The Pirate campaign is still running at the club. We have resolved to take turns in writing and creating new adventures. My friend Matthijs is now playing miniatures wargames for somewhat more than a year and he started off with the pirate games. After scratch building his own ship and painting his first crew he now felt ready to go a step further. He came up with a scenario involving a raid on an island filled with cannibals.
A few games back some of the pirate crews appeared to be helping the English navy. This did not sit wel with the pirates who held true to their nature. My Captain Grimm went as far as to defeat the treacherous Captain Big Betty and cast her in the sea along with both her big… ermm… assets. Bloedberend (Matthijs’ Captain) got somewhat scared by the idea that he perhaps had a similar fate waiting for him when he were te set foot on Tortuga again and in order to clear his name he was willing to give us full details on the whereabouts of an island rumored to hold some considerate treasure.
Off course we fell for the lure of riches and made haste to the island en masse.
Our ships were to stay away from the island, we had to launch boats to the beaches. We all got a random position to start and placed our boats on the designated spot on the beach. We had to select 7 crew members who could participate in this game, the rest was left behind on the ship (wearily eyeballing the other ships and their guns).
In order to get to the treasure we had to make our way across the beach, wade through a river and enter the village filled with cannibals. And lo and behold! They were led by a very familiar character. Big Betty apparently survived her swimming ordeal after Captain Grimm had run her through. Those assets of her must be keeping her alive. Perhaps Grimm’s swords hadn’t penetrated far enough and after protecting her vital parts her voluptuous bosom had kept her floating when she was cast in the sea. Her sudden appearance had one strange effect on the rest of the crews; they all started to work together to get towards the village. Well, at least we weren’t shooing each other to bits before we even crossed the beach. All crews started to make their way towards the first obstacle, the river.
At the other side of the river the natives were waiting. And almost all of them had throwing weapons. These weapons were somewhat underestimated by the rest of us. Throwing weapons are very effective in this game system (Legends of the High Seas) and after this game I think most of the crews will be equipped with them.
Not only were the natives making our lives difficult, but to make it more interesting every crew member entering the water had to roll on a specially made table. You could get results like ‘wade through at normal speed’ and ‘get stuck in the muck, no movement this turn’. And for those who had the misfortune of rolling a 1 there were some crocodiles waiting.
My crew got across the river in relative safety. Other crews fared not so well. Sweet Jane’s crew was somewhat reduced in numbers by the spears and such coming their way. On my side of the table my crew and the Chinese crew of Captain Hoe Lang started to move towards the huts. Each of these could be entered and as soon as a crew member had kicked in a door a dice roll would be made on a result table. We gathered some money this way, but the real price was waiting for us at the other side of the village. Captain Grimm could only be interested in Big Betty and started to pursue her in the village (she was running, which I saw as a good sign). Unfortunately he kicked in a door along the way, just for good measure. A roll of 1 resulted in him being defeated by a native who was hiding behind the door. Pretty embarrassing. Big Betty disappeared in the jungle.
As ever, we ran out of time to properly finish the game, but we had so much fun again.
Much credit to Matthijs for the scenario and building of the island. After only a year or so of gaming to come up with all this is amazing. The island and river were perfectly build and the game was very nice to play.
Next time we will enter the jungle and find out what makes these big scratch marks on the stone altar hidden behind the village…
