With considerable interest from various players, the fourth grand adventure on VASSAL has been planned!!
VASSAL Campaign Game 4 features 3 players and a whopping 12 factions, with each player controlling 4 factions completely independently. (as if they were separate players)
Without further ado, here are the participants in the order of play:
Xerecs
1. Spanish
2. Jade Rebellion
3. The Conglomerate/The Alliance
4. English
A7XfanBen
5. Pirates
6. Cursed
7. Vikings
8. Barbary Corsairs
PirateAJ14
9. Dutch
10. Americans
11. Mercenaries
12. French
A few notes on the factions:
-“The Conglomerate” is made up of ANY and ALL custom game pieces not part of the main 11 factions (Wizkids’ 10 + the Dutch). Any customs from Hyrule/Ionics/Sweden/Russia/Venice/Ottoman Empire/etc are automatically part of this permanent alliance that functions as a single faction. Any new factions that are made are automatically part of The Conglomerate. Crew within factions that comprise the Conglomerate can use their abilities on each other’s ships. (ex: Swedish crew can use their abilities on Ionic ships, and vice versa/etc.)
-The Mercenary keyword will be ignored in full for the Mercenary faction. (including as part of the Ex-Patriot keyword)
Now for the rules!
Modified version of cannonfury’s Economy Edition rules
Errata
Duplicates Rule – There cannot be duplicate Wizkids ships in play until a faction has purchased every single standard ship (including flavor duplicates (such as all three versions of the 5 master HMS Apollo, for example, but not including customs)) available to them. Once a faction has every official Wizkids ship in its fleet in play, that faction can launch duplicates of those official Wizkids ships. Only one duplicate ship is allowed, but if a faction has two of every ship in play, they can begin a third set of duplicates. However, once a ship is sunk, it MUST be replaced before duplicates can be launched again. (This is also known as the “complete the fleet” rule) Unreleased game pieces designed by Wizkids are not included in the Duplicates Rule. Wizkids faction fleets cannot have duplicate custom ships. Since the Dutch and Conglomerate factions have no official Wizkids ships, their entire fleets of custom ships are subject to the Duplicates Rule. For example, if ALL custom Dutch ships are in play at once, they can begin a second set of each custom Dutch ship.
-Named crew that have multiple versions can be used as long as it’s not at the same time by the same fleet (one has to be eliminated or removed from the game before hiring a different version). Generic crew may be used as many times as you can afford.
-Unique Treasure may be used, but note that due to the nature of some rule changes, they may no longer function as intended. There may be gold replenishments at some point in the game.
-Resources are represented through tokens; players may choose whatever kind of tokens they wish as long as all players agree. Ships can carry any number of any resource types up to their cargo limit. After a ship rolls for the resource type and loads resources, the ship will load face-up gold coins that correspond to the numbered resource (for example, a ship with lumber on board would have 1’s). When the ship unloads the resources at the home island, the 1’s (in this case) may be unloaded just like treasure. At any point during a player’s turn (usually at the beginning of the launch phase, after the play phase ends), any resources on the home island can be swapped out for the value of the resource in gold. If the value of lumber was 4, the 1’s are swapped for face-down gold 4’s on the home island (HI), which can then be used to purchase ships and crew during the launch phase at the end of the turn. Players may use UT tokens to represent total gold or resource quantities on their home islands, but should keep in mind that a UT worth 400 gold could be stolen by a home island raider with a single open cargo space.
-Game time is measured in rounds. A round begins with the start of the first player’s turn and ends with at the finish of the last player’s turn.
Starting Conditions
-Players begin with 30 points to design a pure nationality fleet.
-There are 48 total islands, all of which will be wild at the start of play. All islands currently have unique treasures on them, but most will produce resources.
-Factions will be sailing in from the edges of the map. The first island a faction explores immediately becomes that faction’s home island.
-Round earth rules are in effect.
-Map details are below.
Players take turns and move their ships, using normal Pirates CSG rules.
Victory Conditions
-Last Fleet Afloat: the final fleet remaining in the game will be the winning faction.
-If we cannot play until only one fleet remains, the fleet with the most total points in play will be the winner.
Players may surrender if they feel that they no longer have a chance at fulfilling any of these victory conditions.
Action Modifications
Explore Actions: An explore action at a wild island takes a turn, as usual. When a wild island is explored for the first time, the player that performed the action rolls a d6—match the result to the number of the corresponding resource. That island now produces that resource for all players, and you may load tokens of that resource onto this ship up to its cargo limit; each token fills one cargo space. Abilities that remove exploration markers may reset the resource of an island.
Repair Actions: Repair actions occur normally, with the exception that a ship carrying both lumber and textiles may repair a mast at a wild island, per the shipwright rules; these resources are used in the process.
Combat Actions: Combat actions occur normally, although boarding actions have received updates and new actions, blockading and razing, have been created.
Resources
Resources are the main source of gold production in the game, but must first be converted for a variable price at the home island into treasure coins, which can then be used to purchase ships, crew, equipment, etc. Resources count as cargo, and abilities that affect treasure coins also affect resources (i.e. each of these coins is worth +1 gold…turns to each of these resources is worth +1 of whichever resource is in question).
The value of a resource is determined by a die roll. At the beginning of the first player’s turn, a d6 and a d20 are rolled. The d6 roll determines the values of all resources (refer to the quick reference for exact values) while the d20 roll determines the number of turns this value will hold.
Lumber: (1) Fundamental for ship and settlement building, lumber is the basic building block of any naval civilization.
Textiles: (2) Needed for sails and clothing, textiles are a key part of the trading industry.
Metals: (3) Stronger than wood, metals allow for the construction of sturdier ships and deadlier weapons—as well as providing the means for paying for them.
Food: (4) A food source from the sea, fish are bountiful and whales provide a large source of oil.
Spices: (5) Useful for preserving and improving the taste of foods, spices were highly sought after
Luxuries: (6) The rare items crews find on their journeys through the world’s seas—from the beautiful to the wild to the truly cryptic.
Die Roll……1……2…….3…….4…….5…….6
Lumber……1……6…….5…….4…….3…….2
Textiles……2……1…….6…….5…….4…….3
Metals……..3……2…….1…….6…….5…….4
Food………..4……3…….2…….1…….6…….5
Spices……..5……4…….3…….2…….1…….6
Luxuries…..6……5…….4…….3…….2…….1
| cannonfury wrote: |
| So let’s say hypothetically that I dock at an island and I roll a 1. That means that island now produces lumber. There are the two main die, a d6 and a d20, that control that market in the game. If I roll a 3 on the d6 and a 14 on the d20, you go to the chart value of 3 for die roll and read down. For the next 14 turns, lumber is worth 5 gold, textiles 6, metals 1, and so on. |
-If an island produces a resource, it has that resource face up on it. If other resources are present on the island, they are placed face up next to the island or on the shoreline.
-Players may agree to change the resource system. Instead of simply rolling a d6 for values and two d6 for duration, other options may be added for more randomness.
Example: A round of turns begins with the d6 roll. A 1 is rolled (on a 2-6 the resources stay the same, until a 1 is rolled). Since a 1 was rolled, roll again. If the second roll is a 2-6 (anything other than a 1), the resources only change value for that turn. On the next turn, they revert back to whatever they were on the previous round, or a different system is once again agreed upon by all players (such as starting over with regular EE rolls, or using the system described in this example). However, if the second roll is a 1, the current EE rolls are disregarded, and new rolls are made (both for values and duration).
Changing the rules for how resources change could really make things interesting, so we may also implement additional/different economy/resource rules as we see fit.
Island Upgrades
Islands: An island upgrade is bought at the home island; a token representing that upgrade can be loaded onto any ship, and fills one cargo space. That ship must return to the previously explored island and may unload the token as a free action. On the next turn, the island is upgraded. If a ship is sunk on transit, the token is lost and another must be purchased. Upgrades must happen sequentially – an island can be explored in one turn, upgraded to a town on the following turn, and upgraded to a colony on the third turn. This cannot be accomplished faster, as there is no skipping levels.
-Encampment: Automatically created after an explore action. Abilities that remove explored island markers eliminate encampments. Encampments simply mark that this island has been explored by the player; enemy encampments may exist on the same island.
-Fort: An encampment may be upgraded to a fort by bringing the fort’s gold cost to an island (no teleporting the gold and fort like in a regular game). A fort generates no resources OR gold. Crew may be hired at this island. Resources can be unloaded at a fort, but they cannot be converted. Forts may be upgraded by paying 40 gold for a fort upgrade; a Shipyard token (in the module) must be taken to the fort to upgrade it. Once upgraded, forts can be used to buy ships, crew, and equipment using gold stored in the fort or gold from your home island. No more than 2 of the same custom fort can be in play at once.
-Lighthouse: An island can have a lighthouse built on it by bringing 3 times the lighthouse’s regular cost to the wild island, similar to how forts are built. Other island upgrades can be built on the same island a lighthouse is on, as if the lighthouse wasn’t there – the lighthouse still functions as normal. The island a lighthouse is on still produces resources or gold normally unless another island upgrade supersedes it. No more than 2 of the same custom lighthouse can be in play at once. Lighthouses will be represented by the tavern structure within the module.
-Town: An encampment may be upgraded to a town by paying 10 gold. Abilities that remove explore actions do not eliminate towns. Having a town on an island gives control of that island to a player; other players may no longer take resources from that island. Towns can be razed by enemy ships, they have no natural defenses and after three hits are considered destroyed. A town may also be captured through a boarding action. Once destroyed, the island becomes unexplored in regards to all players, and its resource value may be reset. Towns are represented by the associated faction’s infantry unit in the module.
-Colony: A town may be upgraded to a colony. Players have a choice between either a trading or a military port; an island can only accommodate one.
1) Trading Port: 25 gold. Allows a player to trade any two resources for one other resource, of any type. An opposing player’s ship may also dock at your trading port to trade commodities, but they must pay one resource to the owner in addition to the two resources being traded. Ships with the parley keyword do not have to pay this fee. A trading port can be blockaded by any ship. Trading ports are represented by cavalry units.
2) Military Port: 50 gold. Allows a player to repair ships docked at this island as if it were a home island. Ships, crew, and equipment may be purchased at a military port using gold from your home island. A military port cannot hold gold like an ordinary fort. A military port cannot be blockaded, and acts as an 8 flag fort with 3S cannons. Military ports are represented by artillery units.
Crew
-Explorer: Explorer crew has been updated. If a ship performs an explore action with an explorer on board, that ship may reroll for the initial resource value. Hoists also benefit from this ability.
-No 0LR +5 crew
-0LR reroller crew will cost 3 points so they’re not free; they will function as basic reroll crew without the Limit and Ransom keywords (no links either)
Updated/New Mechanics
-Boarding: after a successful boarding action, the winning ship may, in addition to taking gold or killing crew, take any resources of any type up to their available cargo space. A town can be considered to have 2 masts in a boarding roll, and is captured by the winning ship. If a ship loses a boarding roll against a town, the attacking ship must remove a mast and move +S away.
-When a ship wins a boarding party, the winner decides whether they will take gold/resources or eliminate crew. The winner chooses which gold/resources to take, but the loser chooses which crew is eliminated.
-Blockading: A trading port can be blockaded by a ship. If a ship docks at a trading port and declares hostilities, that port is considered to be blockaded; all trading ceases and the player loses all bonuses, including the production of commodities. The blockading player gains the resource bonuses, and can choose to take resources up to their cargo limit or remove them from the game.
-Razing: A colony can be razed after a successful boarding action, it is considered to be a 4 mast ship. If the boarding ship wins, the colony is removed from the game, and the boarding ship receives all the resources available, up to that ship’s cargo limit. If the colony wins, the opposing player takes that ship, but all crew on board are removed from the game.
-Raiding: A ship with the home-island raiding ability can dock at an enemy home island and take as many resources as she can carry, in addition to any gold. If able, she must leave on her next turn.
-Storm terrain: Storms are a custom terrain piece. At the end of a round of turns, a d6 is rolled. Match the result to the number printed on any Storms in play. Roll the d6 again. Match the result to the number printed around the edge of the Storm and move the Storm L in a straight line in that direction. If two or more Storms collide or move into contact with one another, they merge and move as one Storm. If any part of a game piece touches a Storm, it is immediately placed inside of it. Roll a d6, the result is the number of masts, segments, flags or damage points removed from the game piece. If the result is more than the number of remaining masts, segments, flags or damage points, the game piece is eliminated from the game. If a storm spends more than three rounds over a body of land, it is removed from the game.
House Rules
-All game pieces require two hits to eliminate one mast or flag. These hits do not need to come from the same shoot action or player, and do not need to occur on the same turn. Partial hits that do not eliminate a mast can be repaired with a repair action, but a fully eliminated mast only requires one repair action as normal. Any damage done due to fire needs to be done on the second hit of a mast, meaning you cannot just use fire hits to ignore the 2 hits per mast rule. Stinkpots and Chainshots are exempt from the 2 hits per mast rule (each hit of their type takes effect since they don’t eliminate masts). Flotillas must be hit 4 times overall in order to eliminate their flag (none of the hits have to come from a specific shoot action).
-Game pieces being towed behind ships do not have to be docked automatically at every island the towing ship docks at.
-Ships cannot do damage by ramming, with the exception of submarines which can do ram damage both surfaced and submerged.
-Ships docked at their home islands can be shot at.
-Ships can load face-down treasure and resources from their home island with an explore action. Face-up Unique Treasure can be loaded and unloaded to and from islands as part of the free transfer rules.
-If both players agree to it, opposing ships can touch without ramming, boarding or pinning. While touching, they can be given an explore action to transfer cargo freely between them.
-Home island raiders can look at all treasure on an opponent’s home island and choose which treasure to take, rather than having it be random.
-Forts can be given repair actions if they have a shipwright in them. They cannot repair and shoot on the same turn unless they have an extra action available.
-Whirlpools take effect on a roll of 1-3 instead of 4-6 (since you almost never want to roll low in this game).
-On negative whirlpool rolls, equipment is now one of the items that players can choose to eliminate. (instead of just mast/crew/treasure if desired)
-Return to Savage Shores and Wizkids Unreleased game pieces are available (found in the Master Spreadsheet)
-Custom game pieces are allowed, but they may be modified or banned in-game (through a vote) if they are overpowered (OP). [Modifications: Streamlined Hull costs 3 points.]
-Trade-In Rule: If a faction brings a captured ship back to their home island, military port, or upgraded fort, after repairing ALL masts on the ship, they can then remove the ship and all her cargo from the game and convert the total points she and her cargo was worth into gold that is then placed on that island.
-Relaunching Rule: Non Big-6 factions (Big 6 being England, France, Spain, Pirate, America, Cursed) can relaunch Wizkids AND custom game pieces without restrictions other than the No-Duplicates rule being applied to their own fleet. (this is to give the minor factions more of a chance if their best pieces are captured and not traded in)
-Changing Home Islands: A faction may choose to move or relocate their home island. To do this a faction must remove ALL items from their current home island location. The island of choice must not have any island upgrades already on it; the target island must not be producing a resource when explored as a new home island; the target island must be unexplored to all factions; none of the 5 Archipelago islands can ever be a home island. Once a faction declares their new home island location they must explore it to make it official, at which point the island will not produce resources or gold. Once that happens, their previous home island reverts to an unexplored wild island that can produce resources.
-Celestine’s Charts and the S-Exploring ability will reset the resource values of islands.
-Native Canoes cannot be given an explore action on their first turn in play.
-Only up to 3 copies of each unique set of native canoes can be in play at a time.
-Other house rules may be instituted during the game if players are in favor of them.
Ban List: All Events, Odin’s Revenge, Kharmic Idol, Pirata Codex, Flood UT, Missionaries UT
~~~~~~~~~~
The Ocean
This ocean is my best VASSAL ocean outside of the Caribbean and World game oceans. It is 6 ocean tiles wide by 4 high, twice the dimensions of the oceans of CG1 and CG3 (3×2). It also has double borders on the edges, so hopefully we’ll have enough room for deckplates.
Islands: 48
All of these are wild as of now, but eventually there should be 12 home islands and 36 wild islands.
We rolled to determine both player and faction turn order. I then figured out how to place the factions in their starting locations. From my email to all players: It is hard to explain exactly how I went about doing this in text form, so it might be pretty confusing. XD
Each of the 4 sides of the map has 3 factions assigned to it. Each player has a faction assigned to 3 of the 4 sides, starting in player and faction order. I decided to go in reverse turn order, since that’s how we would have picked HI’s if we had done it that way. For example, I started with pirateaj14’s last faction (the Mercenaries) in the east, then one of his in the north, then west. This is because I was doing things backwards so the first player (gingerninja) would end up with the “leftover” spots. My whole thought process was basically one of each player’s factions on one side of the map, going clockwise the whole time. However, since I reversed the order, it makes it more confusing to read about. This gives us a bit of a clockwise motion for the turn order (which I don’t really care about, but with 12 factions it should help a little XD). I didn’t mix up the factions more because there is already a bunch of randomness built in when we rolled for faction order and player order.
From there, I went in reverse faction turn order (with each player’s third faction going last of their three) and rolled to see which of the three locations a faction would end up in on their side of the map. I went clockwise with the numbers (but anticlockwise with the factions!) so (in the north) 1-2=western location, 3-4=center, 5-6=eastern, etc.
Each player has one faction on three consecutive sides of the map, going clockwise and starting in the north with the first player. So gingerninja’s factions go clockwise from North-East-South, xerecs: E-S-W, a7xfanben: S-W-N, pirateaj14: W-N-E. Almost like 3 half-circles per player rotating around the map. The die rolls were to determine which of the 3 spots on a side that a faction would start in.
Now for a “map tour”. 😀
The grand ocean:
I have put nearly ALL of the game’s unique treasures into the stack, shuffled it up, and distributed multiple UT’s to each island! O_O This means it could be very interesting and chaotic from the start, with tons of UT’s being found early on. There are approximately 150 coins in play to start the game. The regular wild islands have 3 UT’s apiece, while the Archipelago islands in the middle have 4-5 apiece. Between the UT’s and the sailing in format, it should provide a unique and exciting start to the game.
Around the map starting in the northwest. The Archipelago in the center of play will be used as a center point of reference for the pictures. The 5 islands of the Archipelago cannot be home islands.
In the northwest, we see the Cursed and Hyrule on the west side (French to represent the Hyrule Conglomerate for now). On the north side are the Americans and Vikings. As a result, you could argue that it’s a somewhat weak area as far as factions are concerned, especially compared to the powerhouse of the southeast. In the middle of this quadrant is a lagoon, inside which there is an island with gold rather than resources. Unlike my Economy Edition game, the lagoon is surrounded by reefs that function normally. The lagoon island cannot be chosen as a home island, and is a gold island.
Here is “The Vortex”, a whirlpool that mysteriously appeared in the middle of a coral reef formation and has changed the orientation of the reefs themselves to match the spin of the whirlpool.
In the northeast, we see the Vikings again as the middle northern starting faction. A fitting location for the Norse raiders! East of them are the Barbary Corsairs, meaning that two (very) minor factions are starting on the north side of the map. On the east side we can see the English, and south of them the Mercenaries. This area features a bit less terrain, but some interesting things as well. There is a large island, as well as an island in the north that is connected to another island piece (considered one island for play purposes) via round earth! (we’ll see the other half in the SE picture)
You may have seen this oddity near the large island – a “fogpool”! This whirlpool is shrouded in a fog bank. Any ships that come out of the whirlpool are immediately lost inside, and anything trying to enter the whirlpool has to be given a separate move action once inside the fog.
The northeast corner has a whirlpool surrounded by sargasso seas, while a shipwreck is present on some reefs that connect to another feature via round earth… a dangerous area indeed.
The southeast, with the Mercenaries and Spanish on the east side, and the Pirates and Jade Rebellion on the south side. This area has some distinct features, including an island surrounded by whirlpools and the other half of the island in the north.
The southeast corner is dominated by “the Turbulence”, an area of uncertainty, chaos, and danger. No less than 3 whirlpools are concentrated here, but all of them are surrounded by terrain. Walled off from the southeast, using round earth from the other corners may be the best way to access this area. However, both wild islands are hard to get to, and the one surrounded by fog cannot be chosen as a home island (it is another gold island).
Finally we come to the southwest, where the Jade Rebellion and French will sail in from the south, and the Dutch from the west (Hyrule just out of sight north of the Dutch marker). This area features a lot of terrain, but slightly higher island density than the other areas.
The sargasso sea formation in the northwest continues via round earth to this area, culminating in an island surrounded by sargassos except for a potential foggy entrance. Just northeast of that, a whirlpool surrounded by multiple fog banks is the alternate of the new fogpool.
In the center of the map is the Archipelago, a chain of 5 wild islands that is hard to access from any angle. The waters are treacherous but plentiful, and it represents the “tropical paradise” of this game. There are various “squeeze” spots where there is a break in the terrain – I purposely did that to increase the chances of it becoming a bottleneck that can be strategically controlled for limited access. Also, despite the two whirlpools in the area, both are blocked somewhat by the large amount of terrain. The center island of the Archipelago will be the most valuable in the game, and could eventually contain both gold and resources.
BATTLE REPORT WARNING: With postimages recently changing their url’s and other image hosting sites not satisfactory, it is very likely that this game will see a variety of reporting styles. Youtube videos may be more common than regular text-and-picture reports. At any moment all of the pictures in this thread may disappear.
With that, we are about ready to begin! Time to GET HYPED with my CG4 trailer video!!
Play has started! As I said in the first post, picture reports will be less of a priority since the image hosting sites are prone to disasters. I’ll try my best to make any recordings informative and good, and do some video reporting as well.
The Jade Rebellion is the first to a wild island! The Virtuous Wind explores and the Jades have the first home island of the game! They also got the Forged Papers and Sword UT’s.
The Barbary Corsairs got hit with some “instant karma” when they found two negative UT’s (Missionary and Gauntlet of Pestilence) after not starting the game with the full 30 points (only 13 in fact). Here the Tiger’s Eye is in a fog bank created by the Gauntlet, which is a custom UT from Rizz the Bloody. This island will be the Corsairs’ home island, which will be interesting with that nasty fog bank right next to it.
The Vikings have fittingly settled on a home island in the far north near where they entered the ocean, with the Grendel finding Protection from Davy Jones.
The Dutch are off and running! With a hot start similar to their effort in the Caribbean game, they have already explored two islands. Led by Abel Tasman, they have a home island near the fog at the bottom of the picture, and some UT’s on the Prins Willem to the northeast.
Various factions are still without a home island, but it was a solid start to this epic adventure!
