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.

Last night’s PotSM scenario, Icebound!, went pretty well. Including me, we only had 3 players, but that meant that we were able to accomplish quite a bit, and finish the game (all the gold had been gathered).

The scenario’s description was “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…

The Toreador (represented by any 4+ masted Spanish ship) starts the game derelict, 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 can be targeted as normal. Place 4 coins totalling 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.”

The del Sol was my treasure runner, and on it first turn, I doubled my move and was able to move 6S and touch the wreck. Next turn, I Explored, and found Fruit (takes 2 space, can’t get rid of it), Odin’s Revenge (all ships lose a mast), Monkey’s Paw, Poseidon’s Breath, and a 4 gold piece. Unfortunately, that was the only gold I was able to get, because between the other players fleets (one Cursed, one Pirate), the 2 Marines on the wreck, and the icebergs, the del Sol was derelicted and repaired several times.

My El Monte Cristo didn’t do so hot, but it was able to keep the Cursed players big Longship, the Loki’s Revenge, busy while I took the del Sol home and unloaded the gold. Eventually, the Loki’s Revenge’s double actions and the icebergs took their toll, and the El Monte Cristo sank.

Once the del Sol had completely repairs all it’s masts, I revealed Poseidon’s Breath, which allowed me to move my base move tiems the number of masts I had. The del Sol has 4, so I was able to move 12S! If I had rolled my same-action-twice, I could have moved 15S, but 12S was enough for me to move and dock on the far side of the wreck from the Revenge. Unfortunately, the LR took the remaining gold and UTs on the ship and headed home.

My del Sol didn’t have a captain, and the guns really suck on the ship, so going after the Revenge was pointless. But, the Cursed player had another ship, the Tarantula. So, on my last turn, I rammed the little ship and did absolutely nothing! I didn’t roll well enough to remove a mast, and we tied on boarding rolls, so nothing
happend.

The Pirate player used an interesting tactic. He had 2 ships in his fleet, the Harbinger and the El Dorado. Both ships have the ability “You own any derelict this ship explores; both ships become docked at your home island. ” What he did was load some gold from the wreck, and then wait for the Marines to derelict one of his ships. He then used the other ship to Explore the derelict, and both ships appeared at his home port. It made transporting the gold back very nice, and he got lucky and grabbed the majority of the gold.

Overall, the scenario went well. We had lots of iceberg movement, but surprisingly, no one played any icebreakers. Instead, we were able to remove icebergs by shooting them twice…which meant that on more than one occasion, we missed. How do you miss an iceberg? the game could be livened up with more players…and maybe more icebergs.