Pirate Ship Skirmish

I launched the pirate ship onto the ocean waves this evening in a game against Jon's rather splendid scratchbuilt galleon. We played the Sail on the Horizon scenario from the Legends of the High Seas book, learning the rules as we went along with one or two inevitable mistakes along the way.

There were a few highpoints including a ramming attempt by Jon which damaged his own ship and a broadside fired by my guncrew in which the cannon shot rolled out of the barrel and fell into the sea. The end result of these nautical shenanigans was a narrow win by Jon, after a well aimed raking shot at point blank range reduced my hull points to the required 33% for victory.

The rules for ship to ship games are a little bizarre and had some outcomes that required a bit of collective head scratching to work out. However, that was partly due to the fact that we hadn't played them before, although I get the impression that the rules as a whole could be better laid out and self explanatory.

Anyway, we followed up the first game with a Steal that Ship! scenario which ended up in the usual close quarters hack and slash. I came off much the worse and ended up with half my crew wiped out, whilst the remainder ran for the hills. It was a quick game but very bloody, so I think we'll try one of the cloak and dagger type games next time in an attempt to limit the carnage.