2 Minute Turns in 5×40 Game

10/15/2022

The second game of the October 2022 Pirates weekend marathon was a 40 point game with 2 minute turns for each player.  This was a timer that felt slightly too short for some 50 point games earlier this year, so with less points per fleet it seemed like it would work well.  These are the house rules we use, with the following in effect as well for this particular weekend meetup:
-Lord Mycron legal, but has Limit and Ransom in addition to his regular abilities.
-Custom game pieces are allowed if all players agree to their legality.
-Three islands placed per player.
-Each player can place 3 pieces of terrain during setup (in the same order as islands, per usual), with a maximum of 1 massive terrain and 1 medium terrain per player. (Picture – Massive=7 in top 2 rows; Medium=7 in bottom row)
-The last player in the turn order chooses their home island location first, followed by the second to last player until the first player chooses their home island last.
-Each player must contribute an equal number of coins of any value or type in order to have 4 coins per wild island. (8 coins per player due to 2 wild islands per player)
-Gold bonuses will be applied permanently to the coin in question (ex: a 7 becomes an 8 ). The added value stays with the coin, and the coin can be “used” normally for the purposes of home island raiding, fort building, etc.

Here were the fleets in the order of play:

Xerecs
HMS Oxford + RotF Hermione Gold, Sir Jeremy Rothschild, Powder Pete, oarsman
Intermediaro

A7XfanBen
Frontier + BC Diamond Nelson Turner, RotF Ralph David, Commodore Matthew Perry, helmsman, oarsman
Morocco + helmsman, explorer
Griffin + helmsman

John
Le Gaule + 3 crew
La Bonne Chance + captain
La Fureur

Gazerbeam543
USS Kettering + Commodore Matthew Perry, captain, helmsman
Bloody Jewel + helmsman, explorer
Le Bon Marin + helmsman, oarsman
Le Pique + explorer, oarsman

L0rdgingerbread
La Joya del Sol + tribal chieftain, 2 crew
El Martillo de Dios + crew
El Picador
El Raton
Spanish Native Canoes

Looking from east to west, from top to bottom you have the home islands of Gazerbeam, L0rdgingerbread, John, me, and Xerecs.

The game was mostly a gold race.  This was unsurprising to me given the relatively low build total and the 2 minute timer.  I myself had specifically built a fleet that I could use effectively within the time constraints, with no extra actions available and no real offensive capabilities to speak of.  My usual penchant for capturing enemy ships and using them in my fleet was a way I would get into trouble with the time limit, so I decided to go all-gold and hope the Frontier’s defenses could outlast any hostile neighbors.  I also figured my opponents would have at least some focus on getting gold, which proved mostly true and helped my fleet survive with less big threats around.

This looks like partway through the second round of turns.  Intermediaro has used its ability to put a coin on the Oxford.  The Frontier is already home with a haul while my 2 masted galleys explore for more, with the Griffin finding Jack’s Piece of Eight and the Morocco getting busy spying 5 times per round.  John and Spencer spread out their fleet resources, with the Joya’s island in the west looking like a potential clash with multiple gunships pointed towards it.

The Americans get the better of the encounter, crippling the French as Le Gaule is nearly dismasted!  HMS Oxford beat up the Morocco but the galley was able to flee into a huge fog bank.  The canoes have explored and found Marksman’s Map.

I made the mistake of thinking DNT’s canceller ability would be enough to save the Frontier from damage, but Xerecs swung the Oxford around her port side, got Hermione Gold cancelled, but then was still able to surface and shoot with Intermediaro!  The squid dismasted the hoist, leaving my fleet in some disarray.  However, on my next turn DNT was able to cancel the Sea Monster keyword in order to break the pin, allowing the Frontier to row into the fog bank for safety.

The Kettering sank the Gaule!  Gold running continued, with the “reef island” up north looking hotly contested.  Spencer’s canoes have loaded some coins from it, but the French and Americans are arriving on the scene with firepower ready.

The Kettering survived the reef to sink both Spanish canoes, though it was briefly contested that her move action had started after the turn timer had expired.  The Frontier and Griffin returned home with lots of coins, while the island south of the western reefs looked to become another potential hotspot.  Indeed, the gold was starting to dry up!

The French sloop on the left had some valuable coins aboard, which both Spencer and I wanted.  The Bloody Jewel stole one with a ram and board.  I wanted to steal the same coin from the BJ, but the Griffin couldn’t quite reach her and settled for ramming the Pique instead.  The Frontier and Morocco are busy repairing to get back in action, but I was losing this mid-game gold race to Spencer and rather worried about it.  The Kettering scared off the Bonne Chance and took the Fureur as a prize.

Looking from the west, the game of millimeters continues as the Griffin can only ram the Pique’s flag, and not the Bloody Jewel:

Xerecs had a nifty setup going in the far east – the submerged Intermediaro used its ability to put a coin on the Oxford each turn, with the latter safely docked at home and able to simply explore the home island to unload!  It was a nice automatic profit system, but one that was probably too slow to accumulate enough gold to win in this runner-friendly game.

The desperation in the west intensifies, with more ramming and boarding.  Both of Gazerbeam’s French sloops are mastless, while the Joya del Sol empties a wild island of its last 2 coins.

The Griffin successfully zips back over the reef and through the whirlpool, and is greeted warmly by the Frontier, who hoists the stolen coin straight to my HI!  The Morocco is fully repaired and my fleet is hopefully ready to make a dent in the endgame.  Gazerbeam has cleaned up in the north, assigning towing duties to his Bloody Jewel and dismasting the Bonne Chance to eliminate John from the game!

This shows Spencer’s fleet in control of some western gold – he is getting many +1’s via the native canoes, stacking up lots of extra treasure that will be very handy in the final count.

Despite the risk I felt like I had to make an aggressive play, and sent the Frontier through the whirlpool and straight into the heart of Spencer’s fleet.  The Picador and Raton rammed masts off her, but her ultimate doom came when trying to sail over the reef.  I think this is the first time I’ve seen a wrecked hoist!  However, in hindsight she should have returned to my home island via Eternal from Gus Schultz, but I had mistakenly thought the keyword didn’t apply to shipwrecks.  Poo!

So close to stealing gold from the Joya in a boarding miracle!

The captured Fureur was carrying the final two coins in play, and so the endgame was truly upon us with urgency.  Xerecs managed to position the Oxford out of the Kettering’s cancelling range to sink the Bloody Jewel, freeing the derelict for a fresh owner to tow it.  Intermediaro was there to assist, but Xerecs was potentially facing counterattacks from not just Gazerbeam’s Kettering, but Spencer’s swarm as well.  The Morocco has lost a mast to the whirlpool but explores the wrecked Frontier to get whirlpool fodder crew for the trip back. (Spencer having gotten the rest of his gold home, so no more on the water to steal)

The Kettering fails to dismast the Oxford and it’s on!  The Oxford snags the Fureur while Intermediaro goes nuts on the longship, knocking off 2 masts and pinning her!

Things broke up afterwards as ships scattered across the map.  The Fureur explored the Oxford to give the schooner both coins, with the Oxford hightailing it to the north via round earth.  Intermediaro finished off the Kettering and pinned the Joya.  Gazerbeam deferred giving actions to his final ship in play and so was essentially out of it. I sent the Griffin east via round earth to intercept the Oxford.

We got tangled up in a classic endgame ramming pileup.  The Griffin was able to ram the Oxford, but she lost the boarding party.  This allowed Xerecs to get the final 2 coins home which ended the game!

1. A7XfanBen: 51 gold
2. L0rdgingerbread: 50
3. Xerecs: 20
4. Gazerbeam543: 10
5. John: 0

Another incredibly close finish!!  O_O  After the prior night’s game was a 46-46 tie decided by the units in play tiebreaker, the second game came down to the wire at just a 1 gold differential!  I was happy to come away with a win on the weekend, though it may have been the least exciting 5+ player game we played.

2v2v2 Team Co-Op Game

10/14/2022

This is how it began!!  Xerecs (Billy), L0rdgingerbread (Spencer), and Gazerbeam543 (Peter) all flew up from Los Angeles to join the PNW Pirates (generally myself, Witch (Dan), and Kyky (Kyle) along with John and Cutty) for an epic Pirates CSG Weekend Marathon!  I would call it the Pirates playing event of the year for 2022 so far, and never before have I heard of multiple players flying from one location to another pretty much exclusively to play this great game.  Huge thanks to everyone who came out, and especially the LA crew who had to spend a lot more and make detailed plans to make it all work.  We played most of the games at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue.

We planned everything out in great detail through our messenger group (ask me to add you if you’re interested in playing anywhere near Seattle!), from build totals to game ideas to house rules and a game schedule based on timing and availability.  This is the house rule document we use for coordination, with these additional house rules specifically for this weekend marathon where we had about 6 people voting on house rules instead of the usual 3-4.

-Lord Mycron legal, but has Limit and Ransom in addition to his regular abilities.
-Custom game pieces are allowed if all players agree to their legality.
-Three islands placed per player.
-Each player can place 3 pieces of terrain during setup (in the same order as islands, per usual), with a maximum of 1 massive terrain and 1 medium terrain per player. (Picture – Massive=7 in top 2 rows; Medium=7 in bottom row)
-Storm terrain and mysterious islands legal for the 80 point game.
-The last player in the turn order chooses their home island location first, followed by the second to last player until the first player chooses their home island last.
-Each player must contribute an equal number of coins of any value or type in order to have 4 coins per wild island. (8 coins per player due to 2 wild islands per player)
-Gold bonuses will be applied permanently to the coin in question (ex: a 7 becomes an 8 ). The added value stays with the coin, and the coin can be “used” normally for the purposes of home island raiding, fort building, etc.

Time to get into the actual report!  We rolled d6’s to start – whoever got the same result as another would be paired on a team. We didn’t want to do it in advance of the meetup because teams might resemble one 80 point fleet, and because there was already enough pre-game prep that went into each fleet and game planning.  The teams were as follows: Witch with L0rdgingerbread, A7XfanBen with Xerecs, Gazerbeam543 with Kyky.  Apologies in advance if there is any confusion from the weekend’s reports because I switch between usernames and first names, and if various fleets are incomplete because I can’t recall all the details of who played what.

The fleets, in player order.  By some luck miracle the teams were already arranged around the table in the order we wanted so nobody had to move around – Team 1 Player A, then Team 2 Player A, etc, so that there was always two players in between each teammate turn.

Witch (teammate: L0rdgingerbread)
Custom Queen Anne’s Revenge + custom Blackbeard, Lucky the Parrot, helmsman, explorer, oarsman
Devil Ray + helmsman
Princess + The Hag of Tortuga, helmsman, oarsman
UT’s: Cannibals

A7XfanBen (teammate: Xerecs)
Raven’s Neck + Hammersmith, The Hag of Tortuga, Lucky the Parrot, explorer, oarsmen x2
Longshanks + helmsman, explorer, oarsmen x3
Bloody Jewel + helmsman, explorers x2, oarsmen x2
UT’s: Altar of the Loa, Pandora’s Box, Castaway, Maps of Alexandria, Marksman’s Map, abandoned oarsman, abandoned shipwright, Wine

Gazerbeam543 (teammate: Kyky)   Fleet name: Faster Without Cargo
Intrepid + Commodore Matthew Perry, Tribal cheiftain, captain, helmsman
Ébat
HMS Trepassey
French Native Canoes

L0rdgingerbread (teammate: Witch)
HMS Dover + 4 crew
Sea Crane + Zheng Li Kwan
Winds of Vengeance + crew
Dragon

Xerecs (teammate: A7XfanBen)
Neptune’s Hoard + Hammersmith, SM El Fantasma, oarsman
Intermediaro + stinkpot shot

Kyky (teammate: Gazerbeam543)
Revenant + 5 generic crew
Pandora + The Hag of Tortuga, 2 generic crew

Xerecs and I were hyped to finally work together after SOO many games played, with nearly 100 contests on VASSAL and various games this year in LA.  It remained to be seen if various fleets had any synergies, but that was part of the fun we had to figure out as we went along.

Here is the ocean!  For home islands, Billy and Spencer are at the upper left. The middle from left to right is Kyle, Peter and me. Dan is at the upper right.

Witch took the first actions of the epic weekend and we were off!

And immediately UT’s deal crushing blows!  Pandora’s Box and Plague nearly ruin the Raven’s Neck for good, but I yanked in an Altar of the Loa to control Gazerbeam’s fleet!!  O_O  The Trepassey lost her mast to a whirlpool, the canoes were flung towards the doom of a massive sargasso sea which promised to never let them escape, and the Intrepid lost most of her masts after being flung through a whirlpool and straight onto a reef.  I got lucky on the island in general, finding Turtles as well, right next to my home island.  It was a grand display of aggression and gimmick chaos, also serving as a wake up call that it was now game on.  XD  My strategy was working well, as it had been my intention to use the Box to bring in a second Altar since I couldn’t count on finding the “primary” one with so many wild islands to explore.  Luckily I triggered the Box right away and was able to set up the epic combo on turn 1.

We would soon get rid of the extra turtle (coin proxy), but the 10 turtles had very little distance to swim in order to net 10 gold for Xerecs and I.  Now the question was: would the public location of the Altar trigger a chain reaction where players might race to it in order to control the turn of the player after them?

On the second round the Bloody Jewel sacrificed her other two spare crew to the Altar, giving me another turn of control over Peter’s fleet.  The Intrepid was moved back through a whirlpool towards the Plague-ridden Longshanks, as I hoped to capture the schooner.  The Longshanks had captured the Trepassey on my turn, giving the English sloop the Plague.  Plague would limit how much I could control the next fleet via the Altar, as I was planning to sac crew from the Longshanks for additional turns of control.  Three of the French native canoes were moved into the sargasso sea of doom, meaning they would be tangled and stuck for the rest of the game!

Spencer was snagging some gold in the northwest:

Woelf’s clarification on the spying abilities was a bit shocking to me, as I had always played it as once per round on the controlling player’s turn.  Thanks to Witch and others for bringing up the wording, as we would play it correctly the rest of the weekend with spying able to happen on every player’s turn.  This makes them even more viable and I could see the 2 point spyers being worth it as a result.  There was a funny moment on the first turn where Witch used his Lucky the Parrot to spy one of my crew, which was Lucky the Parrot. “Pieces of Eight!” XD

As the turtles arrive home, the Bloody Jewel looks for gold while the Raven’s Neck is sent through whirlpools to try and dump her Plague in one.  Xerecs and Witch have gotten some coins home, while Kyle’s ships head towards Spencer’s gold runners. The Longshanks was sunk near the center, dooming my plan to use the Intrepid and Trepassey as prizes.  Gazerbeam is relieved to finally take a turn with his fleet, moving his remaining 2 canoes over a reef in search of gold.

The whited-out coin is a Plague proxy, and you can see what I was dealing with on the Raven’s Neck.  If I could eliminate that UT on a “bad” whirlpool roll, I could transfer her coins to the Bloody Jewel without danger (the latter still carrying her valuable helmsman) and avoid the Rats penalty on the regular coins aboard RN.  Nemo’s Plans (a gift from Xerecs via Pandora’s Box) was nice to have, though we should have coordinated better on which UT we would each contribute.  I was somewhat hell-bent on the Altar to pull off my gimmick strategy lol.

Maps of Alexandria was found, revealing the southeast island (at the bottom right) to be rather valuable at 12 total gold with a Cross of Coronado too.

It also revealed the location of my “original” Altar of the Loa, dormant on an island in the southwest.  Xerecs and I were constantly using the spying ability throughout the game and sharing information with each other to game plan, and did consider revealing the Altar location (before the Maps were found) to the team of Gazerbeam/Kyky in case they would be able to use it to control Spencer or Witch’s turn(s).  At this point there was a LOT going on, both in terms of team strategy and inter-team politics.  So much that I can’t remember half of it haha!  Definitely a fun time, and getting a bit tense as the endgame approached….

Kyle’s Revenant back to full strength.  Wine could throw a wrench into the plans of any team trying to end the game sooner rather than later…

From the east looking west.  Peter’s Intrepid has made the harrowing journey home to repair.  Dan and Spencer look like the favorites to win, though Xerecs and I might have enough gold to at least contest it.

The Bloody Jewel got the RN’s coins home after I finally rolled badly enough in a whirlpool to toss Plague overboard.  The BJ had also found two other face down coins of note… two abandoned crew.  O_O  I told Xerecs this, as it meant the BJ could use the Altar for another turn of control over Peter’s fleet.  This was a secret worth keeping, as I don’t think others in the game anticipated both of the coins on the BJ not unloaded to home to be essentially crew that I could sac at the Altar.  This was another way to gamify the Altar that I had intended during my fleet construction when thinking about UT’s – include at least 2 abandoned crew so if you run out of normal crew, you can find more to keep the mind control going.  XD  This was also my intent with Castaway (to bring in a recruiter crew who gets flipped for a second crew, then sac both), which backfired when Spencer found it and brought in SM Genny Gallows for +2 gold to some of his coins.  XD

Peter was able to get some revenge, with the Intrepid dismasting the Raven’s Neck, but only after missing horribly the turn prior (his luck was horrific in this game, so not a fun start to the weekend.  Though being the player to my left was random and not my intent, as I hadn’t thought about who would be a potential “Altar victim” before the game started).

Xerecs’ Neptune’s Hoard (NH) took 2 masts off HMS Dover.  SM Fantasma (aboard the NH) has designs on Witch’s HI, which is currently protected by the Devil Ray and Princess but not the dangerous QAR.  With the unfortunate constraint of time ticking down toward when the game had to end, I had some ideas for the endgame.  However, my worst fears were realized when Kyle sent his Revenant in the direction of the 12 gold in the southeast.  I think we had 45 minutes or less left in the game at this point, and I saw building a durable fort on that island as the best play Xerecs and I could make to contest Dan and Spencer’s combined gold total.

The Intrepid sunk the Raven’s Neck, bringing me down to just the Bloody Jewel.  She went to the Altar island, but at this point Peter’s fleet was too weak to gain much advantage by controlling it for a turn.  We would need other help, so I planned things out with Xerecs, knowing that the gold swing on HMS Dover (2 coins and I think 7 gold) or the NH raiding Dan’s HI would not be as much as a fort control play for the 12 in the southeast. Xerecs made a clutch move by surfacing Intermediaro to blast and pin Dan’s QAR, taking advantage of the Sea Monster-Captain house rule with some equipment while also stealing back a coin the QAR stole from his HI.  The squid fought well and eventually the QAR was sunk!  This was a big move that helped Xerecs and I, as it took an HI Raider out of the game and meant she also couldn’t interfere with our fort plans.  Luckily the Revenant was too slow to dock at the SE island.

To some extent, my “deke” of keeping both abandoned crew face down on the Bloody Jewel paid off.  The Revenant came for the BJ, but was only able to dismast her!  Then I flipped the abandoned shipwright to put a mast back up. I sacced two crew for a final turn of control over Peter’s fleet, but the Intrepid and Ebat needed extra actions through the whirlpool to do anything about the Revenant, which they didn’t have. The real key was that this BJ distraction allowed Xerecs’ weakened NH (from combat with the Dover) to round earth to the southeast and build The Devil’s Maw on the island with gold from Xerecs’ HI!  As part of her explore action, the NH dumped the 3 she had acquired recently into the fort, knowing it would be better protected in the fort.  Indeed, the last round was upon us, and even though the NH was dismasted and (I think) sunk, the fort was left intact, meaning all the gold in it would count for Xerecs and I.

Unfortunately the game ended with a time constraint though there was still gold in play/etc.  Spencer had also been clutch at the end, picking up a coin near the giant iceberg with the Winds of Vengeance.  It was time to count!

1. Dan and Spencer: 46 gold (6 units in play)
2. Ben and Billy: 46 gold (2 units in play) (including 22 gold on my HI, 1 on Billy’s HI, 2 on Intermediaro, and I believe 21 in The Devil’s Maw)
3. Peter and Kyle: 8 gold

O_O  Holy cow what a finish!!!  O_O  Incredibly against all odds the gold scores were a high-scoring TIE at 46, leaving it up to the tiebreaker of most units in play!  Dan and Spencer got that one easily and thus are the winners of this Team Co-Op Game!

Truly an unbelievable game.  It kills me to write this out because of how many things could have gone just slightly differently to give Xerecs and I the win.  XD  That said, we played our heart out as a team in the endgame and I think we did things optimally in the final hour of the game.  If we had coordinated better and Barbary Banner was placed on the RN instead of Nemo’s Plans, that 5 gold would have been enough.  But my Castaway UT gave Spencer Genny Gallows, whose bonuses made enough of a difference for their team to win. I should try to agonize less over what-ifs and care less about winning haha.  Unfortunately Peter and Kyle had to play from behind at the outset largely due to the Altar play; “everything that can go wrong will go wrong” as Gore Verbinski said about filming the PotC movies.  I will say I’m a bit less likely to use the Altar in future multiplayer games, both because you are limited in who you can control (only the next player in the turn order) and because wrecking Peter’s fleet didn’t do enough to win the game for Xerecs and I.  Congrats to all on a game well played and a wild start to the big weekend.

Marysville Library Game

10/2/2022

I played with a friend at the Marysville Library board game meetup.  These are the house rules used for the “PNW Pirates”, though most would not be relevant today as it was my opponent’s second game.  She rolled to go first with a Franco-Spanish fleet:
El Toro + captain, helmsman
Catedral del Mar + captain, helmsman
Mercure + captain
La Cazadora + helmsman

I followed with the English:
HMS Sultan + captain, helmsman, chainshot specialist, fire shot, double shot
HMS Ajax + captain, helmsman
HMS Bath + helmsman
HMS Greyhound

4 wild islands with 4 coins apiece, with 3 terrain placed per player.

After the Cazadora explored to take two coins, the Mercure repositioned to shoot a mast off the Sultan while grabbing a third coin from the island.  El Toro has arrived through the whirlpool to block HMS Bath.

I decided I wanted to play it risky and try to blast El Toro out of the game in one fell swoop.  However, true to form as could be, my cannon luck was abysmal.  Broadsides Attack missed.  The Sultan set the Mercure alight and dismasted her with the ram roll, but double shot backfired, leaving the schooner with just one mast standing.  I decided to blast away with the Greyhound and Bath as well, but the ships combined to go 0/3 against El Toro, leaving me wide open for a devastating counterattack.

El Toro dismasted the Ajax, allowing the Bath to flee into fog and the Greyhound to escape to my HI.  With the Mercure burning to the waterline, her gold could not be salvaged by the Sultan, who sailed home hoping to evade the dangerous crab nearby.  The Catedral is gathering some gold for the Franco-Spanish.

A bit later and El Toro has explored a fresh island, allowing the Cazadora to grab gold from it more quickly. The crab’s positioning led me to scramble for the island the Greyhound was originally aiming for, with the goal of protecting them with the repaired Sultan on the return trip if necessary.

The luck shifted a bit during this middle phase of the game, with the Toro’s captain directing a 1/4 shooting performance against the Bath, leaving her to return home safely with 3 coins on my next turn.  The Sultan redocked and shot some crab claws into the sea, setting the crab aflame!  I think this is the first time I’ve seen a crab on fire!

As the Spanish continued to pile up gold, El Toro would not go down quietly.  It extinguished its flaming appendage only to be set aflame once more!

Ugh!  El Toro puts the fire out again!  The crab’s giant claw dismasts HMS Greyhound with a ram, frustrating my endgame plans.

Normally I would have built a fort on the island the Greyhound explored (in order to extend the game for HMS Bath to do enough home island raids), but I didn’t want to suddenly introduce a new mechanic that would have been an unfair advantage since I hadn’t told my friend about it.  Instead my plan was to load coins and camp in fog to extend the game, allowing HMS Bath to steal more gold and turn the tide of the gold race!  By now the Catedral had lost her helmsman to the whirlpool, meaning that both of my movable ships had a speed advantage over her.

This is where we ran into the time constraint of the library closing – the game took about 2 hours, longer than expected as usual. The Bath was able to dock home a stolen coin, but soon afterwards my bad luck struck again.  HMS Sultan came out of the fog bank to shoot at the Cazadora, but rolled 3 1’s to set herself alight!!  Crazy enough, on the next turn I went to dock her home and rolled a 2, meaning the fire spread and she was derelict!  The game was over.

1. Franco-Spanish: 20 gold
2. English: 13

This was a solid game that turned out closer than I had thought. The Bath had stolen a 2, so it would have been 22-11 with no HI raiding.  HMS Sultan burned to the waterline with 5 gold aboard.  The game was affected by a few asterisks, such as El Toro not rolling for whirlpool damage early in the game, and the very rushed endgame.  It was still a fun game though, and a good one for my opponent to learn about how the endgame rules can be manipulated for maximum benefit.  (she did start thinking about sabotaging her own ships to end it faster with the gold lead, but didn’t need to as I basically played myself out of it with the Sultan burning herself to a crisp…)

Teaching a Player and their first game!

8/21/2022

It’s been too long since I was teaching a player how to play Pirates!  I met up with my friend for her first game.  I made both fleets and we would generally be using my Basic Rules that do away with ram damage and change a few other things.  I gave perhaps a bit more insight into the strategic elements of the game than I usually do when teaching people how to play the game, which I think it can definitely expedite a player’s learning curve.  All game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet.

I rolled to go first with a Cursed Junk fleet:
Death Wind + captain, helmsman
Sea Rat + helmsman
Demon Gate + helmsman

Sailing against me were the Spanish:
El Toro + captain, helmsman
Pescados de Plata + helmsman
La Cazadora + helmsman

I wanted to keep the crew basic.  We used terrain and round earth but no UT’s.  4 coins per wild island and the iceberg would move on every single player turn to avoid having it be even more irrelevant than expected.

All four wild islands were quickly explored by our various 2 masters, with the Death Wind and Demon Gate hiding in fog on the way home to avoid getting grabbed and slashed by El Toro.

Those junks got home, but soon the Sea Rat came under attack by the Spanish, with El Toro round earthing to dismast and pin her!

With the gold dwindling to just a 2 on the Sea Rat and a pair of coins on the northeastern island, I decided to have the Death Wind “sprint” for the latter while the Demon Gate would distract and block the Spanish from interfering.  However, I made a large gaffe when the Death Wind went from the wild island to the fog bank without exploring to take the gold first!  The Demon Gate towed the Sea Rat, but was quickly dismasted by El Toro, with the Pescados de Plata capturing the Sea Rat (the only game piece in play with the HI Raider ability…).

The titan crushes Cursed junks!

The Pescados towed the Sea Rat home through the whirlpool, with the latter losing her 2 coin to the swirling depths.  However, the Spanish were mostly just wanting to use the HI Raider ability.  Having already been touching the Demon Gate, El Toro captured the ship and then immediately dropped the tow, moving L+S towards the final coins in play.  At this point I saw the Spanish as having the better endgame odds, with far more units available and a HI Raider against just my Death Wind.  I kinda thought I might be ahead in gold, so I was starting to envision El Toro dismasting the Death Wind and triggering an endgame condition sooner rather than later (though I did brief the Spanish player on the endgame rules, and how people often trigger endgame conditions prematurely without thinking through all the repercussions and how gold is counted/etc).

My gaffe with not exploring the island at the right time became a real issue as the Cazadora came in to load the final two coins.  The Death Wind combined a boarding win and her ability to steal both, but a repaired Sea Rat was potentially a bigger problem than any upcoming clash with El Toro on the trip home.  Soon afterwards the Sea Rat did steal a coin from my home island, frustrating me as it put another coin in play.  El Toro came over and dismasted the Death Wind, ending the game!  It was certainly an interesting time to count up gold, as none of the three coins on ships would count for either player.

1. Hayley’s Spanish: 20 gold
2. Ben’s Cursed: 17

In the end the Sea Rat capture proved clutch for the Spanish!  She took a 5 off my HI, meaning I would have won 22-20 if not for the theft.  In addition, various other interesting endgame scenarios could have happened.  When the Death Wind dismasted the Cazadora, she hit 2/3 with her 4L cannon missing.  If that shot had hit, the Cazadora would have sunk before the 5 could be stolen, ending the game with all available gold unloaded to HI’s!  Plus, if the Death Wind had somehow survived, those 4 gold could have mattered in some way (especially if she had grabbed the coins from the island instead of forgetting to do so).  In the end, it was a very fun game and a great introduction, with excellent gameplay on behalf of the Spanish for someone’s first ever game of Pirates CSG.  Teaching a player how to play this game pretty much made my day.  Kudos and as always, more games await!  😀

Bottleneck Game at 4×50

8/14/2022

The latest game at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue Washington was of a similar nature as my previous “Bottleneck Game” – 4×50 (4 players, 50 point fleets) with all home islands on one side of the ocean, with the wild islands and gold only accessible via a bottleneck where two land peninsulas converged.  These are the house rules we use, though this was a flat earth game (with hard boundaries you couldn’t pass over) to make sure the bottleneck would be relevant.  If you try this idea, I would also recommend banning Ghost Ship and possibly the home island raider abilities – the former to prevent making the bottleneck irrelevant (or at least make ghostly not able to pass through the peninsula landmasses).  The peninsulas of the bottleneck can be explored for the purposes of building forts on them.

We used 4 wild islands with 4 coins apiece.

Here are the general fleets in the order of play:

Dan’s Spanish
La Tartessos + Almirante Carlos Pavón y Miranda, SM Castro (SAT), Contessa Anita Amore, helmsman, oarsman
La Espada de Dios + Nemesio Diaz, Bianco’s Haulers (SS), helmsman

Kyle’s Americans
USS Atlanta + Jonathan Haraden, Chief PO Charles Richard (DJC), Commodore Matthew Perry, helmsman, oarsman
USS Sioux + captain, helmsman, oarsman
Carolina
Rattlesnake

Ben’s Sneaky Pirates
Slipstream + F&S Lenoir, Gendarmerie Rene Moreau, helmsman
Raven + Don Pedro Gilbert, helmsman, explorer, oarsman x2
Dragon + Hag of Tortuga, El Fantasma (SM), helmsman

John’s Frenchmen
La Marseillais + F&S Lenoir, Jules de Cissey, captain, helmsman, oarsman
Enfant Terrible + helmsman
L’Afrique + captain, fire shot
Glaive

Were we actually ready for what this setup and fleet gamification would bring upon us?

Dan elected to stay at home for the first round.  With Kyle’s mighty American presence next to him, it looked like a smart move.  I was originally going to have the Paradox in my fleet as well, but removed it to bolster the Raven.  With the help of Don and an oarsman she sped off through the bottleneck at the breakneck pace of 8S.  The Slipstream dove underwater and headed west… would she be seen again?  The Dragon stayed put, likely the best option with gunships looking ready to swarm the bottleneck area.

The Carolina was waylaid by Dan’s forces, captured by the Espada in the below picture. The Atlanta took a beating from the Tartessos as well.  John got in on the action with the Marseillais, but missed all shots.

The Tartessos had a broadside ready against John’s flagship, but Lenoir denied Miranda the chance at a sinking.  In the meantime, the Raven had explored the central wild island on the western half, finding three 5’s and Shipping Charts.  She only had room for one 5, but I was determined to explore other islands since it looked way too risky to come home anytime soon.  The origins of my fleet strategy centered around using Moreau (pretty safe on the submerged, cancelling Slipstream) from underwater to shoot Wolves dead at the opportune moment in a way that would let me dictate the endgame.  I was playing the long game, hoping to have Wolves protect the final gold in play and then potentially stalling and negotiating in order to better my position at the end by having total control over when the gold that Wolves guards could be accessed.

Although the main purpose of the sub and Marine crew was to let me dictate the endgame phase, it quickly became apparent that my fleet was by far the weakest and I would probably have to incur some damage to the opposition in order to get the Raven home safely.  Thus the Slipstream began ramming nearby ships, first picking on John’s French fleet.  An annoying tactic, but one that felt necessary given the circumstances and opposing fleets.  More damage probably could have been done if I revealed Moreau, but I wanted to keep the marine secret for longer.  I also knew (partly through Shipping Charts) that both Dan and John had cancellers, so if they teamed up the Slipstream could be sunk.

The Dragon had a sad game where she stayed at home, as it was too risky to set sail as she would likely get blasted before she could sail through the bottleneck.  The island partially cut off in the bottom left corner has been explored by the Raven, who found a Cross of Coronado there as well as 3,3,2.  I was noting all of the gold and crew in play and wanted to know more. John soon found the Wolves I contributed at the island the Glaive is docked at, making me curious as to what they would be protecting.  The rest of John’s fleet heads north around terrain, shadowed by the Slipstream.  The Spanish and Americans eye each other, with repairs occurring in both fleets.  Kyle did have designs on the gold islands, but has been foiled.  This is because the Tartessos lurks in wait for anyone brave enough to pass through the strait.  It looks as though both the Spanish and Americans will be confined to the home island half of the ocean, making it a very dangerous place for any gold runners brave enough to risk a return journey.

A few rounds later and the pace of play chugs along slowly.  Seeing what looked like a long stalemate in the endgame full of fearful maneuvering and home island raiding swaps, I wanted to take some calculated risks to improve my position and keep the game moving.  To that end the Raven swerved astern of the Enfant Terrible and rammed her derelict (just out of reach of the Marseillais) with the intent to capture soon afterwards.  That happened after she explored that northwestern island, finding Marksman’s Map, an abandoned captain and oarsman, and a 1. Not the best island, but now I had both “spyer” UT’s and could easily peek at what Wolves was protecting without having to explore there.  Knowledge is power, and now I was on a quest to know what every single face down cargo in the game was.  From there I could make calculations, assess what risks I wanted to take, and determine whether to be aggressive with the Slipstream or make sure Moreau could kill the Wolves at the right time later on.  The Atlanta has sniped a few masts off the captured Carolina, while L’Afrique is badly stuck on a sargasso sea.

My assets harass the French. The Enfant may not have a lot of value in the game, but I still want the coins she loaded and it’s always better to have more units available if possible.  The more ships you have the more options you have.

Having explored the 3 wild islands I wanted to (and with Marksman’s Map allowing me to see the rest of the coins at the Wolves island), Don Pedro sacs the Raven’s oarsman to allow her to both capture a fleeing Enfant Terrible, and tow her into a fog bank all in one turn.  I did this only after knowing (through Shipping Charts) that John had not picked up the abandoned oarsman, since that would have delayed my capture attempt.  The west gets a little spicier as Dan sails the Espada de Dios through the bottleneck.  Some talk had occurred about Dan and John teaming up their cancellers to counter the Slipstream, so I decided it was silly not to start using Moreau’s Marine ability with the sub still submerged.  The Slipstream was definitely an offensive pest to be reckoned with, using a ram + “torpedoes” (submerged Marine shot; term coined by El Cazador) combo to eliminate half the masts from the Espada!  I knew the Espada had no oarsman, so if she could be quickly dismasted, a capture of her magnitude might change up the game.  Also, just in general I wanted to eliminate one of the opposing cancellers since doing so would mean the Slipstream was essentially invulnerable for the remainder of play.

The Raven has snuck away with a French prize, while the Slipstream can deter opponents from blocking the bottleneck for when the Raven eventually wants to make an 8S break for home….

The Enfant explored the Raven while they were in fog, transferring the abandoned captain to the Raven (knowing that if I revealed it, it wouldn’t count against the point limit of the ship unlike regular crew).  I then dropped the tow, knowing the Enfant would likely camp out in fog to protect her 1 coin until it was counting time.  The Espada flees southwest, docking to avoid being shot at by Moreau (due to Bianco’s Haulers aboard).  John’s Glaive picks up the remaining two 5’s for a whopping 10 total gold, something I am intrigued about getting fought over if the gold moves far enough east.

The Afrique finally got free of her sargasso trap and joined her fleetmates for a fateful trip home.  The Slipstream would not simply hang out with the Wolves, knocking down a mast on the Marseillais.  The Espada has switched sides on the peninsula, with Dan measuring carefully to stay out of the Slipstream’s L+S ramming range.  There was a considerable amount of premeasuring happening each round now, mostly concerning the Tartessos and Atlanta, who looked like they might have a clash of the titans as climax scenarios began to approach us….

The Atlanta was the first ship to blast the French on their journey towards home, taking masts off 2 of the 3 ships.  The derelict Glaive was the prize that Dan and Kyle had been waiting all game for.  🙂  Unfortunately for Dan, despite an SAT from Castro on the Tartessos, his maneuvering and options were hampered by the Espada’s positioning and Lenoir’s cancellation sitting in his path to the Atlanta and/or Glaive.  At the top right Kyle has accomplished a goal of his by recapturing the Carolina after a risky double ram attack while the schooner was still docked at Dan’s HI.

The French take a stand against the Atlanta but do minimal damage.  I believe Castro missed an SAT, meaning the Tartessos didn’t have much range on Dan’s turn.  Kyle took advantage, using the Atlanta to snipe two masts off the Tartessos!  The Slipstream lurks near the bottleneck, as I heavily consider trying to sink the Glaive outright with a well-placed shot from Moreau.  By this point I knew there was 29 total gold in play, with all four players having Ransom crew as well to muddy the calculations a little.  I was tempted to send the 10 gold to the depths and increase the percentage of total gold I already controlled (only 6 between the Raven and Enfant, but a good start on the 19 that would remain), but decided against it because I didn’t want to draw so much attention to the Slipstream with both cancellers rather close.  Better to bide my time with the opposing Lenoir so weak on the crippled Marseillais.  Plus, SM Fantasma still lurked on the Dragon, so I wasn’t convinced that whoever got the Glaive’s gold home (if anyone) would retain it against my HI raider plus Dan’s Espada.

The Afrique compounded the problems Dan was facing by revealing fire shot and setting the Tartessos alight!  John’s French may have been decimated, but they went down with an admirable fight.  Dan took the Tartessos home to extinguish the flames, damaging the Atlanta on the way there in a drive by shooting.  The Espada runs away, hoping to repair too.  The Rattlesnake snags the Glaive, bringing an important prize into Kyle’s fleet!  I finally scored a coup by sinking the Marseillais with Moreau, meaning the Slipstream had no way of being sunk by enemy players for the remainder of the game.  I would be able to decide when (and if) the Wolves were eliminated… but that would not be my path to victory, as the game needed to end soon due to time constraints.  🙁   The Raven has finally emerged from fog with a favorable roll and gets into position for a potential sprint home….

Kyle transferred the Glaive’s coins to the Rattlesnake, who sailed home at L speed, giving the Slipstream another chance to sink those 5’s the Raven didn’t have cargo space to load back on the first explore of the game (another reason I wanted them out of play at this point – I didn’t want them to haunt me if I lost).  Alas, only one of the two attack rolls (ram and marine shot) was successful, meaning the Rattlesnake would get home on Kyle’s next turn.  Before the Espada got home in the below picture, she was briefly positioned off my home island.  I premeasured the 8S total movement of the Raven, and realized I could reveal the abandoned captain on the Raven, hopefully hit both 2S shots, and shock Dan by derelicting the Espada (preventing her from getting home on Dan’s turn, and maybe by some miracle captured by the Dragon soon).  However, the Afrique and her fire shot deterred me, since I would have had to sac the Raven’s oarsman.  If I did that and the Afrique connected on a hit+ram, the Raven would be derelict with the Dragon unable to tow her home in one turn.  So I decided against it and zoomed away from the slowly approaching Sioux, going off in the far southwest where my path to victory was far more clear – with the game’s end imminent, I had to ensure I had enough gold on my ships to win.  Knowing the value of every coin in play helped a lot.  I made a mistake with the Dragon by repositioning her at my home island in a foolish hope of somehow blocking part of the Espada’s transit home.  This just left her a prime target for the Tartessos to ram, so the Dragon lost her helmsman and a mast but still had SM Fantasma for a potential HI raid.

The Atlanta was just getting into position to guard Kyle’s home island as the repaired Espada looked to steal his freshly unloaded gold.  The Dragon sailed out to potentially raid Kyle’s HI (after an assurance from the Spanish that she wouldn’t be shot at), but she was quickly sunk by the Tartessos.  The Raven was safe and sound in the peaceful southwest, where I ensured victory by exchanging Don Pedro Gilbert, the helmsman, and abandoned captain for the 3,3,2 coins I knew had been sitting there all game.  Cheap way to win perhaps, but rules are rules and it was the last round of play.  The time had expired and gold on ships counts in multiplayer games.  I took the Enfant out of the fog to max out my score, getting a weence lucky she didn’t wreck on the reef connected to the exit location of 5 on the fog bank.

1. Ben’s Sneaky Pirates: 14 gold
2. Kyle’s Americans: 10
3. Dan’s Spanish: 1 (from The Hag of Tortuga Ransom payout)
4. John: 0

In the end, this game would have taken far longer than the ~3.5+ hours we played if it was played to completion.  It was a weird kind of “stalemate meta” where all game long ships were scared to go through the bottleneck for fear of being blasted on the return journey, or in some cases, rammed and torpedoed into submission by the pesky Slipstream.  In the end I think everyone’s plans were foiled.  I wasn’t able to dictate a “phantom” endgame with the Marine-Wolves combo (their island held Runes of Magic, 4,1, so not overly interesting to me overall); Kyle wasn’t able to explore the west with either gold runner or win despite the well-earned haul on his HI; Dan was not able to best the Americans with either of his powerful ships; and John was not able to get any gold despite being arguably the most “honorable” and enterprising player by going after the coins as normal.

However, it was still a fun game and rather fascinating in some regards.  The meta around gaming an anticipated setup or scenario idea could see potential curbing in the future, as fleets built to exploit planned setups often match up against each other in ways that can cause stalemates or odd gameplay where two different games are being played.  This is somewhat reminiscent of the “Other Worlds” games I’ve played where one player is honestly trying to accumulate gold, but others exploit the setup and hang back waiting like vultures to pounce later on.  Not saying it’s a bad thing, just an observation on how it works.  Of course, I gamed the setup too, as I originally didn’t have Sac on the Raven… but knew I didn’t want to get caught at the bottleneck and crushed in a pincer movement.  So I loaded up and got the extreme speed necessary to bridge the gap early, and it paid off since the Raven won me the game by staying safe and loading up gold at the opportune moment right before the gold count (kudos to Kyle as his runner up finish feels more like 1.5/”1B” given he had all his gold on his HI and played very well overall).  As an additional note (spoiler alert), this result was somewhat similar to the Other Worlds games in that the players employing a “blockade” or home island-based strategy did not do as well as the players going straight for the gold.  A bit of karma perhaps, and arguably a tactical lesson given that it’s certainly a trend now.

I think it helped that the first time I did this idea, the fleets were basically random.  Perhaps a “setup wheel” or d6 roll could be made where you roll a d6 and a game idea is selected only after choosing fleets (within reason of course, since some fleets need to be based on some of the more crazy scenarios or ideas).  Of course, the problem with that is one of luck, where someone with a terrain ignorer in their fleet could massively benefit from a scenario where terrain plays a big role.  For the bottleneck idea, some fixes might include more distance between home islands, banning home island raiders, or introducing a second bottleneck of one whirlpool at each end of the playing area.

We still had fun and look forward to more adventures!