What the heck is going on?! 

Now that I’ve reached Turn 50 and a considerable amount of stuff has happened, I think it’s a good time for the first recap of the game.

Oceans and rooms:
Sea of Allost: first ocean in the turn order, with the Pirates, Jade Rebellion, and Cursed
Caribbean: second ocean in the turn order, with the English and Spanish
-those oceans are both in “room 1” if you will
Sea of Karkuda: third and final ocean in the turn order, with the French and Americans

Fleet locations in play order:
Pirates: Far east in the Sea of Allost
Jade Rebellion: Southwest in the Sea of Allost
Cursed: Northwest in the Sea of Allost
English: East in the Caribbean
Spanish: West in the Caribbean
French: Northeast in the Sea of Karkuda
Americans: Far west in the Sea of Karkuda

What has happened:

Pirates: Have had nearly no conflict thus far, and have not started conflict with any faction. Currently sourcing textiles, metals, spices, and sometimes gold from their 4 wild islands for one of the best economies in the game.

Jade Rebellion: Only have one wild island, but the textiles it produced have been in the upper half of values (4 gold or more apiece) through all 8 resource changes. However the island changed to produce spices, the least valuable resource on average that has ironically been the only resource to never be in the top half of values, always worth 3 or less. After multiple investigations, finally found the evil Cursed faction and declared war after being attacked by them.

Cursed: Purchasing a powerful sea dragon early in the game, the Cursed have benefited from special house rules in addition to finding super valuable coins on a northern island. The luxuries on Broken Horn Island have also provided a solid source for launches. Currently engaged in all-out war against the Jade Rebellion which is taking a major toll on both sides. Also a “secret faction” until the readers discovered them through the eyes of the Jade Rebels.

English: Established a strong presence at Diamond Rock early in the game which has only grown stronger with time. They have massively benefited from how amazing textiles have been, and now have beaten the Spanish in a few battles.

Spanish: A slow and cautious start was mostly fixed by finding gold and metals on Paradise Island, where they now have a strong presence in addition to the formidable Fortaleza Dorada. Still losing their war to the English and are overly reliant on metals (usually worth 1 or 6 lately) to fuel their efforts.

French: The most isolated faction of the game until recently, the French were unaware of other factions for most of the turns so far. Found immense quantities of food (fish) on their closest islands, which they now have huge quantities of on the docks of their Harbor. More recently they have discovered other resources and won a small victory over the Americans, who they briefly had an alliance with.

Americans: With many islands very close to their home island, the Americans have an economy that rivals that of the Pirates and the French. Preble has whipped them into imperial shape and they have gone on a tear recently, but constant whirlpool frustrations and some overzealousness has delayed their progress of late.

Alliances:
Americans/French (already broken)

Wars (with instigator listed first):
English vs. Spanish: English winning, but timely Spanish launches when metals skyrocket in value has kept things largely in check
Cursed vs. Jade Rebellion: JR’s declared war after Cursed dragon attacks. With 2 major battles concluded (both indecisive for the most part) and another one ongoing, this one is ugly, bloody, full of hate and with no end in sight.

What is happening:

Pirates: Recently took over the points lead from the Cursed with a megalaunch, the Pirates look very strong and appear ready to finally strike back against the Americans after Ralph David led two American whirlpool expeditions against the Pirates.

Jade Rebellion: Struggling a bit with spices never valuable, they are simply fighting the Cursed and want to win at all costs.

Cursed: With a solid economy fueling their war effort against the Jades, the Cursed have long-term plans that have been put on hold by the frequent and intense battles.

English: Finally satisfied with the fortifications on Diamond Rock, the English have turned their attention to Spanish-controlled Paradise Island and have been assembling a major squadron to attack it.

Spanish: Fighting to stay alive!

French: Fully established control of The Flat but really hoping for food to become valuable so they can beat the Americans back and continue exploring Karkuda in peace.

Americans: Reeling from their loss to the French and major damages due to whirlpool failures, the Americans are still looking strong due to their great economy.

What will happen?/Future plans

Pirates: Want to explore west of their kingdom, and strike back against the Americans with a whirlpool squadron of their own.

Jade Rebellion: Defeat the Cursed, kill Shal-Bala, and finally get around to exploring the Sea of Allost properly and possibly finding trade partners and allies.

Cursed: Kill the Rebel scum! Then, execute grand plans with a long-term “solution” for any opposition….

English: Drive the Spanish out of the Caribbean and establish total English hegemony! Afterwards, get whirlpool ready and figure out what lies beyond, where the Americans must have come from….

Spanish: Take Diamond Rock and look for allies in other oceans if necessary.

French: Get Nemo and the Nautilus back and explore all of Karkuda.

Americans: Take The Flat, go after the Pirates in the Sea of Allost and establish an American Empire!

~~~~~

Turns 50 and 51 were played today! The size of the game is completely spiraling out of control, and into completely unknown territory.

With little anticipation since the previous few rolls hadn’t been 1’s, I did the extra roll at the beginning of each turn to see if the resources would change at all. I was surprised to see that for the first time since instituting the rule below, I rolled a 1!

In case you forgot:
A round of turns begins with the d6 roll. A 1 is rolled (on a 2-6 the resources stay the same, until a 1 is rolled on some other turn). Since a 1 was rolled, roll again. If the second roll is a 2-6 (anything other than a 1), the resources only change value for that turn. On the next turn, they revert back to whatever they were on the previous round, or a different system is once again agreed upon by all players (such as starting over with regular EE rolls, or using the system described in this example). However, if the second roll is a 1, the current EE rolls are disregarded, and new rolls are made (both for values and duration).

This promotes more resource randomness, and makes the game more exciting and less predictable! The second roll was a 3, meaning that resources would only change value for this turn, which happened to be the milestone Turn 50. However, the third and final roll (for resource values on this specific turn) was the most shocking and crazy of all!! A FIVE was rolled!!! This meant that food would be worth 6 gold apiece for the first time in ages! O_O Suddenly, things were shaken up completely in terms of purchasing power! If you remember from the last handful of reports, both factions in the Sea of Karkuda have been stockpiling enormous amounts of food, which suddenly went from 1 to 6 in value per token!! The French and Americans rejoiced and as soon as the 5 came up I knew they would go completely bonkers with launchings. XD With that in mind, no wonder I could barely even finish Turn 51 today lol.

The Pirates begin their turn by attacking the Westminster, an English ship that had come through the whirlpool near Pistol Island on the previous turn! With the ship already missing a mast due to whirlpool damage, the Pirates were able to dismast the ship, needing the Sunrise Fire to finish the job since the Deliverance couldn’t use her L-range cannons.

The Royal Rover is underneath the ledge of Mission’s Kingdom for a reason – the Pirates have upgraded Bartholomew Roberts! Paying 12 gold, here is my custom version, which is based on history and how Black Bart was able to capture a ton of ships in his career.

Bartholomew Roberts
Pirate crew
18 points
Captain. Reroll. This ship can tow a ship by touching a derelict in any location (not just the bow), and can immediately initiate towing after resolving any action. This crew can be assigned to any ship of the same nationality regardless of point costs; if this crew’s cost is greater than the ship, no other crew or equipment can be assigned to that ship.

The new Pirate fleet from their megalaunch departs the upgraded fort of Dead Man’s Point and joins the existing Pirate ships!

Uh oh! Although the Pirates use some gold to launch the Bruja at the island, it has run out of textiles!! This is the first Pirate-controlled wild island to run out of a resource.

To the west!

Elsewhere in the Sea of Allost, the Sea Tiger finds that spices are no longer on the JR wild island – food is found instead!! I wanted to make Turn 50 something special, and it was turning out to be just that!

The Polaris rams an icewreck:

The Grand Path retreats with half her masts standing, as the Jades know they can’t afford to lose another capital ship. The Grand Mountain and Asgard take her place, killing Tiamat!

With the Naegling also retreating from battle, Olof Linstrom gets off a shot at the last second to sink the derelict Lilu! It was a good turn for the Jades, as they permanently eliminated two Cursed game pieces from play.

The Cursed strike back! The Asgard loses a mast and her crew are paralyzed by Fear, which would slow her on the next turn if she hadn’t been pinned as well. The Serpent’s Fang hits with a firepot to put the Grand Path in danger! However, the GP is already approaching the Jade HI and will likely make it back in time.

The Monkey’s Paw only hits the Glorious Treasure once. After a few ships have sunk and the damaged fleeing for repairs, the battle area is considerably less crowded. At the right, the Hellfire and Nightmare return to the Roost for repairs in addition to a new captain for the Hellfire.

The Half Moon is surprised to find that spices have replaced textiles as the resource on Diamond Rock!! Similar to the Pirate finding, this is the first time all game that the English have experienced either a resource shortage or a random change.

With the English whirlpool squadron failing as miserably as the Americans’, the Westminster manages to return to the Caribbean on oar power and reports to the captain of the Resolution on the Pirate attack.

Speaking of attack, it was finally time for the English to strike! The Ark Royal would be the first ship in the battle, and the English were ready to initiate the (First) Battle of Paradise Island!! With a predictably lame outcome, the Broadsides Attack failed with a 1. XD

The English open up their gunports and resume the next phase of their war against the Spanish! The Santa Catalina and Armada take damage, while the Anunciada and Catedral del Mar are set aflame! The Catedral was the hardest ship hit, being blasted by both the Serapis and Victor. A view of the action from the top of Diamond Rock:

With a view from the southeast, you can see the Durham at the upper right. She hits 1/2 and does slight damage to Fortaleza Dorada. The English want to destroy the fort and claim the island as their own.

I like the natural daylight effect of not using the flash and seeing the various shadows, but sometimes using the flash can illuminate things brilliantly.

The Spanish strike back, although it is mostly ineffective. The Royal loses a mast but the Anunciada’s fire spreads, dooming the ship before she can even fire a shot….

Fire everywhere! The Extremadura’s fire shot backfired, but the Catedral hit the Serapis with her firepot specialist to make more smoke and flame:

Even more! The Santa Ana sails into the fray on the far side of Paradise Island, and combines with the fort to take two masts off the Durham.

Reinforcements on the way! Spain is eager for her 5 new gunships to reach the battle area:

A rare shot from the northwest:

Continuing the trend of random resource changes all across the seas, the French find that metals are produced on their northeastern island instead of textiles! However, the French are far more concerned with a different resource…

FOOD! With an insanely massive stockpile saved up for quite some time now, the French can finally cash in their food for gold!! The tokens here combined with the amount they had saved off-camera (on an index card I mentioned earlier so I don’t have to go searching for coins all the time only to have them converted to gold in the long run) gave the French a whopping 99food tokens!!

You can quickly note that 99*6 gold apiece = 594 gold, and the French combined it with metals and gold from their home island to spend a ridiculous 639 gold all on one turn!! O_O

In fact, the launchings of Turn 50 represent a potential “road to war” or a massive GEARING UP if you will, at which point you may want to listen to this throughout the rest of the report as an excellent buildup/rising tension song.

The French launch 16 new ships! That may seem very low for that amount of gold, and it is, but for a good reason…

40 of the gold was spent on 4 new docks, doubling the total number of docks in the Harbor to 8! You can see them here in the upper right and upper left corners of the Harbor. The French needed them just to launch all the new stuff!

On the east side of the Harbor, you can see some of the new capital ships. The Superbe, Ville de Paris, and Corse are visible, as are the Belle Etoile, Eroica, and Argus.

On the west side of the Harbor, more new ships everywhere! The Libellule, Pluton, and Pique will be cargo ships, while the Delacroix, Gaule, and Hercule are launched for war. Check out the little “sick bay” dock at the upper right, where the captured Congress will soon begin repairing! This is similar to my old HFS harbors, where deep and recessed parts of the harbor is where the most severely damaged ships would be repaired over long periods of time. On the Royal Louis (RotF version with Parley) you can see why the French only got 16 ships for all that gold – check out the blue fort upgrade token (250 gold purchase price) on the main deck! O_O

With a rare view from the north, you can see the docking system the French have built in the Harbor. The Charlemagne is another French 5 master that was launched, one of five such major capital ships. From the deckplate picture you may have noticed a few odd ships as well – the French plan to actually use the Solitaire and Crete Argentee in this game since points are of almost no issue and their cheerleader abilities could help out a large squadron during a battle.

The French Harbor is complete! (likely, at least for now)

An impressive display of riches and power:

To the Americans! Preble returns from the Caribbean, albeit with even more damage than the President sustained on the way out. Ralph David’s newest Pirate-hunting squadron, consisting of the Constitution, Bonhomme Richard, and Paladin, is ready to set sail through the whirlpool! On the islands, notice that even more resource changes have taken place, as Ruby Island now produces spices instead of metals and Luck Island has run dry for the second time in the game.

The Frontier loads resources for the first time, using her hoist to grab some lumber! The Intrepid joins the American squadron off The Flat, increasing their numbers to six gunships strong.

More reinforcements! The Providence and Louisiana are still ferrying resources, but carry some army units to the lumber island. The other three ships in the foreground can make the American Flat squadron number 9 gunships.

The French had more food saved up than any resource stockpile of any other faction, but the Americans had a ton as well! They cashed in 74 food tokens (25 less than the French, but still a ton) and combine it with a small bit of gold for a windfall of 459 gold! Then, they immediately spent 365 of it! No less than 21 ships are launched, even more than the French put forth! (I have even started running out of paper crew chips in addition to the real ones, so I’m writing things like “H 2” on the backs of useless explorers to denote helmsmen and the like. Of course I know that a helmsman costs 2 points, but I’m writing it to make the point counts faster.)

The Americans just barely fit all their new ships at their home island! A perfect fit! XD

The Americans placed their ships strategically in the right positions, with the fastest ships sailing out first and certain objectives leading to certain parts of the island that a ship is launched at. The Jarvis and Boston for example, have abilities and crew aboard to let them be dedicated fort wreckers, which the Americans need to retake The Flat. The Americans are determined to expand further east into Karkuda and have launched ships designated as troop transports to expand their “empire”. The Carolina, Jackson, Atlanta and Bartlett are carrying three army units each, and all have been given orders to reinforce American positions on islands and beaches. Many small but effective gunships have been launched, mostly for the purpose of potential war with France.

After an insane 5 HOUR Turn 50, I was finally able to continue! XD

Turn 51 begins with the Deliverance jumping into the whirlpool near the Pirate Kingdom! She improbably rolls a 3 to emerge from the Caribbean whirlpool, which means that suddenly the Pirates are aware of the Caribbean as the home of the English!! This also means that the Pirates have access to all 4 other whirlpools without needing to roll for location when they travel from their southern whirlpool in the Sea of Allost! Not only that, but Havana Black sacced an oarsman to give the Deliverance an extra action coming out of the whirlpool, and attacked!!

And they’re here! The Pirates are in the Caribbean!! XD

The entire Pirate whirlpool squadron surges forth, not needing to roll a 3 as they simply followed the Deliverance’s lead. With their exploratory whirlpool squadron quite successful (finding both other oceans without too much difficulty), the new launches from Dead Man’s Point will now have an easy time finding some Americans to take down…

… as the Flying Fish ironically gets things going! The Pirates thought it would be funny to send the captured American ship to the Sea of Karkuda first. It did trick the Americans for a moment, until Ralph David realized that the ship was now crewed by his least favorite thing in the world: Pirates!!

ATTACK!!! The four Pirate ships that used to guard Dead Man’s Point surge through the whirlpool after the Flying Fish, with the Fool’s Hope being given an AA from Captain Elizabeth Swann (aboard the Black Heart back in the Sea of Allost) to attack the Constitution and Ralph David himself! The Constitution and Bonhomme Richard are damaged, and the Constitution loses her oarsman and part of a mast in the lost boarding party.

In the Sea of Allost, the Golden Medusa is guarding the whirlpool while more Pirate gunships make their way to it! After being extremely crowded, Dead Man’s Point seems strangely empty, with textiles no longer being produced on the island and all of the Pirate ships setting sail. The squadron of effective but small Pirate support gunships have headed east, as they will not brave whirlpool damage due to their size.

From the mainmast of the patrol ship Cutlass, an imposing sight. The Sea Nymph is in the foreground, but in the background you can see 3 of the most dangerous ships to ever sail the waves: the Revenant, Harbinger, and Victoire, all ready to fight with various double action crew. At the right, Mission smiles in glee at his success and good fortune, and has joined up with the “super squadron” of sorts….

DMP isn’t empty for long! With metals once more becoming the most valuable resource as the values reset (a 4 roll for 3 turns, with 2 turns left including this one), the Pirates continued their absurd spending rate, launching 5 ships from the upgraded fort. 4 of them have the home island raiding ability, in an ominous and dangerous homage to the past perhaps? The Lady Newport also comes into play along with some infantry units to help guard the fort.

A wide shot of the declining JR-Cursed situation. At the left, the Dragon’s Talon has taken the derelict Sea Phoenix under tow, as she has 9 points of crew aboard and carries some nice 2S guns. The Proud Tortoise sails behind the stern of the towed ship, hoping her L-immunity will prevent the Monkey’s Paw from interfering and trying to sink the SP. However, on their turn the Cursed simply used Tsuro to move the SP into a fog bank where she is lost forever, essentially sinking the ship! At the upper right, notice that the Jades have not retreated from the battle entirely: the Grand Mountain sets the Serpent’s Fang aflame with exploding shot! In addition, the Beowulf and Asgard damage Maxehebel as the Polaris destroys an icewreck once and for all.

In a terrible spot, the crew of the Westminster decide to row back into the whirlpool, rolling a 4 to emerge in the Sea of Karkuda! The Resolution does the noble thing and blocks the Deliverance while shooting at her, likely sacrificing herself in the process. However, the English aren’t used to Havana Black and his “ghostly” ship….

Carnage mounts near Paradise Island! The Royal does major damage to Armada, while the Serapis suffers a setback when her own fire shot backfires just a turn after the same thing happened to her sparring partner, the Extremadura! The fast Ark Royal and Victor shoot the gap in the Spanish line, breaking it! (this was not planned or staged to look like historical Royal Navy tactics haha)

The Ark Royal tries another Broadsides Attack, and this one connects!! The Alquimista loses 2 masts and the English have directly struck Spanish trade!

A view directly above the stern of the Lord Kettering. At the left, the Malton is mostly obscured behind Diamond Rock. At the right, HMS Durham scurries home to extinguish her fire, letting a bigger ship take her place…

Admiral Thomas Gunn and HMS Lord Algernon officially enter the fray!! The Lord Algernon easily dismasted the Catedral del Mar and then set Fortaleza Dorada aflame with her firepot specialist! At the right, more English ships have joined the battle! The Granville used double shot and fire shot perfectly to set the valuable Santa Ana on fire, while the Resistance used an AA from Owen (CRGO) to blast away at the fort!

Paradise Island is starting to resemble hell instead, with the deafening roar of cannons amid constant smoke and fire:

Believe it or not, Thomas Gunn almost turned the Lord Algernon around when he heard news about the Pirate attack in the south. Figuring his other gunships could take care of the threat and that he needed to concentrate on the Spanish in the far north, he stuck to his plan and his guns. At the right, three English ships are launched to counter the Pirate threat: the Plantagenet (+1 to cannon rolls against Pirate ships), Henry VIII, and Orkney.

Spanish reinforcements arrive! However, only two ships were in range of English vessels this turn. The Cristal del Obispo dealt damage to the Victor and Royal, with the Lady’s Scorn missing 0/3 against the Royal. The Granada has become entangled in a sargasso sea, while the Corazon del Mar and Reconquistador look to get into action soon.

After some nice maneuvering by the Spanish, both flotillas in the area were able to shoot at the Ark Royal, nearly dismasting the ship and also killing all three of her crew due to Armada’s ability.

The fire inside Fortaleza Dorada spreads! However, the Santa Ana has a nice turn, docking at the fort to eliminate her own fire while simultaneously setting the Resistance aflame with her own firepot specialist! The Resistance also lost her mizzenmast from the fort’s artillery barrage. (the fort didn’t shoot at the Lord Algernon since 3/5 of the Lord Algernon’s cannons are L-range and the fort would need to hit all three times to get past the Lord Algernon’s ability and eliminate a mast)

Paradise no more? Spanish soldiers struggle to extinguish the blaze at Fortaleza Dorada:

With metals worth 6 gold apiece once more, the Spanish cashed theirs in for 36 gold to get two gunships they would need. The Profeta is very boring but the Asesino de la Nave was possiblythe first ship I ever built, and definitely one of my first 4 ships ever! Her foremast was broken a bit long ago but the tape job has held great over the years and she is ready to fight once more!

-Back to the Sea of Karkuda-

After going rogue, Nemo has continued to pilot the Nautilus south of French waters, and here you can see his submerged vessel coming upon a large black rocky structure!! O_O

The Nautilus disappears into that opening you saw, and suddenly Nemo is gone!!! O_O

Introducing: Captain Nemo’s Mercenary Submarine Hideout!!

Now it is clear why Nemo went rogue! After being hired by the French, Nemo knew there was a chance he’d be able to conveniently “escape” from his employer in order to take refuge in a classic Mercenary base. Knowing that his old hideout was somewhere south of the French Harbor, Nemo took a risk and made a break for it. The submarine hideout has been in the Sea of Karkuda the entire time, but it was abandoned after a falling out among the Mercenaries stationed there. However, it is still operational! The submarine hideout was a naturally black rock with natural sea caves inside and underneath it. Since discovering it, Captain Nemo has heavily modified the island to suit his needs. Using typically advanced Mercenary technology, Nemo installed steel doors designed to look like wood or light-colored vegetation from the outside. The doors are mechanically operated and Mercenary submarines can open and close the doors whenever they want!

The western side (for this game) of the hideout, showing the other doors at the base. Each of the four sides has two doors that Nemo and his comrades built. I wonder what Nemo will do now – hide out and wait for the French to forget about him, or even open up use of the hideout to the French and play along that he was helping them the whole time?

Back at the Harbor, the French depart! Only a few ships are coming in, while the new launches go out. Certainly unrealistic from a logistical perspective, but the French know what they’re doing! XD The Pluton is the only ship completely unable to move in the logjam, and soon French ships will be swarming all over the place.

No shots fired here! Guy LaPlante hails the remaining crew of the dismasted Westminster, who narrowly escaped capture in her own home waters of the Caribbean after the Pirate attack. Some words are exchanged, and the French learn that the Pirates seem to be a dangerous foe with a penchant for sneak attacks. The English crew say they wouldn’t mind some help, but the French respond that they have no idea how to get to the Caribbean and are busy reinforcing their weak position at The Flat. A bit of a surprise – Anglo-French peace in their first encounter of the game:

The first batch of reinforcements arrive at The Flat, though it’s not much. The Dijon drops off some army units, while the Bonaparte takes the place of La Possession, who still may go through the whirlpool soon if Gaston or Lenoir gives the order and the French don’t need the ship in a potential fight with the Americans.

Oh wow, total carnage in the deep southwest! The Americans launch a counterattack against the hated Pirates, doing major damage. At this point, ALL Americans are beginning to hate the Pirates. Ralph David had convinced some of them a while back, but now the American fleet has a Pirate invasion on their doorstep! David himself nearly goes into a rage when the Constitution rolls two 1’s in a row to start her broadside against the Recreant, but rolled a 6 and a 2 to (barely) set the ship aflame.

At the lower right, BOTH the Paladin and Brandywine hit the Accused with firepots, dooming one of the best 3 masted Pirate gunships in the game. The Bonhomme Richard blasts the Fool’s Hope, and the captured Flying Fish is the only ship not damaged in the attack.

A busy scene: canoes go home with newly found spices, new cargo ships join old ones in the trip to Luck Island, and at the top of the frame Preble has returned home to repair and launch some new ships to counter the Pirates with. The United States lumbers forward but will take some time to reach the battle area.

Mass departure! The Sea of Karkuda is becoming VERY busy, an absolute hotspot of activity that may only increase in intensity over time!

The Americans send MASS reinforcements to augment their half-dozen ships currently stationed west of The Flat. No less than 10 proper gunships are headed east, with some other captained ships (like the Philadelphia and New Orleans, launched to capture enemy ships) and troop transports joining them. The Providence has already begun unloading troops at the lumber island, while the Louisiana carries an artillery unit. Talk about GEARING up!! XD

With 365 gold spent last turn and 88 this turn, the Americans have introduced an additional 453 points into the western 1/3 of Karkuda in one day. Combine that with the Pirate squadron showing up through the whirlpool, the huge French launch, and the English discovering Karkuda and the French faction in general, and the Sea of Karkuda is absolutely blowing up!

The 4 new American ships. The Saratoga shields Preble’s President from harm, while 3 nice SCS ships make their entrances: the Appalachian, Overton, and Hudson. At the right and upper right, the Destiny and 4 US blockade runners make their way towards the Pirate battle, since the Americans have already sent a large squadron east towards the French and the Americans don’t know if more Pirates are coming!

With that, a big day of play comes to a close. Launches alone took a huge amount of time, and I can say that over 1,100 new points were introduced to the game today. The French and Americans alone combined for over 1,000 gold spent!! This is why I said above that the game is entering completely unknown territory. Assuming the game had already reached around 3,600 total points at the start of the day, it is now likely over 4,600.  O_O Things are becoming completely insanely ridiculous to the point of total nonsense. XD Just kidding, it’s manageable but definitely gigantic to an extreme lol. As a result, the average turn may take about two and a half hours for the foreseeable future, and that’s without any megalaunches of 200+ gold. If you’re wondering, I still plan to do a point count soon, likely after I (hopefully) complete a full turn on Saturday.

Many, MANY developments are still to come. As I hinted at with the song, things are just boiling at a high temperature right now. The tension is rising in all 3 oceans to the point of absolute bedlam all around the world. The future is unclear, but one thing is for certain: TOTAL CHAOS AWAITS. O_O

Here is the report for Turns 52 and 53!

Here we start in the Sea of Karkuda instead of the Sea of Allost, as the Pirates are in combat with the Americans! The Fool’s Hope surges forward and rams Preble’s own ship, the President!! However, the fires aboard threaten to consume the ship.

It really is a true Pirate invasion! No less than 5 new ships emerge from the whirlpool, with 4 gunships and the Rum Runner, who has HI raider Villanueva aboard.

The Accused survives! Due to how powerful fire has been in this game (too powerful in many circumstances), I have made a custom rule where a ship can extinguish all its fires if it rolls a 4-6 after the regular whirlpool damage roll (basically ships that are burning roll an extra time when going through a whirlpool, but this roll can only help them and not hurt them). The Recreant doesn’t put out her fire, but she also avoids losing her final mast, and it’s possible that the Pirates will be able to repair both ships! In the meantime, even more Pirate ships approach the whirlpool, looking to absolutely flood the American area with piracy!

Havana Black turns the Deliverance ghostly to sail through English ships!! The Deliverance uses her first action to dismast the Honu Iki (directly smashing English trade!), but misses with her other shots.

The Otter and Madagascar use their handy shipwrights to repair, while the Sunrise Fire discovers the Duke shipwreck! The Pirates are annoyed at seeing the wreck of a fellow pirate ship, and get angry when they assume the English are responsible.

The booming of cannons! The Deliverance uses a sac action to ghost through the Wycliffe and shoot at her from the southern side, hitting 4/5 to take off two masts. The Feathered Hat and Dragon’s Breath surround the Resolution and dismast her!

I know it’s a bit silly with a giant Mickey Mouse watching over the events lol, but I like taking sea level shots like this sometimes. I like how the gold from the Duke shipwreck leads straight to the last coin residing there. A bunch of masts are in the distance, and the giant Diamond Rock completely obscures Paradise Island.

Captain Mission has wanted to explore west of the Pirates’ Kingdom area for some time now, and he finally gets a squadron ready for the task! Not far west of the Gold island, the squadron discovers what they had seen from a distance in the past: a huge WALL of fog!!

What could lie beyond? It looks dark and intimidating.

Well, I could only keep this a secret for so long! The mass of fog hides one of the creations I’m MOST excited about….

Calico Cat got her extra action, and the Revenant bravely sails into the fog!

With the Revenant almost completely disappearing from view, Mission aboard the Crusher is now about as unsure as he’s been all game!

The Pirates purchase an artillery unit to be stationed at Dead Man’s Point, and also launch a new ship. The Lady’s Scorn (RotF version) will be Jean Lafitte’s new ship. He has captained the Grand Barnacle for a while now, but transferring him to the LS will give him a built-in reroll for his AA ability in addition to freeing a cargo space on the Grand Barnacle. The home island raiders have departed the island, while the 2 masted gunships are on general patrol duty.

The Hrunting completes her repairs, while the Grand Path gets home to put out her fire mast and do some repairs of her own. At the edges of the picture you can see other Viking ships coming in for repairs: the Naegling, Grendel, and Huginn.

The Beowulf rams and absolutely CRUSHES an iceberg and splits it cleanly in half! The shipwreck that was the driving force behind it immediately falls into the water and begins sinking. The icebreakers’ shots against the Serpent’s Fang tell, dismasting her and making a statement!

The Polaris destroys an iceberg, and the western half of Allost is looking a lot cleaner of late. At the right, the Grand Mountain is burning badly and turns around for eventual repairs.

Not backing down from the fight, Jade turtle ships again engage the Monkey’s Paw in swarm fashion! I believe this is the third time in three major battles between the two factions where this has happened: the Monkey’s Paw fighting nearly alone against a host of JR turtle ships.

The Naegling and Hrothgar are in need of major repairs, and the Glorious Treasure will join them:

The Monkey’s Paw rolls very effectively for Fear, which will cause minor trouble for the Dragon’s Talon and Proud Tortoise. The MP then moves south and combines with Silver Coffin to blast panels off the Floating Stone.

The Cursed island that has produced gold all game has finally run out! Luckily for the Cursed, just a turn later they find textiles! (that face down coin is the Trees UT)

Broken Horn Island now produces lumber instead of luxuries!

I forgot to mention it last report, but the Cursed finally finished repairing the captured Grand Temple and Divine Wind! They used the trade-in rules to get rid of those ships and get new Cursed ships! The GT has turned into the Divine Dragon, my original Cursed flagship and a veteran of MANY great games, as those of you who have read some of my oldest reports would know. She is in great condition and joined by the Hades’ Realm, another great Cursed gunship. Combine those with the Sickle, Madness, and Hellfire (the latter two being repaired just recently) and the Cursed have a strong presence at the main entrance to the Roost. At the right, the derelict Serpent’s Fang was able to put out her fire from earlier and rows into a fog bank.

Back to the Caribbean!

HMS Apollo misses both of her shots, but the Metal Dragon and Wycliffe team up to eliminate masts from the Deliverance and set the ship aflame!

Braving a reef (where a roll of 3 or lower would wreck the ship!), the Resolution rows towards the English home island, knowing she could be sunk or captured if she didn’t take the risk. Beyond her, the Caradoc and Plantagenet are ready to provide support next turn, daring the Pirates to come across the reef in the meantime.

To counter the sudden Pirate threat, the English mobilize their reserve gunships that were stationed south of Diamond Rock. The Burma, King John, and Guy Fawkes answer the call, while the Duke of York continues to stand guard against the Spanish. At the upper right, the Lady Provost has taken the Honu Iki under tow while the Cheshire loads spices.

Back at the First Battle of Paradise Island, the Serapis is doomed to her fires! However, the Santa Ana is pummeled by the Granville and Lord Algernon, losing two more masts and her cannoneer!

In the shadow of Diamond Rock, war rages on. The Granada is damaged, but the English aren’t able to cripple the larger Cristal and Voz de Dios.

From the guns atop Diamond Rock, you can see that the English warships have raked the bows of the Spanish:

An effective Spanish counterattack! The Cristal gets stuck in the sargasso sea while maneuvering for a better position, but the Victor takes damage and the Malton and Lord Kettering are hit as well. The Extremadura had a nice turn, docking at the fort to eliminate her fire mast while simultaneously shooting to dismast the Ark Royal. At the lower right, the Royal has lost her final mast. Notice the Santa Ana scurrying away! She got an extra action and decided the damage she could do with 2 shots was not nearly worth being sunk or captured. The Spanish are desperate not to give up on Fortaleza Dorada, but they made the right move here to try and preserve one of their best ships. Notice that the Spanish cargo ships have stopped towing the flotillas – in another nice move, the Spanish leave the very expendable flotillas near the fort to preserve some firepower there and cover the damaged ships’ retreat.

Looks like 3 on 3 at this point, but those flotillas are pouring a heavy fire into the Victor!

Back to the Sea of Karkuda!

What’s that!? One of the doors to Nemo’s sub hideout is opening!

And another opens on the other side!

The Mercenaries are here!!

Nemo has officially gone rogue to start his own Mercenary faction! He was given 30 gold to start a fleet, just like the other factions at the start of the game. With it he commissioned the Mobilis with linked crew Eileen Brigid O’Brien and a helmsman, and the Devil Ray with a helmsman.

The Mobilis discovers a brand-new island!! This is Fish Island, named for the distinctive shape of the shell, not the resource. XD Especially if you look at the island upside-down, it could look like a fish jumping out of the water with a fin, tail, mouth, and eye!

Nemo accompanies the Devil Ray in the Nautilus:

The French are up next in the turn order, as the Mercenaries will go first of the (now) three factions in the Sea of Karkuda. Guy LaPlante was hired for diplomacy, not war, and sends the Possession through the northern whirlpool! In a potentially chaotic result, the ship takes damage and emerges from the southwestern whirlpool of the same ocean! Uh-oh!!

French army units are moving north across The Flat, where a ton of French ships are headed. Just outside the Harbor wall, the Westminster is rowing away from the whirlpool? I wonder where she’s heading? One thing is for sure: her crew don’t know if the Pirates are still swarming around the Caribbean whirlpool, so the crew don’t want to risk a potentially fatal return trip.

The mass departure from the French Harbor continues. At the upper right, an important crew swap has taken place. Admiral Gaston de St. Croix has left the Soleil Royal to board the Bourbon, a ship with built-in reroll perfect for his AA ability. The Soleil retains Duncan Rousseau and a helmsman, but receives more fighting crew as well. Gaston is still the supreme French commander (at least for now), but he will lead from afar and trust his senior officers aboard the capital ships to lead in any battles.

And now we go right into the thick of the fight! This is the hottest and most crowded action in the game right now. Back at the American whirlpool and home island, the Pirates and Americans have become locked in a death struggle. The Saratoga and United States pulverize the Fool’s Hope from both sides, toppling her final two masts. The Pirates are fine with that, since Eternal will warp the ship home once she succumbs to the flames. The Lady’s Scorn has two fires of her own burning as well after another devastating broadside from Brent Rice’s Bonhomme Richard.

Ralph David shoots at his former ship (the Flying Fish) aboard the Constitution. At the right, the Rum Runner uses Parley to avoid being shot at by the Paladin.

In a not-so-surprising move, the Brandywine sails up and fires point-blank into the Possession!! Guy LaPlante is knocked over by a blast, which sets the ship aflame! American-French tension has been rising recently, and all American captains have been told to engage French ships as they see fit.

The Americans spend even more gold, which may put them at over 500 gold spent over 3 turns. The Saratoga, Hannah, Vermont, and Septem Maria are launched to help out against the Pirates and possibly against the French eventually as well. Preble is shaken by his near-death experience with the Fool’s Hope, but this only makes him more focused and determined to win!

Due to the schooners repairing and the battle just to the south, only one canoe from the new set can dock.

The American Armada just keeps coming! O_O

….

Turn 53 marked the need for new resource rolls!! After 4 turns of chaos and bloodshed, what result would dictate the next stage of the game??

A 5 is rolled for value and duration! This means that food is once again the most valuable resource, just as it was on the monumental Turn 50 and at various points early in the game. The Sea of Karkuda is already becoming extremely crowded, and with food readily available to the French and sometimes the Americans, that is not likely to change anytime soon! This change hurt the English the most, but all the other factions have decent resources available with the new values.

Seeing 4+ fresh English gunships approaching from the northwest, and new launches coming out from the northeast, Havana Black decides to pull his whirlpool squadron out of the Caribbean for a break! The Pirates announced their presence to the English in grand style, and did some big damage to the Honu Iki, Wycliffe, and Resolution. However, this squadron is mostly exploratory, and isn’t meant to be lost on one expedition. Therefore, they are retreating for now so they can repair and decide on their next mission. (Mission has given Black full control of the squadron, so he can do as he wants with it) It looks like the right move, since the Sunrise Fire was the only ship of the 6 not to lose a mast to the whirlpool on the return trip! The Deliverance put out her fire with a regular 5-6 roll before the return trip, so no worries there.

At the top, those infantry units were recently unloaded at the gold island by the Paradox.

Oh my god. The Pirates send 5 more ships to the American whirlpool! It’s an utter logjam!! XD

Here the flash illuminates the battlefield, which is becoming crowded to the point of madness. If you’re confused, I’ll try to make some sense of it. Directly northwest of the whirlpool, the Pirates have an impromptu “line of battle” with the Lady’s Scorn, Ballista, Delight, and Jape. The Centurion is accidentally trapped between the Delight and Ballista by coincidence, but at least it shields her from enemy fire haha. At the bottom, three Pirate 4 masters have emerged right at the edge of the Sea of Karkuda. On the right, notice that the Rum Runner has disappeared! Villanueva wanted to rob the American HI, but after seeing the ridiculous logjam and the plethora of American gunships in the area, decided to back out! It was certainly the right thing to do, because without Ghost Ship and extra actions, there is NO WAY any Pirate ship is about to dock at the American HI lol. At the bottom right, LaPlante mistakenly finds himself on the edge of the battle, temporarily making it three factions in the area. All this while the Roanoke and Bellevue try to load metals from Luck Island on the left! XD

You can see the Rum Runner is damaged from the whirlpool, but the Recreant has put out her fire mast and will survive just like the Accused! I was very happy about those two gunships staying alive, since there have been so many of my favorite ships lost to fire already. I will admit that my soft spot for the Accused was what partially led to the whirlpool house rule where fire masts can be extinguished on a 4-6, but it does apply to all factions and all whirlpools, and makes sense given how well water puts out fire of course. North of the damaged ships are the HI raiders; I hope they’re not going to try to rob the Americans! XD

The Fool’s Hope burns to the waterline but her Eternal keyword kicks in, returning her to the bowels of Mission’s Kingdom!

O_O

THE FOG LIFTS!!!!

Introducing: The Tunnel!

I will be doing a proper introduction of the Tunnel once a faction fully understands it and can see the whole breadth of the structure. For now, you see what the Pirates see, as usual! XD

Calico Cat aboard the Revenant leads the Pirates into the Tunnel. Mission himself follows, awestruck at the immense natural structure:

Looking skywards from the masts of the Crusher:

The darkness inside the Tunnel. O_O

More on that later!! XD

The Jades rejoice as their food becomes valuable!

Launching for the first time in quite a while, the Jades get three new Viking ships: the Wiglaf (who gets +1 to cannon rolls against the Cursed!), Wodin, and Fenrir.

A broad shot of the Cursed area. They are gathering gunships under the Roost and running resources as normal. The Monkey’s Paw shoots to dismast the Floating Stone, but the battle is mostly over. Inconclusive as usual, it was a slight Jade morale victory more than anything else. Both sides lost some stuff, as the Cursed lost 3 sea monsters but the Jades lost the Muninn, Sea Phoenix, and Sea Lion. Both sides are completely exhausted and spent after 3 full-scale battles in the war. Not much of anything has been achieved by either side! XD Again though, I don’t mind that since naval warfare in the Age of Sail was often similar. Right now it’s just two factions beating the carp out of each other without regard for much else. XD

The shocked and stunned English are suddenly in peaceful waters south of Diamond Rock. Saddened and confused by the Pirate attack, they will now begin the long process of repairing, regrouping, and reestablishing trade routes, although not a ton of ships were affected by the raid. The English definitely plan to have an official “whirlpool defense squadron” stationed near the whirlpool to prevent future disasters.

Paradise no more! A messy scene of death and despair, as Fortaleza Dorada burns. In fact, it will continue to burn. The Resistance and Lord Algernon teamed up to eliminate the fort’s final flag after the fire spread again, and the garrison stationed there is simply charred corpses. The rules for a burnt fort will work slightly different than for ships: the fort goes out of play on the faction’s next “next” turn, as in two turns after having only fires. However, it will burn to the ground at the beginning of that turn, rather than when the faction chooses as in the case of the automatic scuttling by fire masts rule. The 6 on the Ark Royal shows that the English have scuttled that ship, but she is Eternal and will return to their home island, though all her crew were killed by Armada and the ship was nearly sunk by gunfire alone. Truly the horrors of war in this picture!

The battle continues, with absolutely CRUSHING blows dealt by the Spanish! The Malton and Lord Kettering were largely ineffective for the English, and the Spanish fought back hard. The Victor was sunk (!) by the flotillas, while the three Spanish gunships hit very often to cripple the LK and dismast the Malton. At the top right, the Spanish have even scored a coup, capturing the Ark Royal (who was about to return home via Eternal scuttling) with the Extremadura!

The First Battle of Paradise Island is likely almost over. The English dominated in the far north, nearly dismasting the Santa Ana and destroying the fort by fire. However, the Spanish have done extremely well southwest of the fort in the most recent 2 turns, turning the tide a bit and really showing the English that they won’t be easy to defeat or eliminate.

With the metals from Paradise Island still quite valuable, the Spanish are able to launch 3 new gunships. The Acorazado (OE version), Ebro and Serpiente join the fleet. The Spanish are saving the SM Acorazado for a later time in the game, assuming the OE version will be sunk or captured and assuming the Spanish will not be eliminated anytime soon. The Acorazado is one of the best Spanish ships for Master Gunner Rogelio Vazquez, who comes aboard (as he did in my EE game) to turn all 5 of the ship’s S-range cannons to L-range! The Santa Catalina gets a new helmsman while the Alquimista and Santa Ana join her for repairs. At the right, more Spanish success! HMS Royal was captured by the Corazon del Mar and chained towed by the Profeta, giving the Spanish a potentially powerful gunship!

The guns atop Diamond Rock have damaged the Corazon del Mar, but the Spanish have won a very important victory in the second phase of this First Battle of Paradise Island.

The Mercenaries have signaled their arrival! All three submarines surface to dock at the wild islands:

The Felicite, Delacroix and Ville de Paris arrive at The Flat, while the Amazone unloads another infantry unit.

The Americans started their turn with their battle against the Pirates, but logistical difficulties meant that they needed to advance their entire chain of ships north of their home island to even allow the canoes to dock and other ships to move out! XD So I’ll do this part first haha.

ATTACK!! Surging forward, and maneuvering to stay out of Lenoir’s cancelling range, the Intrepid kicks off the Second Fight at The Flat!! Her cannons are effective as the Dauphin Royal is set aflame and one of the French infantry units is blasted into the ocean! Lenoir is thrown into the air by the explosion aboard the Dauphin, with his back slamming into a wall and various Frenchmen dying in the attack.

The Americans declare war on the French!! Hardly a surprise, but here we go! The Cleveland inflicts a hit on the Dauphin while the Grampus surges forward! A ton of American ships behind follow suit!

And it’s on! The Albany and Seattle round the north cape of The Flat, with the latter blasting apart an artillery unit. The Delaware, Peacock, Franklin, and Yankee are all present as well! LaPlante can’t seem to escape the warfare, as the Possession leaves one whirlpool of death to emerge at the beginning of another major battle!

O_O Literally like an assembly line of firepower and soldiers, the American war machine is in full operation!!

The Americans have a continuous double (sometimes triple!) line of warships going all the way from their home island to The Flat:

The Americans declare war on the Pirates!!

The carnage mounts in the southwest! The Rickets proves difficult to hit, but the Lady’s Scorn, Ballista, and Claret are pulverized. The Americans do some neat maneuvering so the Hudson, Destiny, Overton, and Appalachian can all get shots in. At the upper left, the cargo ships get out of the way. From this scene, I counted a maximum of 25 ships involved in the battle.

A forest of masts on the battlefield, though it threatens to become more of a forest fire! XD

With 3 or 4 ships blasting away at the Lady’s Scorn, Preble is finally able to repair the President. At the right, the Ballista was quite effective against the Bonhomme Richard earlier, but now the Americans get revenge.

Speaking of the Bonhomme, she moved on to fight the Jape. The Paladin was very effective against the Claret, who has taken direct hits to her hull from the Hudson and Destiny. The ship has lost most of her crew and is now burning out of control. At the left, notice the Centurion still perfectly intact, shielded by Pirate ships but also unable to shoot as a result!

With LaPlante’s Possession fleeing, the bloodthirsty captain of the Brandywine moves on to attack the Bruja instead. When they came through the whirlpool, these newest Pirate ships rolled pretty well for damage, keeping them healthy unlike the exploratory whirlpool squadron that took major damage on their trip home.

After a lot of complex maneuvering, the canoes are finally able to dock! The Americans spend their last chunk of gold on two additional Minuteman flotillas, which will guard their HI and Preble himself for the time being. In fact, those were my other two duplicate American flotillas, so all 3 that I own are shown here.

So to recap, in the order of play:
-Pirates discover The Tunnel
-JR-Cursed war sees a THIRD battle mostly conclude, indecisive once again
-Pirates pull whirlpool squadron out of Caribbean after doing major damage to some English ships
-English win first part of battle around Paradise Island, but Spanish have decisively won the second part and look to have a major victory (Fortaleza Dorada lost, but the Serapis and Victor were sunk and the Ark Royal and Royal captured, though getting the AR home will be difficult). Plus, the resource change favors the Spanish for now.
-The Mercenaries officially arrive!
-On the same turn, the Americans make dual declarations of war against France and the Pirates. They have instigated another Fight at The Flat, and are fighting an intense action against the Pirates near their HI and whirlpool.
-HEAVY warfare in the Caribbean and the Sea of Karkuda!

With turns taking such a long time to complete, the likelihood of playing partial turns increases. For example, finishing operations of a turn in ANY one of the three oceans feels like a decent accomplishment right now lol. Another point count is coming….

The Pirates venture deeper into the Tunnel they had discovered last turn!

A view of the dark interior from the other side! Calico Cat doesn’t even realize she has come out the other end of the tunnel…

For the Revenant ends up in a fog bank!

Various Pirate ships approach the eastern entrance to the Tunnel, curious about the new finding.

Three Pirate ships go to Dead Man’s Point for repairs, and Villanueva (aboard the Rum Runner) tells fellow HI raiders to NOT go through the whirlpool near the American HI. It is absolutely swarming with the chaos of battle. They heed his advice, and the Mystic is sent through the northern Karkuda whirlpool to investigate that situation….

The Mystic pops out near the Possession, who returns from the American-Pirate battle as did the Rum Runner. The crew of the Mystic hear gunfire to the southwest where The Flat is, and it’s about to get a LOT louder….

The Pirates finish their turn in the Sea of Karkuda, continuing their attack! However, no more ships arrive from their whirlpool, which could mean that all the Americans have to face in this battle is already in the area. Of course, it’s still quite a force.

The Pirate ships closest to the American HI aren’t that effective:

However, the recent arrivals show their might! The Centurion pairs with the Jape to dismast the Bonhomme Richard and set her alight, dooming the ship AND Brent Rice, who has been a staple of American command for a long time! O_O

The Paladin’s crew are Fearful of the Bruja, though the Pirate ship only hits 1/4 against the Paladin and Brandywine.

Ralph David is in trouble aboard the Constitution:

At the end of their turn, the Pirates launched the Silver Dagger, who loaded all three of their ladders….

The JR home island is busy once more. Some ships dock for repairs, while others have already begun the process. Other ships leave, some for resources and some for the war against the Cursed. The Jades have already repurchased the Grand Temple after she was traded in by the Cursed!

Cursed ships go to and fro, with the Spilled Salt replacing the damaged Monkey’s Paw around the war zone.

The Caribbean. English ships stand guard near the whirlpool and Diamond Rock, while the Resolution, Wycliffe, and Durham look to carry out repairs.

The Lord Kettering is given Owen’s AA, using it to set the Voz de Dios on fire and capture the Extremadura, who was dismasted by the Resistance! This allowed the English to recapture the Ark Royal and re-scuttle her, reversing the events of the previous turns where the Spanish managed to save the Extremadura from fire and also capture the Ark Royal.

Eileen Brigid O’Brien brings the Mobilis to the surface! Exploring Fish Island, the Mercenaries find textiles! XD (currently being barfed up by the “fish” lol)

Back at The Flat, the French counterattack! The Intrepid is nearly dismasted, and at the right the Delacroix has been given Deleflote’s action to cripple the Albany, one of the USA’s most accurate ships.

Many French ships are sailing west and reaching The Flat! Guy LaPlante is looking for quick repairs and plans to dock the Possession at The Flat rather than going all the way home. He knows the risk he’s taking by putting his ship closer to the battle. Le Superbe may be a fantastic ship for this crowded battle area, as her lines of fire are not blocked by other ships. At the right, the Royal Louis approaches with the fort upgrade….

Looking directly north at the French Harbor. They have 84 gold saved up, with more coming soon. It may seem like they should launch to fight the Americans, but their reason for waiting is likely obvious….

The Americans surge forward and strike with full force!! The Dauphin Royal is set aflame, while the Gaule loses two masts. In one of the best shoot actions of the game, USS Seattle goes 5/5 (with double shot) to crush the Bonaparte and set her aflame! At the north end of The Flat, the Peacock has explored the island for the Americans, since it’s such a large island that the fort doesn’t prevent another faction from exploring it from the other side. This could allow the Americans to land troops there and assault the fort from land! O_O

The Seattle and Franklin are extremely effective, putting serious hurt on the Bonaparte and Delacroix:

Up close in the most crowded area! There are so many American ships that they will have to wait their turn in the battle line. The two French capital ships shielding the rest have already taken major damage, so it’s only a matter of time until fresh ships are needed. This will likely be a brutal slugfest of attrition!

The various American troop transports are nearing The Flat, while the Intrepid and Albany retreat.

O_O Devastation in the southwest!

Literally the hottest action of the game right now. The Lady’s Scorn will soon burn to the waterline. USS Overton has shot 4/4 to hit both the Ballista and Jape, making up for the RotF Saratoga going 0/3 in her first shoot action of the game. The Appalachian tries to shoot the gap in the Pirate line, which is weakening a bit.

The Brandywine, Hudson, Paladin, Adventurous and Destiny damage the Bruja and Centurion:

The Constitution and Speedy Return team up to take a mast off the Rickets, while the United States gets a successful Broadsides Attack to take two masts off the Delight!

From the opposite side. The Springfield (towing the Minuteman) has arrived to give ships within S of her +1 to their cannon rolls, but in a similar problem the Americans are having at The Flat, the horde of ships is so thick that it’s nearly pointless! Many ships are flat-out stuck, and you can even see the Vermont trying to push the lumbering United States along, to no avail.

In a time of great need, Preble calls upon one of the best American gunships and one of his best colleagues: the Concordia with Captain Montana Mays! Gus Schultz comes aboard to make the ship Eternal, meaning that both American Eternal crew are now in play. The Concordia is also equipped with a helmsman, shipwright, and oarsman to make her an “Eternal god ship” (Eternal, can shoot all guns even when dismasted, crew cannot be eliminated, etc). The Concordia is launched right near the battle area to swing things in American’s favor.

I know it’s probably overkill and overwhelming, but I wanted to take a few extra pictures just to document the immense wreckage caused by these giant battles.

Masts, spars, and sails from various ships litter the battlefield. Between those and the Bruja herself, the whirlpool is almost completely obscured.

Almost like a scene from illustrations of naval battles in the Age of Sail:

Fire, a ship’s worst nightmare, spreads from ship to ship as the horrors of battle reveal themselves to all present. The Saratoga can hardly move due to the wreckage in her path. The mainmast of the Ballista falls onto the main deck of the Overton, sending crew scurrying below.

Looking down at the carnage:

I count 14 masts in the water just in this closeup alone:

Between that and this, the Sea of Karkuda is starting to turn red with blood.

I didn’t have time for a point count today, but I’m still planning to do one soon. Since it will take some time with so much afloat, I may even just post it as a separate “report”. Thanks for reading!

Played most of Turn 55 just now.

The Pirates aboard the smaller ships are curious about the Tunnel:

At the other end, the Revenant gets a 6 to emerge from the fog and turn around! The other Pirate gunships are now nearly caught up.

The damaged Pirates in the Sea of Karkuda suffer an abysmal turn, doing almost no damage to American ships.

After the Lady’s Scorn sank due to her fire masts, the opening allowed the Delight to charge forward and ram the President! Preble’s ship was under attack by a third Pirate gunship during this battle. The Delight scored a hit but lost the boarding party.

The Ballista and Jape roll well for their fire masts, but in their weakened state they are unable to keep up an effective rate of fire against their adversaries.

The Paladin is hit again with Fear along with shots from the Centurion, but the Americans will be able to do major damage on their turn.

Returning from the northern part of Karkuda where the American-French battle has begun, the Mystic tells her fellow HI raiders that the French are not a good faction to steal from either. At this point the Pirates have encountered difficulty trying to raid the Americans, French, and even English to a lesser degree.

No less than 7 Jade ships have been repairing at their HI:

However, between recent launches and some already-healthy ships, the Jades have an 8-ship squadron heading out to counter any potential Cursed invasion:

And indeed, the Cursed are building back up and are hungry for a true victory in this bloody but inconclusive war.

The English HI becomes busy, with a few ships repairing and the Eternally scuttled Ark Royal joining them along with some cargo ships.

The captains of the Lord Kettering and Voz de Dios nearly agreed to a short truce to the hostilities, but negotiations didn’t last long! After a short conversation the English carried on, with the LK continuing to tow the captured Extremadura. The Granville, Resistance, and Orkney teamed up to score 5 hits on the Voz, nearly dismasting her!

The Spanish don’t have enough for a great counterattack, but the Corazon del Mar proves surprisingly successful, hitting 3/3 to set the Granville aflame! At the left, the Cristal will be the first ship to explore Paradise Island since Fortaleza Dorada was destroyed. The island holds the Spanish gold used to build the fort, but it may produce a new resource again too….

The Spanish bring the captured Royal and damaged Armada back to their HI, where the Santa Ana finishes repairing with an EA. At the right, the newest Spanish warships have sailed out, and it looks like they’re heading towards Paradise Island….

The French have a nice turn against the Americans! At the right, the Delacroix and Bonaparte flee for repairs, with the Hercule and Felicite replacing them. At the lower left, the Ville de Paris gets an EA to cripple the Grampus, while the Cleveland and Saratoga are hit with firepots. The Superbe is in an excellent position where she can shoot through friendly ships to hit hostile ships beyond. So far, the large French capital ships have plugged and held the gap, not allowing for American ships to reach the fort or advance their long supply chain of ships. At the bottom, the Solitaire and Crete Argentee have arrived, so next turn their bonuses should really help the French stay accurate.

The Dauphin Royal has extinguished her fire mast and reversed direction, while just above her you can see a major development: the Royal Louis was given an EA from Deleflote to unload the French fort upgrade at Paradis de la Mer!

Tomorrow I hope to finish this turn with the Americans and finish all of Turn 56!

Due to a surprise resource change and some real-life logistics, I wasn’t able to finish all of Turn 56. However, what did happen was pretty interesting.

Previously shrouded in fog, the Americans and French didn’t even realize that their battle nearly bumped up against some huge unknown structure south of The Flat!! O_O

The Carolina and Jackson dock at the northwest end of The Flat that had been explored by the Peacock, and unload 6 army units!! The War for The Flat is on! This could be the first time in this game where we see true land warfare, though ships can easily pick them off.

The Seattle hits 3/5 to smash the Felicite, while the Yankee and Franklin team up to set the Hercule aflame.

A rather poor American turn on this side. The ships south and west of The Flat cannot break the French line and are stuck behind each other.

However, the Americans cripple the Pirates in the southwest, and have all but won that battle! The Springfield’s ability came in quite handy, allowing the Minuteman flotilla to hit all 4 times against the Thirty Tyrants (at the far left).

The Delight is dismasted, and the Americans capture no less than 4 ships on the turn! The Ballista, Bruja, Jape, and Centurion will join the American fleet if they are not scuttled.

USS Appalachian reaches the whirlpool amid incredible amounts of wreckage:

Looking up at the mass of ships beyond, though the battle has become quieter and less chaotic as Pirate ships strike their colors.

Various derelicts float about in the devastation, while at the top, the Concordia cannot even move away from the HI due to the busiest scene of the game so far. (and the RV Saratoga could hardly tow the Ballista, who is at a weird angle facing the President in this picture)

I rolled another one at the beginning of Turn 56, which meant a random resource change would occur! I rolled a 2 after, which meant the change would only affect this one turn. Then, I rolled another 2, which was the first time a 2 was rolled for resource values!! Suddenly lumber was worth 6 gold apiece, luxuries 5, and finally, spices were in the top half of values at 4 apiece! This benefited the Cursed, French, and Americans the most with their luxury stockpiles, which is part of the reason I couldn’t finish the turn.

The Pirates come around the huge fog banks surrounding the Tunnel and discover the Jade Rebellion!! O_O

Words and not shots are exchanged!! Calico Cat has a shouted conversation with the captain of the Wiglaf, who hates the Cursed lol. The captain tells Calico Cat that the Cursed are a horrible menace of unspeakable power and hatred, and that the Jades would like an ally with which to combat them. Calico responds that the Pirates are merely humble explorers (lol, not that the Jades bought that, as the Pirate squadron contains 3 of their best gunships XD) and will not be able to assist anyone in war efforts. The captain of the Wiglaf is disappointed to hear this, and will pass it on to his superiors in the rapidly approaching Grand Temple. However, the Jades are hell-bent on eliminating the Cursed presence from the Sea of Allost, and between recent launches and repairs, think they will be able to do that before too long.

The Pirates had just gotten word of the Cursed, but in the meantime they also had a first-hand experience with them! The captain of the Golden Medusa had been growing bored for quite some time with whirlpool patrol, and after being egged on by his Pirate comrades on the HI-raiding ships, decided to have a look west of the whirlpool. The Pirates quickly sighted a strange vessel anchored off an island, and lo and behold it was the Cursed!! The Soul Crusher has been guarding that island for quite a while now. Wraith quickly started gesturing at the Golden Medusa, hissing like mad! Not understanding a “word” of it, the captain of the Golden Medusa deduced that all of his crewmen would be killed if they went further or tried to find out what was on the island. His intuition was correct! XD

Now you can finally understand the general layout in the Sea of Allost, but to think that is the end of developments there would be VERY wrong… hhehe.

At the end of their turn, the Pirates spend 32 gold on what I think is a potentially clever combo with Jonah. Usually I just put Blackbeard and a helmsman on Blackbeard’s linked ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), since that maxes out the ship’s point limit but still leaves room for gold. However, with so many points available and a great resource system already in play, the Pirates went overboard and used Jonah to bring aboard Sean Cannonball Gallows and Lady Baptiste to give the QAR EA with reroll abilities. This could make the ship quite dangerous and capable of nabbing more than one crew in a turn.

The QAR was launched at Dead Man’s Point, where three Pirate ships repair from their awful trip to the Sea of Karkuda. The nice blue hull of the Lady’s Scorn is visible at the top, nearly blending into the ocean. At the left, the Gruesome looks to join the HI raider ships anchored off the whirlpool.

Bartholomew Roberts enters the Tunnel! In addition, the Deliverance has finished repairing, which means that the Pirate whirlpool squadron is ready to go again! However, Havana Black might be “hungry” for more oarsmen, in which case he might leave the squadron to go home first. In between those two developments you can see the considerable Pirate defense squadron, which now consists of 11 2 masted gunships and two flotillas.

The Jades are gearing up for yet another battle with the Cursed! With Calico Cat not offering Pirate help, the Vikings on the outside line have dismissed the Pirates to a degree, ignoring them in favor of fleet maneuvers. The Jade squadron will only grow stronger as more and more ships finish repairing.

But the Cursed grow stronger as well! They cash in less than half of their luxuries for 80 gold, which nets them the Juggernaut, Whydah, Strix, and Fiddler’s Green (with F&S L-mover Tabitha McWarren aboard).

Back in the Caribbean, the Lord Algernon fires somewhat of a cheap shot at the Voz de Dios, setting her alight and dooming the Spaniard. The Orkney begins towing the dismasted Corazon del Mar, while the repaired Durham is returning to the war effort. At the bottom you can also see the hull of the Extremadura, a ship the English are lucky to bring back home.

But in a big surprise move, the Spanish open up another theater of the war!! Attacking the much-diminished English presence southwest of Diamond Rock, the newest Spanish warships veer to starboard and open fire! The Serpiente hits 2/2 to take a mast off the Burma. The Ebro only hit 1/4, but the Acorazado bailed out her fleetmate by going 3/5 (with double shot, the last cannon wasn’t in range) to damage the Duke of York.

With the Santa Catalina, Profeta, Asesino, and Habana all coming over from the HI to help, the Spanish suddenly have a pretty solid presence where the First Battle of Diamond Rock took place. The English were caught unawares, and although they have two more gunships and the Tower flotilla nearby, look to be at a disadvantage.

Up north, the First Battle of Paradise Island is pretty much completely over. It was inconclusive but with notable losses and victories on both sides. Similar to the JR-Cursed war, this war is beginning to resemble two factions beating the carp out of each other with little gains. XD The Cristal del Obispo explored the island, finding textiles! The Granada is still stuck, while the Santa Ana has returned to the scene as the Spanish don’t want to lose control of the island despite starting a new battle off to the south. The Spanish hope to distract the English and win a battle near Diamond Rock, simultaneously weakening English control of the central area of the Caribbean and buying time to get another fort on Paradise Island. It seems like a good strategy, between the English being battle-weary and not getting great returns on their spices for at least a few more turns. (worth 4 on this turn but the English want to wait until they’re worth 5 or 6 to cash in)

Back in the Sea of Karkuda, you can just see the tail ends of the Mobilis and Devil Ray entering the sub hideout!

This is what it looks like once they’ve surfaced inside, but the Mercs will have to wait at least one turn to cash in their new resources since food and textiles crashed with the random change.

That is all for now! With luxuries becoming valuable, the French and Americans will both have a LOT of stuff to do on their turns, between the large battles, various logistics, and definitely some launches. I hope to play out those mammoth turns tomorrow! The point count has obviously been delayed even further, but it will be coming eventually haha.

Here are the American and French turns of Turn 56.

The French utterly dominate the Americans at The Flat!

The Cleveland, Saratoga, and Delaware are finished, while the Minuteman has one mast left but is burning. The Dauphin Royal got an AA from Gaston to shoot twice, using Lenoir to cancel the L-immunity of the Jarvis.

Paradis was very ineffective, but one shot hit to take out an American infantry unit, the first land-to-land combat of this game. The Hercule and Bonaparte join the Delacroix in extinguishing their flames at the fort, with the Hercule also dismasting the Seattle.

From the previous pictures you may have noticed a few new ships at The Flat! That’s right, the French were saving gold in order to launch from their newly upgraded fort! However, between the battle, the Americans having staked out the northern end of the island, and the handful of ships docking at The Flat for repairs, they only had room to launch two ships there this first time. However, those two ships are two more French capital ships – the 5 masters Neptune and Monaque.

Now we see the extent of the French spending spree – they didn’t come close to spending all of their gold, but they still spent a bunch! The Aube, Tepant, Epee, Orient, Aquilon, Cleopatre, Heros and Atalante come into play, all with fighting crew aboard.

Here is most of the French deckplate area, with new launches joining the other existing ships.

Cleaning up their victory, the Americans deal damage to the remaining Pirate ships near their HI, which at this point are only the Ranger, Thirty Tyrants, and Rickets. Much towing and awkward turning logistics ensue.

Definitely one of the most wreckage-filled battles I’ve had in a game of Pirates CSG. In many spots there are simply masts on top of masts, so it’s like a dense layer of wreckage, with ships sailing over it with some difficulty. O_O

The Americans retreat, and the French have won the Second Fight at The Flat!! This may seem premature and even lame from a reader’s point of view, but there were various reasons behind the decision. First off, the French still don’t want war with the Americans, and were not the ones to initiate this conflict. The French senior officers talked down to the American captains on the attacking ships, telling them that not only have they launched two brand-new powerful warships at The Flat, but they have more on the way very soon. The French then threatened to spend even more gold next turn on more new ships, as they still have 204 gold! Compounding matters further, the host of American ships have been absolutely stopped by the French line, with not a single French 5 master dismasted or sunk thus far and various American ships dismasted or fleeing with 1 mast standing. The Turn 50 megalaunches saw the Americans purchase more ships, but the French got the best of their best, with various top-of-the-line 5 masters defending The Flat and some (like the Charlemagne) not even getting in action yet. Notice the troop transports loading up the army units, taking them off The Flat.

And thus, the Truce of The Flat is now in effect! Indeed, this is the first official truce or treaty in this game, and a concept that has been underutilized by me in my past campaign games. This is not a full peace treaty, but a truce that the Americans and French agreed to. The terms dictate that the Americans can retreat from the area in peace if the derelict American ships strike their colors. The Americans considered this a fine deal, as their long-term plans have been severely hampered by the French and they will have to re-evaluate their strategy going forward.

The Americans retreat west, but they are already formulating grand plans for the future, though that future is more distant than they hoped or anticipated it to be. Various possibilities exist: with two powerful foes (Pirates and French), the Americans may look for an ally to aid in their war efforts. Since the Americans know their way around the whirlpools pretty well at this point, reaching out to other factions is a possibility, though the Americans assume the Spanish are as weak as they were earlier in the game and they don’t have any idea about the Jades and Cursed. In addition, with a possible peace with France suddenly materializing, the Americans may be able to throw their full might against the Pirates. An extended whirlpool trip could be costly, but with two large-scale battles just recently going on simultaneously, the Americans have shown the financial power needed for such an endeavor.

With the battle against the French over, a few healthy gunships try to find a shortcut home, going along the side of the large structure that will be officially revealed when it is fully explored.

From the mainmast of USS Mercury:

The Americans spend big as well! In fact, they cash in ALL of their luxuries and combine it with some gold and cashed in lumber to spend a whopping 228 gold! A full dozen ships are purchased, among them the Congress and Concord, which are relaunched in the same round that the French traded them in. There is a thing happening: The Mobilization of the American Navy. Preble coined the phrase after learning of the Truce of The Flat, and it represents a period of change for the Americans. They have won their first battle, a serious effort against the Pirates. However, the French are far stronger and defensive than they anticipated, leading to a major loss that would likely be far worse if not for the sudden truce and retreat. At this point, the Americans need to repair, regroup, and mobilize. Many plans are being considered in addition to the possibilities above.

Clearly I’m going a little overboard with the thematics with the Americans in this game, possibly since they go last in the turn order and therefore usually last in the reports. However, I think it’s fun to give a full insight into the mind of one of the factions, as the reader doesn’t know all the strategies being considered by the other factions. That’s not to say that each faction has strategic thinking as deep as the Americans lately – for example, the Jades and Cursed have been in pure war mode for a while and are simply concerned with eliminating the other. However, it’s fun to give you the full breakdown for at least one of the factions’ thoughts, and hopefully I can expand on more of the others.

The super-accurate Blackwatch highlights the additions, while that ship, the Paul Revere, and the Julius Caesar are some of my favorite American ships.

With that, I look forward to some amount of action tomorrow, and a point count within the next 2 or 3 days. However, Saturday-Tuesday will see considerably less action so I will likely just play “faction turns” when I’m able to on those days. Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment!

Turn 57! The day’s action begins with Pirate activities at the Tunnel, where Mission is returning to Pirate waters. Bartholomew Roberts is exploring the Tunnel, amazed at both the height and length of it.

With a VERY rare shot looking from north to south in the Sea of Allost, here is a view of the Golden Medusa checking out the outside north wall of the huge Tunnel.

The Pirate whirlpool squadron emerges back in the Sea of Karkuda! After repairing from their sneak attack on the English in the Caribbean, the squadron has headed back to Karkuda after getting wind of the American/French “dispute” XD. The Feathered Hat, generally the flagship of the squadron when Havana Black and the Deliverance aren’t around, was given an AA to approach the French ships near The Flat. The other ships of the squadron followed the FH through when the FH didn’t return to Pirate waters, as she would have if the situation didn’t look good. The captain of the Feathered Hat speaks with various Frenchmen, including Michael Bordeaux and Guy LaPlante. Finding a commonality in their anti-American sentiments, the Pirates and French agree to an alliance!!

Spending time for the Jades! They buy some very expensive and very fragile firepower, since they’re running out of ships to purchase. Many of the Viking 1 masters are launched, along with the Donar and Sea Crane. At this point I have even run out of the paper crew chips for new players, so I’ve been writing “C 3” (for captains) and whatnot on index cards which are then cut into little bits so I can fit as many deckplates in the deckplate areas as possible.

The VERY busy Jade HI, which is also looking like a fortress due to their slow but steady accumulation of army units.

The large and powerful JR squadron on patrol duty has set a clear boundary against the Cursed.

The Cursed answer with launches of their own! The first kraken is now in play: Terrox is here!

The Executioner and Poor Adams are two more additions, while the Jikininki has finished repairing. The Demon Gate and Sea Rat are also launched.

After the surprise Spanish attack to open the Second Battle of Diamond Rock, the English strike back with very accurate gunnery! The Tower flotilla and the Burma do most of the damage, as the Ebro and Acorazado lose two masts each.

But the Spanish have a numerical advantage in that area right now! The Santa Catalina, Profeta, Asesino, and Habana enter the fray to back up their fleetmates! However, their shooting percentage is far lower than the English on this turn, though the sheer number of shots taken mean that the Burma and Duke of York lose additional masts.

Similar to the English at the First Battle of Paradise Island, the Spanish break the English “line” to advance their squadron. However, the farther the Spanish advance, the more English ships they will encounter, not to mention the cannons on the shore of Diamond Rock’s only beach.

With the resources going back to normal and food and textiles becoming valuable again, the Mercenaries are able to cash in!! They spend all 38 gold from their first haul and launch the first 10 master of the game!!

The Celtic Fury is here!!

You may have noticed those giant guns protruding from the bow of the CF. They are extra bombardier cannon pieces that I can use as a physical representation of Bow Chasers, a custom equipment of mine partially inspired by PotC.

Bow Chasers

Faction Affiliation: Neutral
Type: Equipment
Point Value: 5

This ship gains two additional cannons that can only shoot from the foremost mast of the ship. The cannons have 4L rank/range and the Extended Range keyword. The cannons can only fire in a straight line directly forward of the ship’s bow. Other pieces of equipment cannot be used with Bow Chasers, and Bow Chasers cannot have their range or rank improved.

Especially when viewed from deck or land level, the Celtic Fury suddenly becomes the most imposing ship on the seas:

Nemo’s Mercenary Submarine Hideout can only accommodate submarines, but the Mercenaries can still launch ships S away from the hideout. I’m inclined to allow their sailing ships to dock at the hideout, but for now they can only unload resources and gold when they surface inside the hideout.

Check out the crew setup on the CF. Ms. O’Brien has left the Mobilis to command the largest ship currently in play. The Bow Chasers and the crew fill out the 13 points the Mercs spent.

And so this begins an interesting period of international Mercenary relations. That is clear….

Continuing the theme of major launches (the third faction in the turn to spend 100+ gold), the French spend ALL of their 246 gold to get a dozen new ships!! Those three ships at the top are currently troop transports, while the Conquerant represents a slight change of policy for France in this game. As they cement their (very) strong position in the Sea of Karkuda and gold continues to flow in from their various islands, the French are able to experiment a little bit. The first “flamethrower” of the game shows up with some hesitancy and anticipation.

O_O Whoa… intrigued by Nemo’s desertion and change of heart, Gaston himself pays the Mercenaries a visit! However, the French go after the Mercenaries, so the Bourbon is blocked from seeing the submerged Nautilus by the giant new junk! O’Brien and Gaston have a very amicable conversation, with O’Brien following orders from Nemo to lie about Nemo’s true intentions. O’Brien tells Gaston that Nemo is doing all of this in the employ of France, and that the Celtic Fury will be joining the French fleet defending The Flat! Gaston eats it up, and everything is going according to plan for Nemo. He glimpsed the Bourbon on the horizon last turn, and the resources changing back was the perfect time to get a pro-France ally out there to talk up Gaston. O’Brien has long been the favorite Mercenary of France, serving them well over the years. She also speaks fluent French, something most other Mercs struggle mightily with. After the pleasant conversation, Gaston heads back to his cabin, impressed with Nemo’s direction. Nemo is playing things perfectly, using O’Brien to delay French knowledge of the Mercenaries being their own independent faction.

Nearly the entire French situation:

The ships launched last turn are barely getting out of the Harbor when another batch of new ships arrives! At the left, notice the Westminster has entered the Harbor! The French have agreed to help the English a little: the Westminster can use the French Harbor to repair, but no alliance has been agreed to. At the right, the Conquerant is using the “flamestrike” cannon but I think I’ll leave the flame part off when it’s not being used, to make things more realistic and make it easier to move the ship around.

The Americans continue to explore the structure they recently found!

The Brandywine uses her ability and an AA from Preble to look at the entire south side of the structure!

Introducing: The Castle!

Hidden on all sides by a variety of reefs, fog, and sargasso seas, the Castle is an abandoned castle built long ago in the Sea of Karkuda. The enormous structure has been decaying for quite some time, but it could make a decent location for a faction if they were inclined to restore it to its former glory….

The next three pictures show the massive American fleet in sections.

The Americans have disabled the last of the Pirate ships in the southwest corner of Karkuda, officially sealing their commanding victory!

The first Pirate captures have been docked at the home island, while some new American ships head out, sailing northeast.

Here you can see 5 American ships heading home for repairs after the Second Fight at The Flat. At the top, a few gunships and the 4 troop transports have been laid up “in reserve” west of The Flat. They are guarding against French intrusion in addition to awaiting further orders. With a huge fleet and very complex logistics, in addition to some newfound uncertainty as to their long-term strategy, there are some American captains that don’t know what to do right now.

O_O With the Castle officially revealed at last, you can finally see nearly ALL of the Sea of Karkuda!! Here you can really get an idea of just how MASSIVE my custom stuff is. The Harbor is so large that it utterly dominates the entire northeast quadrant of this ocean, which is about 5 feet by 3 feet. The Castle has been an obstacle to my picture-taking until now, and you can notice how I purposely left any clip of it out of pictures near The Flat. I also didn’t want the sub hideout so close to the other stuff, but I couldn’t realistically have a bigger ocean. In addition, you can see just how crowded Karkuda has become, with GIANT French and American fleets being joined by Pirates and Mercenaries of late. Formerly a mostly dormant ocean when the Sea of Allost had the majority of the points in play and when we witnessed the First Battle of Diamond Rock, the Sea of Karkuda is now incredibly busy and HOT! XD

The most epic and shocking point count of all time

After anticipating a major ship and point count since the big launches on Turn 50, the time has finally come!! It took a little over a full hour just to tally up all the points and ships in play. As with the previous counts, only deckplate areas were considered for this. Forts, army units, and existing caches of gold are not counted at all.

Without further ado, here are the numbers.

10/6/2017 point and ship count as of the end of Turn 57:

Pirates: 64 ships, 1,052 points
Jade Rebellion: 34 ships, 650 points
Cursed: 45 ships, 802 points
English: 34 ships, 518 points
Spanish: 21 ships, 317 points
Mercenaries: 4 ships, 100 points
French: 63 ships, 1,133 points
Americans: 77 ships, 1,361 points

Total: 342 ships, 5,933 points

O_O

Unsurprising at this point, but Command the Oceans has officially become the biggest game in the history of Pirates CSG!!!!

In much more shocking news, this game has completely obliterated any and ALL point and ship records in any Pirates CSG game you can imagine. It is almost incomprehensible to think about. Most people only play games with a total of 80, or 120, or 200. This game is about to exceed SIX THOUSAND TOTAL POINTS. O_O After it reached around 4,600 after Turn 50, I realized that it would not only be the first game to reach the 4,000 point level, but also the first ever to hit 5,000 points! However, things have kept ballooning to the point of total insanity, with 6,000 points within reach less than 10 turns later. O_O Just for reference, the previous record for a game was 3,516 total points for VASSAL Campaign Game 1. This game has exceeded that game by nearly an additional 2,500 points, which by itself would make a HUGE game!! Finally, the record for a physical game was 2,846 total points for Economy Edition. That record has now been more than doubled. O_O In the past, my biggest games have sometimes featured the winning fleet peaking at over 1,000 points. In this game, there are THREE fleets at 1,000+ points, with no end in sight!!

I will admit that a handful of factors have contributed to the astronomical point total. First off, three oceans is quite a lot, and it means I have more square footage on which to play than any other CG I’ve played outside of the 2011 cumulative game, where I used my whole room in a setting I would not repeat today. Secondly, the mast elimination and sinking house rules have resulted in many less sunken ships than EE or CG1. Finally, there has still not been extremely long and drawn-out combat between two factions outside of the Jades and Cursed, who do have lower ship and point totals as a result of that war.

More stats and figures:
Points per ship:
Pirates: 16.4 points/ship
Jade Rebellion: 19.1
Cursed: 17.8
English: 15.2
Spanish: 15.1
Mercenaries: 25 (Celtic Fury is one of four Merc ships XD)
French: 18
Americans: 17.7
Overall: 17.35 points/ship (almost the same as my 17.46 number from EE’s near-peak, so this is a very good gauge for CG’s)

Here you can see the difference between a fleet of 6 masted junks and Viking longships, two of the most expensive ship types in the game, as the JR fleet has the same number of ships as the English but 132 more points.

By ocean: (with some give or take necessary due to whirlpool traveling)
Sea of Allost: 143 ships, 2,504 points
Caribbean: 55 ships, 835 points
Sea of Karkuda: 144 ships, 2,594 points
-Almost the same numbers in Allost and Karkuda!

Percentage of points in play:
Pirates: 17.7% (1,052/5,933)
JR: 10.9%
Cursed: 13.5%
English: 8.7%
Spanish: 5.3%
French: 19.1%
Americans: 22.9%

From that you can see that if the Pirate/French alliance is very fruitful, they could combine to control around 37% of the total points in play… however, the current strongest faction is at war with both of them haha. You can also crunch the numbers various ways in an attempt to come up with a majority alliance….

Now for an extended look at the considerable area in the two rooms that I have dedicated to deckplate areas.

With three columns for the Pirates and Cursed, this is the main deckplate area for the Sea of Allost. However, the Pirates have grown out of this area and have spilled over into the other room, with the Cursed threatening to do the same soon.

Wall of text? How about a wall of deckplates and crew! XD

At the upper right, Wraith has been repossessing crew for a while now aboard the Soul Crusher.

A few more Pirate deckplates left of their main area, also previewing the JR area…

… which are partially under the Caribbean table.

The rest of the JR section, which are pretty difficult to get to at this point.

The English and the Spanish are near the Caribbean:

The small primary Spanish area is next to the coin tin and the resources bag.

But similar to the other factions, the Spanish have now spilled over into a new area underneath the Caribbean. (underwater lol)

Here we see extra Pirate and English stuff (their more recent launches) along with the new Mercenary faction.

Here is the huge French area, which is basically full at this point. This is the same area where the huge Franco-Spanish fleet from Economy Edition was.

Finally, the Americans with the biggest fleet of them all. Note that without the 7 recently captured Pirate ships, the Pirates would have a narrow lead in ships at 71-70. Alas, with a decisive American victory the Americans have the largest fleet.

I also started Turn 58 with the Pirates!

Another random resource change! For this turn only, metals would be the most valuable resource, with the fish market crashing temporarily.

Using an EA from Calico Cat to travel through most of the Tunnel, the Revenant approaches Pirate waters. The Silver Dagger is given an AA to get close to the Revenant, and an exchange will take place next turn.

The Pirates buy another ladder in order to give two oarsmen to the Deliverance. Havana Black has restocked his supply of sacrificial crew.

The Pirates spent 95 total gold on their turn, launching 5 additional gunships.

With 88 additional points of ships and crew in play, this game reaches 6,021 total points!!! O_O

Two faction turns were played today.

This shows the entire Jade fleet, with their battle squadron becoming stronger by the turn.

The JR wild island had run out of resources briefly, but then began producing food again! This marked the second time the island has had food, which was the main source of Jade wealth in the early part of the game.

The Cursed fleet, with more cargo ships than ever running resources to support the war effort against the Jades.

Looking up at the imposing Roost and the giant dragon:

Shal-Bala is ready to take flight again!!

But this won’t be a raid! It will be a reconnaissance flyover!

Here you “become the dragon” and get Shal-Bala’s view of things. A treat indeed! XD The beast flies higher and higher above the sea….

Shal-Bala picks up speed and heads east!

Flying over the Tunnel!

Those two “moving shots” were fun to get, but here’s a more static shot of the top of the Tunnel! At first glance it looks to be somewhat barren but covered with some grass and rocks. Also, both ends and both sides of the Tunnel’s top are different than the other.

Shal-Bala flies all the way over to Mission’s Pirate Kingdom! This gives the Cursed full knowledge of the piratical activities being carried out! XD However, the Pirates spot the dragon flying above! At this point the Pirates are aware of the Cursed beast, and certainly assume the Cursed are a powerful faction as a result.

The experiments have been completed, and Devereaux has succeeded!!! Originally a French privateer, Devereaux has lost his sanity to his obsession with finding the Dragon’s Eye, a gem that legend says grants the owner immortality. Devereaux found his great obsession, the Eye of the Dragon. It’s power was everything he hoped it was – and more: Its power condemned him to a living death under its control. But not only that, it inspired him to combine two amazing UT’s into one bizarre and hideous creation!!

THE EYE!!!!

O_O

After finding both the Eye of Insanity (considered to be the same as the Eye of the Dragon for this game) and the Cursed Conch early in the game, Devereaux left his ship (the Boneyard at the time) to focus his efforts on some “experiments”. After MANY turns (almost the whole game so far lol), he finally succeeded in planting the Eye inside the Cursed Conch! The freakish creation has resulted in a Cursed gimmick that could alter how they play the game.

Rules for The Eye: The Cursed can use the Eye on their turns to see anything and everything on ALL oceans.

O_O

I know there are some parallels between this and the Eye of Sauron, but between the Cursed finding those two UT’s on the northern island that used to produce gold and Devereaux’s flavor text, it was too good to pass up. It is an “all-knowing” or omniscient Eye that can see everyone at all times! O_O

With that, here we go! Since you can see what the factions see and the Cursed now have the Eye, the entirety of all three oceans will finally be revealed!

The Sea of Allost:

The Caribbean, looking from southeast to northwest:

Looking from southwest to northeast:

The Sea of Karkuda:

I did still leave something out of the picture to the southeast… it’s not a big deal and nothing to get super excited about, but it seems like there should be at least one more “reveal” when the stuff there is found.

With that, I move to the Caribbean next, and hope to play more Wednesday-Friday this week than I did these past few days.

Finished up Turn 58 and started Turn 59.

The game is about as peaceful as it’s been for quite some time, but not in the Caribbean! The English strike back hard against the Spanish, getting some quality shots in with firepots from the Guy Fawkes and Durham setting the Ebro and Santa Catalina ablaze. The Duke of York and Burma are trying to leave the battlefield to repair at home, while the Meresman, Platagenet and Metal Dragon are coming up from the south to replace them. So far the accuracy of the English cannons has negated the Spanish numbers advantage, which is dwindling as a result.

Back at the English HI, many repairs are being carried out. The Resolution, Ark Royal, Lord Kettering and Extremadura are all being operated on. The Granville, Resistance, and Corazon del Mar will join them shortly. The Wycliffe has finished repairing and speeds out to assist in the war effort against Spain.

The Spanish take their turn in the combat zone, doing solid damage. The Ebro burns to a crisp, and the Santa Catalina will next turn since she rolled poorly for her fire. However, the Burma and King John are dismasted, with the KJ losing both her crew to the Asesino’s cargo-wrecking ability. The Serpiente hits 2/2 to down the mainmast of the Guy Fawkes.

A view from above showing the slow but steady Spanish advance. The battle isn’t as loud or crowded as the First Battle of Diamond Rock, but the engagement is important to keep Spanish morale high after their (debatable) victory at Paradise Island not long ago.

Cashing in textiles, the Spanish launch one of their best ships, the Santo Columba! This ship was my original Spanish flagship, as it was the largest Spanish ship I owned in my original collection of 49 ships “back in the day”. She is well-equipped for war and will likely sail straight to the ongoing battle.

Just like the Santa Ana, the ship is bristling with a powerful broadside. You can see the fine layer of dust just forward of the mainmast – this ship has been in a LOT of battles over the years!

On the Merc turn the Celtic Fury moved west. The French had an easy turn without combat or launches, but it still took me almost 15 minutes to move all of their 60+ ships. The Conquerant succeeded at her first EA roll to move towards the front of the pack. Remember that the French launched considerable amounts of firepower the last two turns and now it is departing from the Harbor.

The French discover the Castle!! This occurred when the fog bank the Ville de Paris was in lifted as the ship rolled to come out of the fog right into the outer wall of the castle! The ship’s durability prevented the loss of any masts.

Similar but less complicated than the American situation in the southwest, the French face a towing and repairing dilemma at The Flat. The Dauphin Royal goes to the other end to repair, with the Superbe guarding her against any American foolishness. Other ships dock or attempt to dock at the southern end of the island. The Seattle is captured now that the Hercule has been repaired.

With the biggest fleet in the game almost entirely confined to the western 1/3 of Karkuda following that line of reefs, the Americans continue to face logistical difficulties. At the scene of their battle they are towing derelicts and captures around to get them home. More damaged ships have begun arriving from the fight at The Flat. Preble has finally set sail again, and for now he is guarding the whirlpool with the help of a flotilla. His long-term plans have been put on hold by the big battles and the logistics of the cleanup effort. At the far right, the Brandywine and other ships continue to scout the Castle.

Turn 59 begins with the Pirate whirlpool squadron advancing! With an alliance with the French secured, the Pirates now feel confident about exploring the Sea of Karkuda. The Sunrise Fire uses her ability to explore The Flat, where the Madagascar and Otter may dock next turn to load textiles.

The French inform the captain of the Feathered Hat about their Mercenary ties, a faction the Pirates didn’t previously know about. The FH sails south to greet O’Brien on the Celtic Fury.

Potential problems for the English in the Caribbean! Blackbeard is here! Returning to one of his old real-life stomping grounds, the feared pirate arrives in the Caribbean.

Using Lady Baptiste’s reroll for Sean Gallows’ EA, the Queen Anne’s Revenge rams HMS Apollo! Shots are fired into the hull of the poor English ship, with two finding their mark to fell a mast.Blackbeard commands a boarding party and wins to capture the English captain!!

Back to the Sea of Allost!

The transfer is complete!! The Silver Dagger gave a ladder to the Revenant, and Calico Cat used an EA to hoist it up high in the air from the mainmast! The Pirates are experimenting with the Tunnel, trying to reach the ceiling of it with ladders. Now it becomes obvious why the Silver Dagger was launched with 3 ladders aboard: Mission intends to carry out some operations at the Tunnel. The Revenant was chosen since her mainmast reaches higher in the air than the masts of smaller ships like the Silver Dagger and Mission’s own Crusher. However, the height is still not enough to reach the ceiling of the Tunnel.

The Silver Dagger tries the same thing with one of her ladders. Men clamber up to the top, but are unable to do anything with the steep and curved sides of the Tunnel. It may be possible to hang from the top if a hook is affixed to the ceiling in the middle, but the curved sides leading there are too difficult to use, while the men on the ladder from the Revenant cannot reach the wide ceiling part. Much to the Pirates’ dismay, it seems that neither option will work.

Bartholomew Roberts and Captain Mission watch from their shorter ships as Calico Cat and Griffin aboard the Revenant become frustrated.

Here you can see that it really is a high Tunnel, with the height exceeding the height of two main masts of a 5 master stacked on top of each other.

Long shadows in the Tunnel, where the Pirates have been stopped by nature:

The Pirates don’t know it yet, but thanks to Shal-Bala and the Eye, we know what lies above! XD

The Pirates continue to get metals from Pistol Island, with their southern whirlpool looking as deserted as ever. The Deliverance may join back up with the whirlpool squadron now that Havana Black has replenished his stores of sacrificial oarsmen.

Up north, Captain Villanueva was puzzled why the Pirates hadn’t explored the Sultan shipwreck near the other whirlpool. Taking his ship over the reef, he quickly discovers why, with the Rum Runner losing a mast. The 5 Pirate gunships launched last turn will join the HI raiders at the whirlpool where they await further orders. The Pirates are considering another assault on the Americans, but they are understandably nervous that it will go as badly as the last attack. In addition, the Feathered Hat was going to come back through a whirlpool to inform the Pirates at home of the new alliance with the French, but the FH’s captain is off to meet O’Brien instead. With no ships from the whirlpool squadron returning yet, Mission himself and the other Pirates in the Sea of Allost are unaware of the alliance, which could prove very helpful if the Pirates combine a squadron with the French ships near The Flat, or coordinate a pincer strike from both Karkuda whirlpools.

The Pirates also launch three ships from Dead Man’s Point: the Kirbac and Venture are cheap gunships for home defense, while the Revenge will be the first ship to load lumber from that island! The Revenge is a nice option for cheap firepower as well, but with three cargo spaces open with a helmsman aboard, the Pirates are looking to use her ability (move S after unloading cargo) to help in their resource efforts. That ability will allow the ship to get a bit of a jump back out of the kingdom, which may help to not clog the entrances as much.

The Jades and Cursed had uneventful turns, with both sides continuing to wait and wait until their next battle erupts. However, although the Jades still have “tunnel vision” (pun intended) on the Cursed, the Cursed are now more indecisive and hesitant than ever. Seeing everything in play with the Eye has led them to become scattered in their thoughts, as they have so many more options. With three factions currently larger than them (Pirates, Americans, French), the Cursed are worried that continual war with the Jade Rebellion will wear away and diminish any chance of them winning the game overall. It does appear that some Cursed gunships are headed east around the fog banks instead of gathering at the entrance to the Roost. At the far right, the Sea Crane and Naegling are in fog banks due to Tsuro and Tabby (McWarren), as the Cursed L-movers have been pretty effective the last few turns. Unfortunately for the Cursed there aren’t many reefs nearby to toss ships onto. Also, somehow I haven’t even mentioned this yet, but I’m using the version of flat earth where ships cannot be moved off the ocean and removed from play. This is partly because thematically there is “more out there” beyond the boundaries (recall the Jades and Americans arriving in the oceans rather than starting at a HI), and because with so many HI’s right next to the edges, I don’t want the Cursed to have another advantage by moving newly launched ships straight out of play. Plus the Cursed already have house rules working in their favor, and now they have the Eye as well.

The Jades launched the Yggdrasil at the end of their turn and the Cursed cashed in a few textiles to complete the crew complement of the Executioner.

Things are a bit dormant right now, but who knows what will happen next? Stay tuned!

Finished up Turn 59.

The Second Battle of Diamond Rock in the Caribbean, showing an effective English turn:

Both the Serpiente and Asesino de la Nave were set on fire, while the Profeta was dismasted.

Off to the right, the Burma has been chain towed out of the area by a trio of English ships, while the Duke of York heads home for repairs.

At last, the Lord Algernon and Orkney have docked home the towed ships.

A truce has been agreed to!! It is a lengthy 10 turn truce, with neither side firing at opposing ships for 10 turns total. This happened after some negotiations between the English and Spanish. Both sides are utterly exhausted by the war effort, and both have seen many gunships sunk or captured. They are on the verge of losing points in their fleet instead of gaining them long-term with how things have been going. Both fleets are also among the weakest in the game right now (in fact they are the two smallest by point count of the starting factions), and although they don’t know that, they do know that continual warfare will likely result in neither of them winning much of anything. In addition, the goal of commanding Diamond Rock has seemed overly ambitious and not even that beneficial to the Spanish, who have been doing alright running gold and resources from Paradise Island. Meanwhile, the English vastly underestimated the Spanish and find it hard to believe the Spaniards nearly won a battle and have put up a great fight in the latest one. The English are eager to retire, though here it was the Spanish who opened the negotiations as they likely would have lost the battle if they had continued fighting.

The French sail out of their Harbor in force!

Preble gives his AA to the USS Mercury, who explores the Castle for the first time!! However, exploring the Castle and what it has to offer fully may take a few turns, similar to Diamond Rock. At the right, the Brandywine continues to scout the eastern side of the Castle, nearly glimpsing the Celtic Fury through the fog.

The huge American fleet continues to operate, though with less defined objectives than they’ve had for around 20+ turns now. They finally moved their artillery unit on the lumber island to the east, and it points directly at The Flat. Just west of that island, notice the American troop transports rounding the island and beginning to head south. At the bottom, a small “super squadron” heads northeast, led by the Blackwatch and Concordia. At the left, a full half-dozen American gunships simply wait out the logjam and await further orders. Those ships are simply getting out of the way at this point – the Americans have so many ships that they don’t know what to do with them all! However, with declarations of war against the other two strongest factions in the game (Pirates and French), they will surely need them eventually.

The United States, Appalachian, and Vermont join Preble’s President on whirlpool guard duty. The towing and repairing efforts are mostly sorted out by now, and you can see that Ruby Island is finally being visited by cargo ships once more.

The American home island, crowded as usual. The James Madison and Louisiana are not on fire; I’m using those flames to represent exploding shot. The Americans used 15 gold to purchase 5 of them, which they intend to use against the reefs. With significant logjams still present near the lumber island, and the big discovery of the Castle just recently, the Americans will once again try to clear a path for ships. In the long term, one could argue that the reefs could serve as a defensive line if a faction tries to eliminate the Americans at their HI. However, the Americans are quite ambitious in this game and would like to do the opposite – drive opponents away from their own home islands, so they don’t have to play defense in the first place! Plus, with a major Pirate incursion via the whirlpool, there is a way to hit the Americans near home without passing over the reefs.

No less than 11 ships are repairing at the American HI, 5 of them Pirate captures and more ships joining them soon. As is typical for me in these types of games, once a battle ends I will sometimes gather a ship’s masts and place them on the deck once the ship begins repairing, rather than finding each one individually among the wreckage on the turns it repairs.

With a Caribbean Truce in effect, the two most recently active wars have been put on hold. However, the wars between the JR/Cursed and Americans/Pirates could erupt again at any time. Possibly even more interesting, Turn 60 will see the resources finally change again! The most recent change was for 5 turns but was extended to 7 through two random changes when I rolled 1’s. Many factions are sitting on large stockpiles of spices, so if those happen to skyrocket in value it could change things big-time.