PIRATES: MULTI-PLAYER SCENARIOS

On Thursday I took my collection of Pirates of the Caribbean ships along to Hugh Wilson’s and the 5 players played 2 multiplayer scenarios which I found on the useful Cke1st's Pirates Page at
http://www.cke1st.com/m_games5.htm

Spanish and English fleets engage - what about the whaling?

We used 5 factions - English, Americans, French, Spanish and  Pirates.  The first scenario we played was Thar She Blows! – a whaling game which I won using the French.  Secondly we played The Golden Goose scenario which was won by Bart using the English.  That game saw our first example of a ship running aground on a reef.

Crippled pirate ship being towed home

We used a new sea sheet which Hugh had produced during the week.  Once again an enjoyable evening and I think the little ships look great.  

Ships sailing thru the hazards around Goose Island and a small ship hiding in fog bank

Chaos around Goose island and a ship lost in a fog bank

Next week starts with a big Black powder AWI game at my house  – the second scenario from the Rebellion book the Battle of Chatterton’s Hill.

Another Busy Gaming Week

It has been another busy week for varied games.  On Monday I took my pirate ships to Falkirk Wargames Club and Dave Paterson and I tried out the rules further using the English and Pirates.  I have spent sometime since then building more ships to expand each of my 6 factions to at least 13 ships each.

English ships engage Pirate flagship

On Wednesday evening I went to Dave Paterson’s shed for a game of Dead Man’s Hand.  We played out the second set of scenes from the new campaign book The Legend of Dead Man’s Hand.  Sadly my Sheriff who was at deaths door at the end of the first set of scenes did not recover from his wounds leaving my gang with 4.5 points of reputation at the start of scene 2.

Dave's Wild West layout

 

I was at the SESWC on Thursday where Colin Jack, Ray Neal, Angus Konstam and Tim Wilson and I played a 28mm Bolt Action game set in Syria in 1941.  My highlight was when my Moroccan squad assaulted and destroyed a British Crossley armoured car.  Next turn they tried to assault an Australian held building but were wiped out.  The game ended as a draw.

My highpoint - assaulting the armoured car

Signor Ferrari from Casablanca caught on film in Syria

Finally on Saturday Colin Jack and Ray Neal came to my garage to try the setup for our display at the Cùil Lodair Wargames Fair being held at Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre on 11 October.  Since there will be numbers of historic Culloden Games our Culloden is set in 1938 as a VBCW game.  More to follow after the event.

 

Scottish Republic forces await the Jacobite attack

 Thanks to everyone who follows my blog - I have just crossed the 150,000 pageview barrier.

WILD WEST AND PIRATES

It has been a week for varied games.  On Wednesday evening I went to Dave Paterson’s shed for a game of Dead Man’s Hand.  Once again Dave amazed me with the quality of the terrain he puts out for his games.    My posse of 3 lawmen did not do that well in any of the 3 scenes we played losing a character in each of the first two games and two including my Sherif in the 3rd game.

View over the town

More of the town

On Thursday I took my collection of Pirates of the Caribbean ships along to Hugh Wilson’s and the 6 players played a series of 4 rounds of 2 player games each.  I umpired. The factions I can put out are the English, Americans, French, Spanish, Pirates and Cursed

Americans vs Spanish- Spanish won

Pirates vs French - French won

 

It was the first time I have used the ships.  I bought them several years ago when they were being sold off in my local discount bookshop.   I spent a few days last week building about 50 of the ships.  Over the series of games I added in more terrain and mysterious islands to the setups.  The Spanish and English both won 3 of their games. Everyone seemed to enjoy the simple rules and the ships look good.  We will try it again – next time I will add in unique treasures, crews and possibly personalities.

This Sunday I am putting on an August 1914 Bolt Action game.

This week.....something different

This week’s game at the SESWC was something different.  Pirates!

The game was a follow up to last week at the club which I missed being on holiday in Spain   Colin Jack provided the models and we used Angus Konstam’s sea mat on the table.  The rules were the Legends of the High Seas by Tim Kulinski  and Rick Priestley.

Closing on the island with fearsome crew

Dave Cooper and I played the rescue the prisoner scenario.  My band of 13 pirates – 3 male heroes leading 10 female pirates – had to rescue a prisoner from Dave’s huge band of 19 pirates.  Luckily Dave was forced to split his band in 2 locations with the prisoner hidden at one of them.  My band sailed to the central island and landed unopposed by Dave’s 9 pirates.  We then engaged in a desperate swordfight were I cut down 8 of Dave’s crew – the survivor swimming to the village on the next island under a hail of pistol shots.  I found to my chagrin that the prisoner on the island was a decoy and sailed in pursuit to the village.   As I came close the boat came under heavy musket and pistol fire from the village.  After several exchanges and some lucky dicing I dealt with 2 of the ambushers and Dave’s band broke and fled…the true prisoner was rescued.  I had lost 6 of my band including my mate and an unsung hero.  My captain was left commanding a crew of 6 women.

Olivier's Xebec at anchor

On the other half of the table Colin Jack and Olivier Lepreux played out the steal a ship scenario.  A lack of muskets forced Colin’s cutting out party to storm the ship along a narrow wharf defended by Olivier with muskets, blunderbuss and pistols.  It proved a disaster for Colin who lost in a very one sided struggle….

I am not convinced that the rules which are derived from  the Legends of the West gun fighting rules really work for Pirates who are largely hand to hand fighters.  But I enjoyed the game.

Next week - 20mm SCW - still working on the scenario...