This was a 40-point game with thirteen wild islands in a tight cluster, each with two treasure coins (except for the central isle, which had five). We've found that keeping the islands closer together than the rules specify makes for a more interesting game. To make the map fair, Mike took the home island that was furthest from the action.
In the northeast, Jake's Nautilus gave Richard's Neptune's Hoard a pummeling, only to be blown into toothpicks by the Minuteman and the remaining guns on the Hoard. This didn't make Jake happy, to which Richard replied, "Hey, I gave you some fun!" HMS Forge was not amused; she tried to salvage the situation, and did unto the Minuteman as Richard had done unto the Nautilus (her Cannoneer came in very handy here). But then the Black Lotus weighed in with her intense hatred of the English, and did enough damage to send the Forge home to repair two shattered masts. The Forge had left her mark on the Lotus, though, and both of Richard's remaining ships also went home for repairs.
In the southeast, the huge Grand Path steered aggressively toward Mike's fleet. His Nubian Prince met the threat, not with fine gunnery, but with immunity to all six of the big junk's cannons. Aimee was not expecting this, and made some kind of protest about it being unfair. "Pirate," replied Mike. His first salvo took one cannon off the Path; his second got another. Annoyed, the Lily of the Sea rammed the galley and got a mast in return. Mike shot two more masts off before he disengaged; he saw bigger game to hunt. Aimee was grateful for the end of this battle, which could have ended only with the loss of the Grand Path; she joined the flock of ships headed home for repairs.
Also headed home were the Noble Swan, San Salvador, El Cervantes, HMS Hound, and the Griffin, all filled with gold for their owners' treasure hoards. The Virtuous Wind and the Tiger's Eye had also loaded up, but instead of sailing for home, they joined the Nubian Prince in shaping a course toward the center of the map, where the richest prize of all awaited.
The Santa Isabel had reached the center island and siphoned all five coins into her cavernous holds. Then, just to rub it in, she landed at another island and dumped her low-value coins in exchange for two better ones. Antonio's flagship was now a floating treasure trove, and everyone on the map knew it. Richard and Jake weren't in position to do anything about it, but Aimee and Mike could, and they were determined not to let the Almirante get that fortune home. Not without getting a piece of it themselves!
The Virtuous Wind got the first crack at Anthony's big schooner, and shot away two of her masts. The Isabel and the San Salvador combined to leave her derelict, but didn't sink her. The Tiger's Eye had crossed halfway across the bay, taking one successful shot at the Noble Swan on the way ("Nothing personal, it's just target practice," he reassured her owner), before getting into range of Antonio's ships. She got the San Salvador's mainmast before the Almirante's ships took all three masts down in short order. The Tiger's Eye crawled away on oar power as the Nubian Prince took her place in the fray.
El Cervantes was in position to shoot, but the Prince's ability kept her safe. The San Salvador managed a ram that got the galley's second mast, then tried to shoot, forgetting the lesson that the Cervantes had just learned. Mike's galley then shot the San Salvador derelict and splintered the Isabel's third mast. Frustrated in his attempts to shoot the annoying galley, Antonio resorted to a series of rams and boards with the Cervantes while the Santa Isabel, down to one mast, tried to escape. She tried to get out of the Prince's range, but Mike's ship had a 2L cannon on her bow. If Antonio had started for home a bit sooner, he might have made it; his ship was faster, and the distance was short. But this time, Mike would not be denied. He fired his bow chaser cannon, and landed the hit that left the Isabel derelict, almost within spitting distance of her home island.
It was now a question of whether the Cervantes could stop Mike from finishing off the big schooner. Antonio made another ram that cost Mike another mast, and in the boarding action that followed, one of the Spanish crew got lucky with a pistol and shot down the Prince's Captain. Mike fired his last cannon twice, and missed both times. El Cervantes made another ram that failed to do damage, and although he won another boarding action, there were no crew left for him to kill. Frustrated, the Cervantes turned away to tow the Isabel home. That gave the Prince one last shot, and at last, his cannonball punched through the Isabel's hull and sent her to the bottom. (This prompted Mike to cut loose with a chest-pounding Tarzan yell, which the others found somewhat embarrassing.) Mike had successfully stolen half of Antonio's biggest treasure collection. But would this be enough to win the battle?
Antonio didn't like this turn of events very much. El Cervantes turned and rammed the Nubian Prince again and left her derelict. But Mike didn't know when to quit. His mastless ship ran out her oars, came about, and bumped into the derelict San Salvador, and stole a treasure from her by boarding. Now Antonio was getting positively steamed; the Cervantes rammed Mike for the fourth time and took the coin back. Mike rammed the Cervantes to recover what he thought was rightfully his, but failed. Then he rammed the Salvador, but failed to steal her other coin.
And while all this chaos was going on, what of the other captains? Jake had sent the Hound to raid the island where the Santa Isabel had dumped her low-value coins, figuring that any gold was better than none. Aimee's Noble Swan sailed out to tow her Virtuous Wind home, while the Grand Path finished her repairs. "What should I do with my big ship?" she asked Mike. "Go that way," he pointed. "It'll be fun."
"That way" was toward Richard. The Dread Pirate had fixed all the masts on the Neptune's Hoard and the Black Lotus, and was now trying to catch Mike's Tiger's Eye. The galley was rowing home, so catching it wasn't hard. But Richard's first three shots splashed into the sea, and Mike began to hope that his ship might survive. That wasn't in the cards; the fourth shot hit the Eye and sank her. Mike and Richard divided the ship's small treasure, which turned out to be the only gold Richard acquired all night. "I didn't know she had gold," Richard explained after the battle; "I just sank her for fun."
At the same time, Jake had sent HMS Hound out for one last gold run, with the Forge covering her. Once the Hound had loaded up and turned for home, the Forge made as if to follow her. "Don't do that -- go after Richard!" urged Mike.
"I don't want to get involved," shrugged Jake. This was about the fourth time he'd said that tonight, and no one really understood why he thought "getting involved" in a ship battle was a bad idea.
"You've got all the gold you're going to get, so you've got nothing to lose," Mike added. Bosun Jake still wasn't convinced.
Mike tried one more approach. "It'll be fun!" That lit up the Bosun's face, and HMS Forge headed for the action.
Oh, yes, the action. Richard had pursued Mike's ship into Aimee's home waters, and the Lily of the Sea was out for blood. It took very little effort for the Grand Path to dismast and sink the Neptune's Hoard. Then she turned to pursue the Black Lotus, but found the Forge in her sights instead. Richard was discouraged by the way his battle had turned out, and kept asking them to "Sink me! Sink me!" but they ignored him. The two big ships slugged it out for a turn or two while Richard made a slow getaway, but the battle came to an end before either ship could badly hurt the other.
Almirante Antonio had pursued a gold strategy all game long, so it surprised no one that he won by a goodly margin. Jake trailed him in second place, Mike was one gold behind him in third, Aimee managed a respectable fourth place, and Richard had seemingly forgotten one of the main rules of the game: no gold, no win.
Antonio, as was mentioned earlier, was single-minded in his pursuit of gold, fighting only when he had to, using his ships skilfully to that end. Richard, on the other hand, did nothing but attack. The other three followed a combination strategy. All these tactics showed in the final tally; the one with the most gold still wins. Battle honors go to El Cervantes, which overcame the handicap of poor cannons to bring home some gold, cripple the Nubian Prince by ramming and boarding, and reclaim a stolen coin from that stubborn galley.