So as it was Ed's birthday he requested that we play the
pirate game again, which I have previously reported on this blog and I was very
keen to get the ships out or some more nautical mayhem.
We had three players each one had a galleon and a Sloop, galleons
have more firepower but sloops are more manoeuvrable.
To mix the game up a bit we also had a Treasure Island in
the middle of the table, which was naturally where the treasure chest was
located. Ideally we would have had some natives or tribesmen on the island but
I do not have any, so I used some skeletons from my fantasy collection. Unfortunately
by now my imagination was working overtime and it also gave them a catapult
made from dear bones.
The scenario was that the pirate captains had to defeat one
another and the winner would claim the treasure assuming that they could defeat
the skeletons first.
The pirate captains were Red beard, Black beard and Ahab.
The game started with Red beard and Blackbeard picking on
each other and Ahab sneaking around the back of Red beard and sniping at him
when he could with his Sloop. Red Beard by using repeated grapeshot and
musketry volleys reduced the crew of Blackbeard’s galleon to a point where
Blackbeard had to abandon it and consolidate all of his troops in Sloop.
Using repeated volleys of chain shot Ahab was able to
disable Red beard's Sloop and leave it dead in the water. Insult was added to
injury when the skeleton catapult on the island scored a direct hit and sank it!
The crew were promptly plunged into the water where two of them were eaten by
sharks but the remainder managed to make it to Red beards galleon.
Ahab was doing quite well at this point and had hardly any
casualties, unfortunately traversing fire from Blackbeard's galleon changed all
of this, a devastating volley of canister wiped out most of the crew, and he
was forced to abandon the galleon and set it adrift.
Redbeard now decided to ram Blackbeard's Sloop with his
galleon and did significant damage to it, however Black beard took advantage of
the situation by boarding Red Beards galleon unchallenging Red beard to a duel.
Red beard lost the duel, was killed and his crew then went over to Blackbeard.
This meant that there only two captains left Blackbeard and Ahab.
Ahab moved his Sloop towards the island and volleyed the
skeletons with grapeshot and musket fire before landing his troops on the
island in search of the treasure.
Blackbeard also landed on the island and a three sided melee
ensued between Blackbeard, Ahab and skeletons. The combat went on for several
rounds but eventually Black beard was triumphant.
It had been a very entertaining game, with the fortunes of
war having one way and then the other. I had amended the rules before the game
to introduce three different types of ammunition for the cannon which worked
really well. We also had the sail off the end of the world rule which meant
that a ship which sailed off the table came back again next turn at a random
point on the table, this also made the game quite entertaining.
Rules are below –
Pirate rules
Sequence
Determine
initiative
Player 1
fires and moves a ship and crew
Player 2
fires and moves a ship and crew
Etc.
Crew
Movement 8
inches, no obstacles
Firing –
50% of crew
rounding up.
Pistols –
12 inches, Muskets - 18 inches
Hit on 4+,
Save on 4+
No cover.
Result –
1-2 – over
the side, 3-6 – killed
Combat
Simultaneous
Roll to hit
3+ depending on weapon skill.
Save 4+,
captains 3+
Fail result
–
1-2 – over
the side, 3-6 – killed
Over the
side – roll d6, 1-2 eaten by sharks, 3+ climb back up next turn but may not
fire or attack.
Ships
Movement
Move 12, 18
with the wind behind.
Turn pivot
on stern - galleons – 45 degrees no penalty, 90 degrees half move.
Sloops – up
to 90 degrees no penalty
Ships may
not turn on the spot.
Shimmying –
ships can shimmy sideways 6 inches and turn 45 degrees
Ramming – 2D6
each
Firing
cannon
Ranges –
short – 8, medium up to 16, long up to 24.
To hit –
short 3+, medium 4+, long +5
Damage roll
– 5+
1 - Rigging
hit – D3 damage, galleon - 12 points, sloop – 8 points of damage. Immobilized
when points level exceeded.
2 - Upper
deck hit – d3 casualties.
3 - Gun
deck – 1 gun destroyed, D3 damage to hull
4 - Hull – 1
average D damage - 233445
Hull – galleon
- 20 points, sloop – 12 points of damage. Sinks when points level exceeded.
Crew have 1 turn to abandon ship.
Boarding
Boarding
takes place as a result of –
Moving
parallel;
Shimmying;
Ramming
(optional).
The
attacker places his troops on the defender figures to figure. Both sides can
fire just before combat is joined.
Boarding
range is 3 in.
Winning
If there
are less than 3 of a sloop crew alive and on deck, they surrender.
If there
are less than 5 of a galleon crew alive and on deck, they surrender.
Crew in
the water
Join the
crew of whoever picks them up.
Each captain receives 3 of the cards below at the start of the game.
