April 24th, 2005 |
I was bored and kind of out of it Sunday afternoon, and felt like playing a heavier game solitaire (since Karla only likes to play Lost Cities with me). I pulled out Blackbeard for the first time in about a year and played it.
| Blackbeard |
| Results | ||||
| Player | Pirate(s) | Notoriety | Net Worth | Result |
| Mike | Blood | 95 | 2938 | Retired |
| Player 2 | Howard Davis | 49 | 143 | Sunk by KC Herdman |
| Player 3 | Edward Teach | 25 | 450 | Sunk by Warship |
| Player 3 | Jonathan Quelch | 21 | 516 | Marooned |
| Player 2 | Francis L'Olonais | 16 | 130 | Sunk by French Merchant |
| Player 2 | William Kidd | 7 | 500 | Sunk by British Merchant |
| Player 3 | Louis Misson | 5 | 0 | Marooned |
Notes: In Blackbeard, to play solitaire, the solitaire player gets one pirate, Peter Blood, a fictional pirate based on some book. He has a high Ability (used in battle), Cunning (used for re-rolling the dice), Endurance (hit points), and Dueling ability. However, he has a low cruelty, which means that he has a harder time becoming notorious. (The higher the cruelty, the more notorious you become.)
The other two players are run by the solitaire player with specific goals in mind. There was only one point where I lobbied over what they should do. Normally, it was pretty cut and dried. In the normal game, each player can have up to two pirates active. In the solitaire, it's okay just to use one at a time. Still, the "fake" players get two pirates in reserve whereas I only had one.
The first pirates to accompany Cap'n Blood out to see were Edward Teach (Blackbeard himself!) and William Kidd. Blackbeard was off to a tremendous start, terrorizing the North Atlantic, just north of Hispaniola. He made a tremendous name for himself, and while Capt. Blood was forced to port early after the capture of a small ship and a hostage with a bout of scurvy and spent much of his several turns there in a Schooner. Teach and his Sloop were racking up cash and kills. He also tortured a poor hostage to death to the sheer delight of his crew.
Kidd was in worse shape than Blood, meeting but failing to destroy the ships he met, leaving them for the rascally Blackbeard to round up. Finally, Blood re-grouped, and went after a ship just off the Spanish Main, having heard rumors of a tremendous bounty there. Sure enough, a Three Masted Rigger was there flying the Spanish flag, transporting cargo and people to the Old World. They saw the jolly roger of Captain Blood, though, and not only submitted cargo, but submitted the ship (note: I rolled snake eyes!). Blood began drooling when he saw the awesome firepower of his new ship, and after torturing a new hostage, he discovered valuable information on the Dutch port of Curacao. "To Suriname, Mateys!"
Just after Blood assaulted Curacao, sacking the city and gathering up a good portion of loot, taking 2 spots worth of damage on his brand new Rigger, Teach was assailed by a warship ordered to blow the most notorious pirate out of the water (Teach had 25, Blood had only 19). Captured in a rundown, Blackbeard was caught trading shots for a bit too long, and was sunk.
Blood was then the most notorious pirate, as Kidd's pitiful raids on weaker merchant ships kept his coffers and his notoriety low. Blood soon followed up his sack of Curacao with uninhibited destruction of her. He razed her to the ground, boosting his notoriety to 31, but his ship was now in pretty grim shape, having taken two hits of damage in successive rounds of battle. Not only that, but Blood lost an eye after some really bad luck (re-roll = 1!) in the razing of Curacao, and he was almost useless in battle. The Rigger, dubbed Sea Falcon needed to head to the nearest friendly port without a King's Champion (Mathews was in Jamaica shaking off a bout of Scurvy), so he aimed for a French port east of Hispaniola, as he was now an avowed enemy to Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
Before the wounded Blood could make it, though, he ran into a storm. Not only was his ship damaged, but her rigging was all mucked up. Then, to make matters even worse, a warship appeared and caught Captain Blood at his most vulnerable. With an incredible amount of luck, he managed to escape, just barely squeaking past. With good weather in sight, Blood managed to make it to Guadaloupe, where he recovered some from his injuries, but bearing a grudge against all-non-pirate folk. He vowed to make his quarry pay next time! (Cruelty increased to 2). He spent close on a year healing and selling his booty from Curacao and ransoming his hostages.
It was then that Kidd, angry and frustrated, made a foolish attempt on a mighty British Merchantman, and was sunk. He had not even drawn the attention of the king (Notoriety 7), and his death was met with a shrug in the taverns of the Caribbean.
Misson arrived with barely a word, and though he harassed a few ships in the Indian Ocean (often with more wounds to his men than his prey), his men grew frustrated. The first time they mutinied he managed to talk his way out of it, but another string of costly defeats left him marooned on a pile of rocks just off the coast of Madagascar. In his stead rose the instigator of the mutiny, the ambitious Second Mate Quelch.
Meanwhile Captain Blood was soon blockaded by a Portuguese warship. His hull had yet to be repaired, though he and his crew were all healthy. He escaped the blockade and soon careened on the shore of Hispaniola, hoping to get back up to speed before the Warship could catch up with him. After close to a month, the Sea Falcon was ready, and he made new plans. He had almost 1000 net worth, so he needed a haven. New York, it was rumored, had a Pro-Pirate governor, and he made for it, intending to catch some merchant ships on his way north.
Soon, the French pirate L'Olonais appeared and caused some perturbation for a while. His cruelty was infamous, and the first few ships he met felt the power of his wrath. He aimed for the Spanish in particular, but his reign was short, as he ambitiously took on a French merchant ship that was too big for his meager guns and perished in the ensuing battle, his ship sunk. Raised eyebrows met the tales of his death (Notoriety 16).
Now the King's Champions were hot on Blood's tail. They were after the huge bounty on his head placed by the trading companies. Still, Blood sacked some more ships on his way to New York, and after avoiding the capture of a British ship, he turned west and landed at New York, where he spent close to a year selling his booty and bribing the governor. He was granted some modest land to the west and established his money with some swell chaps from Wells Fargo, totaling 1588 in net worth.
As Blood selled his booty in New York, the new Captain Quelch assailed the Indian Ocean with more luck than his predecessor and a new fellow, Captain Davis, appeared in the Caribbean. Davis was almost destroyed by a Spanish merchant on his first attack, but managed to recover and take vengeance upon them. Another defeat nearly caused a mutiny, but he seduced his men with promises of the Spanish Main and was granted a second chance. He then set sail for the Caribbean.
Blood now went south and captured another merchant ship, and on his way decided to sack the pirate-hating port of St. Augustine. On his way he met William Rhett, a King's Champion, and using all the skill he could muster, he sent him to Davy Jones' locker. His notoriety grew by leaps and bounds to close to 70, and the trading firms grew more and more daring and provocative in their anger towards him.
He reached St. Augustine and sacked it, reaping 900 net worth from the sack and increasing his notoriety even higher. He went on to catch a few more merchant ships - strictly for the notoriety - then headed back to New York. Once there, he sold his goods and retired, the most notorious pirate (95) in the world.
Still, he had agents out at see, the slow but competent Woodes Rogers and Mungo Herdman. Captain Quelch was their first target, but he soon took himself out. Though Quelch had established a haven in Ethiopia, he lost a gunfight to a merchant ship off the cost of Arabia and his crew, intolerant of such weakness (he lost by 5) left him for dead on a bank of sand.
So now Woodes and Mungo went after Davis, but he was a shifty little devil. Rogers almost captured the wiley fellow twice, but the lad escaped capture and when Rogers' crew caught scurvy, Davis was safe for a while. He soon captured a Spanish Brigantine and made after rumors of some great bounty off the coast of India. Four times he was intercepted by a warship, and four times he escaped, taking damage each time. Finally, the newly repaired Davis was caught by Herdman as he made his way to the Caribbean, but the pirate escaped again. He was fairly notorious for his escapes (49) but not for his plundering (only 143 Net worth!). Rogers was finally recovered, and he and Herdman caught him in a pincer, as he was sacking yet another small merchant. Davis' new Brigantine didn't have the same evasive speed as his Sloop, and he was soon captured and forced to fight against Herdman. After nearly an hour of battle, the King's Champion sunk the last pirate threatening peace in the Caribbean.
As Blood, I played for close to two hours. I could have gone for the 100 notoriety win, but I was scared of some terrible thing happening to me (the Native Unrest event which almost hit me had a very noticeable impact...). It took an extra hour to kill off Davis, which was a pain in the ass.
Part of the problem was that I had to look up a ton of rules. I only kind of cheated once, when Blood escaped the warship after razing Curacao. I rolled the dice, intending the roll to be for Blood, but when it came up "5", I said, "Oh, it's a 5 for the warship." Still, I needed a miracle on the next roll to stay alive, and got it, I rolled an "11". Had I not rolled that, Blood would have died. The warship was only a strength 10, but Blood was injured, lowering his ability to a 2, and his ship was damaged from its normal 10 to 6. PLUS, the storm gave him a further -2. Thus, the warship's base 10 was pitted against Blood's base 6. So, I sort of cheated. Solitaire games beg for cheating.
I also could have sent some KCs after Blood while he was in his wounded condition, but Misson and L'Olonais were both chasing a lot of ships in the Indian, and it didn't look good for Blood anyway. It was a lot of fun.