4×80 in Henderson

11/25/2023

I met up with Stefan (Kogz03) to play at this meetup in south Las Vegas!  We were able to teach 2 new interested players, making it a 4×80 game! (4 players, 80 points)  We used the Las Vegas house rules.  I made a couple quick beginner fleets for the new players. Stefan and I probably had an advantage with our named crew, but we didn’t know if anyone would want to join us (fleets made in advance) and I think it can be best to avoid named crew for a player’s first game.  Here are the fleets in the order of play:

Marco’s Frenchmen
La Ville de Paris + captain, helmsman
Tepant + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Cleopatre + captain, helmsman
L’Intrepide + explorer
La Courageux + captain
Le Bon Marin

Ben’s Spaniards
El Corazon Dorado + Victor de Alva (F&S), helmsman, Contessa Anita Amore (23)
El Neptuno + captain, tribal chieftain (24)
La Santa Ana + Dominic Freda (LE version), captain, helmsman, oarsman (22)
Concepcion + helmsman, explorer, oarsman (16)
Spanish native canoes
Coins: Rats, Fireworks, Weapons, 5 0’s
-My strategy was to bump up the 0 values with my gold bonus ships, which works better in a 1v1 game due to the 0’s taking up a greater percentage of the total coins in play. Rats would hopefully make it an even more low-scoring game that I could benefit from while hurting an opponent. Fireworks would be quite useful on any of my captained ships (especially Neptuno!), unlike something like HMS Gallows that already has essentially perfect cannons.  I’ve always loved the high-cargo Spanish 4 masted square rigged ships, which evoke themes of Spanish treasure galleons from the Age of Sail. I often like to use them in tandem, with the Neptuno acting as a third galleon of sorts, but with some armament as well.

Spice’s English
HMS Goliath + captain, helmsman, oarsman
HMS London + captain, helmsman
HMS Sultan + captain, helmsman
HMS Lady Provost + helmsman, explorer, oarsman
HMS Bletchley

Stefan’s Cursed
Divine Dragon + Davy Jones (OE), captain, oarsman
Flying Dutchman + El Fantasma (OE), helmsman, oarsmen x3
Grinder + crew
Sea Duck

We were ready to set sail!

The English draw first blood!  HMS London blasts masts off the Concepcion after she loaded some loot.

Fleets scattered about, with L’Intrepide snagging coins from the middle, leaving a 0 coin for HMS Bletchley to find.  The Lady Provost has explored for 4 coins, denying the Spanish native canoes that island as HMS Sultan also round earths to provide escort protection.  The Divine Dragon starts her night by shooting poorly, but eventually manages to dismast the Courageux.

The Tepant wades into the fray, deepening the Franco-Cursed conflict:

Both of my “bonus galleons” got home with 3 coins apiece, while the Neptuno explored for 3 coins of her own.  El Corazon Dorado had her hands full watching both the London and Sultan.  My canoes scattered, unlikely to get any gold with how fast it was flying off the wild islands.  In the east, the Cleopatre takes a third mast off the Flying Dutchman while Intrepide docks home her coins.  The Cursed have Grinder and Sea Duck explore.

With the nearby Spanish 4 masters all docked at home, HMS London heads east to continue her cannon barrage!  She shoots 3/4 to sink two canoes and dismast the Bon Marin!

Victor de Alva didn’t give his Corazon Dorado an extra action all game, but that didn’t stop him from blasting 2 masts off the London.  Concepcion is looking to “plus up” a 0 she left behind on her first gold trip.  Neptuno is looking to offload her gold to Freda’s Santa Ana (to get the +2 bonus on at least one coin) and receive the Fireworks UT in return, potentially setting up a deadly weapon where Neptuno could hit on 4-6 at L+L range.  HMS Lady Provost gets the English on the board, while the Goliath searches for treasure of her own.  The eastern firefight has calmed down slightly – Tepant shot masts off the Divine Dragon, who explores rather than continue the bloodshed.  The Cleopatre raids The Cursed home island (HI) of a coin, but is staring down a bunch of 2L cannons on the FD and Grinder.

Unfortunately time was running out, so we had to call for a last round – Stefan would get the final player turn so all players could have an equal number of turns.  With this knowledge and the multiplayer rule that gold on ships counts towards victory, it got more desperate in a hurry.  The following picture shows the second to last round of play.

London pivots to starboard and shoots at Corazon!  Lady Provost makes a beeline for my home island, with a raid imminent! That would wreck my plans of having a gold factory and getting Neptuno set up for firework carnage (since I wanted to offload the gold but also stop Lady P if possible).  Maybe the combo will work another time!

On the final round, the Spanish desperately tried to maximize their gold score while denying Lady P from stealing anything.  However, Corazon only shot 1/3, and Neptuno missed all 5 shots at L+L range, with no 6’s rolled.  She did dock home her 3 coins, while Santa Ana sped north to load the final coin from her previously explored wild island, in case it would matter in the final count.  With 1 mast standing, Lady P was able to sneak around Corazon at S+L+S speed and steal a coin, which would count for the English in the scores.

The carnage continues out east!  Cleopatre was dismasted by a Broadsides Attack from the Flying Dutchman!  This allowed Grinder to capture the Cleopatre, but Tepant and Ville de Paris were on the scene to make sure The Cursed didn’t get their stolen coin back.  Both ships were shot to the ocean floor!  Overall the French had very good cannon luck in this game – lots of their shots hit, while a lot of enemy shots against them missed.  Alas, they had only explored one island and it wasn’t very valuable.

Nearly at an end:

On their final turn, The Cursed broadsided the Ville de Paris and had Sea Duck pick up a final coin that would count towards victory.

Scores:

1. Spanish: 26 gold
2. The Cursed: 22
3. English: 14
4. French: 3

A rousing adventure to start two new pirate careers!  This 4×80 game featured shooting, stealing, and plenty of good action! The gold bonuses proved key, as I believe they accounted for at least 6 of my gold.  Stefan also found the Rats UT, which took a couple gold off his total.  The Lady Provost’s raid only stole a low-value coin – if she had snagged the 5 instead, it would have been a very close 22-21-19 Cursed victory!  However, the Spanish made up for their lack of EA and cannon luck with a big gold haul.  I feel like a bunch of recent games have seen UT luck not go my way, so it was nice to have that strategy pay off a bit – I might even use a similar fleet in the future to try the Fireworks combo again.  Neptuno using it could be spectacular, but Santa Ana or Corazon Dorado could have made good use of it as well.

Thanks again to all who played!  For anyone reading that wants to play, let me know if you’re in Las Vegas!  😀

60 Point Games in Vegas with Kogz03!

11/17/2023

Kogz03 and I met up at Dangerous Dave’s Vegas Board Games Meetup for a pair of 60 point games.  We used the Las Vegas house rules.  We both had English fleets in the first game. Kogz rolled to go first.

Kogz03 English
HMS Titan + Thomas Gunn (RotF version), Lawrence, Administror Scott Bratley
HMS London + Hermione Gold (RotF version)
Aberdeen Baron + helmsman
HMS Hound + explorer

Ben’s English
HMS Phoenix + Admiral James Norrington, helmsman, oarsman (20)
HMS Lord Kenyon + captain, helmsman (15)
HMS Rye + explorer (10)
-towing Gibraltar (7)
Honu Iki + explorer (8)
(for a lot of battle reports I just paste my fleet notes from a document into the BR, which is why sometimes there are point totals for me but not opponents)

Due to the limited table space available, it would be a tight setup.  However, this promised to make the games fast and furious, and made it far more likely we’d be able to finish a second game before the Panera Bread closed at 9.

First turn carnage!!  Hound and Aberdeen snag 7 coins between them, but I had to pounce to stay alive in the game.  Rye snagged the final coin from the southwestern island, with Gibraltar dismasting the Hound! (I intended to capture for her gold) Phoenix (who redocked to stay safe), and Lord Kenyon (LK) teamed up to nearly dismast the Titan!  Norrington’s cannon bonus was irrelevant against a fellow Briton, but LK was devastating, eliminating the maximum 3 masts from her shoot+ram barrage.

Honu Iki has explored the southeastern island.

Aberdeen couldn’t quite reach home, leaving her open to a cannonade from the Gibraltar flotilla, which knocked out 3 masts but wouldn’t prevent her from docking home her booty on the next turn.  HMS London dismasted the Honu Iki, while the Titan docked at home.

Rye captured Hound after dropping her tow of the flotilla.  LK risked getting a 1 on her ram roll of HMS Titan, but the gamble paid off.  The Titan’s final mast fell overboard from the concussive impact, allowing Phoenix to capture the ship!  (I was also gambling that the final face down crew on the Titan was some kind of captain, not an oarsman, which proved to be Thomas Gunn)

Aberdeen Baron docked home her coins.  HMS London arrived on the scene to contest my capture of the Titan, but couldn’t get all cannons in range of Phoenix and took out 2 masts.  This allowed Phoenix and Gibraltar to dismast London my turn, with Titan firmly switching sides with a double repair after getting towed home.  Bratley would be worth 5 gold to me, but I wasn’t finding any good values even with my capture of the Hound.  Since Rye had no helmsman but LK did, LK took up towing duties of the Hound while Rye went off to get meager loot from the southeast and possibly rescue Honu Iki.

With the English being my favorite faction, it felt strangely cathartic to capture some of my favorite ships in the game (Hound and Titan) and nearly snag London as well.  However, the gold race was not in my favor, with Kogz finding the 6 and 4 he had contributed, among others.  Hound and all the southeast gold was mine, but Aberdeen was able to get the northwest island’s gold home in just a couple short turns, with LK not wanting to dismast and end the game since I would prematurely lose. (almost nothing on my HI until the final round)

1. Kogz English: 26 gold
2. Ben’s English: 17 gold (12+5 from Ransom)

What an interesting game!  I’ve had games similar to this in the past where one player can dominate the combat but lose the gold race, but usually it’s not this lopsided. (usually either a closer gold score, or the combat winner is able to control the endgame and win)

For our second game, Kogz switched to an all-Guichuan setup.  I only brought one fleet and would be running the same setup. I answered a few questions about Kogz’ fleet beforehand; both players knew the entire crew setups of the other fleet before the game began.

Kogz’ Guichuan
Guichuan + The Headhunter, Davy Jones (DJC version), El Fantasma (OE version), helmsman, shipwright, explorer, oarsmen x3

We redid the island setup and actually remembered to add terrain!  I rolled to go first this turn, and tried to pick a home island that had quick access to 3 of the 4 wild islands.

I did reach 3 islands on my first turn, but could only explore 2 of them since LK had no explorer.  However, Fantasma was ready for slaughter, saccing to dismast Rye and then round earthing to dismast the Phoenix!

I made sure to have a huge homecoming party and all-out attack on the Guichuan!  Rye rowed into position where she was within S for cancelling, but also got all of Gibraltar’s dangerous cannons in range.  Combined with LK, 3 masts were shot away.  Honu Iki dropped off 3 coins, while Phoenix rowed for home at S+S but couldn’t quite hide behind LK and was likely doomed.

Sure enough, Guichuan stayed in the fight and sank the Phoenix.  Fantasma sacced another oarsman to repair and shoot, with Gibraltar’s flag being shot off.  Fear affected both Rye and LK (6’s to limit their base moves to S on my next turn).

The English spent another turn blasting away, taking the Guichuan down to 3 masts.  Fantasma sacced again to explore the northeast island and then round earthed to deposit the coins.  This allowed Rye to dock home her coin and repair, while LK looked to get the rest of the gold that the Rye had found on turn 1.

Guichuan repaired two masts in a double action.  LK and Honu Iki have drained the southern islands, while Rye has designs on round earthing to the northwest to snag the best coin from the final unexplored island!

Rye was able to grab a coin while Guichuan was busy copying Extended Range to blast away at the LK.  We took a look at how much gold each of us had, knowing that we had contributed the same 38 total gold between us as the last game.  I calculated that I could just edge out the win if I held steady with the gold currently in my possession, thankful I wouldn’t have to risk going back to the northwestern island again.

Guichuan cleaned out the NW island and LK and Rye managed to make it back with their loads!

1. English: 20 gold
2. Guichuan: 18

A very close finish!  I think going first and being able to divert my ship resources across the map made up for the early loss of the Phoenix and not having any extra actions available in my fleet.

A nice pair of 60 point games!  We both won, and got to use some pieces we’d been looking forward to playing.  Catch us soon in Vegas for more adventures!

PS: A quick heads up that we’re planning a big Pirates weekend at Dice Tower West from 3/8-3/10/2024.  Let me know if you’d like to attend and hope to see you there!

120 Point Game

A7XfanBen vs. Captain Randy vs. Kogz03

9/5/2022

This was a 120 Point Game with 3 different players from the Pirates CSG community!  Captain Randy ran a mostly Cursed fleet, while Kogz03 (of the discord server) ran a Pirate fleet.  Labor Day was the “big Pirates day” of my 2022 Vegas trip, with both triple digit build total games happening on Monday!  These are the house rules we used, with all game pieces in the Master Spreadsheet.  Randy went first, followed by myself and kogz03.

Randy is in the south, myself in the southwest, and kogz03 in the north.  Randy was wary of my Mysterious Island plans and chose one of them as his home island to take it out of play.  My initial plan was to use an MI’s “negative” ability to fling treasure closer to home, where some of the canoes could pick up the excess.  My canoes started in the northwest while Randy placed his French RtSS canoes in the east.

Randy’s fleet included a loaded Guichuan with some international crew, Grinder + helmsman, Coeur du Lion + Princess Auraa and Deleflote, Sea Monkey + explorer, Death’s Anchor, Sea Duck + explorer, and Jolly Mon + The Hag of Tortuga.

Here is the fleet I used:
Zhanfu + captain, helmsman, oarsman, Soul Mark  (this Zhanfu is a wood paste model from Cloud of Craft Gaming)
Frontier + tribal chieftain (swapped for Yeshaji Angria on turn 1), canceller DNT, helmsman, oarsman
Star of Siam + helmsman, explorer, oarsman
10 American native canoes
USS Vermont + Calypso, Captain Charles Richard, tribal chieftain
Patagonia + Robinson, Lord Mycron, Bratley
UT’s: Nemo’s Charts, Protection from Davy Jones, Trees, Neptune’s Figurehead

Kogz03’s fleet:
Black Pearl + Calico Cat, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Revenant + Sean “Cannonball” Gallows, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Harbinger + Crimson Angel, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Raven’s Neck + Norrington, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Raven + explorer
Bloody Jewel + helmsman, explorer
Banshee’s Cry + explorer
Jolly Mon + The Hag of Tortuga

Two thirds into the first round and both 10 masters have moved into the safety of fog.  Calypso fails her first roll which foils my early plans a bit.

The Frontier is given a second action via Mycron and explores the great turtle out from under Randy’s French canoes.

A sharpie-lined Black Pearl is even more formidable than usual:

At the upper left, the Sea Monkey and Death’s Anchor are being attacked by the Zhanfu after taking out some American canoes.  The Star of Siam has emerged from fog to explore a wild island.  The Frontier follows French canoes south while the Pirate fleet splits up.

Randy and I were aware of our playing status/rivalry throughout the game, but kogz03 was a new opponent for both of us and probably the most poised to create chaos in multiple areas of the board.  In a big blow to Randy’s gold game, the Grinder was sunk by a dual attack from the Black Pearl and Revenant!  The Harbinger eliminated 3 of the 4 canoes in my “canoe screen”, but the Raven’s Neck was abysmal against the Star of Siam, barely removing a single mast.

The native canoe at the bottom right has loaded two 2’s, Nemo’s Charts, and Neptune’s Trident.  Not far away, Randy’s Guichuan attacks!  She sinks the Star of Siam and blasts two masts off the Raven’s Neck.

After sustaining 4 hits of damage in her battle against The Cursed, the Zhanfu is victorious in sinking the Death’s Anchor flotilla and captures the Sea Monkey as a prize.  The gold-laden canoe has her 2’s yanked off by nearby support canoes, who use their ability to divvy up the treasure and duck into the big fog bank nearby.  This is because the other canoe is preparing to give its UT’s to the Zhanfu….  At the bottom right, the Frontier and Randy’s French canoes have emptied Mysterious Island #12 in the southeast.

1-2: Move all treasure coins from this island to any other wild island.
3-4: No effect.
5-6: When this ship explores this island, replace one treasure coin with a unique treasure from your collection.

The Black Pearl continues south and sinks the Sea Duck:

The Guichuan redocked and sank the Raven’s Neck.  It was pretty obvious that Randy was trying to keep the Guichuan docked as often as possible, which made it even more obvious that SS Bianco’s Haulers were probably on the ship.  The surprise for me was when Randy revealed F&S Lenoir to also be aboard, which he revealed to cancel the RN’s captain when kogz03 went to shoot the Guichuan.

I had a good idea the Trees UT was in the northeast, and transfer Yeshaji Angria to the Zhanfu because I anticipate the Frontier needing to dock at home sometime, likely upon towing the Sea Monkey home for repairs.  However, the Frontier’s free hoist explore does net her the Nemo’s Charts UT, as she is the ship most likely to “farm” the mysterious island if needed.  Plans are set in motion.

After another round, ships are scattered around the map.  In the north, the return of the Raven and Banshee’s Cry to kogz03’s HI has put him in the lead for gold.  The Zhanfu and Frontier stay together, towing the Sea Monkey to the northeast via round earth.  At the lower left, the Vermont has unloaded Calypso to my HI to avoid triggering her ability.  I was worried that creating more whirlpools would give more avenues the other players could use to attack me, especially with a Deleflote-powered Guichuan and a trio of action generators in the Pirate fleet.  Randy’s canoes sail home with coins aboard, while the Coeur ducks into the fog bank to avoid any potential ram and board threat from the Revenant.  We are getting into the endgame phase, but barely any gold has been unloaded to home islands!  I was fully expecting a home island raider crew and Bianco’s Haulers on the Guichuan, which is why I kept the Frontier loaded with gold and my gold canoes in their fog bank.  I was hoping to wait for Randy to go after kogz03’s home island, at which point it would buy me time to pull off a grand combo and/or get more gold home in the meantime.

The Frontier explores the northeastern island and the Zhanfu uses a free explore to repair from 6 masts to 10 with the Trees UT!  Randy was grumbling, as he now had a healthy 10 master to potentially deal with.  Little did he know that there was a far bigger threat… just not one currently in play.

Success!  Just as kogz03 was sailing his gunships towards the Zhanfu and Frontier (possibly because by now I had revealed HI Raider Yeshaji Angria in order to spy on some coins to make endgame gold calculations), Captain Randy took the Guichuan over to his HI and raided it with SM El Fantasma!  The Black Pearl was sunk in short order!  The climax had been set in motion!

Randy’s other two canoes had arrived home with gold, which I knew from the Frontier’s exploratory efforts was likely more than my canoes had aboard.  If he was going to nab some of the Pirate coins, I was at least able to spy which ones via Yeshaji.  However, I knew my time was running out.  Due to the fog bank chain connecting kogz03’s HI to Randy’s HI, the Guichuan could probably remain completely safe in fog if she wanted to as soon as she stopped raiding the Pirate HI.  From there she could dock home stolen loot, at which point it would be extremely difficult to permanently steal, between the Guichuan’s protective firepower and ability to re-steal it.  Thus, I had to prevent the Guichuan from getting home, preferably sinking her with as much gold as possible aboard to deny it from going to Randy or kogz03.  I did use my remaining 4 canoes to move the great turtle towards the Guichuan, but due to the moving restrictions I couldn’t get it into an effective blocking position.

The Zhanfu started towing the Sea Monkey again, as I really thought she might prove useful in the long run if I could ever get her back to my HI for repairs.  The Frontier sped to the southeast with Mycron assistance and did something quite rare and unusual… she used the Hoist keyword to unload one of her own coins to the wild island.  She docked there and rolled only a 2, which changed to a 4 due to Nemo’s Charts (no effect).

Randy redocked the Guichuan twice more (dismasting the Harbinger in the process) to steal an additional two coins from the Pirate HI, bringing the Guichuan to 4 coins total from her thievery.  With a fog exit nearly guaranteed on the next turn for the Guichuan, I knew now was the time to strike.  The Frontier redocked at MI #12, finally getting the 5-6 roll needed to bring in a UT from outside the game.  I was really happy that I had brought some contingency UT’s in my tin on the trip, as I punched a fresh one out and placed it face down on the Frontier.  Mycron then gave the Frontier a second action, with the ship using her hoist to dump another of her own coins on the island before redocking again.  On one of the MI rolls I got a little help from Nemo’s Charts, and with the second roll I had secured the ultimate combo of Pirates CSG.  I went back into my tin and punched out another secret UT and put it face down on the Frontier.  After some brief consideration I knew now was the time to play the combo, immediately.

THE ODIN MISSILE.

I flipped Runes of Odin face up to place an iceberg from outside the game right behind the Guichuan.  Next came Runes of Magic, which was used to move the iceberg straight into the hull of the Guichuan.  And just like that, the Guichuan, all her defensive crew and all her stolen loot was removed from the game!   O_O

Ironically, I had planned to use the same MI for low roll farming in order to fling coins closer to home.  That option became pointless once the coins on the island were gone.  However, once I found Nemo’s Charts and figured there was no better (or easier) option to eliminating the Guichuan as the main threat to my game, the high roll farming became key.  How ironic that in Vegas it was a UT gambling scheme (with a little help from the house 😉 ) that took down a high roller ship.  XD

Now I just had to make sure I would end the game with the most gold.  kogz03’s stolen loot had just gone to the locker, so I peeked at one of Randy’s coins with Yeshaji.  Seeing a 3, I knew he couldn’t have more than me since he only had one other coin.  Throughout the game I was trying to track how much gold was available since we started with 45.  Before the Odin Missile combo I knew I had 15 between the Frontier and canoes in the fog bank.  Essentially “saccing” the lowest value coins on the Frontier (both 2’s) for the Runes brought me to 11, still enough to win since Randy’s second coin couldn’t be more than 7 (so he couldn’t have more than 10 total).  Knowing all this I quickly brought the Frontier and my canoes home, ending the game as quickly as possible now that the Guichuan had been eliminated.

The final scores:

1. Ben: 11 gold
2. Randy: 7
3. Kogz03: 5

Quite the finish!  The Guichuan only had 6 gold on her when she went down, but that still would have been enough for Randy to win with 13 (or kogz03 to tie me at 11) if she hadn’t gone down.  Theoretically I still had the most at 15-13 over Randy if we both had just brought all our gold home, but I have a feeling it would have gotten more complicated than that and Randy would have raided my HI for more (at which point it would have been extremely difficult to re-steal between the Guichuan having Ghost Ship, a canceller, and Bianco’s Haulers).  Besides, it was far more fun for me to sacrifice 4 of my gold to deny 6 gold from either of the other players, essentially ending the game in a grand climax of epic combo savagery!!  Another 10 master crushed by the power of the Norse gods, called by the Frontier’s crew with Nemo’s help!!  O_O

Game in Las Vegas Nevada – Points in Play at 2×60

9/1/2022

This game in Las Vegas Nevada was with Captain Randy!  The player with the most total points in play (including gold) would be the winner.  We also used a few other house rules such as no ram damage in addition to the house rules from this week of gaming in Vegas.  Captain Randy rolled to go first with what I called a “spite fleet”, using various game pieces I don’t yet own.  (USS Morning Star and USS Denver, along with the Bonnie Liz which I do have.)

I followed with my favorite faction, the English:
HMS Swallow + RotF TGunn, Mercer, Commander Temple, explorer, oarsmen x2
HMS Rye + explorer, oarsman, towing Gibraltar
HMS Phoenix + Bratley, helmsman, oarsman
UT’s: Missionary, Jail!, Neptune’s Figurehead, Marines

My goal with the UT’s was to take oarsmen off his ships, which would make them easier prizes for Commander Temple.  Each player was allowed to place 2 oversized terrain and 3 regular terrain.  We each contributed 8 coins worth 15 gold, but gold worth points would be multiplied by 4 so there was an equal amount of gold points and regular points in play (120+120=240 total).

Definitely some monetary value in Randy’s fleet:

I was intrigued by the idea of the Phoenix as a bulky and well-defended gold runner.

What happened next was nothing short of astonishing!  The Americans didn’t factor round earth into their maneuvering calculations, with the Morning Star dismasted by the Swallow on turn 1!  The Rye explored for England, finding good values.

Commander Temple snatched up the Morning Star and I already had a big advantage.

In a perfect stroke of luck, the Bonnie Liz found the Jail UT which warped all of her crew to Randy’s home island!  This left her easy pickings for the Swallow, who sacced to emerge from a whirlpool and dismast her!  The Swallow captured her on the next turn, and an English win was looking inevitable.

Just when it looked like it couldn’t get any more ridiculously one-sided….

The repaired Morning Star and Bonnie Liz will now make gold runs for me:

The Swallow and Rye+Gibraltar did their best to partially block some fog exit locations of the Denver, while I continued making gold runs.

The Denver got a good enough fog roll to dock home some gold safely, but soon afterwards the game ended.

The final points in play scores:

1. Ben: 186 points in play
2. Randy: 48

One of the most lopsided games I’ve ever seen!  The luck and fleet strategy was entirely on my side tonight, which resulted in a quick and decisive English victory.  It was almost like karma for intentionally teasing me with game pieces I don’t have yet!  XD

Water World Returns

8/31/2022

The first game of seven on my 2022 Las Vegas trip saw the return of brettb45’s Water World scenario!  This is a super fun game idea I pretty much always enjoy playing.  We played at McMullan’s Irish Pub, which was very on-theme with nautical things all around us.

Captain Randy used a Spanish fleet with the Principe de Asturias, Joya del Sol and Rosario. Maddy brought a French Mercenary fleet with the Celtic Fury, Libellule and Bon Marin.

This was the Pirate fleet I used:
Red Curse + Hag of Tortuga, Captain Blackheart, helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x2
Treasure + F&S Hammersmith, SM Fantasma
Dragon + helmsman, explorer
UT’s: CC Letter of Marque, Marksman’s Map, Wolves, abandoned musketeer, abandoned oarsman

This doc has the house rules we used.

The pub was actually quite dim inside, making it feel kind of like we were playing on a wooden ship with lanterns.

We were off to the races and the Las Vegas Pirates gaming week was underway!

The Spanish lose their main gunship in short order:

Ships got busy exploring, with Captain Randy finding turtles right near his home fort!  The Bon Marin finds both Wolves and the abandoned musketeer on the same island, meaning that my UT plan has partially backfired.  However, the goal of including Wolves to extend the game (and thus give my HI Raiders more time for thievery) was still working, as it eventually became known that the game couldn’t end under normal Water World conditions of “no more dry ground”.  With no player having a musketeer or Marine to eliminate the Wolves, the game would continue until only one player remained.  At the bottom you can see another gift from Redgoat, a super useful L/S measuring tool chain made of thin metal tubing.

With no oarsman aboard, the Principe was ripe for capturing by the Red Curse.  The Treasure docked at the Spanish home fort and shot off some flags, revealing SM Fantasma to steal a coin to boot!  Indeed, the Spanish were under heavy fire, as the Celtic Fury gets in on the action by running over a turtle.

However, the Spanish have their own HI Raider!  The Joya del Sol is carrying both Fernando Sanchez and Bianco’s Haulers (who prevent the ship from being shot at while docked), making her a major threat to the nearby Pirate home fort!  Any coins the Treasure steals from the Spanish will likely just be stolen back, and the Joya is within one move action of the Pirate/Spanish home forts for quick raids.  The Rosario builds a Spanish fort on a wild island, which diverts gold away from Fantasma… but basically ensures that the gold in the fort can only count for Randy if he retains the fort until an endgame condition is reached. (since if the fort is destroyed, all the gold in it and used to pay for it are permanently locked up by the “immortal” Wolves)

Soon all of the wild islands except the “Wolves island” had sunk, leaving the home island raiders to do more work.  I was chipping away at the Spanish home fort with the Treasure, but didn’t want to sink it while it still had valuable coins on it.  The Celtic Fury has lost masts to the Spanish fort, but the Bon Marin rams the Rosario derelict.

As the Joya goes for another coin while being immune to cannons while docked, the Treasure shields the Red Curse from the Spanish home fort as Randy and I pilfer from each other.

The Pirates struggle to keep up with the Joya’s theft pace, as Hammersmith decides not to dock the Treasure at my home fort.  My strategy was shifting – since Randy could just steal back whatever gold I stole and deposited in my home fort, I had to start planning to win the game based on treasure on ships (which counts in 3+ player games).  My path to victory was basically to destroy all 3 of the other forts in play while keeping all the gold I could on the Dragon, who would hide out in fog where my gold couldn’t be stolen.

The Joya heads west, opening her up to Pirate cannons as she is finally not docked somewhere.  Despite an extra action for the Red Curse, my shooting is abysmal, leaving the Spanish galleon with a mast standing.  The captured Principe is finally ready to set sail after repairing.

The Joya fled for the safety of the fog as the French approached my home fort.  I was not in a good position in the gold race, with both of the other players likely benefiting hugely from suicide plays.  I figured the French would try to grind themselves out on my home fort to eliminate themselves from contention, with a few islands worth of gold in their home fort from early in the game.

At some point in this endgame Randy and I made a deal to keep the game alive so I would have time to destroy the French home fort, sinking all their gold if I could pull it off with my guns-heavy fleet.  I decided to go all-in on my strategy of winning by having some coins on the Dragon and just denying the other players’ gold through fort destruction – abandoning my own home fort in the process as the captain-less Celtic Fury approached and got blasted.  The Joya del Sol ran over a reef but did not wreck herself.

The Celtic Fury got SAT from Eileen Brigid O’Brien and rammed the Treasure, but was sunk soon afterwards by the Pirates.  The Joya goes back to her stealing ways, racking up more gold from my home fort.

At this point I had to keep Randy’s Spanish home fort alive because if I sank it, he would suicide the Joya on a reef to end the game before I could reach his other fort and Maddy’s French home fort.  I left it with no flags and headed west, with a plan to destroy the Spanish “Wolves fort” before then moving on to the French home fort.  This was because if I destroyed the French home fort first, Randy would again have incentive to wreck the Joya to end the game in his favor, so I had to go after the forts in a specific order to maximize my chances.  My gunships headed west, with the intention of grouping together to blast a fort with all three captained ships at the same time.

However, the Spanish thought they had more gold than the French and decided to end the game by suicide with the Joya wrecking herself on a reef anyway!  They should have waited for me to eventually destroy the French home fort!

1. Maddy’s French Mercenaries: 29 gold
2. Randy’s Spanish: 18
3. Ben: 0 (my gold was in a fog bank at game’s end)

Quite the game!  It was pretty interesting how the abandoned musketeer ended up on the same island as Wolves, essentially meaning the game couldn’t end until two of the three players were eliminated.  I was a bit frustrated that I finished with 0 gold despite playing hard and to win, but it was a consequence of the all-or-nothing strategy I felt was necessary for a come-from-behind win.  Maddy found really good gold values on islands early in the game, which proved to be enough in the end.  The Spanish had a lot of coins, but mostly lower values.  In the strange endgame their best play was to suicide immediately after I destroyed the French home fort, which would have been enough to win as the gold in their home fort was more than what I had on my ships that I would have taken out of fog.  A fun and interesting return to Water World!

–

Ben vs. Captain Randy at 60 Points

September 12th, 2021

Once again I played against Captain Randy in Las Vegas, this time at his house where we played some games in July 2021.  We used the same custom rules as the previous game.

I used the Deliverance, Frontier and Philadelphia while he went with a mostly Cursed fleet:

Executioner + OE El Fantasma, DJC Tabitha McWarren, Gendermarie Rene Moreau, RotF Ralph David, helmsman, oarsman
Grinder + chieftain, helmsman
Coeur du Lion + helmsman
Cursed native canoes

On Randy’s first turn the Executioner used a whirlpool and Sac to sink the Frontier!  Things were already not looking good for me.

Similar to our last game, I struck back quickly, eliminating 3 masts from the Executioner:

The Cursed were laying claim to 3 of the 4 wild islands when the Deliverance zoomed over and started sinking native canoes!

The Deliverance caught the Executioner on her way home and dismasted her.  However, the Philadelphia has been useless so far (I really wanted to take advantage of her ability given the points in play win condition) and the Coeur has unloaded gold for the Cursed.

The pesky marine made the Deliverance go home for repairs, while the Philadelphia rammed the Coeur to try and steal some gold.  At this point the Executioner had one remaining face down crew, which I first assumed was an oarsman (especially with the Sac Captain El Fantasma aboard).  However, Captain Randy didn’t move the Executioner for a turn or two, so it became more evident that it was unlikely to be an oarsman.  I didn’t want to touch the Executioner with one of my ships (trying to tow if it didn’t have an oarsman) and end up losing valuable crew in an accidental boarding party.  Overall it made for a memorable time and is one of the cool things about having crew face down.  Between potential bluffing about face down crew and not reacting when you discover really good gold coins, there is definitely a “poker face” aspect to Pirates that is really interesting to see play out in real time.  🙂

Now it got a bit crazy.  The Philadelphia captured the Executioner (no oarsman to prevent dereliction), while the Deliverance tried to steal gold from the Grinder as she approached the Cursed HI. (the 6 marks a successful scuttle roll on the Executioner, as Ralph David made her Eternal)

The Gunship Swap

Within a turn, the fleets started looking rather strange.  The Executioner warped the short distance home with Eternal and started repairing, while the Cursed fleet was able to dismast and capture the Deliverance!  However, this is where we messed up a bit – under the points in play victory condition, we had already made a modification to Eternal that says “all cargo assigned to the ship is removed from the game” when Eternal kicks in.  This is to prevent the keyword from being OP with the alternate rules.  We forgot to remove the cargo (a bunch of valuable crew including the source of Eternal itself) so this game comes with a small asterisk, though I don’t think the end result would change.

Captain Randy and I both admitted that we wish we had played better as both of us made some mistakes in this game.  Here I took advantage of Randy not repairing the captured Deliverance as soon as he had docked her at his HI, which left the derelict ripe for the Executioner to recapture her!  Now I had both gunships under my control, but only 1 mast standing between the two of them.  The Philly did a small chain towing maneuver in an attempt to get the Deliverance out of range of the Coeur and Grinder.

The Executioner was dismasted but the Philadelphia was able to use her ability to warp the Deliverance to my HI where she repaired a mast.

Somehow the Philadelphia ended up capturing the Grinder as well!  This was a convenient boon for me, as the Turbine keyword allowed the Grinder to speed straight to my HI without any masts.  However, I just now realized that this is another gaffe, as Turbine says: “A ship with this keyword is not derelict when it has no masts remaining. If it has no masts, one hit still sinks it.”  Since it’s not derelict, it can’t be captured….

I think we swapped gunships again (now back to their original fleets) and the game ended shortly afterwards.

Congrats to Captain Randy on a 95-35 victory! (mostly from gold multiplied by 4) It was certainly a learning experience, both for the new rules and even understanding normal keywords.  I will say that I LOVE towing and capturing logistics, as well as the face down crew intrigue game.