Wow!! What a fun day of play for me in VASSAL Campaign Game 4! After PirateAJ14 and Xerecs completed their latest turns, my four factions were up.
As always the Pirates led things off for me, with a bunch of their new ships scattering west of their home island. The canoes are headed home, while the Zeus is in the process of “round earthing” to the northern half of the map.
Speaking of the northern half of their home island… the Selkie gets in action! She was finally able to land a sniping hit on one of the Corsair galleys, lighting the Sphinx aflame with exploding shot! This put a small dent in the Corsairs’ plans and killed a Corsair oarsman.
The Pirate strategy was one of deterrence. The Selkie was out front taking potshots at the Barbaries, but she was soon joined by numerous fleetmates. The Agnis Crystalis (5 master at bottom center) and Splinter have been following the Selkie southwards. To augment that 3-ship line, the Pirates began to bring their hybrids to bear. The Darkhawk II and Akua Lapu headed southeast to up the Pirate numbers, while the Widowmaker flotilla and Rover (latter designated as a tugboat, mostly for derelict rescue) helped to plug the gap between the Agnis Crystalis and the much slower Splinter. The captain of the Agnis Crystalis shouted a warning to the captain of the Sphinx… “we are prepared to use our WMD!” The Corsairs weren’t entirely sure of what that meant….
The Eagle stayed on the west side of the textiles island, both because she couldn’t maneuver towards the Corsairs very effectively this turn and to protect the other side of the island from potential Viking attack in the near future. At the top of the picture you can see 2 of the 3 new Pirate ships – they took in textiles and metals this turn and spent all 79 gold it amounted to. The Black Pearl and Harbinger are decked out with action generators, while the Sapphire Sea (one of my custom schooners) was launched from the southern half of the HI but plans to join the others and head south.
However, the northeast wasn’t the only area with tension. Multiple American ships are bearing down on the Cursed home island – 3 of their classic schooners, with a couple 5 masters coming behind out of frame. The Cursed have loaded up the Grand Misfortune with a bevy of UT’s. Three small Cursed ships are clustered in a fog bank as most of the other Cursed ships head southeast to get textiles (quite the popular resource these days). The Wisp is off in the southeast having serious difficulty getting through the ring of fog that surrounds an island in the Turbulence area.
The Vikings had a little awkward moving to do but have a bunch of ships headed home with lumber, currently worth 4 gold apiece. Then it was time for the Barbary Corsairs….
The Corsairs had been waiting many MONTHS for this moment. A moment in time where they could finally get back at the Pirates. The Pirates claimed the textiles island for themselves, and now had a town on it to prevent the other factions from loading any resources from it (both the Corsairs and Vikings had explored the island previously). With careful planning, optimal UT placement, and some powerful custom warships, the Corsairs were finally both ready and able to make a calculated strike!
However, at this point in time, it could be argued that an attack on the Pirates looked like a bad idea. The Pirates had not only launched the custom Stormcloud 10 master in recent turns, but also the Zeus last turn. They had many more ships in their fleet than the Corsairs, including more gunships and various hybrids being used to escort resource carriers to and from the textiles island. However, the Corsairs wanted to make a move NOW, and since the Pirates have super-valuable metals readily available, they would likely only get stronger and stronger as time went on. The Corsairs were afraid that the Pirates would beef up their defenses even more in the coming turns, and decided it was essentially “now or never”.
From a few pictures above, you can see the quartet of custom 4 masted galleys the Corsairs had sailing west: Osiris (the flagship), Red Star, Sphinx, and Giza. The Corsair turn started with great luck, getting an AA from Kheir-ed-din aboard the Crescent Moon and the Osiris getting an SAT from Danvian Arrestelos. With that, it was decided. The Corsairs would carry out their sudden attack as planned!
The Sphinx got things started!! Sailing up to the Selkie, she connected on 2 of her 3 shots to set the Pirate sniper aflame with a newly revealed fire shot! Paying no heed to the flames on their own deck, the Corsairs showed they meant business and would use their war galleys as needed!
THEN IT WAS TIME. For the ultimate attack!! The Red Star moved S+L+S into position, carefully maneuvering to get close to enemy Pirate vessels while maintaining a strong line of sight on many of them… she was then given an AA to shoot!
NEPTUNE’S TRIDENT!!!!!
O_O
In a HUGE move, the Corsairs knock out 14 Pirate masts, with SEVEN ships in the path of the tidal wave! From west to east, the Eagle, Hades’ Flame, Akua Lapu, Dragon, Darkhawk II, Agnis Crystalis, and Selkie all lost 2 masts. (Woelf’s recent answer to a different question confirms that the wave blast should eliminate masts as normal despite the 2 hits per mast house rule we’re using in this game) The Red Star lost all of her masts, but the Corsairs have a brilliant plan to scuttle her – with the Resurrection Codex! XD Their luck continued, with the ship rolling a 5 on the successful scuttle attempt. As long as the Red Star isn’t towed before the Corsairs’ next turn, she’ll get a “super-Eternal” effect and show up fully repaired at the BC home island! This had been the Corsairs’ plan for the Red Star all along – essentially sacrifice the ship at the opportune moment to cause maximum damage with the Trident, then scuttle the ship and get her back to the battle as a “normal” ship as fast as possible via the Codex. 😀
The Corsairs weren’t done yet!! The Osiris used her SAT to move 6S and broadside the Agnis Crystalis, hitting 3/4 to take out a mast (and a half). Then it was the Giza’s turn. Continuing the amazing Corsair luck throughout the turn, she got her built-in EA and was able to move S+L+S x2 to dock at the Pirate textiles town! Shooting next, she revealed yet another Corsair UT – Fireworks! However, it didn’t help, as the Giza only shot 1/3 with improved cannons to partially damage the Darkhawk II.
The Giza still had an important final role to play – attempting to capture the town! She rolled a 6 and the textiles island has changed hands from Pirate to Corsair!! This was the Corsairs’ main goal all along – claim the important island as their own!! To put the final icing on a delicious cake filled with great combos and tactical prowess, a new custom crew appeared on the Giza’s deck – Ibrahan Vosely, who prevents the ship from being shot at while docked! Now the Giza can sit at the island and protect it if needed, possibly providing a useful buffer against the likes of the Eagle, who has a captain on the west side of the island.
Look at the Carnage!!
(the white pennants represent partial damage, or the first of two hits required to eliminate each mast)
You can also witness footage of the entire attack!
For now at least, the overall theater is in favor of the Barbary Corsairs as the first major conflict of the game has erupted in rather dramatic fashion. The Pirates still have considerable firepower in the area, but perhaps most important is the firepower that will be arriving in the coming turns. The Pirates have a pair of 10 masters in addition to the four gunships headed south from the east side of their home island, not to mention any launches in the coming turns as valuable metals continue to pour into Pirate coffers. The battle for the coveted textiles island has just begun, and it looks like like another faction may even get involved – notice the Viking ships Diversion and Muninn sailing southeast….
The Algiers and Crescent Moon have headed west from the Corsair HI for as many as three reasons: provide firepower backup for the main gunships; gather textiles from the island now that they are able to once more; if the Corsairs lose the battle quickly, tow home any potential derelicts they can salvage.
After last turn the Corsairs reached out to the English about sharing in the valuable spoils of this textiles island that the English have been going to. The English are fine if the Corsairs explore and load the resource, and so they have done so with the Queen of Sheba and Marrakesh. Additional galleys are on their way, but the Corsairs hope they can make the shorter trip west (instead of south) if they can retain control of the contested textiles island.
A shot of the whole ocean shows the fleets growing at various rates, and the first real hotspot of hostile activity! (right click and open in a new tab to see full size!)
PS: The post has “another” in the title due to all the grand campaign game attacks I’ve done in the past(though this is the first “big one” of CG4).
This post is dedicated to preserving Pirates CSG game history and bringing all time records into the spotlight. This post was last edited in December 2023, so records set after that date may take some time to appear here. Most of the battle reports for the games mentioned can be found in the Huge Game Legacy Thread, and I also tried to link to them for at least the first time each game is mentioned.
6. Pirate fleet in Command the Oceans: 2,347 points (131 ships)
Honorable mentions
From Command the Oceans: Pirates at 105 ships, 1,840 points; French at 101 ships, 1,804 points; Americans at 96 ships, 1,660 points; various others from that game surpassed 1,000 points as well.
Pirate fleet in EE (2015): 104 ships, ~1,800 points
Spanish fleet in CG1: 111 ships, 1,631 points
American fleet in CoEC 2019: 77 ships, 1,591 points
Largest non-campaign games of all time
-Three 500 point games between 5 fleets for a grand total of 2,520 total points in each of the three games. (2011-2012)
Honorable mention: 628 gold (English battle fleet from CG1)
Largest oceans: 2015 Century of Empires game at ~160 square feet (Xerecs), 2011 cumulative game at ~72 square feet. Using a pixel-to-feet converter, the ocean size of CG4 could be about 163 square feet! (I believe 3000 pixels per ocean tile in the VASSAL module; the ocean is 6×4 tiles, so 18000×12000 pixels, which comes out to 15.625 feet x 10.42 feet)
Unofficial/Assumed Records
These are more debatable, but many are likely true records.
Longest campaign game by turn count: Command the Oceans? (~112 total rounds)
Longest campaign game by calendar months: CG2 for a finished game (10 months); CG4, The Caribbean Game, and The Hourly Campaign are all technically “ongoing” but have no end (or in some cases, continuation) in sight.
Most ships ever used in a non-campaign game: 165? (second 2500 point game)
Largest deathmatch ever? Defence of St. Helens scenario game from 2012 (2,520 total points at start)
Most ships ever sunk in a single day’s action: 74 (Command the Oceans, December 9th 2017)
Most ships ever sunk in one turn by a single ship: ~10, Santisima Trinidad of CoEC 2019)
Most cannons ever seen on a ship: 20, Santisima Trinidad of CoEC 2019 (honorable mention: HMS Dreadnought with 16 during CG1)
Most cancellers ever seen in a fleet: 9 from American fleet in CG3
Most players ever seen in a campaign game? (impossible to know for sure): 6 in CG3
Most players ever seen in a virtual/VASSAL campaign game: 6 in CG3
Most 10 masters used in a game by a fleet: 7 for the English in CG2
Most native canoes used in a game by a fleet: 35 (7 Spanish sets of canoes in CG1)
Fastest Battle Report (BR) turnaround: ~1 minute for the PotC anniversary game. (I was writing the report at Miniature Trading as we were playing the game, and submitted it right after the game ended)
Here it is! After planning the details of this game since perhaps April or May of 2019, it is finally complete.
Comment below if you liked it! I would love to hear what you thought of the fleet setups, the gameplay, the crazy moments, the strategic decisions, the house rules, who you were rooting for (if any fleet in particular) and the results!
House Rules
Points in play + gold for the win! The winner of the game will be the fleet with the most total points in play AND gold combined into one grand score. (game ends when all gold is unloaded to HI’s or only one fleet remains)
Round Earth. Wind rules. Gold multiplier: coins are worth 5x their printed value, shiny gold backed coins are worth 50 gold each. 900 total gold in play excluding UT’s that can have a gold value. Should be a balance between gold and points in play (900 for each at the start of play).
I’m using my Basic Rules; no ram damage is the main thing to keep in mind. Waterfall: Uneven tables at different heights. Waterfall into bay. Can only go down onto lower ocean, not back up unless Turbine/Submarine/sea creature. Ships on edge of waterfall have Extended Range for shots crossing over waterfall with their normal range. Ships can brave the waterfall going down into the bay, but must roll a d6. On a 1-3, they lose one cargo. On a 4-6, they get +L to their base move after their other move segments are resolved. Giant Turtle Rules: Functions like a great turtle from SS. Ships can dock at grassy areas on turtle and build forts on it. Giant Turtle’s movement can be controlled by building a fort on it. At that point, the turtle can be moved S in any direction the controlling fleet chooses once per turn (like a ship). Fort cannons can fire at any time during the turn.
The Fleets
The linked fleets (Golden Cranes and Crew Recyclers) are two I’ve been waiting and wanting to use for a long time. Of course, anticipation and excitement was just as high for the (somewhat) newly created fleets as well. Game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet and customs from Pirates of the Epic Seas (3rd sheet).
In the order of play
1. Cursed
(60) Guichaun + The Headhunter, Sammy the Skull (F&S version) Grim the Savage (Viking version), Cavendish, helmsman, stinkpot specialist, Bianco’s Haulers, oarsman
(77) Delusion + Davy Jones (OE), El Fantasma (OE), Captain Nemo, Christian Fiore, Ibrahan Ozat, Sir Edmund, helmsman, oarsman
(13) Sea Rat + helmsman, explorer
Here we see my original monster setup on the Delusion, which totals a massive 77 points, nearly the maximum you can ever spend on a single ship and crew. With a canceller and potentially multiple sources of guaranteed extra actions, the Delusion could be dangerous even if inaccurate. The Guichuan setup is just wild and similar to one I used to sheer perfection in this game. The Sea Rat filled out the points while giving them some gold running insurance and a second HI raider.
This is a fleet I have been very excited to use, as evidenced by the massive description I wrote for it. However, the lack of defenses and firepower could give them problems in such a chaotic environment full of huge threats.
3. English Mercenaries
(60) Eighth Wonder (30) + Frederick Xernias (11), Apprentice of Xernias (4), Larkon Presyl (6; Parley,+1 cargo), Jozeran Danklidge (6; shipwright+HI Raider), Xavier Gedry (3; This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls when carrying gold.)
(28) HMS Gallows + Thomas Gunn, CRGO (0LR reroller) oarsman, exploding shot, fire shot, stinkpot shot, double shot
(31) Elthelfleda + chieftain, helmsman, oarsman
-English native canoes from RtSS
(14) King’s Ghost (10) + captain, oarsman
(13) -towing Gibraltar flotilla + First Mate Ismail, Exploding Shot
(4) HMS Ramsgate
This fleet is unique in that it contains game pieces from a custom set, Return to Savage Shores, and an Unreleased ship from Spanish Main! 😀 I wanted to use some customs in a game, and went a little crazy with non-standard stuff! This makes another fleet with an HI-raiding 10 master, and another fleet that had a flotilla assigned crew.
Here are the non-standard game pieces for reference: (points-masts-cargo-base move-cannons-ability) Eighth Wonder (proxied by the Shui Xian) 30 10 7 L 4L-4L-3L-3L-3L-3L-3L-3L-4L-4L Link: Frederick Xernias A: Mercenary. Junk. Dories. If this ship eliminates 5 or more masts this turn, you may give her an extra action. Frederick Xernias (Link: Eighth Wonder) 11 points A: Ex-Patriot. Captain. This ship ignores the first hit she takes each turn as long as she has all of her masts. One of this ship’s treasures is worth +1 gold when unloaded at your home island. Apprentice of Xernias (Link: Frederick Xernias) 4 points A: Helmsman. Once per turn, if this ship is touching another ship, reveal all treasure aboard the other ship. This ship can take as much unique treasure from the other ship as she can carry, even those that otherwise can’t be removed. Larkon Presyl 6 points A: Ex-Patriot. Parley. This ship gets +1 cargo spaces. This crew takes up no cargo space. Jozeran Danklidge 6 points A: Ex-Patriot. Shipwright. HI Raider. Xavier Gedry 3 points A: Ex-Patriot. This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls when carrying gold.
Elthelfleda (proxied with the Alexandria) 16 4 4 S+L 3S-4L-3S-4L Galley. This ship can move and shoot using the same move action. This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls. She gets +2 instead if her opponent is a sea monster. Native Canoes (proxied with the Spanish canoes) 12 1 1 L+S 3S Native Canoe. Give this ship a move action but do not move her. Instead, roll a d6. On a result of 5 or 6, you may repair one mast on ships within S of any native canoes. King’s Ghost (proxied by the Newport) 10 1 2 L+L 1L Eternal. This ship may use the effects of any equipment with “shot” in the name. HMS Ramsgate (proxied by HMS Meresman) 4 2 2 S+S 1S-1S This ship cannot carry crew.
4. French
(41) Celtic Fury + Eileen Brigid O’Brien (SS), Duncan Rousseau, captain, helmsman, oarsman
(46) Ultimate Saber Attack Combo + oarsman (Bonny Peel, Commander Steven Decatur, Jordan Dumas (OE), helmsman)
(26) Pluton + Leander Arnaud, Godiva (0LR reroller), captain, helmsman, oarsman
(22) Le Descharges + Guy LaPlante (F&S), helmsman
(15) Renard à Ailes + captain, oarsman
Renard à Ailes (proxied with the Sea Serpent) 11 2 3 S+S+S 2S-2S A: Junk. Once per turn as part of a move action, this ship can randomly take one treasure from any ship up to S away from her.
I love this basic and “cheap” 10 master combo (SAT w/Reroll + Parley) to go along with a mostly French fleet. The Saber is beyond fun and probably my favorite switchblade due to the sheer number of combos you can create with her. Overall this fleet is based on boarding. Mostly to steal gold, but also crew with Bonny Peel. The Renard is definitely one of the coolest ships from RtSS, and fit perfectly with the theme.
This fleet is the definition of concentrated firepower. 28 captained shots across 4 ships, 29 counting the Marine. A pair of AA crew (both with reroll!) could help them a lot with some luck. The main concern was the dependency on the Baochuan for gold collection – if the giant gets taken down early, the Vikings would probably struggle to stay relevant. However, in a game where points in play matter as much as gold, this fleet looked extremely intimidating.
This fleet has roots from way back in my gimmick games of 2012. It would probably be better in deathmatches, and really is a strange kind of gimmick fleet, but wanting to use this fleet was one of the reasons I decided on the 150 point build total in the first place. I picked the fleets before deciding to use the points in play house rule, so unfortunately this fleet’s strategy of killing as many enemy crew as possible could be a detriment. However, they had some serious firepower available along with the only game piece (A Fearsome Creature) that could climb the waterfall.
Setup
Here is the map and setup! The west half of the ocean is called “Great Turtle Bay”, while the east is the upper part and slightly smaller. (due to the size of the silky blue sheet and wanting to have 3 fleets of deckplates on one of the tables)
The amount of gold varied by location. The Giant Turtle had the most coins with 10. 11 locations held 5 coins each – the 3 remaining wild islands in the west, the 2 shipwrecks (Duke and Sultan), the gold island in the east, and each of the 5 beaches on the big island in the east. 3 shipwrecks at Shipwreck Cove held 2 coins apiece. This totalled 71 coins worth 900 total gold – with the multiplier and special coins of course, but not including any UT’s that could produce a gold value.
The shiny gold backed coins are worth 50 apiece. I tweaked the distribution to my liking to have the points in play equal to the gold points in play.
Choosing HI (home island) locations was an interesting process. Although the Crew Recyclers picked their home island first, they didn’t end up with an advantageous position, because everyone wanted to stay away from them! They need to capture enemy ships for points to win, since they have nearly no cargo available with all their (literally) killer combos. They chose a great turtle in the southwest, thinking other fleets would want to prioritize the Giant Turtle.
Overall it was interesting to see the locations picked because 41 of the 71 coins were located in the west, yet 4/6 fleets picked home islands in the east. This was due to a variety of reasons – the Crew Recyclers immediately showed up in the southwest, and everyone wanted to avoid getting attacked by such a dangerous foe. Even with round earth and whirlpools, the waterfall presented an intimidating challenge. Starting on the upper level meant you could go down easily without having to worry about having to go UP. Finally, the volume of reefs in the west made the fleets with 10 masters understandably nervous, since reefs and 10 masters don’t mix!
Will these two fleets have an easier time in great turtle bay due to less competition?
Going last, the Crew Recyclers also got to choose the initial wind direction. They picked north, as it would benefit at least their first turn or two.
Tall ships loom in the background above the bay:
The semi-“expanded” Shipwreck Cove, with plenty of loot to be found for those who dare:
Between the silky material of the blue fabric and the logistics of having two tables side by side at different heights, some slight movement of the waters would be inevitable. However, this seemed to only enhance the realism of the game, as waves and water movements could be seen instead of a permanently flat surface (also fitting given I actually had wind in the game).
The Game
The Cursed got things started with a BANG! 😀
After that walloping, the Golden Cranes fleet got a tiny measure of revenge by knocking a mast off the Delusion with the remaining canoe. The Frontier took off to the north via round earth, while part of the fleet hid in the fog to avoid the dual 10 master threat.
The Monarca had a great turn, using the wind, Mycron, and her ability to grab a bunch of coins and start heading back home all in one turn! The Peacock sailed out to escort her.
However, the Rum would slow her down next turn….
The English Mercenaries immediately split their fleet into 3. The Eighth Wonder would accompany the canoes and try to drain the Giant Turtle. The small ships headed to the reefs, as they would be immune or nearly immune to damage from Shipwreck Cove. The 4 masters headed north, eyeing the great turtle in the southwest corner via round earth.
The French liked their chances – the Cursed looked to be completely vacating the northeast, and the French could potentially have a lot of gold from 3 different beaches on the 5 beach island. The wind slowed them down a bit, but they had gold runners heading to the right places….
OR SO THEY THOUGHT. O_O
With a favorable wind blowing north, the Jade Vikings pounce and CRUSH the Celtic Fury!!
The Asgard prepares to explore a beach next turn as tons of carnage quickly piles up in the far east. One dismasting of a 10 master can create a huge debris field and maneuvering difficulties.
The Crew Recyclers end the round. Most of their ships sail northwest; the Royal James heads north. She has one of the only open cargo spaces in the fleet and intends to explore the Duke shipwreck.
Here is the second turn by The Cursed!
The Sea Rat explores new waters:
The Maui’s Fishhook is the next to brave the waterfall!
The immense Guichuan looms above:
What a wild sight! The Frontier balances on Ocean’s Edge, with not quite enough movement left to take the plunge!
The hoist fleet is totally scattered by the invasion of the Cursed 10 masters. The Buscador hides in the fog, with Mycron assisting the Sea Serpent to tow the Monarca into a smokepot specialist-created fog bank. They roll to successfully scuttle the Peacock.
The Cursed want both ships, so the wrath of Davy Jones’ Delusion is not likely to be over soon.
The English native canoes explore the Giant Turtle! Marines had no effect, and the canoes didn’t have enough individual cargo to load the Sunken Treasure. However, it looked like a huge haul for the English Mercenaries if they could get it home.
The Elthelfleda and Gallows round earth to the southwest, where they see the Crew Recyclers trying to sail around the Giant Turtle….
The Eighth Wonder has docked at the Giant Turtle to load up the Sunken Treasure and some coins the canoes didn’t have room for! Frederick Xernias will ensure the canoes get their gold home safely.
How confident should Xernias be? Lots of firepower potentially headed his way….
To the east!
The Pluton and Renard team up to dismast the Muninn! The Saber cannot quite get into the action, but docks nearby at the French HI to be ready for combat next turn.
The Celtic Fury explores, giving her Power Cannons and Ammunition for exploding shot! Of course, with no cannons she won’t be able to use the UT’s anytime soon.
Here I explain the situation and play part of the Jade Viking turn!
The loaded Baochuan becomes even more crowded, with multiple named crew captures and a coin joining the full crew complement.
The Muninn escapes sinking by rowing through the whirlpool, and the Asgard drains the Celtic Fury of coins!
As expected the Crew Recyclers clash with the English!
The Armada couldn’t quite get the SAT from Castro and Vaccaro (the 4 result), which likely spared the Gallows. However, the two shots that connected knocked out half of the Gallows’ equipment arsenal along with two masts of course.
The Cristal attacks the Eighth Wonder by herself! But Larkon Presyl is flipped to Parley away one of the EW’s new coins! Between Parley, ignoring the first hit, and sheer durability, the EW is likely to be a very tough customer in this game.
The Crew Recycling fleet has completely split up, with the Flying Dutchman heading north to try and attack the English canoes. A Fearsome Creature eyes some vulnerable prey to the east, while the Royal James reaches the Duke shipwreck.
The end of the round sees considerable carnage piling up. Three 10 masters are absolutely wreaking havoc in the east.
The west is more calm, but fights have begun to break out.
With the first shift, the wind started blowing to the east!
As usual, the Cursed got the round started with some action!
Davy Jones rolls a 6 to force the Sea Serpent and Monarca out of the fog bank! This meant they couldn’t hide in the fog indefinitely with the smokepot-reverse captain strategy. Davy Jones was ready to hunt….
The Cursed take advantage! The Delusion captures the Peacock, while the Guichuan sails over (with some help from the wind) to dismast the Sea Serpent and steal all the gold from the Monarca with The Headhunter’s ability! O_O
The Rum would slow down the Guichuan for a turn, but the Cursed had no immediate threats to worry about.
The Maui’s Fishhook finds an interesting mix of coins after braving the waterfall:
Such a uniquely pretty ship with her silver crane reflecting off the water:
The MF went into a whirlpool and popped out of a nearby one.
The Sea Rat’s explorer fell overboard and drowned in the waterfall descent. This allowed the Frontier to reach over and grab coins from the Sultan shipwreck right in front of the Cursed! Jail would slow her down (helmsman and other crew back to HI), while the Curse of Davy Jones was tossed since it didn’t apply to any game pieces in play. Keep in mind that the two coins are worth 75 total gold!
It’s a bit of a comeback turn for Golden Cranes, as all three hoists explore on the same turn! The Buscador finds Necklace of the Sky along with some decent loot.
An extra action from Lord Mycron’s Patagonia allows the Frontier to explore a Flying Dutchman shipwreck with two more coins!
I love the aesthetic of Shipwreck Cove. In the background you can see the English reaching the far side of the area.
Even with Xavier Gedry giving +1 to cannon rolls with gold aboard, the Eighth Wonder only goes 3 for 8 against the Cristal del Obispo! The Spaniard’s ability allowed her to only lose 2 masts, meaning the Crew Recyclers were still in the fight against the junk. Of course, Parley meant the Mercenaries could do pretty much whatever they wanted for the time being.
Here comes HMS Gallows! In a highly anticipated attack, she did her job well. Exploding shot set the Rosal aflame, while the second shot was VERY unique: stinkpot shot used against a flotilla. O_O Sounds like a once in a Pirates CSG career moment! The Armada carried SAT with reroll, and the English wanted to ensure they wouldn’t be receiving 8 cargo-wrecking shots from the flotilla on the Crew Recyclers’ turn. The stinkpot shut down the crew, limiting the flotilla’s effectiveness. (orange 5 represents the stinkpot hit so I remember not to use the crew on their turn)
One of my favorite pictures from the game – lots of red, orange, and yellow:
The Elthelfleda attacked next, going 2 for 4 to cripple El Rosal:
TIME FOR CHAOS!
The Saber goes ballistic with a suicidal double switchblade assault!!
The Renard and Pluton tried to soften the Baochuan up a bit before the Saber’s crazy boarding attempt. They took off a few masts.
The Saber shoots 3 for 3 against the Baochuan!! However, both the Baochuan AND Asgard roll 6’s to defeat both of the Saber’s boarding parties!! O_O Commander Steven Decatur’s Crew Protect means the Saber doesn’t lose any crew, saving Jordan Dumas and company for the time being. The boarding party against the Baochuan was especially dramatic and a battle of the Gold Capturers: the Baochuan narrowly prevailed 11-10 to deny Bonny Peel from capturing Dragon Eyes!! (worth 10 gold!)
This is why you play!! One 10 master dismasted, carnage everywhere, and a blaze of glory switchblade suicide against two powerful opponents, all in a cramped area at Ocean’s Edge!!! 😀 O_O
This is a big reason why switchblades are one of my favorite ship types despite their lack of historicity – super fun and always creating incredible gameplay moments!
Seen from another angle, the Baochuan’s huge bulk almost completely obscures the attack. Can anyone compete with the Baochuan’s power in this game?
The French knew they were up against a superior foe once the Celtic Fury got beat up. Jordan Dumas is known for being a bit crazy, and his wild side showed through in a desperate moment to try and stave off the Jade Viking invasion.
An incredible sight:
A loaded up switchblade is one of the most fun ships to do a “blaze of glory” attack with. Cannons, blades, extra actions, captures, and chaos!!
GOODBYE FRENCH!!
In a savage counterattack, the Jade Vikings SINK the Celtic Fury AND the Saber!!! 3 masts combined are also knocked down on the Renard and Pluton. The Naegling dealt huge damage, ensuring the incredible Saber combo would not hurt anyone else in this game. It was a bit sad to see the switchblade and a 10 master go so early in the game, but it really proved the might of the Jade Vikings.
The Baochuan got an AA to move and shoot, but could barely hit the Pluton, keeping her alive! Some of the debris has floated over into the deckplate area, showing just how much devastation is quickly accumulating.
An amazing shot: the Celtic Fury’s green stern upside down as she sinks below the waves, with the Jade Vikings triumphant right near the French home island.
Wow. Time for another fleet!
The Royal James explores the Duke shipwreck! Turtles and Relics are two of the best UT’s, but the schooner may find a hard time giving Enemy of the State to an ally to unload one of the 2’s. There are almost no open cargo spaces in the Crew Recycling fleet, and the Flying Dutchman needs to keep her Eternal active.
The flames aboard El Rosal spread towards the bow, dooming the vessel. Alfonzo de Castilla takes the ship into the Gallows, but to no avail. (notice the unrealistic reflective “canvas” sail XD)
The Armada flotilla takes two masts and two crew off the Elthelfleda. At least one was snagged by the Crew Recyclers (Captain Davy Jones and Wraith).
The Cristal del Obispo tries to fire at the Eighth Wonder, netting her fleet another coin via Parley. The Flying Dutchman cannot catch the English native canoes and turns east with the wind.
After another round, here is the map:
The Delusion captures the Sea Serpent and begins towing her away. Davy Jones thought about turning the ship ghostly to assault the Descharges (top of picture), but it would be risky and unnecessary.
The Rattlesnake of the Golden Cranes fleet finds some nice coins by the waterfall. Trees repairs her missing mast, but she looks to be in trouble… the Crew Recyclers are approaching.
The Maui’s Fishhook raids the home island of the Crew Recyclers! Grim the Savage only has room for one coin, but the Golden Cranes fleet is desperate for anything with their fleet trashed and scattered.
The Buscador uses Necklace of the Sky to dock at the southwestern island! She used the second part of the Hoist ability to explore the island, finding good coins. Lost was ineffective even with a 5 roll, because almost all parts of the map were within S of other islands and terrain, including all of the 10 master locations at the time of the UT discovery. Golden Cranes placed a fog bank near their HI and some reefs in the east, trying to make the waterfall and Cursed HI waters more treacherous.
The King’s Ghost finds some UT’s at Shipwreck Cove, while HMS Ramsgate looks to explore it next turn. The abandoned shipwright might be a target of The Cursed if the Delusion ever needs it….
Now able to ignore the burning Rosal, the English 4 masters team up to sink the dangerous Armada. The English are mildly annoyed that the Buscador took gold from the great turtle that they had planned to explore before the Crew Recyclers forced their hand.
After some weird back and forth (Parley and bad shooting), the Eighth Wonder finally gets the better of the Cristal del Obispo.
The Pluton and Renard were able to row into the eastern whirlpool to escape the Jade Vikings’ wrath. However, the Descharges was captured in a nice move by the Asgard! This brings Neptune’s Trident into the Jade Viking fleet, making them even more dangerous.
The Crew Recyclers have a plan to get some gold – the Flying Dutchman will cut off the Frontier before she can enter the whirlpool. The Frontier is slowed and loaded – she lost her helmsman to the Jail UT but now has plenty of gold aboard.
Really love everything about this picture.
As usual, Golden Cranes faces yet more trouble, this time from the Crew Recyclers:
A dramatic shift in the wind!! A 6 was rolled and now the wind blew west!
The wind shift changes the plans of the Cursed!! The Crew Recyclers aren’t the only fleet with designs on the Frontier! She is a golden egg just waiting to be snatched! XD
Here comes the Delusion!
The captured crew of the Sea Serpent (including Wayne Nolan) get a wild view as the Delusion ghosts through a reef and down the waterfall! O_O
How fitting – Davy Jones goes over the Ocean’s Edge! 😀
Sir Edmund’s view from the main topmast of the Guichuan:
And here she is! In an epic display of power, the Delusion dismasts the Frontier, with Christian Fiore cancelling the ship’s Secret Hold ability to steal Poseidon’s Breath!!
The truly All-Powerful Davy Jones and his ship will likely throw a wrench into the Crew Recyclers’ plans.
The shift in the wind also benefits the Golden Cranes fleet – the MF gets home via a whirlpool and Mycron.
Another vulnerable hoist! The Buscador is dismasted by the English!
HMS Ramsgate finds two UT’s at the northern end of Shipwreck Cove. I decided to toss Bad Maps because moving Shipwreck Cove didn’t make much sense thematically (not an island) or logistically (moving it 2L would cause bizarre over and underlaps and more issues than I had time for).
The Eighth Wonder captures the Cristal del Obispo! The native canoes have deposited their 5 coins and head north.
Tension rises in the center! The Frontier gets a successful scuttle roll from the Golden Cranes fleet. Even though she’ll almost definitely be captured before it happens next turn, it still creates some urgency for the fleets vying for her riches. The Royal James captures the Sea Rat from the Cursed and the Flying Dutchman turns towards the Delusion.
Potions and Brews couldn’t save the Rattlesnake from A Fearsome Creature’s wrath!
Another shift in the wind, as a 4 brought it back to its original heading!
The Delusion struts her stuff again. Here she snags the Frontier and dismasts the Flying Dutchman, as OE Davy Jones takes out his movie doppelganger.
Finally a game where the Delusion can really shine! She seems unstoppable!
And the other Cursed 10 master is still healthy! Finally fully recovered from the Rum, the Guichuan’s large crew complement is doing a good job towing the potentially valuable Monarca back home.
The Maui’s Fishhook recaptures the Peacock for Golden Cranes, while the French and Jade Vikings regroup and repair.
Christian Fiore is the only canceller in play, and unsurprisingly got to make some tough decisions in this game. Here he deferred cancelling the FD’s oarsman, allowing her to move away so he could cancel the Royal James’ captain to prevent any damage to the Delusion and her crew. (RJ has cargo wrecking via Chevalle AND crew killing, so 2 hits could eliminate 2 masts and 3 crew) Especially with the kraken lurking, it was still an intriguing situation. It would be interesting to see if the Delusion could recapture the Sea Rat and capture the FD while simultaneously denying the RJ and kraken.
The action after a day of play. The Buscador has been captured, furthering the expansion of the English Mercenary fleet. The English native canoes have round earthed to the south, looking to cut off the Turtles swimming home for the Crew Recyclers.
The east is quiet now, but the sheer volume of HI raiders and gold still in play will likely end that soon.
The MF grabbed the last coin from the tiny beach of the 5 beach island, heading home with the Peacock in tow.
The Eighth Wonder unloaded a coin with Dories, passing the captured Cristal to the King’s Ghost so she could be towed home and repaired. The Gallows is towing the Buscador home. (didn’t want to leave her in the south and forget)
The Baochuan unloads her gold captures and a coin, with the Asgard close behind. The Naegling is towing the Descharges home, while the Muninn goes out to grab a derelict or two from the Golden Cranes fleet.
A big party for the English Mercenaries! Nearly their entire fleet converges at home in a coincidence I see as fairly common in games. The Elthelfleda and Ramsgate will transfer Necklace of the Sky and Protection from Davy Jones to the Eighth Wonder, making her a huge teleportation threat. The Spanish captures start repairing and this fleet is definitely one of the favorites to win right now!
The native canoes get busy, killing three turtles and trapping them before they can reach their new home island!
Save the wee turtles? The Crew Recyclers will not be able to….
However, they are able to frustrate The Cursed a bit. The Sea Rat is sunk by A Fearsome Creature. The Royal James goes over a reef, trying to wreck the Frontier to force the Delusion to brave a reef to get her gold! However, the attempt barely fails with a 3 roll.
Yet another wind shift and it’s back to blowing northwards!
The Cursed were not able to have their ideal solution to the Crew Recycler problem, but the Delusion blasted A Fearsome Creature out of the game on 7 for 8 shooting (!) and successfully rolled to scuttle the Flying Dutchman.
Although her first shoot action was one of my best ever while using a 10 master (and the POLAR opposite of my Delusion’s early failures back in 2012), the Delusion couldn’t keep the luck going. She went 1/6 against the Royal James to not even dismast the ship. Still 8/14 overall on the turn was still more accurate than her cannon ranks (3’s and 4’s). Ibrahan Ozat S-boarded the RJ so Captain Nemo could capture Capitaine Chevalle.
The Guichuan strikes! She round earths to dock at the Golden Cranes HI, stealing all of their coins!
The MF would like to dock home her coins, but she knows that Grim the Savage will just steal them next turn! And Bianco’s Haulers allow the Guichuan to not be shot at while docked, so the Guichuan can just sit there as long as The Headhunter wants! Truly a nightmarish combo to face!
English Mercenaries in a big gearing up phase:
The poor turtles have no hope against 5 fast canoes….
In the east, plenty of movement and repairing. The Muninn captures the Sea Serpent, who had been previously captured by The Cursed.
The wind continues to shift just about every turn, going back to the west now!
The Delusion finally puts an end to the shenanigans in the center, ghosting over Shipwreck Cove and cancelling the RJ’s oarsman to capture the vessel. Crew Recycling 2.0 is the first fleet eliminated!!
The Monarca is taking advantage of the wind and goes over the falls. The Cursed want her to tow the Frontier home on the last leg of the trip, since the Delusion can’t dock with her Ex-Patriot crew aboard.
With the Maui’s Fishhook simply hiding out in the fog, the Guichuan finally turns for home. The Headhunter plans to return soon if the MF dumps her haul. In the background, you can see the Flying Dutchman start repairing.
All the turtles are gone, and it’s possible that the Crew Recyclers will finish with a total grand score of 0. The clustered English Mercenaries may be able to create some serious late game chaos, but they’re worried they might lose a potential lead in the points+gold race if any of their large ships get captured.
The French have mounted an admirable comeback. The Renard finds high value coins at the 5 beach island that the Pluton intended to explore early in the game.
The Asgard explores another beach on the island, finding a lot of gold as well:
Here we go again! The Vikings just won’t take it easy on the French, with the Naegling dismasting the Pluton right after she finished repairing!
The 6 signals a dramatic shift in the wind!
With an AA and wind help, the Asgard and Baochuan were able to get all 5 coins from the southeastern beach, potentially catapulting them into the lead. In the northwest, the English Mercenaries look to be assembling a large squadron for a potentially wild whirlpool raid. The Cursed are still trying to get the Frontier home, and should soon have a healthy Flying Dutchman to join the Guichuan and Delusion. Right now it looks like a tossup between The Cursed, English Mercenaries, and Jade Vikings. Neither of the other two remaining fleets have much of a chance, though their gold may play a big role in the final standings, especially if it gets stolen. The amount of HI raiders in play (Grim the Savage x2, Jozeran Danklidge, Wine) could extend the endgame period considerably, or the game could end suddenly if all gold is on HI’s at any point.
The wind continues to shift, now blowing to the south!
Seeing that the King’s Ghost (with Gibraltar flotilla) will catch the Monarca if the latter takes over towing duties of the Frontier, Davy Jones simply uses an extra action to take the Frontier home himself. The Delusion’s second action of the turn was used to S-board the Renard, with Captain Nemo stealing her captain. The 1 result represents French futility on their own turn later in the round – the Renard missed on both 2S shots. The Guichuan has unloaded stolen loot from the Golden Cranes HI.
The English Mercenaries get a bit more aggressive, sinking the captured Royal James to deny her points and gold from The Cursed. At this point in the game, sinking hard-to-capture ships or logistical nightmares (RJ had oarsman and Enemy of the State aboard) became a reasonable option to pursue. The Monarca and Ramsgate both want the final coin from the Duke shipwreck.
The Eighth Wonder uses Danklidge to steal the lone coin on the Crew Recyclers’ HI! This means that fleet will indeed finish the game with a score of 0.
The ever-growing Jade Viking fleet is the complete opposite – lots of points and lots of gold. The Sea Serpent begins repairing as the Peacock is towed home and the Descharges sails out – all captured ships. Grabbing the Sea Serpent netted them 5 gold – the JV’s are happy to have Wayne Nolan’s Ransom payout of 5 rather than a reroller worth 0 in the final scores count.
Lady Kamaile (aboard the MF) of Golden Cranes hardly knows what to do – if Grim the Savage steals Cursed gold, the Guichuan can just steal it back. If they go after the Jade Vikings’ gold, the MF will probably be captured or sunk before she can get back home.
Another round begins, and the wind is back to blowing east!
The Cursed are doing some serious transfers of valuables. Knowing the King’s Ghost and Gibraltar would make short work of her, the Monarca returns home to tow the Frontier to safety.
Everything is being moved to the Guichuan due to her important status as the home island hoarder and the ship that could net the Cursed a bunch more gold in a short period of time. Besides, it seemed as if some of them were overkill on the other ships – Neptune’s Figurehead isn’t needed on the Frontier and won’t work on the Delusion due to Ex-Patriot, while the Delusion also gave away Relics because she has canceller Christian Fiore. Between all the stuff she’s carrying the Guichuan is nearly unshootable (Relics and Bianco’s Haulers), unsinkable (Neptune’s Figurehead), and unboardable (Ghost Ship). With a favorable wind, AA’s and Poseidon’s Breath, she might even be uncatchable too! O_O
Here’s something I forgot about since the setup phase! The Maui’s Fishhook rolled a 1 coming out of the fog, smashing into a rock to lose a mast and stay in the fog! XD
Unbelievable!! Lord Mycron gives the MF another action, but she rolls a 1 again to smash into the same rock and lose another mast! O_O After all the misfortune that befell the Golden Cranes fleet in this game, this seems like icing on the cake for their opponents. They are literally just beating themselves up at this point!
(Also reminds me of the Black Mamba’s horrid performance in my 2015 Economy Edition game where she rolled 1’s to dismast herself with her ability – here the MF cannot even roll a 2-6 to escape a simple fog bank, nearly getting dismasted in the process.)
The King’s Ghost with Gibraltar has been a loyal sidekick for the Ramsgate in this game. Having chased off La Monarca, they can now explore the Duke shipwreck in peace.
All four of these ships (not the 10) have gone from damaged to healthy! The English Mercenaries are ready to rock, but they are understandably hesitant due to the factors at play. Since points in play matter so much to the final score, they don’t want to lose anything in a daring whirlpool raid. In addition, the other fleets with the most gold (Cursed and Jade Vikings) have plenty of firepower of their own, with plenty of it right around their HI’s.
The Jade Vikings are approaching one of the ultimate luxuries in any Pirates CSG game – having more ships than they know what to do with. The Descharges and Baochuan are headed north, looking to take the final 2 coins from the 5 beach island. The only question is whether they’ll take them from the beach, the Renard, or another ship….
Taking advantage of the shifting wind, the Muninn round earths to the west and eliminates 4 of the 5 English native canoes! In a weird way this wasn’t a big deal. The canoes’ point cost of 12 is represented by the tribal chieftain, who is alive and well on the Elthelfleda. There is almost no gold left in play for the canoes to get, and their ability is unlikely to have much effect with a (currently) completely healthy fleet. However, the Jade Vikings wanted to eliminate as many threats and contingencies as possible, and the canoes were ripe for destruction.
A 6 reverses the wind direction! This would be an ominous sign, and one of extreme luck for one of the favorites….
A nice turn for The Cursed! The Delusion S boards the Renard to steal her oarsman with Captain Nemo, then sinks her! The Monarca docks home the Frontier with an AA, netting the Cursed a lot of gold! The Flying Dutchman finishes repairing, and the Guichuan heads north to raid the Golden Cranes HI and take back the gold that the MF stole.
I will admit my Delusion setup has some funny flaws – with Davy Jones rolling 1-4 so often for an extra action, Fantasma doesn’t even need to sacrifice Nemo’s captures that often.
The Ramsgate braves the reef that claimed the Duke, while the Eighth Wonder turns around and uses Dories to deposit the 2 from the Crew Recyclers’ HI. The final canoe flees into the fog, but where have some of those large ships in the northwest gone?
Through a whirlpool to emerge in a northeast! The captured Spanish ships are sent to steal gold from the vulnerable French home island, as the English Mercenaries suddenly remembered that HI raider Fernando Sanchez was still aboard the Buscador!
The English Mercenaries were trying to hedge their bets, sending a few ships to a relatively peaceful area to grab some lightly defended gold without risking their entire squadron. If things went wrong, the Gallows, Elthelfleda, AND Eighth Wonder were ready to arrive in the same area next turn. This part of the game is where the EM’s lack of extra actions and/or AA’s started to look like a weakness compared to the Cursed and Jade Vikings.
Now it was the Jade Viking turn. That 6 represents that they got BOTH AA’s, from Sigurd and Zheng He. O_O I also see a little something in the bottom right hand corner…. and the wind was blowing west. O_O
I must have been thinking about their options and possibilities for a good 15 minutes before deciding what their optimal choice was!
Here are the notes I took to figure things out, although I considered even more stuff than this:
Epic JV turn w/ both AA’s: Baochuan and others have TONS of options. Baochuan can attack Delusion and then try to Sac OR use an AA – either way, Delusion in big trouble. Fiore has no idea who/what to cancel – Captain (won’t get shot up as much on the first action), Gold Capture (save Davy Jones from being captured by Dragon Eyes), Sac (JV’s would need to use an AA on Baochuan). Should probably cancel captain because Delusion will sink since Eternal doesn’t work with the Ex-Patriots aboard.
Baochuan can also whirl to smash EM’s in the northwest, but not enough firepower in one action to cripple the Eighth Wonder enough to make it worthwhile. Can also whirl to hit Cristal+Buscador, but that could let the Delusion off the hook (though Descharges can hit Delusion a little with an AA).
In the end, it seems optimal to focus all firepower on one area – Baochuan leads the attack on the Delusion and uses Neptune’s Trident with the inevitable second action, whether it comes from Sac or an AA. Muninn gets an AA to whirl to the northeast and blast Buscador. Descharges assists the Baochuan against the Delusion.
When it was all said and done, the Delusion and Cristal del Obispo each had one mast remaining. Davy Jones was captured by Dragon Eyes (talk about a showdown!), and the Buscador was sunk (28 points out of play!).
The second 10 master to be absolutely mauled by the Jade Vikings in this game!
Suddenly the game has changed. The Delusion has gone from being one of the biggest threats with All-Powerful and a canceller, to a wimpy opponent that must run to avoid being sunk. The English Mercenaries suffer a large blow, and their arguably half-hearted offensive has backfired. The Jade Vikings already looked like a favorite – now it will be embarrassing if they lose!
The JV’s are also doing a fine job with captures.
Counting the Buscador, the Jade Vikings knocked out 14 masts this turn, even with mediocre shooting. If the Delusion and Cristal had been sunk as well with 4 more total hits, the game would probably be out of reach for the other fleets.
Always an epic sight full of carnage as a 10 master meets her match.
Can the Cursed recover to have a chance at winning?
The Jade Vikings have really been incredible this game, and now the Cursed and English Mercenaries are even more intimidated by them.
Time to flee! Saccing the Renard’s oarsman, Fantasma turns the Delusion ghostly and takes advantage of the wind (still blowing west) to reach the fog bank near the Cursed home island.
The Guichuan still round earths to approach the Golden Cranes HI – the Cursed want to pull off at least one more heist before the game ends, especially since the gold they’re eyeing was theirs. The MF pulls in to dock and repair – Bianco’s Haulers prevents the Guichuan from being shot at while docked. This means the MF basically can’t defend her gold, which is a horrible feeling for Lady Kamaile as she is forced to watch the Cursed take everything and get away with it. Such a brutal combo.
The English Mercenaries are feeling more timid than ever, like a shamed dog with its tail between its legs. The Gallows and Elthelfleda get on either side of the damaged Cristal so she can make it home to repair. Frederick Xernias considers the locations and risks of one more HI raid….
And now the Jade Vikings officially have more ships than they feel they need. The Peacock finishes repairing as the Asgard stands guard (Asguardian? as guardian…) over their HI. The Naegling heads west, unsure if she will try to intervene near the Golden Cranes HI, take the whirlpool somewhere, or neither.
The Cursed hold steady at their HI, with the Monarca and Flying Dutchman not receiving actions. If they sail out, the Baochuan may be able to move L+S+S+L+S+S between the wind and a Sac action. They also want to be ready to assist the Guichuan in case she needs support getting home with stolen loot. The Frontier repairs, while the Delusion just hides in the fog. The Cursed may keep the Delusion in the fog indefinitely because they want all of her points to count towards victory. (if she had any gold aboard, she’d be forced out)
The Pluton is keeping the French fleet alive. Both Leander Arnaud and Godiva both simply feel lucky to have avoided the blast from Neptune’s Trident.
The Descharges looks to explore the final gold location for the JV’s. The Sea Serpent is coming out to escort her home, having nothing better to do. Dragon Eyes wants to drop the captured Davy Jones off at home before the Baochuan potentially gets involved in a major attack to seal their victory.
The Ramsgate has taken the final coin from the Duke, which draws the attention of the Muninn – she is back in the west.
As Day 3 came to a close, I wondered… Should Guichuan raid HI of Golden Cranes or try for the JV HI? (especially considering Relics and Poseidon’s Breath) The latter would be insanely risky, but the UT’s could help the Guichuan achieve glory….
With that, the Guichuan has all NINE of her cargo spaces filled with treasure! O_O
The captured Descharges loads the final coins from a beach! Now the Jade Vikings control both Rules of Thor AND Loki!
The Naegling catches the Flying Dutchman sailing off the Cursed home island and deals major damage!
The Sea Serpent and Baochuan head for home, while the Asgard and Peacock look to track and intercept the Guichuan on her potentially short journey home via round earth. The Asgard’s crew are beyond frustrated – imagine having a 10 master docked in your home port that is loaded with gold they stole from you, and you can’t shoot at it!!
But they should have stayed home!! The Guichuan gets going, turning ghostly and then blasting the Asgard and Peacock!! The loss of the Asgard is a big blow to the Jade Vikings, who lose an AA, 32 points, and a capable gunship.
The Flying Dutchman returns home to repair, shooting a mast off the Naegling, who is joined in the blockade by the Muninn. The Frontier and Monarca are standing pat, awaiting the arrival of the Guichuan and trying not to be captured or sunk.
Seeing an opportunity to cause a headache for the Cursed, the Muninn uses an AA to round earth, tow the Peacock (partially trying to block the Guichuan, although the latter has Ghost Ship), and shoot at the Guichuan to get her Relics! This leaves the Guichuan “wide open”….
Here they come again! The Baochuan surges through a whirlpool and round earths with Sac to come broadside to the Guichuan!!
The Baochuan connects 6 times, taking the Guichuan down to 3 masts!!
The red d6 is to mark that the Guichuan’s broken mast towards the stern is out as well.
The first two 10 masters released are duking it out on Ocean’s Edge:
Knowing that an AA and/or southerly wind could be combined with Ghost Ship to get the Guichuan nearly home, the Jade Vikings have taken the fight right to them. They intend to beat up and block the Guichuan as much as possible in an attempt to get their gold back. The problem is, The Headhunter is holding on to Neptune’s Figurehead – the UT makes him fearless. If the Jade Vikings sink the Guichuan, a ton of JV gold goes to the sea bottom while the Guichuan simply returns to her HI fully repaired.
Le Pluton has sailed out to attack Le Descharges, as the French try to get a few more coins. However, a tied boarding party means Leander Arnaud can’t hoard any gold.
Complicating matters for The Cursed is the Maui’s Fishhook – with HI Hoarder Grim the Savage still alive and well, the MF poses a serious threat to the Cursed gold pile. It feels like there are a lot of different ways this endgame could go….
The Guichuan must escape! The Headhunter and Sammy the Skull turn her ghostly and hide in a fog bank, which is nearly due north of the Cursed HI. Fear will slightly slow the Baochuan on her turn.
The Cursed must stop the MF from raiding their HI again! The FD slams into her, but cannot massacre the crew. The Frontier redocks in an attempt to block the MF’s path to docking. The Delusion is nearly frozen – if she exits the fog even for one turn, multiple fleets are likely to do everything they can to sink her, which won’t be so difficult without Relics and the 7-9 extra masts she had earlier.
The English Mercenaries have been a bit of a “dark horse” winner candidate for a while now – here the Ramsgate unloads the coin from the Duke shipwreck (the last “wild” coin west of the waterfall) as the Cristal repairs.
Their other ships arrive in the northeast! The Eighth Wonder has Protection from Davy Jones to avoid whirlpool damage, while both English 4 masters roll high to avoid penalties. The English Mercenaries are hoping to seize this opportunity to raid at least one of the eastern HI’s (likely French, maybe Jade Viking) without getting into too much trouble as the Cursed and JV’s fight like mad just to the west.
The Pluton S-boards the Descharges before sinking her, netting Leander Arnaud and the French a 4 and Runes of Thor! This gives the French some revenge against the JV’s, denying them a capture and her 22 points of value.
Only one French ship still floating… she has done a fine job getting back into action after multiple maulings.
A bizarre change of heart! Showing the ever-changing nature of this game, the Jade Vikings send the captured Sea Serpent into a fog bank with her smokepot specialist-reverse captain combo, trying to block the English Mercenaries from messing with the Pluton! The JV’s are in fierce competition with both the Cursed AND the EM’s in this endgame. Giving the EM’s an easy capture and extra gold is not going to help the JV’s have the highest score in the end.
Dragon Eyes unloads a valuable capture – Davy Jones. An AA gets the Baochuan right back out towards the action.
Much jockeying for position:
A dramatic turn of events as the wind shifts 180 degrees to the east!
The Guichuan also rolls a 6 to emerge from her fog bank! She turns ghostly…
… and joins the Delusion in the fog bank just off the Cursed home island!
Captain Davy Jones of the Flying Dutchman scares the crew aboard the Naegling, which will slow her this round. Then the FD again tries to kill the MF’s crew, but fails once more. The Frontier manages to knock a mast off the MF.
The situation has become an emergency for the Cursed. If the MF steals some coins from the Cursed HI, she has a combination of Secret Hold and nearby whirlpools and fog banks aiding her. In addition, the nearby JV’s could capture or sink her, making it difficult or impossible to get the gold back. El Fantasma decides he must act, taking the Delusion out of the fog at last and straight for the Maui’s Fishhook! The boarding party is an epic fail as one shot misses and Ibrahan Ozat and Sir Edmund are killed!! O_O (Eddie was sacced to no avail)
In an even more embarrassing display of utter futility, the MF rolls two 1’s in a row on 2L shots against the Delusion! (Mycron giving a second action) Christian Fiore cancelled Grim the Savage, or else the MF would have raided the HI.
I finally use the ability of the English native canoe! She gets a 6 to help the Cristal repair faster.
The Eighth Wonder steals a coin from the French home island right before the Pluton unloads some more gold!
The Jade Vikings are starting to encircle the Cursed home island… although they are slowed by the wind shift, they are determined to get revenge on the Guichuan and possibly even capture the MF after she loads Cursed gold.
The Guichuan gets a 5 out of her fog bank and wants to unload her HUGE haul ASAP! The FD simply rows out of the way, ducking into the fog bank to avoid being an obstacle.
She cannot make it through! With the fog bank on her port side and the starboard bow clipping the MF’s stern flag, the Guichuan is stuck! Activating Ghost Ship will prevent her from docking, along with the perfectly executed trick they need right now….
Things were getting desperate AND complicated!! The Guichuan had technically rammed the MF, as the Cursed wanted to kill the “other” Grim the Savage before the MF could dock at the Cursed HI. Or simply knock him out with some stink. However, the Jade Vikings saw the way the Cursed were thinking, and knew they HAD to act (if the Guichuan gets her gold home AND their other coins are safe from the MF, the game is quite likely out of reach). Zheng He flips Runes of Loki to force the Guichuan’s stinkpot specialist to miss, leaving Grim the Savage uncancelled!
However, the Guichuan easily wins the boarding party, and The Headhunter takes great delight in massacring and beheading the entire crew of the MF!!!
(only the American oarsman was “recycled”)
Now it was time for the key moment! The Frontier reached over and grabbed 8 of the Guichuan’s 9 coins with her hoist!!
Two of the coolest ships in the game working together!!
The Frontier redocks to simultaneously unload the HUGE haul of gold and block the Naegling from getting to the Guichuan!
Pretty great turn by the Cursed right? Most of the loot home safe with the MF neutralized! (and ripe for capture…)
La Monarca, the uncrewed gold runner with two 5S cannons, gets a pair of 6’s to dismast the mighty Naegling!!!!
WHAT A TURN!!
Things got serious real quick for the English Mercenaries. They were considering trying to end the game. At this point the only coins in play were the final coin on the Guichuan (about to be unloaded by her or the Frontier) and the stolen 7 on the Eighth Wonder. With the wind blowing east, the EW could potentially even round earth this turn and use Dories to possibly unload the final non-Cursed coin. However, the English Mercenaries realized that they probably didn’t have more combined gold+points than the Cursed.
This is another period of the game where I sat for a solid 10+ minutes trying to figure out what to do. The simple thing would be to end the game and have everyone count, but the EM’s would likely lose to the Cursed and maybe even the JV’s as well. Every other option carried a LOT of risk. If the EW stole another coin from the French HI, the Pluton and possibly Baochuan could attack her right afterwards. In the end, only one option seemed good enough to win the EM’s the game – steal at least one of the two 50 gold coins from the Cursed HI. If the EW could use her considerable supporting cast perfectly, she might be able to add 50 gold to the 35 (7×5 multiplier) she already carried, which might be enough to beat the Cursed. Of course, the journey there could eliminate a ton of the points in play, especially for the English Mercenaries.
Frederick Xernias decided the English Mercenaries had to go for it and not settle for what would likely be second place. The Eighth Wonder uses Necklace of the Sky to dock at a beach, putting her in position to raid the Cursed HI next turn!
Could this trigger a large war? The EM ships remaining in the west head to round earth their way to aid their fleetmates.
The French were pissed again. XD Leander Arnaud really hates the Jade Vikings and the English Mercenaries. He takes the Pluton into the Elthelfleda, blasting off two masts and killing the tribal chieftain in a boarding party! (so the EM’s were already down 12 points from deciding to stick it out – see how hard the decision making can be in the endgame? (especially when points in play count just as gold does))
Another turn for the Sea Serpent! The Jade Vikings had to switch sides again, this time away from the French. The EM’s now had the only non-Cursed HI raider in the game (Jozeran Danklidge on the EW), and the JV’s need more gold and points to win. If they could team with the EM’s just long enough for the EW to grab some Cursed gold, the Baochuan could try to steal it at the end. A devious plan by the JV’s, but one that was their only hope at this late stage of the game. The Guichuan’s double HI hoard completely smashed their chance of winning (which looked extremely high at the end of Day 3), so any plot against the Cursed seemed like a great idea. The Sea Serpent knocks a mast off the Pluton so the English can better assist the EW.
Their movements are hampered by the wind, but the Muninn and Baochuan move to assist the EW. The Muninn wants to block the Guichuan from blasting the EW, and maybe snag the MF in the process.
“Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” – Gore Verbinski
A time of impromptu alliances! With the Pluton about to be blasted apart by HMS Gallows, the French decide to lend the Cursed a hand against the hated JV’s and EM’s. (the Delusion did hit the Renard, but the French don’t have as much reason to hate the Cursed) Leander Arnaud plays Runes of Thor to change The Headhunter’s AA roll to a successful 6!
Side note: That Neptune’s Figurehead UT loomed VERY large here in the late game. It was effectively a trump card for the Cursed, because if a fleet sank the Guichuan, she would simply reappear at the Cursed HI with all TEN masts up again. With the Guichuan and the game action right near the Cursed HI already, nobody wanted to sink the Guichuan and deal with her at full strength again. Therefore, almost everybody was scared to sink the Guichuan since she would immediately come back stronger in the exact same battle area where nobody could afford to face her. In addition, the fleets were afraid that if the Guichuan came back with 10 masts in an instant, The Headhunter would feel confident in trying yet ANOTHER home island hoarding expedition, which would just further increase the Cursed gold reserves.
The Frontier uses her hoist to grab the final coin from the Guichuan, while the Monarca captures the Naegling!
The Guichuan shoots at the Muninn to get Relics back as the ships meet again. The Flying Dutchman emerges from the fog to capture the MF, while the Frontier deposits the Guichuan’s final coin from her epic double home island hoard turn.
Weirdly enough, the AA from Runes of Thor was only used on the Monarca to capture the Peacock. This is because the Guichuan’s turn was over due to the Relics, and the Cursed didn’t have anything better to do. It’s possible that both the JV’s and French held onto their Runes of Loki/Thor too long, or simply didn’t use them optimally. Of course, it seemed like the right time to use them while playing.
Things are looking pretty crowded… how the hell is the EW going to raid the Cursed HI?? XD
HMS Gallows blasts Le Pluton, killing Godiva (1 gold for the EM’s) and eliminating the French from the game!
This is where things got… weird. I was becoming frustrated by how long the potentially irrelevant endgame was taking, and the English Mercenaries were starting to consider a “surrender” on every one of their turns. Part of the problem is that the EW had to spend a turn exploring the beach to unload Necklace of the Sky in order to use the effect properly (something I didn’t know until this year, but it does make it less OP which is good).
Unable to reach the Guichuan, the Baochuan captures the Monarca. The JV’s know they have only an outside shot at winning now, and will try to capitalize on easy opportunities to add points to their fleet.
With only one coin technically left in play, almost all ships are concentrated in the northeast.
The Eighth Wonder has help, but it might be too late to the party to be effective…
A pretty neat sight to see, with 4 10 masters remaining for this interesting endgame situation. At the top you can just make out the rest of the EM ships preparing to round earth towards the action.
The wind shifts and blows north!
The Cursed score a coup??
The Flying Dutchman docks home the Maui’s Fishhook, and naturally the Cursed put her in a position to block the Muninn and EW’s movements. The Guichuan FINALLY docks home after her arduous journey, with 3 masts and all of her crew intact. She docks to block in the Muninn and EW as well….
At this point the EW is really running out of options, and Frederick Xernias begins to regret his decision to raid the Cursed HI. The ship has almost nowhere to maneuver, and getting out alive could prove impossible even if the Muninn doesn’t turn on him….
The King’s Ghost is the first of the reinforcements to arrive in the northeast, but the EM’s are still considering a kind of forfeit deal.
Time to play! The Eighth Wonder tries but cannot make it through! She can pin herself on the MF or wreck her starboard side on the rocks!
What a disaster!! The Cursed have effectively boxed in the new allies, and the ships cannot be shot at while at their home island of course!
The MF lost a mast (possibly a mistake on my part, though it wouldn’t matter in the end), and the Muninn captured her but only after losing 2 masts to the Guichuan’s 2L guns! The Naegling and Flying Dutchman were repairing, while the Frontier went out to grab the Peacock.
With no good targets to shoot at, the Baochuan has round earthed to tow the Monarca home. Things only got weirder and more convoluted from here….
The English Mercenaries are becoming very frustrated!! A northerly wind only makes their problems worse! The Eighth Wonder sinks the Maui’s Fishhook and docks at the Cursed home island where she steals one of the coins worth 50 gold!!! Annoyed by the mediocre help coming from the “ally” Jade Vikings, First Mate Ismail leads the gunners of the Gibraltar flotilla to sink the Sea Serpent! The EM reinforcements are here, and they are willing to take control by sheer force and brutality. Frederick Xernias just wants to get his gold and go home.
The magic of Ghost Ship!! An AA allows the Guichuan to swing around to the other side of the EW, knocking off 2 masts (black d6) with the help of the Naegling! (the Guichuan’s cannon accuracy fell apart here at the end of the game) The orange d6 on the EW marks that her crew have been hit by the Guichuan’s stinkpot specialist!! This is hugely important in slowing the ship, as it cancels a ton of abilities with such a loaded crew complement.
The shootout continues! The EW sinks the Muninn, as the EM/JV alliance has not panned out the way either side would have liked. Poor accuracy by competent gunners means that three EM game pieces are needed to dismast the Frontier.
The Baochuan is back! Dragon Eyes captures The Inquisitor! (also going 5 for 8 to nearly dismast the Cristal)
The wind shifts to the east:
Here we go again! The Cursed are absolutely having a ball with this game. The Guichuan stops being ghostly so she can dock at her home island and become immune to cannon fire again. She hits the EW a few times, and the FD follows with a few hits of her own. The 5 represents that 5 masts are down on the EW, leaving her at only half strength. Captain Davy Jones and Griffin prepare a deadly boarding party to massacre the crew of the EW (!) if they can get lucky….
STOP!!!!
Frederick Xernias demands an end to the madness!! He seeks a truce! With his flagship still struggling to move anywhere and near-invincible Cursed ships surrounding him (FD has Eternal-Ghost Ship-Massacre and a bunch of expendable crew, and Guichuan has Neptune’s Figurehead, Fear, stinkpot specialist, etc, both right at their HI), Xernias knows he is out of viable options to increase the English Mercenary total point score. In addition, his reinforcements may be further weakened by what would remain of the Baochuan, who still has Sac.
This was a bizarre and extremely rare case of a “strategic forfeit”, where surrendering was the best option for the fleet in question. The terms were simple: the Cursed would get back their stolen 50 coin, but the English Mercenaries would get to keep the 7 (worth 35 gold) on the EW that they had stolen from the French. Then the game would simply end. It’s very likely the EW would be sunk by the Cursed soon afterwards, or her fleet decimated by the combination of the Cursed and Baochuan. (plus, if the FD did succeed at that boarding party, the EW would lose all 30 points of her crew and be too slow to make it home with her stolen gold)
The Jade Vikings were not necessarily happy with the decision, but they didn’t control either of the coins in question and they were too far behind for me to really consider their opinion heavily at this point. XD (plus they didn’t have any HI raiders, so they couldn’t just snag a coin on their turn to keep the game alive)
Wow!! With that the game was finally over.
The Final Scores
In first place are The Cursed!!
1. Cursed: 647 total points; 460 gold, 187 points in play
2. English Mercenaries: 448 total points; 281 gold, 167 points in play
3. Jade Vikings: 148 total points; 82 gold (55 from coins, 27 from crew captures), 66 points in play (score goes up to 155 total if including The Inquisitor capture aboard Baochuan)
4. French: 50 total points; 50 gold, 0 points in play
5. Golden Cranes: 22 total points; 0 gold, 22 points in play
6. Crew Recyclers: 0
I highly recommend trying out the points in play and wind house rules!
What a memorable experience! This game was pretty wild. I enjoyed using the points in play + gold house rule. The scores are really crazy and lopsided, but I’m fine that they weren’t close – mostly to avoid controversy from the weird ending. The final few hours of the game were extremely strange. At the end of Day 3 it looked like the Jade Vikings would win. However, the Guichuan’s ridiculous double home island hoard epic raid proved to be the play of the game. The Cursed got very lucky with UT’s and different timing and location things.
I ran a few calculations to see if the English Mercenaries made the right decision, and it does look like they would have just ended up poorer if the game had continued. In a best case scenario, the EM’s would have gotten both the 50 gold coin back home from the Cursed along with capturing the Frontier and Peacock. The Cursed would end up with 597 (647-50), while the EM’s would finish with 527 (448+50 (coin)+17 (Frontier)+12 (Peacock w/equipment)). So the Cursed would still win by 70 total points!
The Cursed did so many things right. Capturing ships with consistency (Monarca, Flying Dutchman, Frontier, and many others) ensured that their points in play number stayed high, yet also provided them with logistical support in a tense and stressful endgame. The FD and Frontier held down the fort as they say, providing great support around the HI that allowed the Guichuan’s massive haul to be unloaded as threats were dealt with. The Delusion snagged both of those ships in her waterfall trip to the west, so her role cannot be ignored. She was a huge star in the first half+ of the game. Once she was crippled by the Baochuan, it was time for the Guichuan to shine brighter than ever. Grim the Savage teamed with Bianco’s Haulers for an international stealing party for the ages, raking in a TON of gold. I think the Guichuan may have stolen 6 coins from the Golden Cranes fleet and another 6 from the JV’s home island. If someone had been stupid enough to sink her and trigger Neptune’s Figurehead, there’s a solid chance she would have sunk the Eighth Wonder at the end or even gone after the French or EM HI’s for more booty.
The Golden Cranes fleet went second, but finished second to last. They didn’t have any defenses or firepower that were required to hang with the big boys in this brutal game. I think they could fare better in a 2 player game, a game with less big threats flying around, or a game by the normal rules where gold is the only win condition. Once the Cursed unleashed devastation, their fleet scattered and then got picked off around the map.
The English Mercenaries played very well and dominated most of the west, and eventually even some of the east as well. They lacked an extra action capability that allowed the Jade Vikings to dominate and allowed the Cursed to win. With some different crew choices or less tough customers in the endgame (FD and Guichuan cornered the EW), they may have emerged victorious. A nice showing by some of my customs along with the RtSS and Unreleased pieces. They had a a fine line to walk between being too passive and too aggressive, and wound up in 2nd place after two somewhat unsuccessful initiatives into the east.
The French were mostly crushed early by the aggressive Jade Vikings, but recovered nicely to finish first among the “has-beens”. They survived with just two ships for quite a while, and the Pluton’s valiant efforts will not soon be forgotten. I was very happy to see her in action a lot, as she is one of my sentimental favorites. Who knows how differently the game would have turned out if O’Brien had piloted the Celtic Fury to attack the Eighth Wonder very early in the game….
The Jade Vikings were a powerhouse from Turn 1. Without a doubt the most intimidating fleet for most of the game, all 4 of their powerful ships wreaked havoc. They were outsmarted by a super-Guichuan who took a lot of their riches and lived to tell the tale. The wheels completely came off at the end as their longships were sunk and captured. Some very impressive crew captures by Dragon Eyes (including Davy Jones himself) could not make up the difference, and the JV’s were disappointed to finish the game with far less points in play than when they started. A triumphant first three days of the game was wrecked by a horrible day 4.
The Crew Recyclers did not look like a fleet that would do well, so it’s not surprising to see them in last with 0 gold or points. They ended up with a tough HI location and their strategy was not exactly appropriate for this game (again, house rules determined after fleet selection of course). Splitting up their fleet around the bay area resulted in total annihilation. Still, it was nice to cross this fleet off my “bucket list” of fleets I want to use in games.
Please comment below what you thought of this game! 😀
Warning: This may be my most arrogant and self-congratulatory piece of content I have ever made or will ever make for Pirates CSG. It is a way for me to look back at my best and favorite game moments where my obsession with the game’s strategy and my vast experience with playing the game culminated in big wins. After thousands of hours spent on the game in general, I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished in terms of playing the game.
For a long time I only played solo games. I didn’t play my first game against a human opponent until January 2015. Since then I’ve played against a few dozen players, some in physical games but even more on the VASSAL module. This post documents some of my greatest moments as an experienced and extremely passionate player of Pirates CSG.
My first non-solo campaign game featured a ton of amazing moments, and it remains as possibly my favorite huge game. It was smart for my Spanish to optimize their gold system very early on, purposely launching pretty much all of their ships and crew with gold bonus abilities. The massive fleet of native canoes peaked at 35 total (7 sets), which helped the Spanish rake in a ton of gold throughout the game. This allowed them to spend on battle fleets, which were used to take on the other factions. The Americans were forced to pay tribute, and ironically became a vassal state of the Spanish Empire. The French put up an amazing fight but were crushed by the strength of the Spanish war fleet. The Pirates were next. The Cursed and English were also smashed by my Spanish, who steamrolled through the game. Even though my English fleet looked superior in the endgame, the Spanish managed to wear them down and pull out a well-deserved victory. My superior launching strategy (of not saving gold for almost any reason) gave me the win. Check out the factional analysis in the reflection at the bottom of the reports to get a better idea of how dominant the Spanish were.
Here is the retrospective video for a quick summary of the game, with the Spanish theme of the game playing:
This game was short compared to CG1, but still featured some interesting plays. My theme in this game was attacking the Pirates (the main rival of my English) through whirlpools. I pulled off multiple whirlpool raids, most of which were successful in general. The final one was a huge move that swung the momentum permanently to the English side. At that point I was building up an insurmountable points lead, and the game ended somewhat prematurely after my English intervened in a battle between the Pirates and French. I was able to use 10 masters and submarines to devastate opposing forces, and eventually controlled seven 10 masters and six cancellers! I mostly accomplished my goals within the game, which were to capture the Zeus, hinder or eliminate Captain Jack Sparrow, and of course win in the end. Check out my path to victory in this video:
CG3 would be perhaps my greatest test yet. In CG1 I controlled half the fleets (3/6), and in CG2 I still controlled a third (1/3). In CG3, I’d be at just 1 fleet out of 6 total, with 5 other players trying to win the game. I still thrived. Lying low early due to bad resource rolls for my islands, the Americans watched as the Spanish burned brightly but then fizzled out. After some long-awaited changes in the resource values, my Americans began to have serious spending power. As usual, I first concentrated on optimizing my gold system, and then began to steadily launch ships for war.
The game’s turning point was an epic display of momentum shifting – the French crushed the Spanish at the central Gateway island, but then my Americans struck and crushed the French in the same location. From there it was a matter of eliminating the other factions. My fleet ranged far and wide, with the Zhanfu and others going to the far west to take out the Spanish and English. The French were eliminated after trying to invade my home waters through a whirlpool. I correctly anticipated a betrayal by my Pirate allies, and launched a preemptive strike to take care of that threat to my gold system. The Cursed were the toughest opponent to beat, but yet another whirlpool strike (like in CG2) with the first shot advantage proved to be decisive. You can even see my epic opening turn of that conflict here. A long battle at the Cursed home island eventually saw the American numerical superiority victorious, with a massive wave of cancellation coming to dominate the Frozen North.
This grand victory was my third consecutive non-solo campaign game victory in as many efforts, improving my record to a perfect 3-0 and initiating comparisons to Tom Brady and Thanos in terms of utter dominance and early “championship” success. At the bottom of the battle reports you can see my long strategy explanation for the game. In this retrospective video you can see the dominance of the American fleet play out.
This is one of those extremely rare games where everything goes according to plan. My strategy was applied, and it worked flawlessly. Everything I did went right. It was a bizarre combination of luck, timing, and good gameplay on my part.
The Guichuan’s heist totaled 22 gold, but in reality the final score was about 35-0. I had won the game in a complete shutout despite the big build total. I only lost one ship, the Celtic Fury (plus one canoe haha). I had captured or destroyed Xerecs’ entire fleet.I was also happy because I was intimidated when I saw the enemy fleet – the Zeus and San Cristobal (by some people’s accounts the 2 best gunships in the game), along with the Baochuan and some of the best gold runners in the game. However, with some negative UT’s, effective crew placement, and brilliantly executed gimmick strategy, I was able to pull off the victory!
To be fair, this was against a slow fleet. However, it was still one of my most impressive wins, with Calypso going ballistic with whirlpools to give the Pirates every single coin in the treasure distribution for a 55-0 victory! O_O
In a huge blowout, the Pirates defeat the Spanish 55-0! This is one of the only games I’ve ever played where a fleet gets every single coin in the treasure distribution. No gold was sunk, and the Pirates collected and stole the rest for a massive victory. This game made me want to use Calypso more, and it’s also one of the best gimmick games/fleets I’ve seen.
This 5-hour long game was captured in full on video, found at the bottom of the battle report linked above. I scored two massive coups that helped me pull out a narrow victory in the end. The first involved a brilliant combination of using the Harbinger’s ship-stealing ability in conjunction with the special rules of the scenario, where the first island your fleet explores becomes your home island. This happened early in the game, but there was a ton of action left.
The second “coup” netted me another capture. I was able to capture a derelict galley and then row her S+S towards the Europa, who used an extra action and Commander Temple’s ability to warp the galley home. Making it even sweeter was the fact that the 2 gold runners captured in these incredible game moves are two of the best to ever sail: the Banshee’s Cry and Star of Siam. Quite the prizes indeed!
This second coup of the game for me was triply effective – it made the Hound less of a target, it got the SoS and Europa out of harms’ way (the Black Pearl), and it gave me another capable gold runner in my fleet. All in all one of my favorite moves I’ve pulled off in this game, showing how important it is to consider all options and really think through how you want to tow or “untow” things to your greatest benefit.
I then captured the Black Pearl a la Captain Jack Sparrow retaking his favorite vessel. In the end it appeared that my moves were needed to keep me in the race, as I won a narrow 85-81 victory. Truly a memorable game.
These massive tournaments full of uber-competitive fleets were played between myself and Xerecs. 23 games in T1 and 53 in T2 combined for 76 games of competitive high-stakes action. I played my ass off consistently, winning a lot of games and having a lot of incredible strategy moments. A lot of it was gold calculation and making decisions based on available gold and fort strategy. Really fun and incredible, and Xerecs had plenty of great moments as well. I also made the somewhat incredible pick of choosing UPS 2 as the fleet to win T2 before the 16 fleet tournament even started! (so technically 6.25% chance of picking the right fleet, though UPS 2 was an obvious favorite among some others) This was based on my prior experience using UPS 2 in physical games and knowing how ridiculously effective, efficient, and overpowered that fleet is. It was a total crapshoot, but I also won the 16 fleet game (using every fleet from T2) by 1 gold, and you can see footage of that game in my Games playlist.
This game was a bit controversial at the end, but my American Pirates fleet made things right with an impressive victory. Not necessarily my best game in terms of strategy or specific plays, but it was one of the games I was happiest to win.
That was the first of two games with the “Other Worlds” scenario, where you use whirlpools to access multiple tables to dramatically change the setup compared to most games. My opponent tried to use gunships to blockade my home island after I returned with gold from the other oceans – that way he didn’t have to brave the whirlpools. I foiled that real quick. The Philadelphia’s ability (ship stealing just like the Harbinger and Commander Temple) warped home a capture and I charged right back in. I proved the ineffectiveness of the blockade strategy, and won in a 32-2 blowout. I basically did the exact same thing a year later against a different opponent. That game ended up 31-0 in my favor.
Here I used a gimmicky home island raiding strategy with the Spanish to win by a decent margin.
My record speaks for itself. I have by far the most wins of any player on VASSAL (at least since it’s rebirth in 2016), and I am the only player to win a campaign game on the module that I know of, having won all 3 thus far.
The Economy Edition game being played right now by Xerecs has inspired me to start another (but considerably smaller and shorter) cumulative game. Things have come full circle after my CotE and Economy games inspired him to play those!
This game won’t last much more than a week and a half, if that. As the title suggests, it’s not your average cumulative game. There are going to be some things that I wasn’t able to do during my Economy game, as well as some other ideas I’ve been wanting to try out. This will also make for a unique style of battle reports. Be ready for anything!
Without further ado, here is the setting:
Shap-‘ng-Tsai has succeeded. “With over 100 junks at his disposal and bases hidden along the Chinese coast, Tsai claims that he will be the one to topple the English empire.” He has now done it. The English presence in the South China Sea is a remnant of its former self. The Jade Rebellion can now be more properly called a Jade Empire, as they are rightfully the dominant presence in their home waters.
However, the age of imperialism is not at an end. Other imperialist nations threaten to cause more damage to the Jades and their way of life, mostly as a result of the so-called “endless” gold deposits on the local islands. Just in the past few weeks, Spanish and French ships have entered the waters patrolled by Jade Rebellion ships. These two nations have teamed up once again to form the Franco-Spanish alliance, although here they’ve decided to split their forces to maximize their odds of taking down the Jade Rebellion empire. The Jade Rebellion has already sent away many of the gunships that helped to win the war against the hated English. Unfortunately for them, this means that only one capital ship remains in the area. The Jade presence is still strong, but the Spanish and French are a huge threat that Tsai and his fleet must deal with.
The Spanish and French may have underestimated their opponent, for they didn’t send large fleets to guarantee victory. However, one such ship, El Príncipe de Asturias, has considerable battle experience already, and her crew is thirsty for more. “El Principe de Asturias was reassigned to the South China Seas after leading several successful campaigns in the Mediterranean. Now her crew use their considerable experience against the Jade Rebellion.” It’s obvious that fighting is inevitable, and in fact the Spanish and French have already made a joint declaration of war on the Jade Rebellion.
To complicate matters even further, one English ship remains in the area, a veteran of the JR-English war. HMS Galapagos has suffered extreme losses in battles against the JR, making her tiny remaining crew anxious for revenge. Tsai recently let the Galapagos escape, knowing his fleet could easily take the ship at their leisure. However, with the Spanish and French now in the area, the Galapagos may slip under Tsai’s watchful eye since the FS (Franco-Spanish) are a much bigger threat.
The fleets sailed out in this order of play:
Jade Rebellion (100 points)
Grand Temple + Shap-‘ng-Tsai, Katsura-chan, helmsman, oarsman
Sea Wind + captain, explorer
East Wind
Sea Lion
Sea Crane + explorer
Admiral Yi
Dragon’s Talon + helmsman
Spanish (50 points)
La Voz de Dios + captain, helmsman
El Príncipe de Asturias + captain, helmsman
San Agustín
French (50 points)
La Gaule + captain, helmsman, oarsman
La Geographe + Nicholas-Thomas Baudin
La Fureur
L’Argus + oarsman
English
HMS Galapagos
As you can see, this game starts out as an all-SCS game. This is the beginning theme, but only that. As a result, the only three UT’s present at the start of play were also from SCS.
For the first time in any of my games, wind would be used! A while back I searched in the depths of the files section at BGG and found different wind rules. For this game, I’m using this from way back in 2004. Thanks to headlouse for coming up with it.
There are also some Sandbars present, which are similar to Sargasso Seas, but worse for large ships than small ships. Other ideas will be explored as well. For example, Marines can fire on EVERY player’s turn, not just on their owners’ turn. Also, to continue the experimental theme, ramming cannot do damage. In addition, some “ghost gold” has made its way into the setup.
– Transparent coins give the ship carrying them the Ghost Ship keyword, as long as they’re still on the ship.
The game’s area is limited by the table it’s being played on, and only non-standard islands and terrain were present at the start. There are currently four home islands (HI’s) and six wild islands (emphasis on “currently”). The English and Spanish HI’s are in the west, while the French have set sail in the northeast. The Jade Rebellion empire starts the game as the favorite to win, with the biggest HI located in the general center of the sea.
Flat earth rules are being used, for now.
Each wild island has 5 coins on it, and the new “shipwreck cove” area has three different sets of 3 coins on different shipwrecks, which must be docked at like they’re independent wild islands (and ships have to roll for effect on the reef when “docking”). The wild islands will replenish back to a maximum of 5 coins only after all 5 previous coins are gone from the island. The replenishment happens at the end of each round of turns.
This picture shows most of the sea. The bottom of the frame is south, while the top is north. The English and Spanish HI’s are at the edge of the table, while the Jade Rebellion sits in the middle. The French can just be seen at the top right in the northeast. Notice how the huge sandbar separates the Spanish and the Jade Rebellion, while the shipwrecks are a dominating factor of the northwest.
Also looking south to north, here’s the rest of the sea, showing the east where the Jade Rebels and Frenchmen reside. The Jade Rebellion has easy access to four of the six wild islands, but this is not the case for the other fleets.
Here is the ocean again, but this time looking from west to east:
The Jade Rebellion, with a HI that has 3 beaches, are completely unaware that their HI lies on convergent tectonic plates.
The Spanish are ready for war, with two gunships in the area already.
The French are ready to assist, especially with La Gaule.
The northern half of the sea looking from west to east.
The southern half:
Shipwrecks of a long-forgotten war between the Jade Rebellion and Pirates reveal similarly forgotten gold aboard the wrecks of the Thrud, Deliverance, and Flying Dutchman.
One last look for the time being – a unique shot showing the beautiful water of this contested sea.
As the English were the last fleet to take their turn, they chose the initial wind direction, choosing northeast (NE).
Without further ado the fleets set sail! The wind rules immediately affected things, since any ships sailing in the southwest direction lost S from their speed. This slightly slowed all the fleets except for the English, but the game was just beginning.
The Sea Crane was the first ship to reach an island, but the Gaule approached.
For the time being, the wind would be rolled for at the start of each round of turns, rather than at the start of each fleet’s turn. This could change. For now, a 4 was rolled, meaning that the wind shifted to blow due east, slowing ships headed west.
The French proved they weren’t about to shy away from a fight! On just the second turn, with war already declared, the French instigate the first conflict! La Gaule sinks the Sea Crane and her two 5 coins!
Tsai responds angrily by using his SAT powers to sink the Gaule and nearly dismast the Geographe!
In the meantime, the Sea Wind has found Rotting Hull, but she’s also brought back the first coin for the JR. The other JR ships have docked in the south and are exploring. The Geographe managed to mark that eastern island as explored and therefore knocked out the Sea Crane’s JR presence there. (This third turn saw the wind stay blowing from west to east.)
Using the wind’s +S boost, the Voz de Dios sails around the sandbar and rams the Sea Lion! With the Grand Temple off fighting the French in the east, the Spanish capitalize on an easy chance to hit Jade trade. The action is somewhat unsuccessful, with the Sea Lion only losing 1 mast after 4 shots by the Voz (and also remember no ram damage). However, the Voz did win the boarding party to steal one of the Lion’s coins. To make matters even more tense, the East Wind used her treasure trading ability to trade a 1 on that island for a 4 on the island that the other Spanish ships were docked at.
The English and Spanish have docked at western islands as separate skirmishes have already occurred in the south and east.
To get the +S wind boost, a ship must move in the correct direction (here anywhere between NE and SE) for one move segment. In this way, the Geographe was able to tack back to her HI in one turn, which meant she could repair. The Argus and Fureur turned around, desperate to stay away from the Grand Temple, who had already crippled the French fleet in just one turn. In addition, the Principe found Fireworks and the first ghost coin. The Dragon’s Talon had Trade Route aboard.
After just three turns, two separate battles have occurred and two fleets have already lost ships! This unique experimental game is just beginning…
1/8/2016
The fourth turn of play marked the second day’s action. The Jade Rebellion hired two captains, one for the East Wind, and one for the Dragon’s Talon. However, the Dragon’s Talon still had Trade Route aboard, and so had to wait for the Grand Temple to sail up and take it off her in order to load the captain. This turn marked another change in the wind, though it shifted back to NE, the direction it was blowing when the game began. The Sea Lion and East Wind managed to avoid further trouble with the Voz de Dios, who appeared reasonably content with the coin she stole from the Sea Lion. The approaching presence of the Grand Temple gave her another reason to head home.
On their turn, the Spanish used almost all of their gold to commission La Habana with a captain and helmsman, continuing the SCS theme by choice.
The Voz de Dios sails home with stolen loot while her fleet mates enjoy the comforts of their home island.
The Argus and Fureur head west to an island, while the Geographe repairs (top left).
However, with the wind behind her, the Sea Wind reaches that same island for the second time, as the newly-captained East Wind departs to the south. The Jade-French tension is obvious.
As the Voz rounds the sandbars, her proud fleet mates sail south to greet her. The San Agustin is slow, but her large cargo hold means she can empty the southwestern island when she isn’t carrying crew.
In the northwest, the Galapagos heads home with gold. To the east, the Argus docks but can’t explore just yet. The slow Fureur gets into position to dock and take gold next turn.
At the top of the frame, the East Wind has joined the Sea Wind on the north side of the Jade HI, giving the Jades two of their three gunships in close proximity to the French gold runners. Far to the south, the Grand Temple guards the southern island for the Sea Lion.
You may have noticed a few additional ships at the Jade HI. At the end of their turn the Jades launched two new turtle ships, the Proud Tortoise and Floating Stone.
With the Grand Temple facing southwest, the Spanish turn around and head north up the huge sandbar. The Voz docks home gold, while the San Agustin loads some. At this point, at least one of the six wild islands was replenishing at the end of each round, and many of the day’s turns saw two islands replenish in one turn.
With a meager haul of 7 gold from 4 coins, the English manage to launch HMS Patagonia with a helmsman and also add an oarsman to the Galapagos.
The Grand Temple shadows the Spanish, as the Jade gunships up north appear to sail in such a way as to cut off the French.
The Jade Rebels are still angry that La Gaule sunk the Sea Crane, and things don’t look good for the French.
Looking west to east, the Habana has been sent north to explore the mysterious shipwrecks of the northwest.
On their turn, the French did well to position their ships for possible attack, with the newly-repaired Geographe sheltering the Argus. However, the Fureur was a sitting duck.
The island that once sat in the middle of the lagoon in Economy Edition isn’t so lucrative anymore, but it’s the best option the English have.
War resumes! The East Wind takes on the Fureur!
With a devastating blow, the French are nearly defeated! The Fureur sank beneath the waves. Then the Proud Tortoise sailed towards the Geographe and hit with her fire shot! To finish up the successful attack, the Sea Wind hit the Argus and Geographe once each.
The Sea Wind carefully maneuvered to avoid illegally docking at the French HI while staying out of S-range of the Argus.
Luckily for them, the French had placed an oarsman on the Argus at the game’s start, and with the wind aiding her, she was able to return home and save herself! Her coin was only a 2, but the French had hope. That hope temporarily diminished when the Geographe continued to burn, but she got home as well. The French narrowly avoided being the first fleet eliminated.
The Spanish continue to play cat and mouse with the Grand Temple.
The East Wind and Sea Wind grab some gold on their way back to the Jade HI. The Jades have dealt with threats efficiently and have successfully intimidated the Spanish into staying in their own waters up to this point. As a side note, this day of action saw the wind blow east for four consecutive turns.
The Spanish were very worried that even with the help of La Habana, the Grand Temple could potentially cripple the Spanish battle fleet in one turn with Tsai’s SAT. As a result, they launched another ship from SCS, one of Spain’s finest: Santa Ana + Almirante Carlos Pavón y Miranda, Bianco’s Haulers (finally breaking the SCS theme), Comandante Antonio de Silva, helmsman, and oarsman.
In the meantime, the English launched an addition of their own: HMS Hyena + Sir Meyer Hampstead. This gave them a ship that could harass enemy gold runners while still having enough cargo spaces open to run gold normally if no targets were available. However, the English should have paid more attention to the man they hired…
“Hampstead knows that money—not the Crown—is what keeps the world turning, and he’ll do whatever is necessary to keep that money flowing back to the investors in London. Flags, kings, and courts are all secondary.”
The Jade Rebellion was obviously still the fleet to beat, but they were getting a little worried that they wouldn’t be able to deal with all of the growing threats at once.
The Patagonia has explored the wreck of the Deliverance, while the Habana is exploring the wreck of the Flying Dutchman, whose bulk obscures the Spaniard’s bow.
In the northeast, the French have repaired most of their battle damage, while to the south, the Jades have multiple ships coming back with gold.
All is well in the southern part of the sea… – hang on, what’s that in the southeast corner?!
IT’S THE BARBARY CORSAIRS! The Barbary Pirates have invaded the South China Sea!
The Grand Temple and Dragon’s Talon immediately head southeast to counter this unexpected threat! Seeing their opportunity, the Spanish gunships round the north side of the sandbar for the first time, entering Jade waters! The Jade HI is loaded with gold, but they may have to use some of it soon to deal with the madness that’s beginning to unravel! The Barbary 2 masters have docked at the southeastern island, while the Persian Victory heads straight towards the Grand Temple in open defiance of the Jade Empire! The Sea Dragon and Viper’s Bite sneak north.
The Jades are strong, but the Spanish have now massed all of their firepower in one spot! The returning Habana watches as her fleet mates round the sandbar in the largest display of firepower seen in the game so far. 16 masts on 4 ships, all with captains.
The 12th turn of the game finally saw a dramatic shift in the wind, as a 6 meant that the wind reversed direction from blowing NE to blowing SW!
The Jades have the opportunity to take the battle to the Spanish, and they do so! With war declared long ago, the Proud Tortoise has no hesitation sailing up to the Principe de Asturias and blasting her with fire shot!
But in the meantime, another battle is erupting at the same time! The Grand Temple shows her might once again – even with no SAT from Tsai, she dismasts the Persian Victory and takes out a mast on the Pasha’s Delight.
The Dragon’s Talon finished off the Persian Victory! The Admiral Yi has decided to go to the Sea Lion’s island to avoid having her gold stolen by the Barbary Corsairs.
Chaos! The other battle rages on, as the East Wind hits 2/3 on the Principe, bringing her down to 1 mast. The Sea Wind gets the cannon bonus from the East Wind, but still misses both her shots against the Habana.
With their aforementioned capital ships in another part of the world after the conclusion of the JR/English war, the Jades couldn’t launch any more of their own ships, for they had run out of building supplies. As a result, they turned to hired Mercenaries, purchasing the Meropis with Herr Fuchs, Count Gustov, and a helmsman, leaving just 10 gold on their HI.
The Spanish started their turn by rolling for the Santa Ana’s extra action (EA). They got it, and decided to let the Habana continue sailing home with gold. The Habana almost made it all the way back with the new NE wind pushing her home. The Spanish were confident their two remaining gunships could deal with the Jades, and they were right. The Principe started things badly by completely catching on fire, dooming the poor ship. The Santa Ana then used her double action to cripple the East Wind and sink the Sea Wind!
The Voz finished the Spanish counterattack by sinking the East Wind, but her long range guns couldn’t hurt the pesky Proud Tortoise.
The fully-repaired and now-ignored French make their way west, careful not to stray too far south.
The English went next, and began by exploring with the Galapagos so her cargo was full after the island replenished at the end of the previous round. Then they ordered Hampstead’s Hyena to continue sailing north and explore the Thrud shipwreck, but he had other plans! Caring only about money and profits, he rammed the Galapagos and stole all her gold in a ridiculous act of betrayal!
As the sun sets on another day’s action, one thing is for sure: these fleets are in for the unexpected!
But wait! The Barbary Corsairs took their turn as well, using the Bey’s Revenge to explore the southeastern island! Then the Pasha’s Delight used a repair action while docked, claiming that island as the new home island for the Corsairs! Finally, to end a crazy day, they launched the Ivory Star immediately with the gold they found on the island! She’s immune to the Grand Temple’s L-range guns and can’t be shot at right now since she’s docked at her HI!
1/11/2016
Turn 13 saw the southwesterly wind continue. The Grand Temple and Dragon’s Talon scooted away from the BC ships who couldn’t be shot at. However, the Meropis got into action immediately, but only went 1/3 to dismast the Viper’s Bite and failed to damage the Sea Dragon. The Proud Tortoise returned home to avoid being trounced by the Spanish. At the upper left, the Principe de Asturias is about to slip under the waves.
The Spanish had lost one of their four gunships, but had dealt the Jade Rebellion major losses in return. Now the Santa Ana and Voz de Dios headed east while the Habana returned home with gold. To the north you can see the French getting some much-needed gold.
The Barbary Corsairs respond! The Ivory Star has docked at the southern island to the left, while the Meropis is under attack. She was subject to three boarding parties during the turn, one from the Bey’s Revenge and two from the Sea Dragon via S-board. She lost her helmsman, but the Corsairs boarded because they had no crew to lose, which meant they didn’t have captains either.
The BC’s swarm the Meropis:
Furious at Hampstead’s betrayal of the English, the Galapagos fires a full broadside. She only hit once! The Hyena sails off with her stolen gold, with the weak Patagonia unable to do anything about it.
The following turn saw the wind shift to a northerly wind, which would benefit any ships sailing south. The Jade Rebellion launched a successful counterattack, damaging the Pasha’s Delight and Bey’s Revenge. In a rare instance where the reverse captain ability came in very handy, the Meropis used it to sink the Viper’s Bite before scurrying away from the frenzy of Corsair ships. Her guns were rather poor once again, however, since she needed all her shots to sink the Viper’s Bite and therefore didn’t have a chance to hit the Sea Dragon, which would come back to hurt her.
The Sea Dragon uses the wind to her advantage and catches the Meropis! With another double-board, she eliminates Count Gustov from the game! The 6 represents the fact that both ships rolled a 6 on the second boarding party, meaning no crew were eliminated with a 9-9 tie! (which happened after the Sea Dragon rolled a 6 to win the first boarding party) The 2 masted galleys returned home for safety and repairs, while the Ivory Star explored to the west. Towards the top of the picture you might notice some other things…
The Spanish continue their advance, though somewhat cautiously. The Floating Stone was off on her own, and the Santa Ana pounced, taking out both turtle shell panels. However, the Santa Ana couldn’t bring her last gun to bear since she wanted to dock at the same wild island in order to activate Bianco’s Haulers (this ship cannot be shot at while docked) and avoid getting hit with the Floating Stone’s exploding shot. The Spanish had the Voz de Dios shadow the Santa Ana, careful not to split their gunships up.
Here’s a broader shot of the situation. The main new development concerns the Habana, who has docked at the large sandbar for some reason. That longer, noticeably taller sandbar can’t be passed over by ships, but the two to the south (on the right here with one out of the frame) follow the custom sandbar rules.
The wind continued to blow south, and the Jade Rebellion empire continued to show its might. From left to right: the Grand Temple knocks out two masts on the Ivory Star (with her 3S cannons since the IS can’t be hit by L-range guns), the Floating Stone uses her initial segment to get the wind boost and escape from the Spanish, and the Meropis uses reverse captain again to hit the Sea Dragon before running away. The Dragon’s Talon hit with her lone cannon to dismast the Sea Dragon, but she can easily row home to repair. Knowing this, the JR’s are becoming tired of fighting the Corsairs so close to their HI, since it’s ineffective.
The Santa Ana got an extra action with that 6, and moved to redock at the island, and then explored. This was a puzzling move, since the Santa Ana could only take one coin aboard. The Voz followed suit, but there had to be some other motive.
To the west, the Habana “explored” the sandbar, and the Spanish finished their turn by putting Fortaleza Dorada on it! The fort’s two long range guns reached almost to the Jade HI, so their ships were blockaded in the south from the west! The Santa Ana’s explore action became obvious…
And the Spanish construct El Castillo del Infanta on the eastern island! The L-range guns again reach almost all the way to the Jade HI, and now the Spanish have lines of fire drawn on both sides of the Jade HI! This cuts the Floating Stone off from the rest of the fleet in the south, and immediately denies Jade access to the island the Castillo is on as well as the northern island at the top left. In addition, it kind of traps almost the entire Jade fleet in the south, making it harder to avoid the BC’s. Lastly, the wind was not favorable for the JR’s, since the Spanish had the weather gauge and the wind was blowing the JR’s back into the southeast.
The Hyena docks at the aforementioned northern island, and in a stunning move Hampstead reveals his new allegiance: to America! The new “American” fleet has been borne once again out of distrust of the weakened British, and the Americans claim the island as their own! With the Hyena’s stolen loot from the Galapagos, the Americans commission USS Overton with a helmsman! Hampstead comes aboard the Overton to command his new ship.
The ever-frustrated Jade empire responds after the wind shifts to the NW (blowing SE), and Tsai’s SAT gives the Grand Temple enough shots to sink the Ivory Star, who carried the hopes of the Corsairs with 15 gold on her. Now that treasure is at the bottom of the sea, and the Corsairs are struggling. They repair their 2 masters and row the Sea Dragon back. The JR’s, however, have their gunships in the southwest corner, fighting the wind to get back to their HI.
The English continue to slowly accumulate gold while their former fleet mate, the Hyena, repairs at the new American HI. The Overton has set a course for the tumultuous southern area.
With the wind at her back, La Habana has quickly moved south to the sandbars she can traverse. The Spanish may have a pincer attack in mind, with the Habana coming from the west and the Santa Ana and Voz coming from the east, while the forts prevent or delay escape to the NW/NE. At the bottom of the frame, the Pasha’s Delight is capitalizing on the JR’s dilemma and grabs a 7 from the southern island.
But once again the Jades strike first! The Grand Temple takes two masts off the Habana, further proving that the Jades are strong enough to handle the threats presented to them. The Spanish are frustrated with their slow progress in taking down the empire, but they know they need to proceed cautiously since the GT can move 6S (or more with the wind!) and rip off 12 shots in one turn with Tsai’s SAT.
Here you can see some gold on the JR HI, and they’ve done a decent job regrouping their gunships considering the pesky Corsairs and the unfavorable wind.
The Habana’s best option is to retreat, as the San Agustin docks home another load of gold. All of the factions appear to be saving up some gold at this point, and the English, Spanish, and Jade Rebellion all have at least 20. Notice the Overton on the right, sailing past the Spanish fort. The Spanish gunners hold their fire, dumbfounded at seeing an American ship in these waters.
Another picture to cover the eastern areas, this shows a good portion of the sea. The big Spanish gunships in the east have moved south! However, with a NW wind, they’re worried the wind will shift to a westerly wind and the JR’s will gain the weather gauge. Who do you think will win?
1/12/2016
Turns 18-21 have been played, and the wind stayed at a constant NW (blowing towards the SE) for turns 18-20.
At the beginning of turn 18, the Grand Temple turned around but knew she couldn’t go too far east for fear of being jumped by the Spanish gunships. However, the Jade Rebellion empire is smart. They knew that their window of opportunity to hit the Spanish hard was diminishing. They also knew that the Spanish would continue to get stronger as long as the Jades didn’t do anything about it. Therefore the Jades decided their best option was to take the initiative. The Floating Stone moved away from her HI and into range of the Castillo del Infanta’s cannons. She would do her best to cut off the Spanish escape route to the north. Then, the Proud Tortoise once again showed extreme bravery, and for the second time sailed up and fired upon a vessel much larger than herself! Her successful fire shot was instrumental in taking down the Principe de Asturias, and here it caused a fire on the Santa Ana! With the tough wind blowing southeast, the Meropis and Dragon’s Talon were forced to sail slowly back towards the Jade HI and the developing action.
The Spanish, seeing the dangerous fire upon the Santa Ana, order a temporary retreat! They’re very cautious this game, and we’ll see if it pays off. The Santa Ana got an extra action and eliminated her fire mast. Her first action was used to blast both turtle shell panels off the Proud Tortoise, and her second action was used to move north. The fort missed the Floating Stone, but the Voz de Dios managed to sink the ship instead.
The Overton, with Sir Meyer Hampstead and a helmsman aboard, continued to curiously sail south towards the Jade fleet. The ship then reached the Grand Temple and pulled alongside despite not having a captain! Then something strange happened…
Flavor text for Katsura-chan: “Some say that Katsura-chan was a member of a secret warrior caste that trained women in the art of deception and espionage. Since falling in love with an American sailor, however, she has taken to the sea to follow her heart.”
That “American” sailor turned out to be Hampstead! And Katsura-chan left the Grand Temple and the Jade empire to join the crew of the Overton!!
That was that. Tsai, the main commander of the remaining Jade Rebellion fleet, was stunned. He ordered his crew to hold their fire even as his second-in-command deserted for the Americans. He couldn’t fire on his friend, especially so soon afterwards! With everyone on the Grand Temple in complete shock, there was nothing they could do.
To change things up, the launchings for turn 18 happened at the end of the round, rather than at the end of each fleet’s turn. The historical “big three” got busy spending:
Spanish: Granada + captain, helmsman, firepot specialist, explorer
French: Le Bourbon + Benoit de Marsilles, captain, helmsman
English: Polaris + Hermione Gold, Commander Temple, helmsman
The Spanish were anxious to replace the Principe de Asturias, and the Granada has a nice complement of crew in addition to bonuses against the pesky Corsairs, should they try to bother the Spanish. The French used an oft-forgotten ship of reasonable value, but the real story was the marine: remember from the first post that marines can fire on ANY turn for this game (though the French would forget lol). The English launched one of my newest ships, a massive and wide Double Catamaran with an interesting crew complement.
Here you can see the new Granada and Polaris at their HI’s, while the Habana has arrived to repair.
Le Bourbon has arrived. The Geographe and Argus split up. The French plans remain murky, though the Franco-Spanish remain allied against the Jade Rebellion empire.
With more daring and excellent sailing, the Proud Tortoise easily catches the fleeing Santa Ana and lights her on fire again!
With Katsura-chan gone, Tsai had lost his captain and the reroll for his own SAT ability. Seeing the fleeing Spanish, he decided to press the attack despite the loss of such an important crew member. With a successful SAT roll, the Grand Temple flew across the waves and rammed the Voz de Dios, taking out her helmsman!
It’s finally happened! The Grand Temple, the Jade flagship, takes one of the Spanish capital ships head on!
A nice shot of the southern island, where the Pasha’s Delight is currently docked. Her immunity to L-range guns makes the Meropis feel even more helpless, as she’s forced to sail at just S speed going into the wind. The Admiral Yi and Sea Lion are headed back with gold.
The Spanish were next. The Santa Ana, once again aflame, needed to get back to the Castillo del Infanta to repair. However, she rolled low and gained another fire mast, leaving her with just one mast! In the meantime, the Spanish were relieved to not see Katsura-chan aboard the Grand Temple, giving the Voz de Dios the opportunity for the first broadside. The Grand Temple knew her guns were relatively inaccurate, but then the Spanish revealed their secret weapon: Fireworks!
The Voz connects! Disappointed to hit only three times, the UT was still very helpful because only one mast would have fallen without it.
Another angle:
The French continued to sail south, but the bad blood between the English and French was present throughout the world at this time, so the South China Sea was no different. However, the Polaris only managed one hit against the Geographe. To the right, it looks like the other French ships may be sailing to help out their Spanish allies.
Not the center of attention anymore, the Corsairs bring back enough gold to launch the Fire Djinn! This gives them another empty ship with S-board, and they’ve fully embraced the swarm/boarding ideal. With empty ships, they can board without restraint and try to steal gold and kill crew. The Sea Dragon and Fire Djinn can board twice in a turn with a ram, while the Pasha’s Delight and Bey’s Revenge have a nice tag-team gold system going at the southern island.
A closeup shot of the beautiful Barbary Corsair ships at their nice home island.
The Proud Tortoise continued to harass the Spanish, and hit once again with fire shot to burn down the last mast on the Santa Ana! With an oarsman aboard, the Santa Ana couldn’t be scuttled from the fire, but it was a very close call since the Santa Ana would have sunk if she wasn’t so close to the Castillo. In the meantime, the Grand Temple shot off two masts from the Voz de Dios as the big ships poured a heavy fire into each other.
In another instance where reverse captain was useful, the Grand Temple moves to ram and board after the broadside! The boarding party was a 9-9 tie after both ships rolled a 6, just like the Sea Dragon vs. Meropis earlier in the game!
To finish off the attack on the Voz, the Dragon’s Talon made it to the battle in time to knock another mast off.
The Spanish respond with a Broadsides Attack! As usual, it misses.
The Spanish took their chance at dismasting the GT with one die roll, but came up empty.
As the Santa Ana burns, the Jade Rebellion continues to surprise the FS with their resilience and fighting ability.
A rare angle looking from north to south, and you can see that the Santa Ana has managed to row over to the Castillo and eliminate her fires! The JR’s almost had a huge victory in sinking the current Spanish flagship, but once again decisive action is not to be found (which is ironic given the historical nature of this game so far).
The French have arrived with the help of the northwesterly wind! With a stunningly successful shoot action, the Bourbon goes 4/5 (including Benoit’s shot) to dismast the Grand Temple and knock a shell off the Dragon’s Talon! The Argus doesn’t have a captain, but she can’t be shot at within S and carries a 2S cannon.
The Bourbon raked the GT by the bows, firing a devastating broadside that increased the carnage in the battle area. The mizzenmast of the Voz has fallen between the two ships and further hinders the gunners’ visibility.
The Spanish have been having a rough time, and therefore see no reason to slow their expanding battle fleet. They launch La Manila + captain, helmsman, cannoneer, musketeer, oarsman. The Manila is heavily crewed to support her numerous but inaccurate cannons. The Habana finishes repairing and the Spanish have 3 healthy gunships, more than any other fleet. However, their unhealthy ones are on the front lines. The “USS” Hyena appears to have interest in exploring the southwestern island, partly because the Americans can’t go to the English island in the northwest and the FS haven’t shown hostility to the Americans so far.
In the foreground, the brand-new Granada has used the wind to quickly make it to Barbary waters, where she corners the obnoxious Pasha’s Delight. In the background, the Geographe continues sailing south, possibly in search of gold. With the American HI in the north, the Americans and French both have to travel considerable distances to get gold, and they were already two of the weaker fleets in the first place. This may serve to increase American/FS tension, though the Overton calmly sailed past the Geographe and Fortaleza Dorada without so much as a word. Hampstead seems to be content in reuniting with Katsura-chan, and the Overton has simply sailed for home. To the east however, there are more shots flying at once than the game has seen thus far, with the Corsairs now appearing to have a desire to join the fight.
The Sea Dragon and Fire Djinn increase the scope of the eastern battle, which is essentially a 3 on 1 fight against the Jade Rebellion empire. The Sea Dragon S-boards the Dragon’s Talon to eliminate her helmsman.
Turn 21 saw a 6 rolled for the wind and it shifted completely to blow towards the northwest!
The Spanish were smart to put an oarsman on the Santa Ana, as it recently saved her from a fiery doom. The Jade Rebellion put an oarsman on the GT to protect her valuable crew (but from shots, not an “English” nobleman!), but here the oarsman combines with the helmsman to let the GT return to her home island to repair!
The hostilities between the French and Jade Rebellion have recommenced, as the Meropis opens up another conflict by dismasting the Geographe!
The Jades are simply a force to be reckoned with this game! They won’t go down without a fight, as the two turtle ships ram the Santa Ana in an attempt to take out her crew. The Dragon’s Talon needed the wind’s assistance since she had lost her helmsman, but she also lost this boarding party to lose her captain. However, both turtle ships connected on the Bourbon, who was quickly down to two masts and aflame.
Total carnage in the east!
The Spanish won’t be friends with the Americans! Their gunships fire upon the Hyena, but somehow manage to hit once in eight tries! (Counting the musketeer and cannoneer since the latter two masts on the Manila weren’t in range)
Going 2/2, the Granada hits with her S-range guns to set the Pasha’s Delight on fire. I thought this was a cool picture, and later noticed it had a lot of orange/brown: the sandy/rocky island, the gold on the island, the gold on the PD, the PD’s deck, and the Granada’s masts and sails.
The Voz sails to the Castillo to repair. She manages to get her guns in range of the Dragon’s Talon and hits once to knock off a shell panel. The fort has one cannon in range, but misses the shot and reroll. While the Santa Ana repairs two masts with an extra action, Benoit (aboard the Bourbon) suddenly realizes he can keep shooting and dismasts the Dragon’s Talon!
The fire aboard the Bourbon spreads, but she manages to sink the Dragon’s Talon.
Courtesy of the Proud Tortoise, the Bourbon is now running north to her HI to put out fires and repair, exactly the same situation the Santa Ana was just in! Somehow, after all that has happened, the Proud Tortoise is still sailing.
The Sea Dragon eliminates the Voz’s captain, leaving the big Spaniard with no crew. This also made it clear the BC’s were at war with the Spanish, and by extension, the French.
Here are a few overhead shots looking from west to east to give an idea of the overall nature of the game. The English are getting gold with the Galapagos and Patagonia, but they’ve sent the Polaris east. The Overton is headed to pick up the last coin from the wreck of the Flying Dutchman, as the eastern battle still rages on.
The same angle but slightly south to expose the rest of the sea. In the far south the Pasha’s Delight has put her fire out, but the Granada can sink her. The Hyena has decided to run away from the Spanish, and the Americans haven’t really been able to gather any gold so far. The 4 gold on their HI is the gold left over from when the island was a wild island. A sharp eye will notice a peculiar fire marker lying on the deck of the Geographe, which was placed there to remind the Jades that she rolled for a successful scuttle attempt. The French don’t want the ship in enemy hands, as the Bourbon and Argus won’t be able to rescue her.
The wreckage of turns 18-21 sets up another very interesting day of action tomorrow!
8 turns were played today, turns 22-29. The first two turns saw the wind stay blowing to the northwest.
With an SAT from Tsai, the Grand Temple has repaired two masts already. The Proud Tortoise connects with another fire shot hit, dooming the Bourbon.
Without the weather gauge, the Meropis can’t fight the Granada yet, so Herr Fuchs settles for sinking the Geographe. This leaves the French with just one mast standing in their fleet, L’Argus.
The Spanish take their turn, and between the guns of El Castillo del Infanta and the Voz de Dios, dismast the Sea Dragon.
The English spent some gold and finally got some crew for the Galapagos – Commodore Rhys Gryffin Owen, Thomas Gunn, shipwright, oarsman.
Then the Corsairs bought another 4 masted galley – the Crescent Moon!
The Fire Djinn used S-boarding to eliminate the same oarsman who saved the Santa Ana, but the Sea Dragon was unsuccessful.
The Habana dismasts the Hyena:
The Granada quickly takes care of the Admiral Yi, setting her aflame with a firepot hit. The Spanish have successfully invaded JR trade.
With no captain, the best the Grand Temple could do was get in range of the Voz while staying out of range of the fort’s guns.
The Santa Ana got an extra action and dismasted the Fire Djinn! Notice the Polaris lurking behind the island.
And the Grand Temple gets her revenge! With another SAT, she shoots twice to dismast the Voz de Dios, almost sinking the ship. With the help of the wind, which is now blowing due west for the first time in the game, the Proud Tortoise is quickly trying to row back to the Jade HI and escape the angry L’Argus.
The Granada and Meropis engage each other in a predictable fight (as in, it had looked like it was going to happen). Both ships take damage. The Crescent Moon uses the opportunity to grab gold from the southern island.
The Jades have spent 39 of their 54 gold and used it to hire some more Mercenaries! 10 of the gold was spent on Dragon Eyes, who waits on their HI for the GT’s return. The Forward is crewed with Luc Savard, Ibrahan Ozat, and a helmsman.
With an extra action from Owen aboard the Galapagos, the Polaris joins the fray! She sank the Proud Tortoise (finally!) and caused some damage to the fort.
As the Sea Lion bravely ventures back to the tumultuous waters around the southern island, the Forward supports her by taking two masts off the Crescent Moon.
The Grand Temple has done it! The Voz de Dios is no more!
The Santa Ana immediately responds by making the GT derelict once again and eliminating her oarsman!
In the meantime, the Spanish have gained the upper hand in the south, and the Jade empire is crumbling. After a turn of unsuccessful broadsides by both ships, the Granada finally wins her battle against the Meropis. On this turn 25, the wind dramatically shifted to a westerly wind blowing due east, which let the Manila make great progress and arrive at the southern battle!
However, the Spanish suffer a setback when the San Agustin finds Wolves on her gold island! The Spanish don’t want to wait for the slow Manila (and her musketeer) to return, especially considering the change in the wind, so they decide to launch a new ship instead.
An overview of the situation: the game is actually shrinking a bit with so many ships being sunk. The Sea Dragon and Fire Djinn were finished off, leaving the Corsairs with just one ship. The new development here is the Habana (up north) speeding east to assist the fort against the possible danger of the Polaris, and also to help protect the Santa Ana, Spain’s flagship.
However, instead of continuing to bombard the Spanish fort, the Polaris has sailed south to touch her bow to the bow of the Grand Temple…
… and with an extra action from Owen, uses Commander Temple to warp both ships back to the English home island! The English have gotten revenge on the Jade Rebellion and captured the Grand Temple!!
To get even with the Spanish for the sinking of the Hyena, the Overton uses the wind to catch the Habana and dismast her!
In this picture, the Meropis has succumbed to fire, the Forward must fight the westerly wind, and the Crescent Moon has returned home.
Despite having the weather gauge and the first strike advantage, the Manila and Granada only manage two hits on the remaining two Jade ships!
The Spanish end their turn by commissioning the Pamplona with Diego Cesar Olano.
At the English home island, shipwrights busily get to work giving the Grand Temple a new paint job. With another extra action from Owen, the Temple raises two masts in one turn, and is rechristened HMS Grand Temple!!
The Barbary Corsairs saw that their swarming and boarding tactics weren’t working, so they gave up and decided to get some crew for the Crescent Moon – Kheir-ed-din, helmsman, shipwright, oarsman. However, some recently discovered Rats cut into their profits. The Crescent Moon loaded the new crew and repaired.
The Overton captures La Habana:
The Forward hit 1/2 on the Manila to set her alight.
Olano misses the Wolves:
Taking advantage of a great set-specific combo, the English then hired Calico Cat, Griffin, and a Pirate helmsman to crew the HMS Grand Temple!
With the Galapagos down to one cargo space open with her recent crew acquisitions, the English needed some more treasure runners to assist the slow Patagonia. They built HMS Discovery and HMS Tweed, both literally acquired yesterday in a trade with manicdrake!
The only English ship not docked at their HI in the above picture is the Polaris, who sank the captured Habana! This served to lessen Anglo-FS tensions, since the Spanish didn’t want the Habana in enemy hands. It also served as a way for the English to get some revenge on the hated Americans, for Hampstead still sailed the Overton. Between all that and the three new English ships, one of which was the mighty Grand Temple, the English were taking on a powerful position in the game.
The Overton wouldn’t be able to get all of her guns in range of the Polaris because of the wind, so instead Hampstead sailed her downwind and inflicted major damage on the Santa Ana!
Olano killed the Wolves, which allowed the San Agustin to take treasure once again. However, what she found was similarly horrible: Plague and Enemy of the State! The San Agustin had no crew aboard, but the UT’s meant that Spain’s only gold runner had issues.
On the previous turn the Granada had set the Sea Lion alight and dismasted her. On the next turn, the Sea Lion burned to the water line, and the Manila sank the Forward! Finally, the Jade Rebellion empire was no more! Note the Granada fleeing to the fort to repair, which is also what the Santa Ana has in mind. Bianco’s Haulers mean the Santa Ana can’t be shot at by the Overton while docked at the fort.
As the new gold runners set a course for the northwestern island, Calico Cat’s EA gives the GT her last two masts, and next turn she’ll be ready to sail for England once again!
With the repairing Santa Ana invulnerable, the Overton has turned for home, but the Polaris may be waiting for her. The Argus, the last French ship remaining, passes by the Granada on her way to the southern or southwestern island. The Manila is still burning a little bit, but she still has three masts standing. The BC’s new philosophy is to avoid combat if it’s impractical, so the Crescent Moon maneuvers around the Spanish 5 master. With her fire mast and (so far) extremely ineffective guns, the Manila isn’t likely to continue hostilities. The eastern and southern battles have concluded, and the English are the only faction not completely worn out at this point. The Jade empire is gone, but Dragon Eyes is still stranded on their former home island. Speaking of Dragon Eyes, he was the first to feel an ominous rumbling, which wasn’t from cannon fire but rather from the earth itself that he was standing on!
The pent-up pressure was released, and the former Jade home island was consumed by multiple explosions from below! Lava bombs flew high into the sky, and descended onto ships and forts in the nearby vicinity. Dragon Eyes and the gold on the island was long gone, but a new island with volcanic peaks took its place!
Here you can see the devastation. The Manila, Overton, Argus, and Granada (out of the picture) have been set on fire, as well as both Spanish forts. Ships were also thrown off course by the ensuing shock waves and water waves. The Polaris lost her starboard outrigger, and you can see the Crescent Moon has been thrown off course despite being undamaged. The Argus was tossed against the side of the BC home island, while the Santa Ana was driven backwards away from the fort.
Fortaleza Dorada on fire. The rules for flaming forts will work like this: instead of the fort rolling for each fire every turn, it rolls one die regardless of how many fire masts it has and regardless of whether the fort is given an action during the turn. The roll follows the regular rules for fire masts. The fort will be automatically destroyed if the fire consumes all 8 areas (not how many guns the fort has). Just like in my Economy Edition game, fleets can place a shipwright inside the fort to give it repair actions. If this is done, a shipwright can only put out one fire per turn, but no flag is raised in the fire’s place until another repair action is given.
Here you can finally see the Granada, who was heading north when the eruption occurred. She’s now heading east, and the Overton has been blown from heading west to heading north.
With their fleet and forts aflame and in shambles, the Spanish are desperate. With no enemy ships around, the San Agustin unloads the Plague onto the Pamplona, killing Olano! The Pamplona is given an explore action to take Enemy of the State from the San Agustin so she can ferry treasure once more.
At the top of the frame, the fire in Fortaleza Dorada spreads. At the bottom, the Manila puts one fire out but another spreads, for a negative overall effect.
The Santa Ana and Granada are both headed towards El Castillo del Infanta to repair, but the fort is in more trouble than they are!
After a brief discussion, Calico Cat and Griffin come to an agreement. With their HMS Grand Temple and no English crew aboard, the Pirates set sail for the first time, betraying English orders and firing a full broadside at the Galapagos!!!The hired Pirates have turned on the English! Almost as soon as the English take the former Jade ship, the Pirates have commandeered her! With the loss of all crew members, HMS Galapagos, the final English ship in SCS waters after the JR-English war, sinks beneath the waves in her own harbor. How ironic that it’s at the hands of Tsai’s old flagship (the way he would have wanted it if the FS didn’t invade the area), though not in his command, but in the command of pirates.
With an extra action from Calico Cat, the Grand Temple moves on and dismasts the Polaris!!
In an instant, half of the English fleet and all of their gunships are gone. The Polaris and Galapagos are finished, while the Grand Temple has been commandeered by pirates while the stunned one masted treasure runners look on.
The Grand Temple lays in shadow, an ironic twist given her turn to the “dark side”. The burning Overton hopes to return to the American HI.
And with that, the Jolly Roger was raised!! Calico Cat and Griffin signaled their secret fleet that now was the time to strike! Pirate ships swarmed the area, including some ships and Pirates that the English really didn’t want to see:
Revenge + Captain Villanueva, helmsman
Greed’s Hammer + Mistress Ching, helmsman
Black Mongoose + captain, shipwright
Empress + Captain Sao Feng, captain, helmsman
Mocha + Kanhoji Angria, helmsman
Plague of the East + helmsman
Plague of the North + captain
(Notice some SCS crew and the Jade-inspired POTC crew)
Captain Sao Feng leads the Pirate fleet, which is a ragtag bunch of former Jade Rebels turned true rebels against the JR empire. Now that the once-strong empire has fallen, the Pirates are looking to seize their chance at controlling the area. Their hatred of the English stems from their jealousy at the English initially getting the better of the Jades during the JR-English war, which many of these Pirates fought in. These Pirates deserted the Jade Rebellion cause during the war since they had faith that the English would win. When the Jade Rebellion won the war, they were forced into hiding and exile. Feng is the best example of this band of Pirates: “There is no honor in remaining with the losing side. Leaving it for the winning side, that’s just good business.”
The effect wasn’t obvious at first, but it’s now apparent that the volcanic activity created two natural whirlpools and three reefs!
During this day of action, a whopping 15 ships were sunk in the 8 turns that were played, including 8 ships from SCS. The wind has now blown due east for 5 consecutive turns, and the game’s end is starting to approach…
1/14/2016
4 turns were played (30-33). The wind blowed east on turn 30 and southeast on turns 31-33.
The Pirates have begun their assault. The Discovery has been dismasted, while the Grand Temple shoots at Fortaleza Dorada and the Polaris at the same time. The Revenge rams the Patagonia and steals some of her gold.
At the bottom of the frame, the Mocha has blocked the San Agustin from docking at her HI. The burning La Manila is making her way towards Fortaleza Dorada, which is also on fire.
The Argus burned to the water line, which officially eliminated the French from the game! Their HI became a new wild island.
In her attempt to eliminate her fire masts and repair at the fort, the Manila must cross one of the reefs created by the volcanic activity, but she rolls a 1!
The Spanish have truly fallen hard. The Manila is now a flaming wreck, blocking part of the southern sea from the north.
Fire has consumed more than half of Fortaleza Dorada, and the smoke can be seen for miles around.
Using the wind to her advantage, the Pamplona rams the docked Crescent Moon and gives her the Plague, killing all four of her crew!
With no helmsman or weather gauge, the San Agustin can’t quite make it home. This allows the Pirates another chance to catch her…
The Pirates are cleaning up the west by wrecking everything in their path. The Black Mongoose has sunk the Discovery, while the Empress will soon do the same to the Tweed.
The San Agustin was sunk when the Grand Temple turned around and used an extra action from Calico Cat to arrive at the Spanish home island!
The Spanish still have hope in the east: the Santa Ana and Granada have almost finished repairing, while El Castillo del Infanta managed to put out her fires. However, the Plague-ridden Crescent Moon is now looking to get revenge on the Spaniards. At the top of the frame, notice the Overton docked at the former French HI, but she’ll need to explore next turn.
In the far southwest, the Greed’s Hammer and Plague of the East look to plunder the Spanish gold island, while the Mocha rounds the sandbars and heads east. The Grand Temple has begun moving north, towards the end of the Pirate/English battle.
The Patagonia put up a fight and set the Revenge on fire, but the Pirate forces are far too much for the little galley. The Empress has finished off the Tweed.
Fortaleza Dorada has finally been destroyed!
The Spanish know they must act quickly to have any hope of survival, so they send their ships on different missions. The Granada will try to set the Grand Temple aflame with her firepot specialist, while the Santa Ana takes care of the Crescent Moon and her Plague. Continuing the Spaniards’ unfortunate woes however, the Santa Ana only hits 3/6 on the Crescent Moon!
The Corsairs get revenge and eliminate the final three crew (Carlos Pavon, Bianco’s Haulers, and a helmsman) on the Santa Ana!
The Overton explores the former French HI-turned wild island, and finds the Whirlpool UT! This drags her into the nearest whirlpool, which is just to the south. However, mysteriously, she doesn’t appear at the southwestern whirlpool as she should. Instead, she seems to have disappeared!
The waters of the northeastern whirlpool where the Overton disappeared began to froth and bubble. Foam and steam flew in the air, and suddenly, demonic beasts and bloody ships came flying up from beneath the ocean!!!
(The above picture was purposely taken like that, to illustrate how quickly the Cursed came up – in a flash!)
Grinder + El Fantasma, helmsman, oarsmen x3
Skin Flayer + Sammy the Skull, White Crew, Wraith, helmsman, oarsman
Brachyura + captain, helmsman
Cyclops + captain, helmsman
Shal-Bala
Squalo
The Pirates immediately summon all of their ships to attack the Cursed! The Grand Temple leads the charge, while the Revenge, Black Mongoose, Empress, and Plague of the North follow. The Patagonia was sunk, officially eliminating the English from the game!
The Pirate ships in the southwest explore the Spanish gold island, but the Greed’s Hammer finds The Red Skull, turning her into a Cursed ship!
After 33 turns, who could have pictured a scene like this?
1/15/2016
Turns 34+ have been played! The wind shifted from the SE to the NW on turn 35, but after that it was a whirlwind and I didn’t keep track of the wind or turn count.
At the top of the picture, Squalo has sunk the Granada. The Santa Ana and Pamplona run from the Grinder and Mocha respectively, knowing that they stand the best chance when fighting together. The Grinder has sunk the Crescent Moon, eliminating the Barbary Corsairs from the game.
With her recent turn to the Cursed, the Greed’s Hammer fires and sinks the Plague of the East. In the background, the main battle has begun.
With the sun setting on the game and glinting off the switchblades of the Skin Flayer, the Cursed are in control. The Skin Flayer and Cyclops team up to crush the Grand Temple, while Brachura waits behind them. White Crew eliminated all of the Pirates aboard the GT, but Wraith couldn’t reanimate any of them.
The Pirates have arrived! However, they do minimal damage. The Revenge makes an ill-advised ram against the Skin Flayer, and loses her crew. The hulk of the Grand Temple is blocking the path for either faction to proceed.
The Cursed launch another attack, and it’s just as deadly as the last. The Revenge is dismasted, while the Grand Temple is finally sunk! Shal-Bala swoops on the Empress, and the Pirates are down to three usable ships.
The Grinder sacs another oarsman to sink the Santa Ana! The Pamplona is waiting, while the Mocha also wants to sink the Grinder.
The Pirates manage to dismast the Skin Flayer, but their time is running out!
Shal-Bala takes care of the Plague of the North, but the Black Mongoose and Cyclops continue to miss each other at point-blank range. The Greed’s Hammer has arrived via whirlpool, while an impatient Brachyura has whirlpooled to the south to approach the battle from a different angle.
Total carnage on the high seas!
The Pamplona went 1/2 against the Grinder, but soon afterwards paid the price.
Shal-Bala prepares to savage the Black Mongoose:
In the meantime, Squalo looks to take a bite out of the GT’s mast!
The Grinder has finished off the Pamplona, but now the Mocha is upon her.
The Black Mongoose is finally derelict!
Brachyura has sunk the Empress, and the Pirates are all but finished.
Or are they? A forgotten shipwright on the Black Mongoose gives the Pirates another chance!
As Shal-Bala flies off to deal with the Mocha, Brachyura unleashes her fury on the Black Mongoose. The Greed’s Hammer had captured the Revenge, and they scuttled her. The Hammer then sunk the Plague of the North, ending the northern battle with no Pirate survivors.
The southeastern area will see the final action take place:
The Pirates continue to show their resilience as the Mocha dismasts the Grinder!
Shal-Bala is given a shoot action, and the game ends!!
The Cursed have won this short experimental cumulative game!
After around 40 turns, nobody could have predicted this! None of the original starting factions are in the game, while one island has been completely transformed by nature. Dark times have fallen upon the area, with Pirates and then Cursed taking turns to dominate the waters. Debris is strewn over the northern area, while a shipwreck blocks a trade route south. What a crazy game!
This was a good game, and I’m happy that I finally did some things I’d been meaning to do. The biggest one was trying out one of the various wind rules. I liked it quite a bit – it affected gameplay but not overly so. It didn’t make or break every situation.
One interesting aspect of the wind is for gold runners – in general, on a trip to a wild island they’ll have the advantage one way, but usually have it hinder them on the other way (to or from their HI). This balances things nicely, but for longer voyages it can be a major nuisance, or a major help (and when it’s a major help, the voyage won’t turn out to be so long after all!). I waffled back and forth on how to determine the wind’s +S/-S for extra actions: at first I had the wind only affect one of the actions, but later on I wanted it to be more prominent so sometimes I had it affect both actions. For example, when the Santa Ana gets an extra action, her first move with the wind might be L+S+S, but the second could be the regular L+S even if she’s still going with the wind. To make things more complicated and more interesting, sometimes ships would be going into the wind with their first action but with it for their second, so the net effect was neutral. Also, ships were occasionally able to “tack” in order to gain an extra S by sailing slightly out of their way to go with the wind for a moment before continuing on the original direction with that extra S boost.
I’m glad the game looked good – it’s my first cumulative game I’ve played using exclusively 3D islands and terrain (excluding those whirlpools and reefs at the end). This made it look more realistic, something I was going for when I started the game with a semi-historical scenario of sorts. It was also my first cumulative game that I played on a table, and I mostly enjoyed that aspect of it. The fabric used was the unique one – I have 4 more “regular” fabrics but this 5th one is the silky, shinier one that kind of looks more like water in the way it can shimmer. (the pictures don’t usually do it full justice) There were also certain aspects that looked very cool – the forts on fire, the burning wreck of the Manila, and the classic shiny blades of the Skin Flayer glinting in the sun.
I will admit that the game became somewhat rushed towards the end. The Jade Rebellion held out for far longer than I expected them to, so that delayed the entrance of the Pirates and Cursed. When they did show up, my other priorities and events conspired to give them less of a showing, but the game was still completed and it worked out fine. However, as a result of this rushing at the end, I do have one regret about this game of something that I wanted to include but couldn’t: fireships. I still need to try this out. With the semi-historical nature of the majority of this game, they would have fit reasonably well, especially as a last-ditch effort by the Jade Rebellion or perhaps the English. I was happy to get lots of fire into the game in general, and having forts ablaze is something I look forward to seeing more of.
With all that said, I have a feeling that my next cumulative game will take place not on a table or a floor, but on VASSAL.
For centuries, myths were spread around the sea of a giant turtle in slumber deep below the ocean’s surface. It was rumored that the turtle’s massive shell was made of pure gold. Perhaps if a sailor was sneaky enough, he could manage to remove part of the shell and set himself up for life.
Last week a dubious publication revealed that someone claimed to have seen the turtle above water! Almost immediately nearly every nation in the world scrambled to get a small fleet into the region. If the rumors were true, this opportunity to gain wealth could be unrivaled in history. Little did the factions know what truly awaited them….
~~~~~
Admiral A7XfanBen is back! I was able to play my first physical game of Pirates CSG since November 2018, and my first physical solo game since the ridiculous Command the Oceans ended in December 2017. I got that “playing bug” and wanted to try something a bit different. I’ve had some cardboard moldings like this for quite a while, with the intention of turning at least one into a giant turtle.
It would have been nice to give the legs/flippers a glossy teal-like color, with a gray for the shell. However, I wanted the turtle to be more of a proper wild island, and a very lucrative one at that. The turtle is so large and fertile that grass grows on all of its flippers! And of course, this legendary turtle of old has a shell of PURE GOLD that is unmatched in world history!! O_O I spread out some glue and sprinkled on some grass powder, along with some big bushes for the eyes. I finished it off with a thick layer of shiny metallic gold paint. The shell would look a bit more realistic if it was more raised up/rounded, but I wanted to keep it pretty flat, mostly so coins can be easily placed and kept on its back. Besides, it’s a giant gold turtle bigger than a 10 master, so realism was not the goal here! 😀
I took 496 pictures for this game, which was certainly too many! I think it’s good I didn’t include them all here, since there are a number of semi-duplicates, the same angle with the flash and without, etc. I decided to vary the picture size for this report so the page might load faster and because some of the developments don’t necessarily deserve the full size picture. The largest pictures can be made even bigger by opening them in a new tab and zooming in.
Here is the setup! I used the “Caribbean” blue ocean fabric as I thought it suited the turtle theme the best. I made sure to string together some terrain and include whirlpools for maximum traveling efficiency.
House Rules:
-Round Earth – ships going over one side of the map appear on the exact opposite side.
-Shiny silver is worth 3 times its printed value
-Shiny gold is worth 2 times its printed value
-Giant Turtle acts as a wild island – more rules are below in the report
-Only singular islands can be chosen as home islands. The 11 gold locations were as follows: 5 beach island, 3 beach island, giant turtle, 2 shipwrecks.
-No Events
The Fleets
This would be an 8 fleet, 60 point game.
Here are the factions! This is the turn order; I got the fleets out in the reverse of this order (with the Pirates first). Home islands were picked in reverse turn order, with the Pirates choosing first.
The Cursed
Skin Flayer + Captain Nemo, El Fantasma, helmsman, shipwright, oarsman
Sea Duck
Silver Coffin
Nightmare + helmsman
The final fleet made for the game. This was simply an excuse to add a switchblade with Captain Nemo aboard. Switchblades with any kind of capture crew almost always make games more fun, so I couldn’t resist. The idea of course is that the Skin Flayer won’t really need Nemo’s captures (already have the essential crew aboard), so they can be sacced by Fantasma for chained extra actions. (sac a crew to get an extra action, which is then used to blade ram a ship and capture another crew for next turn’s sac) The rest of the fleet was some gold running support, with the Sea Duck’s sniping ability pairing nicely with the Silver Coffin’s Extended Range.
I think this Grand Path setup is nastier than what the original fleet contains. The GP would have SAT+reroll with essentially 1S cannons, along with a stinkpot specialist and oarsman for maximum crew support. I have convinced myself that the Grand Wind is underrated, so I was looking forward to using her in a reasonably-sized game.
A powerful American fleet with serious potential. A great case could be made that the Kettering and Frontier should both be 20+ points, so combine that with 5 extra from Perry and this fleet packed serious punch.
Spanish
Valeroso + Victor de Alva, Master Bianco, Contessa Anita Amore, helmsman
Intermediaro
San Francisco + captain, helmsman
Pescados de Plata + helmsman
Easily the oddest and possibly the weakest fleet, I decided to get a bit funky here. The Valeroso is a very capable ship, and I wanted to emphasize her ability by putting S-Board on her. Bianco comes aboard to make her a funky S-Boarding hybrid, with 3 open cargo spaces. Intermediaro is a one-of-a-kind creature with an ability that could be used to help any of the other 3 ships. It was added partly for the possibility of using the ability to draw coins from the giant turtle. San Francisco is a great little hybrid and the Pescados would function as a gold runner.
French
Le Superbe + Amiral Stephan Dupuy, Duncan Rousseau, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Le Soleil Royal + Vicomte Jules de Cissey, captain, helmsman, firepot specialist
Le Triton + captain
Three of my favorite French ships. All of them absolute classics; I think the Triton is one of the most underrated ships in the entire game. The big gunships would be ready to wreak havoc; the Superbe specifically was equipped for absolute chaos with the combination of EA+reroll along with Parley to stay in fights longer than most other ships. With all 3 ships having captains, the French would be ready for war.
English
HMS Titan + Lord Thomas Gunn, helmsman, firepot specialist, oarsman
HMS Bolingbroke + captain, helmsman
HMS Adventure + helmsman
HMS Rye
Since it was my first physical game of a longer nature in quite some time, I wanted to include some classics and favorites. HMS Titan remains one of England’s finest, and she alone can make the English competitive in this game. The Bolingbroke is a very capable gunship. They were a little short on cargo, but HMS Adventure is a somewhat new addition to my collection that I wanted to use for the first time, while HMS Rye gave them a faster gold runner in addition to the valuable cancelling ability.
Pirates
Zeus + Captain Blackheart, helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x5
Raven + Hammersmith, oarsman
Devil’s Pay + captain, oarsman
THE ZEUS IS LOOSE!!!! This marks the first time I’ve used my physical copy of the Zeus in a game since acquiring the 10 master earlier this year. I decided to go with the original (and cheaper) Blackheart for the Sac ability, with tons of oarsmen for “food”. The Raven is one of my original ships and an all-time favorite, with Hammersmith turning her into a fast hybrid. The Devil’s Pay isn’t great, but this was the first fleet I decided upon for the game and thought it might be too good, so I didn’t want to fully optimize it since it wasn’t a hyper-competitive game. (though still competitive relative to lots of other games I’ve played).
Feel free to comment below your thoughts, and which fleet you thought would win/which fleet you were rooting for!
The Setup
Looking east:
From above:
Looking west:
Gold
-10 “regular” gold locations (8 beaches and 2 shipwrecks) with 5 coins apiece. (50 coins)
-Giant Turtle has 30 coins on it, including one all-gold coin worth 20 gold. (most valuable coin in play)
-16 Unique Treasures spread out among the locations, with at least 4-5 on the turtle. All the factions know that the UT’s are positive in nature.
-80 coins total
TONS of gold appears on the giant turtle!!
The turtle was placed in the middle of the map with not much around it for good reason….
The three beach island, from Ross in AZ. Contact him if you’re interested in getting your own!
The Sultan shipwreck:
The Duke shipwreck returns as well! It’s gotten a little dirty after seeing extensive use since it first appeared in 2015.
The 5 beach island, also made by Ross in AZ.
Ready to start!!
The Game
The Cursed get things started, with the dangerous Skin Flayer going to the south via round earth!
Cursed gold runners approach the wreck of the Sultan:
Knowing they need to get gold early with all the dangerous fleets floating around, the Jades use Zheng Li Kwan to sac an oarsman from the Grand Wind (GW). This allows her to dock and explore a beach in the west. The Grand Path (GP) ducks into a fog bank due to her proximity to HMS Titan.
Not a bad haul! With all the crew on the GW, she can only load the best 2 coins.
The Corsairs immediately show that they have designs on the turtle! Half of their fleet breaks for the sleepy creature.
The other BC ships head for the 3 beach island, with two of them ducking into a fog bank to avoid the Skin Flayer:
The Corsair fleet, gorgeous as always:
The Frontier’s hoist arm is perfect for avoiding the reef that ensnared the Duke!
A nice haul, and one that the Frontier’s huge hold can easily accommodate.
The Kettering and Hudson quickly sail over to surround their valuable investment, daring anyone to come close.
To my surprise, the Spanish are able to use Intermediaro on their first turn, the ability providing the Valeroso with a coin! (a shiny silver 1 worth 3 gold)
The Spanish 2 masters head for the north side of the 5 beach island:
The Superbe docks at the 3 beach island with the Soleil Royal and Triton close behind.
It seems that the French are always gorgeous. One of the best sights on the sea:
The English venture out, heading north just like the Jade Rebels:
The Titan and Adventure join the Grand Path in the fog, with the Rye a bit more confident than most due to her cancelling ability (and the GP only has S-range guns).
The Pirates split up, with the Raven heading towards the turtle, the Devil’s Pay heading towards the Sultan shipwreck, and the Zeus heading north along the eastern edge of the map. The Pirates already had a plan they decided upon as soon as they chose their home island (HI): the Zeus would round earth to the northwest and dominate the waters around the 5 beach island. She would try to keep that gold locked up until she sacced enough crew to load some of it, or one of the other Pirate ships got over there to explore.
The Cursed runners arrive at the shipwreck, both avoiding reef damage:
The Skin Flayer heads west, definitely wanting to avoid the massive firepower of the French fleet. (up to 18 shots in a turn between the 3 captained ships and the Superbe’s EA)
The Grand Wind sacs another oarsman and is already home with gold! The Jade Rebellion takes a very early lead on Turn 2! They partly did this to avoid having HMS Titan go ballistic coming out of the fog and wrecking their gold game. Saccing early meant getting some guaranteed gold, and also freed up cargo space on the GW for future treasure runs.
The Grand Path comes flying out of the fog bank with Tsai’s SAT, covering a large distance quickly!
She connects with a hit on the Pescados de Plata, and the fighting has begun!
The Morocco is the first ship to dock at the giant turtle! She has an explorer and they clamber upon the mythical creature for a look at what the golden shell contains!!
O_O Holy hell!! In addition to the 20 gold coin (painted gold in the middle), the giant turtle does not disappoint the centuries-old rumors. The Morocco’s crew is delighted to find tons of extremely valuable gold and silver, not to mention a bunch of great UT’s.
Suddenly the Morocco is filthy rich! It turns out Calico Cat (Pirate SAT crew) was the Castaway, so maybe she was hiding out on the turtle as one of her nine lives!! XD The coin worth 20 gold combines with a shiny silver 6 to represent a whopping 38 gold on the Morocco alone! O_O
The Corsairs get greedy, with the Queen of Sheba and Agha’s Whip also docking at the turtle. They abandon their explorers to maximize the loot loaded!
The Dervish rolls an unlucky 1 to exit the fog bank right onto a reef, but rows over it undamaged. The Griffin docks at the 3 beach island, with the Gallows protecting her from the Raven zooming around to the north.
The Corsairs are loaded, with 4 ships carrying gold already. The Griffin finds Metal Hull with her explorer.
The Americans return home, with the Frontier turning a quick profit by draining the Duke shipwreck. The Kettering is already eyeing the Corsairs with suspicion, given their turtle antics and obvious greed.
The Pescados docks at the 5 beach island…
With the San Francisco trying to shield her from the massive Grand Path, going 1 for 2 to knock off a mast.
Intermediaro (submerged) transfers another coin from the turtle to the Valeroso. This is a solid strategy for the Spanish, but per the creature’s ability, the coin has to be random, limiting their potential profit.
Hearing the guns booming to the west, the Valeroso docks home her 2 coins as Victor de Alva looks to even the fight against the Jade Rebellion.
Since the ability is a free action, Intermediaro was then able to move southeast towards the Pirates:
Le Superbe explores to find some coins and TURTLES!! XD
The Triton docks as well, as the French grab all the coins from the beach. You can see that my “turtle UT collection” is 30% complete. 🙂
The Soleil Royal stands guard against a possible attack by the Skin Flayer, who already feels like one of the biggest “free agent”/wild card type ships in the game.
Suddenly 3 of the 4 English ships are docked, though none of them have explorers.
With some custom islands/terrain and a blue ocean, you can really make this game look even more beautiful than it normally is. I listened to some music while playing the game, including variousepicmixes and some Alestorm later on. Feel free to tune in while you take in the game and all the pictures.
The Pirates get in action! Most figured the scary Zeus would be the one to open their realm of combat, but the Devil’s Pay snuck up on the Cursed from the other side of the Sultan shipwreck! This wreck is too low to block lines of fire, so the Devil’s Pay shot away both masts on the Sea Duck!
The Raven flies in at S+S+S+S speed to attack the Morocco! However, she fails miserably, missing with both cannons and losing her oarsman in the boarding party. The ram was successful, but Hammersmith really wanted to dismast the ship.
An ominous sight: the Zeus has round earthed to the west!
However, with 3 factions exploring 3 of the 5 beaches at the island, and the Grand Path and Titan (both with extra actions) in the area, it may be difficult for Captain Blackheart to use his ship of doom to control the whole area.
But still, it’s the ZEUS! 😀
Suddenly, the ships around the Giant Turtle heard a deep rumbling. The turtle opened its eyes!!THE TURTLE IS AWAKE!! Noticing some of its golden shell stolen, the turtle gets angry and rams two of the Corsair ships at once, knocking a mast off each one!!
The turtle is angry!
Giant Turtle Rules
-Acts as NPC island that can move S in any direction it wants at the end of each round of turns, measured from the head. (one ship must dock at it to wake it up)
-Ships can dock at grassy areas on turtle and build forts on it.
-Turtle can only “fight” by ramming, can ram multiple opponents at a time and every turtle ram always eliminates a mast.
-Turtle has Hoard ability and can board opponents that have gold after ramming them (base roll of 4). If turtle loses boarding party, winning ship can take 1 extra coin from island if they have room.
The turtle is alive and well!! In an event the Corsairs did not predict the turtle has awakened to take back its valuable gold. It rolls a 4 while boarding the Morocco to take back all of her gold and UT’s!! (Calico “Castaway” Cat remained since she is a crew now)
The Agha’s Whip is boarded as well, and loses all her gold back to the turtle!
Suddenly the Corsairs aren’t so rich anymore, with the Queen of Sheba lucky to get out alive. (so far at least)
The Corsairs docking at the turtle woke it up, which led to this chaotic finish to the end of Turn 2.
This giant turtle won’t be giving up its riches that easily:
I figured that instead of just having the turtle be a simple wild island, that it could move and defend itself. That way the island is still a priority due to the immense riches on it, but the turtle can be a living game piece that makes it harder for factions to win by simply “robbing” the turtle’s huge golden shell.
What was looking like an easy path to victory now looks like an intimidating behemoth that factions may want to stay away from:
It’s worth noting that since the turtle can move at the end of each round, an explorer is almost required to get gold from it, at least until that faction has marked the island as explored. Any ship docked at the turtle can expect it to attack them, which will undock the ship and require docking again to have a chance at the gold.
Now you can see why I wanted to leave the middle area pretty wide-open. I wanted to give the turtle plenty of space to maneuver without crashing into obstacles and getting stuck.
The Silver Coffin is able to barely shoot between the fog bank and Sea Duck for an extended range shot, along with another shot between the Sea Duck and Nightmare. One hit drops the Devil’s Pay to 1 mast.
The Nightmare explores the Sultan to find some interesting UT’s, but not a large amount of gold:
She loads the Necklace and a 3, hoping to use the Explosives later on. (face up coins since it was a solo game so I don’t have to try and remember which coins are what)
So far the northeast is a battle of the small ships and long guns over a shipwreck:
It was time for the Skin Flayer to get in action!! Captain Nemo and El Fantasma were waiting for the opportune moment to strike, and a weak and scattered Corsair fleet was the perfect target!! The switchblade slices through the stern gallery of the Dervish:
With a successful shoot and board via the blades, the Dervish loses both masts!
Showing the effective and sadistic nature of this strategy, Fantasma immediately sacrifices a Cursed oarsman for an extra action. The Skin Flayer moves on to savage more Corsair targets, ramming the Griffin with her bow and the Gallows with her port side blade!!
With death in her wake, the Skin Flayer shows the power of switchblades: a double action triple ramming frenzy attack!!
The Griffin avoids damage, but the Gallows loses both masts:
BOTH boarding attempts were successful, with Captain Nemo essentially capturing 2 crew from 2 different ships at once! The Griffin’s oarsman and Gallows’ captain become part of Fantasma’s evil army.
The Cursed have launched a devastating attack on the Corsairs, with the sun shining on the Skin Flayer’s blades:
This is a switchblade lover’s dream: two actions, two crew captured, three ships rammed – and all of them by a different “source”. (both blades and the ship’s bow all hit a target!) They might be funky and a dumb idea, but this is why switchblades are often my favorite type of “Pokeship” – they’re fun and wild!
To nobody’s surprise, the Grand Path easily blows the San Francisco out of the water for the first sinking of the game!
The Corsairs take their turn, trying to process the devastation. In a turn they went from having 6 healthy ships, 4 of them with a lot of gold between them. Now 3 of them are dismasted, with only 2 carrying gold. Most of their ships flee to the safety of the fog and home (Dervish docked), but the Morocco can’t make it despite her helmsman and oars. With Metal Hull preventing fast movement but making her a tough opponent, the Griffin actually decides to stand and fight the Skin Flayer, going 1 for 2 to knock out a mast.
Making things even worse for the Corsairs, French and American gunships are lurking to either side of their home island, only a few actions away from being able to do serious damage to an already weakened fleet.
Speaking of which, it was now the American turn! The Kettering was eager for some action, trying to prevent the Morocco from getting home next turn with her S+S rowing capability. However, her stinkpot shot backfired, eliminating it from the game!
And just like that, it looks like the Americans are the next faction to have plans for the turtle! Their entire fleet heads northeast, with the Frontier having two decided advantages over the great beast:
-Her Hoist ability can use the crane arm to take gold directly from the shell, avoiding the dock+explore mechanic and likely limiting potential damage from a turtle counterattack if she can get the right angle of approach
-Secret Hold will protect the gold from the turtle’s wrath and Hoarding Gold ability!
Could the Frontier make off with a massive store of shiny loot?
Or will the giant turtle prove too much for the legendary gold runner? Stay tuned to find out!
With no proper escape route from the Grand Path, the Pescados decides to just continue on and explore anyway. She finds some solid coins.
But now the Pescados is not alone! The Valeroso arrives, with Victor de Alva leading an S-Boarding party on the Grand Path! However, the Spanish utterly fail, missing all 3 shots and losing the boarding party. (her ability prevented the loss of any crew)
Intermediaro surfaces for the first time and crashes HARD into the Devil’s Pay!!
A crowded area just got more crowded with the addition of a giant squid:
The French have a sneaky quick gold run going on, with the Superbe docking home a few coins and the Triton and turtles not far behind:
The Soleil Royal simultaneously docks at the southern beach of the 3 beach island and takes advantage of the Skin Flayer’s extended blades to take a couple shots….
But misses!
Although the French fleet is built for combat, all three ships have at least one cargo space open. They have a nice little secluded corner in the southeast that they will try to milk as much as possible. (gotta love how Ross’ waterfalls pretty much match the water color)
All FOUR English ships load treasure on the same turn!
The Rye gets two 7’s, but leaves the real goodies to the more durable HMS Titan – a shiny silver 5 worth 15 gold could be doubled by Spices for a whopping 30 gold in one load! The other two ships get the leftovers that the Grand Wind didn’t take.
The Kettering stands ready to cancel one of the Morocco’s moving abilities to try and prevent her from getting home. This would be important on the Pirate turn in a moment. This is also where the game’s strategy and “endless options” started to get more complicated, as I wanted and expected. (complex Pirates games are usually more fun for me)
The Pirates decided to change their plans. With the Grand Path, Titan, Bolingbroke, and Rye still around the 5 beach island, Blackheart started looking for an easier target. Those English ships alone could potentially ruin the Zeus, especially with the Titan’s EA combined with the Rye’s cancelling.
THE ZEUS IS LOOSE!!! BLACKHEART GOES AFTER THE FRONTIER!
Blackheart sacced an oarsman to get an extra action coming out of the whirlpool, and the 1 roll on the whirlpool (my house rule) meant she lost a second one as well. Blackheart didn’t want to sacrifice any firepower by losing a mast – with my atrocious history rolling for 3S cannons, the Zeus would need all the firepower she could muster against even a 3 masted ship.
Zeus vs. Frontier!
The Zeus made sure to ram the Frontier as well. Instead of just sinking the hoist, they want her. The Pirates were trying to capture the Frontier and use her in their own fleet. With both a helmsman and oarsman aboard, the latter of which prevents dereliction and therefore capture, this would be a tough task.
With typically bad luck on those silly 3S cannons (which are like my Achilles’ Heel of this game), the Zeus shoots a rather poor 3/9, just barely enough to dismast the ship.
The Zeus won the boarding party of course, but Blackheart had semi-forgotten that he wouldn’t be able to choose which crew got eliminated. The Americans tossed the helmsman overboard, while the Pirates were kinda hoping the oarsman would die…
… because the Raven came flying across the front of the giant turtle to ram and board the Frontier! If the oarsman was gone, this would have been enough to capture the Frontier, but the best-laid plans in Pirates often don’t work out at all. (not that this was the best plan ever, but Blackheart was getting kinda bored on the Zeus lol)
The Raven successfully boards the Frontier, taking out her oarsman and leaving her ripe for capture! Unfortunately for them, the Devil’s Pay (their only other ship) was derelict by the Sultan shipwreck way in the northeast.
The turtle moves again! This time its slow movement of S was not enough to ram anything, but it did compromise the space between the various ships in the south. Now you can see why the Kettering cancelling the Morocco’s ability mattered – the Pirates had to make sure the Raven could get past the Kettering without having Hammersmith’s helmsman ability cancelled before even launching the attack on the Frontier with the Zeus. Lots of logistics and planning were starting to come into play!
The end of Turn 3 shows a very active southern area:
Some other angles on the game:
Indeed, most of the action is in the south, with a little in the northwest and northeast:
An overhead shot shows that perhaps the French and English have a clear path to lots of easy gold?
The Nightmare takes the Sea Duck under tow, allowing Silver Coffin to shoot off Intermediaro’s head.
An area filled with debris accumulates more:
Leaving the metal-hulled and annoying Griffin alone this turn, the Skin Flayer captures the Morocco:
The Cursed immediately give her a move action, which she uses to duck into a fog bank so the Griffin can’t sink her.
Claiming her second captained Spanish victim, the Grand Path’s massive crew complement calmly unleash a huge broadside that sinks the Valeroso! This nets them 1 gold for eliminating Contessa Anita Amore.
The Grand Wind rolled a 6 out of the fog and sacced her final oarsman (already!) to dock at an unexplored western part of the 5 beach island.
She finds an interesting mix, with Poseidon’s Breath perfect for a 6 master. (move your base move as many times as you have masts)
She uses the Ammunition to get exploding shot for defense (not bad with a 4L cannon with reroll) and loads the other coins.
So far the Jades have fought the Spanish, but not the English despite their home island proximity. Of course, the GP has been busy, sinking both of the only 2 ships to sink so far.
The Corsairs take their turn, with not much of note happening. The Kettering and Hudson have effectively blocked off the fog bank, not allowing the Queen of Sheba and Agha’s Whip to return home. They roll for exit location but then duck back into the fog. The Griffin starts her slow trip home (S speed due to Metal Hull), while the Dervish repairs. In what would become almost a “meme of the game”, the Gallows docks at the far side of a giant turtle flipper and loads a coin.
Lots of gold still available, and the Gallows was trying to sneak off with some:
The Americans are pissed! USS Hudson swoops in and tows the Frontier, preventing the Pirates from capturing her later in the round. She misses 2 shots against the Zeus but hits both times against the Raven, dismasting the ship and killing Hammersmith! (essentially a death blow to the Raven, who is now dead in the water after having 4S speed and Captain)
Worrying more about the Frontier’s survival than the elusive Corsairs hiding in the fog, the Kettering sails over as well, ready to cancel an ability on the Zeus in case the Pirates try to sink the Frontier.
Continuing the theme of damaged gold runners on the run, the Pescados flees into a fog bank to escape the “Wrath of the Path”.
Taking damage from the Silver Coffin and unable to do much against the Cursed on the other side of the fog/reef barrier, Intermediaro suddenly reverses direction and goes after the Gallows, who has loaded the 20 gold coin from the turtle.
Speaking of turtles, the French ones are nearly home:
I don’t think this game gets prettier than the French on a picturesque ocean!
Finally the English and Jade Rebels have begun to clash! Or not. The Grand Wind tosses Relics to the Bolingbroke, preventing any damage.
The other 3 English ships have a lot of gold between them and scurry home as fast as they can:
Oh god… will it be fast enough? It’s the Pirate turn! Blackheart is angry after his plan to capture the Frontier failed miserably – with no Raven to help out and the Kettering ready to cancel or broadside any further attempts, Blackheart accepts failure and turns to a new opportunity. This was a big decision in the game, where I carefully measured if the Zeus could strike the English or not. With L+S speed and another sac action, the Zeus might barely make it over to the English ships about to dock at their home island next turn. The Rye had the cancelling ability as well, but looked to possibly be just out of potential range….
SHE DOES IT!! THE ZEUS ZOOMS OVER AND SMASHES HMS TITAN HEAD ON!!!!
ZEUS SMASH!!!!
The massive English warship heels over to starboard from the HUGE impact:
An engagement for the ages:
The Zeus wins the boarding party and Hoards all the gold on the Titan! Which is basically worth 30 gold!!! (I think the Rye must have been in cancelling range to cancel Blackheart’s Captain ability, which is why she didn’t shoot. I forgot to remove Hammersmith from the Raven until later in the game)
The giant turtle moving marks the end of an active and exciting round of turns! The turtle turns toward the Gallows, which is now the only ship in sight that has some of the turtle’s gold. It’s a little funky trying to turn at just S speed with something so large, but I made it work.
A messy scene as the game continues to get more chaotic!
El Fantasma sacrifices a captured Corsair crew to capture an oarsman from the Gallows via Captain Nemo! The Cursed are after that 20 gold coin on the Gallows, which could really help a fleet win the game.
But don’t forget about the turtle lurking nearby:
The Grand Wind explores a new beach on the 5 beach island, but it’s a total dud for her! Only 6 gold total, and the Trees UT is useless to a healthy ship. One of the few crappy gold locations in this game.
The Jades finally meet back up again, though not on purpose. The Grand Path has the option of docking quickly to take advantage of the Trees, but after a consultation between Tsai, Chang Pao and Ms. Cheng, they decide they might want to return later if they or the GW are missing more masts. (only 1 mast out on the GP)
Defiant of the Cursed and the giant turtle as ever, the Gallows redocks to take Neptune’s Figurehead and another coin!
With a pair of good fog rolls, the Queen of Sheba and Agha’s Whip are both able to dock at the Barbary Corsair home island! The QoS unloads her very valuable three coins taken from the giant turtle. Now that the Americans are distracted by the Zeus, the Corsairs have a chance to get back in the game. The Dervish repairs her second mast and the Griffin is coming home with a few coins.
The Americans swap ships, with the Hudson capturing the Raven and the Kettering taking up towing duties of the Frontier. The Americans have suffered a setback with the Zeus Smash event, but with few enemies, they should have time to get repairs done and possibly even come back stronger.
Oh boy, the game gets weirder! Intermediaro rams the Gallows and wins the boarding party to steal the 20 gold coin, the most valuable in the game! Since the turtle hates anyone that steals gold from its shell, could this lead to a bizarre showdown of giant turtle island vs. (headless) giant squid?!? XD
The wee turtles are saved! At least, the 3 “normal” ones. The others are face down 1 coins and will be arriving in the next turn or two.
Hopefully one of the only gaffes I made during the game… the Soleil Royal forgot to stay at the beach and explore after docking and shooting at the Skin Flayer a few turns ago! Amiral Dupuy reprimands the Royal’s captain, and both ships dock at the southern beach.
Although her gold was already stolen by the Zeus, the Titan docks home anyway to prevent getting shot at by the Zeus. HMS Titan opens fire, hitting three times and setting the 10 master ablaze!
Battle of Legends
Arguably the matchup everyone wanted to see! Two powerful classics of the game going head-to-head. HMS Titan vs. the Zeus!
Of course, the Titan had help, with the entire English fleet all in the same area. HMS Bolingbroke took advantage of a rare opportunity to use her “shoot through ships” ability, getting all three cannons in range!
The Bolingbroke connects twice, bringing the Zeus down to 5 masts.
Some serious firepower in this picture:
Fittingly enough the Pirates were next. Blackheart considered a LOT of options. In the end, the Zeus continued her attack in a different fashion, ramming the Rye! The ramming and boarding were successful, leaving the Rye with no masts and no coins! With the Hoarding Gold ability, the Zeus has stolen a whopping 44 gold from the English in just two turns!!! O_O (30 from the Titan between the shiny silver 5+Spices, and both 7’s from the Rye)
Making matters even worse for the English, the Zeus sacced an oarsman, rolled to eliminate her fire mast, and ducked into a fog bank! This was a grand heist, a level of success only dreampt of! It’s also a rather rare instance of one of my 10 masters doing extremely well in a physical game. The English have been embarrassed and robbed right in front of their own home island.
The round of turns ends with the giant turtle ramming the Gallows to take back the coins, but cannot ram Intermediaro.
But the Skin Flayer can!! The switchblade hooks an arm into one of Intermediaro’s tentacles!
The Skin Flayer purposely leaves the squid with a segment left so the Cursed can board the creature! A successful boarding party leaves the 20 gold coin in the hands of Nemo and El Fantasma!!
It’s worth noting that this was a tough decision for Fantasma. The Skin Flayer began the turn without any cargo spaces open, so they had to sacrifice the shipwright in order to make room for the coin. However, since Nemo has Ex-Patriot which gives the ship the Mercenary keyword, this meant that repairing the Skin Flayer later in the game would be difficult or impossible. It was a risk the Cursed were willing to take for the gold, especially since they actually began this turn by repairing with the shipwright (to repair the one mast that was out on the SF) right before sacrificing him to move and shoot (and slash) on Intermediaro.
Combine that with a few other developments, and you could say that the Cursed are rising! Although Calico Cat has not been very successful with her SAT ability, the captured Morocco is making her way to the Cursed HI at S+S speed to repair. Speaking of which, the Nightmare has brought home the Sea Duck, who starts repairing and eventually looks to tow the Silver Coffin again. Lately it’s been all-Skin Flayer, but the Cursed are getting a real fleet together, which could make a difference in the gold race in the second half of the game.
Jade Rebellion time! Tsai gets his SAT without needing reroll and he’s ready to rumble!!
In a surprise attack through the whirlpool, the Grand Path uses her second action to maul the French! It was becoming evident that the French had an easy route to a lot of gold without any interference thus far, so it was felt that somebody needed to intervene. The Grand Path continues to make her mark as an absolute killer beast in this game, dismasting the Triton and running over a poor sea turtle to kill it!
Will this finally spark the French 5 masters into action?
The Grand Wind returns to home waters via the same whirlpool the GP took on her way out. The GW comes home to a changed seascape, with the Americans regrouping, the turtle facing a different direction, and the huge Zeus hiding from the English in the fog.
This game continues to not disappoint! The Corsairs sail out before the Agha’s Whip finishes repairing, eager for a quick strike on the turtle while it’s back is turned! The Queen of Sheba loads coins as the Agha’s Whip tries to shield her from the potential wrath of the Americans, who are still annoyed with the Corsairs. The Dervish doesn’t know quite where she’s going yet.
You can see the QoS loaded the Neptune’s Figurehead, recently stolen back from the Gallows by the turtle (who also stole it from the Morocco upon waking up). Even more important was the Wine, which was the only ability in play that allowed home island raiding.
As she is now doing every turn, the Gallows rows back to the turtle and loads up a few coins. However, this has actually been a legitimate strategy by the Corsairs all along. With the Gallows constantly distracting the turtle, she can keep the turtle’s attention more to the northeast, allowing the main Corsair ships in the south to dock at the back of the turtle. This prevents the turtle from stealing gold as soon as it’s taken, since the turtle’s S movement must be measured from the head – it can’t turn around and ram a ship that has docked at its hind flippers.
And here come the Americans!! The Kettering and Hudson both drop their tows to double back and blast the Corsairs! The Agha’s Whip is sunk and the Queen of Sheba dismasted (Americans really want her gold and UT’s). The Hudson rolled a 6 with her stinkpot shot to disable the Sheba’s crew, which would be important for limiting her movement and escape options next turn. This was quickly becoming one of the game’s central themes – back and forth, with very little sustained momentum for any faction. As soon as a faction took one step forward, another fleet was there to bring them back, sometimes severely. I found it fun and rather dramatic – keep the twists coming! 😀
Crushed by the Skin Flayer and clinging to life, Intermediaro packs up its bags and heads home. XD The squid submerges and heads straight for the Spanish home island, where the Pescados has finally returned and repaired.
The Jades have angered the French! Dupuy gets his EA roll, which means the Grand Path is pretty much a goner.
Open fire!!
SUNK!
The French got the rest of their turtles home (9/10 total), and now look to empty the 3 beach island to increase their gold score.
With no EA roll and no way to get revenge on Blackheart’s Zeus, Lord Thomas Gunn somewhat randomly takes out his frustration on the Grand Wind. The Titan shoots well, setting the GW on fire.
Although it’s a sad scene for the English here in the west, they didn’t have a horrible turn. The Bolingbroke and Adventure docked home their 3 total coins. The Bolingbroke has the useful Relics snatched from the Grand Wind. The Rye is rowing home and once repaired, the English will be back at full strength. They are desperate to get back the gold the Zeus stole, for they theorize that it could win the game for them.
The Pirates were next, and Blackheart decided to see what his ship could do! Once more I premeasured an entire double move action to see if it was in the cards…
They’ve done it!! Blackheart sacs yet another oarsman to move L+S+L+S, round earthing all the way back to the Pirate home island!! All of the stolen loot is unloaded!
At this point I must admit I made an “accounting error”, thinking that the Spices still applied to the shiny silver 5 worth 15 gold (therefore doubling it to 30). Since the Spices were unloaded from the same ship with the 7’s from the Rye aboard, the total would decrease from 44 (which is what the English would have gotten from the Titan and Rye since the Titan had only the Spices and essentially 15 coin) to 36, still a huge haul of course. However, there was a LOT of game left, so I’m happy to say in hindsight that this error was not relevant….
The round ended with the meme of the giant turtle ramming the Gallows to take back her coins. The Gallows could win a boarding party against the turtle if the turtle rolled a 1 and the Gallows rolled a 6, but that never happened.
With the English vs. Pirates and Jades vs. French storylines seemingly resolved, what could happen next? So, so much more….
The Skin Flayer takes a minor shortcut through a whirlpool, eager to get the 20 gold coin home. However, due to Captain Nemo, some transferring of cargo will be necessary. The Sea Duck is now fully repaired and up to the task.
Once again the Corsairs prove elusive. The Queen of Sheba couldn’t use her helmsman to row at S+S, but S was enough to escape into the safety of a fog bank. The Dervish decided to as well, while the Griffin finally docked home some gold.
Using its ability while submerged, Intermediaro transfers a coin from the turtle to the Pescados de Plata, who only has one open cargo space due to her helmsman and the Potions and Brews UT. You can see that the Gallows has once again taken coins from the turtle, always doing her part to help her Corsair allies and turning the turtle even farther north.
The Corsairs have essentially fallen to the Americans twice, but then frustrated them both times afterwards. That southern fog bank is proving to be a great Corsair ally! The American gunships begin towing their derelicts once more.
Not satisfied with sinking the Grand Path, Dupuy hears of the Skin Flayer’s gold exploit and rolls for an extra action to start yet another whirlpool raid attack! Perhaps he learned from Tsai’s Grand Path maneuver. Either way, Nemo and Fantasma are suddenly in huge trouble. Yet another twist! (this is part of why I love whirlpools and round earth so much – I highly recommend trying both if you haven’t already)
However, the Superbe cannot land a 4th hit on the Skin Flayer going 3/5 to cripple the ship but let her live!
Back home in French waters, a calm scene shows the Soleil Royal approaching the Triton to tow her home. After the turtle swarm came through and the Superbe and Grand Path fought, it is weirdly quiet….
BUT NOT FOR LONG!!!!!
The English are here!! In another example of using an extra action to move through a whirlpool and come out shooting, HMS Titan uses her EA to blast 4 masts off the Soleil Royal in a devastating blow!
Lord Thomas Gunn saw his moment to strike the French, with the Superbe off fighting the Cursed in the north. Similar to the Grand Path going after the French due to their impressive home island pile of gold, the English had gunships to spare (since the Zeus is now docked at her home island, which is who the English really want to go after) and simply picked out the French as a good target. The Soleil Royal does have a coin on board, along with Ransom crew Jules de Cissey. The Bolingbroke comes through as well (partly in case the Superbe comes back next turn), but loses a mast from the whirlpool travel. In fact, the Titan rolled poorly on the whirlpool as well, choosing to lose her firepot specialist instead of rerolling it. Gunn wanted to do as much damage to the Royal as possible, but ended up hitting 4/4 anyway and not needing the reroll.
The Zeus repairs as the afternoon sun casts a glare off the golden turtle:
The turtle rams the Gallows again and the round is over! The Corsairs have somehow escaped disaster after another American attack, while the French and English both whirlpool attacked, respectively leaving the Skin Flayer and Soleil Royal with 1 mast standing. Left of the turtle you can see that the Grand Wind has docked home a few more coins for the Jades, which also extinguished her fire mast.
A new round of turns!
The Skin Flayer pulls it off! She moved to touch the Sea Duck, sacced a crew to get an extra action, and explored the Sea Duck. The Sea Duck then redocked, putting the 20 gold coin on the Cursed home island! The Morocco docks as well, finally at her new home island after being captured by the Cursed many turns ago.
The 1 in the water is Duncan Rousseau’s Parley ability being used to prevent the Nightmare and Silver Coffin from damaging the Superbe – the Cursed were hoping to pummel the Frenchman with 6 shots.
Now for a bit of diplomacy, or “faction interaction” if you will. The Jade Rebels started their conflict with the French, but they still hate the French now that the Grand Path was sunk by the Superbe. The French just attacked the Cursed, knocking the Skin Flayer down to 1 mast. The Jades also know where Trees are. The Grand Wind is already docked at her home island and doesn’t want to go back to the Trees beach, especially since there’s not much valuable gold there (Zheng Li Kwan of the GW now has designs on the turtle, but I’ll get to that eventually lol). The Jades figure they can help the Cursed beat the French by telling them where the Trees are at, since they know that Fantasma killed off the Cursed shipwright, which is the main way the Skin Flayer can repair (she could also transfer Nemo to the Sea Duck to dock at home, but that would take longer and might be risky in the short term with the Superbe around). So the Jades inform the Cursed of where the Trees UT is – on the northwestern beach of the 5 beach island.
With no target to shoot at, the Nightmare moves over to the Skin Flayer to give her the Necklace of the Sky UT, which you might be realizing can be used next turn to teleport the Skin Flayer straight to “Trees beach” for a quick repair!
Once AGAIN the Queen of Sheba is able to get a favorable fog roll right after the Americans gave up on the annoying Corsair situation and left the lane wide open. With her helmsman working again the QoS is able to row home at S+S, docking home 3 coins worth a whopping 35 gold!!
The Dervish decides against a turtle raid and takes 2 coins leftover from the Griffin’s haul earlier in the game.
The Gallows is slowly bringing the turtle north towards the Spanish home island, while the Griffin prepares to do a swap with the Queen of Sheba.
Utterly sick of the Corsair shenanigans and momentum shifts, the Americans capture the Queen of Sheba right from the Corsair home island! (her oarsman from the fleet picture was moved way earlier in the game to the Griffin I believe since it would make 7 points of crew on a 6 point ship) However, it wasn’t just a frustration move. The Queen of Sheba already unloaded her valuable coins, but not her valuable UT’s – Wine (potential source of gold), Neptune’s Figurehead, and Power Cannons. The Americans were hoping to use Wine to get revenge on the Pirates. The Hudson snatched her up, while the Kettering docked home the Frontier, who began repairing in earnest.
The American fleet expands to 5 ships! (those American crew are eliminated; I often put eliminated crew face down off the deckplate)
The Spanish have a decent system going – Intermediaro can use its ability while submerged, which avoids the turtle’s wrath. The Pescados can move S after unloading treasure, which helps her get from the home island back to the turtle quickly. If the Gallows keeps moving the turtle northwards, the Spanish will have more coins than they can even transfer effectively right on their beach! It’s a somewhat inspiring turn for a fleet that had its main two ships (Valeroso and San Francisco, both with hybrid setups) sunk by the Grand Path in what feels like a week ago.
The French fight back as well as they can! The Soleil Royal tows the Triton so she can’t be captured by the Bolingbroke quite yet, and also rolls a 6 with her firepot specialist to set the Titan aflame, also eliminating the English oarsman per the Royal’s ability! Although the situation is desperate for the French, they were able to optimize fully with what they had.
But that’s not all they’ve got!!
Le Superbe is here!! Rolling a 5 for Dupuy’s EA, the Superbe comes flying out of the whirlpool the English came from. With the 20 gold coin safely on the Cursed home island, the Superbe didn’t have much business in the north anymore. Dupuy figured he should try to maximize French gold reserves, rather than keep trying to deny the Cursed. Given the emergency back home, it became a no-brainer.
The Superbe splits the gap, protecting the Soleil Royal while shooting two masts off the Titan! (only 2/5)
A classic scene from the Age of Sail: English vs. French capital ships in a close-quarters engagement with guns blazing!
Although the Superbe was not super effective, the Titan is in pretty bad shape:
I like how factions fighting each other often had turns right after one another in this game. Here the English fight back, with Lord Thomas Gunn determined to take the Titan down in a blaze of glory. She will certainly go down in a blaze at least, as the fire spread to another mast when she began moving. The Titan shot the final mast off the Soleil Royal and killed the Triton’s captain in a boarding party, providing another moment where a ship’s last moments can induce desperation-fueled success.
As I always like to say: THE CARNAGE CONTINUES TO MOUNT!
And now, for the possible beginnings of an English coup. HMS Bolingbroke was the forgotten ship in all this. She is finally given an action, and shines brightly. She captures the Soleil Royal, potentially netting the English a grand prize if she can be towed home intact. She goes to shoot at the Superbe, but Duncan Rousseau parleys, giving the English a 3 coin. This is fine with the English, as they need to make up ground in the gold race, having lost most of their coinage to the Zeus. To top it all off, the Bolingbroke still has Relics, which will make it a lot tougher for the French to recapture the Soleil Royal. I think the Bolingbroke is an underrated ship and one of my favorite English vessels, so it was nice to see her do well in this game!
(Side note: the English considered throwing the Soleil Royal through the whirlpool immediately without towing her through, which is legal. They decided against it because it is a very hard thing to recapture a ship once it’s already being towed, and the Relics would make it even tougher on the Superbe to break the tow by sinking or capturing the Bolingbroke first. If the English had thrown the Royal through the whirlpool and into English waters, it’s likely the Superbe could have gone after her and recaptured her easily, especially since I remember checking to see if the Rye was in range to start a new tow over in the west, and she wasn’t.)
As the sun begins to set on this round of turns, the far west is desolate, a bizarre scene after all the events so far. The Rye repairs as the Adventure sails out for more gold.
The Zeus repaired a mast and the turtle probably rammed the Gallows again. XD
Back to the Cursed! The Nightmare explores to give the Skin Flayer the Necklace of the Sky! Nemo and Fantasma command attention as always, and activate the UT immediately!
Sure enough, the Skin Flayer shows up at the beach where the Jade Rebels told them Trees was at.
The Griffin was somewhat heartbroken, unable to do anything about the Queen of Sheba’s capture. There was no point in shooting the vessel to the bottom either, since the Corsairs unloaded the Sheba’s gold and Neptune’s Figurehead would kick in and help the Americans. From this point onward, the Corsairs had a bit of a glum outlook on the game.
Of course, their loss was the Americans’ benefit. The Kettering took up towing the Raven again, with the Hudson transporting the QoS home. The Frontier (and Grand Wind….) are almost fully repaired.
Death of a Titan
Le Superbe sinks HMS Titan. The ship served the English decently well in this game, but met a fiery doom after being robbed by pirates and set aflame by Frenchmen. The Superbe used an EA to tow the Triton and reverse direction towards home, directly a few shots at the Bolingbroke in order to get the Relics UT from her.
A sad scene for an English fan like me:
However, the loss of the Titan was not in vain! Lord Thomas Gunn’s last command to the Bolingbroke’s captain was to save the Soleil Royal and let her be the “new” titan of the English fleet. The Bolingbroke used the whirlpool to warp home, with both ships getting good whirlpool rolls. HMS Rye moves into the whirlpool but doesn’t use it – she’s setting up a cancelling screen to prevent any antics by the Superbe in case the French decide to show up. (so the Rye can at least cancel the Superbe’s captain even if she comes through with an EA from Dupuy)
The Skin Flayer explores, dumping the Necklace of the Sky on the beach and using Trees to repair all three of her fallen masts!
Although the Griffin couldn’t swap the QoS, the Dervish docked home a couple coins and did a transfer. With oars touching, the Griffin explored to give the Dervish Metal Hull and taking her helmsman in exchange for the Griffin’s now former explorer. This was to optimize the Griffin’s speed for – you guessed it – another turtle raid!
Americans in business: Frontier is fully repaired, QoS will be next turn, and the Raven will make a nice addition to their fleet once she is finally healthy as well. After a long period of dealing with Corsair crap and some Pirate junk (literally), the Americans are hoping to finally increase their gold score. They still only have the 5 coins the Frontier grabbed from the Duke shipwreck. With the Frontier healthy, the Corsairs may not be the only faction with imminent plans for the giant turtle….
(also note the Grand Wind fully repaired in the background….)
Dupuy fails to get an EA despite Duncan’s reroll, so the French simply dock to get the Triton sailing again. No chance of getting the Soleil Royal back, at least not yet.
The English are getting rich again! The Bolingbroke triumphantly returns the grand prize: not only does the Soleil Royal represent a chance to get another 5 masted gunship in the English fleet, she actually had a shiny silver 4 (worth 12 gold) aboard! Not to mention the Knights of Malta Banner, worth 1 gold after the Royal damaged the Titan. Those coins were from the southern part of the 3 beach island, explored a while back. Combine that with de Cissey’s 5 gold Ransom payout, and the English turn a nice profit of 18 gold on the capture in addition to getting the beautiful ship! 😀 They have lost the Titan and their leader, but the English see light on a dark day.
Check out the lower right: the Zeus continues to repair, while the Sea Duck returns to towing the Silver Coffin and exploring the Sultan shipwreck. The Morocco is fully repaired, meaning the Cursed are at full strength! (or more due to the addition of the Morocco)
No more hints on this development! The Grand Wind is fully repaired and finally ready to use a UT you may have forgotten about: Poseidon’s Breath!! The GW can move her base move as many times as she has masts, which means 6S speed!
A Grand Wind indeed!! (what a fitting UT for this ship to use!) Zheng Li Kwan goes after the giant turtle! This really puts the scale of the creature into perspective.
After a long period of just chasing the Gallows aimlessly, action around the giant turtle may finally heat up again! Feel free to let me know if you like the turtle shell better with or without the camera flash. (forgot to eliminate a mast per the UT effect)
Here we go! A big run on the turtle is underway as the Griffin zooms out at S+L+S speed to get in on the action! (after she moved just S for many turns due to Metal Hull) The Gallows has done her strange job well, and the Corsairs look to capitalize and reap the rewards!
But of course, the Americans are coming!! The Frontier is now moving S+S+S again after receiving the Hudson’s helmsman, and the Corsairs may have to deal with the Americans yet again! Not to mention – this is the Frontier’s second chance at the turtle, after her first attempt was quickly ambushed by the Zeus.
The opposite angle looking at the southeast corner. The Dervish is wary of the Superbe to the east, and the Americans’ Wine UT to the west. She can only move S and simply redocks, hoping to hold down their home island at least. The Triton is busy repairing, while Dupuy’s rage propels the Superbe 6S in the general direction of the Corsairs.
The English are free to get some lower value leftover coins from the northwest as the gunships repair:
A sight no sailor wants to see: the Zeus is fully repaired!
In literally a dramatic turn, the giant turtle angrily turns towards the Grand Wind, who holds the most gold from the turtle as of now but is out of ramming range. This moves the Gallows and Intermediaro a bit.
With the giant turtle shell’s store of gold slowly dwindling, who will profit most in the endgame?
Now approaching the turtle from behind, the Nightmare docks at the same part where the Grand Wind docked. However, she has no explorer and the Morocco can’t get there. At the upper right, the Sea Duck docks home coins from the Sultan shipwreck. The Skin Flayer makes contact with her once more to transfer a coin – though this time worth much less than 20 gold. Every bit could help, so Fantasma grabbed something small from the Trees beach. It’s not worth noting, but the Devil’s Pay is still in the Pirate fleet despite being derelict next to the Sultan wreck for many turns now. Blackheart is still hoping to rescue her if he gets a dull moment, which is unlikely given the high stakes of the upcoming endgame period.
The Grand Wind docks home the 3 coins from the giant turtle, dramatically increasing the Jades’ gold score!
(^angry seething turtle in the background XD)
The Griffin zips home and unloads 3 coins of her own! Now that the turtle wasn’t facing her “attackers” when they docked, some turtle raids are succeeding easily.
The Kettering receives the Neptune’s Figurehead and Power Cannons UT’s from the Queen of Sheba. If that doesn’t wow you, consider the power available: the Kettering has cancelling, Crew Protect (Montana Mays), and the Neptune’s Figurehead (dock fully repaired at home when sunk, like a one-time super Eternal) for defense. She can move up to S+L+S+L (Mays SAT) with up to 12 shots at rank-3 and L+L range (Longship + Captain + Power Cannons). (12 x 3L+L!) Definitely one of the scariest setups I’ve seen in a game, especially for a 3 master.
Finally, the Frontier gets her moment to shine again! The Hoist uses her crane arm to explore the giant turtle!
The Frontier loads almost all of the remaining coins from the turtle, leaving only the Fireworks UT! Love how this picture shows the shadows as the sun begins to set on the game.
In short order the turtle has gone from being the premier gold location to being almost empty!
This would turn out to be a minor mistake, but Intermediaro uses its ability to give Fireworks to the Pescados:
Dupuy got an extra action and the Superbe round earths into a whirlpool!
The Superbe went into the northern whirlpool and exited from the one at the lower left, near the turtle:
The French are on the attack! Le Superbe opens fire on the Frontier!
The French want to capture the ship with all her gold, so the Superbe shoots away all her masts, leaving her derelict again!
A familiar scene: both times the Frontier has attempted to get gold from the turtle, she has been dismasted by a gunship via a whirlpool attack.
The captured Soleil Royal repairs at the English home island:
You can see that the Bolingbroke has come through the same whirlpool in an attempt to engage the Superbe. At this point the Americans and English had made a deal – if the English helped the Americans get the Frontier’s gold home, the Americans would help the English in robbing the hated Pirates with the Wine UT. Since the Zeus was the first ship to dismast the Frontier, the Americans didn’t need much convincing. As the final part of the game went on, I started to realize that the deal favored the Americans more (there was no promise to let the English actually use the Wine, since it was on the now-American Queen of Sheba). It was mostly a temporary alliance against a common enemy – Blackheart and the Zeus.
Speaking of which, the Zeus is loose! Fully repaired, she is once again ready to wreak havoc on the seas.
A glimpse at the whirlpool locations and you can see Blackheart’s potential route….
The turtle is angry! Being robbed of its last coins by the Frontier, the turtle rams the hoist with intensity! However, her masts are already in the water and the turtle is unable to take any gold!
The Frontier has Secret Hold! This makes the Frontier truly the perfect ship to raid the turtle with – her hoist arm prevents her from even having to dock (can rob the shell directly), while Secret Hold prevents the turtle from taking all the gold back with Hoard!
Cursed gold runners warp to the northwest to grab some leftover coins from the 5 beach island:
Uh oh! Montana Mays gets a rare SAT roll to work, and the Kettering is ready for action!
I got really hyped for the Kettering to absolutely destroy the Superbe, but Relics prevented it! However, this left the French warship open to attack from the Hudson, who went 3 for 3 to take out 2 masts, kill the French oarsman, and land a stinkpot shot that disabled the remaining 4 crew on the Superbe for the next French turn! (knocking out EA/reroll/Parley/captain/helmsman!)
Making the situation more interesting, the captured American Raven is fully repaired and looks to help out her new fleetmates in getting the Frontier home. The Queen of Sheba has entered a fog bank, mostly to hide from the Zeus in case she flies through a whirlpool and Blackheart tries to steal the Wine for his own use. (a decent amount of factors played into each move action on some of these somewhat complex turns) Almost bored by now, Zheng Li Kwan pilots the Grand Wind towards the action as well. (the Superbe wasn’t randomly given a stinkpot shot, I placed it there to remind myself that her crew were cancelled)
The Spanish had gotten themselves into a little pickle, with their only remaining gold ship full of non-shiny objects.
Trying to get some additional gold from anywhere, the Pescados de Plata captures the Gallows now that the turtle faces south again. They have managed to gradually increase their gold stores with Intermediaro’s transfer ability, but it was pretty obvious that it wouldn’t be enough to win the game.
Knowing they likely won’t survive the coming onslaught of firepower, the French decide to capture the Frontier anyway. With the stinky cancellation effects limiting Dupuy’s options, basic desperation meant that they would simply go down trying.
The Adventure docks home a little gold, the Soleil Royal nears full strength, and the Rye stands guard in the whirlpool, ready to cancel the captain of any ship that might come through. (namely the Zeus)
With the Relics now on the Kettering, the Bolingbroke is free to attack! She hits all 3 times as classic English gunnery crushes the Superbe! At this moment the Anglo-American alliance was bearing fruit.
BUT YOU CAN TRUST BLACKHEART TO RUIN THEIR DAY!!!
Sacrificing one of his last expendable crew, Blackheart takes the Zeus through a whirlpool and uses an extra action to insert himself into the fight! The massive 10 master blows the Bolingbroke out of the water!
The big dominoes continue to fall as the carnage mounts! First the Frontier, then the Superbe, now the Bolingbroke!
In one blow, the Zeus has changed the seascape of the battle for the Frontier in the center. The turtle is beginning to lose hope, but moves towards the Frontier anyway, compressing and moving some of the debris from the battle.
The turtle’s movement would not be irrelevant, as it could impede American efforts to recapture the Frontier or get at the Zeus.
As the typical desperation of the endgame sets in, the middle area is once more the center of attention:
Stacked as ever:
Cursed runners return home via whirlpool as the Sea Duck takes the same one to head out, intent on doing something she wanted to do for a while….
The Skin Flayer appears in the south, looking to hunt down the Triton. This was a combination of wanting revenge on the French and trying to make sure they ended up with less gold than the Cursed. The Triton is loading gold from that southern beach, so the SF will try to cut her off before she can reach her HI.
With great anticipation, the Americans begin an important turn. Pretty sure Mays got his SAT. The Americans sank the Superbe (!) and took the Zeus down to 1 mast! The Kettering began towing the Frontier to recapture her, while the Raven rams a mast off the metal-hulled Dervish (UT only applies to hits, not rams). Between the combination of an angry turtle, the Zeus, and supreme American firepower, Zheng Li Kwan has turn the Grand Wind away from the chaos.
With the Zeus nearly out of the game, the English decide to attempt a few quick gold runs with the Adventure and Rye.
The Griffin round earthed to the north in an attempt to recapture the Gallows from the Spanish. However, Intermediaro surfaced to ram and pin the galley!
Not wanting to wait, the Americans send the Queen of Sheba through a whirlpool to raid the Pirates’ HI with Wine! This was a huge part of the endgame and would dominate events going forward. Wine lets you pick which treasure is exchanged, so the QoS would be loading the shiny silver 5 worth 15 gold, severely lowering the Pirates’ gold score while potentially stealing a win for the Americans! There were also some faction dynamics at play, namely the English wanting some of their old stolen loot for themselves. The Jades also made a sort of deal with the Americans to not interfere in the center, with Zheng Li Kwan hoping to get in Mays’ good graces….
But the game is called Pirates!! Not nice puppies! XD The English and Jades wait near the whirlpool they expect the Sheba to emerge from, both ready to betray the Americans and steal the gold. Originally the English were going to send an escort or two to ensure the QoS got the coin, but with the Zeus nearly out of it and the English greedy to get their old gold back, no such help would come in the east for the QoS.
Captain Blackheart has run out of crew to sac! At this point, all 7 Pirate oarsmen that started the game were dead. (5 on Zeus + 1 on each of their other ships)
No such problem for El Fantasma! He sacs a crew to cut off the Triton, swinging his ship’s “skin flayers” and taking a 7 coin!
The Cursed have slowly and sneakily accumulated a decent amount of gold:
It happens! The Queen of Sheba docks at the Pirate HI and exchanges Wine for the 15! (which is what I’ll call it from now on)
The English arrive!! They are ready to betray the Americans. They decided to get the jump on the Sheba rather than waiting for her closer to home, since that would mean a more imminent struggle against the Grand Wind and eventually the rest of the American fleet. Check out how I strategically placed the ships coming out of the whirlpool – the Rye gets within cancelling range to limit the Sheba’s speed to S+S next turn by cancelling her helmsman, while the Soleil Royal is trying to block off the whirlpool as much as possible. (funny enough the whirlpool rules don’t specify how and where ships have to touch the whirlpool they emerge from)
Towards the end of the game I forgot to take a few pictures, so some things might be out of order or get a little less detailed.
With Blackheart cancelled by the Kettering, the Zeus shoots a mast off the Hudson as the Kettering then tows the Frontier away. The Sea Duck approaches the Zeus from behind, while in the background you can see the Raven capturing the Dervish, bringing the American fleet to 6 ships. The Zeus has 1 mast standing as indicated by the die….
The Sea Duck reveals her objective… and uses Explosives to blow up the Zeus!!!!
Now you see why I didn’t take the masts out on the Zeus – the Americans or Cursed were about to finish her off anyway, so I didn’t want to take out and replace almost all of her masts, especially since she’s still new (this being her first game). A massive object has been removed from the still-busy center area:
The Skin Flayer returns home where the Morocco prepares to take her 7 so Nemo can stay on the switchblade. The Devil’s Pay is afloat, but the Pirates have been officially eliminated from the game.
It took a lot of extra time and hardship, but the Americans have experienced massive success!! The Frontier has been retaken and her turtle gold unloaded! The Americans have faced some serious setbacks today, but their rise undoubtedly makes them the premier faction of the endgame.
Mays takes advantage of his SAT to move towards a whirlpool, while the Hudson leaves the battle area.
After killing Intermediaro, the Griffin makes a break for the 5 beach island. Although nearly their whole fleet has been captured or sunk, the Barbary Corsairs can try to get a few last bits of gold. The Pescados and captured Gallows set off in hot pursuit.
Here we go! The Rye and Soleil Royal team up to dismast the Queen of Sheba and rob her of the 15 coin!
This is where things got weird with round earth. The Kettering managed to get in range, but from the other side of the map! This is one of the main flaws of round earth – in somewhat rare circumstances, you can have ships engage in various aspects of combat while on opposite sides of the world! XD At first I had the Kettering in the east, but realized it would be easier to have everything in the west, since that’s where the treasure was headed as long as the English carried it.
Finally shooting well, the Kettering goes 5 for 6 to dismast the Soleil Royal! The QoS rows to try and block the English from their HI.
The Pescados robs the Griffin, with the Gallows trying to block the latter’s escape:
The Skin Flayer only ever had cargo for 1 coin, so the Triton is free to dock home a little bit more gold for the French. (SF rolled poorly and didn’t come close to dismasting the ship, else the Cursed would have captured her)
Awkward round earth maneuvers, and the Cursed are here! The Rye began towing the Soleil Royal, so the English still had a chance at getting the 15 to their HI. However, the Rye had met her match – the Kettering’s identical cancelling ability nullified that advantage. The Cursed decided to show up because, hey, why not? XD It was getting into the very late stages of the game where factions had not much better to do than throw all their ships at the highest value coin left in play. The Grand Wind slowly lumbers towards the growing scene as well.
The Kettering sinks the Rye and the Sheba tows the Soleil Royal, leaving the 15 back in American possession!
A desperate free-for-all was emerging by the English HI, with the English themselves mostly out it. (Adventure coming home with some small coins, just hoping to get them home knowing she can’t win the upcoming clash XD) The Cursed had the Skin Flayer, but Mays had reinforcements sailing in – the Raven, Frontier, Hudson AND Dervish are all on their way!
The Cursed strike! The Skin Flayer steals the 15 from the Royal, while the other 2 ships try to block potential attackers. (neither could block the Kettering)
The Pescados takes off with the 1, while the Gallows and Griffin engage in a sort of civil war style duel. This picture sums up the Spanish game – with their best 2 ships sunk early in the game, they’ve been scrounging for scraps for what feels like ages, just trying to do whatever they can for 1 more gold while the remaining powerhouses fight over the mega-valuable 15 coin. XD
Chaos at the English home island! The Kettering shoots poorly to only take 2 masts off the Skin Flayer, with the Raven ramming the captured Morocco and the Sheba towing the Royal.
Desperate for a miracle, Fantasma sacs the Cursed helmsman and takes off with the coin! HMS Adventure hides in the fog, hoping for a break in the action to dock home a little loot.
The Triton arrives on the scene for the festivities, but the Grand Wind puts a quick end to any hopes the French have, knocking them out of the game. (the GW was mostly a non-factor towards the end of the game due to her slow speed and Zheng Li Kwan having run out of sac options early in the game)
Mays’ reinforcements gradually arrive as the Morocco is dismasted by the Raven (capture vs. capture):
Mays gets his SAT to dismast and capture the Skin Flayer!! The SF is immediately give an explore action to transfer the American captain for the 15 coin, so the Kettering can keep it safe and dock it home.
Victory for the Americans! But will it be enough?
With the giant turtle drained and most of the gold unloaded, it was about time to call the game. It was getting very late at this point and after a long day of pirating it was quite fair to simply “simulate” the last few turns, especially given the American dominance.
Whew! What a game!
But who will win?
Gold Scores
In turn order, here are how the factions fared! Some of the scores may seem off because the pictures don’t always show which coins are shiny gold and shiny silver, but I got them right.
Cursed: 48 gold
The Cursed played a solid game, using the Skin Flayer and her exciting crew effectively from the beginning to the end. Their gold runners did as well as could be expected, and they even manged to score the 20 gold coin, the most valuable in play.
Jade Rebellion: 35 gold
The Jades did well, but peaked early. The Grand Path was a ship killer, sinking numerous opponents before being sunk herself by the Superbe. The Grand Wind got a bunch of gold early, with Zheng Li Kwan doing well to sac crew and lock up some gold early before things got crazy. The Poseidon’s Breath turtle raid was perfectly executed, but not quite enough.
Barbary Corsairs: 87 gold
Holy crap! The Corsairs finish with a massive total, mostly due to some extremely high-value coins brought home from the giant turtle. Those top 2 rows are worth 50 alone, with the shiny silver 6 being 18 and shiny silver 4 being 12. The Corsairs were richly rewarded for going after the turtle early and often, with the Queen of Sheba being their MVP after slipping past the Americans.
Americans: 52 gold
The Americans did as well as they could, raking in a ton of coin despite their main gold runner being completely dismasted twice! The Kettering never lost a mast and was simply unstoppable in the endgame period, especially given her ability spread and UT stack. The Hudson and various captured ships provided great support, and the Americans cannot be too disappointed.
Spanish: 25 gold
The Spanish were crippled by the Grand Path early, losing the San Francisco and Valeroso. They managed to stay in the game and collect some gold afterwards with the Intermediaro-Pescados combo, which had some nice synergy between Intermediaro staying submerged to avoid the turtle and the Pescados’ ability helping her get back out after depositing a coin.
French: 25 gold
The French looked like a favorite until perhaps halfway through the game. They got some turtles and very calm beaches right near their secluded home island. Factions kind of assumed they might be a leader in the gold race, which led to whirlpool raids by the Grand Path and English warships. Duncan Rousseau’s Parley helped to keep the exciting and brutal Le Superbe in the game, but decreased their count slightly as well. In the end they gradually lost all three of their ships, though not without causing a ton of chaos and damage in the meantime.
English: 31 gold
The English had it made until the Zeus showed up, with essentially 44 gold between the Titan and Rye along with about 7 between the Adventure and Bolingbroke. Blackheart wrecked their game, forcing them to temporarily settle for an American ally and settle for less in the end. Their conflict with the French was quite memorable in various ways (historic faction rivalry, Titan sinking, Soleil Royal captured and then used effectively after), and ended up netting them 18 gold, more than half of their final total. If not for the Zeus’ blitz, the English could have finished higher up in the standings.
Pirates: 21 gold
Bringing up the rear are the Pirates! With the Devil’s Pay (dismasted by Cursed + Intermediaro) and Raven (captured by Americans in first Frontier battle) out of action relatively early, Blackheart had to rely on the Zeus and his immense army of sacrificial lambs to make it through the game. The Pirates did well for a while, at one point having 36 gold on their HI after a brilliant and successful raid on the English. (also a rare example of a successful “pivot”, when the Zeus was able to get gold from the English after failing to capture the Frontier moments earlier) After the Wine was exchanged, they lost 15 gold and ended with the lowest total.
The Final Standings
Barbary Corsairs: 87 gold
Americans: 52
Cursed: 48
Jade Rebellion: 35
English: 31
Spanish: 25
French: 25
Pirates: 21
(Spanish ahead of French since they had movable game pieces/active points in play at the end, but the French played a better game)
What a crazy experience! This was a LONG return to playing a physical game of Pirates. The Corsairs are victorious!
It’s interesting that the Big 4 factions finished lowest in the standings, probably at least in part due to their going last in the turn order. The giant turtle proved to be a big draw, with the Corsairs taking advantage to rake in tons of gold. I like how topsy-turvy the game was, with tons of twists and turns. The Corsairs had all sorts of setbacks (American attacks, most of their fleet ruined, the dramatic and unexpected double ram+Hoard turtle attack, etc), but still managed to come out on top.
It was really neat to see my American fleet do well, not to mention the Skin Flayer. I highly recommend using switchblades in games of 60+ points, as they can be really fun. On that note, the Frontier is amazing. Not just as a gold runner, but as an overall play piece. It feels like she enhances whatever game she takes part in. She’s often the center of attention, so although her somewhat OP nature makes her an American favorite, it also places a huge target on her. I may not be a big fan of some of the weird ship type mechanics, but switchblades and hoists can really make games more fun.
As expected, the Zeus had a wild, crazy, and active debut. The Pirates came up short in the end, but she may be seen again before the end of the summer….
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the Legend of the Giant Turtle game! Feel free to comment below your thoughts on the game! (turtle, action, gameplay, fleets, strategy, pictures, etc – a lot to take in!)
Question of the Day: Do you wish the Dutch had been a faction from the start in Spanish Main? Would you prefer them as one of the major factions in the game?
Pirates of the Epic Seas – A Custom Fantasy Set of Epic Proportions
I started making custom game pieces for Pirates CSG back in 2011, but up until 2018 I mostly just made historical customs. Around February 1st of 2018, I started making some “fantasy”, or non-historical, custom game pieces.
It only took me about a week to really rev up “production” and I was off to the races creating a TON of fantasy customs. On February 9th I officially announced my second custom set, which would be an all-fantasy set to be the utter opposite of my main custom set, Pirates of the Age of Sail.
Eventually I decided to name the new set: Pirates of the Epic Seas (you can see it on the 4th sheet). I generally enjoy the “epic” side of things, which you can see in my favorite movies and music. Throughout the process of making the set I constantly underestimated how big it would get. The set quickly grew to over 100 game pieces in February 2018:
There is more coming, but I would estimate that I won’t add more than a few dozen more pieces eventually. That could change, but for now the set is mostly done.
Boy was I WAY wrong!!
I am happy to say that Pirates of the Epic Seas has reached ONE THOUSAND total game pieces!!! O_O
Lately I have been finalizing the set in various ways – almost every game piece should now have flavor text. The only exceptions should be some of the stuff that normally didn’t have flavor text – UT’s and equipment. I’ve also been working through some of the unfinished or partly finished customs, to the point where now there shouldn’t be any customs in the set that are “not ready for playtesting”, which I like to denote with a question mark somewhere with the ship stats/abilities. The “Collector’s Numbers” are mostly inaccurate and simply reflect which game pieces have been publicly released on a forum such as the Custom Ships thread that you can post in.
I’ve also completed the set description that would theoretically be on the back of any packs for the set:
Chaos reigns. Strife is rampant. With the global political situation teetering on the edge of absolute catastrophe, conflict seems inevitable. The Cursed have risen again, and appear to be far stronger than ever before. A prolonged worldwide arms race and increasing tensions in every ocean can lead to only one thing: WAR. Gold will be lost, and glory will be found. Which side will you take in Pirates of the Epic Seas?
I’ve been wanting to do a “set analysis” for quite some time, and now that I’m pretty satisfied with the set’s progress, hitting 1,000 game pieces is the perfect time to finally look at the numbers.
Pirates of the Epic Seas: By The Numbers
Cursed
Ships: 157 (127 C/U/R, 6 SE, 24 LE)
Crew: 102 (81 C/U/R, 3 SE, 18 LE)
Forts: 13
Total new game pieces: 272
Jade Rebellion
Ships: 57
Crew: 36
Forts: 5
Total new game pieces: 98
Barbary Corsairs
Ships: 40
Crew: 43
Forts: 2
Total new game pieces: 85
Americans
Ships: 32
Crew: 35
Forts: 3
Total new game pieces: 70
French
Ships: 26
Crew: 24
Forts: 4
Total new game pieces: 54
Spanish
Ships: 18
Crew: 19
Forts: 2
Total new game pieces: 39
Pirates
Ships: 43
Crew: 33
Forts: 3
Total new game pieces: 79
Vikings
Ships: 12
Crew: 23
Forts: 1
Total new game pieces: 36
Mercenaries
Ships: 96
Crew: 118
Forts: 6
Total new game pieces: 220
Neutral
Ships: 3
Crew: 3
Forts: 2
Total new game pieces: 8
English (All LE, as they were never supposed to be in the set)
Ships: 8
Crew: 4
Forts: 1 (Lighthouse)
Total new game pieces: 13
Equipment: 10
Unique Treasures: 15
Super Rares: 5
Special Editions: 34
Limited Editions: 89
Pirates of the Caribbean movie pieces: 10
Islands: 1 (designed to be played as a set of 5)
Unreleased/No Rarity: 2
Total Ships: 492
Total Crew: 440
Total Forts: 42
Total new game pieces: 1,002 and counting (including the 2 “Unreleased” whose designs are confirmed)
The set was NEVER meant to be balanced, in terms of factional parity or in terms of ship/crew ratios within each faction. That’s part of the reason it’s pretty random. However, I’m actually quite satisfied with how it has turned out. Below you can see part of the new sheet with the breakdown of game pieces.
This is simply a fleet that is designed to not die. Everything in the fleet is based on surviving through hell and back. The main goal is to keep the ships afloat and keep the crew alive. Before continuing, I will admit that this fleet has two major weaknesses: StinkpotStuff and cancellers.
Here is the setup for each of the ships:
Delusion
-Eternal
-Ghost Ship (can’t be rammed or boarded)
-Can’t sink (Davy Jones copies the Republique’s ability)
-Cancelling (Papa Doc)
-Fear (can act as a secondary canceller)
-Shipwright ability
-Third potential cancelling action with Stinkpot Shot
-Oarsman (prevents capture and scuttling)
-Fantasma is immortal (he is there for thematic reasons and can represent Captain Salazar from Dead Men Tell No Tales)
Papa Doc
RtSS-028b, Common
Cursed
Points: 8
Ability: This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls. Once per turn, one crew or ship within S of this ship can’t use its ability that turn.
Concordia
-Built in offensive ability
-Eternal
-Oarsman (prevents capture and lets the ship shoot 5 cannons with no masts, must be eliminated for capture)
-Crew cannot be eliminated (lol)
-Most offensive ship in the fleet (EA + reroll w/captain and helmsman)
Mercury
-Submarine
-Ignores first hit w/ all hull pieces
-Eternal
-Cancelling
-Oarsman prevents capture
-Crew cannot be eliminated
La Republique
-Can’t sink (but “can be scuttled”)
-Oarsman prevents capture and dereliction, and therefore the ship can’t be scuttled (lol)
-Cancelling
-Perfect combo because Ex-Patriot wouldn’t work with Eternal anyway, and ship provides Davy Jones with an ability to copy for a cheap point cost
The point total quickly escalated above what I had originally intended, and the Republique and Davy Jones weren’t part of my original idea. At 160 points, your opponent could certainly craft a fleet that could take this apart, but it would still be incredibly annoying to deal with.
Warning: Self-congratulatory stuff ahead… I know how big my ego is around playing the game; I’m self aware of how silly it sounds haha. But I’ve won the Pirates CSG games that are most important to me and I love epic stuff more than any Pirates CSG fans I’ve seen, and I can’t help but notice amusing parallels to other things. 🙂
Silly fun post not to be taken seriously!
Spoilers Ahead
Last night (February 3rd, 2019), myself and many others witnessed a thoroughly unsurprising event. Tom Brady won his 6th Super Bowl ring, further extending his legacy as the greatest player in the history of football. As he always does, Tom proved the doubters wrong. After his previous success, especially the historic comeback against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI, NO ONE should have been betting against Tom Brady. He is the god of football, and now there is simply no debating that.
Tom Brady is Thanos
With his 6th championship ring, Tom Brady now has as many Super Bowl rings as Thanos has/had Infinity Stones. At any time now he could do a snap and erase half of all people, or perhaps just half of the NFL. XD Tom is now 6-3 in his nine Super Bowl appearances, breaking a tie with Charles Haley for the most championships by a single football player and moving into a tie with the Steelers for the most championships of any TEAM.
TB12 sitting on his throne with an Infinity Gauntlet of Super Bowl rings. (not my picture – full credit to BeatATrexx on Imgur)
Tom Brady and Admiral A7XfanBen
After winning VASSAL Campaign Games 1, 2, and 3, I became “the Tom Brady of campaign games”. This is because Tom was 3-0 in his first three Super Bowls, and now I am 3-0 in my first three non-solo Pirates CSG campaign games. You can see how I did it in my Epic Videos playlist. CG4 has begun, although it is likely to last FAR longer than any of the previous VASSAL campaign games.
There are a number of additional parallels between Tom’s Super Bowl legacy and my own campaign game legacy. CG1/2/3 were all played in a 2 year period from February 2016 (start of CG1) to March 2018 (end of CG3), which covers the three calendar years from 2016-2018. It took Tom only 4 years to accumulate 3 wins, similar to how it took me only about 2 years (and one month) to accumulate 3 wins.
Opponents
In terms of opponents, Tom was a massive underdog to the Rams in his first Super Bowl (SB). Xerecs and I faced off in CG1, the first-ever VASSAL campaign game. It could be argued that neither player was really a favorite or underdog. I did not control the best faction in the game, the Pirates, nor the French, another very competitive faction. I ended up winning as the Spanish, dominating the game in general. The Patriots were the favorites in Tom’s second SB, just as I would have to be favored to win CG2 against 2 other players. The Patriots were also the favorites in Tom’s third SB, just as I would be to start CG3 (as the most successful and experienced player in that game).
Margins of Victory
A more stark contrast lies in the margins of victory, which are necessarily opposite due to the nature of the radically different games. Tom’s Super Bowls are pretty much always decided by a tiny margin, often by 3 points. With the shortest VASSAL campaign game (CG1) requiring a full 3 months of play to finish, and with Last Fleet Afloat rules in effect, it’s inevitable that my CG wins would be lopsided at the finish. However, there were some close moments, notably when the Pirates nearly attacked the Spanish in CG1, when the Pirates had a points lead over the English in CG2, and when multiple factions had better starts than the Americans in CG3.
Thanos and Admiral A7XfanBen?
What if someday I get to 6 victories in Pirates CSG campaign games? Will I “retire”? Nope, I’m going nowhere! I also don’t like to think about what would happen in a “snap” comparison – by the time I win my 6th, it’s possible that half of the current community will be gone. 🙁 Let’s not let that happen!! 😀
What’s Next?
Tom has already stated that he will not be retiring, so a potential 7th ring is already in his sights. While CG4 and the Caribbean game slowly languish on, I have turned my attention to The Hourly Campaign, a solo campaign game, for want of players. Thanos will presumably look to defend his Infinity Stones in Avengers: Endgame.
The interesting thing about what lies ahead is that Tom lost consecutive Super Bowls and went a full 10 years before winning his fourth. Incredibly, something vaguely similar could happen with me, though of course I am confident in my abilities. It’s certainly possible I may not win CG4, which will likely take multiple years to conclude. Instead, I will try to break from this “Tom Brady and the Patriots” campaign game tradition and continue my undefeated streak. 😀
Click here to get your Tom Brady Thanos gear! If you want to beat me in a campaign game, you better buy some packs (This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated) to get started, cuz I’ve got a 500+ game advantage. 🙂 If you’re like me, the following video will motivate you to WIN. (not my video; full credit to GoobzTV on youtube) Finally, it looks like Joseph Vincent is going to make a sequel to his EPIC 5 Rings video. Edit: It’s here! Tom Brady – Six Rings (An original Documentary)
Here is my hype video for VASSAL Campaign Game 4. If I can win it in due time, I would be 4-0 in Pirates CSG campaign games.
Edit (11/24/2020): Adding this relevant video to this post; hopefully my best one yet.
