Banshee’s Cry:
John Ward is still hungry! The Crescent Moon rams the Cursed Sea Duck again, taking her last coin:
Corsair power, and new favorites indeed. The Whisper and Splendor head for home with gold aboard, with the Majestic and Gallows escorting them and the turtles. The Marrakesh manages to escape the fog and grab three 3’s from the turtle beach.
A beautiful but effective force:
The Fire Djinn made her getaway, with no easy targets in her immediate vicinity.
The Pirates seem to be making a solid recovery: the Neptune’s Hoard is back with 3 coins, while the Eagle looks to salvage the Bonnie Liz.
Captain Mysion is frustrated with the Admiral Yi and BC away in the fog. The Revenant grabs 2 coins from the previously explored “Pirate beach”, with Mysion figuring he might as well get more gold sooner rather than later. (as a side note, the Revenant, Harbinger, and other Pirate 5 masters can be surprisingly great hybrids, especially with the great Pirate named crew)
Weird to imagine what could have been if the Admiral Yi, Banshee’s Cry, Revenant, Behemoth, and Loki’s Revenge were all mixed up in some chaos here.
The Sea Rat comes home with gold, while the Pestilence heads out for some.
The Sea Duck misses the Crescent Moon on both shots, while the Sea Monkey and Nightmare get into fog on the way home.
Behemoth comes flying across the round earth and surprises the Corsairs! The beast moved L+L+S once again, taking advantage of the Hag’s bonus and copying the Helmsman ability. However, the Whisper’s mast proved sturdy, and perhaps the Cursed have struck too early? Now the giant squid has surfaced, exposing her to fire from the Corsairs without the Loki’s Revenge right behind to back her up.
The LR could get there slightly faster by using the whirlpool, but the Cursed don’t want to lose any valuable sac crew.
Another round of turns is over, with every fleet but the Corsairs having some gold on their HI.
Remember that the Sea Wind of the Jade Rebellion fleet loaded Voodoo Doll from the first beach that was explored? They rolled for it successfully, turning Captain Mysion face down and therefore eliminating the Captain ability for use on the Revenant!! This was a clutch move.
With a perfect roll of 1 to exit the fog bank, the Admiral Yi keeps towing the Banshee’s Cry and makes a break for it!! Just recently it looked as though the Yi and her prize BC were going to be stuck for a while. With the Pirates moving around a bit and Behemoth long gone, it was the perfect time to hit Mysion with the Voodoo Doll magic and try to make a minor miracle happen! (pun intended, as the minor miracle is happening with a minor faction against the best faction in the game)
The Sea Crane also got a good fog exit location, and was willing to sacrifice herself to prevent the Revenant from ramming the Banshee’s Cry as the Admiral Yi towed the latter towards the Jade HI. The stars were aligned for the Jades this turn, as they had perfect luck on all 3 die rolls that enabled the BC rescue situation to continue. The East Wind sailed over as well, hoping to provide support in case the Pirates went all-out after the BC. The Sea Wind headed south, hoping to hinder the Corsairs. (at this point everyone knew the Corsairs had high potential for a big gold score)
The Corsairs’ first gold actually came from Barbarossa, as the Fire Djinn returned from her round earth trip to deposit the captured navigator. I had to pause for a while here, unsure of what the Corsairs should do. I did consider having the 3 ships to the right attack Behemoth, but the combination of a copied Longship keyword on the squid plus the captained Sea Wind made it seem like a worse idea than the surprise I went with….
The trio completely splits up!! The Splendor takes off to the east, sailing past the turtles to hit the Jade Sea Duck. The Majestic grabs coins from the beach.
After the Cursed Sea Duck finally hit the Crescent Moon, John Ward decided to head for home.
Only the Gallows attacked Behemoth, so the Corsairs didn’t completely abandon the Whisper. The galley hit 1/2, leaving Behemoth more than strong enough to blast away on the Cursed turn.
The Corsairs may have a lot of gold in or on the water, but the bottlenecks are making it difficult to unload at home. A big rock, multiple fog banks, Behemoth, and two Sea Ducks have gotten in the way.
It remains to be seen how the Sea Wind will play into this situation:
Will the Corsairs ever manage to cash in?
5 of their 8 ships carry gold, and all 10 turtles are in the water! No wonder fleets are coming after them…
The Revenant does ram the Sea Crane to dismast her, proving the Jade strategy of a sacrificial ship successful. (Mysion is ruined by the Voodoo Doll)
So close to revenge, but actually so far….
However, the Pirates still had some good news. The Bonnie Liz and Neptune’s Hoard are getting repaired, so the Pirates will have usable ships sailing out from their HI again soon.
The Sea Monkey unloaded some coins for the Cursed, but the Nightmare got a crappy roll and went back into the fog. The frustrated Sea Duck gave up trying to hit or chase the Crescent Moon and loaded the last 3 coins (all 1’s) from the southern beach. The Pestilence is looking for gold, and the Cursed seem to have abandoned the Darkhawk II in favor of gold.
Behemoth copies the Longship keyword and sinks the Whisper and Gallows!
The Cursed have pivoted!! Instead of sending the Loki’s Revenge to the far west via round earth or whirlpool (now not as attractive due to the presence of the Fire Djinn and Sea Wind, not to mention Behemoth’s success), the Cursed sent her through the whirlpool to emerge in the south!!
The Loki’s Revenge sacrifices an oarsman to move and shoot out of the whirlpool! She goes 4/6 to dismast the Crescent Moon and damage the Splendor!
A fitting picture, with the Corsairs in the light and the Cursed looking dark and menacing:
The latest devastating Cursed attack has hit the Corsairs hard, but now the LR is stuck in the sargasso sea.
I love this ship!! Such a beast!
Another round of turns is over, with combat continuing in the north and south.
Looking west as the Corsairs find themselves under heavy attack:
In a stroke of incredible luck (and perfect timing), the Jades get Voodoo Doll to work and cancel Captain Mysion for the second turn in a row!!
That all but guarantees the safety of the Banshee’s Cry, as the Admiral Yi is now only 1 turn away from docking her and her gold home. The East Wind attempts to block the Revenant anyway, having not much better to do in the short term.
Now that the Majestic (common misprinted Pirate flag visible at the top of the frame as a little trivia) has taken most of the final coins from the southwestern beach, the Jade Sea Duck has good reason to ignore the wild island and ram the Splendor instead! This eliminates a mast but I think Wesley won the boarding party.
The Sea Wind approaches Behemoth but holds her fire, intent on eliminating turtles. The Jades are hoping and thinking that Behemoth may actually assist them in doing so, since the Cursed really have it out for the Corsairs now in the gold race. (Which is obviously turning more into hindering other fleets’ gold scores rather than maximizing their own gold scores to a degree – which is sometimes needed, especially to prevent a runaway winner. The fleets have not forgotten that the Corsairs won the Legend of the Giant Turtle game the month prior by a comfortable margin.)
The Corsairs went next, and tried to recover from the attacks in the south. John Ward estimated correctly (I premeasured XD) that the Crescent Moon would be in range of the Loki’s Revenge mizzenmast 2L, and decided to take the ship through the whirlpool. Barbarossa saw his comrade emerge behind Behemoth and sprung into action to distract the beast, with no time for repairs! However, the Fire Djinn managed to miss all 3 shots against the squid, who was in prime position to savage multiple ships on the upcoming Cursed turn. The Turtles make their way through the bottleneck as the Splendor and Majestic join the Marrakesh and Dervish in a “fog party”.
Again under the spell of voodoo magic, Captain Mysion packs his bags and goes home, with the Revenant towing the Bloody Jewel. The Pirates can finally make another good run at the wild island, with the Neptune’s Hoard and Eagle headed to the eastern island explored by the Cursed.
The Cursed are off!! In a much-anticipated move, the Sea Rat (with the home island raiding ability) moves southeast, likely to round earth towards one of the other home islands… as the Sea Monkey follows her, knowing the Sea Rat will probably need at least one escort to make it out of any robbery alive. The Nightmare docks home her two 7’s (!) and the Sea Duck is nearly back with 3 gold of her own. Suddenly it looks like the Cursed could be the favorites to win!
BEHEMOTH GOES CRAZY!!! The great beast copies the Loki’s Revenge Longship keyword (truly an incredible combo and “devastating duo!), and nearly annihilates all three ships in her immediate vicinity!! The Crescent Moon is sunk, the Fire Djinn is dismasted, and the Sea Wind is down to 1 mast. Clearly the Cursed aren’t interested in much of a Jade-Cursed alliance despite their united anti-Corsair stance, which could provide insight on where the Sea Rat might be headed….
The Loki’s Revenge is free! No time wasted on the sargasso, and the longship lumbers to the whirlpool she emerged from!
But she doesn’t use it. The LR wanted to potentially link up with Behemoth to blockade or attack the Corsair home island, between all the galleys stuck in the fog and the turtles swimming along. To the right, the Pestilence loads gold from the eastern beach the Cursed already explored.
The Admiral Yi docks home the Banshee’s Cry and the most unlikely of captures is a success!
The Jades only got 5 gold out of the BC’s capture so far, but more potential awaits. The BC keeps the 1 because it provides the Ghost Ship keyword as a translucent coin. The Wine is looming as the endgame nears….
(Wine is a neat UT that can make games longer with a prolonged HI raiding spree, but it can be quite fun and a way to keep the game alive for longer than usual)
The Sea Wind eliminates a turtle and shoots a tentacle off Behemoth!
The East Wind sails south to assist. The Sea Duck docks at a beach now that the Splendor and Majestic are out of her way.
FINALLY the Corsairs are in business! The appear to have a serious windfall coming, with the Splendor and Majestic docking home their gold right as the first turtle swims ashore! Barbarossa couldn’t save John Ward and the Crescent Moon, and the Fire Djinn can’t quite make it home on oar power, so she may suffer a similar fate.
In a serious annoyance to the Jades, the Dervish finally gets a good fog roll and takes the last coin from the southwestern beach right from underneath the Sea Duck! (since the Corsairs have already explored that beach)
Here come the Pirates! The Eagle rams the Pestilence and robs her of a ghost coin, while the Neptune’s Hoard looks to explore the beach next turn. (her explorer from earlier is long gone)
The Revenant tows the Bloody Jewel back while the Bonnie Liz goes out for gold.
This is an incredibly fitting picture. The Eagle is often overshadowed by the Darkhawk II (derelict at lower right), which is an objectively better ship. However, the Eagle is one of the absolute best 4 masted ships in the entire game (arguably better than the Neptune’s Hoard!), and here you can see all three in one shot with the Eagle triumphant.
The Pirate attack looks might intimidating from the main mast of the Sea Duck:
The Sea Rat and Sea Monkey arrive in the northwest via round earth to rob the Jade Rebels! (when they set out, the Corsairs didn’t have any actual coins on their HI, and the Cursed have WAY more space to dock at the vulnerable Jade HI compared to the increasingly crowded and defended Corsair HI)
The Cursed decide to scuttle the DHII and Pestilence, and succeed with both rolls! This is partly to prevent the Pirates from recapturing the DHII and to deny the final coin on the Pestilence.
The Nightmare sails off to support the Sea Rat’s HI raid, and the Sea Duck is thinking about the same:
Behemoth moves and copies the Captain keyword to sink the Fire Djinn and Aruj Barbarossa!
Literally a game of inches, or millimeters in this case. Turtles and the Fire Djinn nearly back, and Behemoth nearly out of range with all of its remaining tentacles.
With the Corsair HI somewhat out of range, the Loki’s Revenge goes through the whirlpool after all! She rolls a 1 to lose a valuable crew (one less sac opportunity).
ATTACK!!!!! The Loki’s Revenge sacrifices the Hag of Tortuga to move and shoot, hitting 5 times in 6 shots to devastate the Pirates!!
One of the most powerful ships in the game (up to 12 shots at 2L for a minimum of 21 points with a helmsman) unloads massive firepower into the sterns of the Eagle and NH, dismasting the former. The Eagle’s masts fall on the Pestilence, DHII, and the beach.
It was awesome to see the full potential of the Loki’s Revenge realized in a non-campaign game. Absolutely massive devastation unleashed.
In an understandably massive shift in strategy, the Jades completely abandon the Corsairs and prepare for the fight against the Cursed. The Admiral Yi redocks near the Sea Rat, but the island is too big and the Jade ships too few to defend the gold stores. I thought for a while about where the BC should go. In the end she turned ghostly and sailed east over the reefs, hoping to use the whirlpool or round earth to rob the Cursed with Wine. It was almost possible to have the BC just zoom past the Cursed ships in a quick trip to their HI, but the Sea Monkey’s S+L+S total speed made it pretty unfavorable.
Not wanting to get into another ramming and boarding war against a new opponent in the Dervish, the Jade Sea Duck sails south, possibly to aid the Banshee’s Cry or hurt the Cursed somehow. You can see the Banshee’s Cry in the background along with some of the other central figures of the current situations. With multiple HI raids occurring in the endgame, the round earth rules loomed larger than ever.
The Splendor repairs, more turtles get home, and the Marrakesh rolls another 4 to get a bad fog bank exit location. In a bizarre series of rolls, I would estimate the Marrakesh rolled a 4 on that specific fog bank for at least 5 turns in a row!
They expected to be attacked due to their relatively overpowered (OP) fleet, but now the Pirates are finally really pissed. Captain Mysion loses it. The Revenant stops towing the Bloody Jewel and gets her 2L bow cannon in range of the Loki’s Revenge, hitting with a 5!
The Pirates went all-out attacking the LR! The Neptune’s Hoard rammed a mast off, but the Bonnie Liz was unsuccessful with her ram. The Cursed won both boarding parties, eliminating Don Pedro Gilbert from the NH and the explorer from the BL. Finally the LR is damaged!
Behemoth snacks on a sea turtle! XD
The Cursed make their raid! The Sea Rat steals a 5! The Sea Monkey tries to block the Admiral Yi without docking.
Suddenly 3 ships are gone from the east. The Pestilence and DHII are scuttled, while the Loki’s Revenge escapes Pirate wrath via whirlpool.
The Nightmare sails to support the Rat and Monkey, while the captain of the Loki’s Revenge signals for the Sea Duck to stay at the Cursed HI, anticipating the arrival of the Banshee’s Cry.
Oh the decisions of playing a round earth game with home island raiders! Although this game wasn’t nearly as crazy and “perfect” as the 2015 game I was trying to emulate, this part was certainly similar – 4 home islands around the edges of a round earth map, with plenty of gold available for HI raiders in the late game.
The Jades arrive and the combat begins! The Admiral Yi takes a mast off the Rat, but the East Wind and Sea Wind can’t quite reach the Cursed ships.
The BC uses a whirlpool to emerge in between rocks in the far east:
Right now it appears to be 2 on 2 – the BC will be supported by the Jade Sea Duck, who is behind the Loki’s Revenge. The Cursed Sea Duck is trying to defend the Cursed HI by herself until the Loki’s Revenge gets back. (now slowed with no more crew to sac, just captain and helmsman aboard)
The Pirates are left to once again pick up the pieces after another devastating super gunship attack. The Revenant docks home 2 coins, while the Bonnie Liz prepares to pick up 2 more.
The Sea Duck prepares to fight the BC as the LR comes in hoping to repair before things get crazy.
The Nightmare arrives and it’s 3 on 3 in the northwest! Which is actually quite close to the Cursed HI in the southeast due to round earth. The Sea Monkey makes solid use of her Reverse Captain ability, shooting a panel off the Yi while trying to block the Jade 3 masters.
The Jades make some progress, winning a few ram rolls and dismasting the Sea Rat. However, the Yi lost the boarding party to the Rat.
The BC docks at the Cursed HI and exchanges Wine for a 7!
The Splendor heads towards the Cursed HI to get in on the action. The Marrakesh rolls another 4, but this time goes to the other fog bank, as the prior one is clearly cursed. 🙂
Now it’s a 3 fleet fight! The Majestic is unlikely to make off with the newly available coin, but might as well try!
Only the Pirates are not involved in the current shenanigans.
The Sea Duck dismasts the BC but fails to take the coin, similar to what happened in the northwest. The LR docks but likely won’t have time to repair.
The Cursed fight back effectively, with the Nightmare towing the Sea Rat, the Sea Monkey shooting masts off the 3 masted junks, and Behemoth arriving at the scene.
The Jades make a successful scuttle roll on the BC, but it’s obvious she will be captured (possibly multiple times!) before the next Jade turn starts.
The Jades roll to scuttle the Sea Wind as well, marking a trend of very successful scuttle rolls throughout the game. However, there is also an emerging trend of fiercely defended boarding parties, with the derelict Sea Rat winning against the Yi and East Wind!
The Marrakesh is fed up with yet another crappy fog roll, but with Behemoth gone, she can simply go home the long way now. (which will evidently be a lot shorter than dealing with the fog banks!)
The Corsairs start to get some measure of revenge against the Cursed! The Majestic captures the BC (she has now been owned by every fleet except for the Cursed) as the Splendor arrives to blast a mast off the Sea Duck.
Looks like a mirror image of the chaos in the northwest!
The Bonnie Liz cleans up, taking the last coins from 2 different beaches. It remains to be seen what role the mighty Revenant may play in these HI raiding shenanigans.
Bigger ship, bigger d6! The Loki’s Revenge sinks the Majestic and rams the BC to take back the 7!
Funky “upside down” view of the Sea Duck trying to block off the BC’s bow from the Splendor:
The Nightmare had Manawa no Kowhatu from earlier in the game, and here the UT’s Fear ability hit the East Wind, slowing her on her next turn. I’ll admit that things got a little ugly and “fudged” slightly here in the northwest towards the end. That corner of the table was harder to reach, and naturally a large cluster of ships were endlessly fighting over a single coin throughout this entire portion of the game….
What?? The Sea Wind was scuttled! But she still had Neptune’s Figurehead aboard from the first explore of the game!! She sails out to ram the Sea Rat, but again the Cursed successfully defend their stolen loot!
The Cursed falter as the southeast is just a complete mess as well at this point. The Splendor grabs the BC’s ghostly 1 coin (no chance to use it between docking at the Cursed HI and the ship constantly changing hands). The Sea Duck dismasts the LR with a ram, but of course it’s not the end for the longship!
Incredibly, at this moment all 3 Corsair ships left in the game had gold on them! The Corsairs rose and sort of fell again, but they could definitely still win!
The incredible success of the Sea Rat’s crew in resisting boarding parties is making it easier for the Cursed to escape. Behemoth knocks out the East Wind, but the newly healthy Sea Wind is an issue.
The LR captures the BC!
The Jades have an incredible turn!! The Sea Wind dismasts the Monkey with the help of the Yi being within S (for the cannon bonus). The Yi finally succeeds at taking the 5 from the Sea Rat!
And the Sea Duck takes the 7 from the Loki’s Revenge! Suddenly the Jades have BOTH of the “endgame coins”!!
The Marrakesh and Dervish dock home on the same turn, with I think 11 gold between them.
The Splendor rams the Sea Duck to take the 7!
The Eagle and Bonnie Liz increase the Pirates’ gold score, with the NH off to get in action:
The Revenant arrives in the northwest!
Fear hits again as the Nightmare takes the Yi’s coin! As a side note, I think the East Wind’s mast looks cool under Behemoth.
MIGHTY REVENANT INDEED! Mysion’s flagship lets loose a thunderous broadside and hits 4/5 to sink FOUR enemy game pieces!!!!! O_O
A crazy situation where the Revenant lined up 4 weak opponents and every single hit sunk them! One of the crazier things that’s happened in any of my games, especially considering it was a smaller game (and not a campaign game) and the Revenant didn’t even need a second action to pull it off.
The Splendor was near the southern whirlpool so the NH chased her there, but the Splendor had faked her out. The galley emerged in the west, where the Marrakesh and Dervish would attempt to escort her home.
The Revenant steals the 5!
The Splendor docks home the 7 and the Corsairs are very happy!
The Revenant made it home successfully with the 5! In the end the Jades and Cursed did the stealing, but neither made it to the end with the stolen loot! (either the loot they stole from each other, or the loot they had stolen from them!)
Gold Scores
Here are the results, in turn order!
Jade Rebellion: 17 gold
Barbary Corsairs: 39 gold
Cursed: 37 gold
Pirates: 31 gold
The Barbary Corsairs are victorious again, and the entire endgame mattered immensely!!
What a game! The Corsairs overcame a bias against them in the middle portion of the game, just edging out the Cursed for their second major victory in as many months! (after they won in May 2019) The Pirates managed a lot of gold for a faction that got hammered early and late in the game, with the Grand Temple and Loki’s Revenge really crippling their hopes for a victory. The Jades had a disappointing score but seemed to play reasonably well, getting wicked lucky with Tsai’s SAT and the Voodoo Doll UT early in the game.
MVS (Most Valuable Ship) – Splendor. The Splendor was simply fantastic in this game, successfully stealing from at least 3 enemy ships (Sea Tiger, Sea Crane, Sea Duck) and bringing home the winning coin after grabbing it in the skirmish at the Cursed home island! She used all her assets effectively, with speed, 2S cannon shots, Wesley’s abilities, and most importantly, her Filching Gold ability to be the “perfect corsair” treasure raider. Congratulations to the galley, which is a ship I considered underrated even before this game. Very honorable mentions go to the Loki’s Revenge, Behemoth, and Revenant, although of course those names were to be expected for an award like this. Nice to see it go to a ship most people wouldn’t expect. And of course the Banshee’s Cry was at the center of controversy and action as usual. XD
I have to admit I was basically rooting for the Cursed once the Loki’s Revenge started going crazy and once I realized I didn’t want the Corsairs to win again after the Legend of the Giant Turtle game in the prior month. I suppose that proves I do play fleets equally even when playing solo lol. The 7 that the BC grabbed with Wine was a game winner, but not for her original fleet (the Pirates) or her controller at the time (the Jades). Instead it was the Corsairs (who ended up with it) getting some revenge on the Cursed (the coin’s first owner) for the LR and Behemoth brutally attacking them earlier in the game. If the Cursed had kept the 7, they would have won 44-32. There are some other alternate gold scores that could easily have happened as well. For example, the Navigator mattered. If Barbarossa hadn’t snatched him up for the Corsairs, it could have been a tie at 37-37 (though I would have used points in play as a tiebreaker to determine a winner). If more turtles had been eliminated (by the Sea Wind, Behemoth, and possibly Loki’s Revenge), it could have been even closer, perhaps with the Cursed prevailing 37-36. If the Pirates had been more desperate (but they would also need to be lucky I think) in the endgame, perhaps they could have gotten both the 5 and the 7, winning with 38 gold. Anyway, a close and exciting game is what I wanted! A great game indeed! Thanks for reading!!
Just played a game at 4 players, 40 points! (not solo) It would be a friendly casual game, the first in quite some time for the other 3 players. (although one played against me in November 2018)
The fleets, in turn order:
Mixed:
Bruja + captain, helmsman
Pawtucket + helmsman
HMS Comet
Cursed:
Locker + Davy Jones (OE version)
Lilu + helmsman, shipwright
Spanish:
Resolucion (OE) + oarsman
San Agustin + explorer, oarsman
Spilled Salt
A7XfanBen: The Jades can use Calypso too!
-I replaced the Tiger’s Breath with the Sea Crane because I do not yet have a physical copy of the former, swapping out the oarsman for an explorer.
The Tiger’s Paw fittingly docked in the middle of my ships, as Calypso was the centerpiece of my gimmick fleet.
Round earth rules:
Only 1 wild island, but essentially 3 with 5 coins per beach:
Player 1 sets out, with stormy waters accurate because there was actually a storm that happened during the game!
Calypso’s first roll is successful and she’s off to the whirlpool races!
Not wanting to simply go to the nearest beach, the Virtuous Wind and Sea Crane show up at the second whirlpool near a beach north of their home island:
Predictably, most players sent their ships straight for the gold. However, there were a couple noteworthy exceptions….
Davy Jones piloted the Locker towards the Spanish fleet via round earth, while the Resolucion (out of frame to top right) headed away from the gold.
True to their faction, the Cursed attack! The Lilu rams the VW, while the Locker surfaces and slams into the San Agustin. The Cursed are disappointed to see both boarding parties result in ties.
With her path to a beach now blocked by various things, the Sea Crane doubles back to the first whirlpool Calypso created. I didn’t want to create an ocean setup that benefited my fleet, and that certainly played a factor here, with Calypso being nearly useless or negative to use for the remainder of the game with the gold in mostly one spot.
The center area was getting more crowded, with multiple factions having designs on the 15 coins. The Spilled Salt shot 2/3 to nearly “de-segment” Davy Jones’ Locker!
Davy Jones rolled a 6!! The Cursed made the most of it, moving the Virtuous Wind away to unpin the Lilu. The Spanish took advantage, with the Resolucion shooting 4/4 to sink the Jade 3 master! Jones himself surfaced his Locker, turning away to head home.
The San Agustin does the heavy lifting of the gold game for the Spanish, picking up 4 coins with her explorer. With only 1 coin left on that beach, the Sea Crane again whirls around, hoping to get some loot without disturbing the Lilu. However, she lost a mast to the whirlpool.
With the rest of her fleet struggling, Ms. Cheng has to unfurl the sails of the Tiger’s Paw, ignore Calypso’s whirlpool frenzy effect, and start slowly rowing/sailing out for some gold. The Spilled Salt of the Spanish fleet reverses direction… possibly to shadow the Locker?
Davy Jones rolled a 5 on the Locker, which allowed the Lilu to repair and get another action. Showing the truly aggressive and all-out play style of the Cursed, the Lilu shoots with her 4S mizzenmast cannon and HITS to dismast the Sea Crane! At this point I was all but out of the game, but some hearty Alestorm kept my spirits afloat. XD
You could call this the “endgame” of this particular night. The Lilu dumped both her crew to grab 2 coins, which she maneuvered home. The Locker repaired, then used an extra action to move and shoot at the Resolucion, taking off 2 masts. The Resolucion responded in kind, taking the Locker back down to 1 segment for the second time in the game. The San Agustin has unloaded her coins, while the Spilled Salt and Tiger’s Paw look for some of their own. The Mixed fleet player prefers to not engage in combat unless necessary, and was satisfied with all 5 coins they grabbed from the beach that is empty in this picture.
The north was certainly the busy area tonight, with neither Jade gold runner returning to the south and the Mixed fleet simply going to a beach and back, content with their harbor formation at home.
The finale involved one of those typically desperate “final fight” engagements where 2 or more ships fought over a single coin. Back and forth they went, with the Lilu, Spilled Salt, and San Agustin all vying for a coin that didn’t matter to the final scores in the end. The Cursed ended up getting it, despite an initial mast disadvantage and the Spilled Salt having the Lilu’s former helmsman. (by this point the Locker and Resolucion were derelict)
Not bothered by anyone, the Tiger’s Paw was able to very slowly get one coin for the Jades, helping me to avoid being shut out.
Final Scores
Mixed fleet: 17 gold
Spanish: 14
Cursed: 10
Jade Rebellion: 1
A solid return for me fellow pirates, as they raked in almost all the gold while keeping Calypso from creating too much chaos! In the end the pacifist fleet won, having gotten good values from their otherwise undisturbed beach. In a way, most of the game was just a fight for second place!
For centuries, myths were spread around the sea of a giant turtle in slumber deep below the ocean’s surface. It was rumored that the turtle’s massive shell was made of pure gold. Perhaps if a sailor was sneaky enough, he could manage to remove part of the shell and set himself up for life.
Last week a dubious publication revealed that someone claimed to have seen the turtle above water! Almost immediately nearly every nation in the world scrambled to get a small fleet into the region. If the rumors were true, this opportunity to gain wealth could be unrivaled in history. Little did the factions know what truly awaited them….
~~~~~
Admiral A7XfanBen is back! I was able to play my first physical game of Pirates CSG since November 2018, and my first physical solo game since the ridiculous Command the Oceans ended in December 2017. I got that “playing bug” and wanted to try something a bit different. I’ve had some cardboard moldings like this for quite a while, with the intention of turning at least one into a giant turtle.
It would have been nice to give the legs/flippers a glossy teal-like color, with a gray for the shell. However, I wanted the turtle to be more of a proper wild island, and a very lucrative one at that. The turtle is so large and fertile that grass grows on all of its flippers! And of course, this legendary turtle of old has a shell of PURE GOLD that is unmatched in world history!! O_O I spread out some glue and sprinkled on some grass powder, along with some big bushes for the eyes. I finished it off with a thick layer of shiny metallic gold paint. The shell would look a bit more realistic if it was more raised up/rounded, but I wanted to keep it pretty flat, mostly so coins can be easily placed and kept on its back. Besides, it’s a giant gold turtle bigger than a 10 master, so realism was not the goal here! 😀
I took 496 pictures for this game, which was certainly too many! I think it’s good I didn’t include them all here, since there are a number of semi-duplicates, the same angle with the flash and without, etc. I decided to vary the picture size for this report so the page might load faster and because some of the developments don’t necessarily deserve the full size picture. The largest pictures can be made even bigger by opening them in a new tab and zooming in.
Here is the setup! I used the “Caribbean” blue ocean fabric as I thought it suited the turtle theme the best. I made sure to string together some terrain and include whirlpools for maximum traveling efficiency.
House Rules:
-Round Earth – ships going over one side of the map appear on the exact opposite side.
-Shiny silver is worth 3 times its printed value
-Shiny gold is worth 2 times its printed value
-Giant Turtle acts as a wild island – more rules are below in the report
-Only singular islands can be chosen as home islands. The 11 gold locations were as follows: 5 beach island, 3 beach island, giant turtle, 2 shipwrecks.
-No Events
The Fleets
This would be an 8 fleet, 60 point game.
Here are the factions! This is the turn order; I got the fleets out in the reverse of this order (with the Pirates first). Home islands were picked in reverse turn order, with the Pirates choosing first.
The Cursed
Skin Flayer + Captain Nemo, El Fantasma, helmsman, shipwright, oarsman
Sea Duck
Silver Coffin
Nightmare + helmsman
The final fleet made for the game. This was simply an excuse to add a switchblade with Captain Nemo aboard. Switchblades with any kind of capture crew almost always make games more fun, so I couldn’t resist. The idea of course is that the Skin Flayer won’t really need Nemo’s captures (already have the essential crew aboard), so they can be sacced by Fantasma for chained extra actions. (sac a crew to get an extra action, which is then used to blade ram a ship and capture another crew for next turn’s sac) The rest of the fleet was some gold running support, with the Sea Duck’s sniping ability pairing nicely with the Silver Coffin’s Extended Range.
I think this Grand Path setup is nastier than what the original fleet contains. The GP would have SAT+reroll with essentially 1S cannons, along with a stinkpot specialist and oarsman for maximum crew support. I have convinced myself that the Grand Wind is underrated, so I was looking forward to using her in a reasonably-sized game.
A powerful American fleet with serious potential. A great case could be made that the Kettering and Frontier should both be 20+ points, so combine that with 5 extra from Perry and this fleet packed serious punch.
Spanish
Valeroso + Victor de Alva, Master Bianco, Contessa Anita Amore, helmsman
Intermediaro
San Francisco + captain, helmsman
Pescados de Plata + helmsman
Easily the oddest and possibly the weakest fleet, I decided to get a bit funky here. The Valeroso is a very capable ship, and I wanted to emphasize her ability by putting S-Board on her. Bianco comes aboard to make her a funky S-Boarding hybrid, with 3 open cargo spaces. Intermediaro is a one-of-a-kind creature with an ability that could be used to help any of the other 3 ships. It was added partly for the possibility of using the ability to draw coins from the giant turtle. San Francisco is a great little hybrid and the Pescados would function as a gold runner.
French
Le Superbe + Amiral Stephan Dupuy, Duncan Rousseau, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Le Soleil Royal + Vicomte Jules de Cissey, captain, helmsman, firepot specialist
Le Triton + captain
Three of my favorite French ships. All of them absolute classics; I think the Triton is one of the most underrated ships in the entire game. The big gunships would be ready to wreak havoc; the Superbe specifically was equipped for absolute chaos with the combination of EA+reroll along with Parley to stay in fights longer than most other ships. With all 3 ships having captains, the French would be ready for war.
English
HMS Titan + Lord Thomas Gunn, helmsman, firepot specialist, oarsman
HMS Bolingbroke + captain, helmsman
HMS Adventure + helmsman
HMS Rye
Since it was my first physical game of a longer nature in quite some time, I wanted to include some classics and favorites. HMS Titan remains one of England’s finest, and she alone can make the English competitive in this game. The Bolingbroke is a very capable gunship. They were a little short on cargo, but HMS Adventure is a somewhat new addition to my collection that I wanted to use for the first time, while HMS Rye gave them a faster gold runner in addition to the valuable cancelling ability.
Pirates
Zeus + Captain Blackheart, helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x5
Raven + Hammersmith, oarsman
Devil’s Pay + captain, oarsman
THE ZEUS IS LOOSE!!!! This marks the first time I’ve used my physical copy of the Zeus in a game since acquiring the 10 master earlier this year. I decided to go with the original (and cheaper) Blackheart for the Sac ability, with tons of oarsmen for “food”. The Raven is one of my original ships and an all-time favorite, with Hammersmith turning her into a fast hybrid. The Devil’s Pay isn’t great, but this was the first fleet I decided upon for the game and thought it might be too good, so I didn’t want to fully optimize it since it wasn’t a hyper-competitive game. (though still competitive relative to lots of other games I’ve played).
Feel free to comment below your thoughts, and which fleet you thought would win/which fleet you were rooting for!
The Setup
Looking east:
From above:
Looking west:
Gold
-10 “regular” gold locations (8 beaches and 2 shipwrecks) with 5 coins apiece. (50 coins)
-Giant Turtle has 30 coins on it, including one all-gold coin worth 20 gold. (most valuable coin in play)
-16 Unique Treasures spread out among the locations, with at least 4-5 on the turtle. All the factions know that the UT’s are positive in nature.
-80 coins total
TONS of gold appears on the giant turtle!!
The turtle was placed in the middle of the map with not much around it for good reason….
The three beach island, from Ross in AZ. Contact him if you’re interested in getting your own!
The Sultan shipwreck:
The Duke shipwreck returns as well! It’s gotten a little dirty after seeing extensive use since it first appeared in 2015.
The 5 beach island, also made by Ross in AZ.
Ready to start!!
The Game
The Cursed get things started, with the dangerous Skin Flayer going to the south via round earth!
Cursed gold runners approach the wreck of the Sultan:
Knowing they need to get gold early with all the dangerous fleets floating around, the Jades use Zheng Li Kwan to sac an oarsman from the Grand Wind (GW). This allows her to dock and explore a beach in the west. The Grand Path (GP) ducks into a fog bank due to her proximity to HMS Titan.
Not a bad haul! With all the crew on the GW, she can only load the best 2 coins.
The Corsairs immediately show that they have designs on the turtle! Half of their fleet breaks for the sleepy creature.
The other BC ships head for the 3 beach island, with two of them ducking into a fog bank to avoid the Skin Flayer:
The Corsair fleet, gorgeous as always:
The Frontier’s hoist arm is perfect for avoiding the reef that ensnared the Duke!
A nice haul, and one that the Frontier’s huge hold can easily accommodate.
The Kettering and Hudson quickly sail over to surround their valuable investment, daring anyone to come close.
To my surprise, the Spanish are able to use Intermediaro on their first turn, the ability providing the Valeroso with a coin! (a shiny silver 1 worth 3 gold)
The Spanish 2 masters head for the north side of the 5 beach island:
The Superbe docks at the 3 beach island with the Soleil Royal and Triton close behind.
It seems that the French are always gorgeous. One of the best sights on the sea:
The English venture out, heading north just like the Jade Rebels:
The Titan and Adventure join the Grand Path in the fog, with the Rye a bit more confident than most due to her cancelling ability (and the GP only has S-range guns).
The Pirates split up, with the Raven heading towards the turtle, the Devil’s Pay heading towards the Sultan shipwreck, and the Zeus heading north along the eastern edge of the map. The Pirates already had a plan they decided upon as soon as they chose their home island (HI): the Zeus would round earth to the northwest and dominate the waters around the 5 beach island. She would try to keep that gold locked up until she sacced enough crew to load some of it, or one of the other Pirate ships got over there to explore.
The Cursed runners arrive at the shipwreck, both avoiding reef damage:
The Skin Flayer heads west, definitely wanting to avoid the massive firepower of the French fleet. (up to 18 shots in a turn between the 3 captained ships and the Superbe’s EA)
The Grand Wind sacs another oarsman and is already home with gold! The Jade Rebellion takes a very early lead on Turn 2! They partly did this to avoid having HMS Titan go ballistic coming out of the fog and wrecking their gold game. Saccing early meant getting some guaranteed gold, and also freed up cargo space on the GW for future treasure runs.
The Grand Path comes flying out of the fog bank with Tsai’s SAT, covering a large distance quickly!
She connects with a hit on the Pescados de Plata, and the fighting has begun!
The Morocco is the first ship to dock at the giant turtle! She has an explorer and they clamber upon the mythical creature for a look at what the golden shell contains!!
O_O Holy hell!! In addition to the 20 gold coin (painted gold in the middle), the giant turtle does not disappoint the centuries-old rumors. The Morocco’s crew is delighted to find tons of extremely valuable gold and silver, not to mention a bunch of great UT’s.
Suddenly the Morocco is filthy rich! It turns out Calico Cat (Pirate SAT crew) was the Castaway, so maybe she was hiding out on the turtle as one of her nine lives!! XD The coin worth 20 gold combines with a shiny silver 6 to represent a whopping 38 gold on the Morocco alone! O_O
The Corsairs get greedy, with the Queen of Sheba and Agha’s Whip also docking at the turtle. They abandon their explorers to maximize the loot loaded!
The Dervish rolls an unlucky 1 to exit the fog bank right onto a reef, but rows over it undamaged. The Griffin docks at the 3 beach island, with the Gallows protecting her from the Raven zooming around to the north.
The Corsairs are loaded, with 4 ships carrying gold already. The Griffin finds Metal Hull with her explorer.
The Americans return home, with the Frontier turning a quick profit by draining the Duke shipwreck. The Kettering is already eyeing the Corsairs with suspicion, given their turtle antics and obvious greed.
The Pescados docks at the 5 beach island…
With the San Francisco trying to shield her from the massive Grand Path, going 1 for 2 to knock off a mast.
Intermediaro (submerged) transfers another coin from the turtle to the Valeroso. This is a solid strategy for the Spanish, but per the creature’s ability, the coin has to be random, limiting their potential profit.
Hearing the guns booming to the west, the Valeroso docks home her 2 coins as Victor de Alva looks to even the fight against the Jade Rebellion.
Since the ability is a free action, Intermediaro was then able to move southeast towards the Pirates:
Le Superbe explores to find some coins and TURTLES!! XD
The Triton docks as well, as the French grab all the coins from the beach. You can see that my “turtle UT collection” is 30% complete. 🙂
The Soleil Royal stands guard against a possible attack by the Skin Flayer, who already feels like one of the biggest “free agent”/wild card type ships in the game.
Suddenly 3 of the 4 English ships are docked, though none of them have explorers.
With some custom islands/terrain and a blue ocean, you can really make this game look even more beautiful than it normally is. I listened to some music while playing the game, including variousepicmixes and some Alestorm later on. Feel free to tune in while you take in the game and all the pictures.
The Pirates get in action! Most figured the scary Zeus would be the one to open their realm of combat, but the Devil’s Pay snuck up on the Cursed from the other side of the Sultan shipwreck! This wreck is too low to block lines of fire, so the Devil’s Pay shot away both masts on the Sea Duck!
The Raven flies in at S+S+S+S speed to attack the Morocco! However, she fails miserably, missing with both cannons and losing her oarsman in the boarding party. The ram was successful, but Hammersmith really wanted to dismast the ship.
An ominous sight: the Zeus has round earthed to the west!
However, with 3 factions exploring 3 of the 5 beaches at the island, and the Grand Path and Titan (both with extra actions) in the area, it may be difficult for Captain Blackheart to use his ship of doom to control the whole area.
But still, it’s the ZEUS! 😀
Suddenly, the ships around the Giant Turtle heard a deep rumbling. The turtle opened its eyes!!THE TURTLE IS AWAKE!! Noticing some of its golden shell stolen, the turtle gets angry and rams two of the Corsair ships at once, knocking a mast off each one!!
The turtle is angry!
Giant Turtle Rules
-Acts as NPC island that can move S in any direction it wants at the end of each round of turns, measured from the head. (one ship must dock at it to wake it up)
-Ships can dock at grassy areas on turtle and build forts on it.
-Turtle can only “fight” by ramming, can ram multiple opponents at a time and every turtle ram always eliminates a mast.
-Turtle has Hoard ability and can board opponents that have gold after ramming them (base roll of 4). If turtle loses boarding party, winning ship can take 1 extra coin from island if they have room.
The turtle is alive and well!! In an event the Corsairs did not predict the turtle has awakened to take back its valuable gold. It rolls a 4 while boarding the Morocco to take back all of her gold and UT’s!! (Calico “Castaway” Cat remained since she is a crew now)
The Agha’s Whip is boarded as well, and loses all her gold back to the turtle!
Suddenly the Corsairs aren’t so rich anymore, with the Queen of Sheba lucky to get out alive. (so far at least)
The Corsairs docking at the turtle woke it up, which led to this chaotic finish to the end of Turn 2.
This giant turtle won’t be giving up its riches that easily:
I figured that instead of just having the turtle be a simple wild island, that it could move and defend itself. That way the island is still a priority due to the immense riches on it, but the turtle can be a living game piece that makes it harder for factions to win by simply “robbing” the turtle’s huge golden shell.
What was looking like an easy path to victory now looks like an intimidating behemoth that factions may want to stay away from:
It’s worth noting that since the turtle can move at the end of each round, an explorer is almost required to get gold from it, at least until that faction has marked the island as explored. Any ship docked at the turtle can expect it to attack them, which will undock the ship and require docking again to have a chance at the gold.
Now you can see why I wanted to leave the middle area pretty wide-open. I wanted to give the turtle plenty of space to maneuver without crashing into obstacles and getting stuck.
The Silver Coffin is able to barely shoot between the fog bank and Sea Duck for an extended range shot, along with another shot between the Sea Duck and Nightmare. One hit drops the Devil’s Pay to 1 mast.
The Nightmare explores the Sultan to find some interesting UT’s, but not a large amount of gold:
She loads the Necklace and a 3, hoping to use the Explosives later on. (face up coins since it was a solo game so I don’t have to try and remember which coins are what)
So far the northeast is a battle of the small ships and long guns over a shipwreck:
It was time for the Skin Flayer to get in action!! Captain Nemo and El Fantasma were waiting for the opportune moment to strike, and a weak and scattered Corsair fleet was the perfect target!! The switchblade slices through the stern gallery of the Dervish:
With a successful shoot and board via the blades, the Dervish loses both masts!
Showing the effective and sadistic nature of this strategy, Fantasma immediately sacrifices a Cursed oarsman for an extra action. The Skin Flayer moves on to savage more Corsair targets, ramming the Griffin with her bow and the Gallows with her port side blade!!
With death in her wake, the Skin Flayer shows the power of switchblades: a double action triple ramming frenzy attack!!
The Griffin avoids damage, but the Gallows loses both masts:
BOTH boarding attempts were successful, with Captain Nemo essentially capturing 2 crew from 2 different ships at once! The Griffin’s oarsman and Gallows’ captain become part of Fantasma’s evil army.
The Cursed have launched a devastating attack on the Corsairs, with the sun shining on the Skin Flayer’s blades:
This is a switchblade lover’s dream: two actions, two crew captured, three ships rammed – and all of them by a different “source”. (both blades and the ship’s bow all hit a target!) They might be funky and a dumb idea, but this is why switchblades are often my favorite type of “Pokeship” – they’re fun and wild!
To nobody’s surprise, the Grand Path easily blows the San Francisco out of the water for the first sinking of the game!
The Corsairs take their turn, trying to process the devastation. In a turn they went from having 6 healthy ships, 4 of them with a lot of gold between them. Now 3 of them are dismasted, with only 2 carrying gold. Most of their ships flee to the safety of the fog and home (Dervish docked), but the Morocco can’t make it despite her helmsman and oars. With Metal Hull preventing fast movement but making her a tough opponent, the Griffin actually decides to stand and fight the Skin Flayer, going 1 for 2 to knock out a mast.
Making things even worse for the Corsairs, French and American gunships are lurking to either side of their home island, only a few actions away from being able to do serious damage to an already weakened fleet.
Speaking of which, it was now the American turn! The Kettering was eager for some action, trying to prevent the Morocco from getting home next turn with her S+S rowing capability. However, her stinkpot shot backfired, eliminating it from the game!
And just like that, it looks like the Americans are the next faction to have plans for the turtle! Their entire fleet heads northeast, with the Frontier having two decided advantages over the great beast:
-Her Hoist ability can use the crane arm to take gold directly from the shell, avoiding the dock+explore mechanic and likely limiting potential damage from a turtle counterattack if she can get the right angle of approach
-Secret Hold will protect the gold from the turtle’s wrath and Hoarding Gold ability!
Could the Frontier make off with a massive store of shiny loot?
Or will the giant turtle prove too much for the legendary gold runner? Stay tuned to find out!
With no proper escape route from the Grand Path, the Pescados decides to just continue on and explore anyway. She finds some solid coins.
But now the Pescados is not alone! The Valeroso arrives, with Victor de Alva leading an S-Boarding party on the Grand Path! However, the Spanish utterly fail, missing all 3 shots and losing the boarding party. (her ability prevented the loss of any crew)
Intermediaro surfaces for the first time and crashes HARD into the Devil’s Pay!!
A crowded area just got more crowded with the addition of a giant squid:
The French have a sneaky quick gold run going on, with the Superbe docking home a few coins and the Triton and turtles not far behind:
The Soleil Royal simultaneously docks at the southern beach of the 3 beach island and takes advantage of the Skin Flayer’s extended blades to take a couple shots….
But misses!
Although the French fleet is built for combat, all three ships have at least one cargo space open. They have a nice little secluded corner in the southeast that they will try to milk as much as possible. (gotta love how Ross’ waterfalls pretty much match the water color)
All FOUR English ships load treasure on the same turn!
The Rye gets two 7’s, but leaves the real goodies to the more durable HMS Titan – a shiny silver 5 worth 15 gold could be doubled by Spices for a whopping 30 gold in one load! The other two ships get the leftovers that the Grand Wind didn’t take.
The Kettering stands ready to cancel one of the Morocco’s moving abilities to try and prevent her from getting home. This would be important on the Pirate turn in a moment. This is also where the game’s strategy and “endless options” started to get more complicated, as I wanted and expected. (complex Pirates games are usually more fun for me)
The Pirates decided to change their plans. With the Grand Path, Titan, Bolingbroke, and Rye still around the 5 beach island, Blackheart started looking for an easier target. Those English ships alone could potentially ruin the Zeus, especially with the Titan’s EA combined with the Rye’s cancelling.
THE ZEUS IS LOOSE!!! BLACKHEART GOES AFTER THE FRONTIER!
Blackheart sacced an oarsman to get an extra action coming out of the whirlpool, and the 1 roll on the whirlpool (my house rule) meant she lost a second one as well. Blackheart didn’t want to sacrifice any firepower by losing a mast – with my atrocious history rolling for 3S cannons, the Zeus would need all the firepower she could muster against even a 3 masted ship.
Zeus vs. Frontier!
The Zeus made sure to ram the Frontier as well. Instead of just sinking the hoist, they want her. The Pirates were trying to capture the Frontier and use her in their own fleet. With both a helmsman and oarsman aboard, the latter of which prevents dereliction and therefore capture, this would be a tough task.
With typically bad luck on those silly 3S cannons (which are like my Achilles’ Heel of this game), the Zeus shoots a rather poor 3/9, just barely enough to dismast the ship.
The Zeus won the boarding party of course, but Blackheart had semi-forgotten that he wouldn’t be able to choose which crew got eliminated. The Americans tossed the helmsman overboard, while the Pirates were kinda hoping the oarsman would die…
… because the Raven came flying across the front of the giant turtle to ram and board the Frontier! If the oarsman was gone, this would have been enough to capture the Frontier, but the best-laid plans in Pirates often don’t work out at all. (not that this was the best plan ever, but Blackheart was getting kinda bored on the Zeus lol)
The Raven successfully boards the Frontier, taking out her oarsman and leaving her ripe for capture! Unfortunately for them, the Devil’s Pay (their only other ship) was derelict by the Sultan shipwreck way in the northeast.
The turtle moves again! This time its slow movement of S was not enough to ram anything, but it did compromise the space between the various ships in the south. Now you can see why the Kettering cancelling the Morocco’s ability mattered – the Pirates had to make sure the Raven could get past the Kettering without having Hammersmith’s helmsman ability cancelled before even launching the attack on the Frontier with the Zeus. Lots of logistics and planning were starting to come into play!
The end of Turn 3 shows a very active southern area:
Some other angles on the game:
Indeed, most of the action is in the south, with a little in the northwest and northeast:
An overhead shot shows that perhaps the French and English have a clear path to lots of easy gold?
The Nightmare takes the Sea Duck under tow, allowing Silver Coffin to shoot off Intermediaro’s head.
An area filled with debris accumulates more:
Leaving the metal-hulled and annoying Griffin alone this turn, the Skin Flayer captures the Morocco:
The Cursed immediately give her a move action, which she uses to duck into a fog bank so the Griffin can’t sink her.
Claiming her second captained Spanish victim, the Grand Path’s massive crew complement calmly unleash a huge broadside that sinks the Valeroso! This nets them 1 gold for eliminating Contessa Anita Amore.
The Grand Wind rolled a 6 out of the fog and sacced her final oarsman (already!) to dock at an unexplored western part of the 5 beach island.
She finds an interesting mix, with Poseidon’s Breath perfect for a 6 master. (move your base move as many times as you have masts)
She uses the Ammunition to get exploding shot for defense (not bad with a 4L cannon with reroll) and loads the other coins.
So far the Jades have fought the Spanish, but not the English despite their home island proximity. Of course, the GP has been busy, sinking both of the only 2 ships to sink so far.
The Corsairs take their turn, with not much of note happening. The Kettering and Hudson have effectively blocked off the fog bank, not allowing the Queen of Sheba and Agha’s Whip to return home. They roll for exit location but then duck back into the fog. The Griffin starts her slow trip home (S speed due to Metal Hull), while the Dervish repairs. In what would become almost a “meme of the game”, the Gallows docks at the far side of a giant turtle flipper and loads a coin.
Lots of gold still available, and the Gallows was trying to sneak off with some:
The Americans are pissed! USS Hudson swoops in and tows the Frontier, preventing the Pirates from capturing her later in the round. She misses 2 shots against the Zeus but hits both times against the Raven, dismasting the ship and killing Hammersmith! (essentially a death blow to the Raven, who is now dead in the water after having 4S speed and Captain)
Worrying more about the Frontier’s survival than the elusive Corsairs hiding in the fog, the Kettering sails over as well, ready to cancel an ability on the Zeus in case the Pirates try to sink the Frontier.
Continuing the theme of damaged gold runners on the run, the Pescados flees into a fog bank to escape the “Wrath of the Path”.
Taking damage from the Silver Coffin and unable to do much against the Cursed on the other side of the fog/reef barrier, Intermediaro suddenly reverses direction and goes after the Gallows, who has loaded the 20 gold coin from the turtle.
Speaking of turtles, the French ones are nearly home:
I don’t think this game gets prettier than the French on a picturesque ocean!
Finally the English and Jade Rebels have begun to clash! Or not. The Grand Wind tosses Relics to the Bolingbroke, preventing any damage.
The other 3 English ships have a lot of gold between them and scurry home as fast as they can:
Oh god… will it be fast enough? It’s the Pirate turn! Blackheart is angry after his plan to capture the Frontier failed miserably – with no Raven to help out and the Kettering ready to cancel or broadside any further attempts, Blackheart accepts failure and turns to a new opportunity. This was a big decision in the game, where I carefully measured if the Zeus could strike the English or not. With L+S speed and another sac action, the Zeus might barely make it over to the English ships about to dock at their home island next turn. The Rye had the cancelling ability as well, but looked to possibly be just out of potential range….
SHE DOES IT!! THE ZEUS ZOOMS OVER AND SMASHES HMS TITAN HEAD ON!!!!
ZEUS SMASH!!!!
The massive English warship heels over to starboard from the HUGE impact:
An engagement for the ages:
The Zeus wins the boarding party and Hoards all the gold on the Titan! Which is basically worth 30 gold!!! (I think the Rye must have been in cancelling range to cancel Blackheart’s Captain ability, which is why she didn’t shoot. I forgot to remove Hammersmith from the Raven until later in the game)
The giant turtle moving marks the end of an active and exciting round of turns! The turtle turns toward the Gallows, which is now the only ship in sight that has some of the turtle’s gold. It’s a little funky trying to turn at just S speed with something so large, but I made it work.
A messy scene as the game continues to get more chaotic!
El Fantasma sacrifices a captured Corsair crew to capture an oarsman from the Gallows via Captain Nemo! The Cursed are after that 20 gold coin on the Gallows, which could really help a fleet win the game.
But don’t forget about the turtle lurking nearby:
The Grand Wind explores a new beach on the 5 beach island, but it’s a total dud for her! Only 6 gold total, and the Trees UT is useless to a healthy ship. One of the few crappy gold locations in this game.
The Jades finally meet back up again, though not on purpose. The Grand Path has the option of docking quickly to take advantage of the Trees, but after a consultation between Tsai, Chang Pao and Ms. Cheng, they decide they might want to return later if they or the GW are missing more masts. (only 1 mast out on the GP)
Defiant of the Cursed and the giant turtle as ever, the Gallows redocks to take Neptune’s Figurehead and another coin!
With a pair of good fog rolls, the Queen of Sheba and Agha’s Whip are both able to dock at the Barbary Corsair home island! The QoS unloads her very valuable three coins taken from the giant turtle. Now that the Americans are distracted by the Zeus, the Corsairs have a chance to get back in the game. The Dervish repairs her second mast and the Griffin is coming home with a few coins.
The Americans swap ships, with the Hudson capturing the Raven and the Kettering taking up towing duties of the Frontier. The Americans have suffered a setback with the Zeus Smash event, but with few enemies, they should have time to get repairs done and possibly even come back stronger.
Oh boy, the game gets weirder! Intermediaro rams the Gallows and wins the boarding party to steal the 20 gold coin, the most valuable in the game! Since the turtle hates anyone that steals gold from its shell, could this lead to a bizarre showdown of giant turtle island vs. (headless) giant squid?!? XD
The wee turtles are saved! At least, the 3 “normal” ones. The others are face down 1 coins and will be arriving in the next turn or two.
Hopefully one of the only gaffes I made during the game… the Soleil Royal forgot to stay at the beach and explore after docking and shooting at the Skin Flayer a few turns ago! Amiral Dupuy reprimands the Royal’s captain, and both ships dock at the southern beach.
Although her gold was already stolen by the Zeus, the Titan docks home anyway to prevent getting shot at by the Zeus. HMS Titan opens fire, hitting three times and setting the 10 master ablaze!
Battle of Legends
Arguably the matchup everyone wanted to see! Two powerful classics of the game going head-to-head. HMS Titan vs. the Zeus!
Of course, the Titan had help, with the entire English fleet all in the same area. HMS Bolingbroke took advantage of a rare opportunity to use her “shoot through ships” ability, getting all three cannons in range!
The Bolingbroke connects twice, bringing the Zeus down to 5 masts.
Some serious firepower in this picture:
Fittingly enough the Pirates were next. Blackheart considered a LOT of options. In the end, the Zeus continued her attack in a different fashion, ramming the Rye! The ramming and boarding were successful, leaving the Rye with no masts and no coins! With the Hoarding Gold ability, the Zeus has stolen a whopping 44 gold from the English in just two turns!!! O_O (30 from the Titan between the shiny silver 5+Spices, and both 7’s from the Rye)
Making matters even worse for the English, the Zeus sacced an oarsman, rolled to eliminate her fire mast, and ducked into a fog bank! This was a grand heist, a level of success only dreampt of! It’s also a rather rare instance of one of my 10 masters doing extremely well in a physical game. The English have been embarrassed and robbed right in front of their own home island.
The round of turns ends with the giant turtle ramming the Gallows to take back the coins, but cannot ram Intermediaro.
But the Skin Flayer can!! The switchblade hooks an arm into one of Intermediaro’s tentacles!
The Skin Flayer purposely leaves the squid with a segment left so the Cursed can board the creature! A successful boarding party leaves the 20 gold coin in the hands of Nemo and El Fantasma!!
It’s worth noting that this was a tough decision for Fantasma. The Skin Flayer began the turn without any cargo spaces open, so they had to sacrifice the shipwright in order to make room for the coin. However, since Nemo has Ex-Patriot which gives the ship the Mercenary keyword, this meant that repairing the Skin Flayer later in the game would be difficult or impossible. It was a risk the Cursed were willing to take for the gold, especially since they actually began this turn by repairing with the shipwright (to repair the one mast that was out on the SF) right before sacrificing him to move and shoot (and slash) on Intermediaro.
Combine that with a few other developments, and you could say that the Cursed are rising! Although Calico Cat has not been very successful with her SAT ability, the captured Morocco is making her way to the Cursed HI at S+S speed to repair. Speaking of which, the Nightmare has brought home the Sea Duck, who starts repairing and eventually looks to tow the Silver Coffin again. Lately it’s been all-Skin Flayer, but the Cursed are getting a real fleet together, which could make a difference in the gold race in the second half of the game.
Jade Rebellion time! Tsai gets his SAT without needing reroll and he’s ready to rumble!!
In a surprise attack through the whirlpool, the Grand Path uses her second action to maul the French! It was becoming evident that the French had an easy route to a lot of gold without any interference thus far, so it was felt that somebody needed to intervene. The Grand Path continues to make her mark as an absolute killer beast in this game, dismasting the Triton and running over a poor sea turtle to kill it!
Will this finally spark the French 5 masters into action?
The Grand Wind returns to home waters via the same whirlpool the GP took on her way out. The GW comes home to a changed seascape, with the Americans regrouping, the turtle facing a different direction, and the huge Zeus hiding from the English in the fog.
This game continues to not disappoint! The Corsairs sail out before the Agha’s Whip finishes repairing, eager for a quick strike on the turtle while it’s back is turned! The Queen of Sheba loads coins as the Agha’s Whip tries to shield her from the potential wrath of the Americans, who are still annoyed with the Corsairs. The Dervish doesn’t know quite where she’s going yet.
You can see the QoS loaded the Neptune’s Figurehead, recently stolen back from the Gallows by the turtle (who also stole it from the Morocco upon waking up). Even more important was the Wine, which was the only ability in play that allowed home island raiding.
As she is now doing every turn, the Gallows rows back to the turtle and loads up a few coins. However, this has actually been a legitimate strategy by the Corsairs all along. With the Gallows constantly distracting the turtle, she can keep the turtle’s attention more to the northeast, allowing the main Corsair ships in the south to dock at the back of the turtle. This prevents the turtle from stealing gold as soon as it’s taken, since the turtle’s S movement must be measured from the head – it can’t turn around and ram a ship that has docked at its hind flippers.
And here come the Americans!! The Kettering and Hudson both drop their tows to double back and blast the Corsairs! The Agha’s Whip is sunk and the Queen of Sheba dismasted (Americans really want her gold and UT’s). The Hudson rolled a 6 with her stinkpot shot to disable the Sheba’s crew, which would be important for limiting her movement and escape options next turn. This was quickly becoming one of the game’s central themes – back and forth, with very little sustained momentum for any faction. As soon as a faction took one step forward, another fleet was there to bring them back, sometimes severely. I found it fun and rather dramatic – keep the twists coming! 😀
Crushed by the Skin Flayer and clinging to life, Intermediaro packs up its bags and heads home. XD The squid submerges and heads straight for the Spanish home island, where the Pescados has finally returned and repaired.
The Jades have angered the French! Dupuy gets his EA roll, which means the Grand Path is pretty much a goner.
Open fire!!
SUNK!
The French got the rest of their turtles home (9/10 total), and now look to empty the 3 beach island to increase their gold score.
With no EA roll and no way to get revenge on Blackheart’s Zeus, Lord Thomas Gunn somewhat randomly takes out his frustration on the Grand Wind. The Titan shoots well, setting the GW on fire.
Although it’s a sad scene for the English here in the west, they didn’t have a horrible turn. The Bolingbroke and Adventure docked home their 3 total coins. The Bolingbroke has the useful Relics snatched from the Grand Wind. The Rye is rowing home and once repaired, the English will be back at full strength. They are desperate to get back the gold the Zeus stole, for they theorize that it could win the game for them.
The Pirates were next, and Blackheart decided to see what his ship could do! Once more I premeasured an entire double move action to see if it was in the cards…
They’ve done it!! Blackheart sacs yet another oarsman to move L+S+L+S, round earthing all the way back to the Pirate home island!! All of the stolen loot is unloaded!
At this point I must admit I made an “accounting error”, thinking that the Spices still applied to the shiny silver 5 worth 15 gold (therefore doubling it to 30). Since the Spices were unloaded from the same ship with the 7’s from the Rye aboard, the total would decrease from 44 (which is what the English would have gotten from the Titan and Rye since the Titan had only the Spices and essentially 15 coin) to 36, still a huge haul of course. However, there was a LOT of game left, so I’m happy to say in hindsight that this error was not relevant….
The round ended with the meme of the giant turtle ramming the Gallows to take back her coins. The Gallows could win a boarding party against the turtle if the turtle rolled a 1 and the Gallows rolled a 6, but that never happened.
With the English vs. Pirates and Jades vs. French storylines seemingly resolved, what could happen next? So, so much more….
The Skin Flayer takes a minor shortcut through a whirlpool, eager to get the 20 gold coin home. However, due to Captain Nemo, some transferring of cargo will be necessary. The Sea Duck is now fully repaired and up to the task.
Once again the Corsairs prove elusive. The Queen of Sheba couldn’t use her helmsman to row at S+S, but S was enough to escape into the safety of a fog bank. The Dervish decided to as well, while the Griffin finally docked home some gold.
Using its ability while submerged, Intermediaro transfers a coin from the turtle to the Pescados de Plata, who only has one open cargo space due to her helmsman and the Potions and Brews UT. You can see that the Gallows has once again taken coins from the turtle, always doing her part to help her Corsair allies and turning the turtle even farther north.
The Corsairs have essentially fallen to the Americans twice, but then frustrated them both times afterwards. That southern fog bank is proving to be a great Corsair ally! The American gunships begin towing their derelicts once more.
Not satisfied with sinking the Grand Path, Dupuy hears of the Skin Flayer’s gold exploit and rolls for an extra action to start yet another whirlpool raid attack! Perhaps he learned from Tsai’s Grand Path maneuver. Either way, Nemo and Fantasma are suddenly in huge trouble. Yet another twist! (this is part of why I love whirlpools and round earth so much – I highly recommend trying both if you haven’t already)
However, the Superbe cannot land a 4th hit on the Skin Flayer going 3/5 to cripple the ship but let her live!
Back home in French waters, a calm scene shows the Soleil Royal approaching the Triton to tow her home. After the turtle swarm came through and the Superbe and Grand Path fought, it is weirdly quiet….
BUT NOT FOR LONG!!!!!
The English are here!! In another example of using an extra action to move through a whirlpool and come out shooting, HMS Titan uses her EA to blast 4 masts off the Soleil Royal in a devastating blow!
Lord Thomas Gunn saw his moment to strike the French, with the Superbe off fighting the Cursed in the north. Similar to the Grand Path going after the French due to their impressive home island pile of gold, the English had gunships to spare (since the Zeus is now docked at her home island, which is who the English really want to go after) and simply picked out the French as a good target. The Soleil Royal does have a coin on board, along with Ransom crew Jules de Cissey. The Bolingbroke comes through as well (partly in case the Superbe comes back next turn), but loses a mast from the whirlpool travel. In fact, the Titan rolled poorly on the whirlpool as well, choosing to lose her firepot specialist instead of rerolling it. Gunn wanted to do as much damage to the Royal as possible, but ended up hitting 4/4 anyway and not needing the reroll.
The Zeus repairs as the afternoon sun casts a glare off the golden turtle:
The turtle rams the Gallows again and the round is over! The Corsairs have somehow escaped disaster after another American attack, while the French and English both whirlpool attacked, respectively leaving the Skin Flayer and Soleil Royal with 1 mast standing. Left of the turtle you can see that the Grand Wind has docked home a few more coins for the Jades, which also extinguished her fire mast.
A new round of turns!
The Skin Flayer pulls it off! She moved to touch the Sea Duck, sacced a crew to get an extra action, and explored the Sea Duck. The Sea Duck then redocked, putting the 20 gold coin on the Cursed home island! The Morocco docks as well, finally at her new home island after being captured by the Cursed many turns ago.
The 1 in the water is Duncan Rousseau’s Parley ability being used to prevent the Nightmare and Silver Coffin from damaging the Superbe – the Cursed were hoping to pummel the Frenchman with 6 shots.
Now for a bit of diplomacy, or “faction interaction” if you will. The Jade Rebels started their conflict with the French, but they still hate the French now that the Grand Path was sunk by the Superbe. The French just attacked the Cursed, knocking the Skin Flayer down to 1 mast. The Jades also know where Trees are. The Grand Wind is already docked at her home island and doesn’t want to go back to the Trees beach, especially since there’s not much valuable gold there (Zheng Li Kwan of the GW now has designs on the turtle, but I’ll get to that eventually lol). The Jades figure they can help the Cursed beat the French by telling them where the Trees are at, since they know that Fantasma killed off the Cursed shipwright, which is the main way the Skin Flayer can repair (she could also transfer Nemo to the Sea Duck to dock at home, but that would take longer and might be risky in the short term with the Superbe around). So the Jades inform the Cursed of where the Trees UT is – on the northwestern beach of the 5 beach island.
With no target to shoot at, the Nightmare moves over to the Skin Flayer to give her the Necklace of the Sky UT, which you might be realizing can be used next turn to teleport the Skin Flayer straight to “Trees beach” for a quick repair!
Once AGAIN the Queen of Sheba is able to get a favorable fog roll right after the Americans gave up on the annoying Corsair situation and left the lane wide open. With her helmsman working again the QoS is able to row home at S+S, docking home 3 coins worth a whopping 35 gold!!
The Dervish decides against a turtle raid and takes 2 coins leftover from the Griffin’s haul earlier in the game.
The Gallows is slowly bringing the turtle north towards the Spanish home island, while the Griffin prepares to do a swap with the Queen of Sheba.
Utterly sick of the Corsair shenanigans and momentum shifts, the Americans capture the Queen of Sheba right from the Corsair home island! (her oarsman from the fleet picture was moved way earlier in the game to the Griffin I believe since it would make 7 points of crew on a 6 point ship) However, it wasn’t just a frustration move. The Queen of Sheba already unloaded her valuable coins, but not her valuable UT’s – Wine (potential source of gold), Neptune’s Figurehead, and Power Cannons. The Americans were hoping to use Wine to get revenge on the Pirates. The Hudson snatched her up, while the Kettering docked home the Frontier, who began repairing in earnest.
The American fleet expands to 5 ships! (those American crew are eliminated; I often put eliminated crew face down off the deckplate)
The Spanish have a decent system going – Intermediaro can use its ability while submerged, which avoids the turtle’s wrath. The Pescados can move S after unloading treasure, which helps her get from the home island back to the turtle quickly. If the Gallows keeps moving the turtle northwards, the Spanish will have more coins than they can even transfer effectively right on their beach! It’s a somewhat inspiring turn for a fleet that had its main two ships (Valeroso and San Francisco, both with hybrid setups) sunk by the Grand Path in what feels like a week ago.
The French fight back as well as they can! The Soleil Royal tows the Triton so she can’t be captured by the Bolingbroke quite yet, and also rolls a 6 with her firepot specialist to set the Titan aflame, also eliminating the English oarsman per the Royal’s ability! Although the situation is desperate for the French, they were able to optimize fully with what they had.
But that’s not all they’ve got!!
Le Superbe is here!! Rolling a 5 for Dupuy’s EA, the Superbe comes flying out of the whirlpool the English came from. With the 20 gold coin safely on the Cursed home island, the Superbe didn’t have much business in the north anymore. Dupuy figured he should try to maximize French gold reserves, rather than keep trying to deny the Cursed. Given the emergency back home, it became a no-brainer.
The Superbe splits the gap, protecting the Soleil Royal while shooting two masts off the Titan! (only 2/5)
A classic scene from the Age of Sail: English vs. French capital ships in a close-quarters engagement with guns blazing!
Although the Superbe was not super effective, the Titan is in pretty bad shape:
I like how factions fighting each other often had turns right after one another in this game. Here the English fight back, with Lord Thomas Gunn determined to take the Titan down in a blaze of glory. She will certainly go down in a blaze at least, as the fire spread to another mast when she began moving. The Titan shot the final mast off the Soleil Royal and killed the Triton’s captain in a boarding party, providing another moment where a ship’s last moments can induce desperation-fueled success.
As I always like to say: THE CARNAGE CONTINUES TO MOUNT!
And now, for the possible beginnings of an English coup. HMS Bolingbroke was the forgotten ship in all this. She is finally given an action, and shines brightly. She captures the Soleil Royal, potentially netting the English a grand prize if she can be towed home intact. She goes to shoot at the Superbe, but Duncan Rousseau parleys, giving the English a 3 coin. This is fine with the English, as they need to make up ground in the gold race, having lost most of their coinage to the Zeus. To top it all off, the Bolingbroke still has Relics, which will make it a lot tougher for the French to recapture the Soleil Royal. I think the Bolingbroke is an underrated ship and one of my favorite English vessels, so it was nice to see her do well in this game!
(Side note: the English considered throwing the Soleil Royal through the whirlpool immediately without towing her through, which is legal. They decided against it because it is a very hard thing to recapture a ship once it’s already being towed, and the Relics would make it even tougher on the Superbe to break the tow by sinking or capturing the Bolingbroke first. If the English had thrown the Royal through the whirlpool and into English waters, it’s likely the Superbe could have gone after her and recaptured her easily, especially since I remember checking to see if the Rye was in range to start a new tow over in the west, and she wasn’t.)
As the sun begins to set on this round of turns, the far west is desolate, a bizarre scene after all the events so far. The Rye repairs as the Adventure sails out for more gold.
The Zeus repaired a mast and the turtle probably rammed the Gallows again. XD
Back to the Cursed! The Nightmare explores to give the Skin Flayer the Necklace of the Sky! Nemo and Fantasma command attention as always, and activate the UT immediately!
Sure enough, the Skin Flayer shows up at the beach where the Jade Rebels told them Trees was at.
The Griffin was somewhat heartbroken, unable to do anything about the Queen of Sheba’s capture. There was no point in shooting the vessel to the bottom either, since the Corsairs unloaded the Sheba’s gold and Neptune’s Figurehead would kick in and help the Americans. From this point onward, the Corsairs had a bit of a glum outlook on the game.
Of course, their loss was the Americans’ benefit. The Kettering took up towing the Raven again, with the Hudson transporting the QoS home. The Frontier (and Grand Wind….) are almost fully repaired.
Death of a Titan
Le Superbe sinks HMS Titan. The ship served the English decently well in this game, but met a fiery doom after being robbed by pirates and set aflame by Frenchmen. The Superbe used an EA to tow the Triton and reverse direction towards home, directly a few shots at the Bolingbroke in order to get the Relics UT from her.
A sad scene for an English fan like me:
However, the loss of the Titan was not in vain! Lord Thomas Gunn’s last command to the Bolingbroke’s captain was to save the Soleil Royal and let her be the “new” titan of the English fleet. The Bolingbroke used the whirlpool to warp home, with both ships getting good whirlpool rolls. HMS Rye moves into the whirlpool but doesn’t use it – she’s setting up a cancelling screen to prevent any antics by the Superbe in case the French decide to show up. (so the Rye can at least cancel the Superbe’s captain even if she comes through with an EA from Dupuy)
The Skin Flayer explores, dumping the Necklace of the Sky on the beach and using Trees to repair all three of her fallen masts!
Although the Griffin couldn’t swap the QoS, the Dervish docked home a couple coins and did a transfer. With oars touching, the Griffin explored to give the Dervish Metal Hull and taking her helmsman in exchange for the Griffin’s now former explorer. This was to optimize the Griffin’s speed for – you guessed it – another turtle raid!
Americans in business: Frontier is fully repaired, QoS will be next turn, and the Raven will make a nice addition to their fleet once she is finally healthy as well. After a long period of dealing with Corsair crap and some Pirate junk (literally), the Americans are hoping to finally increase their gold score. They still only have the 5 coins the Frontier grabbed from the Duke shipwreck. With the Frontier healthy, the Corsairs may not be the only faction with imminent plans for the giant turtle….
(also note the Grand Wind fully repaired in the background….)
Dupuy fails to get an EA despite Duncan’s reroll, so the French simply dock to get the Triton sailing again. No chance of getting the Soleil Royal back, at least not yet.
The English are getting rich again! The Bolingbroke triumphantly returns the grand prize: not only does the Soleil Royal represent a chance to get another 5 masted gunship in the English fleet, she actually had a shiny silver 4 (worth 12 gold) aboard! Not to mention the Knights of Malta Banner, worth 1 gold after the Royal damaged the Titan. Those coins were from the southern part of the 3 beach island, explored a while back. Combine that with de Cissey’s 5 gold Ransom payout, and the English turn a nice profit of 18 gold on the capture in addition to getting the beautiful ship! 😀 They have lost the Titan and their leader, but the English see light on a dark day.
Check out the lower right: the Zeus continues to repair, while the Sea Duck returns to towing the Silver Coffin and exploring the Sultan shipwreck. The Morocco is fully repaired, meaning the Cursed are at full strength! (or more due to the addition of the Morocco)
No more hints on this development! The Grand Wind is fully repaired and finally ready to use a UT you may have forgotten about: Poseidon’s Breath!! The GW can move her base move as many times as she has masts, which means 6S speed!
A Grand Wind indeed!! (what a fitting UT for this ship to use!) Zheng Li Kwan goes after the giant turtle! This really puts the scale of the creature into perspective.
After a long period of just chasing the Gallows aimlessly, action around the giant turtle may finally heat up again! Feel free to let me know if you like the turtle shell better with or without the camera flash. (forgot to eliminate a mast per the UT effect)
Here we go! A big run on the turtle is underway as the Griffin zooms out at S+L+S speed to get in on the action! (after she moved just S for many turns due to Metal Hull) The Gallows has done her strange job well, and the Corsairs look to capitalize and reap the rewards!
But of course, the Americans are coming!! The Frontier is now moving S+S+S again after receiving the Hudson’s helmsman, and the Corsairs may have to deal with the Americans yet again! Not to mention – this is the Frontier’s second chance at the turtle, after her first attempt was quickly ambushed by the Zeus.
The opposite angle looking at the southeast corner. The Dervish is wary of the Superbe to the east, and the Americans’ Wine UT to the west. She can only move S and simply redocks, hoping to hold down their home island at least. The Triton is busy repairing, while Dupuy’s rage propels the Superbe 6S in the general direction of the Corsairs.
The English are free to get some lower value leftover coins from the northwest as the gunships repair:
A sight no sailor wants to see: the Zeus is fully repaired!
In literally a dramatic turn, the giant turtle angrily turns towards the Grand Wind, who holds the most gold from the turtle as of now but is out of ramming range. This moves the Gallows and Intermediaro a bit.
With the giant turtle shell’s store of gold slowly dwindling, who will profit most in the endgame?
Now approaching the turtle from behind, the Nightmare docks at the same part where the Grand Wind docked. However, she has no explorer and the Morocco can’t get there. At the upper right, the Sea Duck docks home coins from the Sultan shipwreck. The Skin Flayer makes contact with her once more to transfer a coin – though this time worth much less than 20 gold. Every bit could help, so Fantasma grabbed something small from the Trees beach. It’s not worth noting, but the Devil’s Pay is still in the Pirate fleet despite being derelict next to the Sultan wreck for many turns now. Blackheart is still hoping to rescue her if he gets a dull moment, which is unlikely given the high stakes of the upcoming endgame period.
The Grand Wind docks home the 3 coins from the giant turtle, dramatically increasing the Jades’ gold score!
(^angry seething turtle in the background XD)
The Griffin zips home and unloads 3 coins of her own! Now that the turtle wasn’t facing her “attackers” when they docked, some turtle raids are succeeding easily.
The Kettering receives the Neptune’s Figurehead and Power Cannons UT’s from the Queen of Sheba. If that doesn’t wow you, consider the power available: the Kettering has cancelling, Crew Protect (Montana Mays), and the Neptune’s Figurehead (dock fully repaired at home when sunk, like a one-time super Eternal) for defense. She can move up to S+L+S+L (Mays SAT) with up to 12 shots at rank-3 and L+L range (Longship + Captain + Power Cannons). (12 x 3L+L!) Definitely one of the scariest setups I’ve seen in a game, especially for a 3 master.
Finally, the Frontier gets her moment to shine again! The Hoist uses her crane arm to explore the giant turtle!
The Frontier loads almost all of the remaining coins from the turtle, leaving only the Fireworks UT! Love how this picture shows the shadows as the sun begins to set on the game.
In short order the turtle has gone from being the premier gold location to being almost empty!
This would turn out to be a minor mistake, but Intermediaro uses its ability to give Fireworks to the Pescados:
Dupuy got an extra action and the Superbe round earths into a whirlpool!
The Superbe went into the northern whirlpool and exited from the one at the lower left, near the turtle:
The French are on the attack! Le Superbe opens fire on the Frontier!
The French want to capture the ship with all her gold, so the Superbe shoots away all her masts, leaving her derelict again!
A familiar scene: both times the Frontier has attempted to get gold from the turtle, she has been dismasted by a gunship via a whirlpool attack.
The captured Soleil Royal repairs at the English home island:
You can see that the Bolingbroke has come through the same whirlpool in an attempt to engage the Superbe. At this point the Americans and English had made a deal – if the English helped the Americans get the Frontier’s gold home, the Americans would help the English in robbing the hated Pirates with the Wine UT. Since the Zeus was the first ship to dismast the Frontier, the Americans didn’t need much convincing. As the final part of the game went on, I started to realize that the deal favored the Americans more (there was no promise to let the English actually use the Wine, since it was on the now-American Queen of Sheba). It was mostly a temporary alliance against a common enemy – Blackheart and the Zeus.
Speaking of which, the Zeus is loose! Fully repaired, she is once again ready to wreak havoc on the seas.
A glimpse at the whirlpool locations and you can see Blackheart’s potential route….
The turtle is angry! Being robbed of its last coins by the Frontier, the turtle rams the hoist with intensity! However, her masts are already in the water and the turtle is unable to take any gold!
The Frontier has Secret Hold! This makes the Frontier truly the perfect ship to raid the turtle with – her hoist arm prevents her from even having to dock (can rob the shell directly), while Secret Hold prevents the turtle from taking all the gold back with Hoard!
Cursed gold runners warp to the northwest to grab some leftover coins from the 5 beach island:
Uh oh! Montana Mays gets a rare SAT roll to work, and the Kettering is ready for action!
I got really hyped for the Kettering to absolutely destroy the Superbe, but Relics prevented it! However, this left the French warship open to attack from the Hudson, who went 3 for 3 to take out 2 masts, kill the French oarsman, and land a stinkpot shot that disabled the remaining 4 crew on the Superbe for the next French turn! (knocking out EA/reroll/Parley/captain/helmsman!)
Making the situation more interesting, the captured American Raven is fully repaired and looks to help out her new fleetmates in getting the Frontier home. The Queen of Sheba has entered a fog bank, mostly to hide from the Zeus in case she flies through a whirlpool and Blackheart tries to steal the Wine for his own use. (a decent amount of factors played into each move action on some of these somewhat complex turns) Almost bored by now, Zheng Li Kwan pilots the Grand Wind towards the action as well. (the Superbe wasn’t randomly given a stinkpot shot, I placed it there to remind myself that her crew were cancelled)
The Spanish had gotten themselves into a little pickle, with their only remaining gold ship full of non-shiny objects.
Trying to get some additional gold from anywhere, the Pescados de Plata captures the Gallows now that the turtle faces south again. They have managed to gradually increase their gold stores with Intermediaro’s transfer ability, but it was pretty obvious that it wouldn’t be enough to win the game.
Knowing they likely won’t survive the coming onslaught of firepower, the French decide to capture the Frontier anyway. With the stinky cancellation effects limiting Dupuy’s options, basic desperation meant that they would simply go down trying.
The Adventure docks home a little gold, the Soleil Royal nears full strength, and the Rye stands guard in the whirlpool, ready to cancel the captain of any ship that might come through. (namely the Zeus)
With the Relics now on the Kettering, the Bolingbroke is free to attack! She hits all 3 times as classic English gunnery crushes the Superbe! At this moment the Anglo-American alliance was bearing fruit.
BUT YOU CAN TRUST BLACKHEART TO RUIN THEIR DAY!!!
Sacrificing one of his last expendable crew, Blackheart takes the Zeus through a whirlpool and uses an extra action to insert himself into the fight! The massive 10 master blows the Bolingbroke out of the water!
The big dominoes continue to fall as the carnage mounts! First the Frontier, then the Superbe, now the Bolingbroke!
In one blow, the Zeus has changed the seascape of the battle for the Frontier in the center. The turtle is beginning to lose hope, but moves towards the Frontier anyway, compressing and moving some of the debris from the battle.
The turtle’s movement would not be irrelevant, as it could impede American efforts to recapture the Frontier or get at the Zeus.
As the typical desperation of the endgame sets in, the middle area is once more the center of attention:
Stacked as ever:
Cursed runners return home via whirlpool as the Sea Duck takes the same one to head out, intent on doing something she wanted to do for a while….
The Skin Flayer appears in the south, looking to hunt down the Triton. This was a combination of wanting revenge on the French and trying to make sure they ended up with less gold than the Cursed. The Triton is loading gold from that southern beach, so the SF will try to cut her off before she can reach her HI.
With great anticipation, the Americans begin an important turn. Pretty sure Mays got his SAT. The Americans sank the Superbe (!) and took the Zeus down to 1 mast! The Kettering began towing the Frontier to recapture her, while the Raven rams a mast off the metal-hulled Dervish (UT only applies to hits, not rams). Between the combination of an angry turtle, the Zeus, and supreme American firepower, Zheng Li Kwan has turn the Grand Wind away from the chaos.
With the Zeus nearly out of the game, the English decide to attempt a few quick gold runs with the Adventure and Rye.
The Griffin round earthed to the north in an attempt to recapture the Gallows from the Spanish. However, Intermediaro surfaced to ram and pin the galley!
Not wanting to wait, the Americans send the Queen of Sheba through a whirlpool to raid the Pirates’ HI with Wine! This was a huge part of the endgame and would dominate events going forward. Wine lets you pick which treasure is exchanged, so the QoS would be loading the shiny silver 5 worth 15 gold, severely lowering the Pirates’ gold score while potentially stealing a win for the Americans! There were also some faction dynamics at play, namely the English wanting some of their old stolen loot for themselves. The Jades also made a sort of deal with the Americans to not interfere in the center, with Zheng Li Kwan hoping to get in Mays’ good graces….
But the game is called Pirates!! Not nice puppies! XD The English and Jades wait near the whirlpool they expect the Sheba to emerge from, both ready to betray the Americans and steal the gold. Originally the English were going to send an escort or two to ensure the QoS got the coin, but with the Zeus nearly out of it and the English greedy to get their old gold back, no such help would come in the east for the QoS.
Captain Blackheart has run out of crew to sac! At this point, all 7 Pirate oarsmen that started the game were dead. (5 on Zeus + 1 on each of their other ships)
No such problem for El Fantasma! He sacs a crew to cut off the Triton, swinging his ship’s “skin flayers” and taking a 7 coin!
The Cursed have slowly and sneakily accumulated a decent amount of gold:
It happens! The Queen of Sheba docks at the Pirate HI and exchanges Wine for the 15! (which is what I’ll call it from now on)
The English arrive!! They are ready to betray the Americans. They decided to get the jump on the Sheba rather than waiting for her closer to home, since that would mean a more imminent struggle against the Grand Wind and eventually the rest of the American fleet. Check out how I strategically placed the ships coming out of the whirlpool – the Rye gets within cancelling range to limit the Sheba’s speed to S+S next turn by cancelling her helmsman, while the Soleil Royal is trying to block off the whirlpool as much as possible. (funny enough the whirlpool rules don’t specify how and where ships have to touch the whirlpool they emerge from)
Towards the end of the game I forgot to take a few pictures, so some things might be out of order or get a little less detailed.
With Blackheart cancelled by the Kettering, the Zeus shoots a mast off the Hudson as the Kettering then tows the Frontier away. The Sea Duck approaches the Zeus from behind, while in the background you can see the Raven capturing the Dervish, bringing the American fleet to 6 ships. The Zeus has 1 mast standing as indicated by the die….
The Sea Duck reveals her objective… and uses Explosives to blow up the Zeus!!!!
Now you see why I didn’t take the masts out on the Zeus – the Americans or Cursed were about to finish her off anyway, so I didn’t want to take out and replace almost all of her masts, especially since she’s still new (this being her first game). A massive object has been removed from the still-busy center area:
The Skin Flayer returns home where the Morocco prepares to take her 7 so Nemo can stay on the switchblade. The Devil’s Pay is afloat, but the Pirates have been officially eliminated from the game.
It took a lot of extra time and hardship, but the Americans have experienced massive success!! The Frontier has been retaken and her turtle gold unloaded! The Americans have faced some serious setbacks today, but their rise undoubtedly makes them the premier faction of the endgame.
Mays takes advantage of his SAT to move towards a whirlpool, while the Hudson leaves the battle area.
After killing Intermediaro, the Griffin makes a break for the 5 beach island. Although nearly their whole fleet has been captured or sunk, the Barbary Corsairs can try to get a few last bits of gold. The Pescados and captured Gallows set off in hot pursuit.
Here we go! The Rye and Soleil Royal team up to dismast the Queen of Sheba and rob her of the 15 coin!
This is where things got weird with round earth. The Kettering managed to get in range, but from the other side of the map! This is one of the main flaws of round earth – in somewhat rare circumstances, you can have ships engage in various aspects of combat while on opposite sides of the world! XD At first I had the Kettering in the east, but realized it would be easier to have everything in the west, since that’s where the treasure was headed as long as the English carried it.
Finally shooting well, the Kettering goes 5 for 6 to dismast the Soleil Royal! The QoS rows to try and block the English from their HI.
The Pescados robs the Griffin, with the Gallows trying to block the latter’s escape:
The Skin Flayer only ever had cargo for 1 coin, so the Triton is free to dock home a little bit more gold for the French. (SF rolled poorly and didn’t come close to dismasting the ship, else the Cursed would have captured her)
Awkward round earth maneuvers, and the Cursed are here! The Rye began towing the Soleil Royal, so the English still had a chance at getting the 15 to their HI. However, the Rye had met her match – the Kettering’s identical cancelling ability nullified that advantage. The Cursed decided to show up because, hey, why not? XD It was getting into the very late stages of the game where factions had not much better to do than throw all their ships at the highest value coin left in play. The Grand Wind slowly lumbers towards the growing scene as well.
The Kettering sinks the Rye and the Sheba tows the Soleil Royal, leaving the 15 back in American possession!
A desperate free-for-all was emerging by the English HI, with the English themselves mostly out it. (Adventure coming home with some small coins, just hoping to get them home knowing she can’t win the upcoming clash XD) The Cursed had the Skin Flayer, but Mays had reinforcements sailing in – the Raven, Frontier, Hudson AND Dervish are all on their way!
The Cursed strike! The Skin Flayer steals the 15 from the Royal, while the other 2 ships try to block potential attackers. (neither could block the Kettering)
The Pescados takes off with the 1, while the Gallows and Griffin engage in a sort of civil war style duel. This picture sums up the Spanish game – with their best 2 ships sunk early in the game, they’ve been scrounging for scraps for what feels like ages, just trying to do whatever they can for 1 more gold while the remaining powerhouses fight over the mega-valuable 15 coin. XD
Chaos at the English home island! The Kettering shoots poorly to only take 2 masts off the Skin Flayer, with the Raven ramming the captured Morocco and the Sheba towing the Royal.
Desperate for a miracle, Fantasma sacs the Cursed helmsman and takes off with the coin! HMS Adventure hides in the fog, hoping for a break in the action to dock home a little loot.
The Triton arrives on the scene for the festivities, but the Grand Wind puts a quick end to any hopes the French have, knocking them out of the game. (the GW was mostly a non-factor towards the end of the game due to her slow speed and Zheng Li Kwan having run out of sac options early in the game)
Mays’ reinforcements gradually arrive as the Morocco is dismasted by the Raven (capture vs. capture):
Mays gets his SAT to dismast and capture the Skin Flayer!! The SF is immediately give an explore action to transfer the American captain for the 15 coin, so the Kettering can keep it safe and dock it home.
Victory for the Americans! But will it be enough?
With the giant turtle drained and most of the gold unloaded, it was about time to call the game. It was getting very late at this point and after a long day of pirating it was quite fair to simply “simulate” the last few turns, especially given the American dominance.
Whew! What a game!
But who will win?
Gold Scores
In turn order, here are how the factions fared! Some of the scores may seem off because the pictures don’t always show which coins are shiny gold and shiny silver, but I got them right.
Cursed: 48 gold
The Cursed played a solid game, using the Skin Flayer and her exciting crew effectively from the beginning to the end. Their gold runners did as well as could be expected, and they even manged to score the 20 gold coin, the most valuable in play.
Jade Rebellion: 35 gold
The Jades did well, but peaked early. The Grand Path was a ship killer, sinking numerous opponents before being sunk herself by the Superbe. The Grand Wind got a bunch of gold early, with Zheng Li Kwan doing well to sac crew and lock up some gold early before things got crazy. The Poseidon’s Breath turtle raid was perfectly executed, but not quite enough.
Barbary Corsairs: 87 gold
Holy crap! The Corsairs finish with a massive total, mostly due to some extremely high-value coins brought home from the giant turtle. Those top 2 rows are worth 50 alone, with the shiny silver 6 being 18 and shiny silver 4 being 12. The Corsairs were richly rewarded for going after the turtle early and often, with the Queen of Sheba being their MVP after slipping past the Americans.
Americans: 52 gold
The Americans did as well as they could, raking in a ton of coin despite their main gold runner being completely dismasted twice! The Kettering never lost a mast and was simply unstoppable in the endgame period, especially given her ability spread and UT stack. The Hudson and various captured ships provided great support, and the Americans cannot be too disappointed.
Spanish: 25 gold
The Spanish were crippled by the Grand Path early, losing the San Francisco and Valeroso. They managed to stay in the game and collect some gold afterwards with the Intermediaro-Pescados combo, which had some nice synergy between Intermediaro staying submerged to avoid the turtle and the Pescados’ ability helping her get back out after depositing a coin.
French: 25 gold
The French looked like a favorite until perhaps halfway through the game. They got some turtles and very calm beaches right near their secluded home island. Factions kind of assumed they might be a leader in the gold race, which led to whirlpool raids by the Grand Path and English warships. Duncan Rousseau’s Parley helped to keep the exciting and brutal Le Superbe in the game, but decreased their count slightly as well. In the end they gradually lost all three of their ships, though not without causing a ton of chaos and damage in the meantime.
English: 31 gold
The English had it made until the Zeus showed up, with essentially 44 gold between the Titan and Rye along with about 7 between the Adventure and Bolingbroke. Blackheart wrecked their game, forcing them to temporarily settle for an American ally and settle for less in the end. Their conflict with the French was quite memorable in various ways (historic faction rivalry, Titan sinking, Soleil Royal captured and then used effectively after), and ended up netting them 18 gold, more than half of their final total. If not for the Zeus’ blitz, the English could have finished higher up in the standings.
Pirates: 21 gold
Bringing up the rear are the Pirates! With the Devil’s Pay (dismasted by Cursed + Intermediaro) and Raven (captured by Americans in first Frontier battle) out of action relatively early, Blackheart had to rely on the Zeus and his immense army of sacrificial lambs to make it through the game. The Pirates did well for a while, at one point having 36 gold on their HI after a brilliant and successful raid on the English. (also a rare example of a successful “pivot”, when the Zeus was able to get gold from the English after failing to capture the Frontier moments earlier) After the Wine was exchanged, they lost 15 gold and ended with the lowest total.
The Final Standings
Barbary Corsairs: 87 gold
Americans: 52
Cursed: 48
Jade Rebellion: 35
English: 31
Spanish: 25
French: 25
Pirates: 21
(Spanish ahead of French since they had movable game pieces/active points in play at the end, but the French played a better game)
What a crazy experience! This was a LONG return to playing a physical game of Pirates. The Corsairs are victorious!
It’s interesting that the Big 4 factions finished lowest in the standings, probably at least in part due to their going last in the turn order. The giant turtle proved to be a big draw, with the Corsairs taking advantage to rake in tons of gold. I like how topsy-turvy the game was, with tons of twists and turns. The Corsairs had all sorts of setbacks (American attacks, most of their fleet ruined, the dramatic and unexpected double ram+Hoard turtle attack, etc), but still managed to come out on top.
It was really neat to see my American fleet do well, not to mention the Skin Flayer. I highly recommend using switchblades in games of 60+ points, as they can be really fun. On that note, the Frontier is amazing. Not just as a gold runner, but as an overall play piece. It feels like she enhances whatever game she takes part in. She’s often the center of attention, so although her somewhat OP nature makes her an American favorite, it also places a huge target on her. I may not be a big fan of some of the weird ship type mechanics, but switchblades and hoists can really make games more fun.
As expected, the Zeus had a wild, crazy, and active debut. The Pirates came up short in the end, but she may be seen again before the end of the summer….
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the Legend of the Giant Turtle game! Feel free to comment below your thoughts on the game! (turtle, action, gameplay, fleets, strategy, pictures, etc – a lot to take in!)
Question of the Day: Do you wish the Dutch had been a faction from the start in Spanish Main? Would you prefer them as one of the major factions in the game?
