A British vacationer is being hailed a hero after he thwarted gun-toting pirates attacking a cruise ship — by throwing a deck chair at them.

<read the rest of the story>

Wow! I guess the Pirates roll badly on their Boarding roll.

The scenario was:Cannons, Cannons, and More Cannons! Or: Blow it up, burn it down, kill it, grill it.

RULES:

1. Point build = unlimited; max # of ships / creatures / ships+flotillas per person = 4. Note: Ship + flotilla = one unit.
2. All ships, sea monsters, titans, and sea dragons automatically gain the Captain ability which cannot be eliminated unless it sinks (ability can be cancelled). This includes both types of dragon attacks.
   
3. No gold.
   
4. WINNER = player who eliminates / shoots off the most masts. Sinking counts as one additional mast
   
5. This multiplayer event lasts 90 minutes or until 9pm, whichever comes first.
   
6. Underwater fights are encouraged. If it swims or can submerge it can fight anywhere.
   
7. Marines gain the keyword “anti-aircraft gunner” thus they may shoot at airborne dragons regardless of height as soon as the dragon comes into S range regardless of whose turn it is.
8. All types of creatures can repair by eating any crew member. A ship can be boarded by the creature to steal a meal or a friendly ship can be explored to offer one. Burp ‘n’ repair. One complete (all parts restored) repair per crew member consumed.
   
9. No extra or double actions under any circumstances, i.e., no Calico Cat, Lord Mycron, sac captains, etc.

Because of a busy schedule, I had not had much time to build a fleet for this event, so I went with an all monster fleet. The fleet consisted of Angelica, Shal-Bala, Terrox and Beastie.

With only 3 players playing, we decided to use my new playmat, which worked out really well. The 3′x3′ area was small enough that it forced us to fight each other (which was the point of the scenario), but still gave us some room to maneuver.

During the course of the game, I was able to surround another player’s Double Catamaran with Beastie, after attackign it with Shal-Bala, and was eventually able to sink it, although it took several turns. I also surrounded another players Floatilla (represented by a duckie) with Terrox, but was cancelled from attacking (cancelled the Kraken keyword), and eventually got sunk. Luckily, Terrox is Eternal, but I was not able to repair the Kraken enough to get him back into play.

Overall, we had lots of fun, even though we forgot to keep score and there was no clear winner.

So, I took the vinyl home. That weekend, I went to the store and picked up 2 different colors of spray-paint. Then, I laid the vinyl out in the sun and spray-painted them, trying to get a water pattern. For most of the sheets, I painted the back so that I wouldn’t have to cover up the printed side, but on one or two, I painted over the print. It didn’t work out so well; I had to use quite a bit of paint to cover up the print, and even them I could still read the print when the sun hit the surface right.

Finally, I had one or two nice playmats, and two or three that were ok. Unfortunately, the spray paint didn’t quite dry, and when I rolled the mats up at the end of the afternoon, several of them stuck together. I’ll have to see if I can clear coat them.

This past weekend, I tried a different tactic. I spent about an hour or so in Photoshop creating a mottled water pattern. Then, I took the pattern into InDesign and added a border, and white and black gridlines. then, I took the file to a local printer and had it printed at 36″x36″ on vinyl. And it came out amazing! The pictures here don’t really do it justice.

I made the map at 36″x36″ so that it could be used for both Pirates and Sailpower. The map is divided into 49 5″ squares by a grid of black lines, and then white lines go diagonally across the map. This is that when the map is used for Sailpower, you can line your ship up with the lines. I also put a 8-point compass rose in one corner, to be used with the wind indicator in Sailpower.

I’m planning on taking the map to tomorrow nights Pirates game and see if we can use it. It really depends on how many players show up, because 36″x36″ is good for a couple of small fleets, but tomorrow night’s scenario is a no-point limit game, so I expect large fleets.

I ran through a quick demo with Dave, a member of the Sailpower demo crew. I was given a British 8-cannon ship (the ship on the right in the picture), and Dave took a similar, American ship. Both ships had approximately 48 crew (I don’t recall the exact number), which could be assigned to either Aloft (in the rigging), on Deck, Repair, ready for Boarding, or Below. Crew on the Deck could be assigned to the Cannons (in groups of 2 or 4), and there was a chance during combat that an enemy shot would take out a Cannon, along with it’s crew. There was also a chance of rolling badly, and a Cannon would blow up, taking it’s crew with it.

I had lots of fun with the game, and I can see a lot of possibilities. I’m still learning, and it’s going to take me a while to wrap my head around the rules.

If anyone else is interested in trying out the same, there will be a Sailpower game at the Soldiery on Sunday, April 19th at 2pm.

Hey Gang,

We should have some firmer updates later this week or early next.  I spoke with my contact at Topps on Friday, and a few decisions still have to be made on the WizKids front.  I should have some updates once those decisions are wrapped up.

Jake

YWCSHC

Along with that, someone post a comment here on this blog that an agreement was being signed for the online Pirates game. My thought is that if they are going to continue the online game, then there is a good chance that they are going to continue the tabletop version as well.

Still no word on WHO is going to publish Pirates, or when, but hopefully the future of Pirates will be clearer in another week or two.

‘HeroClix’ Deal Near

A deal for the sale of key WizKids assets, including HeroClix, will be announced soon, according to several sources. Topps will reportedly sell the assets to a company newly formed for the purpose. It’s expected that new releases will start to flow later this year.

The last official word was from WizKids CEO Lax Chandra, who told ICv2 in late December that the company was “working hard to find a new home for the WizKids properties” (see “‘HeroClix’ Resolution Close?”).

One of two bidders to publicly emerge, Pinata Games (see “Interview with Pinata’s Jake Theis”), in a post on the Save HeroClix site, said that it is “working on a long-term deal with the new owners to collaborate with them on the relaunch and operation of HeroClix.” Pinata was formed by Jake Theis and Justin Ziran, formerly of WizKids.

The other bidder to go public, Catalyst Games (see “Catalyst Bids on WizKids Properties”), appears to be out of the picture.

And while this post doesn’t give us any more news about the fate of Pirates, at least it’s good to see the news posted to a reputable industry site.

On Saturday, an interesting post went up on the SaveHeroClix.com website. Mainly, the post explained that the Heroclix line was going to be sold soon to a new company, but here’s the interesting part for Pirates players:

#3 In addition to HeroClix, the new group is buying some other brands from Topps, and other WizKids’ fans may be delighted to hear what the new group wants to do with them.

Hopefully, this means that this new company is going to buy the Pirates line (or at least license it from Topps), and continue the game where it left off. From what I have heard, the work has already been done on Return to Savage Shores, so it’d be nice to see that set released.

Then again, this announcement might mean that someone is buying up the Battletech and Shadowrun properties, and Pirates is still in limbo. But, it sounds like a real announcement is going to be made in a matter of weeks, so stay tuned!

Very Cute, though.I wish I had something like this when my son was littler.