Battle reports

[a7xfanben]

Today I tested out my new ten masted Cursed junk, the Delusion, at 35 points the most expensive ship in the game. I concluded that she is not usually worth the points; she lost in most of the games I played. The 40 point games were somewhat unfair, however, as I could only give her a captain and helmsman. In the larger games, however, she was ganged up on, and didn't have enough firepower (her guns are rank 3 and 4).

I mostly tested her against my tougher deathmatch fleets, the ones the HMS Grand Temple fleet went up against, detailed in an above post. Once I tested the Delusion fleet with Nemo/Davy Jones/Fiore/Ozat along with the Fallen Angel towing the Death's Anchor, but it fell to a combination of these deathmatch fleets, one utilizing the GT, Soleil Royal, and Bonaparte, as well as a handful of cancelers. I believe a more fair test would be to include her in a large standard game where she could more effectively use her keywords.

What was interesting to me: a 135 (random, I know) point deathmatch fleet using the Delusion, Acorazado, and Nautilus was picked apart and ruined by a good fleet of good gunships and support sloops equipped with cancelers. The Delusion had the DJC version of Davy Jones on board, to copy the Acorazado's awesome defensive ability (or the Nautilus for that matter). The Acorazado was crewed to the max (Vega, Zuan from MI, Diaz, Castro from SM, helmsman), and the Nautilus had Nemo, Ozat, and a helmsman to steal enemy crew. However, the Delusion was sunk in one turn that saw the opposing fleet cancel her canceler, Fiore, and then cancel Davy Jones, making her vulnerable. A fleet that should've taken 36 hits to defeat was canceled into oblivion!

Twice I played a four-player 100 point deathmatch with the above four deathmatch fleets-the ones centered around the GT, Soleil Royal, Bonaparte, and Acorazado. The first game went to El Acorazado. In the second game, the other three fleets conspired to sink her (and did), with the Bonaparte/Longshanks fleet emerging victoriously from the carnage.

I also used the Grand Temple fleet against a 40 point Spanish fleet in a standard game (with gold). The Spanish fleet utilized the Asesino de la Nave, Joya del Sol, and Villalobos. The GT fleet actually won two of the three, although this may have been somewhat of an aberration (Asesino has cargo-wrecking and had canceler Nemesio Diaz on board).

A solid day of smaller actions that proved the worth of cancelers, and proved the downfall of unneeded cost (Delusion) and unreliable guns.

[a7xfanben]

This Thursday I will finally be able to start playing again. I have a few things in mind for games, and I have created and written down ideas for fleets. There is a scenario I intend to try as well, but I will start the action with the biggest undertaking of my career in Pirates CSG yet: a long cumulative game (spending gold during the game to build fleets up) that combines Pirates with the board game Risk. I am anticipating a lengthy game, and in preparation I have tried to work out some of the details in my head. I am not sure how well it will work with scaling the ocean to the Risk game board, but I will try. To combine the games I have been developing a set of custom rules designed to (hopefully) emphasize the Pirates (and therefore naval) aspect rather than the land struggles.
There will be five fleets participating in this game, a combination of single faction fleets and (fixed) alliances (mostly to beef up factions that in terms of my collection are lacking in crew and/or ships): English, French-Americans, Spanish, Pirates, and the MercCursedCorsairRebels (a fleet combining the factions of the Cursed, Mercenaries, Barbary Corsairs, and Jade Rebellion).
In-game alliances are not prohibited by any means.
Now to the unique rules that will undoubtedly be expanded and/or edited as I discover more problems and solutions to this setup (many are concerned with the complex geography issues I will try to work out):

1. The Risk board and the associated infantrymen, cavalry, and artillery units will be in a separate location from the main ocean playing area (board is too small for almost any point cost, let alone a cumulative game).

2. In the main ocean playing area, islands will be placed based on the Risk game board. I will bunch islands together to make the continents and have one island represent one territory. In addition to the islands representing the territories, I am planning on placing other islands based on real-life islands in the main ocean, such as Cuba. These islands (not territories, so therefore essentially irrelevant to the Risk part of the game) function first as wild islands, but they can have units from Risk placed on them, and they will (hopefully) be important outposts and possibly bases for factions controlling them. Due to space constraints, the realistics of the game will be severely hampered, as I will not have enough space for the Mediterranean (as well as the Red, Black, and Baltic Seas).

3. All of the territories that are bordered by only water will start the game as wild islands, unless chosen as a home territory by a faction. These territories follow the normal rules for wild islands. Australia functions as two wild islands, with both Eastern and Western Australia with 4 gold coins each.

4. Each faction will choose a home territory. The territory chosen as a home territory must be bordered by a body of water, and the territory chosen can be bordered by water on all sides (obviously that particular territory would not therefore start the game as a wild island). Home territories can be conquered, but a faction is not automatically out if their home territory is taken over by an opponent (unless of course they had no ships left and the units they lost in the invasion were their last).

5. When invading an enemy territory across water or reinforcing a friendly territory across water, the army units must be transported by ships. The lines that connect territories on the Risk game board are totally irrelevant, armies cannot invade across water unless they are transported in ships. That being said, ships have no limits on where they can transport army units. Ex: Normally you can invade Iceland from Great Britain via the line connecting the territories, and you can still do that (as long as the units are transported in ships). However, movement across the seas is not limited to the lines: a fleet can transport an army going from Great Britain directly across the Atlantic to the Eastern United States, or maybe from Madagascar all the way up to Alaska.

6. Invasions follow the standard rules for Risk, and combat due to an invasion happens as soon as the units disembark from the ships. In order to land the troops on the territory, an explore action is needed, unless the territory is friendly and/or has been invaded before (home territories do not require an explore action to land troops there if it is the landing player’s home territory).

7. Risk units cost 3 gold each (or 3 points). Hopefully this will be a reasonable and effective point cost, because I would rather not have to adjust their cost in-game. For the purposes of abilities and effects, army units are considered ‘crew’ when on board a ship, even though they have no abilities. Because of this, they do count against the ship's point cost. When a ship loads army units, they take up one cargo space per unit. They can be loaded and unloaded like normal crew with the following exceptions: An explore action is required in order to load or unload army units. When a ship loads army units from the main ocean, the army units will be transferred from the Risk board to the deckplate card of the ship, and when unloaded, transferred back to the Risk board from the deckplate card. In this way, the only time army units will be placed anywhere on the main ocean is if they are unloaded at an island that is not on the Risk board (an example would be Cuba).

8. Ships can fire on army units on land (following the regular procedure for a shoot action), but army units can not fire back. However, if a ship misses an individual unit twice in a row in a particular shoot action, she loses a mast. Shoot actions by ships designating army units as the target will be simplified because the ships will be in the main ocean area rather than the Risk board, so the ranges become almost irrelevant. Ships cannot shoot over an island representing a territory in the main ocean to hit a territory beyond, no matter what range her guns are.

9. When a ship is docked at the island/territory that a friendly fort is on (unless it is abandoned), she can repair masts as if the island/territory is her home territory (although it is not considered a home territory). In addition to the regular rules for forts, the rules for forts regarding land attacks are as follows: Army units can attack forts from land, in this way they must have already invaded the territory. The fort can contain army units of that particular faction, as a means of protecting them. The fort serves as the last line of defence if placed on a territory bordered by land. If a fort is to be built on a territory that is bordered by land, the territory must also be bordered by water.

10. There are three custom forts that I have designed for the game-forts that were key strategic points in real-life campaigns. These forts are stationary. They cannot be placed on any territory/island and rebuilt on other territories/islands later in the game. Other than that, they function as regular forts.

Gibraltar (Gibraltar, located on the southern tip of Spain)

12 gold, 10 guns: 3S, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 3S. Ability: When this fort hits an enemy ship, you choose which mast is eliminated. Once per turn you may double the range of ONE of this fort’s cannons.

Diamond Rock (off Martinique)

4 gold, 2 guns: 2L, 2L. Ability: Extended Range.

El Morro (Havana, Cuba)

8 gold, 7 guns: 3L, 2L, 2S, 3L, 2S, 2L, 3L. Ability: Ships do not block this fort’s line of fire. This fort’s L-range guns cannot be eliminated.

Sadly, the space constraints will not let me effectively use these forts. Diamond Rock, with her 2L range, can shoot past Cuba, and the ranges just won't work. Maybe in a different game.

11. Each faction will start out with 20 point fleets. They will also be given one free infantry unit that will be placed on their home territory. All of the other territories will be empty at the start of the game (other than islands that start as wild island territories).

12. Unlike the regular rules for Risk, territories can be abandoned. However, a faction cannot abandon their home territory under any circumstances. They can move most of their units and/or ships and gold to another territory to avoid being annihilated, but they cannot abandon their home territory. If a player moves their units into an empty territory, they do not receive a territory card for conquering the territory, since they didn’t conquer it.

13. When moving army units on the Risk board, each individual unit can only move from one territory to another once per turn. If units are part of a successful invasion, they cannot immediately move onto the next territory and invade it as well. Units can only move into one territory at a time (once per turn) even if the territories they are moving through are abandoned. When fortifying their position, a player can only move from one territory to an adjacent territory.

14. The golden cavalry piece that is used for bonus reinforcements when turning in a set of cards cannot be moved past the 10 mark. I may change this in-game, but I don’t want armies to get a sudden massive influx of units that dramatically alters the game.

15. Wild islands will start with 4 gold coins on them, and whenever there is less than 4 gold coins, once per turn (at the end of each round of turns, not on every individual player’s turn) a gold coin will be placed on the island, and in a fort if a player has a fort on the island (the islands replenish themselves).

16. With such a long game, I have decided to reuse the unique treasures that have one-and-done abilities. The UT’s would be periodically shuffled back into the game by putting them in the tin that I use for treasure, and then randomly distributing them as treasures that replenish islands.

17. There are no reinforcements from the number of territories a player controls. Since players are supposed to pay for their armies, there will be no free reinforcements-players have to control continents and turn in card sets from their conquered territories in order to bypass the cost of army units.

These custom rules and ideas are by no means a finished product, and I will be adding to them and editing them as I discover new issues.

Additional Comment:

I have finished the setup, and these are the HT's (home territories) that each faction has chosen, as well as their starting fleets (20 points):
England (Greenland): Aberdeen Baron + helmsman, Sea Tiger.
French-Americans (Western Europe): La Dijon + explorer, Le Bon Marin, Jeux.
Spanish (Argentina): La Santa Isabel + explorer, Magdalena.
Pirates (Madagascar): Darkhawk II + helmsman + explorer, Longshanks + explorer.
MercCursedCorsairRebels (New Guinea): Algiers, Griffin, and a Cursed captain on New Guinea.

As an added note, I am allowing the use of duplicates, but they will be discouraged. Due to their treasure-running disadvantages, as well as the fact that they don't have a fort, the MercCursedCorsairRebels will be allowed to use both versions of Davy Jones.

Additional Comment:

I have made it through the first handful of turns, with each fleet sailing around exploring to try to gather as much gold as possible. The English have explored Bermuda, Cuba, Iceland, and Jamaica, and have launched four additional ships. The French-Americans have explored Martinique, St. Helena, Iceland, Great Britain, and Svalbard, building Ft. St. Pierre on Great Britain. The Spanish have been gathering gold from the Falkland Islands (represented as one island), Hawaii, Clipperton Island, Easter Island, and Martinique, with El Puerto Blanco on Hawaii. The Pirates have explored Indonesia, both halves of Australia, and Japan. They have now launched two of their best gold runners, the Darkhawk II and the Raven. The MCCRs (MercCursedCorsairRebels) have five galleys, the Nightmare (DJC version, the two-master), and the Fallen Angel. They have explored the same islands as the Pirates, as well as Svalbard and New Zealand.

The land aspect has not come into play yet, the Spanish being the only faction to buy any army units (2, both still in Argentina).

The MCCRs have fired the first shot, with the Fallen Angel (with a captain and Fire Shot equipment on board) setting fire to the Raven after the Raven grabbed gold from Eastern Australia. The Fallen Angel was then rammed and dismasted by the nearby Darkhawk II, and she has been towed home and repaired.

More gold has been gathered, and more ships have been launched as the size of the fleets increase. The most important action so far has been in the Caribbean, where there are three islands (Cuba, Jamaica, and Martinique) within shooting distance of each other. The English have explored Cuba and Jamaica, and the French-Americans have explored Martinique. The French-Americans led a treasure squadron across the Atlantic made up of Le Bon Marin, the Boston, and L'Emeraude, with the intention of loading gold from Jamaica and possibly Cuba. However, the English had HMS Lady Provost to the north and were not too happy about the idea of the French-Americans taking gold that the English thought was theirs. Escorting the Lady Provost to the Caribbean (from the British HT of Greenland) was the first English gunship, HMS Victor with Hermione Gold (MI version) and a helmsman aboard. Trailing close behind the weak (no captains) French-American squadron, however, was La Belle Etoile, decked out with Lenoir (F&S), captain, helmsman, and Fire Shot equipment. In what could be a potentially monumental decision, the English decided to attack, with HMS Victor dismasting Le Bon Marin and taking out two masts on the Boston. L'Emeraude fled south and out of harm's way while La Belle Etoile sailed in and took out two masts on the Victor, and the Victor replied with a shot of her own, leaving the Victor with one mast and La Belle Etoile with two. Meanwhile, the Lady Provost landed at Jamaica, and the English built Fort Brompton on the island. From there they launched HMS Victoria, who promptly captured Le Bon Marin. The HMS Alexander, coming from the north around Bermuda, got in on the action and rammed the Boston, dismasting her. La Belle Etoile, being outnumbered and damaged, ran off fearing that the English would launch a new gunship from their fort. Sure enough, they bought the Cygnet on their next turn while the Lady Provost brought treasure from Cuba to Jamaica. The Aberdeen Baron, Sea Tiger, and HMS Starbuck continued to gather treasure in the north, from Bermuda and Iceland.

As it stands now, the English have established dominance of the Caribbean, and indeed the whole northwestern part of the Atlantic, while the Spanish are the only fleet in the east Pacific. The French have the east Atlantic, and have also taken treasure from Svalbard. The Pirates own the Indian Ocean, and appear content with that for now. The MCCRs are the force in the west Pacific, and have now made a few trips to Svalbard. The land game is still dormant at this point, but Spain has considerably reinforced her HT position in Argentina, where her army stands at 19 units strong. Every other faction has yet to buy army units.

Additional Comment:

I was not able to post here yesterday, so I have fallen quite a distance behind and will not be able to remember all of the details-the game has progressed quite a lot!

The English fleet has rapidly expanded, with the English launching HMS Swallow, HMS Grand Temple, HMS Leicester, Cygnet, HMS Bolingbroke, HMS Apollo (ROTF version) and HMS Victoria, among others. They have asserted their dominance of the Caribbean, with a network of treasure runners (Sea Tiger, HMS Alexander, and the captured Bon Marin) making quick trips to Cuba, Bermuda, and Martinique, and bringing the treasure back to Fort Brompton, from where they have launched many of their ships. They have expanded into new areas, as well, as the west Atlantic is not big enough to contain the expanding British empire. A disastrous expedition into the Indian Ocean saw them lose the Cygnet, HMS Bolingbroke, and HMS Victor (though they have already built the Cygnet and Bolingbroke again), but they did inflict serious damage on the Pirates. They then saw a considerable threat developing in the far west, where the Spanish had a beautiful system of treasure running going, raking in gold with the help of three +2 gold ships: La Santa Isabel, El Alquimista, and San Pedro. The Spanish didn't have any gunships, but were rapidly adding to their army every turn, with additional reinforcements coming in from the +2 bonus provided by controlling all of South America. The Spanish wanted to control all of North America, as well, and the English HT of Greenland was the only territory left that they hadn't occupied. They had built the fort Puerto Blanco on Hawaii, and were transporting troops from there to Alaska when the English rounded Alaska and began their assault. The Spanish panicked and asked if the English would stop their attack if the Spanish retreated from Hawaii and stopped the apparent invasion preparations. The English went on with their attack, with nothing to gain from letting the Spanish get away. HMS Swallow did most of the work, with SAT + reroll to let her get 10 shots per turn. She took out the Spanish transports, El Picador, La Santa Ana (CC version), and Cazador del Pirata. Assisting her in the bombardment of the Spanish stronghold was HMS Grand Temple and HMS Nautilus, and the three of them made short work of the Spanish fort and the defending ships. The Asesino de la Nave and her commander, Nemesio Diaz, were overwhelmed by sheer numbers, while El San Jose, Joya del Sol, Martillo de Dios, La Ebro (MI), and La Reconquistador were sunk at the island. No ships got away, and the annihilation of the Spaniards' northern fleet meant their army was stranded on land, at least for the time being. It is quite an army, the largest in play so far, now numbering at least 61 units strong. The HMS Victoria made a quick detour to go down near Argentina to dismast El Alquimista, but the Spanish launched the powerful ships La Resolucion (OE) and El Monte Cristo before the English gunship could sink her. The once-proud Spanish fleet now only numbers five ships, with the San Pedro and Magdalena in addition to those above.

The French-Americans have seen their numbers dwindle, after a failure to grab gold from Japan, where La Dijon was sunk by the Cursed gunship Grim Reaper. They still have La Belle Etoile with all of her crew, but she is their only gunship. Recently they have been building up their army, which now controls all of Europe except for Iceland, where the Jeux has been aggravating the English, who consider the treasure on the island to be theirs, since HMS Starbuck has made repeated trips there. The French have remained stagnant in terms of naval strength, and they are not in a position of power. With the fort Ramsgate being built on St. Helena, they only have two consistent islands that they get gold from, Great Britain and Svalbard. However, they have recently entered into an alliance with the Spanish, with both factions in bad shape. The French proposed the alliance, with the Spanish accepting, but unable to assist the French right away. France appears to want to take over Iceland and Asia, while destroying Ramsgate and so getting another island to pillage from, but we will see in time if these goals are far-fetched.

A dramatic event has unfolded in the Indian Ocean: the Pirates have been eliminated! The English inflicted damage in their failed expedition (they wanted more than just a few sunken ships, anyway), and the Cursed finished them off with the Grim Reaper and the Fallen Angel. At one point, the Pirates were doing quite well, with the Darkhawk II, Raven, and Doombox among their numbers. Now they are gone, with the Raven and Selkie captured by the MCCRs, and the rest of their fleet at the bottom of the sea. The final blow came when the MCCRs launched the Baochuan with Admiral Zheng He, Ms. Cheng, a captain, and a helmsman on board. The MCCRs had been saving gold for quite a while, and spent 95 gold in one turn to buy the above, along with 18 army units. The Baochuan loaded some army units and sailed to Madagascar (from the MCCR HT of New Guinea) and took out the lone Pirate army unit stationed there. Madagascar now converts to a wild island since the Pirates are gone and not coming back. The MCCRs have since saved up gold for a second huge turn, and they just bought the Shui Xian with Shap'ng Tsai, Captain Nemo, Ibrahan Ozat, and a helmsman, as well as the Death's Anchor flotilla. They have troops in every territory on the Australian continent except Eastern Australia, where they will have troops soon, and be able to gain the reinforcement bonus. I have granted them the use of the only Pirate fort I have, Dead Man's Point, because they don't have a fort of their own. They have built the fort on Madagascar, which is the western extent of their empire, an empire that is now uncontested (they had basically shared islands with the Pirates until recently). They are alone in the West Pacific and Indian Oceans, but appear to have bigger aspirations.

Many smaller goings-on have been forgotten already, but that is where we stand so far, with the English in control of much of the Western hemisphere, and the MCCRs in a good position in the opposite hemisphere. The land-based factions, the Spanish and the French-Americans, have suffered in their maritime experiences but now have a promising alliance and large armies.

Additional Comment:

I was only able to play three turns today (6/17). The English attacked the French fort St. Pierre on Great Britain, bombarding it with HMS Bolingbroke and HMS Apollo. They took out the fort, and the French retreated back to their nearby HT of Western Europe, where they hastily built two gunships, La Corse and La Possession, and remained there so the English would not be able to shoot at them. The Bolingbroke dismasted La Belle Etoile, and HMS Europa captured her, using Commander Temple to teleport her to Greenland, where she will repair. The English have now enforced a blockade with a handful of their gunships, and the French can't move without risking the remnants of their fleet. Meanwhile, at Fort Brompton (on Jamaica), the English have launched HMS Titan, and crewed her with Hermione Gold (ROTF version) and Sir Edmund Atkinson (who I'm using because I've never used him before, and because his ability has received attention in the latest edits to the Pirate Code, where it says the ship he is on can be given actions if the die roll is not a 6, and crew he possesses don't take up cargo space, can use their abilities, and don't count against the point limit of a ship). The English now have total dominance of the Atlantic, except for the Falkland Islands, where HMS Titan and HMS Victoria seem to be headed (the Magdalena has run treasure from there to the nearby Spanish HT territory of Argentina all game long).

The Spanish bought two captains and a helmsman for their new gunships (La Resolucion and El Monte Cristo), and appear to be saving up gold.

In the far east, the MCCRs have saved up their gold once again, and have now launched a third (and final) ten master, the Delusion. Crewed to the max, she is carrying DJC Davy Jones, Captain Nemo, Ibrahan Ozat, Christian Fiore, Sir Edmund, El Fantasma (OE version), a helmsman, and an oarsman. They also built the Pestilence, and crewed her with a shipwright. She and the Fallen Angel, finally back in action after being rammed and dismasted near Madagascar, are each carrying two army units, and are sailing in a northwesterly direction, following the mammoth Baochuan, carrying six more units (she would carry more, but still has 11 points of crew on her). The original gunship of this combined-faction fleet, the Grim Reaper, is still busy, now in the process of towing home the captured Selkie, after doing the same with the Fallen Angel. The Shui Xian is heading west along the coast of northern Asia, towards the French. Although she is ahead of her sister ships, the Baochuan and Delusion, the three huge junks are in a rough line, forming an imposing sight. Time will tell if they are a good investment, as the MCCRs have spent a total of 164 gold on them and their crew.

Additional Comment:

Things progressed rather quickly today (6/18), and there was a flurry of actions all around the world.

The blockade of the remaining French ships docked at Western Europe continued, and the English had enough gunships to split their forces and send 6 more gunships down south to blockade the Spanish, who were docked at their HT of Argentina. Meanwhile, the MCCRs built the Divine Dragon and crewed her with OE Davy Jones, Sir Edmund, a captain, a helmsman, and an oarsman. The MCCRs still felt indebted to England ever since the English helped them eliminate their territorial rival, the Pirates. As a result, the MCCRs were willing to give gold to the English (20 total, transferred from Dead Man's Point on Madagascar to Ramsgate on St. Helena), and wanted to help them bring the French and/or the Spanish out of their ports, where they were essentially invulnerable. Eventually a 6 was rolled by OE Davy Jones, and the chaos began. The MCCRs moved El Acorazado (newly built by the Spanish and ready for action) S+S away from Argentina, and since the MCCRs are last to go and the English first, the English were able to start pounding away. Three powerful English gunships, the Titan, Swallow, and Leicester, all opened fire on "The Battleship", who only lost two masts in that first turn because of her immense defences, which included Joaquin Vega and Nemesio Diaz in addition to her own ability. The other Spanish gunships, the powerful La Resolucion and El Monte Cristo (both have world-hater with rank-2 guns, so TWOS HIT), got in on the action and came to the aid of their flagship. After a few minutes of intense broadsides, English guns won the day, with the Acorazado and Resolucion captured and the Monte Cristo sunk. The English lost their HMS Swallow and HMS Titan, but these would soon be rebuilt with all of the gold the English had saved up. The Spanish launched the Santos Romanos at the tail end of the engagement, and she sunk the schooner Auckland with her powerful guns. HMS Europa used Commander Temple to transport the Acorazado straight to the English HT of Greenland, while HMS Victoria (with only her mainmast left standing) began towing the Resolucion. Her reduced speed meant she would be the last to leave the battle area, and the Spanish decided on a desperate cheap shot, using the Santos Romanos to sink both the Victoria and her prize. Furious, the English turned around the untouched HMS Apollo (F&S version) and blew the Spanish blockade runner out of the water at point-blank range. With that, the Spanish lost their last ship and are officially out of the naval war.

As the battle began in the southwest, the French at their HT of Western Europe decided to try to capitalize on the fact that the English fleet was divided, and started another battle. This one would not be so hotly contested, however, as the French only had two gunships (La Corse and La Possession). The defensive ability of La Corse (same as El Acorazado) was cancelled by Lenoir, aboard the captured Belle Etoile. This made her easy prey for the Cygnet and HMS Grand Temple, who sunk both ships with the help of Ramsgate. L'Amazone and L'Emeraude have also been sunk, leaving the French with only one ship, La Vengeance. Last turn, La Vengeance sailed on a suicide mission, and took out four masts (replacing one with a fire mast) on HMS Swallow. However, she is about to be pounced upon and sunk by more English gunships, and France-America appears to be the most likely candidate to be the second faction eliminated. Also last turn, the English launched new gunships at Fort Brompton, with the Bretwalda and Dover among those newly commissioned. HMS Dreadnought has been built at Greenland, and although I have run out of English captains, she is stacked with a shipwright, cannoneer, musketeer, fire shot, grape shot, and stinkpot shot, with First Mate Ismail on board to make room.

The French-American armies are dwindling after being sent east across Asia to attack the growing numbers of the MCCRs, who have lost the land battle up to this point. Most of the fighting has been around Kamchatka and Irkutsk. Though the MCCRs have been on the losing end so far, the French will not be able to reinforce their armies (since they can't run gold and buy new units), while the MCCRs have a strong, uncontested gold system that they are using to consistently buy army units with. For the MCCRs, it is just a matter of transporting their armies across the sea to Asia from their HT of New Guinea, which they are hurrying to do, with some difficulty. New Guinea is always extremely crowded, with five galleys and other gold ships going in and out, ferrying gold all over the western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea. Two Duncans (Mercenary two masters) and the Cursed ships Guinee and Executioner have recently been launched. The Baochuan is trying her best to transport as many troops to Asia as quickly as possible, but she can't do it by herself. Shap'ng Tsai, captain of the obtrusive Shui Xian, seems a bit confused on how to help out, as he thought he would be fighting, not watching and carrying troops. The huge Mercenary ten master has gotten in the way a few times, and to complicate things even further, a reef is positioned on the northwest corner of New Guinea, cutting down on how much space ships have to dock. Who knew a faction could be so rich and powerful yet awkward and inefficient?

An overview of the global situation: The English have complete naval dominance of the entire Western hemisphere, while the MCCRs are masters of the east. The Spanish still have the largest army, with England and the MCCRs building theirs up. Spain and France-America have been all but annihilated at sea. Spain has 105 army units, England 40, France-America 10, and the MCCRs, 41. Since Spain is powerless with no navy, she can be picked off at leisure by whoever wins the naval war. The victor will have unlimited armies, since they will have a monopoly of gold and therefore armies that don't run out. It appears as though the English and MCCRs, friendly up to this point, will inevitably clash in an epic struggle for the command of the oceans.

Additional Comment:
Today saw the end of the French-Americans, as expected. They have no ships left and have three infantry units, one in Western Europe and two in Great Britain. They lost the battle for Asia to the MCCRs because the MCCRs were able to gain 5 reinforcements per turn because they control both Africa and Australia.

The battle to decide the game has begun! The MCCRs have sent their whole fleet west around South Africa and have engaged the English. At the start of the battle, the sides numbered somewhere around 21 ships for the MCCRs and 41 for the English. The English appeared (and still appear) to have the advantage, but many of their new ships were hastily launched and uncrewed, while the MCCRs had three ten masters at their disposal.

The battle is probably less than halfway through; it has been rough going for the MCCRs. The three ten masters sailed in line ahead (just a coincidence) with a few fast galleys and the Divine Dragon in the lead. The Dragon was the first ship sunk, but not before she inflicted damage on numerous English ships and destroyed Ramsgate, on St. Helena. The Delusion, first in the line of ten masters, began shooting everything in sight, while DJC Davy Jones copied the ability of the Pestilence for defence. The ability requires enemies to roll sixes to eliminate masts, but the English used Thomas Gunn (far to the north on HMS Apollo) to give +1 to English die rolls once per ship, once per turn to let fives hit as well, and now the Delusion has just four masts left. The English have devised a strategy of throwing all of their smaller, uncrewed ships into battle to wear down the MCCRs before letting loose their big, stacked flagships, and it seems to be working. The Delusion and Shui Xian both have Captain Nemo and Ibrahan Ozat, but they haven't been able to capture any crew since the crewless English ships have surrounded them. The Delusion finally broke free by becoming ghostly and moving L+S+L+S by sacrificing her oarsman (via OE Fantasma), moving through to open sea to sink HMS Titan to the east, off of Congo. However, now HMS Dreadnought has her cornered, and has just shot her crew with Stinkpot Shot, limiting her options severely. The other two ten masters aren't as damaged, but they have also had terrible luck. On just a single turn, the Shui Xian missed 5 times out of 6 (6 guns in range, that is), while the Baochuan (with world-hater Chang Pao on board) missed 6 times out of seven! The MCCRs have sunk more ships than the English, but none of the English 'super' gunships have been in action, while the ten masters are already in a world of hurt.

Additional Comment:

Today (6/20) saw the end of this long game. The Shui Xian and Baochuan were eventually sunk by the English, who labouriously fought through the horde of MCCR ships, suffering the loss of six more ships in today's action. When the Delusion was derelict and the other two ten masters sunk, the MCCRs ordered a hopeless retreat. The Delusion was towed east to Madagascar to Dead Man's Point, where she tried to repair. However, the whole of the English fleet was in pursuit, and the odds were impossibly in favour of the English. The Fallen Angel was rammed by HMS Leicester and sunk by the captured El Acorazado, who used Nemesio Diaz to cancel her ability. HMS Grand Temple finished off the fort, while the Sea Tiger captured the Delusion (since she is Eternal) and HMS Swallow captured the other MCCR Eternal ship, the Grim Reaper. The last MCCR ship left standing was the Pestilence, who hurried back to her HT of New Guinea. There she was rammed and captured by HMS Apollo and the Cygnet. With that, England has total dominance over the seas, and therefore, of the world. She went on to conquer the world on land, and England has now won the game!

The game went quite well, and although I was unsurprised that the naval aspect held power over the land portion of the game, it was a bit too one-sided. I may try to change a few rules to make the land part more relevant (possibly starting the game with treasure in unoccupied territories, only to be obtained over land) if I play this Risk combination game again. As it stands now, all a player needs to do to win the entire game is eliminate the other players' navies.

Tomorrow I am planning on testing one ship fleets in (mostly) one-on-one deathmatches where I will try to determine which of my 'super' gunships is the most effective. This may turn into a sort of process dubbed 'The Acorazado Trials', but this is just me speculating that she will dominate; hopefully she won't win every game.

After this I think I will try a scenario described in the link below, but I probably won't start it tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Sariouriel

I've once had quite a big battle that lasted for a few days. I believe we had around 200 ships in total.

There were two teams, the attackers and the defenders. The scenario was called "the defence of st. Helen's" and there were 6 of us and we decided not to take any crew. It was supposed to take 15 turns, but we made it 30 in order to have more fun. When you have 70 ships in total, it is quite hard to move them.

EDIT:
Ah yes - the scenario is described here: http://gustawicyryl.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d1iue0b

[a7xfanben]

I played 12 games today, 4 sets of three games each. El Acorazado won 11 times (11-1, a .917 winning percentage). First she took on HMS Dreadnought, whose stinkpot shot and long-range guns were no match for 'The Battleship' (3-0). Then she dominated the Baochuan (3-0). Next she took on the Shui Xian, who managed to win one game out of three because she was carrying both Christian Fiore (the Mercenary canceler) and MI Hermione Gold (2-1). The final matchup was not so fair, but the DJC Le Bonaparte managed to frustrate the Acorazado for a little while. However, the Acorazado had a ten-point advantage over her, since the Bonaparte costs 16 points and can only come to a total of 32, since I was doing one-on-one battles (3-0). I'm still not sure if she is the best gunship in the game, but I can honestly say that she is a must-have ship, especially if you are combat-oriented like I am.

I also set up for the Defence of St. Helen's scenario. I used the dimensions given (the table in the link is too small for what they have listed, probably because they don't play huge games ), and tried to set up the islands and icebergs the same way.

There will be five fleets, five 500 point deathmatch fleets (so a total of over 2500 points in play, just like the regular 500 point games). The fleets of the Spanish and the French-Americans are the defenders, and have worked out a sort of strategy before the game's start. Their biggest and best ships are concentrated in the rear, while they send their other ships out first to annoy the attackers while the forts do some damage. Since I only have one Spanish fort (El Puerto Blanco) and two French forts (St. Pierre and Paradis de la Mer), and four are required for the game, I have let the defenders use the Pirate fort Dead Man's Point. The English, Pirates, and MercCursedRebels (I may refer to them as the MCRs, not to be confused with My Chemical Romance) are the attackers, and have similarly positioned their uncrewed/weaker ships at the front of their formation (one of those awesome sights, a 'forest of masts'). The ratio is 3:2 in favour of the attackers, with 1500 points and 1000 points. The attackers command 81 ships, and the defenders, 56, for a total of 137 (not quite 200 , but I am using crew).

Edit: Finally it stopped automerging my posts-that last mammoth chain had 6,282 words!

[a7xfanben]

The game has started, with the first three turns down. Five defender ships have been sunk, and Dead Man's Point has been destroyed. The defenders are harassing the attackers with some of their smaller ships, and have formed a defensive line blocking the southern path from the edge of the game area to the islands protruding from the centre. I would play more today, but the ten masters have ruined my gaming experience for the day . I would rather not go on a long rant, but if they keep disappointing me I think I will flip out. Basically, they all stink. The Baochuan went 7 for 20 in her double shoot action today thanks to a rare 6 from Zheng He. She has 7 rank-3 guns, and they were essentially rank-2's thanks to world-hater Chang Pao. Whatever. In a rage, I ignored the 'can't shoot at ships in your own fleet' rule and sunk all three of them easily. HMS Leicester sunk the Baochuan without any help, and she didn't even have Hermione Gold (MI version) on board. I think I will redo the turn and place them back where they were, and give them a final chance. I know they aren't designed for just combat, but the fact that they are this bad is just plain embarrassing. Hopefully they will prove me wrong when I resume play again tomorrow.

I have finished this game, and the attackers won on turn 14, one turn before the time limit. The ten masters did reasonably well, so they are safe for now. The attackers basically just flooded the top, middle, and bottom of the game area with tons of ships, and the defenders were overwhelmed. The last defending ship afloat was El Acorazado, but her defences were bypassed by a Broadsides Attack from HMS Bretwalda. A good scenario, although a chunk of attacking ships didn't get to see action.

Today I played a three game set of deathmatches between two 300 point fleets. The idea was to have a small group of true super-gunships against a much larger group of good, cheap, smaller gunships. The only restrictions were the 300 point limit, but I also only let the small ship fleet have ships that cost less than 10 points, and have 3 masts or less. The big ship fleet contained just 6 ships for all 300 points, with the Baochuan, Delusion, Shui Xian, El Acorazado, HMS Dreadnought, and Le Bonaparte (DJC version). The small ship fleet contained 25 ships, with most of them either Pirate or Spanish, although there were also ships from England, France, America, and the Cursed. The big ship fleet won 2 of the 3 games. They lost the third game only because the small ship fleet had incredible luck with the dice. The ten masters were respectable in these games, although at one point the Shui Xian (with world-hater MI Hermione Gold on board) missed five times in a row, and Le Bonaparte rolled four one's in a row . If not for this aberration, the big ship fleet would have won all three times. Their biggest advantage was that they had a sac captain, three cancelers, and two SAT crew.

My next few games will be much smaller, as I intend to test out this fleet: http://www.miniaturetrading.com/im/s...ed_format/true, and possibly some others.

The above fleet went 1-2 against a Pirate fleet.

[a7xfanben]

More small games have been played, with the Pirates and Spanish duking it out yesterday. The Asesino de la Nave proved devastating.

After that, I wanted to give some of the lesser factions (at least in terms of my collection) a chance to win, and the Cursed faced the Americans. The fleets were a bit odd, with the Titan Brachyura towing the flotilla Death's Anchor while the Sea Rat (a two-masted junk) ran treasure. The Americans, with the Mohican and Louisiana, won two out of three.

Next came a larger game built around El Acorazado. The name of the game is 'Sink the Battleship'. The attackers have to sink El Acorazado before she docks at the attackers' home island, about 6L or so away. Two 120 point deathmatch fleets were constructed, and the Acorazado was decked out with her usual complement, while surrounding herself with more defences with the remaining points: an escort of smaller ships that either have cancellers built-in (Guinee and Mobilis) or have cancellers on board (Lache de Calvados, Black Arrow, and Bosun's Bane, with Lenoir, Tia Dalma, and Christian Fiore). These ships also had the 'this ship cannot be shot at by ships within S of her' ability, making them even harder to hit. Since the odds were heavily stacked against whatever fleet attacked this fleet, I let the attackers see all of the ships and crew of the enemy beforehand. They went with powerful ships with plenty of long-range firepower: HMS Grand Temple, HMS Victoria, HMS Bretwalda (with Broadsides Attack to try to cut through the Acorazado's defences), the Blackwatch, and El Monte Cristo.

The defending 'Battleship' fleet tried to do some fancy maneuvering in the first game, but El Acorazado was sunk by the long-range guns. Although all of the defenders except for the tiny Bosun's Bane moved at S+S, El Acorazado broke from the formation with the help of Capitan Alarico Castro's SAT with reroll from Duque Marcus Vaccaro. They learned from their mistakes, however, and won both of the next two games by heading straight for the attackers' HI. While the smaller ships cancelled abilities aboard the three big five masters, HMS Bretwalda tried to get in a Broadsides Attack, but she was repeatedly foiled by the Spanish canceller Nemesio Diaz. If this was to be played again the islands should probably be placed a greater distance apart.

The two factions who haven't really won any games by themselves faced off in a series of 100 point games. The Cursed faced the Mercenaries, with the Cursed winning two out of three. However, the Mercenaries had only one treasure runner, the Shui Xian, and four ships overall, since their captains cost so much. I have to use Luc Savard (6 points) for captains since I don't own any generic Mercenary captains. The Cursed used two large gunships, the Divine Dragon and Executioner, with the Death's Anchor in tow. They used the Sea Rat and Fallen Angel as their treasure runners, while using the Clear Wind as a backup gunship. In both of the first two games, the Cursed sunk the Shui Xian (essentially ending the game) before she could return with any treasure. In the third game, the Mercenaries got the first shot, and went straight for the kill. The Clear Wind and Executioner were quickly dismasted, and the Mercenaries finally won!

[a7xfanben]

Today I played a four player, 100 point game. The idea was that each player brought their favourite 'gimmick' fleet, or a fleet that tried to win using an unorthodox strategy. Every player was trying to win, but the fleets were created more for fun than for competition. Each player was allowed to use 70 points for the gimmick fleet, and 30 for treasure runners.

A short description of the four fleets, in the order of gameplay:

1. A fleet based on controlling the opponent. This fleet used crew like Davy Jones and George Washington LeBeaux, as well as UT's and mysterious islands, to control the enemy ships and mess up opposing strategies.

2. A fleet based on home island raiders. Of the four ships in the fleet with the HI raider ability, all of them had solid firepower, and two had captains, so the fleet looked formidable.

3. A fleet based on recycling crew. The main game pieces in this fleet were Captain Davy Jones (POTC) and Captain Blackheart. The Deliverance, with these two crew onboard (along with Lady Baptiste to reroll Jones' ability), was supported by ships that are effective crew killers, such as the Asesino de la Nave, the USS Quigley, and El Villalobos. The eliminated crew are supposed to then be recycled by Jones, and then sacced by Blackheart for extra actions that would let the Deliverance dominate the battle.

4. A fleet based on using three sea monsters. The Raninoidea was equipped with OE Calico Cat and OE Griffin, and she was towing the Pirate flotilla Doombox. Also in the build were the Seleucis, who would use her unique ability to essentially give the Leviathan the move-and-shoot.


The game got underway, and the Raninoidea and Seleucis were quickly killed, leaving the (mostly) Pirate sea monster fleet in bad shape.

The HI raiders didn't actually get to raid any home islands, as they were preoccupied fighting Raninoidea, and then repairing from that fight. Also, the Doombox was left behind close to the fleet's island, so the flotilla kept harassing the HI raiders as their runners brought home a good amount of gold.

The crew-recycling fleet struggled mightily to get into action, as there was an obstacle course of terrain around their HI (two of them created by the UT Lost). When they finally started shooting (desperately trying to feed their big gunship), they killed some crew, but weren't able to get the 6's required to link them to Davy Jones. Their strategy failed miserably, but they were able to keep themselves out of last place with their treasure runners, the Alquimista and Joya del Sol.

The 'mind control' fleet had solid luck with the dice, and they were able to create chaos around the sea with LeBeaux, good MI rolls that were aided by Nemo's Charts, and essentially two of OE Davy Jones. The first one was the real one onboard the Divine Dragon, and the second (temporary) one came from the Eye of Insanity UT, which lets the owner of the ship it is on choose any Cursed crew in play and substitute their ability in for a crew aboard the ship that the Eye is on. In this way, this fleet had four abilities that let them control their opponents, which would prove to be somewhat valuable.

In the end, one ship proved her worth: HMS Lady Provost. She made a daring raid on the HI of the crew-killer fleet, taking a 7 and a 2 on consecutive turns. She was not actually part of the HI raiding fleet, but a regular treasure runner in the 'mind control' fleet. In the end, that fleet tied with the HI raider fleet for first with 15 gold each. Coming in third was the crew-killer fleet, with 5 gold (therefore, they still would not have won if the Provost didn't take their gold; in that case, the HI raiders would have had sole possession of first place). Bringing up the rear was the sea monster fleet, with 0 gold. They will have another chance tomorrow, however, as I am going to play at least one more game with these fleets.

[Cadet-Captain Mike]

Other things being equal, I'd put my own hopes on the crew-recycler fleet. The controller fleet is potent, but too dependent on dice luck; the HI raiders can't do any better than any other faction (you can't steal what hasn't been brought home by somebody else); and sea monsters are effective only against un-Captained gold ships, in my experience.

Have you done any test battles to find a way to beat a swarm of tiny ships? I call that kind of fleet the Zergling Rush of Pirates, and I'd love to know how to win against it.

[a7xfanben]

Originally Posted by Cadet-Captain Mike

Have you done any test battles to find a way to beat a swarm of tiny ships? I call that kind of fleet the Zergling Rush of Pirates, and I'd love to know how to win against it.

You mean a fleet like this? Those fleets are a different animal from most everything else you see, but there are a few things that should work:

1. It's a Promo from a rare set, but Odin's Revenge would be devastating.

2. I dominated a swarm fleet with my HMS Grand Temple fleet. A swarm fleet with 10 ships, was blown out of the water (I could take out 3-4 ships per turn). Although, this was in a deathmatch, so the little ships were all bunched together like a mass of kindling for a fire!

3. Since you like the Americans the best, try using the original Constitution. The small ships wouldn't be able to scratch her, and with a helmsman and some double action crew, she would be able to pick them off.

Originally Posted by Cadet-Captain Mike

Other things being equal, I'd put my own hopes on the crew-recycler fleet. The controller fleet is potent, but too dependent on dice luck; the HI raiders can't do any better than any other faction (you can't steal what hasn't been brought home by somebody else); and sea monsters are effective only against un-Captained gold ships, in my experience.

As for this, here is what happened in the latest game between these 'gimmick' fleets.

The setup for the game was purposely more confined, and things got very crowded toward the end of the game.

The 'mind control' fleet had a rough time, losing the Aberdeen Baron to the Raninoidea after she went through a whirlpool. They also were unable to get the UT's necessary to fuel their efforts.

The crew recyclers were unable to roll a single 6 with Captain Davy Jones, and their gunships had a rough go of it. The Asesino de la Nave missed two of three shots against La Vengeance (of the HI raiders), and then was taken out in the return fire. The Quigley and Villalobos were obliterated in one turn by the Raninoidea, and the Deliverance wasted time fighting a silly battle against the Divine Dragon (silly because neither ship could get their guns to work).

The sea monster fleet (and their Pirate treasure runners) had the best start, but things started to unravel when the HI raiders discovered the Lost UT and rolled a 6. All three sea monsters were 'reefed', and all three lost two segments. The Raninoidea was later eliminated by Le Bon Marin using the UT Cursed Conch to move her back onto the reef. The Doombox and a derelict had fog banks placed underneath them, essentially eliminating them from the game. Then the HI raiders came to town. In a sudden swarm, all four ships with the HI raiding ability (Poor Adams, L'Heros, Freedom, Belladonna) attacked the HI of the sea monster fleet. The Belladonna and Poor Adams got into a skirmish with the Raven and the Leviathan, while the Freedom was busy buying time for the other three. L'Heros made the only successful raid, but it was all they needed, because while all of this was going on, the French runners Coeur du Lion and La Dijon grabbed gold and quickly brought it back for a swift, stunning victory!

The final treasure count revealed 16 gold for the HI raiders, 9 for the crew recyclers (La Joya del Sol brought back a 4 and a 5), and 0 for both the sea monsters and the mind controllers. The sea monsters had theirs stolen, while the mind controllers needed very lucky, specific things to happen to win.


Another game was played, but two of the four players wanted to change their fleets. The crew recyclers swapped that fleet for an all-sub fleet, utilizing the Nautilus, Mobilis, Brave Selkirk, and USS Lamon. The sea monster fleet was swapped out for a fleet that would try to capture crew and turn them into gold, using crew like Bonny Peel and Barstow.

On the first action of the first turn, HMS Lady Provost (of the mind controllers) picked up a 5 and a 7 from the same island, which would be too much of a deficit for the others to overcome. The fleet had moderate success rolling for controlling effects, which helped out later in the game.

The all-sub fleet managed to run gold with the Brave Selkirk, whose Mercenary keyword was cancelled by the Mobilis. However, the subs were too slow to get into the real action that dominated the middle and end of this game.

The HI raiders came into the game as victors of both of the previous two, so there was an understandable amount of bias in the actions of the others. After having all of their gold stolen in the previous game, the crew capturers (previously the sea monsters) tried their best not to hold a grudge against the raiders. However, after discovering the UT's Monkey's Paw and Maps of Hades, they flew into a rage, vowing to do everything possible to make the raiders lose. The only time they strayed from this promise proved to be the climax of the game.

The raiders' HI was close to the HI of the mind controllers. After seeing the Provost load up (although they didn't know what she had), they decided to go after them. However, LeBeaux was able to throw the Freedom onto a reef, and the Divine Dragon was able to protect the Provost so she could return home safely. On the next turn, the angry crew capturers arrived, and the Lady's Scorn immediately sent L'Heros to the bottom. After the Belladonna and Poor Adams were both dismasted, the crew capturers used Barstow (onboard the Xiamen's Claws) to capture OE Davy Jones, and later, the captain aboard the Dragon, which would have netted them 15 gold. However, this made the Claws a huge target for the rest of the game, and ships flocked to her to try to capture/sink her. This is where the mind control fleet shined. After the Claws lost all of her masts in a gauntlet of hostile ships, LeBeaux moved her off of a reef and away from the Raven, who was towing her. The Claws was then moved S+S (her base move) further away via a mysterious island roll by the Provost, moving her into a fog bank. Since derelicts in fog banks are lost forever, this ended the threat of the crew capturers having more gold than the mind controllers. The Raven then brought home the last gold coin, transferred from the derelict Longshanks, ending the game.

The treasure was counted, and the mind controllers won despite the capturing of their best crew (Davy Jones) and the sinking of their flagship (the Divine Dragon). They finished with 17 gold, the HI raiders with 12, the all-sub fleet with 9, and the crew capturers with 3.

Additional Comment:

Another game has been played, with the mind controllers winning once again. The game didn't have any true excitement, but at least the gimmicks were used, and the final treasure count close. The mind controllers finished with 13 gold, the HI raiders with 11, and the crew capturers and subs with 5 each.

Tomorrow, the last game with these fleets will be played, and to elongate the game, there will be double as much treasure on each island (6 instead of 3).

Additional Comment:

The final game between the gimmick fleets was played today. The mind controllers won again, due to their HI being a good distance away from the other three fleets. They had good treasure running, solid luck with UT's, and they made two brilliant moves to ensure their victory. The Divine Dragon was sent through a whirlpool, and sunk the Lightning and Longshanks, two treasure runners in the crew capturer fleet, right before they could return home with 6 coins of gold.

When the HI raiders L'Heros and the Belladonna approached the HI of the mind controllers, the mind controllers acted quickly and divided their gold up by building two forts, so the raiders only had access to two coins.

The final gold count saw the mind controllers finish with 31 gold (remember there was twice as much treasure, 6 coins per island), both the HI raiders and the subs with 14, and the crew capturers with 5 (they weren't able to capture any crew).

The mind controllers have cemented themselves as the best of the gimmick fleets, with victories in four of the five games (although one was a tie).

[Cadet-Captain Mike]

Our group fought a pitched battle to celebrate TLAPD 2012; the battle report is on my site (the link is below).

[a7xfanben]

I have finally gotten out the fleets once again! I have acquired a solid bunch of very good ships and crew since I last played, and you will see mention of them soon. The first game that is being played is a cumulative one, where gold is spent for more ships and crew as you go along. Four players, 20 islands. 16 of them are wild, and of those 16, 10 are mysterious. Each island starts with four gold coins, and at the end of each turn (after all four players have taken their turns), any island with less than four coins on it will have one coin placed on it to replenish it. There are terrain pieces mixed in as well to hopefully add some flavour. Each fleet was given 20 points to start off, and the players are as follows: English/Barbary Corsairs, French/Americans, Spanish/Jade Rebellion, and Pirates/Cursed. The Mercenaries are a wild card (as they should be), although the English sort of have 'first dibs' on the Shui Xian, if they choose to use her. Just like in the Risk game, forts will function as bases (almost like a second HI), where a player can use the gold accumulated in a fort to buy new stuff for their fleet.

Each fleet started out with two ships, and the English and French got off to the fastest start. The English have five ships through the first handful of turns, and they just bought the Aberdeen Baron, one of England's finest ships.

The French have used their new Favori to purchase La Dijon, and with the gold brought back by Le Bon Marin, they built Paradis de la Mer on an island near their home island.

The Spanish are off to a sluggish start, with the Magdalena being slowed by an MI (mysterious island) effect, and the Pirates using the "use an opposing ship using this ship's base move" effect. However, the Santa Isabel brought back enough gold to buy El Alquimista, so now they have two ships getting the +2 bonus.

The Pirates have been slowed by the Lost UT, which trapped the Raven in a Sargasso Sea for a few turns. Now they're up to four ships, and eagerly anticipating more.

Additional Comment:

After a few more turns, the game is progressing quickly. The Aberdeen Baron went through a whirlpool to explore a far-off island, and the English built Ramsgate on an island near their HI. The French built their second of two forts, St. Pierre, on an island south of their HI. The Spaniards built two more +2 gold ships, the San Pedro and the Concepcion. They will probably be looking to build El Puerto Blanco soon. The Pirates have built the Longshanks, and the terrain from the Lost UT has been removed, allowing the Raven to move again. No shots have been fired so far.

Additional Comment:

After another handful of turns, all 7 forts are up! The Spanish built El Puerto Blanco near their HI, while the Pirates built the Devil's Maw north of their HI. The English are the only fleet to build a fort a good distance away from their HI. They built Fort Brompton far to the west, while their HI (and Ramsgate, their other fort) is almost on the eastern edge of the sea.

The English/Barbary Corsairs (English Corsairs?) have expanded quite quickly, and they are up to 13 ships. Recent additions to their fleet include the Meshud, Tiger's Eye, Algiers, Griffin, Queen of Sheba, HMS Victor, HMS London, HMS Grand Temple, and the Gibraltar flotilla. Their fleet is essentially in two halves, with both squadrons bringing in a steady stream of gold.

The French/Americans look to be putting together a magnificent battle fleet. The first fleet to purchase a gunship of any kind, they have now built Le Superbe, La Ville de Paris, Le Soleil Royal, and Le Gaule, all powerful 5 masters. They look to be in prime position to make the first strike of the game. The Boston (with Eternal Ralph David on board) and La Vengeance are running around as well, in addition to the fleet of treasure runners they have.

The Spanish/Jade Rebels are off to a truly horrific start. They picked a HI in the northeast corner of the sea, which is looking like a bad idea. Of the three wild islands in their immediate vicinity, one is consistently explored by the English, one is a tricky MI, but they have managed to build El Puerto Blanco on the third. They keep rolling 1's and 2's at the MI, whose effect is this: "This ship can't explore this island. She must leave and dock again to try." To further compound their struggles, the Pirates used the event False Treasure (acquired via a lucky MI roll) to eliminate all of the treasure on board La Concepcion. As it stands now, they only have five ships, with no true gunships, no captains, and only one reliable source of gold.

The Cursed Pirates are faring much better. They seemed reluctant to buy anything but small, fast, treasure runners, but circumstances have forced that they do otherwise. When the French gold runner L'Amazone approached one of their wild islands, they built Dead Man's Point to deter her. Since then, they've built the Nightmare and Windjammer (two cheap support gunships), launched the Doombox and Death's Anchor (flotillas), and built their second of two forts, the Devi's Maw. The Bonnie Liz, towing the Doombox, is in the process of intimidating the French ship La Dijon into not exploring the island she has been going to all game. The Pirates look almost as good as the English and the French do, but the English are shrinking the possible boundaries of their territory with their ever-expanding western squadron.

At this point, there still hasn't been a single shot fired. It looks like this will change quickly, however, as the boundaries of each fleet's territories overlap. The situation resembles a ticking time bomb, with the potential for chaos arising in more and more places.

[Cadet-Captain Mike]

How big is your ocean? Can you post a photo? It would be much easier to follow the play-by-play if I had a mental picture of where the islands are, especially if this campaign is going to run for a while.

[a7xfanben]

I'd say it's about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long. I actually don't have my own camera , or else I'd certainly take some pictures.

[a7xfanben]

Shots have been fired at last! Most of the action has been focused on two forts, and there was a total of four skirmishes which may develop into larger actions in the near future.


The English Corsairs continued their flawless treasure running, bringing back gold with the same group of ships turn after turn. With the gold, they have bought HMS Titan, HMS Gallows, HMS Apollo (ROTF version), HMS Victoria, HMS Leicester, and the Tower flotilla.

Their western squadron decided to take advantage of the lack of Cursed Pirates protecting the Devil's Maw fort. With HMS Grand Temple in the lead, the English swept in with great force, sinking the Guinee and severely damaging the fort in one turn with just two ships. The Grand Temple destroyed the Guinee with her long-range guns (since the Guinee would have cancelled the Temple's captain, Lord Thomas Gunn), and HMS Titan hit four times out of five to leave the Devil's Maw with just one cannon remaining. The Pirates used it to take out the spanker of the Titan, but the fort will probably fall next turn.

In the east, the S+S range of the Tower's guns sunk the French treasure runner Le Bon Marin. However, the French had other things to worry about.



After buying the USS Quigley, USS Constitution (OE version), and Enterprise (the latter two powerful 5 masters), the French Americans decided to finally use some of their firepower. The Cursed Pirates had towed both the Doombox and the Death's Anchor into positions that limited the potential movements of the French fleet (essentially invading their sea-space (?) on the northwest boundary). The Nightmare (DJC version) and El Tejon got a bit too close for comfort, and the French Americans had had enough. La Ville de Paris promptly sunk the Tejon, while Le Superbe sacced an oarsman via Capitaine Arazure to sink the Nightmare.

Meanwhile, the Boston fired on the unprotected Spanish fort El Puerto Blanco, since the Boston can't be hit by forts. This was the first shoot action of the game. It took a few turns, but the fort has been abandoned and one more hit will destroy it.

Also, the Enterprise is sailing to the French fort St. Pierre to pick up some American crew.

A hairy situation was avoided by L'Amazone when she sprinted home with treasure before the Pirate ship Sea Nymph could catch her.



The Spanish Rebels appear to have given up hope of actually winning the game. They have had one of the worst starts to a game I have ever seen, and the speed at which the English and French were (and still are) expanding crushed their morale . They have let El Puerto Blanco fall while saving up gold on their HI. With this pile of gold, they purchased the Baochuan and a full complement of crew for her, totaling 53 points. It remains to be seen what they will do next . They have just enough power to potentially shift the outcome of the game if they choose to do so.



The Cursed Pirates look like the third-best fleet of the four, with treasure coins only sporadically providing the means necessary to make big purchases. Part of their problem lies with the fact that the wild islands they've been going to are a bit further away from their HI than those of the other fleets. Also, they haven't been able to take advantage of the Devil's Maw fort, used only as an outpost so far.

However, they've made solid use of their other fort, Dead Man's Point, from which the Sea Nymph and Windjammer have been launched, as well as a bunch of their crew. They recently built the Harbinger, their most powerful ship to date. She is equipped with Captain Barbossa (captain + world-hater) and Calico Cat (SAT). However, the recent skirmishes with the English and French has left them looking less than intimidating.


Tomorrow will see plenty of fighting, and a front-runner may emerge from the chaos.

Additional Comment:

Only one turn was played today, with the Devil's Maw and El Puerto Blanco both being destroyed.

Additional Comment:

After another turn, the English lost both HMS Nautilus and HMS Bolingbroke, but managed to damage the Constitution in the process. They then crewed HMS Swallow with the Gentleman, Sir Christopher Myngs, and Commander Temple, while rebuilding the Tower flotilla.

The Spanish headed west with their entire fleet of five ships, and the Baochuan sunk the French 4 master La Vengeance. They are annoyed that the French destroyed their only fort.

The Cursed Pirates are regrouping and have built the Revenant, who is crewed to the max with Calico Cat (OE), Griffin (OE), a helmsman and an oarsman.

[a7xfanben]

During the last few turns, the English showed off their considerable power, first crushing the Pirate fort, Dead Man's Point, with the "can't be hit by L-range guns" Cygnet. Then HMS Titan sailed into the fray against the Pirates and sunk two of their best (and most vital) treasure runners, the Bonnie Liz and the Shamrock. This puts a serious dent in the Pirates' hopes of winning the game. Although the Titan was sunk by the Pirates in the next turn, HMS Grand Temple and her flotilla Gibraltar sunk the Revenant and dismasted the Cursed Blade.

To top it all off, their treasure runners from the western squadron all got back to Fort Brompton (their base in the west) at nearly the same time, giving them a huge windfall of 59 gold in the span of just 2 turns. Having built most of the best gunships England has to offer, they spent almost all of the gold on the Mercenary 10 master Shui Xian, who they maxed out in terms of cargo hold and points. Along with sac-captain Tsai and canceller Christian Fiore, they got Brother Virgil to allow Master Gunner Rogelio Vazquez to use his ability, which makes all of the Shui Xian's guns L-range (normally only 3 are L-range).


The French Americans had to put forth a large group effort in order to sink the Baochuan. The Baochuan dismasted the 5 master Le Superbe. It took 7 shoot actions to take the Baochuan out, with plenty of cannonade being supplied by Le Soleil Royal and La Ville de Paris. They are still taking in a solid amount of gold, having recently launched Le Bonaparte and La Corse, powerful 4 masters from DJC.


The Spanish Rebels are officially out of the game. After the Baochuan sunk, the Spanish went on a suicide run into the gauntlet of French gunships, without captains! Needless to say, it didn't work very well. After taking out two masts (via ramming), all remaining Spanish ships have been sunk or dismasted. A bad HI selection combined with atrocious luck doomed them from the beginning.


The Cursed Pirates have not fared well of late, and they are fading fast. With both of their forts either destroyed or abandoned, and their best remaining gunship (Revenant) and treasure runner (Bonnie Liz) recently sunk, they appear to be the next fleet eliminated. After realizing this, they seem to have given up hope, and are trying to maximize the carnage and chaos they can cause. The Death's Anchor took a mast off of HMS Gallows, and the Sea Nymph went east to fight Le Gaule. Also, they still have the Harbinger, Windjammer, and the Doombox, so they still have some fight left in them.


The game will be finished tomorrow, with either the English Corsairs or the French Americans emerging triumphantly from the smoke of battle .

[a7xfanben]

The game was finished today (1/1/13), with a flurry of turns deciding the victor.

The English dominated the ocean, sinking everything in sight! The Cygnet destroyed the French fort St. Pierre, while HMS London destroyed Paradis de la Mer. The English trade machine was working fluidly to keep the fleet at full strength. When gunships (HMS Grand Temple, HMS Titan, HMS Gallows, HMS Nautilus, and the Gibraltar flotilla) sunk, they would simply be rebuilt by all of the gold the English were raking in.

The Shui Xian sacced an explorer to sink both Le Soleil Royal and La Ville de Paris in one turn, with help from Thomas Gunn (F&S version) giving +1 to her gun rolls from the Cygnet.

HMS Apollo sunk the Doombox and the Death's Anchor flotillas, and the English used an MI effect to move the Harbinger away from her HI, where she was repairing. HMS Gallows and HMS Leicester finished her off, and then the Rover was sent to the bottom, officially ending the game for the Cursed Pirates.

At this point, the game normally ends, but with just a few French American ships left, the English took over the entire ocean. HMS Titan dismasted and captured the Enterprise (capturing her to avoid the Eternal Gus Schultz), and HMS Swallow sunk Le Bonaparte with her L-range guns. L'Amazone and the USS Quigley were the last two ships out, being sunk by the Shui Xian, who (finally) had a good day with the guns.

When all was said and done, the English Corsairs were the last fleet afloat. They reached the height of their power at the end of the game, with 29 ships, two flotillas, and two forts. With a total of 89 gold saved up between the two forts and their HI, they could've had more, but they were saving it for the possibility of having some of their best gunships sunk, so they could quickly re-purchase them.

Why did the English win? Superior strategy combined with an emphasis on expanding their empire. They were the only fleet to build a fort not near their HI, and took advantage of it big time, assembling a large western squadron that combined with the eastern fleet in a pincer movement at the end of the game. They also made sure to get the best guns available, and bolster them with extra actions and rerolls. They didn't rush hastily into battle, instead waiting for the right opportunity (and the right enemy) to strike. The Spanish Rebels had a bad HI selection and horrible luck, which ruined their game. The Pirates struggled to a slow start (since the Raven was stuck in a Sargasso Sea for a while), and had a travel too far to get to even the nearest wild islands. The French made the mistake of being too timid, seemingly afraid to risk their beautiful 5 masters (at one point, all 6 of them sailing almost in line-of-battle formation) in a fight. They didn't take the opportunity to expand much beyond their borders, even though they had the chance.

This was a fun, long cumulative game, taking over a week to complete. The English are victorious once again!
I probably won't play again until February .

[Cadet-Captain Mike]

Are you secretly rooting for the English? If you want to equalize things (and give the other factions a better chance at winning), you could make a rule that, once a ship is sunk, it cannot be rebuilt. The English will still have an advantage in a fighting game, but not so much.

[a7xfanben]

Originally Posted by Cadet-Captain Mike

Are you secretly rooting for the English? If you want to equalize things (and give the other factions a better chance at winning), you could make a rule that, once a ship is sunk, it cannot be rebuilt. The English will still have an advantage in a fighting game, but not so much.

All fleets and all nations always have the opportunity to rebuild their lost ships/re-purchase their lost crew, it's just that the English were the only fleet with enough gold to do so in this particular game. They had the gold, unlike the other fleets, due to a superior gold-running strategy.

[Cadet-Captain Mike]

I ask only because you sound pleased that the English won (again!), and I know that when I play a solitaire game, there's usually one side that I'd like to see win. I often wonder if that desire subconsciously affects the game.

[a7xfanben]

Originally Posted by Cadet-Captain Mike

I ask only because you sound pleased that the English won (again!), and I know that when I play a solitaire game, there's usually one side that I'd like to see win. I often wonder if that desire subconsciously affects the game.

There's certainly a chance that it does. I never purposely skew things a certain fleet's way, but I think that part of it is influenced by real life. Partly due to their success in the age of sail, I expect England to win.

That being said, the French Americans were really the only other fleet truly in the running this time, and maybe there's a subconscious thing going on that makes me play them more timidly, sort of like what happened in real life .

Additional Comment:

Changing the avatar again (CC Mike), huh? La Sirviente is a pretty good ship.

I was able to play a few games today, earlier than I expected. I only got out two ships, however, and everything is already put away.

The matchup was a duel for the ages: El Acorazado versus HMS Endeavour. I've been wanting to see these two ships (alone) pitted against each other for a long time. Arguably the best defensive ability in the game against arguably the best offensive ability in the game. On paper, it looks like an even matchup, with both ships weighing in at 21 points, both powerful 5 masters. Their abilities are opposites, and most of the time, the crew on both ships were similar.

I expected El Acorazado to win, and I almost wanted her to. As a side note, there was no English bias at work here, since I don't even know which ship I like better.

Since each game was a quick, one-on-one deathmatch (with HI's about 5L apart), I was able to play 19 games in around 2 hours.

The first three games saw the ships go at each other bare-bones with the exception of a generic captain. El Acorazado won 2 out of 3.

The next series of 12 games saw the two ships duke it out full of crew. El Acorazado went with her maxed out setup: Luis Zuan (MI version), Admiral Alarico Castro (SM), Nemesio Diaz, Joaquin Vega, Duque Marcus Vaccaro, and a helmsman. HMS Endeavour was crewed with Hermione Gold (MI), Sir Christopher Myngs, Rhys Gryffyn Owen, Christian Fiore, and a helmsman. I would have maxed out the Endeavour's point cost, but she has 4 cargo spaces. In this stretch of intense games, El Acorazado went 7-5.

Then a series of three games was played with the Acorazado exchanging her helmsman for a shipwright. The idea would be to let the Endeavour fire first, and then repair with a double action as needed. This backfired, as the Endeavour won all three games.

After 18 games, each fleet had won 9. For the final game, the ships went back to their standard crew, from the 12 game setup. HMS Endeavour won the game, but I'm not convinced that she is actually the better ship.

[Cadet-Captain Mike]

With the Endeavour having all 2-rank cannons, the Acorazado a mix of 2's and 3's, and their abilities pretty much negating each other, I would have expected the Englishman to have won a majority of the fights. That Spaniard must have been quite lucky with the dice.

[a7xfanben]

Originally Posted by Cadet-Captain Mike

With the Endeavour having all 2-rank cannons, the Acorazado a mix of 2's and 3's, and their abilities pretty much negating each other, I would have expected the Englishman to have won a majority of the fights. That Spaniard must have been quite lucky with the dice.

Joaquin Vega was one of the reasons El Acorazado won some of her games. When the Endeavour would shoot first, she would need to have all five guns hit in order to eliminate 4 of the Acorazado's masts. If she missed even once (with a one), the return fire from the Acorazado would be crippling (since El Acorazado's ability (and Vega's) is applied before the ability of the Endeavour, it seems to be slightly more effective than the Endeavour's ability). Also, when the Acorazado would get the first shot (not often, since she's slower), she almost always won, because if she hit at least three times, she would automatically win (since the Endeavour would need three shots just to dent the armor of the Acorazado).

[Cadet-Captain Mike]

Our gaming group kicked off 2013 with a rousing pair of battles. The battle report is on my site.

[a7xfanben]

I've recently played a few more games: a series of three standard (40 points with gold) games between two fleets. The fleets consisted of a Pirate fleet of the Darkhawk II, Raven, and Bonnie Liz, versus a (mostly) Spanish fleet of La Santa Isabel, La San Jose, El Algeciras, and the Carrion Crow.

The first game went to the Spaniards, without much action.

The second game was one the the hardest fought games I've been involved in. Three of the seven ships were sunk, a fort was built, there was ramming, boarding, stealing, shooting, and just a great amount of good, honest, pirating . The Santa Isabel managed to trap the Darkhawk in between herself and an island, since I've recently implemented the 90 degree rule: A ship can turn no more than 90 degrees for each move segment of their move action. However, the Pirates fought back well, using the fort Dead Man's Point to derelict the Algeciras. After the Santa Isabel stole all three gold coins (totaling 8 gold) from the Darkhawk, she made for her HI with just one mast remaining. The Darkhawk also only had one mast, and she caught the Spaniard just before she could unload the gold. After taking out the Santa Isabel's final mast, the Darkhawk took back the gold and made for home. Meanwhile, the Raven was dismasted by the Carrion Crow and San Jose after she rammed the Crow in an attempt to steal a treasure coin. The Crow headed for home (just a few move actions away) with the Raven in tow, but the Darkhawk (now partially repaired, at three masts) sunk her former comrade, ending the game with the odd amount of treasure going to the Pirates, giving them a satisfying victory!

The third game also went to the Pirates, who took advantage of their HI being in a good spot. The Raven made a few nice treasure runs, and the Darkhawk took full advantage of Captain Blackheart, saccing for at least three extra actions. The Darkhawk had Blackheart, a helmsman, an explorer, "Cannonball" Gallows (the 0LR +5 version), and two oarsmen aboard, with a third oarsman on the HI. This way, the Darkhawk would sac two oarsmen on the way to and from a wild island, and pick up another one after she unloaded the gold.

Additional Comment:

Those three games were actually the first three in a mini-tournament. The second series of three involved my HMS Grand Temple fleet (now with the London instead of the Meresman, since I've finally acquired her) facing an all-treasure fleet consisting of the Tiger's Eye, La Dijon, Le Bon Marin, Le Coeur du Lion, Coral, and Rover. It was no contest, with the GT fleet winning all three times in dominating fashion. The UT's helped a bunch in slowing down the runners, as they're supposed to.

The final three games pitted the GT fleet against the Pirate fleet with the Darkhawk II, Raven, and Bonnie Liz. This fleet was harder for the Grand Temple and the London to defeat, but the English still won all three games. In addition, there was no English bias involved, as I even made the English HI extra-far-away from the rest of the islands for the last game, to give the Pirates a head start running gold.

It appears that the GT fleet is only to be defeated by fleets utilizing defensive abilities or cancellers .

Additional Comment:

Today (2/3/13) three games were played: 40 point deathmatches between the HMS Grand Temple fleet and the Acorazado fleet. It was the first time the GT fleet faced the Acorazado fleet with the London instead of the Meresman, so I expected the English to do better than before. They didn't. El Acorazado won all three games, and never lost more than two masts in any one game. Now this fleet is 24-9.

Additional Comment:

2/15/13: I should be able to get my ships out again in the next few days. I've recently acquired a handful of the best pieces in the game (Banshee's Cry, Neptune's Hoard, L'Artesien, some events, etc.), and look forward to using them.

Instead of one or two huge games, there will probably be mostly smaller actions. The fleets may be very competitive. I'll definitely try out Norvegia and this beast. There may be a long tournament of standard games, although I'm not really sure quite yet.

Additional Comment:

8 fleets have been created, and they are all standard 40 point fleets designed to win. I tried to put together just about the best stuff I had from each faction, without using the same exact fleets I've used in the past. There will be a tournament, with each fleet squaring off against another fleet in a series of three games. Here are the fleets:

English: HMS London, Aberdeen Baron, HMS Hound towing the Gibraltar flotilla.
French: Le Bonaparte + the French trio of super-runners: L'Artesien, Le Bon Marin, Le Pique.
Spanish: La Santa Isabel, La Joya del Sol, El San Jose.
Pirate: Neptune's Hoard, Bloody Jewel, Banshee's Cry.
American: Ghost Walker, Carolina, Rattlesnake.
Cursed: Grim Reaper towing the Death's Anchor, Sea Rat.
Mercenaries: Shui Xian.
Barbary Corsairs: Tiger's Eye, Algiers, Carthage.

Additional Comment:

Half of the first round has been completed. The Pirates lost the first game to the Shui Xian, but quickly recovered and took both of the final two games to win their series. The Spanish soundly beat the Barbary Corsairs 3-0, but the Corsairs probably could have won the final game.

For the other first round series, the French will face the Cursed, and the English will take on the Americans.

Additional Comment:

The French have just completed a three game sweep of the Cursed. However, the games were very hard-fought; the Cursed didn't do as badly as they usually do.

Additional Comment:

The English have beat the Americans 3-0, completing the first round of the tournament.

For the semifinals, the Pirates will be pitted against the French while the English take on the Spanish.

Additional Comment:

In the first series of the semifinals, the Pirates beat the French in all three games. Even when the French went first, the Pirates still got to the islands faster due to their sac crew.

In the second series, the English beat the Spanish two games to one. The third game came down to the wire, with the Gibraltar's guns proving to decisive.

The final round will see the English take on Norvegia!

[a7xfanben]

The Pirates took the first two games of the final series, beating the English.

For the third game, I decided to mix things up to see just how good the Pirates are. The English were automatically the first player, and they made the Pirates' HI next to their own.

On the first turn, the London and Hound (towing Gibraltar) moved towards the Pirates. The Star of Siam and Banshee's Cry went off to get treasure as usual (as did the Aberdeen Baron). Normally the Neptune's Hoard goes to a wild island on the first turn (and she can get there because of the sacced action), but it was obvious that the English would be able to fire upon her after she docked. Instead, she moved and shot at the London, using the extra action to eliminate all 4 of the London's masts.

After the Hound (who didn't have a captain) moved it into position, the Gibraltar shot at the Hoard and took out 3 of her 4 masts. By this point, the Aberdeen Baron was returning home with 8 gold, 2 of them from Smuggled Goods. The Star of Siam had grabbed some gold for the Pirates, and the Banshee's Cry used it to build Dead Man's Point on the middle island, which she had just explored. Afterwards, the Cry used Screw Engine to move to the last wild island, the only one yet to be explored.

The Hound wanted to finish off the Neptune's Hoard, but the Hoard still had plenty of crew left to sac. She zoomed away to assist the Cry in emptying the final wild island. The Hound used to the Gibraltar to destroy Dead Man's Point, and the gold left over was soon picked up by the Aberdeen Baron.

The Neptune's Hoard sacced all of her crew (other than Captain Blackheart) to get home in just a few turns, staying out of range of the Extended Range guns of the Gibraltar. The Star of Siam also sacced the rest of her crew to pick up the last two gold coins from the island she had explored earlier.

Since she didn't have any sac crew, the Banshee's Cry was stuck moving at L+L+S speed (so slow! ) to get home, with both Barbary Banner (worth 5 gold) and another coin aboard.

Now things got a little crazy: this was the best part of the tournament. The Hound had just finished destroying Dead Man's Point, but the fort had got off a shot, which took out 1 of the Hound's 2 masts. The Hound and Gibraltar would be able to cut off the Cry before she got back home. However, the Hoard took Don Pedro Gilbert (the sac crew for the Star of Siam) away from the Star, and sacced him (a sac crew saccing another sac crew since there weren't any others left) to move within range of the Hound, and she also moved so that she blocked the Hound. With her final mast, the Hoard dismasted the Hound, and the Cry was safe to run home. However, the Aberdeen Baron had the gold from the middle island, and was also racing home. In the end, the Banshee's Cry was able to get home first (only because of her helmsman, however), giving the Pirates the narrow victory!

The Pirates' Norvegia fleet proved to be the best of the bunch, winning even in the face of tough odds. They have won the tournament, but I think I'll test the fleet against my HMS Grand Temple fleet.

Additional Comment:

The HMS Grand Temple fleet beat this fleet in all three games. The GT was able to crush the treasure runners before they got back home. The devastating UT's helped a bunch, but the English still won the third game despite not using the UT's.

Additional Comment:

Today the Altar of the Loa fleet went against another 60 point fleet. The fleet consisted of HMS London, HMS Victor towing the Tower flotilla, the Bonnie Liz, the Bloody Jewel, and Le Bon Marin. For the Pirate fleet, Becalmed and Divers were used in place of Mermaids and Favour of the Gods, since they should be banned (and I don't have them).

The first game went according to plan for the Pirates, who were able to get to an MI, and set up the Altar of the Loa system. Becalmed was used to delay the enemy ships while the White Rose raced to the island. The Pirate navigator on board the Rover helped the slower ships get there quckly. Once there, the Pirate ships began saccing crew to control the other fleet, and moved their ships into firing range of the Pirates, who picked them off easily. Due to Becalmed, the other fleet wasn't able to give actions to their ships on any turn.

The second game was much more competitive, and fun. Since the Pirates went second, Becalmed was only able to affect 2 of the 5 enemy ships. When the Pirates got to the MI, they rolled a 2, which forced them to move all of the island's treasure to another wild island. Since the MI requires a replacement treasure to be present, the island was a dud for AotL. Of course, they picked the closest island around, but the Bloody Jewel got there first. She picked up some treasure, and then sacced both her helmsman and her explorer to take over the Pirates' turn. This seriously hampered the strategy of the Pirates, as their tactics were being used against them! However, the Bloody Jewel only had those two crew, so the Pirates were able to take their turn normally in the next round. By this point, Le Bon Marin and the Bonnie Liz had returned home with a total of 12 gold, and sailed back out for more.

Now the Mermaid (of the Pirate fleet) docked at the island with AotL, and rolled a 2, forcing the UT to the center island, where things got heated. The Darkhawk II hit the Victor and sacced some crew so that the other fleet wouldn't have their turn. The Banshee's Cry grabbed the last coin on the island, and the White Rose managed to sink the London, Bonnie Liz, Bloody Jewel, and Bon Marin all in quick succession, since they were dead in the water and the Rose was able to get off 8 shots per turn. The Bon Marin went down with 2 gold aboard, which brought the gold total to 13 for her fleet, needing just 2 more to win (since a 2 was replaced with AotL). The Victor was blasted by the Rose as the Cry took home the gold. In the end, the Pirates won with 15 gold, winning by the slimmest of margins.

The Pirates went second in the third game, and again things deteriorated when the MI roll landed with a 2. The White Rose used Havana Black to sac an oarsman and dismast the London and cripple the Victor, while the Darkhawk helped out with a hit on the London. I'm not entirely sure of all the details from the last game, but somehow the Pirates managed to squeak out another victory. Things looked bad for them at first, but once they got ahold of AotL, they were able to dominate the game.

So, "The Pirate's Way" fleet is currently 3-0 through 3 games, and it's a very interesting way to play. I would recommend trying it out; it's very fun. The fleet is not unbeatable, but it has a lot of things going for it.

[a7xfanben]

2/24/13: A set of three games is being played, with the Norvegia fleet facing the Altar of the Loa fleet. Since the Darkhawk II and her crew cost exactly 20 points, I took her out to make it a 40 point fleet.

The first game went to the Norvegians (?), who went first and won with 17 gold. They put Lost in the treasure mix, and used it to strand all three Pirate one masters in Sargasso Seas.

The second game was much more interesting. Since the AotL fleet went first, they were able to use Becalmed to essentially skip the Norvegians' first turn. This helped immensely at first, because the White Rose rolled a 6 to get AotL up and working (and she also found both Barbary Banner and Smuggled Goods on the island). She sacced two oarsmen to gain control of the Norvegians on their next turn. Before they would go, however, the Banshee's Cry (of the AotL fleet) rolled a 2 at the same island when she docked, moving all of the treasure, including AotL, to another wild island.

The Norvegians were controlled for one turn, and the AotL fleet threw them off course while the White Rose took out 3 of the Neptune's Hoard's 4 masts. However, since AotL was now out of reach of the fleet that needed it to win, they weren't able to continue to sac crew. That's where things got interesting. The damaged Neptune's Hoard sprinted to the island where AotL was, and sacced two crew to gain control of the AotL fleet on their next turn. She grabbed 3 treasure coins, while the Star of Siam and Banshee's Cry grabbed 3 more between the two of them.

The MI that the Star of Siam docked at was the same as the others, and by rolling a 6, the Star had access to UT's from outside the game. This is one of the drawbacks of the AotL fleet. She picked Runes of Odin, which lets you bring in an iceberg that eliminates from the game the first ship that hits it, and then reverts to a normal iceberg. Using Foul Winds, the Norvegians threw all three Pirate one masters (since they were grouped together heading for the island that AotL was on) into the iceberg, eliminating the Banshee's Cry and dismasting both the Mermaid and the Jolly Mon, putting a serious dent into the hopes of the AotL fleet.

As in the first game, the Norvegians uncovered Lost, and this time they used it to place an iceberg near the White Rose. By the effect of AotL, they were able to move her, and slammed her into the iceberg, taking out one of her masts (the performance of the Norvegia fleet in this particular game would make my Mind Control fleet proud!).

Now the Neptune's Hoard was trying to get home, but her S+L+S+L+S speed wasn't quite enough, and the White Rose sunk her. Raft was revealed to move Captain Blackheart and the Hoard's treasure coins to the nearest wild island, where the Banshee's Cry was docked. The Rose also managed to sink the Cry, who had 3 gold aboard.

At this point, the Star of Siam had gotten back to her HI and sacced another oarsman to move back to her MI. She rolled another 6, which let her bring Runes of Magic into the game. This UT lets you move an iceberg L in any direction, and the same iceberg the White Rose had been moved into was now hitting her once more, taking out a second mast. With that, the Norvegians had both moved enemy ships into icebergs, and moved icebergs into enemy ships .

Now there were only three ships left able to move: the Star of Siam, the White Rose (both with 2 masts), and the Rover (who didn't have the speed or guns to make an impact). The Star of Siam rammed the White Rose, taking out a third mast. The Rose responded with a point-blank shot that took out a mast on the Star. The Star then scored a hit on the Rose, making her derelict. The Star towed her home, where her 10 gold gave the Norvegians the victory!

In the third game, the AotL fleet went first and were able to keep the Norvegians from taking their turn the entire game. Using Becalmed on the first turn, they immobilized the Norvegians. Then they swapped out a treasure for AotL and sacced crew for a few turns. The Rover and Mermaid were able to use their decent guns to dismast the Neptune's Hoard, who wouldn't have been able to shoot back anyway since the one masters were docked at their HI. The White Rose sacced the last two crew needed to control their enemies, moving the Star of Siam and Banshee's Cry about 1/2 S apart. Then the Rose moved and shot, dismasting both ships as she passed by going home with the winning gold.

Out of curiosity, I played a fourth game, which the Norvegians won. They went first and won relatively easily, which tells me that between such effective fleets (especially with one using Becalmed), going first may actually make all the difference. Norvegia is a fantastic fleet (going 3-1 in this series), but the AotL fleet can be competitive as well.

Additional Comment:

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