Battle reports

[BurstingWords]

I might as well post my latest game. There's a good reason this thread has the most views of any Pirates one on Pojo; your games are intense. Mine is going to be a lot more short and a lot less interesting.

I don't remember the exact crew found on my opponent's ships.
a7xfanben may note that the Titan, Hermione Gold, and Myngs that I use were those acquired in a trade from him.
CCMike may note that I have basically plaigarised the structure of his battle reports to the best of my ability.
It is very important to note that neither John nor Nathan puts stock in the relatively recent ruling that ships may only have a maximum of two actions per turn; following that rule would ruin our playstyle.

Anyway, on to my game:

This game was our first in a while, and saw us field 100-point fleets in a full deathmatch. The only islands were our home islands, which were about two and a half feet apart.

Captain John (my foe, and the only person I know personally who still plays):
-El Cristal del Obispo
-Captain
-Same Action Twice crew
-Reroll crew
-Oarsman
-Musketeer
-La Resolucion (OE)
-Captain
-SAT crew
-Musketeer
-Bonhomme Richard
-Captain
-SAT crew
-Musketeer
-HMS Gallowglass
-Lord Mycron

Captain Nathan (myself)
-HMS Titan
-Captain
-Helmsman
-Brother Virgil
-Oarsman
-HMS Grand Temple
-Hermione Gold (MI)
-Sir Myngs
-Helmsman
-Oarsman
-Le Superbe
-Captain
-Helmsman
-Oarsman
-Le Mercure
-Captain Baudoin Deleflote

First move was granted by a roll of the die to Captain Nathan, on the east side of the sea; his three fighting ships traced out slightly, and began to form a small line of battle near his home island. The first move of Captain John, on the west, was much more fruitful; he managed to roll either fives or sixes for all of his same action crew. His ships moved swiftly towards the opposing fleet and began to form a line of battle of their own.

Each captain was preparing to use the "general conduct" of our deathmatch battles; each fleet would form a line about six S away from the other, and wait until one of their ships capable of rolling a double action did so. The first ship to manage this was the large, intimidating blue HMS Grand Temple.

The Temple is one of Nathan's favorite ships; he has used her often and to great effect in previous battles, and before he acquired the English version the original Jade ship of the same name saw service in his fleets. As such, Nathan was well-acquainted with the abilities of this particular ship; he was also particularly well-acquainted with the damage that the opposing flagship, El Cristal del Obispo, had wrought upon him in the past. So, when the die roll for Myngs came up a 5, the Temple swooped out of her line of battle and bore down upon el Cristal.

The first round of shots from the Temple's numerous cannon landed five out of six shots; the Cristal's tough hull absorbed the first without damage, but four masts still found their way into the sea. Captain Deleflote aboard the Mercure (still docked at Nathan's home island) graciously gave up his ship's move that turn to allow the Temple a third action. That third action allowed the Temple to swerve slightly north, finish off the Cristal, and drop two masts on the Richard. Nathan breathed a sigh of relief that the scary Cristal was gone.

Of course, sending one ship alone out into even a mostly intact opposing fleet is usually a death sentence. The Bonhomme Richard's cannon's answered reply, and their Anglophobic gunners wreaked havoc, all three landing solid hits on the large junk. La Resolucion moved north to aid the Richard, and pooped off two more masts from the Temple, which was now down to only one mast. John was slightly disappointed with the performance of the Resolucion; with its ability, it should have knocked down at least three masts. Both of the musketeers from John's ships had shot straight into the sea, to boot.

Nathan's next turn was rather boring; he moved Le Superbe north to fill in the gap left by the Temple, and waited for the Titan to receive a second action.

However, the next second action went to John's La Resolucion; she left the Richard to deal with the nearly defunct junk and lurched towards Nathan's fleet. Aided by Lord Mycron, she sailed up to Le Superbe, and rolled four for four against the big red Frenchie. Her third move saw her finish off the Superbe (which had done about as much good as the big red five-master from the other side, el Cristal) and knock down the Titan's mizzenmast.

Nathan rolled for the Titan's extra action, but it came up a 2. The venerable gunship pulled up alongside La Resolucion, rammed, and let fly with excellent effectiveness; the four-masted galleon suddenly became a useless hulk- well, almost useless. The boarding action after the ram had killed Brother Virgil, making Nathan's helmsman useless (he didn't have enough helmsmen to satisfy his full 250-point fleet, and had forgotten to fix that for this smaller game). Plus, La Res still had a musketeer.

On the other side of the action, the one-masted Temple went for a ram-shoot; both were successful, and the Bonhomme was suddenly derelict, too. Things were not looking good for John. He gave fire with his musketeers; both managed a hit this time, meaning the Temple was derelict, and the Titan down to three masts. That was all he could do, though; Nathan's used his next turn to finish off the decrepit Resolucion and start to inch rather slowly, minus his helmsman, towards the Bonhomme.

However, at this time, John saw the writing on the wall and raised the white flag. He didn't find it worthwhile to fight out a battle using only one musketeer and the under-armed Gallowglass. Captain Nathan cheered in victory and took an frisbee-thrown island to the face for his poor sportsmanship.

Analysis:
John's fleet was certainly capable; it suffered because of the poor luck of not getting the advantage on the line, and because of the Temple's good luck in ruining the Cristal without it even having fired a shot. His musketeers also failed when they were most needed.

Nathan's fleet was also solid; the weak spot was Le Superbe, the only fighting ship in the game unable to give itself a second action. It is possible and even likely that if John had targeted the Titan instead of the Superbe he would have won for this reason.

Both "support ships," the Gallowglass and the Mercure, did not move an inch; all they did was give more actions to the rest of their fleets. This is an integral part of the general conduct of our battles, along with lines of battle ("invented" by Nathan as a method of furthering being a chicken), and revolutionized the method of fighting used in our battles; for the first few games, before Nathan acquired Deleflote, John was the clear victor.

[a7xfanben]

Originally Posted by BurstingWords

There's a good reason this thread has the most views of any Pirates one on Pojo; your games are intense. Mine is going to be a lot more short and a lot less interesting.

I thought it was interesting!

The line-of-battle tactic surprised and intrigued me; that didn't work well the one time I tried it, but now I may have to try it again.

Plus, you got us onto the third page (finally)!

[BurstingWords]

The line of battle probably isn't as effective as it would be in real life, because there's no extra damage due to raking fire, and because its much easier for an opposing ship to get in broadsides against the line (at least with a fast ship) because the game is turn based. I think it's most useful for providing solid defense of ones home island and because there's never only one ship at any given spot.

[a7xfanben]

It's been a while since I last played. I won't be doing any massive games anytime soon, but I was able to get a little game in today. Since my last bunch of games, I've acquired a few new pieces. First and foremost, the original Flying Dutchman! I also got my first four masted galley, the English ship Alexandria, as well as my first set of Native Canoes, the Spanish ones. Other new additions include HMS Durham, the Spanish ship San Francisco, the Spanish flotilla Diablo, the Pirate ship Gruesome, a few 0LR rerollers, and a handful of UT's.

For today's game, I wanted to try out the new stuff. The English sent the Alexandria out with the ROTF version of Hermione Gold (captain + helmsman), along with an explorer. By combining the two generic crew in one cargo space, she would still have room for two treasures. The Durham was crewed with a captain, helmsman, explorer, and Commodore Rhys Gryffyn Owen, leaving her with two more cargo spaces for gold. Two beautiful four masters from BC, sailing for the first time!

The Spanish went with a much smaller approach. Their "flagship" was the San Francisco, crewed with a captain, helmsman, and explorer. She is a very versatile ship, with good guns and cargo space to go along with her S+S speed. The Santa Teresa was the only other true ship that the Spanish used, and she would tow the new flotilla, Diablo. The Santa Teresa was picked for her point cost (9), which let the Tribal Chieftain come aboard to command the Native Canoes.

The English went first, with the Alexandria and Durham splitting up to grab some gold. The Spanish sent the San Francisco off to find gold, while the Santa Teresa went after the Alexandria. On the next turn, the Native Canoes loaded gold from the wild island they started at. The Alexandria headed for home with a few gold coins, but the Santa Teresa maneuvered to get the Diablo within firing range. The Alexandria lost two masts, but responded the next turn by taking out the lone mast on the Teresa as she sailed into port to bring home 5 gold. The Durham loaded two coins as well, but she couldn't return home so quickly, for her captain knew of the treasure-enhancing ability of the canoes (+1 to each coin). It was a race back to the HI of the Spaniards! The Durham only has S-range guns, and used one to take out a mast on the San Francisco, but none of her other guns were in range of the San Francisco or the canoes. All six Spanish vessels docked on the next turn, revealing 17 gold after the bonuses were added in, giving the Spanish the victory!

Additional Comment:

5/12/13: I've played two more games with my new stuff. The first one pitted the English fleet above against a Cursed/Pirate fleet: the Flying Dutchman crewed with OE Fantasma, a helmsman, and 3 oarsmen, and the Gruesome with a helmsman. The Alexandria and Durham were both headed home with gold, but the Dutchman was blockading their HI. The Durham took off two of the Dutchman's masts, but she responded on the following turn by using Broadsides Attack to derelict both the Durham and the Alexandria (saccing an oarsman to move-and-shoot twice), giving the Cursed Pirates a quick victory.

For the second game, the Dutchman and the Gruesome faced the Spanish fleet. This game didn't take long either. The Gruesome rammed the Santa Teresa to dismast her and make Diablo stationary. Then the Flying Dutchman took out all five canoes in one turn, and the San Francisco was sunk, making the Cursed Pirates the victor in both of today's games!

Additional Comment:

Another game will probably start tomorrow, one involving multiple scenarios from a link on Boardgamegeek. There will be a total of 8 scenarios used in this large game, which will feature 4 150 point fleets, with the English, Pirates, Spanish, and French participating. The 8 scenarios are Bermuda Triangle, Colonists of Catan, Shipwreck Graveyard, The Midas Touch, Paradise Island, The Other World, Rain Squalls, and Treasure Island II. Both Paradise Island and the island with the Catan gold will be in the Other World. I'm going to use fog banks for the rain squalls, and move them like icebergs. The Midas Doubloon will be a 7 instead of a 6 so that it will be the highest value treasure coin in the game.

Additional Comment:

5/18/13: Hopefully this game will get started tomorrow, but no guarantees!

Additional Comment:

The multi-scenario game has finally gotten under way, with three turns being played so far. The main ocean has the 4 HI's, 4 wild islands for the Treasure Island II scenario, and 2 MI's for more gold. The Other World is much smaller, containing Paradise Island and Catan island, with Paradise Island surrounded by reefs. Each world has 2 whirlpools in it, along with other terrain, including 3 rain squalls. There are 6 shipwrecks, with 2 located on the reefs around Paradise Island and the other 4 in the main ocean.

The English have gone off to explore some islands and grab some gold. First, the Endeavour took out all of the Spanish native canoes over the course of two turns. The Aberdeen Baron is headed towards a whirlpool located in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. The Alexandria found Turtles, but the Pirate ship White Rose has taken out two of her masts. HMS Hound has acquired one of the four coins necessary in order to build the map to locate Treasure Island.

The Pirates have had a rough going so far. The Raven was mauled by the French five master Le Gaule, who later went on to dismast the Pandora. The Darkhawk II has put an oarsman aboard a Carrion Crow shipwreck, allowing the Crow to fire her cannons at any passing ships. The Bonnie Liz has grabbed a coin from the island that the Alexandria, White Rose, HMS Bretwalda, are clustered around. Now that there are 10 turtles in the water by that same island, it's becoming a busy area!

The Spanish have had a similarly abysmal start. Their Native Canoes are gone, and their strategy of using the Augusta to mark unexplored islands as explored without her docking at them hasn't borne much success. The Spanish were going to use the canoes to surround their flagship, El Garante, to take advantage of her ability that gives her +1 to her cannon rolls for every friendly ship within S of her. Now the Garante is sailing west, following the Algeciras and the Martillo de Dios, who is towing the Diablo. Their other three 4 masters, La Santa Ana (CC), La Resolucion (SM), and L'Aguila, have sailed into the Bermuda Triangle to try to get to the Other World through a whirlpool. However, the Santa Ana has already been flung way northeast across the sea after getting stuck, and now L'Aguila is stuck, too. The Resolucion successfully avoided the Triangle's peculiar effects, and even went through the whirlpool without losing anything. However, things fell apart for her after that...

The French have had the best start of all four nations. Although they go last each turn, they've had a flurry of successes in the early going. Their fleet is very scary. They have set sail with all 5 of the French 5 masters that are in my collection, and all of them are stacked with crew. With La Magnifique and her sac-captain Arazure in the lead, they are a sight to behold. Le Gaule has already dismasted the Raven and the Pandora, and she has captured the Pandora, who has treasure aboard. The Magnifique has captured the Raven, while the Ville de Paris stands guard for the time being. Le Soleil Royal has gone east towards the Spanish, and the Augusta promptly sailed into a fog bank to avoid her. The Soleil Royal has crew-killer guns that have been enhanced by the world-hating of La Gentil de Barbinais. Le Superbe has taken two colonists (all she had room for, after taking on a captain, helmsman, and explorer) through a whirlpool into the Other World. The Spanish ship La Resolucion arrived in the Other World via the same whirlpool on the next turn, and the Superbe has already shot away 3 of her 4 masts.

With only a few points left for pure gold-runners, the French have sent Le Coeur du Lion to the nearest wild island, Le Pique to the next-closest, and La Dijon off to Paradise Island, where she will arrive next turn.