Blackbeard's Revenge

 

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.

 

54mm pirate wargame

 

Originally I was going to do this project in 28 mil. I bought some Foundry pirates second hand cause I really nice pictures and started painting them up. then I realised how expensive 28 mil ships were going to be to buy.

I love eBay and on eBay I bought half a dozen Playmobil toy ships. the six cost me less than £50 including postage. however they were a bit big for 28mm so the project went into the doldrums.

then I thought why not do it in 54 mil? the Playmobil ships are ideal for 54 mill.

The Playmobil ships are actually really nice models, I repainted them using aerosols and acrylics, some of the original models came in strange colours, but it's easy enough to repaint them.

As for 54 mill pirates, there is a set made by Mars which is quite good, you can also pick up some on eBay which are made by a Chinese toy manufacturer called hing fat, the easiest ones to obtain are made by a company called Glencoe, you can buy these on Amazon UK for around £14.00 a box and that includes shipping from the US. these different sets are all scale compatible, the Mars figures are perhaps a little larger than the others. I've also bought some call to arms British Light Infantry from the American war of independence to use as royal naval marines, but I've only painted up a few so far. I also drafted in some Armies in Plastic Boxers to make up the numbers.

on the large ships I have a crew of 16, on the smaller ones a crew of eight.

In terms of rules I looked a couple of commercial sets, but they were all too complicated. I like a set of rules quick easy and fun to play so I wrote my own which we found to see two sides of a four.

I played six games with these rules now with different people add which one has been a lot of fun have been very pleased that the rules seemed to work well.

Pirate rules

Sequence

Roll for wind direction - it does not change for the duration of the game.

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 – galleon vs galleon, target 3d6 damage, rammer 1 d6 damage

Sloop vs galleon, 1d6 to both

Sloop vs sloop, rammer 1D6, rammee 2D6

Galleon vs sloop, 3d6 damage, rammee 1d6+2

Firing cannon

Ranges – short – 8, medium up to 16, long up to 24.

To hit – short 3+, medium 4+, long +5

Choose target – rigging/masts, upper deck, gun deck or hull.

Damage roll – 5+

Rigging hit – D3 damage, galleon - 12 points, sloop – 8 points of damage. Immobilized when points level exceeded.

Upper deck hit – d3 casualties.

Gun deck – 1 gun destroyed, D3 damage to hull

Hull – 1 average D damage

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 4 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.

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 – galleon vs galleon, target 3d6 damage, rammer 1 d6 damage

Sloop vs galleon, 1d6 to both

Sloop vs sloop, rammer 1D6, rammee 2D6

Galleon vs sloop, 3d6 damage, rammee 1d6+2

Firing cannon

Ranges – short – 8, medium up to 16, long up to 24.

To hit – short 3+, medium 4+, long +5

Choose target – rigging/masts, upper deck, gun deck or hull.

Damage roll – 5+

Rigging hit – D3 damage, galleon - 12 points, sloop – 8 points of damage. Immobilized when points level exceeded.

Upper deck hit – d3 casualties.

Gun deck – 1 gun destroyed, D3 damage to hull

Hull – 1 average D damage

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 4 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.