Corsairs of the Crimson Sea

It was pirate versus pirate, salty sea dogs baring teeth against one another, in my last game of Freebooters Fate.

 We stuck to a simple scenario and inevitably we had a certain number of similar characters in our forces, though Ian, my opponent, did choose to field Blackbeard, and some other different crew in his crew.

Blackbeard came off worse in an encounter with my knife thrower, and long rifle.  But over all the game swung slightly to Ian.

He kept back a number of his troops in the company of his Captain Rosso, and thanks to early injuries in my party, I was forced to engage from a safe distance, with some loss of ability.  A late charge by a deckhand didn't do enough to redress the damage.

Still my pirates cannot be too downhearted, not seeing as they recently seized control of a beauty of a ship:

Two in fact!  This is the smallest of the Playmobil pirate ships, which due to a little wear and tear I managed to acquire on eBay for £3.50.  It comes as you can see with a substantial mast and rowing boat.  As soon as I can figure out how to make it a waterline vessel, and what to do with the rigging and so forth, it shall be another major project to kick off!

In sewers, expect Rats

The theme this year has seemingly developed into one of skirmish games, not one I mind as space and money for gaming has never been at such a premium (well not since I moved to France for a while anyway!).  T'other week saw my first game of Freebooters Fate, against Jo's Goblins:

Now in the game, it would be fair to say that the Goblins are a metaphor for 17th and 18th century imperialist racism.  You know, it'd be in questionable taste, and not much fun to have a set of stereotypically black, or Chinese, or American Indian ex-slaves running around; well not at least if you are a German company and would consider our English political correctness markedly lax..

Anyway, I digress, the Goblins have thrown of the shackles of their masters and fight for their own cause.  Our game was to be set in the filth ridden sewers neath some pirate metropolis.

The rules, well simplicity themselves; players alternate activating characters, who can do two simple actions (for example move or fire) or one complex action (reload a musket, charge an enemy).  Of we both set, looking only for vengeance on our opposite numbers.

When combat reared its head, the method was by the selection of attack and defence cards.  There are six possible locations to attack: the head, torso, legs, left and right arms, and abdomen (more entertainingly called the Underlove region in the original German).  Typically an attacker selects two target areas, and the defender three.  If the defender does not select all the areas to defend that you attack, you score a hit.  Obviously this basic system favours the defender, but aiming or charging increase the attack value, whilst being caught from behind or whilst knocked to the ground reduces defence.

It's a fun system, though slower then lobbing dice, much more involved.

My Pirates were having the better of the Goblins who were pretty weak, if numerous; though both of us had bullet proof leaders who shrugged off damage.  Damage from successful hits is determined by the damage rating of the weapon, plus the value of a random card from 1-10; minus much the same for the opponent.  It appeared on the day, both our leaders had come in their Iron trousers.

However after 8 turns they were both dead, and I made a last dash for glory with a charge at one of his few remaining goblins.  The terrain rules here foiled me, with their simple logic.  To jump a gap your move must clear it entirely in a single movement (typically 10cm); the charge is double but must be in a straight line, turned out the straight line gap was 12cm, so splash!

In the water meant I was as good as a casualty, at least until I got out again.  And so The goblins won narrowly.  What have I said before about learning experience?

Simple rules, and indeed free of the sort of fancy rules for characters that lead to flawed, unbalanced army builds.  Ingenious (if, I'll say, not all that revolutionary) game mechanics, and the excuse to put on pirate accents and say 'Arrgh' a lot!  Yes, it's a great little game.

Now begins the quest to get a pirate ship...

Arrh! Ye Scurvy Dawgs!

Much of my painting output in June ended up as a single subject, for another skirmish game:

Freebooters Fate is a German game with tasty figures and simple game play, that doesn't readily lend itself to being ruined by Cheesy play; the game itself features an alternate reality, with a few elements of fantasy (it features goblins and a hint of magical effects), but I have to forgive that given it contains, well, Pirates!

Being a skirmish game, I've spent a lot more time than normal on the models, and so alongside other major, non-painting, projects of late I produced a lot less in the month.  still I have a full crew for the game now.

First of these are the deckhands, essentially the core choices.  My starter set contained a standard Pirate with a pistol and a Chuchillo, or knife expert.

Next up are a couple of specialists, firstly for me is 'The Lady', a woman of mystery who wields a huge axe cum pistol.

The skirt was very satisfying to complete, but then so were many of the other details here.  Is it me or does she look a bit like Angelina Jolie?

Incidentally the bases are a metal textured plate that fits into the plastic former.  An odd solution and one that I'm not convinced works perfectly.

My other specialist is another woman; Curly Ann.

Very nice to have a go at a different skin tone, lovely rich colours as a whole.  Not wholly convinced by the pose, but it remains my favourite despite that.

Finally you need a leader, and my starter set provided Captain Rosso:

A big and complex model, I should really have left the cot off until the end.  Still the overall effect was pleasing.  A real riot of colour.

I was particularly happy with coat in the end.  Painting 150 British scarlet jackets really cues you for doing a number on an object like this.

And so these are ready for the table.  I had time to start another project in June, but not finish it, so the measly results of these, some Napoleonics generals and four half tracks is that I only scored myself a feeble 23 points on the month.

Quality, not quantity.

Boardgame all-dayer

The recent theme of board games was strong again in the club for me and this last Sunday I also took along my Pirates cards, occupying as they do a middle ground between a conventional wargame and a boardgame. We rattled through a couple of games in under a hour each, fairly standard fare, but it introduced two guys to the system, and as is so often the case, caused a number of people to wander up and declare they had a pile of these in a box under the bed somewhere at home.

Of course I failed to win either game, in the first two-hander I was sunk in close action whilst trying to make off with the enemy's ships. In the second game three of us fought over the islands.

Again, the author wisely hides himself behind the lens

On reflection, this is possibly the weakest way to play the game, as it conveniently divides up the basic layout to 'one home island and one wild island' each. The treasure placement means most of the time the island nearest a player will have their best treasures and the opponents worst treasures. Players will ferry their treasure home unassailed, and the game will turn on the luck of who had the best hand of second-choice treasures dealt to them.

In this game fast ships will always win, and indeed the ability of one player to nick a couple of bits of treasure off my island won it; although knowing I was going to lose, I made merry hell with a massive five-sailed ship, blasting everything out the water foolish enough to get in my way.
Next time I think we'll go for a 'fleet action' and start with the treasure on our vessels instead.

After this we played Condottiere, essentially a card game with a board for recording the results of hands. The idea is each player represents an Italian prince and uses his hand to try and gain control of territories. It's a game of bluff in essence, and I did appallingly at it, not coming close to winning either time. We squeezed in a game of Dominion next, before moving on to Battlelore.

Battlelore is essentially a hex based wargame, with simple unit representation and a command and control system based on the use of cards to activate units in one or more of the three sectors of the battlefield.

It's the sort of game that will certainly appeal to people who like the idea of wargaming, but not the investment in time involved in painting figures, making terrain and so forth. I found it a little simplistic, but competent enough, and the little figures (approximately 18mm scale, or 'true' 20mm - 1/87th) are nicely made and begging for a paint job. The rules covered both historical and fantasy games, and provided figures for both - Humans, Goblins and Dwarves; which I could only approve of, though if you are not well versed on your medieval history already, you are only likely to recognise one battle.

As it was we 'proved' that the English couldn't win Agincourt; twice!, before 'refighting' a thirteenth century battle from of succession in Brittany. The historicity of the result will remain in doubt, though clearly in the Agincourt scenario, the designers had opted for game balance over reenactment.

All in all another entertaining waste of a day!

Pirates!

So, Pirates of the Spanish Main, and its' numerous successors.

Some of you may be familiar with this incredibly successful game, others may well be completely in the dark about it, as it often sells through distinctly non-wargamer channels, comic shops and so on. If I mention the phrase 'Collectible game' it may well send a shudder down your spine. Like Axis and allies - War at Sea, this is another game that encourages you to buy, buy, buy!

In it's defence, whereas A&A-W@S requires you invest £20 to start play, and at that point will have a very limited fleet; Pirates... can be tried from a single pack for around £2.50. Of course for that you'll only get a couple of model ships, producing a limited game yet again; but the equivalent investment compared to A&A-W@S will see you with a fair variety of kit and a few features to tinker with.

The typical contents of a single pack, not shown are rules and a tiny die, the human eye cannot see!

I have to say, that whilst not overly complex, played for itself, this is a clever little idea. I've had six games of it now, with a collection of cards I mainly bought last year, and it gives surprising value for money.

The ships themselves are constructed from plastic, die-cut cards; one to three cards per ship, and as you can see in the photo's, can look pretty nice. Some of the earlier galleons suffer from seeming a little two dimensional, but the overall appearance of the full colour cards it quite nice, Personally I'm quite enamoured of the Barbary galleys, with their oars.

The rules are perilously simple, but as with any 'CCG' the rules on individual cards/vessels countermand the core rules. Movement is based on length of the cards themselves (ingenious) and damage to vessels, and its effect on firepower are controlled by removing masts from the ship (damned ingenious!).

Over the last month or so it has been a regular feature for me at the club; having the obvious advantages of pick up play and speed. On Wednesday last I took a couple of shots of a game in action; whilst not ground breaking they will give you a flavour of play.

In this match I was particularly entertained to find that one of my fleet was invulnerable to one of the others cannon fire. Fleets are arranged from a single nations' ships to an agreed value, typically resulting in about three ships and some special crew. The British player went for a fleet of long range guns, thinking bigger was better, but my flagship was immune to long range gunfire - oh how I laughed...

Unfortunately, our tussle in the centre let the American player sweep up the treasure on the islands. Treasure collection either by peaceful exploration of islands or by hostile acts of ship to ship combat, being the aim of the game.

Ever the wargamers one of us soon suggested a variant on play, and a second match saw us with the new objective of destroying enemy fortresses to claim mastery of the sea. Quite aside from using these models with more traditional naval rules, the facility for varying the play of the basic game is quite broad.

It falls into the 'beer and pretzels' end of the market, but Pirates... is a good back up plan for a club gamer to have available when an opponent fails to show up. Also, it's the sort of game that can easily be sold to your non-wargamer types instead of another session of Monopoly or Trivial Pursuit at Xmas or after that dinner party; if you do that sort of thing.

Which, I hasten to add, I don't.