Something happened at the start of the battle that almost never happens: Mike won the roll to go first. Everyone more or less headed toward the center of the map, stopping at whichever island they bumped into first, and then turning for home; nobody tried to visit two islands in one cruise. The only exception was Mike, who made no attempt to gather gold, but headed straight across the bay toward Antonio's fleet. Halfway there, the President peeled off to pick on some other admirals.
Most of the gold ships went about their business unmolested. But a few of them ran into trouble, and thereby hangs a tale. The first one to draw fire was Jake's HMS Antelope, which had the misfortune to load gold in sight of Aimee's Janissary. She decided it was time for blood. "It will be fun for me," she explained to no one in particular, "until I sink him, which will be a sad ending for him, but good for me."
But the real misfortune belonged to the Janissaries' Blood. Three of her cannons could bear on the target, but she landed only one hit. The next thing she knew, the avenging HMS Forge had jumped her and unloaded all four cannons, plus a second shot from Rhys Griffin Owen. The Lily of the Sea's flagship was down to one mast, so she scooted for home. The Forge followed at a distance to make sure she didn't turn and come back, while the Antelope loped for home to unload and repair.
The Hyena saw a clear path to another wild island, but Mike's ships were nearby, and Jake hesitated. "I'm not after you," Mike tried to reassure him. "I've got other targets in mind; I promise I won't bother your ships." Jake shied away, saying, "I don't trust bald guys." Mike answered with a loud, evil laugh that make Jake cower. "I'll give you something to mistrust me for!" he grinned, but he kept his promise about the island.
At the same time, Aimee's Griffin made a fast run to a more distant wild island and loaded up quickly. Mike's President was in the neighborhood, and saw the chance for an easy kill. The four-masted schooner swooped in, shouting, "Arrr! Avast!" and a bunch of other "A" words. The last time Mike used the President, her dice luck had been horrible, and sad to tell, nothing had changed. She fired four point-blank shots and landed only two hits. "But I get a reroll for one missed shot," Mike stated. "Oh, shoot!" exclaimed Aimee. "Okay, I will," he said, and he did. And he missed again.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the bay, the Franklin was on an anti-Antonio crusade. She caught the San Jose first, and scored two hits out of three shots to leave her derelict. Mike expected the Santa Isabel to come to her fleetmate's aid, but he got trouble from an unexpected quarter: Zach's Jarvis was cruisin' for a bruisin', and she took two shots at the Franklin that cost Mike his mizzenmast. Then the Santa Isabel weighed in and shattered two more masts. Mike was regretting dividing his fleet, but it was too late to do anything about it.
With one mast left, the Franklin wouldn't survive another turn no matter what she did. So she went out with a bang and sank the San Jose, claiming half her treasure. Zach's ship left her derelict, and Antonio's ship finished her off... and then turned on his ally and knocked down the Jarvis' mainmast.
Unable to help her fleetmate, the President stayed on her original course of destruction. She finished off the Griffin and claimed a chunk of her treasure. Paul, who had been pretty peaceful up until now, smelled action and waded into the fray. The Cat's Claw rammed the much bigger President, doing no damage. "I'll board you, you insolent young pup!" snarled the Cadet-Captain, but the results were a tie. The Claw then shot away the President's mizzenmast, finally doing some damage. The Chesapeake joined in, but missed with her one cannon.
Mike returned fire and stripped the Chesapeake's one mast away, but couldn't make a scratch on the Cat's Claw. Richard, who had been minding his own business up to now, joined the party with the big Neptune's Hoard, which sank the Cat's Claw just for the fun of it (she had no gold). Mike's ship took on Richard's fleet in turn and got one derelicting hit on the Mermaid, but that was all that her ill-starred cannons could do.
Antonio, on the other hand, wasn't quite finished. He knew he was low on gold, and he knew that Zach's Carolina had some. So he pulled out all the stops. First, he rammed her, but Zach rolled a lobster (he was using Mike's special die with a lobster where the 1 should be) and all his masts stayed standing. Then Antonio boarded and won. Mike explained the rule to Zach: "Either you lose a crew or give him a treasure (lose the crew)." Zach's Helmsman valiantly gave his life to keep Antonio's boarders away from the pieces of eight. Finally, the Santa Isabel's cannons opened fire at point-blank range. Her gunners must have had something else on their minds, because only two of the four scored hits. The Carolina could still move, and Zach's gold was still safe.
There were still two coins left unclaimed by now, but time had run out on the battle. When the gold was counted, Jake was excited to realize he'd won; Zach was very close behind him in second place, Richard the Third, and fourth place was a three-way tie between Aimee, Mike, and Paul. Antonio was very quiet at the Pirates' Pub that night.
Jake's favorite ship, HMS Forge, did a fine job of defending his ships tonight. Zach's Carolina did a lot better for him than she did last time; with some better treasure values, he could have won easily. (The last unclaimed treasures were both 1's, so they wouldn't have helped unless he somehow got them both.) There was nothing wrong with Antonio's tactics; he just had the bad luck to lose a big coin to Cadet-Captain Mike's unprovoked aggression. Aimee had the same problem, plus a tussle with Jake that was a lot sadder for her than it was for him. Paul and Richard were pretty much left alone for most of the game, so it was just bad luck with the doubloons that kept them out of the winner's circle. No ship earned battle honors tonight; the fighting was over too quickly, and no ship really distinguished herself.
Overheard during the game:
Jake: Are you 53?
Mike: No.
Jake: Are you 50?
Mike: Why are you so curious?
Jake: I want to know how old I'll be when I go bald.