Pyrates of the Karribean VI.a--Dead Man's Hand

Excellent stuff Von Kurst!

Thanks for the comments gents.

@Al--This was a good round of photos.  I like to leave the masts up as long as possible, even though at least one of us is likely to dump a ship due to ham-handedness...
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To be a Pyrate King--Back in Torktuga

I was saved from being ambushed by the timely arrival of Kevin (either he has a late class or he just likes yanking the old guys' chain, but he got to us finally.)

But first:
Pressgang!
Black Mab's Crew versus The Bay Watch

The two warbands set up to play a Down on the Docks scenario, but I have an event call the Merchant Returns that stops a game when rolled.  So Mr L rolled that event on his first turn, like before anyone even moved...

So both warbands spent all their horded gold from last week (since I was the only one who really used an exploration phase last week...).  With greatly expanded warbands, the two faced off again:

Jim L wrote:

Restart brought Press Gang.
7 or 8 drunks




I was cursed with Capt. Hasselman at -1BS.




Mab's Crew gangs up on a 'drunk' [all drunks are played by town guards because that's what Mr L brought to the store].  


Fight in the center [that little building is a temporary bar, such places are common in Torktuga].






Tilean never shot (dark & out of position)
Warlock never got a spell off (needed a 7)
One frienzied drunk lasted 6? rounds of HTH before I sent in help to take him out.








I captured 5 drunks, sold 4, kept 1 as a swabbie.

With Capt. Hasselman, cabin boy Shark Bait, and 3 henchmen OOA, AND Chris with none ooa, I left.

Capt. Hasselman rolled 6 multiple wounds. He is now M3, Stupid, Hardened x2, and hates Sasha (with good reason).
Shark Bait will miss 3 games.
Boson and a maxed out Crewman were press ganged.
Chris captured both and, since he was maxed out on warband size, sold both.

My crate gave me 2 Toughened leathers.

5 blunderbusses were fired in the course of the game.  It seems no one was taken out of action by any of the shots.
Mab's Crew killed at least one drunk.  
That's all I know about that.

There will be more to follow...

Yet another GOOD LOOKIN' game! The buildings & boardwalks are OUTSTANDING.

Thanks Al. Mr L has added a few Goblin Town and Laketown sets to the mix, as well as a 3D printed market place:
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Hijack!
The Mary Anns try to smuggle a payroll out of Torktuga.

The Mary Anns bombard the town


The Big Game Hunter and Guido the Tilean are in that corner building, getting shelled.


There was much creeping around the edges. Here des Hombres attempt to avoid the rival Tilean's eagle eyes.


Eventually the Mary Anns establish a closer base for their crossbows




Al Bobo leads the boarding party


But Alma the Merchant Princess actually boards the ship and breaks the Mary Anns!


The Mary Anns lost a cannon crew killed and a warrior captured. Herman von Gross (a shooty young blood) was killed by Gomez y Gomez. The Mary Anns flee but find time to arrange a Prison Break, which nets them 3D6 gold.

Des Hombres Rojas lost Tansy (formerly of Mab's Crew). Ferdinan de Gama suffered a nervous condition. Juan de Palma suffered a hand injury (as a result of being attacked by an assassin). The Estalians gained some gold and treasure from the Mary Anns (and captured the warrior Johan Schmidt).

Great stuff VK. I agree with DN- your docks and board walks are very well done in particular.

HOORAY, Alma! That was yet another OUTSTANDING report. GREAT STUFF!

Before I forget again, one of the Fellow on D.'s Craft has an ongoing Corsairs & Galleons thread that you might enjoy:

http://dmscraft.proboards.com/thread/4730/corsairs-galleons-wargame?page=1

AAAARRRGGH!

Thanks for the thought mate.

I wish him well.  He lost me when I realized it was all video, though.  Why is everyone a film maker now?

I don't mind a quick video of a game table, or maybe a collage of miniatures, but that's about it.

I don't do the tutorial style videos; re, the closed caption is usually poor & I just can't hear the spoken part.

Von Kurst wrote:

I don't mind a quick video of a game table, or maybe a collage of miniatures, but that's about it.  

I agree; and- judging by the camera work- most of them film while skipping around and shaking the camera.

Darn kids, with their moving pictures...

Precisely!

To Be a Pyrate King--Bungles in the Jungles

This week the warbands made landfall on the Lustrian coast.  Des Hombres Rojas and Black Mab's Crew fell afoul of hunting cats in:

The Ghost and the Darkness

Unfortunately the photographer was introducing a new player to our group and was thus distracted from the tense drama of the rival pyrate warbands being stalked in the darkness by sabertooth tigers.

Mab's Crew was struck by the Ghost on the first turn.  As I was running the Ghost, I forgot that I could declare a charge against the tiger's prey (the enemy Tilean) despite the Tilean's guards.  Instead I declared against the closest of those guards who failed the fear test (which would have meant that the tiger reached its prey if it was smart...)

Anyway the Tilean was surrounded by heroes and, with my usual luck, the Ghost merely stunned it's target.  Then all of the Crew who passed a fear test piled on the Ghost and eventually killed it for the loss of the odd wound and lost Lucky Charm.

Meanwhile des Hombres moved slowly through the night black jungle with Ali bin Ali being stalked by the Darkness.  It looked like the rival warbands would never see each other because of the inky density of the dark night, but since the other players were stuck in a three-player game, we slogged on.

Eventually, the Darkness roared out the night and struck down one of my best crew (S4 and armed with a sword--I had 5 of them to start the battle).  Most of the Merchant's guards passed their fear tests and charged--killing the 3 wound Darkness in one round.

With the demise of the cats, the warbands maneuvered through the night in search of each other (actually the pesky Crew had been at this since turn 3...)  I had strung traps ahead of the Crew (using the Big Game Hunter's special skill, finally, but as it was my first battle trying traps I didn't use them very well and ended up blocking my own advance.)  One S 6 trap captured a sacrificial Crew henchman so it wasn't a total loss.  Then the Crew was around my right...

The Estalians weathered 2 blunderbuss shots with only Lucky Charms lost, then I tried to charge with the Leviathan Hunter, who promptly tripped and was charged by opportunistic Crew heroes.  A general melee resulted






My left flank finally worked its way around to threaten the enemy Tilean who had escaped the tiger.  He killed Guido (my Tilean), then fled into the jungle.


My blunderbusses did not fire.  Here Gustav looks past a trap toward the destruction of the Crew's attack on the Right.


Ali bin Ali (and his surviving bodyguard) take no chances. (The one is a roll to wound with S5...)


The Estalians break the Crew's charge.


Mab fled when two of her three heroes survived the Estalian counter charge.  Only the sacrificial lamb who was caught in the trap is captured.  No one died.  Evil Sasha fully recovers...

I believe the Crew trade with the Cheating Merchant.  I'm not sure what wonderful treasure they found in an opened crate even though I witnessed the roll, (but I know they found something good, because Chris.)

Des Hombres Rojas win (mainly because Chris had tried another slide around the flank and therefore didn't have anyone left to support his pesky unkillable heroes).  The Estalians had 6 men down.  All henchmen recovered, but Guido the Tilean and Mad Edric the Leviathan Hunter both died.

The Estalians traded with the Cheating Merchant (because I had no time to re-write the Supply Chart this week).  Ali bin Ali found cheap dueling pistols (for the fourth time, but they were fake which cast a pall over the victory quite equal to the death of Guido.)  Some castaways were rescued, one of whom turned out to be a veteran gunner who wished to join the brave Estalians who rescued him.  A replacement for Mad Edric was hired.  And, because everyone else was doing it, the Estalians opened one of the crates and found a BLUNDERBUSS! (WOO and HOO!)

Still to come The Treasure Hunt in the Fog...with volcanoes.

I am sure there is some splendid reason for wandering through a jungle looking for something in total darkness that escapes me, but the game did look WONDERFUL...I must have Night Vision.

Yeah. I never intended the scenario to be played at night, but we allow the lowest rated warband to pick the time of day for a fight.

Chris is terrified of my Big Game Hunter/Tilean combination so he is picking night no matter what. Well he was. Now that Guido is dead he might relent. I will have to lose a lot of folks to be the low warband in this campaign, ever.

You need The Son of Guido.

With my ability to roll deaths I really shouldn't tempt fate by saying I need to lose a lot of people.  Guido and Edric took 58 worth or rating with them...  Edric II brings 22 of that back.
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A Treasure Hunt in the Fog
With volcanic eruption for flavor...

Kevin's friend Matt tagged along to see what the fuss was about.  Not sure Matt will be back, but he had an interesting evening.  Matt's borrowed Reiklanders and Kevin's Mary Anns raced the Bay Watch to random treasures.  As it was foggy, it was a slow race.

Then a nearby volcano* erupted...  The rain of soot, ash and rock laid a few warriors low; started fires and generally screwed things up a bit more.
It looks like the Reiklanders started in the north.  So far there is only one fire marker.


The Bay Watch started in the south, which meant they were closest to the volcano when it blew.


The Mary Anns were farthest from the blast...off to the east.


A blunderbuss catches light.


The Mary Ann's gain the summit (but its really foggy so they can't actually see anything).


The fires may have gone out


The Reiklanders climb a jungle hill to the west


The 8 indicates that they can see 16 inches (artillery dice x2)


The death of the Bay Watch's Warlock


A gunner kills a Marienburger




As a lone Bay Watch crew-woman stands off the entire Reiklander warband.


Depending on what the Mary Anns are trying to do, their luck is either really good (or not).


The Reiklanders pour into the valley vacated by the fleeing pyrates.

Jim L wrote:

Gunner Finn who was armed with sword, pistol and blunderbuss was captured by Mary Anns.
Swabbie ran away
Warlock died
I found 3 treasures.
Fog of war was brutal in it’s low visibility. (Matt didn't often roll those 8s, nor did he roll Misfires until the end. Misfires multiply the artillery result by x2 for the first and x3 for the second.)
 I ended up getting stuck in the valley between 2 shooty warbands.
I routed 1st with 5 OOA.
Random volcano 🌋 event.
Crate was booze, also a barrel of Bugmans
  Kevin won with Secret X

The Reiklanders could not match the Mary Ann's shooting.  They fled soon after the Bay Watch.  The Reiklanders grabbed at least 2 treasures.  They also found a dwarf pistol in a crate.  One warrior was captured by Mary Ann's.  

Reiklanders gain +4 Underdog and spend the rest of the night rolling advances for everybody.

The Mary Anns grabbed a couple of treasures (the green crystals in the photos).  One warrior was killed by the Bay Watch, but the Mary Anns capture both of the enemies that they could including Finn with his blunderbuss.

The Mary Anns open one crate to find a Hochland Long Rifle...

*No one really needs to know this, but the Jungle Random Events chart I wrote for this campaign doesn't include a volcano erupting event...

Great stuff!

Von Kurst wrote:

No one really needs to know this, but the Jungle Random Events chart I wrote for this campaign doesn't include a volcano erupting event...

Sneaky!

Volcanoes erupting, fire, & fog it sounds like that vaudeville schtick of keeping umpteen dishes spinning on long dowels complete with The Saber Dance playing through my head. TERRIFIC REPORT/PHOTOS!

Mad as ever -- & a trial by (quite literal) fire for the tag-along with the borrowed warband!

To be a Pyrate King--Torktuga, the Pyrate Town

So Matt did not return this week...  Kevin, Chris, Jim L and I met at the usual time.

Fancy Meetin' YOU 'ere!
A drunken Chance Encounter with cargo crates...

The Mary Anns blundered into Mab's Crew.  But before much could happen Chris rolled the event The Merchant Returns again, and the game stopped.  Both warbands made lots of money and had lots to spend (and Kevin got +2 Underdog bonus.)

Pressgang! (With a volcano...)
The Mary Anns race Mab's crew for 3 drunks out after last call (3 drunks is the lowest number of possible drunks you can roll).  Then a volcano erupts...  Several warband members catch fire...  As far as I can tell, all the fires go out without hurting anyone.

After collecting his fire markers, the photographer snaps some pics...

Mab's crew is flattened by the panicky crowd after a drunk becomes belligerent.


Mab's crew 'press on' and gain another drunk.


Then they start forting up to face the Mary Anns...


In the meantime the Mary Anns find their own 'angry drunk'.


And start building their own fort...




The Mary Anns get tired of re-playing WWI and go over the top.  This doesn't end well.  The Mary Anns flee.

The Mary Anns lose one warrior captured and one killed.  They gain an additional +2 Underdog bonus and captured one drunk.

Mab's lose one killed.  They capture 2 drunks and one Mary Ann.

(There is an erupting volcano in my Towns Random Happenings chart for this campaign...ya see  )

Next up--Rock the Boat

The Volcano does add a touch of excitement & a dab of insanity to the game. GREAT STUFF!

Thanks Al.  I am always interested in how random rolls seem to clump around certain results.  So far we have mostly rolled the same six or seven events (so 6 or 7 events twice or 3 times) over 14 games for each of us.  
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Rock the Boat
A nautical variant of Defend the Find.

The poor downtrodden Bay Watch was surrounded by Des Hombres Rojas.  3 harquebusiers and the Big Game Hunter overlooked the ship.


Black Gomez y Gomez and Johan the Marienburger formed the north boarding party.


Rodrigo, Sadie and Enrico the gunner accompany Princess Almah from the west.


The maddened (but invisible) crowd stampede over Edric II, Al Bobo and Juan the Gimp...


Emilio and Francisco blow the bosun overboard and down poor T2 Anne Bonny.


Princess Almah views the results of the crowd rioting.  The enemy Tilean in the distance was ineffective.


This looks worse than it is... Johan and Gomez won't stand up on the steep ramp.  No long gun did more than knock down an enemy...


Johan the Marienburger leaps on the stunned Bay Watch gunner.


The Bay Watch fled with 3 cargo (at least 3 heroes on the objective at the end of the game).  Tall Mary was captured by the Estalians.  The Sartosans are still rich, so Mary was replaced AND a Thief and Beggar hired... plus various weapons and other equipment purchased...

The Estalians captured Tall Mary, but could not find a Halfling Cookbook so she was sold to the galleys.  No sons of Estalia were seriously wounded (despite the hail of crossbow bolts and pistol balls fired at them).  Guido II was hired.

Next week we venture into the jungles of Lustria again...

YET ANOTHER COOL GAME! There are quite a few bones littering the docks...a recent BBQ no doubt. GREAT STUFF!

DeafNala wrote:

The Volcano does add a touch of excitement & a dab of insanity to the game. GREAT STUFF!  

Because these wasn't enough insanity in your games before...

Great stuff as ever! Swash swash, buckle buckle!