Jan 05 — A New Decade
Apr 06 — Swoop's On
Aug 25 — Another World, Part III
Sep 28 — Not All Ships Can Acceptably Race
Nov 23 — Under the Sea, Under the Sea
Admiral | Battles | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | Points | Win % |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cadet-Captain Mike | 48 | 18 | 5 | 17 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 129 | 37.50 |
Paul the Pirate Prince | 43 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 93 | 16.28 |
The Dread Pirate Richard | 44 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 88 | 13.64 |
Bosun Zach | 21 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 45 | 23.81 |
Petty Officer Jake | 22 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 43 | 18.18 |
Almirante Antonio | 22 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 18.18 |
The Fire Blossom | 20 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 10.00 |
This is how it looked about halfway through the action. The cluster in the top left is Paul's President in front of his Cat's Claw and Zach's Bazana (with two damage markers), with Paradis de la Mer just behind them. At center top, Jake's Metal Dragon, Fly, HMS Royal, and Floating Stone mill about in search of someone to shoot at. In the center, Zach's Majestic and La Mezquita pillage Sandbar Island. At right, the big schooner at the top is Richard's Freedom, which has just taken some shots at Zach's four-masted Corazon Dorado just below it. To their right is the damaged USS Quigley; just below that ship is the derelict HMS Tweed, which has just been shark-bitten by Aimee's Carcharodon. Next to the shark is the red Nautilus, with Aimee's Shadow just to the left. On the bottom, Mike's two subs (USS Mercury and USS Lamon) maneuver to ram Antonio's HMS Concorde, which already has two damage markers on her masts. The Intrepid is next to the Concorde; the derelict USS Quigley and Le Pique are above the subs, with the mastless USS Eagan nearby.
Our fleets were made with 45 points, of which at least 10 had to be spent on crew. Alliances were allowed, but not with anyone you were sitting right next to. The atoll we fought over had a central Sandbar Island with six coins, surrounded by a ring of eight smaller islands with three coins each. A ship approaching Sandbar Island had to roll higher than its mast count, or it would bottom out on the sandy bottom and not be allowed to dock at the island.
When the action began, nearly all the ships headed north or northwest, which carried them toward Antonio and Paul. The first dust-up of the battle was between Zach and Antonio, who might have been fighting over a gold-filled island, but quickly forgot all about it and turned the struggle into a grudge match. Antonio's El Chico found Zach's sea dragon perched on the nearest wild island, so it boldly took on the much bigger creature and scored one hit. Mike suggested that the Almirante's Shal-Bala make a swoop attack against its twin on the Zach side; it did, and scored, leaving nothing but the head. Somehow, most of the sea-dragon owners had never heard of swoop attacks, and they all decided they liked this idea very much.
Zach's dragon head swooped back at the intact Shal-Bala and missed (it should have quit while it was a head). Its fleetmate, the Horizon, fired its cannons at the Bazana, hitting once and missing once. This was the high point of the Almirante's fortunes. On the next turn, the Pirate Prince's ships arrived, and Antonio was caught between two fires.
Mike's HMS Nautilus was the next ship to be targeted. She had been escorting the HMS Hound to a wild island, but Zach's Sea King saw a distant target and let fly at double range with her best cannon. It missed, but it still affected the battle; Mike immediately declared self-defense, and the speedy Nautilus left her charge and aimed her fine cannons at Zach's Horizon. "It was the Sea King that shot you," Zach pointed out helpfully. "Yes, but my guns are better against American ships," the Nautilus' captain retorted. And he was right; the English schooner hit three for three and sent the Horizon straight to the bottom.
This took some of the pressure off of Antonio, with whom Mike had an alliance. But it didn't make enough of a difference. The remains of Zach's sea dragon made a swoop at Antonio's Bazana, and missed again. Paul's fleet, on the other hand, did very little missing. This was due in part to Le Superbe's well-made guns and in part to Roberto Santana's excellent aim. Paul's first salvo hit Antonio's sea dragon twice and missed twice; its fifth shot brought down a mast on El Chico, which looked like it might become bothersome to Paul. Shal-Bala came back with a swoop against El Garante that levelled two masts, and the battle was joined.
The tiny El Chico tried to support Shal-Bala by ramming the much bigger El Garante, but the ram did no damage. Paul's ship then boarded El Chico, or tried to; the smaller Spaniard fought the bigger Spaniard to a draw. Antonio's little ship then landed one cannon hit on Paul's five-master. That was all Antonio could do; the big French ship landed two hits in a row on El Chico, sinking her, and put another piece of Shal-Bala out of commission as well.
Zach's dragon was about to swoop in and finish Antonio's dragon when Mike intervened with the words everyone else has come to dread: "It is my wish that you not wipe out Anthony's fleet." This is a veiled threat; his "wish" carries the force of a direct order, at least in his own mind, and whoever crosses this "wish" finds himself on the wrong end of Relentless Flaming Death. So Zach's dragon swooped at Mike's Nautilus instead... and missed for the third time.
Paul was under no such constraint; El Garante took two shots at Antonio's dragon, hit it once, and slew it. That left one ship in Antonio's fleet, the battered Bazana, and Zach's sea dragon took it out a moment later with a successful swoop attack (its first and only hit of the battle). The Sea King took another shot at Mike's Nautilus, and missed again.
Please don't think that the other admirals were doing nothing all this time; far from it. The Dread Pirate Richard decided that Matt's big Zeus was his biggest concern, and spent the first three turns trying to close the range on it. Jake was not permitted to have an alliance with his neighbor Richard, but they acted like they had one anyway. Jake's fleet was following Richard's longships, either to cover his back or to get in on the same battle, and nervously watching as Mike's fleet closed in on him from astern. And what of Matt?
Matt was headed for where the actions was, which meant the battle between Paul and Antonio. But it took him a while to get there, and when he arrived, the cannon smoke had already dissipated and Paul was ready for him. Still, Captain Matt maneuvered to get the first shot, but only two of his short-range cannons could get shots off, and both missed El Garante.
Now was Le Superbe's moment, and she showed again that she's a lucky ship. With or without help from Santana, it took guts to sail up next to an intact ten-master and open fire, but that's what she did. And she shot five for five. Matt watched in dismay as mast after mast split and fell overboard, and when Paul was done, the Zeus was down to half the cannons she started with. Matt wanted no more of that party; he swerved away toward Richard instead.
At about the same time, Mike's HMS Leicester had finally overtaken Jake's fleet, using a series of double moves provided by Lt. Chads. He opened fire on her fellow Englishman, HMS Royal, and left her derelict with two hits. Jake's reply was to send his dragon into action. Another swoop attack went in, and the Leicester found out how it feels to lose two masts from one hit.
"No problem," announced her Captain. "Weve got another double action from Chads, so that's four shots we'll be taking at that fell beast, and we need to hit it only twice." Too bad they only hit it once. The dragon swooped again, and now there were two English derelicts that used to have four masts.
Jake's little Coeur de Lion decided to join the fray; it isn't clear if she meant to sink the Leicester or tow her. Before she could get close enough, Mike's HMS Hound tried to intervene, racing over at full speed, but just barely failing to get close enough to ram. The Coeur de Lion fired her one cannon and missed; Jake apparently forgot about his Cannoneer.
Paul's Le Superbe then aimed her guns at Zach's dragon, and now Paul had two dragon's heads to hang on the wall in his trophy room. Matt's Royal James realized she was both outclassed and outnumbered, so she grabbed two coins from the nearest island and ran for home. The Zeus, still feeling confident, boldly took on both of Richard's longships. She rammed the Hrothgar and failed to do any damage, then boarded her and lost the fight (and her Musketeer). For reasons unknown, she failed to open fire. Richard had no such problems, and while he wasn't anywhere near as accurate as Le Superbe, he didn't have to be. His longships opened up a long barrage that shattered one mast after another on their much bigger target, until the Zeus' battered hull slipped beneath the waves forever.
As it stood now, Antonio was out of the battle; Paul had one intact five-master and one damaged one; Matt and Zach each had a two-masted ship; Richard's three-masted longships were both intact; Jake had half a dragon and a one-master; and Mike had a three-master and a two-master, both undamaged. Richard had a big advantage in cannon power, but Paul's lucky Frenchman could not be ignored. But, quite suddenly, the battle ended, due to a total eclipse of the sons. That is, Lt. Dave announced that both his sons had to go home with him. Matt's Mom made a similar announcement, and Mike had little choice but to announce that the fray was finished. Everybody counted their gold.
For most of the admirals, it didn't take much counting. Four of them had picked up no treasure at all. Cadet-Captain Mike's HMS Hound had three coins, but they were all low value. Zach had gotten two coins, as did Matt, but Zach was smiling. He had a 6 and a 5, and given the limited assortment of coins we use, the only way Matt could have beaten him was to have found the other 6 and the lone 7.
Wouldn't you know, that's exactly what Matt had found? He lost his big ship, but his little ship won for him. He had forgotten to bring back the Captain's Coin from his last victory, but it didn't matter, since he now gets to keep it until our next skirmish. Zach came in a close second, Mike was third, and there was a four-way tie for fourth.
This was the first time that sea dragons had played any major role in our fighting. All three of them landed at least one swoop attack; Antonio's and Jake's hit twice each, and both of them were awarded the Bronze Sabre, second class for Antonio's for causing general mayhem, and first class to Jake's for stopping Mike's rampage and thus keeping Jake in the game. Paul's Le Superbe won a rare Gold Sabre for crippling the Zeus, sinking El Chico single-handed, finishing off Zach's dragon, and damaging Antonio's dragon, while taking no damage in return. Matt's Royal James, which had entered the battle armed for fighting, not only wound up serving as a gold ship, but received the Order of the Buccaneer for winning the game for him.
With the exception of the Zeus not firing on Richard's ships, no one made any mistakes tonight. It was a hard-fought battle, as proven by the damage reports: of the eighteen ships that started the battle, six were sunk, two left derelict, and two more damaged. The Dread Pirate Richard was the only admiral who took no losses. But he, like the majority of the admirals, made no attempt to pick up any gold, and gold is still the way to win these battles. Speaking of which, no one ever made it to Sandbar Island and its bountiful hoard. However, it is believed that everyone had a fine time anyway.
Overheard during the game:
We had no shortage of pirates who were willing to try their luck tonight. In fact, there were six of us — Downeast Drew, Petty Officer Jake, Bosun Zach, Paul the Pirate Prince, the Dread Pirate Richard, and Cadet-Captain Mike. Several of our regular opponents were missing, though, mostly due to getting too big for their britches. Almirante Antonio was at another church's youth meeting (a certain pretty blonde may or may not have anything to do with that), the Fire Blossom had decided she was going to be ladylike and piracy didn't fit her new code (yeah, like that'll last!), and Captain Matt was visiting some faraway make-believe land called Disney World. But as we noted during our last Star Wars battle, we can play a lot more turns when we have fewer players.
We used two game tables. One had all our home islands, and three whirlpools in the center. The other table, the "other world," had two whirlpools, eight wild islands around the edge, and Humpback Island (three islands in one) in the very middle. Each island had three coins, which added up to ... a lot. This is the third time we've played with a map like this; the first two never got battle reports because the action was too confused for historians to remember and sort out.
Each player's fleet was made up of ten masts and five crew; each fleet had to contain at least two 2-masted ships. This meant that combat was usually quick and deadly. Longships and submarines were not allowed. No one recorded the player's fleets, so in some cases, this historian will have to guess at a ship's identity. To speed up the game, we experimented (for the second time) with using Star Wars Pocketmaodel cards for measurement; this effectively turned every S into an L and every L into an S+S.
When word reached the Pirates' Pub that gold had been discovered on the far side of the whirlypools, all the officers and swabs dropped their root beers and ran for the docks. Thus, all the ships left port at the same time, each headed for the nearest spinning water portal. Some admirals, like Richard, took no damage as their ships plunged into the pools; others, like Mike and Drew, lost multiple masts as their ships were crazily spun around. Mike's speedy Ghost Walker was the first to reach "the other side," and set her sights on a nearby island. Soon, other ships were surging out of the whirlpools and choosing targets of their own. And that's where the fun began.
Jake's HMS Nautilus emerged intact and chose her target: the Ghost Walker. But as she pulled alongside, her Captain suddenly fell ill and was unable to give the order to fire (that means the Ghost Walker cancelled him). Trying to salvage the situation, Jake sent the HMS Algiers up along the windcatcher's unengaged side. Mike pointed out, quite reasonably, that he hadn't done anything to provoke such an attack, and in an ill-chosen moment of mercy, Jake agreed to hold his fire. The next thing he knew, Mike's Jarvis had appeared out of the whirlpool and attacked the Nautilus, scoring two quick hits. It was a remarkable display of piratical perfidy by Mike, who usually plays the "straight and honorable" role.
Jake's ships fell back on their fleetmates who had just emerged from the spinning waters, but the Jarvis and Ghost Walker pursued them and boldly took them all on. In a fine display of shooting (mostly by the Jarvis), Mike left both the Nautilus and another two-master derelict. In another stunning turnabout, he then held offered the Petty Officer a cease-fire; his exact words were, "I've had my fun. Want an alliance?" Jake didn't have a lot of options at that moment, so he agreed. Freed from the need to fight, Mike's other ships fanned out in search of gold. Jake's ships, the ones that could still move, fanned out in search of whatever they might find. The Nautilus set about repairing herself, using Griffin's ability.
Nearly everyone else was headed for Humpback Island and its concentration of doubloons. The first shoving match came when Drew felt threatened by Zach's Lady's Scorn. That four-master was intact, while Drew had a fleet of all two-masters, mostly damaged by their passage through the whirlpool. Nevertheless, he joined battle, and the USS Emerald fired on the much bigger ship. She missed.
The battle that followed was fierce, and reflected no glory on the Lady's Scorn at all. She fired all four guns and scored three hits, but owing to the Emerald's extraordinarily tough masts, only one mast toppled. Zach's one-masted galley joined the fray and also scored a hit, but it, too, did no harm. Four hits, and only one mast to show for it — shameful! Drew's Emerald, Delaware, and Flying Fish, all with just one mast left, teamed up to raze every one of the Lady's Scorn's masts. Drew, who was using ships borrowed from the Cadet-Captain's fleet, was feeling pretty smug.
That smugness lasted only as long as it took for Paul's ships to arrive on the scene. The Pirate Prince demanded that Drew not sink the Scorn; for one thing, he knew she was Eternal, and for another, he wanted to tow her home himself. Drew replied by attacking and sinking Paul's Bloody Jewel just after she loaded up on gold, so Paul opened fire without mercy. The Maryland went down first, a victim of the junk Duke of York, followed by the Philadelphia. The Delaware towed the Scorn a short distance, then dropped her tow and ran herself onto the beach on Humpback Island; Drew wanted to load some gold while there was still some left.
His Emerald ran around the other side of Humpback Island, pursued by one of Paul's small ships. They both wanted gold, and they both lost sight of their goal and attacked each other instead. When the ramming and shooting was done, both ships wound up derelict, but Paul's HMS Tweed (one of his favorites) took a long-range potshot and eliminated the Emerald. She then turned back and landed another longshot, taking out Drew's Flying Fish.
At the same time, Zach's smaller ships were looking for trouble, and finding more than they bargained for. One damaged ship ran for home, but lost her other mast in the whirlpool transit and was stranded, derelict, within spitting distance of her home island. Another went back and forth between the whirlpool and Humpback several times, unable to make up her mind what she wanted to do. Jake's Nautilus nearly decided for her, but Mike warned him off at the last moment, reminding him that this was Zach's last functional ship. He seems to think he can order the other admirals around like this, but as long as they keep listening to him, he'll never learn his lesson. Of course, the price they pay when they don't listen to him is a lesson in itself.
While all this was going on, what of Richard? His entire fleet had entered the other world intact and turned away from the fighting, headed for one wild island far from the action. He cleaned it out and turned his fleet for home. This was the first time in a very long while that he didn't go for guts and glory.
What was even more unprecedented was that one of Jake's ships actually loaded some gold! It had been so long since he had tried this, he didn't remember how the rules for loading went and had to be reminded. And then one of Paul's ships rammed and boarded him and stole his coin. Phooey.
Paul's and Jake's small ships then got into a shoving match off the shores of Humpback, which ended when Mike's huge Ghost Walker cruised into the area, angling for gold but quite willing to use her fine cannons as peacemakers. He used them to sink some forgotten derelict ship nearby, just to show how peaceful he was. Paul quickly arranged a deal — if Mike took the gold and didn't attack, Paul wouldn't bring his entire fleet to bear against him. The Cadet-Captain didn't worry much about Paul's fleet, which was on the far side of Humpback and never could have caught up with him, but he accepted the deal anyway, just to get his gold and get clean away.
His two-masted ships, the New Orleans and the Montezuma, had finished siphoning up all the gold at a remote corner island. Both had lost a mast on the way in, and were nervous about another whirlpool passage. The Montezuma went first and got through safely. That left the New Orleans clear to make a move that was quite unprecedented. She sailed up to the two-masted Jake ship the Jarvis had left derelict earlier, made gentle contact, and then used her "Philadelphia effect" to take them both straight to Mike's home island. Then, while the New Orleans repaired her broken mast, the Jarvis towed Jake's ship out into the bay and dropped her there for Jake to tow home. The battle ended before he could take advantage of this, but it was still a generous gesture from one ally to another. (The crew on Jake's ship were heard to mutter, "Big deal — he's the one who shot our masts off in the first place.")
Zach's last working ship finally made up her mind and returned home, towing her crippled fleetmate out of the whirlpool as she went. The other surviving ships were also headed for their home islands; Paul used his Commodore Temple to get his derelict ships home double-quick. Almost half the gold in the other world went unclaimed when time ran out. It didn't take long to count the treasures; Mike ran away with 22, followed by Richard with 10, Drew with 8, Paul with 7, and Zach and Jake with empty pockets.
Paul never did make it home with the Lady's Scorn. Nearly everyone chose fleets that were heavy on combat ability, and with the exception of Richard, everyone got all the combat they could handle. Mike noticed that, even though the Ghost Walker was only a three-masted ship, her great length had a very intimidating effect on both Jake and Paul. Drew has the correct aggressiveness to be a successful pirate, but needs to learn when to fight, when to negotiate, and when to run for his life. Richard's lack of aggression was quite out of character for him, but it also got him into second place.
Several ships earned battle honors tonight. Paul's HMS Tweed earned the Bronze Sabre, 2nd Class, for 100% accuracy at long range, taking two ships out of the battle with two shots. Mike's Jarvis received the Silver Sabre, 2nd Class, for inflicting heavy damage on Jake's fleet, encouraging him to accept an alliance, and then getting home with the lion's share of Mike's gold. And this historian awarded himself a pat on the back for finally writing a battle report on an "other world" game, after failing twice before.
The "something different" was obvious the instant they looked at the battlefield. Instead of a bay dotted with gold-laden islands, we were fighting over an odd-shaped oval that bore a striking resemblance to Daytona International Speedway. Gold treasures were scattered around the outside lane; those looked familiar, at least. But a lot of the rules of piracy had changed. New plans and tactics were needed.
This was the first trial of my NASCAR scenario, a somewhat silly crossover between Pirates and its constructible cousin, Race Day. The rules for NASCAR are posted among my scenarios, but briefly, two spaces on the track equal an S move, three equal an L, and you get points for finishing laps as well as for bringing gold home (Pit Road is everyone's home island). There were also rules for drafting, going for extra speed, and even spinning out an enemy ship after a ram. More importantly, every ship effectively becomes Eternal and can be repaired after sinking.
Our fleets were built to the NASCAR standard — 30 points for two ships with a total of six masts, plus crew and events. Downeast Drew doesn't have his own fleet yet, so he borrowed a speedy Spanish fleet from the Cadet-Captain. Mike himself used his Americans; he had used the President several times before, always with very back luck. If the big schooner disappointed him again, he'd do what he usually does to ships that displease him: make her a prize for someone else to win in battle. The other admirals used ships that pleased them, either a four-master and a two, or a pair of threes; no one used a five and a one. Some had heeded Mike's advice to build a very fast fleet, and some didn't. It was a motley-looking bunch that lined up at the starting line. It didn't help that there were two each of the President and the Julius Caesar.
The only thing that kept the game from degenerating into instant carnage was the rule that you can't attack a ship that hasn't crossed the starting line yet. As soon as a ship made it that far, however, it was fair game. A few players tried to get a gold game going, but most of them were content to beat the post-nasal drip out of each other.
Battle, not gold, was the order of the day. The most common event in the game was for a ship to pull alongside a potential enemy on the crowded track and ask, "Whose ship is this?" before letting the cannonballs fly. There were some alliances in play, although they were never publically announced; both Jake and Zach had golden opportunities to smash somebody else's ship into toothpicks, but held their fire.
The rule about sunk ships going to Pit Road was a popular one. The pits were soon filled with ships in various states of disrepair, as many as seven of them at one point. Several ships were sunk twice, and Mike's little Rattlesnake went down for the third time. Actually, she sank four times, but one of them was called back after Mike realized his attacker hadn't crossed the line yet. All this destruction was sometimes welcomed by the victims, because a ship scored five points every time it exited the pits (and thus crossed the finish line).
Paul the Pirate Prince was utterly merciless. He probably sank and damaged more ships than anyone else, although no one kept track. After Mike thanked him for wiping out his entire fleet (and thus handing him ten points), Paul switched tactics and went for towing derelicts instead of sinking them outright. His Julius Caesar eventually paid the price for making too many people angry, but the Jarvis made full use of her immunity to red cannons and slowly cruised from target to target, smashing everything in sight.
Petty Officer Jake and Bosun Zach followed a similar path, but with not as much success. Jake did his best work against Mike; HMS Nautilus' bonus against American ships cost the Cadet-Captain at least two ships during the battle. Zach and Amirante Antonio got mixed up with Jake and Paul, and their ships spent as much time in the pits as on the track. The Dread Pirate Richard and the Fire Blossom were very late to the party, because they didn't believe Mike when he'd warned them to use fast ships. They didn't even make it across the starting line until the battle was three or four turns old. Once there, of course, they wasted no time in picking out targets.
The only admiral to focus on gold from start to finish was Downeast Drew. His four-masted Santa Ana kept getting shot up and sunk, but the speedy La Monarca broke away from the pack and never looked back. The only thing that slowed her down was that she kept stopping to see if a nearby gold coin was better than the ones she already had. She was the first ship to complete a lap on the track, scoring ten points for Drew, plus eleven for the gold in her hold.
The only other ship to complete a lap was Mike's President. After sinking once and getting repaired, she shifted her sails into high gear and sped around the course, ignoring the gold and shooting at enemies only if they happened to be in range at the end of her move. No one tried to stop her; Paul and Jake had ships in position (somehow they made it almost halfway around the track without getting sunk), but they either let her go or could not do her any harm. Mike's ship stuck her bowsprit across the finish line just as the battle ended. That lap, plus three partial laps brought on by sinkings and one little 2-point treasure coin, gave him the victory with 27 points.
Drew came in second with 26 (a close one there!), Antonio got third with 17 followed by Zach with 16 (another close one), Paul's aggression got him fifth place with 14, Richard and Jake tied for sixth with four points each, and the Fire Blossom... well, bring faster ships next time, Aimee.
Battle honors were hard to award, because the action was so confusing. Paul's Jarvis and Jake's HMS Nautilus certainly deserve a Bronze Sabre for the damage they caused; it's hard to tell if those medals should be first class or second class. La Monarca definitely gets a first-class Order of the Buccaneer for bringing in almost all of Drew's points, both by gold and by completing a lap. There aren't any medals for just going fast, so Mike's President didn't get any awards, but she did redeem her reputation in Mike's eyes; he won't be scrapping her any time soon. (She would have gone even faster if he hadn't completely forgotten about Montana Mays' extra-action ability.)
It's also worth noting that everyone had pen and paper to keep track of their fleets and the laps they completed, but everyone used them for other purposes as well. Among the more creative doodles: Richard drew rolling dice, a skeleton hanged from a gallows, and three jet airplanes; Aimee drew a flower on a burning altar (a fire blossom, of course); Anthony created four stick figures with scowls and medieval weapons; and Drew came up with a machine gun, a face with swords through it (labeled "Zach is dead" after Zach sank Drew's ship), and a skull-and-crossbones flag where the skull looked very much like Cadet-Captain Mike, right down to the beard and glasses.
We thought this would be the first engagement for another new admiral, Down-East Drew, but he turned out to be a no-show, as did the Fire Blossom. That left six of the usual suspects, plus Captain Matt, who was making his second Pirates appearance (but his first in a written history).
Pirates Battle Report
The above-average point allowance caused many of the players to try and build "ultimate" fleets. The presence of three sea dragons shows how they were slinging build-points around with utter abandon. Just about everybody was allied with somebody, but most of those alliances didn't do anyone much good. The no-immediate-neighbors rule meant that anyone who wanted to help his ally had to cover quite a distance first.
Several admirals were contending for some Starbursts they found on a shelf. Mike cautioned them, "Don't eat the big pink Starburst!" When they greedily looked where he was pointing, it turned out to be a Pink Pearl pencil eraser.
the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Ten,
by Cadet-Captain Mike
Another World, Part III
Legends tell of an isolated sea, dotted with small islands, that can be reached only by those daring (or foolhardy) enough to sail their ships into the heart of a raging whirlpool. The rewards for such daring, or foolhardiness, are great; those small islands are filled with more gold than a pirate crew could spend in five lifetimes.
Pirates Battle Report for 08/25/2010
Overheard during the game: Paul was gloating to somebody, "It's a good thing for you that I didn't use my super Captain!" They all gathered around to see this super Captain, who turned out to be Osvald Deus de Celemente. "He looks weird," offered Jake. Mike cut in, "You mean you don't like men with no hair?" That discussion came to a quick end.
Scribed this day, August Twenty-Fifth,
The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Ten,
by Cadet-Captain MikeNot All Ships Can Acceptably Race
If nothing else, our local pirate admirals have learned to be flexible. They've been thrown into outer space, they've had to sail through whirlpools, they've been attacked by submarines and giant crabs, and they've even had to fight two-hour battles without any snacks. So when Cadet-Captain Mike promised them something really different tonight, most of them were curious, but not in a state of panic.
Pirates Battle Report for 09/28/2010
There weren't many humorous quotes overheard during the game, but a few odd scenes were acted out. At one point, Richard stepped on Mike's toe by accident. Mike began hopping on one foot and moaning in mock agony, "Oww! My foot! My piggie toe! You stepped on it, you brute, you big meanie!" Jake was concerned — "I thought you were having a heart attack." "Yeah, I always hop on one foot when I have a heart attack," replied Mike. A few minutes later, when Drew had to go to the men's room for the fourth time in two hours, Mike slipped into Aladdin mode and quoted, "Now there's a big surprise! I think I'm going to have a heart attack and die from not-surprise," ... and began hopping on one foot.
Scribed this day, October Eleventh,
The Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Ten,
by Cadet-Captain Mike