Get ready to travel to an exotic new locale and brave new waters with the latest Pirates CSG release!
Coming in January 2025, Seas of Japan is a mixed-set mini-release featuring no less than FOUR brand-new ship/creature types!
It features 11 total game pieces – four core ships, three crew, one equipment, and three sea creatures. The sea creatures (at a minimum) will likely be a collectible element of the release. Much of the release is still in progress, including the distribution model – the collectibility aspect may depend on how I can make the product. It is more likely to be collectible if I can make it on styrene sheets with full cards.
The entire mini-release is rather exotic – probably the most exciting part is that ALL the ship/creature types are new designs! There is a lot of novelty with it, compared to something like the Golden Seas set. It is a “mixed set” release, with game pieces from both of my huge custom sets: Age of Sail and Epic Seas. This means it will have both historical game pieces, and fantasy elements.
It is more focused on gold than combat, unlike my recent releases (HMS Victory and the Cursed Mega Pack). It’s a bit gimmicky, but that’s in contrast to products like Golden Seas.
The pictured ship is the flagship of the set – one of two Japanese atakebune!
Atakemaru
Nationality: Japan
Point Cost: 12
Flags: 3
Cargo: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 4S-5L-5L
Link: Kuki Yoshitaka, Mukai Tadakatsu
Ability: Atakebune. Two hits are required to eliminate one of this ship’s flags.
Atakebune keyword: A ship with this keyword printed on its deckplate card has removable flags that are treated exactly the same as masts on a normal ship (they can be replaced by fire masts).
This ship may be given move actions when it has no flags; its printed base move becomes S. When given a move action, this ship can rotate on her bow (the front of the ship) OR stern (the rear of the ship) in any direction as an additional, final movement segment (she cannot rotate on both bow and stern in the same move action). This ship cannot pin or be pinned.
This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls for every crew assigned to her. If this ship wins a boarding party, she may steal one treasure from the enemy ship (winner’s choice), and eliminate one crew (loser’s choice).
This ship cannot be assigned treasure except for treasure taken via boarding party.
Crew assigned to this ship do not count towards the ship’s point limit.
If this ship has no crew, she cannot be given move actions.
Flavor Text: Mukai Tadakatsu wanted a new atakebune modeled after the six legendary Tekkōsen of Oda Nobunaga’s navy. With Yoshitaka in command of the war fleet, the Tokugawa Shogunate aim to strike fear in anyone opposing their rule.
Is this an official set? No, we are not Wizkids and none of this is technically official.
What do I get when I buy the set? 28 ships, 4 forts, 16 named crew. 10% chance of getting a Super Rare.
What factions are in the set? Pirates, English, Spanish and Dutch.
Will there be additional sets? Other production methods are currently being explored, and more sets are likely to be produced.
Why are there no Cursed (or insert favorite faction here) in the set? The set takes inspiration from the first 3 sets of Pirates, and I didn’t want too much of a supernatural element. It takes me back to the “glory days” of the game. Also, there wasn’t room for a lot of factions due to the sheer volume of work and time involved in actually making the set.
Why was the crew artwork generated with AI? Primarily, to save time and money. I am not a company with the money to fund an art team, nor am I a professional artist, nor am I someone who is going to let people’s opinions on AI art stop me from going after my dream of restarting the game.
-I made sure to research AI image generators, and only use the most ethical one I could find (Adobe Firefly).
-If the crew artwork was human-made, there is a good chance that the set wouldn’t be out by now, and/or would be more (possibly much more) expensive.
-I did not want a set with no crew artwork, so I was willing to take the “hit” from the anti-AI-art crowd if it meant seeing my vision for the set through to completion.
Why are there no coins in the set? The idea is to have sets that are as compatible as possible with the original sets of the game, and making coins that have identical backs, sheens, and edge textures identical to the original styrene coins is not easy. In addition, most players of the game already have more than enough coins to use for the game, so it was not a focus of production given how time-consuming it was to make everything else. Future sets and/or products might include new coins.
Why is it not collectible? Collating random booster packs by hand would be difficult for an individual, and the production method of 3D printing (additive rather than subtractive manufacturing) is not conducive to cards that get pieces punched out of them.
Why do the cards have rarities if it’s not collectible? It’s generally best to design files that are compatible with the highest amount of production and distribution methods, so I went with that as a default mode from the start. This way if a collectible distribution model becomes more feasible, the card files would be ready to go without needing to overhaul anything.
Why isn’t the set balanced? Why are some game pieces overpowered or underpowered?
Since I did nearly everything to make this set come to life, there was only so much time for playtesting. Balancing a game that already has over a thousand game pieces is difficult. The sheer volume of playtesting required to make sure a new set is “balanced” at this point is enormous. In addition, having everything be perfectly costed/etc could arguably be bad for business. Players usually gravitate towards the best game pieces, so it could be in a company’s best interest to put out awesome, memorable game pieces that attract attention (and even negative attention from overpowered game pieces could be good for the game’s publicity).
I understand that not everyone will like the new things that I make for the game. Feel free to make your own perfect custom set that is balanced against everything and that everyone loves, with all human-made art.
My design philosophy: Make all game pieces usable, or at least interesting to play. This doesn’t mean they will appear usable to everyone. This means they will be usable to me – I change up my fleets often, I’ve played games in the thousands of points where almost all game pieces eventually become usable, and I’ve played the game nearly 600 times. As a result, my definition of usable is probably different than some other players.
I can’t please everyone. Sometimes it feels like I can’t please anyone. At that point, the default becomes just making stuff that I find fun, interesting, or awesome (preferably at 2 or more of those 3). If you don’t like the direction I’m taking the game, feel free to make, design, produce, market and sell your own set(s). 🙂
Bottom line: If there were more game pieces/factions/etc in the set, it probably wouldn’t be out by now, maybe not even at all in 2024. I believe one of the reasons that nobody has ever done this is because nobody has been willing to take the plunge and work on it full-time for an extended period. For a set to be released where one person does the vast majority or all of the work, extreme amounts of time must be invested. Negative aspects of the set needed to be accepted to even get the project off the ground. Certain things were left out just to make a release possible in the first place.
Relevant comment: “Whoever is leading the charge in FFXVII’s development will make whatever Final Fantasy game they want. People will buy it. Some of those people will love it, some will hate it. A lot will compare it to its predecessors. Either way, people will be disappointed and internet arguments will be an inevitability.”
USS America Ship Debut, Golden Seas pieces, and a new “God Piece”
6/26/2024
This was a solo game that got pretty crazy. 4 fleets, 60 points (4×60). It featured multiple debuts – a new ship, a new crew from Golden Seas, and a new monstrosity for the ages….
I used the “Restarting Rules” that will be featured in the upcoming set, Pirates of the Golden Seas. It is a relatively minor rework of the original rules that I also plan to release digitally at some point in the future. Any rule changes relevant to this game will be noted in the battle report as they come up.
Here are the fleets in the order of play! (original game pieces found in the Master Spreadsheet)
English
HMS Devastator + Charlotte Godspry, captain, musketeer, oarsman
HMS Forge + captain, helmsman
HMS Galway
Both of those Golden Seas pieces have been shown in the Pirates community, but here they are for reference:
HMS Devastator
Nationality: English
Collector’s Number: 012
Point Cost: 22
Masts: 5
Cargo: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 2L-3L-3L-3L-2L
Link: Captain Armstrong
Ability: This ship’s cannons may not be eliminated (masts still may be). If derelict, she cannot shoot. If this ship hits an enemy ship on a 5-6, also eliminate one cargo from that ship.
Flavor Text: Reinvigorating England’s presence in the North Sea is the Devastator. Capable of a heavy broadside unmatched by most navies, she sails forth proudly from Devon with freshly minted cannons.
Designed by A7XfanBen, artwork by Gigi
Charlotte Godspry
Faction: England
Point Cost: 6
Ability: Helmsman. This ship’s crew cannot be eliminated unless she sinks.
Flavor text: A determined woman who rarely smiles, Charlotte Godspry had a difficult upbringing and had to claw her way into the Royal Navy. She performed well as a helmsman for many years before taking on her current advisory role. Seen on dozens of ships throughout the year, she trains sailors in many areas, including survival skills. She survived a number of intense battles by dodging falling debris and always knowing where the safest place on the ship would be.
Designed by A7XfanBen
Ivory Mask
Faction: Pirate
Point Cost: 3
Ability: Parley. This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls if she did not initiate the boarding party.
Flavor text: Concealed by mask at all times, this stealthy captain identifies more with pirates than with its own people. Time will tell if that allegiance can be tested.
Designed by A7XfanBen
Americans
USS America + captain, helmsman, shipwright, oarsman
Nene-nui + captain
USS Quigley + captain, helmsman
If you haven’t seen her by now, here is USS America!
USS America
Nationality: American
Collector’s Number: USA (ship is not part of any set; a limited-time, Limited Edition ship)
Point Cost: 23
Masts: 5
Cargo: 4
Base Move: S+L
Cannons: 3L-3S-2L-3S-3L
Link: John Barry, John Paul Jones
Ability: Friendly American ships within L of this ship get +1 to their cannon rolls. French crew can use their abilities on this ship.
Flavor Text: When the French were not able to take delivery of the first American-built 74-gun ship of the line due to British blockades, she was welcomed back to the United States with open arms. The mere sight of her produces joyous crowds, exuberant over their earned freedom and eager to pay homage to those who died in the Revolution. A new paint job and armament upgrades make her the finest ship in the fledgling United States Navy.
Designed by A7XfanBen
Now through 11:59pm PST on the Fourth of July, you can buy USS America and get 20% off the other items you order! After that, both the ship and the deal will be gone.
Barbary Corsairs
Wicked Kareen + captain, helmsman, explorer
Marrakesh + helmsman
Griffin + captain, helmsman, explorer
Morocco + helmsman, explorer
Pasha’s Delight + captain, oarsman
Fleets were allowed to place 3 terrain each, including up to 1 oversized terrain piece. Terrain selection included some rocks that I haven’t used before – similar to other obstacles you may have seen in past reports.
Each fleet contributed 8 coins, with 7 being of any value or type and 1 being a UT of their choice. This led to a little strategy, with the Corsairs choosing a bunch of 7’s (with a gold-oriented fleet) and the Americans choosing lower values given their wolf pack attack strategy.
8 wild islands with 4 coins each:
The Americans set sail, with their brand-new flagship ready for action:
The Corsairs are the first to explore:
An overhead view from the southwest, showing the Pirates and Corsairs scattering while the English warships go west via round earth:
The Cutlass fires the first shots of the day! However, both miss the Marrakesh. Neptune’s Hoard reveals Coconut to explore; his Reroll ability should help the NH keep an adequate pace throughout the game. Not a good ship, but a funky crew setup of combos I wanted to try out.
Wicked Kareen sails over and delivers a broadside to the Cutlass, just barely missing on two cannons. Marrakesh explores, leaving behind a single coin.
By now the Corsairs had brought home multiple treasure loads from their other ships, Griffin and Morocco. This netted them a healthy sum of gold, which they would now utilize to construct one of the most epic and crazy game pieces I have ever had the great fortune of bringing to life!!
Behold:
THE LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA
In my timeline, this Ancient Wonder of the World was not destroyed by earthquakes in the 1300’s….
It survived and has now been repaired and resurrected by the Barbary Corsairs!!
Rarely have I been this excited about a specific custom game piece. I conceived of this concept of an “alternate history” and bringing this epic idea into the game earlier this year. I was ecstatic to find 3D printable models of it, and quickly developed the concept of a new “god piece”. It is absolutely meant to rival game pieces like Paradis de la Mer or even the Zeus. Doing it justice requires a big vision, and this grand display will not disappoint. The lighthouse concept originally comes from my friend Jeremiah, but I wanted to expand on his Lighthouse keyword and make a wild version of it that could potentially see some crazy uses in future campaign games.
Here are the stats and rules I used for it in this initial “playtest” game:
The Lighthouse of Alexandria
Collector’s Number: 1032 (an LE in my fantasy set, Pirates of the Epic Seas)
Faction: Barbary Corsairs
Gold Cost: 6
Cargo: 5
Cannons: 3L-3L-3L-3L
Ability: Grand Lighthouse. Forward Observer. Mortar. The cannons of this lighthouse are measured from each of its four corners; the cannons may be rearranged as cannons are lost. The bottom segment of this lighthouse does block its own lines of fire. If this lighthouse loses its light, it has additional segments that must be eliminated before the lighthouse can be eliminated (3 total not including the light). Each piece represents a cannon – one for the light, one each for the top half sections, and one for the main tower. When this lighthouse has at least its bottom 3 segments, once per turn you may choose one enemy ship within the lighthouse range (L+L+L) and roll a d6; on a 4-5, the target’s controller replaces one of her masts with a fire mast. On a 6, the target’s controller replaces two of her masts with fire masts.
Keywords: Grand Lighthouse:
Building lighthouses follows the conditions for building forts. Gold used to build the lighthouse is placed face-up next to the lighthouse and still counts towards a player’s total for victory conditions. A lighthouse cannot use its abilities on the same turn that it is built.
If the Lighthouse has its light, a friendly ship within L+L+L of the Lighthouse gets +S to its base move once per turn (a yellow L+L+L tool can be used to indicate the range of this effect, or a light yellow plastic can be placed under the lighthouse).
Two hits from the same shoot action are required to eliminate the light; when it is eliminated, remove it from the lighthouse. Once a lighthouse loses its light, it loses the L+L+L effect but retains its other abilities. The light is considered the first segment of this lighthouse; once the light is eliminated, the other segments may be eliminated with each successive hit (which do not need to come from the same shoot action). The segments of this lighthouse must be eliminated in order from top to bottom. A lighthouse is eliminated when all of its segments have been eliminated. When a lighthouse is eliminated, the gold used to build the lighthouse remains on the island (face down).
Enemy ships cannot load treasure or drop off crew or equipment from this island. Enemy ships may dock at this island and try to capture the lighthouse. When an enemy ship docks at this island, either player may initiate a boarding party; if so both players roll a d6. The lighthouse controller adds the number of segments remaining and the number of crew in the lighthouse. If the ship wins, the lighthouse is captured. If the lighthouse wins, the enemy ship is considered undocked and loses two masts.
If a friendly ship is docked at the island, it can give up its turn to give a repair action to the lighthouse.
If a lighthouse has cargo space available, shipwrights and musketeers can use their abilities inside a lighthouse. (based on Jeremiah’s Lighthouse keyword)
Forward Observer: Each friendly ship within the light radius of the lighthouse gains +1 to their cannon rolls. A ship must be within the radius when the cannon roll is made. This ability does not affect ships that move out of the radius and then start shooting. (designed by Jeremiah)
Mortar: This lighthouse gains a rank 3 cannon with a range of L+L measured from any part of the lighthouse base. This cannon may only shoot once per turn. (designed by Jeremiah)
Flavor text: Expanding their coastline eastwards to Egypt, the Corsairs were stunned to find this nearly forgotten Wonder of the World in fair condition. Conducting extensive repair work and equipping it with modern weapons, they have turned it into a terrifying monstrosity. It is now considered one of the great strongholds of the Mediterranean, commanding presence for miles around.
Since it is a historical fiction game piece and not accurate to real-life events, I have put it in my Epic Seas set.
As night falls on the ocean, who knows what terrible fate may befall those who dare challenge the newfound power of an Ancient Wonder of the World….
A quick glance at the massive L+L+L range (I’ll abbreviate to 3L for this report, not to be confused with a regular 3L cannon). The Archimedes heat ray ability is already in range of USS America! Hence why I added the “cannot use abilities on turn it’s built” clause. XD The Corsairs did pay for the lighthouse on time, I just forgot to put the 6 gold face up on the island at first in my excitement to take pictures. 😀
The reach of Corsair influence is now greatly expanded, as the lighthouse commands an incredible presence on the seascape.
A massive triumph for the Corsairs! Given their proximity to the city of Alexandria and their lack of forts, they felt like the most appropriate faction to give this “god piece” to. I’ve thought of it in my mind as “the Corsair answer to Paradis de la Mer”. I’ve also started thinking about making a superpowered campaign game variant, possibly to base entire scenarios around.
I think that reveal deserved a full “intermission”; now let’s get back to the flow of the game!
The Cutlass can’t escape via the fog bank she launched her attack from, so the Pirates go for broke! Her attack on Marrakesh mostly succeeds, but the boarding result is a tie! (Restarting Rule: winners of boarding parties choose which result happens and which treasure to take if applicable; losers choose which crew is eliminated)
The first Corsair turn with The Lighthouse of Alexandria is a success! Wicked Kareen sinks the Cutlass, with Marrakesh arriving home to unload and repair. Morocco will be giving the Weapons UT to Pasha’s Delight, who is playing the role of lighthouse keeper. At the upper right, the extra S segment shows that the extreme range of the lighthouse is already benefiting the Griffin on her journey southwards.
The heat ray ability missed on both of its first two rolls – first on Nene-nui, then against HMS Devastator, arriving near home on the right via round earth. HMS Galway found the Maps of Hades UT, but managed to avoid its negative effect. The English started the game with just 4 cargo spaces open, but they’re making a killing in the gold game with massive values. HMS Forge carries two 7’s, with a third on the way from the Galway. HMS Devastator loaded a 3 after Forge explored in the west, giving them a nice total of 24 on just 4 coins if they can get it all home next turn.
After the lighthouse was built, the Americans turned around and headed northwest towards an unexplored island. This speaks volumes about the deterrence factor of the lighthouse against even a combat fleet. With USS America providing a heavy escort, USS Quigley docks there with Nene-nui on the way. With the Morocco’s spying ability, the Corsairs have already seen all the coins on the island and know it’s a hefty sum. NN found the UT Cotton’s Parrot. Ningpo takes an L+L potshot at NN with her sniping ability, but misses with a 4.
Indeed, the north is where the action was at this point in the game. USS America and her support gunships keep the northwest calm, but the northeast will be devolving into skirmishes. Griffin (Corsairs) and Asp (Pirates) both had designs on the island, with Griffin exploring first and taking a 5. The Corsairs offered to leave the 3 on the island for the Asp to pick up in return for the Asp not attacking them, but the Pirates didn’t take them up on that offer with both Forge and America lurking so close by (they probably didn’t believe them either, but the Corsairs were being truthful about the values).
The Asp initiated a boarding party to steal the 5, rather than getting blasted by Forge after exploring to load the 3. However, Wicked Kareen has followed the Griffin through the whirlpool and into the area, further complicating the situation….
The Galway probably would have joined her English comrades going north, but instead a terrible event has befallen her….
Maps of Hades allows the Americans to control the Galway for a move action, sending her into range of the Lighthouse of Alexandria! The heat ray magnifies the sun’s rays and lights up the Galway’s foresail!
Pasha’s Delight comes over to finish her off:
Griffin launches a counterattack on the Asp, hitting both shots. However, her crew’s attempt at a boarding party is a disaster, with the Asp ready for hand-to-hand combat.
Wicked Kareen lived up to her flagship billing for the Corsairs, shooting off the Asp’s final mast and boarding to steal the 5. Asp’s crew were exhausted after boarding the Griffin twice, and could only muster a feeble resistance (1 roll).
However, the dominoes were not done falling in the northeast. It was finally time for the English to start flexing their might!
HMS Forge surges forth, sinking the Asp (which would end up being fa key moment) and damaging the Wicked Kareen.
The Corsairs fled with their gold, content to let the English take the remaining 3. They knew they could outpace the English and went to the south via round earth. The Pirates only have two ships remaining – NH is slowly grabbing a single coin, while Ningpo escorts her. Ningpo’s captain thought about going north to take another potshot at the Nene-nui, but thought better of it given the looming power and striking distance of USS America.
The fleets bring home gold and regroup in a calm pair of turns:
At this stage of the game, it was clear that the Corsairs were likely in the lead given the sheer quantity of coins they possessed. In addition, they had a massive deterrent on their side in the Lighthouse of Alexandria. The English and Americans decided to agree on a plan. They would form an alliance, with the goal of taking down the massive lighthouse. After the destruction of the lighthouse, all bets were off. This speaks to the immense power of the lighthouse – not even the two most well-armed factions in this particular 4×60 game felt comfortable trying to take on the Corsairs alone. The Pirates got wind of this plan and were eventually included in the coalition, making it a potential 3-on-1 fight.
The Corsairs didn’t know about such talks of course, but with Morocco’s spying ability they had now seen every single coin on the home islands and felt comfortable with their position. Here is how it stacked up:
Corsairs: 34 gold, with 6 in the lighthouse
English: 27 gold
Americans: 26 gold
Pirates: 18 gold
Knowing this information, the Corsairs were in an enviable position: theoretically they should win either way. Even if the lighthouse was destroyed and the English OR Americans got all 6 of its gold, the Corsairs would win either 34-33 or 34-32. As a result, they felt confident in their ability to come out victorious. However, there was one thing they didn’t know about… a crew they couldn’t spy on, and an outcome they would not have predicted….
The Americans and English jockey for position. They were massing on the west side of the map, in order to get as close as possible to the lighthouse with their combined forces before surging west across round earth for a full-scale assault.
The Americans proposed a new clause in the Anglo-American agreement: since the English were ahead of the Americans (they had truthfully disclosed their HI gold totals to each other) and the English HI was closer to the lighthouse island, the Americans should take the northerly attack route. Else the English might have a very quick trip home with all the lighthouse gold – if they could snatch it up of course. The English thought this fair and agreed to take the southern half of the attack formation.
Knowing they were unlikely to win, the Pirates launch a distraction to help their allies on the other side of the lighthouse. However, Ningpo misses both snipe shots against Morocco. She is now within range of the lighthouse…
… and promptly gets blasted!
I think now is a good time to explain the Pirate motivations here as the endgame phase began. With almost no shot at winning, the Pirates were looking to play kingmaker. They had a favorite horse in this race – the Americans. Earlier in the game, Ningpo had shot at the Americans, who still haven’t returned fire at the Pirates at all. The English sank the Asp, making the Pirates dislike them. The Pirates despise the Corsairs, having gotten into intense skirmishes and scuffles with them. As a result, the Pirates would much prefer the Americans win the game instead of the Corsairs (especially) or the English.
Ivory Mask (still face down!) hatched a plan: he could intentionally get shot at by the Americans later in the game and then activate Parley to transfer Pirate gold to the American home island. It would require the Americans to survive the upcoming battle, but the Neptune’s Hoard could hang back from the conflict and tell the English about the plan instead if the Americans were eliminated (just to make sure the Corsairs didn’t win).
In the meantime, Wicked Kareen dismasted the Ningpo, dooming her to a fiery fate. The other Corsair galleys gather around the lighthouse, with the other fighters (Griffin and Pasha’s Delight) ready to defend against the eastern onslaught.
TIME TO ATTACK!! An epic climax was in store as new game pieces and concepts clashed in a wild fray!!
USS America is the only ship capable of getting more than 1 cannon in range of the lighthouse (2 hits from the same shoot action to eliminate the light), but she only shoots 1/3 for no damage! This did not bode well for the attackers….
The Corsairs score massive damage! Another blast from the heat ray lights a blaze on USS America, who takes damage from the Griffin as well. HMS Devastator loses masts to a mortar shot and a perfect 2/2 from Pasha’s Delight, who I believe benefited from the Forward Observer ability heavily in this game. Given that they probably didn’t need to retain the lighthouse gold to win the game, the Corsairs went all-out in their attack, boarding recklessly and losing three generic crew.
In a surprise to the Ivory Mask, Wicked Kareen surges northwest and attacks the Neptune’s Hoard! The Pirates were expecting the Corsair flagship to join the fight in the east, but the Corsairs were in full “barbaric mode”, simply attacking anything in sight! Too scared to reveal his Parley capabilities, Ivory Mask stayed face down as the NH began losing masts.
Indeed, the entire game was quickly turning into a bloodbath, and to make matters worse, night was falling on the grisly scene. Luckily the combatants had the lighthouse to guide their efforts.
But not for long!! HMS Devastator unleashes a full broadside (6 shots when including Musketeer), shooting poorly but still managing to hit the lighthouse twice and finally extinguish its light!
Some hours later as many hours of fighting pass….
As the sun rises, the tide is turning. USS America’s hardy crew managed to keep her fire at bay even as her cannons blazed. They dismasted and captured the Morocco as the lighthouse tower began to crumble amidst the cannonade. HMS Forge used her short-range cannons to dismast the Pasha’s Delight.
USS Quigley got in on the action and contributed a hit against the lighthouse, with part of the upper tower crashing down and nearly hitting the ship.
The Nene-nui was next up, the last of the 5 ships mustered by the Anglo-American alliance. She dealt a final blow to the lighthouse, sending it crashing down into the ocean and sending shockwaves through the game!!
The coalition was successful in destroying the lighthouse… but now we would see the true desperation of the endgame phase….
This final chunk of the game was an utter mess that lasted longer than I expected it to. The teeter-totter nature of a typical Pirates CSG endgame was on full display.
The Corsairs continued their boarding attacks, with the Pasha’s Delight and Nene-nui losing their captains.
Wicked Kareen continued to attack NH, with the Ivory Mask growing more and more worried that the plan wouldn’t work out.
Bedlam!! Shots from Griffin and Forge make the survival of USS America doubtful, but the Americans counter by building Thompson’s Island where the lighthouse stood in hopes of salvaging their flagship! Due to the timing of a fire mast scuttle, USS America rows at S+S to the island, where the captured Morocco is able to dock. However, the fort was built at the end of the American turn, so the flames don’t extinguish automatically upon the fort’s construction. HMS Forge has captured Pasha’s Delight, while Quigley eliminates two masts from HMS Devastator! Quigley’s crew killing ability is negated by Charlotte Godspry’s Crew Protect.
At the upper left, NH fights back against Wicked Kareen continuously, and the battle is about evenly matched:
USS America is sunk! HMS Devastator dismasts Quigley, who is towed by the captured (American) Morocco.
The fort sinks HMS Devastator! Now all three “superweapons” are gone, leaving the outcome of the game up to the supporting casts of each fleet.
In a semi-miracle, Marrakesh goes 2/2 with a pair of 6’s to beat up the Nene-nui! (on cannons of 4S and 5S) Griffin continues to harass Forge, while NN has shot at Griffin.
Incredibly, Neptune’s Hoard has won her fight against the Wicked Kareen! The Corsair flagship has lost all her masts and can only row around, with no way to eliminate the final mast on NH. Ivory Mask (still face down!!) breathes a sigh of relief. He nearly emerged to use his defensive boarding bonus in an attempt to save Coconut, but none of the boarding scores were close enough for it to make a difference. His identity still hidden, he lies in wait, only to reveal Parley at the opportune moment so as not to alert the Corsairs to a possible alternate winner….
HMS Forge finally gets off a perfect broadside, slamming the fort and dismasting the Griffin. Pasha’s Delight captures Griffin, both of whom are now part of the English fleet.
Morocco narrowly avoids getting wrecked on the reef to bring Quigley back into the fold. The cannoneers on Marrakesh continue their best day in recorded history, shooting near-perfect to almost sink the Nene-nui! Thompson’s Island takes a mast off the Forge, meaning that Marrakesh is now the healthiest ship in play. She also appears to be the strongest in combat right now, making her one of the most unexpected “beast ships” in my history of games.
HMS Forge destroys the fort and dismasts Quigley with a ram! Pasha’s Delight rows in to dock at the island, meaning the English can automatically dock the towed ship (Griffin) as well. Griffin gets an explore action, but only loads the 1 (vs. 3 and 5 coins) from the island because the English realize she has a low chance of getting home with any gold. Ivory Mask watches from afar, hoping the Americans can somehow pull out of the area with a seaworthy vessel despite no masts or fort flags currently standing in their fleet. He decides to let the Americans in on his plan….
The shenanigans continue! Just rebuild Thompson’s Island! XD
The best play for the Americans is to build the fort again, providing firepower in an increasingly weak area as well as a key repair base. The continual fort construction is slowly draining their HI, but they’re hoping Ivory Mask will keep his word and help them out with gold in the long term.
After taking some damage, the new Thompson’s Island counterattacks and sinks HMS Forge with great shooting! Morocco and NN repair, while the English basically accept defeat (in the area at least) and attempt to row their captured and damaged galleys out of the debris field. Forge captured Quigley before sinking, but the latter probably won’t be an asset with how long it will take to make her serviceable.
Griffin rows towards the whirlpool but is just barely caught and rammed by the Wicked Kareen! With the help of the Weapons UT, the Corsairs manage to tie the boarding score at 6 against a valiant effort from the Griffin’s English prize crew. Marrakesh finally ran out of luck, abandoning her anti-American crusade after losing two masts to the fort and/or NN.
Thompson’s Island sinks the Wicked Kareen with a well-placed shot, while Marrakesh is dismasted by NN. With the Corsairs off their tail, the English successfully navigate the whirlpools to arrive in calmer waters near home. The multi-stage battle is finally over.
NN unsuccessfully chases Marrkesh around in a whirlpool dance. In a strange outcome for the English, Griffin is able to dock home her 1 coin as the English reconcile that they will likely finish the game with 3 captured ships and no English ships in their possession.
Morocco picks up some gold from the fort, one of which is the 5 used to build the Lighthouse of Alexandria. She heads northwest to rendezvous with the Neptune’s Hoard, who has been patiently waiting for quite a long time now.
Morocco’s gunports open, with her pitiful 5S cannons about to open fire on the last Pirate ship remaining in play. Ivory Mask finally reveals himself, and the wealth transfer begins. Over the course of a few turns, the Americans get the Pirates to Parley 4 of their coins to the American HI. The Pirates feel decently confident that they’ve ensured a non-enemy will win the game. They break off the gold siphon with just one coin left to avoid getting shut out.
At this point, the English were gearing up for a three-ship attack on the new Thompson’s Island, while the Marrakesh was considering reefing herself and hoping other players would get eliminated so they could finally count.
Normally the game would go on due to the fort gold being available, but the Americans decided to end the insanity and reveal their entire portfolio of goodies. A whopping 44 gold now sat on their HI, which was more than any other faction could lay claim to. The Americans argued that even if the English or Corsairs got the 3 gold still in Thompson’s Island, it would not be enough to catch the Americans (closest possible score being 37 for the Corsairs). With no home island raiders in play, there was effectively no way to decrease the American gold score. (short of capturing Ivory Mask on the NH and somehow looping in a third party for another intentional Parley transfer to swing the gold race, which would truly be shenanigan central)
With that, the other factions agreed to this sort of “inevitable/stalemate forfeit”, ending the game at last.
The scores:
Americans: 44 gold (47 including Thompson’s Island)
Barbary Corsairs: 34
English: 28
Pirates: 2
What a game! The first phase saw a dominant Barbary Corsair fleet aided by a powerful new game piece, but the second phase saw it unravel at the hands of a 3-fleet coalition. The endgame was wild, as we saw all the factions duke it out in chaos with the Pirates eventually being able to essentially choose a winner via Ivory Mask’s Parley ability.
Given its massive power and ability to influence a game, the following changes were made to The Lighthouse of Alexandria: Cost of 8 gold (instead of 6); the “Archimedes’ heat ray” ability will now place a single fire mast only on rolls of 5-6, instead of one fire mast on a 4-5 and two on a 6.
Very happy to debut USS America and the Lighthouse of Alexandria! I expect to see both of them again in some future games. Hope you enjoyed the new stuff and the Golden Seas pieces. Thanks for reading!
Are you tired of the game being out of print? Have you waited years for our beloved pirate game to come back? Get ready to hoist the colors!
The first set to be commercially available since 2008 will soon be for sale!
Pirates of the Golden Seas is a half-size custom set that has been in development since 2021. After years of progress, hundreds of hours of work, hundreds of failed 3D prints, thousands of painstaking meticulous file edits, playtesting and more, the set is finally ready to sail. Disclaimer: This set is not associated or affiliated with Wizkids.
The initial print run is only 10 copies of the set due to the slow and labor-intensive production method, but I will be exploring additional production method options this year.
Each set is planned to be sold as a factory set (non-collectible). This is due to the difficulty of making random packs out of ships that only have 1 card each (the deckplate/stats card). However, it can bring relief to fans of the game who dislike the collectible pack sales strategy and proponents of one-time purchases and the living card game model.
The set contains 48 game pieces: 28 ships, 4 forts, and 16 named crew. There are 4 factions, including one new faction. The set will also be packaged with some other goodies, including a new alternate ruleset initially developed for use with the set. I generated the crew artwork with Adobe Firefly, which is the most ethical artwork generator I could find. From Adobe: “The current Firefly generative AI models were trained on a dataset of licensed content, such as Adobe Stock, and public domain content where copyright has expired.”
The set will cost somewhere north of $200 USD, given the enormous amount of hours and labor that have gone into making the set a reality. Tens of thousands of dollars have been foregone in potential wages and opportunity costs to develop and produce the set. Sales of the initial production run will be limited to 1 per customer.
I extend a massive thank you and appreciation to my main collaborators: Gigi, Chops, Xerecs and Vulkan. They each played a direct role in the set’s completion. Gigi designed the artwork for more than half the ships and also made the new ship designs. Chops made the initial designs for most of the new faction’s game pieces. Xerecs was a reliable partner for playtesting and rule/ability changes. Vulkan’s advice shortened the production process by many hours. I also have to thank the other gracious members of the community who helped me in some form or another: Woelf, DoubleAAsauce, TilorFire27, Arshellan and Gladius.
The set currently does not have a release date, but the set will be released in summer 2024. To stay in-the-know about Golden Seas, subscribe to The Pirate Press email newsletter for game piece previews!
Let’s have a look at the first game piece preview from Pirates of the Golden Seas!
HMS Devastator
Nationality: English
Collector’s Number: 012
Point Cost: 22
Masts: 5
Cargo: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 2L-3L-3L-3L-2L
Link: Captain Armstrong
Ability: This ship’s cannons may not be eliminated (masts still may be). If derelict, she cannot shoot. If this ship hits an enemy ship on a 5-6, also eliminate one cargo from that ship.
Flavor Text: Reinvigorating England’s presence in the North Sea is the Devastator. Capable of a heavy broadside unmatched by most navies, she sails forth proudly from Devon with freshly minted cannons.
The latest English flagship is an absolute powerhouse. This is the most expensive ship in the set. I wanted this set to have a classic feel, almost like a different take on the original Spanish Main set. A grand English warship to start off the game piece previews, which will continue up until the set is released.
Pirates of the Golden Seas is the largest project I’ve undertaken in my 13+ years of obsession with the game, bigger than Command the Oceans (the 3 month long full time campaign game I played in 2017) and anything else I’ve done. It has also been by far the hardest, with dozens of 3D printing setbacks, redoing a lot of the artwork files multiple times, and learning new software, hardware, and processes to produce the set.
I have avoided much of the previews and hype I usually share because I wanted to make sure it was possible before making a formal announcement. Many Pirates CSG projects have been started and abandoned over the years, including some of my own projects. I did not want an undertaking of this size to end up as false hope or a failed venture.
Getting this project off the ground was a huge workload. Every ship is 3D printed, with the longest prints taking over 5 hours to print just a handful of ships. In addition, every single ship has to be decaled by hand – for 10 sets, that means individually decaling 320 ships/forts, 480 cards, and 160 crew chips. As mentioned, in the near future additional production methods will be explored to hopefully drive down the time and money costs of making a set. Other distribution methods than a factory set may also be pursued.
There are some compromises I’ve had to make during production – sometimes the curved bow areas need glue to keep the decals from peeling, and pennants are generally a nightmare due to how small they are and the tolerances of getting them to fit onto mainmast slots (any potential future set I make will likely have the later mast designs to avoid pennants). However, there are also some advantages to the production method. PLA (polylactic acid, the filament type I used with the 3D printers) is less brittle than styrene, making the parts much harder to snap. In the main Pirates CSG survey, breakability of the parts was one of the chief complaints about the game, so this should be a major improvement. In addition, the artwork really pops from the glossy vinyl decals, with lamination doing a great job of protecting the ink.
Thanks to my awesome friend Gigi, a unique Christmas gift arrived recently: a Maelstrom game mat! 😀 He was inspired to make it after seeing the concept as a Game Idea, and now fittingly enough I will be able to recreate the incredible scene from At World’s End! I’ve come up with both regular and deathmatch house rules which you can see below. The Maelstrom game mat is about 3 feet square, and has 10 concentric circles within it, not counting the foreboding center area.
General House Rules:
-Ships can only travel around the maelstrom in an “anticlockwise” direction, just like in At World’s End.
-A move segment is required in order to move from one concentric ring to an adjacent one. This uses that move segment for the move action. Instead of moving the ship forward around the ring it’s currently in, move it laterally to the desired adjacent ring. (ex: a ship with L+S base move can use either segment to move to an adjacent ring, then use the other segment afterwards to move forward in that new ring. Or, it can jump two rings, or move L+S in the ring it’s already inside of.)
Maelstrom of Gold Scenario
These house rules are for a regular game with gold, though additional changes may be necessary.
-Set up for a regular game of Pirates, but with a minimum distance between islands of only 1L or 2L.
-Ships in the innermost ring can shoot at other ships in that ring regardless of cannon range (“unlimited” range to reach ships on the other side), as long as a clear line of fire can be drawn to the other ship.
-If a ship enters the center of the maelstrom, immediately remove the ship and all her cargo from the game.
Deathmatch Scenario
These house rules are for a deathmatch, ideal for recreating the epic movie scene.
-No islands. Each fleet starts outside the maelstrom on one of the four corners (opposite sides in a 1v1 deathmatch), and must enter the maelstrom from that corner during the first round (though not necessarily in the same spot for all ships).
-Ships cannot move rings towards the outside of the maelstrom. Concentric ring movement is limited to going towards the center of the maelstrom, as all ships get sucked into the middle.
-At the end of each player’s turn, each of their ships move laterally one ring closer to the center. (this cannot result in ramming/boarding/etc because it is not a move action)
-Ships within the innermost 3 rings of the maelstrom can shoot at other ships in those rings regardless of cannon range (“unlimited” range to reach ships on the other side), as long as a clear line of fire can be drawn to the other ship.
-If a ship enters the center of the maelstrom, she may be given one final action (unless she has already been given two actions that turn) before being removed from the game.
-Eternal only works once, regardless of whether or not the ship was sunk normally or by entering the center of the maelstrom. If Eternal is triggered, the ship returns to the corner of the map she started in, outside the maelstrom. She can repair normally there, and the player can move the ship into the maelstrom before repairing all masts. If all masts are repaired, the ship’s next action must be to move the ship into the maelstrom.
Other Ideas!
These are meant to be interesting alternatives worth trying out, but not part of the core scenario ideas.
-Changing the movement rules: Instead of using an entire move segment to move laterally from one ring to another, ships can move “normally” under the same idea – you still need a move segment to cross a ring line, but you can move forward/diagonally as normal for enhanced speed.
-You may voluntarily eliminate any type of cargo during a ship’s action to move laterally towards the outside of the whirlpool (as if the ship is getting lighter and can potentially outpace the maelstrom).
-Risky middle: ships in the innermost 3 rings get +S to their base move, but must roll a d6 at the end of each of their actions. On a 1-2, they lose a mast.
-All range extending abilities are doubled (or tripled). Ex: a flotilla with S range cannons and Extended Range can now shoot at a range of 4S (or 6S if tripling is preferred).
-Maximum shooting: S range cannons shot from within the innermost 5 rings can shoot at targets within those rings. L range cannons can hit anything in the maelstrom rings that a clear line of fire can be drawn to. Or, all S range cannons have a range of 6S and all L range cannons have a range of 6L.
-Combine with the Other Worlds scenario with the Maelstrom being the “home island ocean” with HI’s on the outskirts of the maelstrom. Only once a ship reaches the center of the maelstrom can she use it as a whirlpool to teleport to the other oceans where the gold lies. (this may require banning HI raiders or other house rules to discourage blockading)
I realize there are a lot of game mechanics that might get fuzzy or confusing given these house rules, but they can be worked out as necessary. This post is subject to editing upon playtesting. 🙂
This was quite a long turn for me in CG4 – I tracked the time spent and including this battle report and everything else, the turn took over 30 hours to complete. O_O
New Rules:
-Forts can be given repair actions if they have a shipwright in them. They cannot repair and shoot on the same turn unless they have an extra action available.
-Relaunching Rule: Non Big-6 factions (Big 6 being England, France, Spain, Pirate, America, Cursed) can relaunch Wizkids AND custom game pieces without restrictions other than the No-Duplicates rule being applied to their own fleet. (this is to give the minor factions more of a chance if their best ships are captured and not traded in)
The Master Spreadsheet has information on all the Wizkids game pieces mentioned in this report, while the Customs Database has the custom ones.
PirateAJ14 and Xerecs Factions
PirateAJ14’s Americans cashed in metals to launch the Franklin and Ghost Walker.
Xerecs’ turn marked the start of a new round, and it would be the final round for this LONG duration of resource values!
The Spanish launched the Viento Enfermo, while the Jade Rebellion launched the Sea Fang and Tycoon, both from the_grandmaster’s Back to War set.
It was a huge turn for the Conglomerate! Mata-Nui copied the Arcane, and with the help of Helyrex’s reroll ability, got the 6!! Hidden Trove was brought in to give the Conglomerate over 500 gold!!! O_O
The Conglomerate got busy spending and launching, putting 10 new ships into the water. Among these were a pair of 10 masters, the Outbound Flight and Okoto! Among other ability hightlights, the Outbound Flight is a 40 point 10 master with L-immunity moving S+S+S (!), while the Okoto has Treasure Ship and a base cargo hold of 9! Suddenly the Conglomerate look like a real threat, especially in the western half of the sea, which has been a bit less populous and active thus far in the game.
The English launched HMS Howell, a high-quality unreleased ship.
One of the Longest Turns of All Time
First, I was able to resolve the Pandora’s Box chaos from the previous round.
A review of what they demanded to receive:
The Cursed: Nemo’s Plans (done)
Vikings: Antikythera Mechanism (done)
Barbary Corsairs: Mask of Concealment (not complied with-Skull Spiders instead)
Dutch: Runes of Thor (FN)
Americans: Aegis Shield (The Vengeance of the Cadet Captain)
Mercenaries: Nightmare’s Knot (Fiends of the Blood Islands)
French: Garai (Pirates of Spherus Magna)
Spanish: Mask of Valor (Pirates of Spherus Magna)
Jade Rebellion: The Ring (Seas of Doom)
The Conglomerate: Mask of Wisdom (Spherus Magna)
English: Neptune’s Figurehead (CC)
Here are the UT’s the Pirates actually received from the other players:
Dutch: Runes of Magic
Americans: Plague
Mercenaries: Dead Man’s Chest (OE version)
French: Runes of the Serpent
Spanish: Forged Papers
Jade Rebellion: Abandoned Oarsman
The Conglomerate: Nemo’s Charts
English: Bad Plans
THIS MADE THE PIRATES EXTREMELY ANGRY!!!!
Using the Bomb Box, the Pirates threw out Plague and Bad Plans. The Pirates were irked that the Americans and English gave them negative UT’s. However, almost NONE of the factions in the game gave the Pirates what they wanted! We’ll see how that turns out!
With Studding Sails the Gale Force Nine and Blackleaf took off from the home island at L+L+S+S, as fast as the Hai Peng! Some resource gatherers got home with valuable metals, while a lot of ships seem to be making a beeline for that fogpool….
Some ships at the metals island deferred docking for now to allow room for inevitable Pirate launches coming at the end of the turn. Between Hidden Trove, Evenstar, Silverback John, and a likely change in resource values, the Pirates aren’t too concerned anymore with maximizing their metals production.
First the Hera arrived! She sacced an oarsman to broadside the Diablo flotilla and the ship towing it, El Algeciras! She hit 8/10 to sink the flotilla and nearly dismast the 2 master! The Deceit came through next, providing a canceller in the area for the Pirates. She was also using Phineas Bunce’s ability on the Zeus, giving the latter an extra cannon bonus on top of Lord Henry McLean’s regular bonus. This basically made the Zeus have all 1S cannons for this turn! She blasted away at the Joya del Sol and Castigue, shooting 6/9, causing considerable damage.
The Slave Revolt was next, saccing an oarsman to get a move and shoot after arriving through the whirlpool. Her cannon barrage was disappointing, not coming close to dismasting the Castigue as she was supposed to. However, with Capitaine Chevalle’s Cargo Wrecking ability, her 2 hits on the Castigue still took out 2 of her 3 crew.
The Howler was the next ship through the whirlpools, revealing both Grim the Savage (F&S version) and Richard Berry! With a pair of Marines, this submarine was able to shoot a pair of 2S shots while still submerged! One of them connected, causing further damage to the Castigue.
The Pirates were growing frustrated that their incredible firepower couldn’t even take out this relatively simple Spanish squadron, and so they surprised even themselves by sending the Tempest into the fray with an extra action via Elizabeth’s Piece of Eight (EPoE) on the Jolly Mon. She hit 3/5 to beat up on the Castigue, who was now nearly dismasted. The Leviathan warped into the area, using Edmund Cooke’s +1 cannon bonus against the Spanish to help eliminate 2 canoes and dismast the Algeciras. The Harbinger arrived and took a second action via Sac, but my poor dice luck would not stop, with the Harbinger rolling four 1’s and only hitting once to eliminate a single canoe.
All in all the Pirates were very disappointed with the final result of their sudden, brutal surprise attack. Still, they had managed to dismast 2 ships, nearly dismasted another, and eliminated 3 native canoes. This shows a couple interesting things – for one, whirlpool attacks can be limited in scope because ships can only be given one extra action after arriving via the whirlpool on the same turn, so the immediate damage output of a surprise attack is somewhat limited (for example, imagine if the Zeus had 18 shots instead of 9). In addition, the game is still in the very early stages of combat, and this attack showed how huge the 2 hits per mast rule is. If not for that, the Pirates would have had an easier time taking care of business.
At the end of their turn, the Pirates declared war on the Spanish!
This shot shows the battle area in what is being called The Battle of Whirlpool Island. You can see the Spanish home island where most of their masts and firepower is concentrated. It will be interesting to see if the Spanish try to retaliate in the short term.
The Archipelago was rather quiet overall this turn, with the Deliverance docking at Skull Valley to replenish an oarsman. The Stormcloud uses her shipwright to repair a mast. The Black Pearl was the ship to get the Arcane roll this turn… placing Runes of Odin on the Zeus!! O_O
What a sight! Over a dozen Pirate ships strive to reach the whirlpool created earlier in the game by the Tempest. The Pirates show their strength, as many of these ships will be able to support and back up the Pirate 10 master squadron against the Spanish if things go wrong. Ships launched last turn from the textiles military port (MP) simply scatter, with orders to get as far from the island as their turn’s action(s) will allow. This is because the Pirates still have a MASSIVE amount of gold, and they certainly plan to use it….
The Pirates are not quite as concerned with the Barbary Corsairs as you might think. Although the Corsairs have their own super squadron ready to set sail this round, the Pirates have a lot of firepower still in the area, not to mention another megalaunch from the MP after their play turn ends. However, the Splinter and Flying Dutchman (both just east of the whirlpool) are moving into a defensive position to potentially be the first Pirate ships on the front lines if the Corsairs charge and try to block the whirlpool/attack the military port/etc.
At the home island, various small ships (two with flotillas) swarm off the Arcane’s stern. The Osiris got SAT this turn, so she is off and running at 6S speed towards the possible confrontation with the Corsairs. The Corsairs are certainly close enough to see her heading towards them – what a horrible sight it must be, to see your former flagship heading out to fight you while in Pirate hands. 🙁
You might have noticed something abnormal compared to the last few turns – Pirate resource runners docking at the home island! It is the last round for this resource value, so the Pirates wanted to get some extra textiles home. They had been delayed for a while due to all the megalaunches from Hidden Trove windfalls. However, now the Pirates have 4 launch points instead of 2 (starting this turn), and it actually felt really good as a player to just dock them home normally. This is a more normal way of playing campaign games, instead of holding off because of all these crazy massive windfalls brought in by custom game piece combos. It was also nice to dock some of them home because the Akua Lapu and Hades’ Flame have needed repairs ever since the short but intense battle with the Corsair squadron of 4 masters. (which was back in April)
The Pirates wanted to end their turn with a statement. Something so epic and powerful that it would scare the hell out of every other fleet. Something truly god-like. They knew they had the pieces put together to pull it off….
ZEUS IS HERE!!
(these are not my pictures)
THE GODS ARE IN THE SKIES NOW. THEY HAVE BEEN CALLED BY THE PIRATES!
The Zeus has a certain UT aboard from earlier in the turn…
Runes of Odin!!
Load this treasure face down. When revealed, place an iceberg from outside the game anywhere in the play area not within S of an island. If the iceberg touches any ship, remove the ship (and any crew and treasure aboard her) from the game. Then remove Runes of Odin from the game.
ZEUS THROWS ODIN’S ICEBERG DOWN INTO THE SEA!!
The Pirates placed the iceberg just off the Conglomerate home island!!
Then it was time for… Runes of Magic!! Given to the Shadow’s Hand by the Dutch via Pandora’s Box, this UT would prove decisive!
Load this treasure face down. When revealed, move any iceberg L in any direction. Then remove Runes of Magic from the game.
The iceberg was moved directly into the Outbound Flight, the Conglomerate’s brand-new custom 40 point 10 masted junk!!!!!
O_O
With that, the Outbound Flight and all her crew were removed from the game!!
Introducing: The Odin Missile
It’s almost as if the Pirates have direct control over the gods now. It started with Thor last turn, with Runes of Thor being used on the Cursed turn with the custom Flying Dutchman’s ability so the Cursed could place Nemo’s Plans on the Zeus… Zeus! The Pirates got Runes of Odin to Zeus this turn, playing it in conjunction with Runes of Magic to complete one of the most powerful combos in the entire game. The best part is, the “Odin Missile” is reusable. Both Runes are on ships with Nemo’s Plans, so the Pirates retain both elements of this absurdly nasty combo. This means that once per turn, the Pirates can essentially just pick any ship in play (that isn’t in a fog bank), and just remove it from the game. O_O
The order was given. Zeus and Odin eyed the tiny ships below from up in the clouds. Odin creates a massive iceberg and hands it to Zeus, who will throw it in lieu of his trademark lightning bolts. Zeus winds up and hurls the iceberg at high speed down towards the water… thousands of sailors from across the fleets look up towards the sky, noticing what looks like a meteor, something from the heavens coming down upon them. The large new fleet of The Conglomerate navy is peacefully docked at their home island. Many new sailors are excited to set sail for the first time, having only recently joined the service. With horror they look to the sky at a massive iceberg plummeting towards their new fleet.
In a flash it is upon them. With a massive sudden impact, the iceberg comes crashing down amidships on the Outbound Flight, the newly launched 10 masted junk. The ship is split in half, with the bow and stern rising out of the water as the iceberg plummets through the ship and blows up the powder magazine, sending a vast explosion full of wood, ice, fire and body parts flying in all directions. A new Weapon of Mass Destruction is now in the hands of the Pirates.
With that, the Pirates have an auto-hitting precision strike missile WMD capable of knocking out a ship every turn. This brings them one step closer to having a full scale GMS….
The Pirates have been planning to introduce the Odin Missile for some time now. However, recent events accelerated the development of their WMD program. Even if it was a total accident, by giving the Pirates Runes of Magic, the Dutch helped the Pirates eliminate a Conglomerate ship! We’ll see if that leads to any tension between the Conglomerate and Dutch….
Pirate Launch Period
The Pirates raked in 139 gold from resources, adding it to their existing 1596 for a total of 1735 gold! O_O With 4 locations available for new ships to be launched at, it was inevitable that the Pirates would get busy spending big! 😀 The Pirates don’t have a lot to hide with their quadruple megalaunch (!), and so I will provide more detail than usual regarding what each ship has on board. Naturally, some things should start face down. 🙂 (these are from my notes so some things may be overly abbreviated)
CHO=Captain, Helmsman, and Oarsman (C+H=Captain and Helmsman) | WH=World Hater | FPS=Firepot Specialist | CSS=Chainshot Specialist
From Skull Valley: 9 Ships, 308 Points
The Pirates launched my version of the “movie” Queen Anne’s Revenge (from On Stranger Tides) with a big crew setup: Evan Stern (Captain+SAT), Jean Hamlin (Helmsman+World Hater except against the French), Nidiki (transferred from the Branwen), Coconut (Reroll+Explorer), Dinghy (+1 cargo), oarsman. She will be resupplied by Cadet-Captain Mike’s Quedagh Merchant, who is the QAR’s personal support and supply ship.
The Arbiter was launched to provide a new place for Nuva to copy Vesok/Arcane to so the Black Pearl can get back to her regular gunship duties.
Cor’dahk + The Mastermind (EA), Hernán Sanchez (C+WH), helmsman, oarsman.
Freedom Fighter + Captain Archer Rook (Sac+Gold Capture), One-Eyed Bennett (C+H), 4 oarsmen.
Fiasco + Roger Hawkins (C+H), The Headhunter (Sac+World Hater), Volting Junipau (FPS, CSS, crew kill on 6’s), Streamlined Hull, 4 oarsmen.
Victoire + Howard Hook (Sac Captain + spying), helmsman, 4 oarsmen
Albino and Destiny’s Bounty, each with CH, Dinghy and 5 oarsmen.
From the textiles military port: 13 Ships, 397 Points
Toruk + Chen Tianbao (C+H), Trainer (SAT+Dark Hunter), Bessho Kai (used as World Hater), oarsman.
Kingpin + Christopher Condent (Captain+WH+Filching Gold), Cai Qian (EA), Iron-Plated Hull, helmsman, and Streamlined Hull.
Crescent Rose + CHO, Ballista, equipment
Lilac + CHO, Ballista.
Fool’s Hope (LE) + CHO, equipment
Misfortune’s Keep + Le Requin (SAT), El Mulato Grillo (WH+Spanish Massacre), CHO, shipwright.
Red Sky at Morning + Emanuel Wynn (Captain, +S w/in S of enemy ship, +1 to boards against English), helmsman, shipwright, oarsman.
Dead Man’s Revenge + CHO.
Screecher + CHO, shipwright.
Shadow Stalker + stuff
Eclector + helmsman, shipwright, 5 oarsmen, Dinghy, Streamlined Hull.
Pandora (Seas of Doom) + helmsman, shipwright, 4 oarsmen, Dinghy, Streamlined Hull.
Oyster + helmsman, 2 shipwrights, 3 oarsmen, Dinghy
From the metals military port: 12 Ships, 260 Points
Introducing: The Anti-Spanish Squadron!
With their declaration of war against Spain, the Pirates have invested a considerable chunk of points into a new anti-Spanish squadron. Every ship in the squadron gets at least +1 to their cannon rolls against Spanish ships, and some get +1 to all their d6 rolls against Spain. The Fame’s Revenge is the flagship of the squadron, which the Pirates hope to expand to at least 10 ships (7 for now) in the near future.
Fame’s Revenge + Daniel Montbars (arguably the most anti-Spanish pirate to ever live), CHO, FPS.
Muerta de la Corona + CHO, FPS.
Claudia + Guilder (Captain+S-Board), Vincenzo Alessandri (Musketeer, +1 boards), helmsman.
Ranger + Michiel Andrieszoon (Captain, +1 to d6 rolls against Spanish), Jan Willems (+1 to boards against Spanish), helmsman, +more.
Broken Key + John Cooke (Captain, +1 to cannon rolls against Spanish), David Marteen (+1 to d6 rolls against Spanish), helmsman, oarsman, equipment.
La Morte de Yarborough: Jean Thomas Dulaien (Captain, +1 to d6 rolls against Spanish), helmsman, +more.
Batavian Bat + Michel de Grammont (Captain, +1 to cannon rolls against Spanish, +1 to boards against Dutch), helmsman, oarsman.
These will likely be patrol gunships – the first 4 all rather similar and all some of my favorite classics from the original sets.
Executioner + C+H, others
Panda + CHO, Ballista, equipment
Royal James + CHO, FPS
Cutlass + CHO, crew
Zui Quan + Mo Guanfu (Captain+Cannoneer), helmsman, oarsman, Ballista
-Once in a while the Pirates like to just throw something out there in full view to show some might. The Zui Quan can shoot 5 cannons as a 2 master, hitting at L+L range on 6’s to eliminate 2 masts per hit. 🙂
You may notice a trend developing between this and the previous recent Pirate launches… perhaps an “assembly” of sorts….
This Pirate Turn By the Numbers
Ships Launched: 41
Gold Spent: 1,211
Gold Remaining: 524 New Fleet Totals: 148 Ships, ~3,740 Points
O_O
The Pirate fleet was already #1 all-time with their point total from last round, and now they have become the largest fleet of all time by ship count!! 😀
O_O
Just bonkers crazy numbers!!!
A 41 ship fleet for 1211 total points is a nice total for any fleet to reach in a campaign game. The Pirates just added it in one turn! In addition, their fleet size by point total is now larger than almost all other recorded huge games ever played. Their long term vision and plans are rapidly coming to fruition!!
The Cursed Play Turn
The Cursed rolled successfully on both the custom Flying Dutchman’s ability and Davy Jones copying the Arcane! With the FD they brought in Runes of Thor, giving it to the Pirates!! It was placed on the Zeus, who already carries Nemo’s Plans. This meant the Pirates now have two ships that carry reusable versions of Runes of Thor, due to Nemo’s Plans. O_O
The successful Arcane roll was used to bring in Hidden Trove, placed on the Maman Brigitte! The custom ship The Rock copied Davy Jones (and through him, the Arcane) via the Eye of Insanity UT. After failing the roll and reroll, the Pirates intervened! They used their original Runes of Thor (on the Noble Swan) to force a 6! This allowed the Cursed to bring in Evenstar, placing it on the Maman Brigitte!! The Maman Brigitte was given an explore action targeting the home island, unloading both UT’s for a supermassive windfall!!!!! The God of Thunder has spoken. By Thor’s decree, The Cursed will be FILTHY RICH, OVERNIGHT!!!
307 ships in play at the beginning of the Cursed turn means Hidden Trove is worth 614 for The Cursed. Evenstar triples it to 1842 gold!!Add in their existing 617 and they have 2459 total gold!! O_O
The Pirates use their second RoT on a failed Cursed AA! It is used to propel the Chimeratron Legacy towards the Americans! She speeds out from the home island at an absolutely sickening speed of S+S+L+S+L(Python bonus)+S(trade current)(first action)+S+S+L+S+L(Python bonus)!!!! O_O
Video footage of the Legacy’s first turn of actions!
Here comes the superweapon!! Isaiah van Tyne L-boards the Kettering! Between her crew and bonuses, the CL has a base boarding score of 21! O_O This made rolling a non-issue; there was no way this supermassively overloaded maxed out 10 master was going to lose this boarding party! The CL wins and Captain Shamshere captures ALL four of the Kettering’s crew!! O_O How’s that for an entrance!
Then it was time to start shooting. The CL used Bow Chasers to slightly damage the Bonhomme Richard, then shot a grapple shot at S+S range to board the Richard. The CL won and stole all the crew from the BR!! O_O Both American gunships were suddenly devoid of crew, with all 7 now residing on the CL. The CL then managed to finish shooting a mast off the Kettering.
Then the Devil’s Storm turned around and shot up the stern of the Bonhomme Richard, eliminating 2 masts! In more bad news for the Americans: Chimera, Divine Beast of the Apocalypse is on her way. And the same for the Python and Devil’s Frenzy! This shows the Cursed-American situation in the northwest. At the far right, you can see that on their turn, the Pirates got the Stormy Night’s ability and used it to move the Rattlesnake onto the sargasso sea where the Harlequin is still stuck.
Indeed, ships were departing the Cursed HI en masse. Ships generally scattered, all going off on different missions. At the bottom of the frame, the Solenostomus has upgraded Figlar Castle!! O_O The Cursed used Barst (just like Lord Mycron; on the Tomb of Lucifer) to give the Opal Shrine an extra action, which she used to enter the whirlpool and arrive in the northwest corner (you can see her at the top left). There she used her gold to build another copy of Figlar Castle!! O_O This should seem… far more than ominous….
Cursed Launch Period
With a decent amount of room at their home island and over 2400 gold, The Cursed did a megalaunch! For the second turn in a row, they placed as many ships as they possible could at their home island.
Tridax + 3 Crew, Ballista
Call of the Sea + 3 Crew, helmsman, shipwright, oarsman, Dinghy
Royal Feces takes over for The Rock on Eye of Insanity (Davy Jones proxy) duties.
Spiral Chaos + The Sister of Tortuga (Shipwright+can’t be pinned), helmsman, oarsman, Gilded Figurehead
Sargasso Nightmare + Duogoth Vonnagos (Captain+Grapeshot Specialist), Ole Gregory, equipment specialist, helmsman, oarsman, Dinghy, Ballista
Ganon’s Phantom + CHO, Dinghy, equipment
Sea Hag + Crew, CHO.
Cerberus + CHO, equipment
Apparition + CHO, equipment
Hangman’s Joke + CHO, Ballista, equipment
Ghost Wind + CHO, Ballista
Needle + CHO, Streamlined Hull
Alligator + Captain, Streamlined Hull, smokepot shot
The Cursed spent 363 gold on 13 new ships! They completed their fog hopping squadron, in addition to adding some more ships for specific purposes.
The new Cursed totals: (last time at 24 ships, 961 points)
37 ships, 1324 points
The Cursed are expanding rapidly, increasing the size of their fleet (by ship total) by just over 50% in one turn.
Vikings and Corsairs
The Vikings once again couldn’t get Jord’s copied Arcane roll to work even with Shayna Deux’s reroll to help out. However, the Hrothgar returned home with three lumber tokens, allowing them to cash in for 12 gold to get the Timperswayd (from Pirates of the Kraken Sea) with a helmsman. This brings their fleet to 14 ships and 239 points.
The Corsairs sent some of their newest ships (the super squadron launched last turn) west, appearing to aim them straight at the Pirates. It seems unlikely they would actually try to attack the Pirates at such a numbers disadvantage, as a more foolish idea can hardly be imagined. The Corsairs brought home enough resources to launch a bit, but they didn’t get any Arcane rolls to work (all on the Nephila, but 4 total tries between Gilded Figurehead, a 2d6 ability, and Reroll).
The Corsairs launched:
HMB Sayyida + helmsman, 3 other crew and 1 equipment
Great Desert + C+H, Ballista
2 ships launched for 53 points. This brings their totals to 26 ships and 477 points.
Here is a wide view of the northeast, showing (from left to right) the home islands of the Vikings, Pirates, Corsairs, and English. With massive megalaunches happening every turn, the Pirate deckplate areas have been overflowing in all directions lately. At the upper right, notice that a huge percentage of recently hired Corsair crew are face down.
With that, my turn was over! There are now 323 ships in play, with my factions adding 57 this round! Throwing some numbers together, I can also come up with a new point estimate. My factions spent a total of 1644 gold this round (1211+363+12+58). The Conglomerate spent most of their Hidden Trove, which we can estimate at 500 gold now at around 2144 new points in play this round). Some other factions launched but some crew were lost in combat, so we’ll be conservative and not assume a point gain from that.
Using last turn’s point count of 5297 and adding 2144…
~7,441 Total Points In Play
O_O This means that CG4 could be the second biggest game of all time behind only Command the Oceans!! O_O
10/22/2020: I’m a day late for a Trafalgar Day game, but this is the game I’ve been wanting to play for almost a month, ever since my package from Cloud of Craft Gaming arrived and in the same week I 3D printed my first ship. 😀
I’ve had mixed success with 3D printing ships so far, having initial success very early before running into a myriad of issues (all my fault lol, I’m a total beginner). However, I have made some progress and improvements (don’t use “soft” PLA for Pirates stuff!), and now have an additional 4 master in addition to a 5 master. I did not create any of the files used to 3D print any of the stuff used in this game. Here are the resources I used:
-Both forts and the Skull Island volcano were printed at about 50-65% size, with 10-20% infill.
This was a “concept game” to test what it would be like to play with a combination of regular Wizkids ships, the wooden ships, and 3D printed PLA ships – along with 3D printed island/fort stuff. The setup and fleet makeup was secondary to showcasing the stuff and trying it out, but nicely enough the game turned out surprisingly great!
I am not concerned with artwork yet, which is why things are bare and white. I hope to delve into that eventually, but for now my focus is on 3D printing (ex: getting more ship types available in terms of files/etc).
Here are the fleets used in the order of play – 4 at 50 points each. All game pieces from Wizkids can be found in the Master Spreadsheet, while most of the customs are from my Epic Seas set in the Customs Database.
The Cursed
Devil’s Glory + Ebenezer Foxe (from Riz; has Captain+Helmsman), Disciples of Lucifer (Cannoneer+Crew Protect), oarsman
Namazu (RtSS)
Just using basic crew chips to proxy in for the other crew. (C+H for Foxe, blank for Disciples)
Pirates
Tempest + Emperor Blackheart, helmsman, oarsman
Spanish Mercenaries
Fortaleza + captain, helmsman, oarsman
El Neptuno + helmsman
El Picador
The Spanish were the one faction “civilized” enough to have an actual building on their home island. 🙂
Americans
Cascade + Jonathan Haraden, John Paul Jones, helmsman, oarsman
Jarvis + explorer
The Islands
Skull Island volcano has a special house rule – when a ship docks at it, they have to roll a d6. On a 1-2, choose one crew from the ship to be removed from play. Dead spirits haunt the island and are looking for new recruits.
I love how intricate this one is, and how the staircase leads up to the top:
With the Pirate deathbat flag (and podcast logo) fittingly in the background:
Maybe the island will take flight?! 😉
The circular fortress has 12 cannons, all at 3L and they can only fire in a straight line from where the cannons are actually pointing. The fort can be hit normally, and each hit eliminates a cannon (ships actually choose which cannons to shoot at to eliminate). On the 12th and final hit, the fort is destroyed and the fleet that got the final hit automatically gets 10 points/gold towards their final score.
The Torus fort has no cannons, but must be stormed to get to the gold inside. When a ship docks here, they can roll for a boarding party against the fort. The fort has a base boarding roll of 2 (like a 2 masted ship). When a ship wins, they can take a number of coins from the fort equal to the boarding score difference. If the fort wins, no gold can be taken and the losing ship eliminates a mast.
Ready for action! Round earth rules in effect! Also, no damage from ramming.
It doesn’t take long for shots to ring out! Guided by Blackheart’s All-Powerful, the Tempest smashes 2 of the fort’s cannons right away.
The Cursed and Spanish both head east. What a sight! A 3D printed 5 master and fort, a wooden 10 master and wooden sea serpent, and El Neptuno! 😀
The Cascade shuts down two more of the fort’s guns – could this lead to a conflict between the Americans and Pirates?
The Jarvis is brave enough to sail for Skull Island volcano!
The Devil’s Glory is the first to storm the Torus fortress! She succeeds and loads 3 coins! (should have been more but I forgot about Hidden Gold)
The circular fort is proving to be rather inept, missing the Tempest and not finding any good ranges to the Cascade:
The Pirates go rogue and blast the Cascade! Both the ship and fort take damage!
With a double action via All-Powerful, the Tempest lays waste to the American ship! Blackheart purposely kept the Cascade in between the fort and the Tempest, making sure the fort would have trouble reaching the Tempest if any cannons were in range.
El Neptuno’s crew storm the castle! Both sides fight admirably but the Spanish come out on top! 3 coins are loaded after the 11-8 score differential.
Here comes the Fortaleza!! She rounds the big island and gets her bow L range cannons in range of the Devil’s Glory! One connects, no doubt angering The Cursed.
The Americans have a decent turn, taking 3 coins from Skull Island as the Jarvis avoids getting spooked, while John Paul Jones gets the Cascade home to repair with SAT.
Submerged prior to now, Namazu has surfaced! I have a bad feeling I know what that S range straw means….
TIDAL WAVE ATTACK!!
Namazu’s wave attack blasts through two thirds of the Spanish fleet, dismasting El Picador and doing damage to the Fortaleza:
The Fortaleza’s “fort” mast has fallen on the Torus fort:
Spanish forces watching at home are horrified by what they witness. Unfortunately for the Spanish the atrocities will continue!!
Wave attacks like Namazu and Neptune’s Trident are one of the most fun things in Pirates CSG!
The Cursed aren’t done yet! The Devil’s Glory shoots 4/4 to smash the Fortaleza even more!
Barely needed Wizkids stuff to play this game 😀
With the Glory’s Cargo Wrecking ability, the cannonade also eliminated all three of the Fortaleza’s crew!!
Back in the east, the Tempest does work, eliminating an additional 5 cannons from the fort.
The Fortaleza gets some measure of revenge, taking two masts off the Devil’s Glory:
The Neptuno headed for home, towing the Picador on her way back. However, this slight deviation of course proved unfortunate for Spain, because they had unwittingly put themselves into the line of fire (or line of tsunami) again….
Another tidal wave attack by Namazu blasts another 4 masts off the ships!!
The Fortaleza is really hurting now:
The Pirates finish off the circular fort, netting them 10 gold automatically! Then the Tempest heads even further east, probably looking to round earth towards the chaotic western area!
Realizing their mistake of towing the Picador, and wanting to get gold home before the Tempest potentially arrives with a bang, the Neptuno scurries home to unload her coins. I put them under the cube building, which is the perfect size for coins.
The Fortaleza hits on both of her shots to kill Namazu! The great beast is dead, but not before taking out 8 masts in successive tsunami blasts!
An overview of the small sea, showing that the Americans have gotten back on their feet with gold and repairs.
Not bothering to repair, the Devil’s Glory comes out for another round! She hits twice to dismast the Fortaleza!
Emperor Blackheart is here to take over the game! However, his crew barely wins a boarding party (8-7) against the Torus fort, only escaping with one coin.
El Neptuno plans to round earth and join the Jarvis at Skull Island, but the excitement here lies with the Cascade joining the other gunships in the west!
The Devil’s Glory pulls off a sweet maneuver, angling into the island to tow the Fortaleza as she docks at the fort to steal its final coin!
But Emperor Blackheart is All-Powerful!! He sinks the massive junk and prepares to wheel around the stern of the Devil’s Glory!
The Tempest knocks down the DG’s final masts:
SEVERE CARNAGE
The Cascade arrives, taking two masts off the Tempest and killing her oarsman! She captured the Devil’s Glory (oops) and had her explore the Cascade, grabbing her coin. This shouldn’t have happened since the DG had both Crew Protect and Oarsman aboard.
I was just playing this game to showcase the new stuff and I got a horrid bloodbath! O_O
The Tempest shoots at the Cascade and hits her with a wave attack!! Namazu’s not the only one who can do that in these parts…
The Jarvis isn’t so lucky this time, with her explorer abandoning ship to join the dead at Skull Island.
The Cascade rows away at 4S and the DG at 2S (realizing my mistake on the latter, keeping the Cursed alive).
Blackheart continues to take over the game, sinking both ships!!
The Tempest finally succeeded at her whirlpool generation ability, placing one next to the Pirate home island in case they would be able to make a quick getaway soon (if another whirlpool was placed elsewhere). The 1 on their HI just represents the 10 from the destroyed fort.
The Neptuno loses her helmsman to the spirits of Skull Island! The island may have been drained of gold today, but it gained two new souls… perhaps we will see it again….
The desperation of the endgame has begun. Blackheart gets his first 6 with All-Powerful and commands the Jarvis to shoot at the Neptuno! However, she shoots 0 for 3! XD
The Neptuno flees, but gets rammed by the Jarvis again. The Jarvis again loses the boarding party, failing consistently here at the end of the game. Blackheart arrives in the Tempest to bring the Neptuno down to 1 mast, with all 3 ships nearly at Ocean’s Edge!
The Jarvis does something I try to avoid but could not in this situation: a round earth ram! She finally wins a boarding party to steal a coin.
El Neptuno does a high wire act, reminiscent of the Black Pearl at the end of Dead Men Tell No Tales:
The Jarvis wouldn’t fit on the other side, leading to the main awkward thing about using round earth. Still worth it though!!
The uncaptained ships were content to make their way home with a coin apiece, but as Thanos said, “destiny still arrives.” In Pirates CSG that destiny takes the form of All-Powerful Emperor Blackheart, rolling another 6 to force the Neptuno away from her own home island. The Tempest round earths and slaughters her final mast, eliminating the Spanish from the game.
The Tempest captured the Neptuno and brought her to the Pirate HI, while the Jarvis got home with another coin for the Americans. With all gold unloaded, it was finally over.
I had no idea the game was going to be this bloody and full of carnage, with nearly all ships sunk or dismasted:
In the end, The Cursed claim victory!
The Cursed: 18 gold
Americans: 14 gold
Pirates: 12 gold
Spanish: 7 gold
What a game! Not only was it exciting and a bit crazy throughout, there were even close scores at the end. This game was like a love letter to Pirates in a way – even with a rushed setup and quick gameplay, it was absolutely incredible! It really showed how great the game is overall.
The new stuff was great to see in action for the first time. The wooden ships have really neat artwork, while the 3D printed ships feel about as sturdy as the original styrene models. Some improvements should be made with the 3D printed stuff, since the ships aren’t perfect (not saying this is the fault of the file creators, I think it’s just somewhat inevitable). However, playable is awesome to have so soon after getting my printer. I also really like the 3D printed forts and island, though I think in the future I’ll change the fort rules a bit, probably making them more difficult to face if in the same category of an NPC. They could also be regular forts, or maybe even start as NPC before being taken over and used by a player. Tons of possibilities and fun house rules!
If you love Pirates CSG, I do recommend the Ender 3 V2 as it led to exactly what you saw in this report! Now that I’ve played this game I plan to continue working on 3D printing Pirates stuff when I have time. If you have any contributions of your own, feel free to post them in the 3D printing thread.
