Unfortunately I wasn’t able to play as much as I wanted today and yesterday.

I also forgot to mention last time:
-The Cursed do not have to roll for effect when using whirlpools. (thematically this is due to their somewhat supernatural nature, in addition to the recent influence of Davy Jones, and by extension, Calypso herself)

The English do some damage in Karkuda:

Spending all of their 26 gold, the English launch yet another anti-Pirate ship! HMS Victoria is one of England’s finest warships and carries Myngs’ Marauders, which will help the ship shoot through others with those great L-range guns. That ability is especially helpful in giant campaign games with densely packed battle areas.

In the Caribbean, English warships make their way towards the whirlpool:

The Spanish attack!!! The Santa Ana slips around the northeast corner of the Castle and sets the Gold Eagle on fire!

The Santo Columba shoots at American infantry on the Castle! One of the units is taken out, and the Spanish use S-boarding to eliminate another!!

THE SPANISH CLAIM THAT IT’S THEIR CASTLE!!!! That is the reason for all this!! After the French discovered the Castle, they had a hunch that it was a Spanish Castle abandoned in Karkuda, and they sent Guy LaPlante to the Caribbean (after finding out the Spanish were there from the English) to tell them about it. The Spanish were extremely angry when they found out that a faction had begun any kind of operations at the Castle. Now that they have arrived on the scene, they are going ballistic. The Castle is indeed an old abandoned Spanish castle from long ago. However, the Spanish see it as rightfully theirs forever. They want to take it from the Americans at all costs!! Here you can see three more gunships arriving in the area, with the Acorazado and Serpiente the latest ships coming through the whirlpool.

The Spanish spend all of their 20 gold to launch La Resolucion with a captain, helmsman, and firepot specialist.

The French have recently dropped off some infantry units on their islands in the far east:

But you don’t care about that, do you?! It’s time for BATTLE!! The Geographe starts the French combat phase of their turn with a paltry 1/5 (with reroll) against Terrox:

Other French ships fare better! The Cyclops, Madness, and Demon Gate lose a mast each to the Glaive, Carcajou, and Sabre!

French ships tag team the Bloody Blade! The Corse is given Deleflote’s action to dismast the ship! Shots from the Musarde and Corse also take 2 masts off the Divine Dragon. However, that is about all the French could muster on their turn, as most of their gunships are near the sub hideout or The Flat.

But they’re on the way! Here you can see about 6 French gunships headed north as they hear the emergency shots fired near the Harbor. Gaston is willing to cut the blockading squadron at the hideout in half, but stays on blockade duty since he knows the value of his admiral ability.

Even in this time of emergency, French cargo ships get resources home since it’s the best thing they can do. The French do have some solid army units on the outermost docks, but they’re not in range here. The French will likely try to employ a stalling strategy similar to the Americans in the southwest, setting up block ships while waiting for powerful help to arrive.

Given how few cannons they had available in the area, the French fought well after the surprise Cursed invasion shocked them. The Corse was especially key, as her 8 shots with Deleflote did most of the damage against the Bloody Blade and Divine Dragon.

The French are finally forced to mobilize!! Many of their gunships at The Flat turn around and head for the Harbor!

Lenoir has half of his epic line of 5 masted capital ships turn east. Five 5 masters will head towards the Harbor, with five staying on duty at The Flat. In addition, at the right you’ll notice that the entire 10-gunship “backup” squadron has also turned around. The French must combat the Cursed threat!

With five 5 masters, the Hercule, and a few support ships, the French defensive line is still strong. However, they must now divert their forces to save their home. It will be interesting to see if Spanish ships get in the way of the French (they already have a bit just south of The Flat), and if that worsens the somewhat strong relationship between those two factions.

Lenoir speaks with the captain of HMS Forge, and the French hastily agree to an alliance with the English! I will say that this was a spur of the moment thing, and it’s not exactly a strong bond right now. However, we’ll see how it develops over time.

Making their way towards the battle area are various French gunships. One thing’s for sure: if the Cursed don’t retreat soon, the Harbor entrance is about to get VERY crowded! 

The entirety of French operations:

This was actually a bit of a premature report. The French turn isn’t technically over. Combining some food with lots of saved up gold, the French have 441 gold to spend. O_O This is part of the reason I had to stop here, since I didn’t have time today to launch a lot of stuff. However, clearly the French will launch at the Harbor, and possibly even at The Flat as well. They will be well-prepared to defend their homeland!

Going forward, I must warn that this glacial pace will continue, at least for now. It’s doubtful I’ll be able to play much this week, and possibly not at all next Friday-Monday. However, there is clearly a ton of developments just around the corner! Let me know what you think of the game so far, and possibly who you’re rooting for! (even rank the factions in your winning order preference with reasons why if you want)

This report is for the big American turn of Turn 68!

The Americans’ actions signal a shift in their strategy! The Speedy Return captures the Lucky Seven, who doesn’t get wrecked on the reef. Barring any crazy Pirate moves that interfere, the Philadelphia will warp the Lucky Seven to the American HI next turn. At the left, getting the LS out of the way allowed the James Madison to turn south and begin towing the Georgetown.

This exposes the JM and Georgetown to Pirate cannons without firing on the American turn, but it should be worth the risk since the Pirates only have 2 masts standing on those 3 nearby ships.

More captures as the Shark tows the Poison Dagger! The Swamp Fox missed a Broadsides Attack that would have sunk the Thrud, while the Fly hit 2/2 to take a mast off the Full Moon.

Commodore David Porter gives the BA order, and the Emerald hits! This severely damages the already-derelict Silverback. At the left, the Fuchuan has been hit 3 times as a derelict. The Pirates were already struggling in this battle, and now the Americans are really putting the hurt on them by capturing some derelicts and pulverizing the hulls of others.

The Lenox and Montezuma come home for repairs, while 4 other ships carry out repairs. At the bottom of the frame, the Minerva and Gruesome were also captured!

Check out the new-look middle of the fight! With the Gruesome and Minerva out, both sides will have more room to maneuver and shoot. The Americans immediately take advantage of this, with the Kettering cancelling the Calchas’ ability. The Calchas was sunk by a combination of 4 shots from different ships. In addition, the Ningpo was dismasted by the Minuteman flotilla. Furthering the successful turn, the Quigley and Blackwatch teamed up to dismast the Satisfaction!

This time with the flash, showing the chaotic nature of a battle at sea:

The Americans respond to Spanish aggression! The Gold Eagle used her reverse captain ability to score a hit on the Santa Ana before moving away to the Castle and extinguishing her flames. The York followed up with 2 hits of her own to damage the Spanish flagship. On a rampart of the Castle itself, an artillery unit is moved into position. At the left, the United States lumbers towards the battle area.

With this birds-eye view you can glimpse more army unit movements. The Americans are sending most of their infantry and artillery at the Castle towards the northeastern walls and ramparts to combat the Spanish!

Nearly from the infantry perspective! I will continue to use some enhanced ranges from higher altitude positions with the Castle, though it’s not nearly as tall as Diamond Rock of course. The northeasternmost wall of the Castle is indeed cracked a bit.

A meeting of the minds! The captain of the Pequod speaks with Amiral Stephan Dupuy of the Ville de Paris. Unlike some of the other conversations, I can tell you what they talked about. The American fleet lined up opposite the Spanish line would like to help their comrades in what could become a Battle for the Castle. However, to get around the northern side of the Castle, the French would have to move out of the way. The negotiations were tense and brief, and tensions between the Americans and French are rising a bit. A state of war does exist between the two factions, though they still have an indefinite period of truce after the Second Fight at The Flat.

The French line defending The Flat (and now blocking American access to the east part of the Castle from the northwest) has been severely weakened by the departures heading east to combat the Cursed threat.

Most of the American fleet, with the situation in the southwest continuing to be quite one-sided thus far. The Americans captured a lot of Pirate ships this turn, which may force the Pirates’ hand to either retreat or send more ships to the battlefield now that some space has opened up at the whirlpool.

The Americans spend all 121 gold they have to launch 7 new gunships! You can kind of tell they’re running out of ships, as they dip into one masted sloops for gunship support. However, the ships are very well-crewed and all of them carry firepot specialists! You can probably guess where the Americans launched them from…

The first launch at the Castle! All 7 new ships come into play at the Castle, which had a “fort upgrade” dropped off at it so ships and crew could be launched there. This will inject some life into the American resistance to stop the Spanish from retaking the Castle that once belonged to them. It’s worth noting that there is a limited amount of space at the inner harbor area of the Castle walls, so no more than 10 ships could be launched from the Castle in a turn if it was empty. Here the Gold Eagle, Bartlett, and Atlanta were already in the way in 3 of the areas, but the Americans also ran out of gold anyway. Still, the massive size and powerful position the Castle holds could be an interesting dynamic going forward, especially since nearly all the factions are connected in some way by now…. (Americans vs. Spanish, Americans vs. French, French allied with Pirates, French vs. Cursed, Pirates vs. English, etc etc.)

I will say that the upgraded “forts” (including the Castle) cannot have army units hired there. That rule was not in play earlier when the Pirates brought some units into play at Dead Man’s Point, but I intend to use it for the rest of the game. I want the army units to come from the home base since it makes more sense. Besides, the Americans found the Castle abandoned, so it’s not like random soldiers just started coming out of the woodworks when they got there even with money paid out. XD

This is just a look at how detailed, complex, and intense a single faction turn can be! Imagine a whole round of all eight factions! Now you see why it takes so long! 

Sheer Chaos, the likes of which you have never seen

Get the popcorn ready, get your snacks, and get hyped! XD

Play has resumed in force!! The game has seen an absolute EXPLOSION on this Turn 69 that rivals any other single turn in any campaign game! Prepare yourself for the carnage! The scary part is, it will likely only increase dramatically in the future… O_O

The Jade Rebels are after the Pirates in the turn order, and they start their turn with an attack!! The Wiglaf nearly dismasts the Jikininki!

Broken Horn Island is under attack again!! Eight Jade gunships head west as the area southwest of the Roost descends into chaos once more.

(theme music begins)

Here you can see the damage done to the Death’s Anchor, Pale Moon, Executioner, Hades’ Realm and Sickle:

The Huginn dismasts the captured Brandywine and the Grendel surges forward…

… to capture the ship! The Brandywine has now been owned by 3 different factions in this game. Also notice the other Jade/Viking ships moving north, though that’s almost literally just the tip of the iceberg…

O_O
ATTACK!!!! The entire Jade battle fleet surges forward in an epic display of seamanship and naval power!!

Though some are many turns away, I count over 50 gunships either in battle with the Cursed or headed towards them!! O_O

I wanted to take some extra pictures to show off the color and diversity among the JR and BC sails, and I think this is the best shot I got:

Previously cooped up by territorial boundaries, the Jade Rebellion war fleet has begun heading straight for the Cursed! Jade Rebel troops watch as dozens of beautiful new Corsair galleys depart the home island:

A nice look at the BC 4 masters:

It seems rather likely that an EPIC battle is about to take place!!!

The Jades attacked for a simple reason: the Cursed look as weak as they have in quite some time. From afar, the Jades witnessed the exodus as Calypso allowed a bunch of Cursed gunships to go through the new whirlpool and into the Sea of Karkuda. The Jades don’t know about the Sea of Karkuda, but they assume the Cursed have gone off and may not be back. After coming close to a full-out attack, they have finally decided to carry out plans for one now that the Cursed don’t have as many gunships around the Roost.

A view from the Roost itself, as the Cursed see what’s coming….

A rare view just north of Broken Horn Island, looking east:

A forest of lateen sails in the distance:

A nice and similarly rare shot looking east across the Sea of Allost at a low angle:

And that is it for the Jade turn! Prepare yourself!! XD

El Fantasma, captain of the Divine Dragon and current commander of the Cursed Extermination Force: “… bring up the weapon…”
A historical artifact of great value and mythology is brought to Fantasma’s helm. Fantasma offers a rare smile before his skeletal face turns to a contorted frown of unrivaled malice as he points the “weapon” at the nearby French fleet…
Neptune’s Trident!!!!

With the power of the sea, the Trident unleashes a massive tidal wave that projects from the Divine Dragon!!

OH MY GOD!!! The wave is fired into the Harbor!! Using my L+L+L ruler and the white S straw, I was able to figure out the damage path of the tidal wave.

Before the damage assessment:

These were taken for maximum effect, as I played the Trident normally and didn’t sink anything outright.

From the Cursed view, as the wave crashes into tons of French ships and into the Harbor area itself:

The temporary result of the UT, which is clearly wicked powerful in campaign games with so many ships around….

O_O

DEVASTATION IS UNLEASHED!!!!!!

O_O

Now we can properly assess the damage. The Jeux was not only dismasted, but also thrown into the Harbor wall due to the lower tonnage of the ship.

The Felicite is dismasted and nearly capsizes:

As you probably noticed by now, the wave attack actually split one of the docks in half!!!! O_O Dock destruction!!

Inevitably, various infantry who were preparing to fight the Cursed died in the blast. Somehow an artillery unit survived on the outer side of the dock, but three infantry units and one artillery unit were lost between the dock breaking apart and the splinters and spars flying through the air.

In total, 15 masts were ruined as a result of the wave caused by Fantasma’s wielding of Neptune’s Trident. Eight different ships were damaged.

The dock costed the French 10 gold, and I’m still figuring out the house rule around rebuilding it. They will be able to purchase a new dock for the same standard cost, but I think they will need to clear the wreckage first, which will take at least a turn here even with maximum cleanup efforts deployed. Of course, with hostile Cursed ships basically inside the Harbor itself, the recovery process will likely take a while.

IMMENSE WRECKAGE, with debris strewn everywhere:

Of course, the Divine Dragon couldn’t sustain the damage output of having 8 ships affected. The Cursed knew the risk and decided it was worth it. Looks like they’re right! XD With 8 ships affected, I did 8 “damage” to the DD, with 4 masts eliminated and 4 “hits” to the hull (she would still need 8 more hits on the hull to sink due to the sinking house rule).

With Fantasma’s ship suddenly out of action, the Cursed needed to find a way to extricate the DD and avoid losing her to the French. Never fear, the Hellfire is here! XD The DD is towed, but where did she go? If you’ve read about the Pirate-American battle elsewhere in Karkuda, it should come as no surprise…

… as the Divine Dragon and Bloody Blade are warped back to Allost via “whirlpool towing”! This is now a tactic employed by two factions, and looks to be a true strategy (at least for this game). Here you can also see the Cursed counterattack against the Jades!

Fear worked well here, with the Fenrir and Glorious Treasure being hit by the ability. The Executioner was effective, setting the Glorious Treasure aflame.

It looks as though the JR-Cursed War is back in full swing!!

The Monkey’s Paw goes a pitiful 0/5, but the Asgard takes damage from the icewreck (being moved L into it) and the Sickle. Shal-Bala returns to the Sea of Karkuda in order to guard the latest Cursed launch: Namazu. O_O Namazu is a sea monster from the unreleased Return to Savage Shores set with an ability similar to the Neptune’s Trident UT. After using the Eye to see the incredible devastation wreaked by the Trident, the Cursed are very impressed with its potential for continual warfare use. You know what that means: a less disposable source of tidal wave attacks! O_O Combine that with copiers Behemoth and Davy Jones, and the Cursed have exclusive access to weapons of incredible power right now.

The Cursed turn was actually quite strategic and well-thought-out. They purposely did most of their activities in Karkuda to see what they needed to send there from Allost. The Banshee’s Wail is the ship that came forth to “tow”/send the Bloody Blade back to Allost. The Locker and Pyre have returned to Allost as well, as the Cursed realize they cannot win both fights in two oceans at the same time.

The wave blast was not all the damage sustained by the French! After most of the operations in Allost, the Cursed turned back to Karkuda to finish their assault. Terrox walloped the Geographe for 2 masts on 4/8 shooting, while the Hellfire dismasted the Musarde and Leviathan took a mast off the Dijon. Calim has pinned Le Petit Dauphin, while the Nightmare (at the right) partially makes up for her previous performances, which have been awful. On this turn the Nightmare shot 4/5 to damage 3 different ships! (Petit Dauphin, Marianne, Richelieu)

Looking directly north, here is the last picture from this EPIC Cursed turn. The Silver Coffin shot a mast off Le Lyon, while at the right the Glaive and Baionnette took slight damage.

At the end of their turn, the Cursed let out a bombshell. They told the French something. Fantasma sent a messenger boat over to the French fleet, which was reeling from the wave attack and continual cannon fire/tentacle whipping. The Cursed revealed a HUGE development: the Pirates put them up to it. O_O  This was the deal with the Devil.

The deal was as follows: If the Pirates hire Calypso, the Cursed can use Davy Jones and/or Behemoth to copy her for the rest of the game, on the condition that the Cursed use Calypso’s ability to launch a full-scale attack on the French.

O_O
A huge secret is revealed! Previously known only to the Pirates and the Cursed (the Pirates came up with the idea), the French now know of the deal. Obviously this is extremely important, as the Pirates and the French are allies!!!! However, this is arguably one of the greatest agreements in naval history.

The Pirates see the French as one of their biggest long-term rivals. With whirlpool travel, the Pirates know about the oceans more than any faction other than the Cursed, who have the Eye of course. However, the Pirates are generally aware that there are 4 “mega factions”: Pirates, Cursed, French, and Americans. The Pirates already have a bitter war against the Americans. If they continue that, they may be too weak to take on the French and/or Cursed afterwards. Thus, a “deal with the devil” to pit the other two largest factions against each other!!

From my document where I store the BR’s and faction plans/etc: “The Pirates pull off a huge masterstroke of grand strategy, weakening two huge rival fleets with one deal while simultaneously able to focus on their other rival.”

With that we move to the Caribbean factions, the English and Spanish! The 4 English gunships in the Sea of Karkuda have a great turn, dealing damage to 4 different Pirate ships. (including a successful BA from the Ark Royal to the Thirty Tyrants)

I must say HMS Victoria is a bit of a favorite of mine. She sails out with some other English gunships, while the King John and Westminster take crew replacements aboard. (hired with cashed in spices from the Antelope) In the background, Admiral Thomas Gunn stands guard northeast of Diamond Rock with a squadron of gunships.

The English battle fleet makes their way towards the whirlpool!

The Spanish continue to attack the Americans at the Castle! They will try to reclaim what is rightfully theirs!! Here the Santa Ana, Vaccaro’s flagship of the faction, rakes the Kentucky by the bows and purposely boxes the three American ships in. Although the SA will be exposed to considerable fire from those ships on the American turn, Vaccaro positioned the ship to block those ships from getting out and attacking other Spanish ships as well. Vaccaro now has some good backup too, with the Santo Columba sailing around the northeastern edge of the Castle and going 3/3 to hit with her musketeer and firepot specialist, setting the York ablaze!

Whoa!! The Granada blasts away at the old and weakened northeastern wall of the Castle, and her cannon balls find their mark!! Shots shatter through the old structure, and a huge hole is ripped open! In addition the Granada carries a firepot specialist and the Castle is now on fire!!! O_O

Through the smoke and rubble you can glimpse the Gold Eagle:

However, with all the troops on the Castle, the Americans will likely be able to put the fires out soon.

The Corazon Dorado uses her reroll ability to get Dominick Freda’s SAT, allowing her to speed into the area at S+L+S+S+L+S! She hits twice on each action, knocking a mast off the York and United States.

The Americans are surprised by the speed and ferocity of the Spanish onslaught…

… and there’s more coming!! Six Spanish gunships in Karkuda have yet to reach the battle area, including three fresh from the Caribbean whirlpool.

With that we move to the Sea of Karkuda factions!

The Mercenaries are back! The doors to the submarine hideout open, and five submarines zoom out! The Mercs have launched the Terror and Barracuda since we last saw them. You may notice dice on a few of the French ships. I have amended the no ram damage rule so that submarines can do damage while ramming, but it counts as a “hit” if the roll is successful and therefore follows the 2 hits per mast rule for elimination. However, I may just go back and change it to no ram damage of any kind. XD

THE FRENCH ATTACK!!!! Reigniting their war with the Americans, the French finally break the indefinite period of truce and let loose their line of battle west of The Flat! This attack is the result of a shared interest the French and Spanish have. As you saw earlier, the French line from the northern wall of the Castle to the northern edge of Karkuda is blocking American gunships from assisting against the Spanish on the eastern side of the Castle. The Americans really want to hold the Castle, and since the French and Americans are still at war, the French assumed the Americans would attack the French on their own turn, in an attempt to break the French line and help out their comrades against the Spanish.

As a result, the French felt that they needed to attack! It was a preemptive strike, designed to knock the Americans off their guard and deny American help against the Spanish, who are fast becoming a solid French ally. I told you the game had become very complex, and this turn is really showing it! 

Here the Monaque hits the Sioux and shoots American infantry off the Castle ramparts. The Ville de Paris has set the Pequod ablaze. However, this was just the beginning of French combat operations on their turn….

As you now see more ships get in action! After MANY turns of just sitting within shooting distance of each other, the French and American lines of battle west of The Flat are finally forced into contact with each other. The Hercule dismasted the Buffalo, while the Gaule set the Yankee aflame and the Mont Blanc flotilla damaged the Paul Revere. However, this picture was purposely taken before the devastating Le Superbe was given an action, to show the various ship-to-ship battles starting up.

Blam! The Superbe gets a sac action courtesy of Capitaine Arathiel and a member of his “buffet” (an oarsman of course). She moves south and then north, toppling a handful of masts. The damage she does includes a mast from USS Albany, a ship that is not in range of any other French ship yet but was hit by the Superbe’s L-range guns with the use of her ability to shoot through other ships. The Neptune and Martinique are last to shoot here, with the Paul Revere dismasted by the latter. The Hancock, Peacock, and Aaron Burr all take damage as well.

At long last, some of the powerful French 5 masters show their full strength! This renewal of war has left the American squadron in bad shape, but the Americans have both resiliency and one of the biggest fleets in the game. Here you can see how devastating the attack was:

With new knowledge that the Pirates were behind the Cursed attack at the Harbor, the French break the alliance and attack the Pirates!!!! The 6 Pirate gunships who arrived this very turn to recruit French help against the Americans are viciously attacked by the vengeful French!! The Pride is the only ship lucky enough to escape damage.

Lenoir himself joins the fray! Amiral Louis Cartier and Jordan Dumas of the Delacroix join him for more 5 masted French firepower!! The Delight, Ballista, Centurion and Obago lose two masts each, meaning they’ve each been hit at least 4 times on this turn, showing the accuracy of French gunnery this turn, now driven by anger and vengeance. At the bottom, the Conquerant got her EA to circle around the Spanish ships and double back to unleash her firepower (literally!) at the Obago!!

The flamestrike cannon ignites the Obago!

Total chaos at the Harbor!! O_O

The French begin recovery efforts while fighting the Cursed at the same time. The French had a mixed bag of results in this eastern battle, with most ships going something like 0/4 or 2/2 on the same average cannon ranks. The Nightmare was particularly hard-hit, sustaining two blazes as French ships surrounded the ghostly 4 master. At the upper left, the Grand Vainqueur has moved to an adjacent dock for repairs since the destroyed dock is no longer considered a dock for launching and repairing purposes. The dock is partially sinking, so the Afrique loads the lone artillery unit left on it before it can sink or drift away. At the bottom left, the Republique has begun towing the Musarde and shoots at the Hellfire. Between the catastrophic nature of the Neptune’s Trident attack, the current Cursed ships/kraken in the Harbor itself, and a surplus of ships in general, the French have a near-impossible logjam to sort out. A few ships are heading to the back for repairs, but that leaves the newer gunships with no space to sail out.

Just outside the Harbor walls, the French have some trouble connecting on their shots. The Baionnette and Bonne Chance went a combined 1/6 or 0/6 to leave the Juggernaut with all 4 masts still standing. However, the Demon Gate, Cyclops and Silver Coffin all sustained damage. With the help of some stuck gold runners, the French have surrounded the Cursed at their whirlpool entrance location.

On the other side of the whirlpool, the French do reasonable damage. The Cursed are horribly outnumbered, and with war brewing again near the Roost, it’s unlikely any reinforcements will come as planned.

The whole Harbor situation. The Cursed have dealt a serious blow, but a numbers disadvantage could mean a French victory.

With the flash this time. The Cursed sea creatures are still healthy, so the Cursed have some staying power in this mess of an area if they decide not to retreat.

Try to make sense of it: XD

The French are reeling but have the ships and firepower to pull themselves out of this mess:

At the far left, the Bonifacio in particular is just STUCK as a result of this mess. Her injured crew are laboring to remove huge chunks of the wooden dock off the deck of the ship, which has only one mast remaining. At the top, some of the French gunships launched last turn may take a LONG time to get out of the Harbor.

Chaos and carnage!

The French are flocking to their lighthouse island, as luxuries are currently the most valuable resource. At the right and top, the French have so many gunships available that many will not even be needed to combat the Cursed…

… which is why the French were able to send so many to attack the Pirates.

As the Obago burns, this turn allows us to see the full might of French power. They are now involved in THREE battles at once! One against the Americans west of The Flat, one against the devious Pirates, and one against the Cursed at the Harbor itself.

Here we see a very rare example of combat that somewhat follows the historical line-of-battle strategy. It almost never shows up in Pirates games, but here it was organically produced when two factions lined up gunships to defend their territory.

The French have the upper hand with the first strike, and we’ll see if they can break the American line.

Even with a much-reduced squadron, the French have plenty of firepower to defend The Flat with!

The two cheerleader ships were hardly needed, and the Soleil Royal is not in action yet:

I was sad to see the Paul Revere dismasted, but at least it was at the guns of a worthy opponent: Le Superbe is another of my favorite ships.

Looking from the west at the lines of battle:

The French are beautiful as well as powerful:

The Pequod is surrounded as American masts fall all over the battlefield:

The French situation, showing all three battles:

I thought this shot was particularly good, as you can now see the battle at the Castle as well:

Karkuda is simply a HOTSPOT of activity right now!

Finally, time for the American turn!!

The Americans strike back hard!! The Spanish flagship is nearly dismasted and a fire has broken out! At the right, the Americans can’t really get to the Santo Columba yet, but the loss of the Santa Ana could prove disastrous for the Spanish.

Just to the south, the Corazon Dorado suffers a similar fate! No less than five different American gunships gang up to blast the ship to pieces. 7 hits are scored, with just one more needed to dismast the ship. However, the firepot landed by the Sea Serpent may do that on its own.

The Americans do what they can against the French, and it’s surprisingly effective! THREE French 5 masters have been set on fire! The Neptune, Monaque, and Ville de Paris are all in trouble from the flames.

The Congress used her first action to tow the Buffalo out of her way and knock a mast off the Hercule. She was later given Preble’s AA (a good turn for it!) to knock another mast off. The northern/middle part of the American line was too shattered to put up much of a fight, with the Yankee going 0/2 and the Paul Revere rowing away at S+S. Notice the damage marker on the Superbe’s quarterdeck though – the American artillery cannon stationed at the lumber island shot and hit for the first time!

At the heart of the spirited American resistance! The Hancock and Peacock team up to set the Neptune aflame, while the Sioux and Overton do the same to the Monaque. The Pequod really proved her worth, using a musketeer and cannoneer to hit enough shots to not only get through the Ville de Paris’ defensive ability, but land a firepot as well!

The Albany had the opposite day at the cannons, as her fire shot backfired to set her aflame. 

From the American artillery on top of the Castle looking northwest:

Of course, this view should probably be obscured by the gunsmoke and the smoke rising from the burning ships!

As impressive as the French line of capital ships is, the Americans managed to put a dent in it with their counterattack.

The hottest part of the fight!

The Americans continue their logistics near the long-running southwestern battle. Out of range and with the SCS James Madison proving to be a surprisingly valuable multipurpose ship, the Speedy Return leaves the area. She will head for the Castle to repair, but between the Spanish incursion and the massive width of the Double Catamaran ship type, she may be out of luck for now. Speaking of the Spanish, the Enterprise is headed there since the Pirate battle is too crowded and the Americans will likely win that one. At the lower left, the James Madison dismasts the Freedom with the help of the Hannah being within S. The Vermont has taken up towing duty of the Georgetown, while the Hornet and Mohican are leaving the Castle to assist against the Spanish. The Atlanta and Bartlett have dropped off their army units and now have nothing to do. For now they will guard the southern approach to the Castle (probably a good idea with how crazy the game is getting and how aggressive the French and Spanish are lol) and likely receive captains when the Americans launch again.

The Satisfaction has been dismasted and captured, though many American gunships (especially in the middle of this picture) are unable to be given move or shoot actions as a result of the close-quarters action.

The Americans deal severe damage to the Bruja, Thirty Tyrants and Jaguar’s Spirit. The Bonny Kate was captured but has already been chain-towed nearly out of the picture.

The Fly and Shark team up to dismast the Full Moon, as the Pirates are denied getting a foothold even in the far southwest area by Luck Island.

Here you can see the Bonny Kate along with some other captured Pirate ships.

The Philadelphia warped home the Lucky Seven, while the Lenox, Montezuma, and Springfield finish or start repairs. The Concordia may leave the area to join one of the other battles, either against the French or Spanish. At the top, some American cargo ships head north for metals as their lumber island near The Flat is now not only less valuable, but also in trouble from the French.

But Commodore Preble has something to say about that! He pilots the President east, and is joined by two other nice 4 masted schooners, the Saratoga and Hudson.

The French may have gained the upper hand by striking first, but American reinforcements are on the way!

That is about all for the developments on this epic Turn 69, but I took some more pictures just to fully document the destruction.

To recap:

Two Spanish ships have been set aflame, while the Castle itself has been damaged and burns a bit:

The ultra-powerful squadron of French 5 masters did huge damage to the American line of battle, but American gunnery has made some of those French capital ships finally seem mortal with no less than three separate firepot hits:

The Pirate-American battle is still the largest in the game by the number of ships involved, with carnage stretching from the southwestern tip of the Castle to the southwesternmost point in Karkuda:

The Americans are certainly winning but the Pirates certainly aren’t giving up!

Naturally I did forget to mention something else that happened: the Louisiana succeeded at destroying another reef! This makes passage from the American HI to the Castle (and vice-versa) easier. At the right, notice the Intrepid and Franklin heading towards the battle against the French. The French aren’t the only faction capable of sustaining three separate battles at once….

At the southwestern whirlpool, it just so happens that the masts have been falling on top of each other for many turns now, to the point where that pile in the middle is about 5 masts high. O_O You can almost see the gunners on the decks of the Ark Royal and Thirty Tyrants trading Broadsides Attacks:

Shattered timber, shredded sails, and slain sailors now characterize Command the Oceans:

Total carnage, with dozens of masts littering the battlefield:

The Sea of Karkuda, with all FIVE simultaneous battles visible:

I got these next few shots by sitting back from the game a bit and zooming in. I like that you can see a lot of what’s happening, but it’s at a nice angle in between the closeups and high-altitude shots.

This one gives a nice view of the Mercenary activities and the Spanish battle, with all three French battles still visible in the background:

The southwestern corner of Karkuda, with a forest of chaos in the densest portion. The Chesapeake takes a shortcut through the Castle but the Enterprise must go around. It will be interesting to see if the Americans can hit the French in between The Flat and the Harbor if they defeat the Spanish and go north around the Castle.

However, this might be the most stunning scene of all so far. O_O (even though you can hardly see the dock destruction!)

What on earth could happen next??

Between the possible sinkings that could occur soon and the various crew eliminations, another point count will hopefully happen quite soon, possibly on Thursday. The game is exploding to the point where it could actually decrease in size for once! XD The intense combat erupting all over the place has definitely slowed the launch pace, between trade routes getting interrupted, a Harbor invasion, and a lousy resource roll that will last for quite some time (6 more turns). The French are the only faction sitting on considerable gold reserves, but they almost literally cannot have more ships in the Harbor until they get some ships in for repairs and others out into the ocean. XD

Thanks for reading! This will likely be a rarity going forward, since I’ll be doing more frequent but shorter reports. I prefer to report on events the day they occur, and it gets a little more stressful when I hype or promise a report for one day but can’t finish it until the next. For example, the JR and Cursed faction turns occurred on Saturday (which is when I wrote that part of this report too actually), and of course it was difficult to hold back. However, from a narrative perspective it’s good to have these mega reports of epicness once in a while too. Especially for the longer reports, I may start doing full post or “chapter” titles as I did with this one. They won’t be particularly imaginative, but more for me to look back on. As you clearly know by now, I have a thing for all things epic.  I’ll try to make the titles accurate but of course they will stray the line into madness.

Well then! 18 pages in my Google doc and over 100 pictures later, I hope you enjoyed this monstrosity! What a game! 

Turn 70

(or at least, most of it)

Another round begins with a big development: the Pirates leave the Sea of Karkuda!!

Not just in the southwest, but also up north!

The Sunrise Fire ducks into a fog bank to avoid the French:

Pirate arrivals from Karkuda!

More damaged ships arrive in the southeast! Note that as the Pride returns, her crew and others bring news of the French “betrayal”, which of course was caused by the Pirates’ deal with the Cursed that began the end of the Pirate/French alliance. The news is not entirely surprising to the Pirates, but they are somewhat surprised by how quickly the Cursed betrayed their trust.

This dramatic shift in Pirate strategy has been brewing for a while now. It started with the First Battle of the American whirlpool, which the Pirates lost badly to the Americans. Then came the Second Battle of the American whirlpool, which has mostly concluded in another decisive loss. Finally, the deal with the devil backfired on the Pirates when the Cursed betrayed them a bit by telling the French about the deal. This led to the Pirate ships in northern Karkuda being decimated by nearby French gunships in yet another “whirlpool battle” they would have lost. All in all, three disastrous whirlpool “expeditions” if you will, each of them costly and bloody. With that, the Pirates have had it. They will no longer send attacking squadrons through whirlpools. They have pulled out most of their ships from the Sea of Karkuda, with the ones remaining stuck there due to being trapped or beyond help. This big shift in Pirate strategy and gameplay could have seismic effects for the duration of the game. The Americans bore the full brunt of Pirate aggression, but the English and now the French have felt quite wronged by Pirate activity as well. Captain Mission and his Pirate Admirals are sick of losing so many masts, ships, and lives to whirlpool shenanigans that never seem to have a big payoff. Therefore, they may begin favoring a complete isolationist policy. Let the other factions come to them. They will repair and rebuild, and hunker down for the long haul.

Inside the Tunnel, Pirates and mercenaries are hard at work on the ladder extending from the Celtic Fury’s mast!

Here you can start to make out what they’ve been doing:

DRILLING!! O_O

The above picture and this one were taken after temporarily removing the Tunnel from the ocean, to show it more clearly. This shot is looking at the ceiling of the Tunnel on the western side where the Pirates have begun primitive rock-blasting operations!

At the end of their turn, the Pirates spent 90 gold on 4 new gunships, including a few great ones: the Black Pearl, Diamond Strike, Ranger, and Splinter. At the upper left you can see the new Pirate strategy beginning to take effect, with many damaged ships coming home for repairs as fresh ones prepare to defend the whirlpools at all costs.

Another battle at Broken Horn Island continues! The Jikininki is dismasted, but the Jades lose the Glorious Treasure for good when she succumbs to her fires (courtesy of the Executioner, a fitting name for that Cursed gunship).

A small measure of Jade revenge! Many weeks after she was possessed by the Cursed and turned into an icewreck, the Clear Wind is finished after her iceberg was rammed by a Viking icebreaker! The Jades wanted to recapture the ship, but after seeing her demonic state for multiple battles now, they had to put an end to the weirdness. As the ice is broken, the Clear Wind sinks and many Jade Rebels have heavy hearts on this fine day. The Hrunting knocks a mast off the Sickle as the Grendel tows the Brandywine.

A broader shot showing the Corsairs’ advance and the path they’ve made for the Grendel and Brandywine:

O_O WHOA!! The Jade Rebels attack the Pirates!!!!

After the Pirates backed down from any alliance talk the Jades engaged in earlier, the Jades ignored and nearly forgot about them. However, the Cursed have worked their “magic” once more. With another large-scale JR-Cursed battle beginning, some talk between the sides could be expected. Sammy the Skull (aboard the Monkey’s Paw) has let some information spread throughout the Jade fleet. Most of it true believe it or not! XD

The Cursed have informed the Jades that the whirlpool was created only with Pirate help, which is true since Davy Jones copied Calypso. The Cursed have also told the Jades about how powerful the Pirates are (since they have the Eye), which is also (mostly) true. The Jades have become quite a powerhouse faction with their recent Corsair hires, and the Pirates have been crushed lately in their travels to the Sea of Karkuda. The Cursed did embellish how strong the Pirates currently are, and made sure to emphasize that if the Jades do not concentrate some firepower on the Pirates, the Pirates will be able to defeat a Jade Rebellion faction that will be weakened if they manage to defeat the Cursed in the long term.

Almost all the information was true, and the Jades understood that they needed to correct their tunnel vision (pun intended) and see other big threats besides the hated Cursed.

The big hit landed on the JR turn was an exploding shot by the Grand Mountain, which set the Akua Lapu aflame and killed Bonny Peel’s helmsman.

Still incredibly impressive, the Jades continue to flood the northwestern part of Allost:

The Cursed begin their turn with L-movers! Tsuro throws the Royal Louis against the shattered dock in the French Harbor, knocking another mast off the ship! The force of the movement shoves the slowly sinking dock against the Grand Vainqueur, but that ship escapes further damage.

And now it is time for the new Cursed weapon! Inspired by the success of Neptune’s Trident, the Cursed have unleashed Namazu!!

Namazu’s wave attack was not originally in range of many JR ships, so the Serpent’s Fang got close to the serpent so it could move a bit southeast. Then, Davy Jones showed his power, using the copier ability to copy Capitaine Baudouin Deleflote, the French version of Lord Mycron who is sitting on L’Argus in the French Harbor! The Guichuan’s action was given to Namazu so the monster could essentially move and then shoot as if it had a captain. However, it was no ordinary shoot action, as you can see Namazu charging up for a massive tidal wave blast!!

Previewing the path of destruction!

For the second turn in a row, the Cursed unleash a tidal wave of hatred!!

This time, seven different ships were affected:

I only took one mast off the icebreaker since she only suffered a glancing blow. However, the Jades lost 10 masts as a result of the attack, with the Brandywine nearly sunk as well. Clearly this ability is overpowered in campaign games like this one!! Adding insult to injury, Namazu only loses one segment per wave attack (unlike the Trident, which is based on how many ships are affected), so it’s even more cost-effective for the Cursed here with the ability that can be used multiple times (versus the Trident, which is removed from play after being used). As a result, I think I will house rule that wave attacks do “hit” damage rather than outright mast elimination, in which case a ship would only lose one full mast when affected (since it takes two hits to remove a mast). I may also let the Cursed roll when making a wave attack, and on a 5 or 6 (or just a 6 maybe) they get the full unedited effect like we see here. With two copiers and a reasonably healthy Namazu though, I think something needs to be done to avoid the Cursed turning a defeat into a victory with the help of just one ability that has become OP in a hurry here in CTO.

The Knight’s Errant (one of the worst ships in the game, but almost necessary here when you have borderline-unlimited points to spend) and Strix block the longships from advancing into Cursed trade routes, while the Cursed canoes will try to help out as well.

The northern Cursed wild island now produces lumber instead of textiles! In the far north, those sea monsters are submerged and in no danger from the Pirates or Jades. They will try to combat the Jades and stop their advance.

In a time of reasonable emergency, even the fog hoppers will come out to help! The Cursed value their fog hoppers VERY highly as a specialized teleportation sneak attack force, but here some of them pop out near Broken Horn Island to surprise the Jades from behind. None of the three ships got good fog exit location rolls, so the Wiglaf suffers light damage as the Hangman’s Joke simply ducks back into the fog.

Here you can see the Jades coming as close as they ever have to interrupting Cursed trade. The Fallen Angel and Whydah block the Hrothgar and Grand River, but if this thin line of Cursed defense falls, the Cursed could really be in trouble. However, up north the Nightmare is nearly back with the first haul of food, while the Divine Dragon tows the Bloody Blade.

The Grand River is pulverized by the Whydah and Executioner, suffering many hits and being set aflame! The Hades’ Realm just barely misses out on dooming the annoying Proud Tortoise (immune to L-range guns) with a firepot of her own.

The crew of the Fenrir are once again paralyzed by Fear, and the Flying Dutchman finally gets in action to start dealing some major damage.

The Sickle and Monkey’s Paw team up to dismast the Hrunting! At the right you can see how Namazu’s attack has blasted the broken iceberg into the Jade ships.

Looking east:

From way above, where you can see Shal-Bala’s nest in the lower left corner:

Another unique view, showing the Jade advance crashing into Cursed resistance. Although the actual cannon fire is only intense in the far west right now, the battle now stretches all the way across the JR-Cursed border from Broken Horn Island to the northern Cursed wild island.

The Cursed do what little damage they can in Karkuda, setting the Bonne Chance alight:

The fire aboard the Nightmare spreads as she turns ghostly to escape the chaos:

The Geographe is doomed, but Terrox’s personal victory is a hollow one for the Cursed, who had hoped to do far more damage to the French and their Harbor. As noted in the previous report, reinforcements would have come if the Jades hadn’t attacked.

The beautiful vibrant colors of the two fleets, with plenty of chaos still evident:

Continuing the theme of exiting Karkuda, the Cursed have some ships return to friendlier waters. The Banshee’s Wail and Demon Gate need extensive repairs, while Leviathan was not in range of many targets this turn and could probably be better used against the Jades, who are a far more immediate threat to the Cursed.

We move to the Caribbean factions! True to their launches that foreshadowed this event, the English arrive in the Sea of Karkuda ready to kill some Pirate scum!!!

Eight English gunships are now near the Pirate Kingdom, in an area where the Pirates have not yet been threatened!! O_O Weirdly enough, it comes at a time when the Pirates are having lots of ships come home from the war effort against the Americans. That timing could prove convenient since they should now have more firepower with which to defend their territory against the English.

To be completely honest, the English have been getting slightly bored with how things have turned out. Their old rival, the Spanish, have a fervent desire to retake the Castle, leaving the English without much of a combative enemy in the Caribbean. They have declared war on the Pirates, and will pursue that for now.

The English are sticking around in Karkuda to finish off some Pirate gunships. The Black Cat used smokepot shot to save herself and the Freedom, at least temporarily.

The Spanish pull off what you could call a “miracle turn”! The Corazon Dorado put out her fire, got her SAT and hit a shot before ducking into a fog bank. The Santa Ana did the same with her EA ability and hit a shot as well. The Spanish rolled around five 5’s or 6’s in a row! The Santo Columba didn’t do quite as well, but managed to set the United States on fire.

The Granada was the only Spanish ship to shoot poorly, but the York is doomed and the Asesino hit 2/2. Her second shot set the Kentucky alight and eliminated a cargo!

Overall the Americans are far stronger than the Spanish, but the Spanish are putting up quite a fight in this secluded theater of Karkuda!

As shown last turn, 5 more Spanish gunships head south towards the Castle:

The Cursed named crew Wraith has been possessing crew with his ability for a while now. His latest includes the firepot specialist from the Kentucky, and lately he’s been very successful rolling 6’s. Here you can see the stack of possessed crew, who now number around a dozen I believe. For the next point count I plan to count how many crew there are and include the costs in the Cursed fleet point total. Soul Crusher indeed!

The Karkuda factions!

Taking a calculated risk, Nemo surfaces the Nautilus to load food from the French wild island! Other submarines come to his aid and scatter to distract the French.

However, the French start their turn by attacking! Finally able to shoot at one of the subs, the French try to exact payback for Nemo’s deception earlier in the game. Incredibly, the Bourbon and Voleur team up to hit 5/6! This takes out part of the sub’s hull:

The French clean up against the Cursed:

Courtesy of the Felicite, the Nightmare loses her final mast to fire! A rarity in Pirates CSG, where a large ship is completely aflame. There have probably been others in my games since then, but the only other one I distinctly remember is the Paul Revere from Economy Edition.

The Hellfire and Juggernaut still have masts standing, but the Cursed are facing the last portion of a major defeat. Of course, they caused incredible havoc in the process. XD

Part of the logistics at the Harbor involved just towing and re-towing some ships, in order to start clearing a path at the western edge of the Harbor mouth.

The French fire at the Americans, though it’s not as effective as the first strike:

The Neptune docks at The Flat to extinguish her flames.

The Yankee is doomed, and Le Superbe blasts away the American infantry and artillery units on the lumber island.

The Peacock, Hancock, and Pequod are all dismasted!

The Monaque cannot escape yet since the Aaron Burr is blocking her, but at least her fire doesn’t spread.

The Ville de Paris not only eliminated her fire mast, but set the Hancock alight as well!

Perhaps one of the most realistic shots yet, showing the general French dominance:

Having crushed the Pirates and forced them to go back home, the French now have a bunch of gunships to reinforce their positions with. As if they needed them! XD 4 are headed west towards the northern part of the American battle, while 6 more head south.

Even more interesting: French gunships head for the Castle battle! Now that the Cursed and Pirates have largely been taken care of (both “false emergencies” to some degree, though the effects of the Cursed attack will be felt for many more turns), the French can afford to throw gunships at various tasks they had previously been putting off. This includes the Spanish fight against the Americans. With the French already engaged in another bloody battle against the Americans north of the Castle, it’s only natural that they would also send some of their surplus gunships to help out their Spanish allies on the eastern side. The Montreal, Dame Riante and Marie Antoinette look to be the first French ships on the scene, with the larger La Gaule and Delacroix lurking as well.

Here are a few more shots of the turns in Karkuda, with lower angles that I thought looked great:

At the end of their turn the French spent all of their 176 gold! This netted them 9 additional gunships, with Pierre Aronnax stationed at the Harbor for now. He will await pickup by a large gunship if the Mercenary threat increases. The Rocher Noir also has the sub-hunting ability, so the French are not holding back when it comes to containing the threat posed by Nemo and his goons.

As usual the ships are equipped with generally optimal crew complements, with the cargo holds almost always maxed out. With crazy amounts of points to spend, it’s nice to actually have a lot of high-powered support gunships instead of the usual 5 mast budget warship (and often nothing else) used in a standard game. These ships are ready for war!

All of the ships were launched at The Flat, with 6 at the southern end and the three 3 masters at the northern end. The American faction is usually the faction where I provide the most in-depth strategy analysis and vision, but I’d like to do that with more factions if I have time during the writing of these reports. Here the French are launching at The Flat because the Harbor is still very crowded and does not need more ships. They also launched at The Flat due to the Castle being a current hotspot of activity. The gunships launched at the southern end of The Flat should inject immediate life into the fight against America. The Spanish are overjoyed to have such a powerful ally, though they hope the French will come through on their current promise to help out at the Battle for the Castle, which by now is definitely an appropriate term!

I believe this shows all French ships in play, as the Sea of Karkuda is just teeming with them at this point. XD

I have some (mostly) great news! There is about a 99% chance that the game will be played after the Thanksgiving weekend concludes, allowing me to play into December and likely conclude the game a week or less before Christmas. I say mostly because I didn’t expect or want this game to take so long, but obviously it has ballooned to an unmanageable size and taken on a life of its own. However, at this point it is my greatest creation in the world of Pirates CSG, and certainly needs a proper ending. 

Attacks coming from land, sea, and AIR

If this is too long and you won’t read it, you can see a few summaries of the action here and here.  There is also a video on my Instagram, as youtube and IG occasionally see exclusive footage of the action before the official battle report is posted.

The Americans begin their turn with their fight against the Spanish. The Kentucky has a miserable turn.
However, the Saratoga set the Santo Columba on fire, and the Enterprise has nearly reached the battle area:

The Zanzibar and Thrud are captured, with the Full Moon next.

The Americans continue to clean up the battle area, sending various gunships north to combat the French.

At the right, the Colonial Trader will soon reach the Castle to provide some infantry reinforcements.

Just to show the debris:

As I showed in one of the videos, the Americans have lost their line of battle in the northern area. The Congress is trading broadsides with the Hercule, but the Paul Revere is fleeing for repairs and the Yankee burned to the waterline.

In a huge morale victory for the Americans, the Monaque is dismasted and set aflame even more! This will probably doom the ship, making it the first French 5 master to sink in this game. On this turn it was a joint effort by no less than 4 different ships, as the Aaron Burr, Overton, President and Boston all got shots in.

With the President shooting, that means Commodore Preble has arrived! The American admiral hopes to reinvigorate the American defense, and brings with him some considerable reinforcements.

The Saratoga, Hudson, Intrepid, and Franklin are all a turn or two away from helping out.

Two other considerable foes are also approaching the French line: USS Kettering got Decatur’s EA this turn to speed northeast at S+L+S x2, while the Concordia also heads for the battle. You can also see 5 other American gunships along with the cheerleader ship Seminole heading northeast.

With the Saratoga and others stopping the Spanish advance, the Speedy Return may yet be able to repair at the Castle soon. The main American rival in the game is quickly shifting from the Pirates (handily defeated twice at the southwestern whirlpool) to the Franco-Spanish alliance, who not only threaten to defeat the Americans in what could be called the Third Fight at The Flat, but also threaten to take the Castle itself!

American “graveyard” for Turn 70. They lost over 50 points’ worth of stuff, a rarity due to the mast elimination and sinking rules in addition to how frequently fleets have fled and repaired during and after battles. It’s not that the Americans aren’t being cautious at all, it’s just that these three ships were all caught in the middle of intense gunnery from hostile ships with firepot specialists.

The Pirate turn

The Black Cat and Freedom emerge from their fog bank to escape via the whirlpool!

The Pirates RIP INTO the English invasion!!

The Pirates inflict high casualties, with almost all the English ships taking damage.

The Pirates are determined to limit or STOP the flow of English ships arriving from the Caribbean. To that end they have placed as many ships at or around the southeastern whirlpool as possible. By completely clogging the whirlpool, the English can probably be contained. The Pirates experienced the other end of this very recently, when they couldn’t send enough ships to Karkuda due to the battle area being too crowded, which was multiplied by the initial American refusal to capture ships and the small handful of English gunships that are still right around that whirlpool. Here, the Pirates use ships from the northern whirlpool of Allost to warp to the south. The Pride simply stays where she is and repairs to do her part in the blockade, while the Revenge, Black Mongoose, White Rose, Black Arrow, and Sister’s Rage suddenly appear from the northern whirlpool to block the English from arriving.

Havana Black takes the Deliverance to Ocean’s Edge!

The Fool’s Hope didn’t have a good turn against HMS Forge, but the Feathered Hat, Dragon’s Breath and Deliverance all did considerable damage for the Pirates. The severely damaged Bruja and Obago move to the outside to allow healthier Pirate ships to take their place, but the Pirates have an “all hands on deck” strategy here for repelling the English. They will NOT let them get anywhere in the Sea of Allost, let alone get near Mission’s Kingdom.

Also, one of the Pirate infantry units on the gold island eliminated a crew from the Hastings!

The Centurion and Thirty Tyrants repair at the northern whirlpool where they’re joined by the Black Cat and Freedom, the last Pirate ships to escape the American onslaught. Fresh Pirate ships begin to surround the northern whirlpool, where the Pirates will keep a close eye out for invaders.

The four Pirate gunships launched last turn speed south towards the English battle, and are joined by a few support gunships. You’ve probably noticed that the Pirates have a solid home fleet, with various smaller gunships on patrol duty all the time. A full half-dozen of them can be seen here along the eastern side of the reefs, though some have been called to act against the English. The Draconum is the personal “bodyguard ship” for Calypso and her ship, the Stoneheart.

Back inside the Tunnel! The Pirates complete drilling operations from the ladder attached to the Celtic Fury’s tall mast! However, they’ve hit something they can’t get through!!

Unbeknownst to them, a huge boulder blocks their path!

Taken for my own amusement, this picture shows what would have happened if they could get through the big stone. I managed to punch a perfect hole right to where the rock was, and it came off the Tunnel since there wasn’t a lot of glue to hold it. XD The mini screwdriver went through the ceiling of the Tunnel, but the rock was there to block it in the game.

I couldn’t get a great closeup of the hole, which looks cooler from the bottom in real life. At this point it’s probably obvious what the Pirates intend to do….

With their home waters threatened, the Raven stops by the entrance to the Tunnel to check to see if things are OK. Her crew are surprised as the Pirates in the Tunnel approach, telling the ship to back off. Those Pirate ships are about to make way for the Celtic Fury to turn around, for Mission is not giving up on his Tunnel operations….

At the other end of the Tunnel, I was quite disappointed to see the Pirate “mini super squadron” fail miserably. The Revenant couldn’t get Calico Cat’s EA, while the Victoire and Harbinger got bad fog rolls that forced them to go back in. However, the Fleur de la Mort eliminated a Cursed canoe (the first time the Pirates or Cursed have had direct combat!) and captured a Viking helmsman via Will Turner’s S-boarding ability.

The Revenant did knock off the Floating Stone’s turtle panels, but overall it was a disappointing effort by the Pirates’ western squadron.

Not wanting any part of a nasty, messy, and deadly Cursed-JR crossfire, the Royal Rover and Sea Nymph turn around on orders from Captain Mission. At this point Mission has spent a lot of time in the Tunnel overseeing the progress.

The Pirates launched the Seref and Empress at Dead Man’s Point.

At the upper right, you may have noticed Plumb Point Lighthouse, the second lighthouse in the game! Vixenishcoder66 is still working on the major ability, but this is the version I’ll use if it comes up:

vixenishcoder66 wrote:

(Rough Draft) Pirates Cove: When an enemy ship enters the range of this lighthouse the player must roll a d6. 1-2 this ship immediately stops and cannot be given any more move actions. The owner of the lighthouse may initiate a boarding party against this ship (no friendly ship is necessary). The lighthouse gets +3 to boarding rolls. If the enemy ship wins the boarding roll nothing happens. The ship may move freely the following turn. 3-4 no effect, 5-6 this ship may be given an additional +S move action. Flavor text: It’s difficult to know who is friend or foe in these waters.

The new lighthouse is a perfect example of the new Pirate strategy, which is to stay at home and build up for when other factions come for them. It’s a structural investment very close the the Kingdom itself, and should allow the Pirates to gather spices faster, which is currently a valuable resource.

To the JR-Cursed War

The Jades get the party started! The Wiglaf hits the Sea Hag with stinkpots (which I use the green dice for when possible), while the Needle just barely escapes being dismasted by accurate Corsair gunships.

The Meshud breaks from the rest of the battle fleet to head west, as the Jades realize their surplus of ships heading due north but a potential shortage in the far west.

Blasting away at the Cursed! The Jade Rebels focus their fire on the Executioner, which bursts into flames!

The legendary Flying Dutchman is also engulfed by a blaze! The Scorpion and Fire Djinn were actually quite pathetic against the FD, going a combined 1/7 (though the Scorpion pinned the Hades’ Realm with her sickle). However, one ship really shined here: the Valkyrie. This Viking one master gets +1 to her cannon rolls against the Cursed, and Warlord Thorfinn (from the flavor text) was ready to fight today! The ship got two 6’s in a row to set the FD aflame with fire shot, bailing out her inaccurate comrades!

Closeup of the action:

The Jades were trying to prepare for the possibility of another devastating wave attack from Namazu. The Grand Path repairs, while the Beowulf eliminated part of the Clear Wind’s iceberg so it wouldn’t do further damage to Jade ships if the wave pushed it towards them. Other ships headed home for repairs, while the Grendel was chain-towed a bit. The Hrunting hides in the fog, letting the Donar take over against the Monkey’s Paw, though she is ineffective.

A largely pathetic effort by the Jades up north! The 1 masted longships go 4/6 to finish off the Cursed canoes, but the Strix and Knight’s Errant are still undamaged. The real failure came when the Floating Stone went 0/2 (with her reroll providing the second shot) and the Grand Mountain went just 2/6 and saw her exploding shot backfire!! Instead of the Revenant being damaged and aflame, the Jades had almost nothing to show for their efforts near the Tunnel.

The Revenant was hit by a stinkpot specialist, but she can simply duck into a fog bank if the Pirates continue to avoid combat in this area.

Of course, the flood of Jade Corsair ships continues:

At the right along the fog banks, the galleys cleared a path so the Polaris could finally move towards some icebergs in the north. Two of the best JR ships, the Grand Temple and Naegling, are still stuck in the fog due to the Cursed L-movers and their own poor fog rolls. That wall of fog has proven to be pretty annoying to the Jades, as each bank only has 1-3 locations on the western side and ships often find themselves in adjacent fog banks or staring at the huge southern wall of the Tunnel. Overall I can count at least 40 ships that have been directly involved in the battle at one point or another, with the front stretching from Broken Horn Island to the western Tunnel entrance.

The Sea of Allost, which has now become the biggest hotspot of activity after Karkuda was so bloody just a few turns ago:

If you stared at the previous picture long enough, you would have noticed some ladders atop the Roost, with infantry now clearly visible as well… this isn’t looking good…. O_O

SHAL-BALA TAKES TO THE SKIES ONCE AGAIN!! This time the dragon is not alone!!

The undead (thematically) Cursed troops clamber onto the ladder, which Shal-Bala grips firmly in its claws!!

Shal-Bala circles and picks up speed!

SHAL-BALA SWOOPS IN AND DROPS THE LADDER OF HORDES UPON THE JADE VESSELS!!!!

The ladder splashes into the sea and the Cursed menace is upon us! Undead hordes storm the decks of the galleys nearby!

The Slaughterfest begins!! O_O

Now, I do have rules for these. When the infantry are dropped onto the decks of ships, they function as an immediate boarding party. When dropped from the air, the infantry have a boarding base of 4 due to the surprise nature of the attack and being dropped from the sky. If I can remember to do it right, their boarding stat will drop by one each turn. This means that if they survive, they stay on the ship and can initiate a boarding party on the next turn, but they will have a boarding base of 3 and so on.

In this case the Ivory Star was the only ship capable of fending off her attackers! However, the Jades have been crewing their ships to the max, and the other three ships only lost oarsmen this turn. However, the fight aboard those galleys is ongoing!

The Sea Hag can’t reach the safety of the beloved (to the Cursed) fog, since her helmsman is affected by some stinky stuff. The Needle escapes, while the Poor Adams finally emerges from her own fog bank to dismast the Grand River!

The Fallen Angel beings towing the Jikininki, while the Whydah really wallops the Hrothgar! She burns, while the Fenrir also loses a mast. The Executioner uses her shipwright to put out her fire, saving the ship for at least this turn (house ruled if illegal). At the right, the Flying Dutchman succeeds with a Broadsides Attack to dismast the Scorpion!!

The Cursed continue dealing damage on a successful turn, knocking masts off the Fire Djinn and hitting the Donar with Fear. Without as many targets as before, and with Davy Jones sick of being selfless, Namazu submerges and retreats deeper into the Roost. However, her escort the Serpent’s Fang (a fitting name given her ability and usage) sets the Beowulf alight! (her crew was also scared by the Monkey’s Paw XD)

With no more canoes, the Rook’s Folly takes her tribal chieftain out of the fog and into the path of the Jade advance. You may have noticed a shocking development off her bow…

With the help of a cannoneer, the Knight’s Errant goes 3/3 and sinks the Sleipnir!! One of the worst ships in the game and carrying a rank-4 armament, this could be her finest moment EVER in Pirates CSG. XD

Davy Jones finally gives his action to his own ship, rather than Calypso’s or Deleflote’s ability! The Guichuan moves a glacial pace towards the battlefield, while the Divine Dragon finally rows home for extensive repairs that will take 10 turns (8 of them due to the “recoil” of Neptune’s Trident).

From above the Roost, showing how crowded it is:

A rare shot looking along the front wall of the Roost towards the east:

After a few turns of intense broadsides, many ships are showing signs of severe damage:

An extremely rare (and difficult to get) shot looking north to south in the Sea of Allost.

Take it in since you won’t get these views often:

The Cursed are in full retreat from the Sea of Karkuda! It’s occurred over the course of 3 turns I believe, but now Terrox is the only Cursed game piece left in this ocean:

The DJC version of the Nightmare finally succumbed to her flames, sinking at last. She had a trying experience in this game, but managed to redeem herself on her final voyage after two atrocious efforts. Some considerably damaged ships return from the battle at the Harbor; the Cursed are happy to see them afloat but they won’t be able to help out in the War against the Jades quite yet. The Nightmare was the only ship the Cursed lost in the battle against France, a solid accomplishment given how quickly and totally they were surrounded at the Harbor.

The Turn 71 graveyard for the Jade Rebellion and Cursed.

The Caribbean factions

The English dismast the Fancy and capture the Kin Tai Fong, meaning the Pirates have been completely eliminated from southwest Karkuda! The Americans and English have had limited contact in this battle, and the English have not told the Americans about their alliance with the French (in fact these ships may not know about it depending on when they went to Karkuda vs. the Forge meeting the Dauphin Royal). The Americans say the English can take what Pirate derelicts they capture, but this would just be the Fancy and KTF at this point. The English are simply happy that all four ships survived the LONG and messy battle, though the Henry VIII is the only one in good condition.

Speaking of whirlpool battles, the one in the Sea of Allost is expanding and getting hotter! The English have a GREAT turn against the Pirates, putting some ships in major trouble with accurate cannon fire.

An AA from CRGO allowed the Guy Fawkes to move and shoot right after coming through the whirlpool from the Caribbean, and here she sets the Tejon aflame. This AA also allowed for an extra ship to come through the whirlpool in the space the Guy Fawkes would have occupied.

However, the Pirate strategy was quite effective, as the Guy Fawkes and Apollo are the only two English ships able to make the whirlpool journey.

The Hastings knocked over a Pirate infantry unit, hence the post title given the other actions that happened earlier.

The English do particularly well in the southeast portion of the area, setting the Rickets and Dolphin aflame. The Deliverance suffers damage at the guns of the Iron Prince.

The battle is quickly becoming quite substantial and fiery:

The next Pirate turn will be a big one. If the English cannot be contained, they may be able to gain a solid foothold in Allost that would threaten Pirate trade.

The Spanish continue their improbable run of success, essentially beating the Americans on their own turf with a smaller force! The Santo Columba fought despite her quarterdeck being in flames, setting the Saratoga on fire for revenge. The crippled Santa Ana got a weird fog roll to exit between the two ships, blocking the Santo Columba from American cannons on their next turn but setting herself up to be captured or dismasted. However, the Santa Ana hit with her firepot specialist as well, and the Saratoga is now an inferno!!

The Granada sets the Gold Eagle aflame while the Asesino blasts apart the Kentucky, eliminating both a mast and cargo. On the other side of the Castle, the Acorazado used Master Gunner Rogelio Vazquez to shoot American infantry off a rampart, where they fell into the water on the other side!

Making matters worse for the Americans, the 5 Spanish reinforcements are almost there!

With more eventually on the way!! One of Spain’s finest is launched, El Principe de Asturias. She carries a captain, helmsman, oarsman, artillery unit, and two infantry units. It’s time to take back the Castle!

Took almost the same shot with the flash just to highlight the huge contrast in styles:

Thanks for reading! Within a week I plan to do a “faction situation analysis” in addition to a point count!

THE BIGGEST EVER

The French scuttle the Geographe to try and get Terrox to leave the Harbor.

The destroyed dock has finally been completely cleaned up, with half of it sinking and the other half disposed of. However, the damage dealt by the Cursed attack will take a while to repair fully.

With the Cursed basically gone, the French set about defending the whirlpool that Davy Jones/Calpyso created. Some cargo ships are finally able to enter the Harbor now that the battle has ended!

The Nautilus submerges to safety as the French have no way of getting at the Mercs right now. I have gone back to my original ruling on ram damage, which means that submerged submarines cannot do any ram damage. Each major faction only has a couple ways of dealing with submerged submarines, and it doesn’t seem fair for the Mercs to be able to endlessly take masts off enemy ships when nothing can be done about it.

A good strategy! With ships simply waiting their turn to enter the Castle waters in the battle area, some ships head south. They will round the terrain to the west and come at the Americans from the south. The Mercury is standing guard there, but it will be good for the Franco-Spanish to have another angle of attack.

By maneuvering perfectly, the French manage to extract the Monaque!

The Pequod is captured, with the Aaron Burr and Sioux derelict. This was taken before the end of the French turn.

The French win the battle up north and advance into American waters!! The Congress is dismasted by the Hercule and Mont Blanc, with the Superbe leading the charge west.

Deleflote gave the action of L’Argus to the Crete Argentee, who towed the Monaque to The Flat, extinguishing the flames and saving the ship!! This is a cool part about campaign games: you have so many ships available for support and rescue that oftentimes the most impossible maneuver or task can be accomplished due to the sheer amount of actions given out.

The Ville de Paris sets the Concord aflame, while the Soleil Royal helps to plug the gap in the French line.

The Solitaire has captured the Aaron Burr.

The graveyard for this faction turn, with the Peacock sunk by the Martinique and some fires put out. The destroyed dock is no more, but will live on in infamy!

Shot at by 4+ ships and an American artillery cannon, the Charlemagne goes from undamaged to derelict!!

Preble uses the President to capture the ship, as the French didn’t put an oarsman aboard!

The Saratoga and Hudson tow the ship down the chain, but where has she gone now?

Captured!! The Philadelphia received Preble’s AA this turn, allowing the ship to warp the French capital ship home and save her from the fires! In an extreme rarity, the ship went from French hero ship (the first to tow the Monaque out of the line to save her) to American capture! Going from healthy to derelict and aflame, the Americans have captured a big prize. This also swung the momentum completely the opposite way, as the French had a huge morale victory by saving the Monaque, but an even greater morale loss when the Charlemagne was nabbed before their eyes!

The 3+ American gunships in the way of the Santa Ana and Santo Columba hold their water, dismasting the SA after the Saratoga moved out of the way into a fog bank.

The Enterprise got bad fog rolls, but the Hornet and Mohican join the repositioned Mercury at the southeastern edge of Castle waters.

The Gold Eagle simply puts out the fire started by the Granada, the Harlequin misses the latter, and the Kentucky finally knocks a mast off the Asesino de la Nave.

The Jarvis and Kettering team up to hit the Superbe. The Kettering has turned into a mach speed weapon, going from the southwestern battle to the northern area of the French battle in just two turns with the help of extra actions from Commander Steven Decatur.

There seems to be a “danger zone” right where the Castle, Flat, and lumber island intersect. The area has been the place of the hottest action so far in this battle, and the masts are piling up. The Monaque, Charlemagne, and Pequod were all dismasted right around there.

Albert Crenshaw pushes the Albany home with all speed, but she might not make it. The Nene-nui succeeded with exploding shot, knocking out a reef that makes the 5-beach island more accessible!

American logistics in the southwest: towing and whirlpool defense patrols.

The Full Moon has been captured, ending the final symbol of Pirate resistance in the area. The Americans captured around 14 Pirate ships in the battle, which could be a high for any single battle in any of my physical campaign games.

Here you can see seven of those prizes, along with USS Jackson, who is receiving some fighting crew after leaving her cargo hold open for infantry earlier in the game.

Speaking of infantry, the Providence and Carolina load three units each. The Americans hope to unload them at the lumber island for some cheap defense against the French. However, we’ll eventually see if they’re too late….

The American graveyard for this turn. The second reef was destroyed by the Louisiana off Ruby Island, making American passage to the Castle easier!

In just the second turn of the battle, the Pirates have utterly defeated the English!!!

With an incredible turn, the Pirates dominate in their home waters. The Deliverance went 4/4 to knock 2 masts off the Guy Fawkes, and was followed by the Charles setting the Belle of Exeter on fire.

You may have noticed that the Tejon, Dolphin, and Rickets are not aflame anymore. The Pirates rolled three 5’s in a row to extinguish their flames, allowing those ships to hold their positions in the defensive circular line! The Revenge didn’t get her revenge against the English, going just 1/4. However, the White Rose and Black Mongoose were there to bail her out, going a combined 6/7 (or 5/7, either way great shooting). The BM went into the whirlpool itself to rake three English ships by the stern, scoring a hit on each.

The Fool’s Hope, Cutlass, and Raven damage the Forge and Wycliffe:

HMS Hastings gets hit a whopping SEVEN times during the turn, getting ravaged by 5 different ships.

Of the ten English ships in the area, none have more than 2 masts remaining.

With a wide-open area and two factions ready to go at it, the battle area has accumulated considerable wreckage and debris in a very short time.

Various ships in the Pirate fleet doing various things. A couple ships at the far left head to Dead Man’s Point for repairs, while some severely damaged ships north of the shipwreck look to repair as well. The Pirates are setting up a total blockade of the northern whirlpool, to prevent any hostile ships from coming out of it. At the bottom, support gunships patrol the reefs, guarding against attack.

Here you can see about 7 Pirate gunships speeding south to assist against the English, but it’s likely they won’t even be needed!

With the Tunnel as empty as it’s been in weeks, the Celtic Fury receives an AA to get into position. If you’re wondering, yes this means the Pirates didn’t even need both AA’s (they got both this turn) to do all that damage against the English, although I think the Fool’s Hope was given the other AA.

The ladder is raised once again, and Pirates will soon clamber up!

Here you can clearly see the hole left by the Pirate rock-blasting operations in the western half of the Tunnel; Mission has chosen the next spot on the eastern side, not far from the entrance.

With the Crusher and Celtic Fury just visible in the Tunnel, here are the Piratical activities of Turn 72.

Captain Mission’s Pirate Kingdom! The Pirate fleet is truly gigantic and contains a large percentage of their ships released by Wizkids. The ocean is just teeming with gunships at this point; I would estimate that any hostile ship dropped almost anywhere in the eastern half of the Sea of Allost would be set upon by at least half a dozen Pirate ships on the following turn.

From the foremast of the Foresight, the southern and northern entrances to the kingdom structure itself.

The Pirates and Cursed don’t like each other at this point, but neither side wants to engage. From these pictures you can see how close some of their game pieces are by the northern whirlpool, but both sides have adopted a kind of “convenient ignorance” when it comes to acknowledging the presence of the other. (a cold shoulder based on self preservation you could say)

It’s a curious thing that these Pirates aren’t nearly as excited about the shipwrecked gold as they were about the gold island. Captain Villanueva of the Rum Runner has been assigned to get the gold he himself discovered, but it remains to be seen if other Pirate ships will be sent over the reef.

Now for some rare views!

Looking from the northeast corner to the west:

From just above the newly constructed Plumb Point Lighthouse:

Didn’t get the right focus here, but massive size of the Tunnel and Roost dominate the horizon.

Difficult to get these shots from the corner. XD

I really like this one a lot though; it shows the Tunnel from a weird angle and shows the gold waterfall in the kingdom.

The current texture of the kingdom is not conducive to standing them upright, but the Pirates hired a bunch of infantry this turn, continuing their new theme of home defense over whirlpool expeditions.

The newly launched Bonnie Liz carries a few 2L ladders.

Maybe one of the coolest closeups yet:

Jade Rebellion turn

The Fallen Angel and Sea Hag lose a mast each, as the Jades reposition their ships and shoot on the way by.

The Hrothgar puts out her fire but misses the Pale Moon twice.

This part of the sea is on a bit of an incline, which has combined with dense wreckage (fast becoming one of my favorite Pirates CSG phrases XD) to make moving ships difficult. The Hrothgar is literally sailing over her own debris along with main masts from the Grand River (repairing herself with a shipwright at the right) and Executioner, possibly with more masts underneath those. O_O

The Fenrir captures the Executioner! Again, the reason they’re a bit apart is because the Executioner was getting caught on the Fenrir’s mizzenmast, which may be stuck under the Ragnarok and above the submerged Locker. What a mess! XD The Scorpion repairs with a shipwright, while the Fire Djinn hits the Flying Dutchman with a firepot for the second turn in a row!

As the Scorpion pitches to larboard, the Tiger’s Eye and Donar are mostly ineffective against the Monkey’s Paw and Sickle. The Hrunting is nearly trapped in the fog; when she tries to come out, almost any die roll will send her crashing into a friendly ship, which I usually play as forcing the ship back into the fog bank.

Sadly, the Beowulf may be doomed. Bucking the trend of ships putting out their fires (I think 4 ships in a row between the Pirates and the Hrothgar), her flames have spread to the forecastle.

The Corsair galleys in this picture are given actions, forcing them to fight the Cursed hordes who fell from the sky last turn! The Nubian Prince and Janissaries’ Blood win their boarding parties to send the Cursed troops to Davy Jones’ Locker, but the Majestic loses her helmsman. I may have the infantry cut down masts if they win a boarding party against a ship with no crew left.

The Ivory Star tries to come to the rescue, but it looks like the Beowulf will burn. The IS does knock a mast off the Sickle, who will probably retreat to the nearby Roost for repairs. At the right, the flood of healthy and pretty Corsair galleys continues, though they’re running out of places to sail.

The Asgard unknowingly joins Behemoth and Mist Walker in a fog bank, while the Polaris finally gets back to being an icebreaker! The Polaris was delayed in the Tunnel wall of fog banks by Cursed L-movers, and now has finally been able to sail north to smash a huge berg.

The Jades continue to fail in the northeastern area of the battle, though many of their ships are still advancing towards the combat area. The Pirates have simply fled, with the Fleur de la Mort turning around into the Tunnel and the Revenant hiding in the fog.

Wreckage, debris, and stormy waters. As I said last report, this most intense area of the battle has seen major damage dealt on both sides, so naturally it may be the first area to quiet down a bit. It’s still hectic obviously, but the SEVERE damage done to most of the gunships has left them shattered and their crews exhausted.

Craziness! Just as the Cursed line of defense begins to falter, the Jades are too exhausted to advance (just like in MANY real life battles, both on land and at sea). Various galleys are straggling towards the far west slaughterfield of action, but fog banks and their own allies are getting in the way right now.

A less impressive view from above, but cool nonetheless. It was perhaps inevitable that these two factions would have a major clash after a decent period of inactivity, and here we get to see a full-scale war with a battle front that stretches the entire length of their territorial boundary.

Here I liked the contrast between the white BC sails and the black sails of the Rook’s Folly and Harbinger:

Due to the Poor Adams, fog hoppers, and Cursed submarines, the battle has nearly reached the Jade resource island!

The Leviathan and Spilled Salt may get into action soon, seen at the top of the frame:

~~~~~~~~~~

IT WAS TIME!!!! At the end of Turn 71, I did another point count!!!!

You are not ready for this! XD Here are the three oceans:

9,078 POINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

O_O

The point count was insane! I had been planning it for a while, but wanted to try and catch it on some kind of peak, though there haven’t been many launches in a while. When the random resource roll wasn’t a 1 at the beginning of Turn 72, I knew it was time for another epic count. With the current resource change lasting for another 4 turns (out of 8 total) and no random changes occurring for a while, I wanted to do a point count before the game starts shrinking due to all the combat. After hitting 6,000 last time, I wanted to hit 8,000 to obliterate the game’s own record. I knew it was a good possibility given all the launches and how much time passed since the last count, but 9,000 wasn’t even on my radar. XD

Here we go!

Turn 71 point and ship count for Command the Oceans, November 11th 2017

Pirates: 105 ships, 1,840 points
Jade Rebellion: 62 ships, 1,187 points
Cursed: 61 ships, 1,138 points
English: 52 ships, 923 points
Spanish: 27 ships, 417 points
French: 101 ships, 1,804 points
Americans: 96 ships, 1,660 points
Mercenaries: 5 ships, 109 points

Totals: 509 ships, 9,078 points 

O_O

As compared to the last point count (October 6th), there are now FIVE fleets with OVER ONE THOUSAND POINTS!!!! O_O With the English not far behind!!

Overall, I thought it was cool to see how close the rivals were. The Jades and Cursed are nearly on completely equal footing, as are the French and Pirates. The Americans are the third-largest fleet but can certainly hang with the top two, while the JR-Cursed war threatens to whittle those down to a less competitive level. I see the English as the dark horse right now (as I plan to elaborate on when I do the factional analysis post), but their current struggles against the Pirates could dent their hopes quite a bit. The Spanish and Mercenaries realistically have almost no chance of winning the game, unless they can team with a very loyal ally and betray them at the very end after the ally’s fleet is decimated by war against the other strong factions. However, it’s clearly anyone’s game! Six out of the eight fleets are serious contenders right now, so the finish over the next 4-6 weeks should be anything but predictable.

Time for some stats:

Points per ship:
Pirates: 17.5 points/ship
Jade Rebellion: 19.1
Cursed: 18.7
English: 17.8
Spanish: 15.4
French: 17.9
Americans: 17.3
Mercenaries: 21.8

Average: 17.83

Surprised to not see the Cursed atop this list! Though they aren’t far behind the Jades, who have a VERY high percentage of gunships in their fleet, having operated with the same seven cargo ships for almost the whole game. (not really counting the Mercs who have two 32-point subs with the Nautilus and Terror maxed out) The average is also quite in line with my historical average, with Economy Edition having an average of 17.46 points per ship at the largest point count in that game, which is my second-largest physical campaign game. Thus, we can have a very solid estimator for CG sizes based on ship counts alone, simply multiplying by some number between 17 and 18 to get a solid estimate of the total points in play.

By percentage:
Pirates: 20.2% of the points in play
Jade Rebellion: 13.1%
Cursed: 12.5%
English: 10.2%
Spanish: 4.6%
French: 19.9%
Americans: 18.3%
Mercenaries: 1.2%

From this you can think about the various alliances (French/Spanish, French/English are pretty much the ones remaining at this point lol) or try to come up with scenarios where a faction could have a path to victory.

By ocean:
-These are extremely flawed at this point due to all the whirlpool traveling and battles, but serve as an indicator of the factional strength contained in those oceans, not the number of points actually sailing those oceans right this turn.

Sea of Allost: 4,165 points
Caribbean Sea: 1,340 points
Sea of Karkuda: 3,573 points

It’s OVER NINE THOUSAND!!!! XD 

And now for the pictures of the full deckplate areas. This shows the original Pirate fleet location, although they now have more points allocated in Room #2 than #1 lol. The Guichuan is there since the Cursed area is full.

Nearly spilling over into the JR area:

The rest of the Pirate fleet! (with a column of English deckplates here as well haha. When you don’t know how the game will turn out it’s difficult to project deckplate space for future expansions)

Getting to the Jade Rebellion area…

Those crew at the bottom right are on the Grand River, my custom proxied by the Grand Dynasty.

The Cursed! At the upper right, I have stacked most of their crewless sea creatures to save space.

The Cursed recently spilled over onto a bookshelf in Room #2:

As promised, here is Wraith’s haul! He has been in play for a LONG time now, possibly 50+ turns. This is the result of his 6’s, though no named crew yet. Overall, 43 points of crew! If you’ve read this far into the report you get a little nugget of new information. XD I am allowing the Cursed to use any crew captured with this ability on any of their ships, as if they were normal Cursed crew. (whether or not that breaks the existing rules XD)

The English!

Despite having the 3rd-smallest fleet (at a whopping 923 points lol), the English have deckplates in three areas now.

The Spanish:

Similar to the Jades, they have needed to go underneath the Caribbean table to fit.

The Mercenaries, showing the setups on the Terror and Barracuda for the first time.

The French!!

The Americans! (with a big section of captured Pirates extending out from the right column lol)

I was actually going to do a bit more too haha – if I remember, I’ll try to take a picture of the entire GIANT deckplate area in Room #2 (where you see the French, some Pirates and some English above) and also count how many deckplates are in that area alone. XD It’s also the area where the English and Franco-Spanish were in Economy Edition, but with my extremelyconsolidated deckplate system for this game (necessary due to space constraints – 500 ships in the game!!), that area now has an unprecedented amount of stuff in it.

At 9,078 total points, this game is now far larger than Economy Edition and VASSAL Campaign Game 1 combined. It’s more than 3 times bigger than EE, and more than twice as big as CG1. Certainly seems unbelievable, but with all the pictures above, you can count the points if you want. XD

Enjoy it while it lasts, since I won’t likely be able to do this again for a LOOOOOONNNGGGG time. By that I mean like 3+ decades. XD

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I’ll be back with stuff I forgot lol. Won’t be able to play tomorrow but I hope to resume on Monday!

Postimage wasn’t working right (“internal server error”) when I tried to upload these pictures, so I used imgur instead.

This is the Cursed Turn 72. The Sea Hag escapes, and the Fallen Angel tries to tow the Jikininki out of the battle area.

The Hrothgar has been dismasted! However, Cursed gunnery was quite inaccurate in the hottest part of the battle this turn, in the western area. The captured Scorpion is set aflame once again by the Flying Dutchman.

The subs have surfaced! In a desperate slugfest full of hatred, both factions are just trying to put as many shots on hostile targets as possible. Future plans be damned if needed – this is an all-out fight!!

The Fire Djinn is hit with shots and Fear, but the Leviathan (at the left) is still submerged. The Cursed have a strange problem right now: at the top of the photo are the Tiger’s Eye, Donar, and Ivory Star. All of those ships have immunity to L-range guns, and funny enough the Cursed have recently had almost exclusively L-range cannons in that area. However, the Spilled Salt has gotten back in action, though she went 0/3 in her return.

The Cursed gunships in the northeastern area of the battle continue to defy expectations! The Strix dismasts the Loki, while the Rook’s Folly goes 2/4 (on rank-4 cannons) to take a mast off the Meshud. The Knight’s Errant uses her cannoneer to shoot 2/3 and damage the Grand Mountain.

The Cursed sea monsters have nearly reached the battle, while the trio of subpar gunships have somehow held back the tide of Jade ships without even taking damage yet.

The Guichuan is in a fog bank! Who knows what she might do next turn… Davy Jones could copy the fog hopping ability, or perhaps use one of the face-down UT’s (shown earlier in the game atop the Roost) for an advantage…. In addition, the Cursed have some reinforcements coming! Brachyura has finally left its spot behind the Roost and may attack soon. Terrox becomes the last Cursed game piece to return from the Sea of Karkuda, having lost just one segment to the Geographe. Various Cursed ships return home for repairs and to unload food.

The Cursed don’t have much spending power these days, but the Grim Reaper is launched! She carries a nice complement of fighting crew to optimize her effectiveness, and the Cursed also relaunched a Death’s Anchor flotilla. The Grim Reaper will give the Cursed a much-needed presence in the middle area of the battle where you can see the Serpent’s Fang defending the entrance to the Roost itself (all by herself).

Pure carnage, with desperation and exhaustion taking over in the western area of the battlefield:

I thought I’d end this short report with the “faction situation analysis” that I’ve been hinting at.

Alliances:
French/Spanish (growing stronger by the turn in the Battle for the Castle)
English/French (weak/French don’t care about it right now)

Wars (faction who declared war listed first)
Jade Rebellion-Cursed
Americans-Pirates
Americans-French
Spanish-Americans (may have forgot to mention that the Spanish declared, but I guess it was pretty obvious lol)
English-Pirates

Other relationships
Pirates don’t like the Cursed or Jades (Cursed betrayed their trust, Jades recently fired on them)
Americans like the English (latter helped out in the Second Battle of the American whirlpool), but don’t know about English/French alliance
French don’t like the Mercenaries
French hate the Cursed
French hate the Pirates
Mercenaries don’t like anybody, but are intrigued by the Cursed after their attack on the disliked French

In my opinion, the Pirates and the French are in the best position to win the game right now. They have the largest fleets and considerable home island areas that will be difficult to penetrate by attack. The Cursed and the Pirates are probably the most-hated factions, though the Americans are at war with three different factions right now.

The English are in my opinion the dark horse candidate. However, their embarrassing blowout loss to the Pirates has put a serious dent in their hopes.

The Jades and Cursed hate each other more than any other two factions, and it’s quite possible that this battle (the fourth major engagement between them I think) will run until one faction is decisively victorious and the other possibly eliminated. The Jades would do well to ally with some of the non-Sea of Allost factions, but they still have not visited either of the other two oceans.

The French have major leverage, with two allies who both originate from the Caribbean. However, being on bad terms with the other two largest factions (Pirates and Americans, who combine for about 3,500 total points lol) means they will likely have to fight like hell to finish first.

The Pirates have adopted a home defense/isolationist strategy, but have the most enemies of any faction in the game. Only the Spanish don’t dislike the Pirates, and that is more from lack of contact than anything else. The Jades and Cursed aren’t particularly fond of the Pirates, but the Pirates dislike those two more than those two dislike the Pirates (Cursed wanted the French to turn on the Pirates but don’t want to fight them right now, while the Jades are neutral against the Pirates but feel they need to be hit so they don’t run away with the Sea of Allost once the JR-Cursed situation runs its course). The English, French, and Americans all hate the Pirates, and the Mercenaries aren’t fond of them either of course. (due to the Cursed attack on the French, the Mercs would have got wind by now of the Celtic Fury being in the Pirate fleet)

It will be interesting to see if any of the factions can mend any broken relationships, and if any potential surprise alliances can shake up the game. In the meantime, there’s a lot of animosity. XD Of course, what else would you expect from a crowded campaign game with 8 factions, over 9,000 points, and 71+ turns in the book?