THE BIGGEST GAME OF ALL TIME | The Reign of Terror has begun….

What the hell is going on!?

Fleet Status Update

Xerecs

Spanish (home island is in the southeast): 15 ships, 243 points. Recently attacked by the Pirates through whirlpools at the spice island southwest of their home island (HI).

Jade Rebellion (south central): Approximately 5 ships for 50 points. They have struggled to grow.  Although they were the first faction to reach The Archipelago, their Noble Swan was captured by the Pirates, netting the Pirates a key UT combo that has pretty much permanently destabilized the game.

The Conglomerate/The Alliance: ~27 ships total.  Recently hired Mata-Nui gives them the Copier ability, and since bringing him into the fold they’ve gotten Hidden Trove twice, netting them over 1000 gold in a short period of time.

English: 16 ships in play. The English have been pretty average so far, gathering reasonably valuable resources and staying out of conflict.

A7XfanBen

Pirates (home island is northeast and southeast due to round earth rules): Already the dominant faction of the early game, the Pirates are quickly reaching all-time great status.  Combining the captured Runes of Thor+Nemo’s Plans combo with the custom Arcane ship has vaulted them into a new stratosphere of fleet size, recently topping out at 148 ships and ~3740 total points in play!  They have become the de facto favorite, with a staggering amount of firepower that grows by the turn (41 ships launched last turn!) along with a growing collection of WMD’s – Weapons of Mass Destruction.  The sheer amount of ability and UT combos available to the Pirates gives them striking range and power unlike anything ever seen in a Pirates CSG game.

Cursed (northwest): With some intriguing help from the Pirates along with Davy Jones’ Copier ability, The Cursed have gone from an average faction to the second largest fleet in play.  Among their 37 ships are a whopping five 10 masters, with more possibly on the way given that they’re still sitting on around 2000 gold.

Vikings (north central): The Vikings have basically just collected lumber, and lost the Sleipnir to the nearby Pirates. However, 14 ships is not terrible considering their severe factional limitations.  They have a Copier (Jord), but have had no luck copying the Arcane thus far.

Barbary Corsairs (northeast): The Corsairs have been an instigator, teaming up with the Vikings in a somewhat anti-Pirate/local alliance.  They attacked the Pirates with some of their best custom 4 masters; although their initial attack was devastating, they lost all 4 of the ships.  However, a Copier of their own has allowed them to resurge, with 26 ships and nearly 500 points in play.

PirateAJ14

Dutch (southwest): ~7 ships. The Dutch have some interesting ships and UT’s.  It looks as though they may be trying to establish an alliance with the French.

Americans (northwest): 16+ ships. The Americans have done quite well for themselves, raking in metals to launch a bunch of their best ships.  Recent attacks by The Cursed have left them in a state of some disarray.

Mercenaries (east): 6 ships.  It took them a while to get going, but now the Mercenaries have some ships beyond just their starting fleet.  They have been rather “anonymous” and are located far from any conflicts.

French (southwest): 8+ ships.  The French have been stuck with poor resources for a while, and have not yet had the chance to make a mark for themselves in the game.

Alliances: Corsairs and Vikings (not publicly announced in game, so for thematic purposes only these factions know along with whoever they may have told about it)

Wars (declarer first): Pirates vs. Spanish

 

A 33 Hour Turn

As a general reminder, if you haven’t read the previous battle reports for CG4, this will be harder to understand.  I recommend starting with the rules and first reports, followed by the rest in the tag.  The tagged posts start with the most recent, so going bottom up from the last page is in chronological order.

This turn with my four factions took approximately 33 hours, up from last turn’s previous record of 30.5 hours.  It was played from late May 2021 until July 31st 2021, with approximately 15 different sessions of playtime.  The longest sessions were 5 hours on May 30th and about 4 hours on July 24th.  I think the point count took about 4 hours, with the battle report taking about another 5+, so what you’re looking at represents over 40 hours of dedication just for this turn.

Pirates

I started my party of a turn listening to this excellent mix.  I am absolutely drunk on power…. XD

Arcane Rolls: Vesok allowed Gilded Figurehead to work, which was used to replace the bad Arcane roll with a 6.  This allowed the Pirates to place a Hidden Trove on the Shadow Thief!  This would not be the last of their successes….

It is almost crazy just keeping track of the Pirates’ AA (Admiral’s Action) rolls – they now have nine of those abilities in play.  8 of them have Reroll with them on the ship in question, while the 9th is Ching Shih whose AA hits on a 4-6 due to Vesok being aboard the Smoke’s Hand with her.  O_O  So at the beginning of each Pirate turn, I am just doing around 20 d6 rolls to see how many AA’s I get and which Arcane rolls/rerolls/etc work out.  XD  In addition, the Shadow’s Hand now carries the Antikythera Mechanism, which just hit on this turn with a 6, allowing the Pirates to give an action to an enemy ship!

The Smiling Jim brushed up against the Noble Swan, giving the former the Plague but allowing the Noble Swan to explore the Smiling Jim, also giving her Enemy of the State.  The Smiling Jim was launched specifically for this purpose, so the Noble Swan will be able to dock at the Pirate HI (finally!) when the Warring Tribes gets her there.

The Tempest got Cannonball Gallows’ EA to move out of the whirlpool area near where the attack on the Spanish took place.  She emerged from the fogpool near the Pirate home island, using her second action to touch the Inferno.  The Inferno was given an explore action, swapping a face down crew for the Tempest’s Aert van Tuyl, the historical custom chieftain for the Natives of Madagascar native canoes.  The Tempest is even more loaded now….

Chain exploring is back in vogue!  With the ability to yank in Hidden Trove at will every single turn, the Pirates have less need for gold runners.  At some islands, the Pirates are now planning to go with a more passive gold running approach, chaining together their resource gatherers so they barely have to sail them around at all.  Ideally the last ship in the chain that would normally be docked at the home island will have some kind of ability that allows her to unload at the home island if she’s within S of it.  This allows ships to transit the busy waters right around the home island rather than create a blockage where ships would normally have to sail all the way around the chain of exploring ships in order to get to the other side of the home island area. (or break up the chain to allow a ship through the line, which slows down the flow of resources)  Due to their guaranteed (and massive) income with essentially infinite Hidden Troves, the Pirates aren’t worried about whether or not the chain exploring is truly optimal for resource collection (they might get X less of metal per turn compared to regular operations where each ship is given a move action, though I haven’t done the math on all that).

In what would normally be a large coup, the Harbinger sacced to capture the Joya del Sol and warp her home, netting the Pirates a grand Spanish prize along with her cargo of 7 spices, suddenly worth the max of 42 gold under the new resource change! O_O Of course, that is now chump change compared to the Pirates’ near-unlimited wealth….

The Tempest used Avak’s help to get a 6 on the ship’s special ability, which allows her to place a whirlpool from outside the game anywhere on the ocean!  This would become important later on….

For reference, here is the Pirate-Spanish situation towards the end of this Pirate turn.  Some of the gunships that attacked last turn left the area already, with the Pirates cleaning up a bit.  The 10 masters continued circling the spice island.  Despite the fact that a state of WAR exists between the two factions, the Pirate ships made no moves towards the Spanish home island (HI).

BUT THAT WAS NOT THE END OF IT!!  THE LEVIATHAN IS HERE!  The custom Pirate 5 master with D movement came swooping in, but she was not without some extra help!  The Pirates got ALL THREE Arcane rolls this round (with some help from Runes of Thor of course! lol), allowing them to put UT’s on The Leviathan.  Here is the footage of what happened next!!

14 masts eliminated from 7 Spanish ships, from a UT that is now reusable!!!  O_O

The Leviathan is dismasted… but the Pirates have a plan for that… at least, … someone does….

 

Now it was time for another Odin Missile!  The WMD that the Pirates introduced last turn is still fully operational!  The Pirates don’t care much for the Jade Rebellion, so why not hit them?  Runes of Odin introduced a new deadly iceberg to the game, and then Runes of Magic was used to slam it into the Virtuous Wind, removing her from the game!!  O_O

The VW was carrying a bevy of UT’s when the icy missile broke her to pieces:

The Stormy Night moved the Tycoon into the iceberg that destroyed the Virtuous Wind.

What happened next was nothing short of shocking and evil.

 

Summary: With the Pirates controlling her, the Chimeratron Legacy captures 8 American crew and scores 8 hits combined on the Mercury and Blackwatch.  Making matters much worse for the Americans, The Cursed are next in the play order, which means the CL can probably get 2 more actions before the Americans can even respond….

The Tempest used her ability to place a whirlpool… right next to The Leviathan….  O_O  Anyone paying close attention to the customs in play may have an idea of what this means… very soon….  oh no…..

In the northeast, the Pirates continued moving their mass of gunships to the southeast towards the whirlpool and fogpool.  Perhaps they’re forming some sort of defensive line against the Corsairs?  Even in zoomed-in pictures like this you can see the massive scale of campaign games.  So many ships in one area, and true fleet movements occurring as they did in the Age of Sail, rather than a handful of ships scurrying about in a 40 point game.  XD

The Blackleaf was given the final AA of the turn to teleport from the fogpool to a whirlpool in the far northeast that is surrounded by sargasso sea (at the far right in the above picture). The whirlpool is close to the spice island the Corsairs and English have been making trips to, which is now rather valuable given the resource change making spices worth 5 gold each. The Blackleaf also carries town and military port upgrades….

At the upgraded Skull Valley fortress, the Pirates gave actions to their newly launched ships there.  Along with some random-looking maneuvers, it once again appears that the Pirates are generally just trying to clear as much room as possible at their launch points….

And that is exactly the case!!  The Shadow Thief docked home a Hidden Trove. 334 ships in play meant it was worth 668 gold. Silverback John doubled that to 1336, which got added to the Pirates’ existing 565 gold for a grand total of 1901 gold!

Pirate Launch Period

C=Captain; H=Helmsman; O=Oarsman; FPS=Firepot Specialist; B2W=Back to War (Pointless Arrow’s custom set)

Launched from Skull Valley: 9 ships, 207 points
El Dorado + CH, Dinghy, Streamlined Hull
Ranger (B2W) + CHO, Ballista; towing Guinea (B2W)
Broken Wind + Iolkos (Captain, S-Board, crew kill on every hit), helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull
Prussian Crown + CHO, Ballista, 68lb Carronade, Swivel Gun
Sea Keg + CHO, Ballista
Foresight + helmsman, Dinghy, 2 shipwrights, 5 oarsmen
Dharma + helmsman, shipwright, Dinghy, 4 oarsmen
Sunrise Fire + helmsman, Dinghy, 2 shipwrights, 3 oarsmen

Launched from the textiles military port: 11 ships, 247 points
Berserker+ CHO, Dinghy, 2 equipment
Burnt Bones + CHO, Dinghy, Carronade, 2 equipment
Recreant + CHO, firepot specialist, fire shot
El Ladron + CHO, firepot specialist, fire shot
Revenge (PotC version) + CHO, firepot specialist, fire shot
Accused + CHO, firepot specialist, musketeer
Silverback + CHO, firepot specialist, fire shot, Dinghy
HMS Rickets + CHO, firepot specialist, fire shot
Fortune + CHO, firepot specialist, fire shot
Plague of the North + CHO, firepot specialist
Dart + CH, Dinghy, facedown crew

Launched from metals military port: 15 ships, 335 points
Bruja + François l’Olonnais, helmsman, oarsman
Bloody Spear + Fidel Zuan, CHO, FPS, Streamlined Hull
Flying Death + Richard Sawkins (Captain, +1 to boards, +1 to d6 rolls against the Spanish), helmsman, Dinghy, oarsman
Charles + Jean L’Escuyer (+1 to cannons against the Spanish), CH, FPS
Black Gentleman + Daniel Johnson (+1 tod6 rolls against the Spanish and +1 to boards), CHO, Ballista (one of the very few ships in the Pirate fleet utilizing Silverback John’s cargo master +1 bonus)
-This completes the Anti-Spanish Squadron (for now?) at 12 ships.

Greyhound + CH, FPS, shipwright
Mocha + CHO, FPS
Panama Sun + CHO, FPS, shipwright
Poison Dagger + CHO, FPS
Pillage + CHO
Foultrader + CHO, Ballista
El Diablo Negro + Jacques Tavernier, Judy Rodriguez (Helmsman+Cannoneer), oarsman, Ballista, Dinghy
Viper + CH, Dinghy, Ballista
Santiago + CHO, Ballista, fire shot
Zanzibar + CHO, FPS

Launched from their home island: 10 ships, 238 points (seen in the previous 2 pictures)
(Northern half)
The Deserter + CHO
Black Arrow + CHO, chainshot specialist, Dinghy, stinkpot shot
Ningpo + Captain, Ballista
Delight + CHO, Ballista
Dolphin + CH, shipwright
Plague of the East + CHO, shipwright, fire shot
(Southern half)
Charming Mary + Calico Cat (already in play), CHO, shipwright, Streamlined Hull
Silver Dagger + CHO, Streamlined Hull, gold coin, fort upgrade
Bonny Kate + CHO
Royal Fortune + CHO
El Chico + CH

+the Harbinger received a Dinghy and restocked oarsmen; she is one of the VERY few ships in the Pirate fleet actually taking advantage of Silverback John’s cargo master bonus and therefore she will sail out next turn with 5 oarsmen.  (I despise the usage of cargo masters in campaign games because it breaks their ability, so I use it as little as possible and generally just ignore the fact that all my Pirate ships in this game have an extra cargo space.)

The Arcane is essentially up to 4 “bodyguard” ships now. This is like the military policy of Defense in Depth.

You may notice that a lot of the launches are rather lackluster.  This is partly because they’ve already launched a ton of the really good ships I wanted them to launch, and because it’s easier to launch cheaper or “basic” ships to save time so my turn can take about 3 months instead of maybe 4.  XD  It’s finally gotten to the point where the Pirates are so big and powerful that it doesn’t feel remotely necessary to fully optimize their launches every single turn like I usually do in campaign games.  The term I’ve been using for a ship like Poison Dagger (average across the board but more likely to be a gunship than a gold runner) is “stock gunship”.  The Pirates, having the most ships ever released in this game, inevitably have a lot of 2-3 masters that are sometimes quite good (like the Recreant) along with a lower tier of similar ships that blend together and just aren’t usually that notable on their own.  These are generally what I call stock gunships (at least, in campaign games).  Almost like pure “numbers” gunships that wouldn’t normally carry named crew, but can stock up on “extra weaponry” (as I call it) such as cannoneers, musketeers, specialists, and offensive equipment.

The Pirates launched 18 ships from stock this turn.

The Pirate launch phases have now transitioned from fully optimal, to more of a numbers game where they continue rapidly expanding the size of their fleet, but nowadays filling it out with “stock” as they run through ship after ship from the Master Spreadsheet and Customs Database in a frenetic pace to “launch ’em all”.  Time will tell if they slow down on purpose despite their massive wealth, or if they splurge onwards and continue adding 40+ ships to their fleet every turn….

This Pirate Turn By the Numbers
Ships Launched: 45 (new high for them this game, and likely for any fleet in any game; 86 ships added to their fleet in the last 2 turns)
Gold Spent: 1,027
Gold Remaining: 874
New Fleet Totals: 196 Ships, ~4,700 Points  (continue reading for the point count…)

The Cursed

-Got the FD’s UT ability to work with Kalfu’s regular Reroll. This was used to put a copy of Runes of Thor on the Shadow’s Hand, completing the Pirate trifecta of THREE auto-6’s!! (three ships in their fleet now have both Nemo’s Plans and Runes of Thor aboard)  This is also certainly not the first time The Cursed have used the FD to give the Pirates a positive UT….
-The Pantheon got her Arcane roll to work! Nemo’s Plans placed on the Chimeratron Legacy!  O_O   Uh oh….
-The Pirates use one of their Runes of Thor copies on the Royal Feces’ Arcane roll that goes through Eye of Insanity and Davy Jones! This is used to bring in Nuva, which was placed on the Pantheon! (Any crew ability on this ship may be used by another crew within S of this ship.) Just like the Pirates have done with the Smoke’s Hand, this will allow the copying of a Copier, giving The Cursed yet another chance at Arcane rolls every turn! (just like the Pirates, they will now have 3 cracks at it every turn, and you can trust they will do everything they can to optimize the system with Reroll/Gilded Figurehead/etc.)
-The Spiral Chaos used Nuva to copy Davy Jones (and the Arcane through DJ) through her oarsman. The 6 was used to bring in Runes of Thor which was placed on the Chimeratron Legacy!  O_O

The Chimeratron Legacy was up next… dare to watch the carnage unfold??  See it here….

She sank the Blackwatch, damaged the Kettering, and captured the Mercury!  O_O  The deed is done.  But the turn is not.  Devil’s Storm, continue the slaughter.  And that she did, capturing the Kettering and hitting the Bonhomme Richard.

Funny enough the attack was not complete!  I forgot one of the recently acquired Cursed weapons!  Tridax (a custom ship from Xerecs) got a 5 to warp to an island and shoot the Americans, sinking the Lynx and further damaging the Bonhomme Richard!

With just a few ships The Cursed have thrown the American fleet into disarray.  Some American ships have been captured or sunk, while others flee with significant battle damage.  What was already a gloomy situation for the Americans is made even more horrendous with the arrival of Chimera, Divine Beast of the Apocalypse – the newest Cursed 10 master on the scene!  With the CL about to warp out of the picture by capturing the Mercury via Lord Jonathan Morgenstern and Dinghy, the Chimera serves as the CL’s replacement on the battlefront.  (not that she needed a relief)

The Spiral Chaos used Kalfu’s global reroll to get her ship’s ability to work on a 6!  “Once per turn, roll a d6. On a 5-6, move any ship within L of a whirlpool into that whirlpool. You may choose the exit location of the ship.”  The Cursed chose the Spanish!  The Colector del Dia spun through a whirlpool…

…and got sent to Davy Jones’ Locker by Figlar Castle #2!!  O_O   Imagine the shock the Spanish felt as one of their ships was mysteriously yanked into a new whirlpool (created by the Pirates…), only to never see her again as she was sunk far away across the ocean by a new whirlborne Cursed fortress of doom!!  O_O

The Cursed ships scattered from their home island, likely making room for new launches in addition to the Chimeratron Legacy, who warped home with the Mercury after exploring her via Dinghy.  You can also see a good number of Cursed ships entering fog banks.

 

A familiar WMD, in Evil hands

O_O   The Cursed combine their old copy of Runes of Odin (that they found normally quite a while back) with a new copy of Nemo’s Plans to introduce their own version of the Odin Missile!  Oya-lansan is used to shove the iceberg into the Fuerza de Dios, instantly removing the Spanish 5 master from the game!

 

Now for a case of severe shock….

BOOM!!

and BOOOOOOM!!!!!!!   O_O_O_O_O

The Cursed launch 4 10 masters right next to the Spanish home island!!!!!  O_O

Figlar Castle: This fort can only be built on a whirlpool when a Cursed ship is touching the whirlpool. Starting the turn after construction, this fort can travel through whirlpools like a ship, but without having to roll for damage. Ships docked at the fort do not travel with the fort. Cursed crew can use their abilities in this fort.

The Cursed warped the recently upgraded 1st Figlar Castle through her original whirlpool to arrive in what still looks like Spanish territorial waters!  And during their launch period they launched 5 ships from the fort including 4 10 masters!!  Holy cow and What The Hell!?   LOL!  Not only does this look really bad for the Spanish, but the fort and 10 masters just so happen to completely cover the dismasted Leviathan and likely block the Spanish off from doing her any harm.

Now you can see why I said in the last report regarding the second copy (only 2 of each custom fort allowed in this game) of Figlar Castle being built by the Solenostomus: “This should seem… far more than ominous….”

The Cursed Launch

From the Figlar Castle by the Spanish Home Island: 5 ships, 329 points
Berzerker + Berserk Overlord, helmsman, oarsman, Ballista, Streamlined Hull, 2 crew and 1 equipment
Devil’s Wrath + helmsman, oarsman, 4 crew, 2 equipment
Diabolic Monstrosity + helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull, 3 crew, 2 equipment
Slaughter of Innocents + helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull, 3 crew, 1 equipment
Slaying of the Savior + helmsman, oarsman, 4 crew
+High Command, Throne of the Antichrist with Underworld Maniacs as the 10+ point crew

From the Cursed Home Island: 9 ships, 416 points
Colossal Rupture + Taiken, Magnesis, helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull, 2 crew
World of Apathy + Demonwraith, The Shadow King, Bitil, helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull, stinkpot shot
Black Star + Moon Sorcerer, helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull, 3 crew
Great Apostasy + Archbishop Fiend, helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull, 2 crew
Porphyrion + Marcus Augustine, helmsman, oarsman, 1 crew, 2 equipment
Courtship of Evils + Archfiend of the Apocalypse, Ring Besis, Archdiocese of the Apocalypse, Witch Queen Salem, Senosis, helmsman, oarsman, Streamlined Hull (48 points of crew and equipment on a 29 point ship!)
Fallen Angel + captain, shipwright, oarsman, stinkpot shot, Dinghy
-towing the Devil’s Fireball flotilla
Severance + captain, helmsman, shipwright, oarsman

Total: 14 ships, 745 points (a sickening 53 points per ship…)

Reading that again… 5 ships for 329 points… doesn’t even make sense!  XD  Almost only possible with customs, or maybe like a Wizkids launch of 5 fully loaded (or overloaded) 10 masters.

The Reign of Terror has begun….

 

Vikings

With the help of Shayna Deux’s reroll… Jord got a 6 while copying the Arcane!!  O_O It brought in a new Hidden Trove that the Hrothgar redocked to unload for a massive payout of 778 gold!! O_O (I had the game at 389 ships in play at the end of the Cursed turn based on previous counts and adding to them)  This is a game changer!!

The effect was immediate. Viking ships abruptly stopped. Most of their lumber gatherers simply turned around and started heading at full speed towards the home island. The Muninn (patrolling southeast of their home island) ducked into a fog bank, anticipating becoming a target of the all-powerful Pirates. Everything changed. Jord and the other Viking leaders immediately started serious strategic discussions about which ships to launch and how soon they could be ready. The secret alliance with the Barbary Corsairs from years past suddenly looked viable again. Perhaps this means that old plans… could be revived….

Launched from the Viking Home Island: 6 ships, 314 points
Monjuer + Streamlined Hull, 4 crew (+2 facedown UT’s from the Viking HI….)
Hringhorni + helmsman, Streamlined Hull, 5 crew
Storm’s Eye + Streamlined Hull, 5 crew
Njord + Dinghy, 6 crew
Säl + 4 crew, 1 equipment
Tyr + Dinghy, 2 crew, town and military port upgrade
2 crew and 1 equipment for the Hrothgar
+5 other points on HI

The Vikings are wary of the Pirate “spy network” as they call it (officially known by the Pirates as the GSP or Global Surveillance Program), and have placed almost as many new crew and equipment face down as possible. This will force a longer spying process out of the Pirates if the Pirates want to try and see all the Vikings’ face down stuff.

But wait, there’s more!

Barbary Corsairs

The Corsairs pulled out all the tricks they use to get an Arcane roll to work, and eventually they did! (Nephila is their ship copying Arcane)  With 395 ships in play, Hidden Trove was now worth a whopping 790 gold to the Barbary Corsairs!!

But first, it was time to get down to business.

With that, the Corsairs have launched ANOTHER major attack against the game’s most powerful faction in the Pirates!!  O_O   Is it madness?  Or brilliance?!

At the end of the attack, HMB Sayyida got her SAT and was able to get in range of the Osiris! Getting stuck on a sargasso sea on an unlucky roll of 6 at the end of her movements would not stop her cannon barrage! With that she revealed the Ballista equipment (ship gets 3 extra 3L cannons) along with Captain and Cargo Wrecking abilities! Although the Osiris has Crew Protect, it wouldn’t stop the Sayyida from taking out the ship’s final mast. In addition, the Corsairs noticed that the Anubis (built in Canceller) was just within S of the Osiris, meaning that the latter’s Eternal could be cancelled to send her to the depths! If the Sayyida hit 3 times out of 5 that is…

With some important rolls, it was a bit of a roller coaster attack. The Sayyida’s regular 2 cannons in range were 1’s! Then the crew got to firing the Ballista, of which the first 2 hit! However, the final roll was a 1, backfiring to eliminate the Sayyida’s oarsman and failing to deliver a fatal blow to the Osiris, which would have been the ultimate revenge for the Corsairs! Alas, one of the many Pirate sources of AA (with Reroll) is still alive, and is quite likely to be saved through some combination of moving and blocking on the next Pirate turn.

All told, the Corsairs eliminated 10 masts and have made any Pirate counterattack somewhat harder by leaving crippled ships in the way of their fresh gunships.

Crazy enough, the attack didn’t even end there!  The Agha’s Whip has been the lame duck of the Corsairs for a while, carrying The Cursed and Monkey’s Paw UT’s.  However, she was in the perfect position to intercept the Blackleaf, the fast Pirate 4 master who may be headed to the spice island pictured with multiple island upgrades!  The galley rammed but could not win the boarding party.  However, she partly slammed into the Blackleaf just in an attempt to slow the Blackleaf down, in case the Corsairs, English, or another faction can potentially get help to the area soon in an attempt to stop the Pirates from colonizing the far northeast and thereby cutting off an important (and currently valuable) island from both the Corsairs and the English.

Barbary Corsair launch: 5 ships, 107 points
Ivory Star + 3 crew, 1 equipment
Jackal’s Teeth + 4 crew
Meshud + 5 crew
Gallows + 3 crew
Divan’s Punishment + 4 crew, 1 equipment
-They also spent 120 gold on two town upgrades and two military port upgrades which are sitting on their home island. This is partly because the Corsairs are wary of the Pirates potentially trying to rob them of their Hidden Trove spoils.

Sadly the Corsairs have very little room to launch a lot of ships at their home island, between the Nephila (copier ship) sitting there, the Gauntlet of Pestilence fogbank off their north shore from the beginning of the game, and the considerable width of each galley from the space their oars take up.  However, if they can get a military port or two up eventually, it will help alleviate their limited launching capabilities.

This shows the general Pirate-Corsair front and battle area, which has opened up once more with a vengeance.  The Agha’s Whip has expanded the conflict to a spot east of the Corsair home island, with more Pirate and Corsair gunships coming into play every turn.  Neither the Pirates nor the Corsairs have declared war on the other, though I have a feeling that could change soon.

 

What a turn!!  This turn with my factions saw hostility from the Pirates and Cursed against the Spanish and Americans, while the Vikings finally got lucky with Jord to jump into the rapid fleet building sweepstakes.  The Corsairs got another Hidden Trove as well, but launched only after a brash attack on the Pirates!

 

THE POINT COUNT

Faction	Ships	Points	Ship %	Points %	Points/ship
Spanish	11	194	2.8%	2.1%	17.64
Jade Rebellion	4	43	1.0%	0.5%	10.75
The Conglomerate	27	531	6.9%	5.6%	19.67
English	16	230	4.1%	2.4%	14.38
Pirates	196	4697	50.3%	49.8%	23.96
Cursed	51	2171	13.1%	23.0%	42.57
Vikings	20	488	5.1%	5.2%	24.40
Corsairs	30	575	7.7%	6.1%	19.17
Dutch	6	76	1.5%	0.8%	12.67
Americans	15	215	3.8%	2.3%	14.33
Mercenaries	6	91	1.5%	1.0%	15.17
French	8	123	2.1%	1.3%	15.38
Total	390	9434			24.19

9,434 total points in play.

THE BIGGEST GAME OF ALL TIME.

With that, VASSAL Campaign Game 4 eclipses Command the Oceans as the biggest recorded Pirates CSG game EVER!!

CTO held the previous record for most points in play, at 9,078 in November 2017.  Now CG4 is even bigger, although a lot less balanced across the factions.  CG4 has kind of lumbered along slowly for a while, and still hasn’t seen much combat compared to other campaign games like CTO.  However, that seems to be starting to change… it’s time for CG4 to live up to the hype!!!  XD   😀

The Pirates have almost exactly half the total number of both ships and points in play.  They have expanded on their existing records from last turn, and next turn they should eclipse some truly staggering numbers: a fleet of over 200 ships, with over 5000 points in play.  O_O  The Jade Rebellion accounts for nearly a standard fleet at 43 points, which represents only half a percentage point of the total number of points in play.  The Pirate number of nearly 24 points per ship is impressive (representing a lot of named crew and expensive gunship builds), but The Cursed have accomplished something downright sickening – a very large fleet that averages over 42 points per ship.  O_O  This is unheard of to my knowledge, and speaks to the vast numbers of 10 masters and hyper-expensive weapons of war that they have put in play so far.  51 ships is not a ridiculous number for a fleet in CG’s, but with nearly 2200 points in play, they’re quickly climbing the list of biggest fleets of all time by point count.  The Conglomerate, Vikings and Corsairs have all made big strides lately, but still pale in comparison to the Pirates.  If the Vikings can climb ahead of the Conglomerate, I will control all 4 of the biggest fleets….

As a little caveat, the points in play totals generally reflect the points in play from ships, crew and equipment assigned to ships, and gold used to build forts and lighthouses.  For this point count, it generally does not count points from island upgrades, crew and equipment “attached” to islands (such as the 300 points the Pirates have invested in HI defense with Catapults and the oarsmen used to crew them), and sometimes other little things.  With these included, the Pirate total comes to 5371, The Cursed to 2481, the Vikings to 548, and the Corsairs to 735.  This brings the GRAND total to, technically, 10,638 points in play.  O_O  However, I’d like to reach the ridiculous (and likely unseen to this day) 5 figure point total the “regular way” without including all the easy upgrade/etc purchases before making it official.  Of course, the game is on a crash course to far exceed the sickening number of 10,000 total points in play, so we’ll surely pass it next round!! (or even this one if PirateAJ14 is able to launch at least 566 points of stuff).

There are currently 137 points of crew assigned to the Chimeratron Legacy.  O_O  (another record I guess!)  The ship costs 90 points by itself, which makes for 227 total points for one ship, which accounts for 2.4% of the points in play and more points than 5 of the 12 fleets participating in the game!

Breaking it down a bit more:

	Ships	Points	Ship %	Points %	Points/ship
Xerecs	58	998	14.87%	10.58%	17.21
A7XfanBen	297	7931	76.15%	84.07%	26.70
PirateAJ14	35	505	8.97%	5.35%	14.43

The insane concentration of points in the Cursed fleet boosts my overall points per ship number higher than any individual non-Cursed faction!

Another new record: 20 10 masters!! (12 Cursed, 4 Pirate, 2 Viking, 1 Corsair, 1 Conglomerate)  The Cursed alone put 7 10 masters in play this round, which is also very likely a record.

 

Here is the unprecedented game in full glory, with the map slowly filling in….  (open in a new tab to view full size)

Thanks for reading!  Feel free to comment what you think of the game!