The Captain's Logbook

On Wednesday, August 1, 2007, I ran a Pirates scenario called Icebound! Here’s the description:

The Spanish treasure ship, El Toreador, ran aground during a late winter storm. Since that fateful night, the ship has been icebound, and nearly abandoned by her crew. But, the ice is starting to thaw…

El Toreador (represented by any 4+ masted Spanish ship) starts the game as a wreck on a hidden spur of rock, and surrounded by 5-6 icebergs, all touching the hull of the ship. An additional ring of icebergs (~6-8) starts out 2L away from the first ring. Place 2 Marines onto the ship to represent the guards that the Spanish left on the ship. They will shoot at the nearest (or docked) ship at the end of each round (after all players have acted).

The Marines cannot be targeted, and the ship cannot be towed or sunk. Place 4 coins totaling 8 gold from each player (UTs allowed) onto the ship. Players bring a 40pt, nationally pure fleet to try to bring home as much gold as they can. Normal victory and game ending conditions are in effect.

We made one addition to the posted rules:

Icebergs can be moved by shooting at them. Two hits are required to move an iceberg away from the shooting ship.

Of the 4 players in the game, 3 played Pirates (including me), and one played an American fleet.To the left, you can see the 40pt Pirate fleet that I played.

Typically, I play a Spanish fleet for this scenario, but I wanted a change this time, so I put together the Pirate fleet. My plan was to have the Banshee’s Cry zip up to the El Toreador, grab some treasure (or potentially get hit by bad Unique Treasures) and zip away. The Blood Jewel and the Darkhawk II could follow in later.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out like I planned…

Well, the first problem was that there were TOO MANY ICEBERGS! There were 6 icebergs touching the El Toreador, and there was a ring of about 20 more around the ship. And, several icebergs moved on each players turn, so damage was inevitable.

Early in the game, I tried to sneak the Banshee’s Cry up to the wrecked ship. There was a narrow gap between 2 icebergs, and I hoped that I could slip through. But, on one of the other players turns, one of the icebrgs slammed into the Cry, knocked off it’s only mast and derelict her.

It took a while until the icebergs had cleared a bit, but I was finally able to get the Darkhawk and Jewel up close to the wreck. Then, by pushing an iceberg out of the way (by shooting it), I was able to access the El Toreador. I loaded up the Darkhawk, and then got some treasure onto the Jewel, and got away from any nearby icebergs before getting slammed. The DH got hit a couple of times by the Marines, though.

While I was dodging icebergs, the player of the American fleet decided to go after one of the Pirate fleets. His fleet had a decent gunship in it, and the USS Mercury submarine. So, the two of them spent most of the game running around and shooting at each other.

The remaining player was able to get one of her ships, the Darkhawk, up to the wreck and got some of the treasure. her ship took a couple of hits from icebergs and the Marines, and only had one mast left. But, she ended up with enough treasure to put her in second place (behind me).

Because I was privateering this event, I wasn’t able to “win”, so the second place player got the winning prize. All of the players were able to get a special Limited Edition ships, and everyone had fun.

Next weeks game is Battle for the Spanish Main, a 100pt free-for-all gun battle. That scenario is always fun.