Drink up me hearties... Yo Ho!

Just when you think you have a plan and its all sorted, a chance re-union and we're off in another direction again...
I mentioned in my earlier post about getting some Cherry blossom trees from good mate Roly. Whilst there, my son, Chris, and Roly's daughter, Monique, got chatting, and Pirates of the Caribbean came up...

So guess what ... once home, Chris was wanting to play a pirate game...

So we got out the pirate board, and came up with a scenario, using Legends of the High Seas rules...

Chris wanted to play a game where a pirate crew, would land at port, have to sneak into town to the  tavern, and recruit more crew and get out again. He would play the pirates.

I got to play the Royal Navy defenders. There would also be 2 loose 'Thugs' who would attack anyone in range, and 4 prospective new crew near the Tavern who would be 'recruited' once they were in base contact with a Pirate. The pirates and crew would then have to get back to their ship...

The town awaits, as the pirate sloop moors alongside the jetty...

[please excuse the white board ends -  damage to board during storage was half way being fixed]

Unsuspecting Caribbean town... Port Royal?

Chris the Pirate!

Gotta have the right musical accompaniment!

Pirates hit the jetty

 4 pirates come ashore...

The 'thugs' are noted by green tokens. The 'recruitables' are marked by yellow tokens... We played by the sentry rules so navy could not activate until 'triggered'.

Marine musket gives fire...

Pirate 1st mate shoots at thug...

Hand to hand action starts to hot up...

It's not looking good for the pirate captain...

Melee up the side alley...

2 more pirates come onto jetty, from the sloop, looks like the lads need a hand...

Recruitment starts, in town square...

More action on the dock...

One second, recruited.. the next second, shot!...

3 vs 2 against the pirates, its not looking good...

The game ended with all the pirates killed! But the Navy midshipman and a marine also fell...

It was a fun little game, and yet I couldn't help think the game would have played better using a different skirmish set of rules... and I got thinking about Empire of the Dead.

Don't get me wrong, I like the core LOTR SBG game mechanic, used in LotHS, which works well for large skirmish battles... but having played Empire of the Dead, I think that rule set is better suited to these smaller 'gang fights'...

Empire of the Dead, although for a gothic horror, steampunk setting, can still handle the pirate setting as it has rules for medieval weapons and muskets etc, and a few custom tweaks can be added as necessary - perhaps adding the Fame and Fortune points for the heroes, and heroic actions, as I like those elements of the SBG game..

EotD also has more interesting rules for hiding and sneaking about, wounding effects in combat (not just alive or dead), and I think the single model activation in turn works better, plus there's an over-watch type shot mechanism... All of these factors I think would make for a better pirate game experience.

So we'll give that a whirl and report back...

Of course this little bit of C18th fun, had me reaching for my scratchbuilt Brig, in an effort to finish it off properly... here's where I last had it... shown from an earlier game, quite some time ago... usable but not finished yet...

Since this pic was taken I had added more cannon firing ports to the hull sides, and also a mermaid-like figurehead below the bowsprit, see below pics.

Also, I was never fully happy with the sails and fighting tops - it seemed wrong the sail was in the way of the crew man accessing the fighting top from the rigging ladder (to be added)..., attached to mast, behind him.

So I trimmed back the sails, adding a slight curve to their undersides and added the railings round the crows nest and fighting tops...

I think it looks much better now, and models wont accidentally fall from on high either if the table or boat takes a knock!

Next I need to add the rigging - that's going to be a fiddly job no doubt! Any tips from folk who have already done it to their models ships - I'm all ears!

I had also made another addition to my terrain collection - I ordered a set of cargo/stores made by Infinity, from Slave to Painting.... I can see these being widely used through many settings - LOTR, EotD and of course Pirates!

Foundry pirate for scale...

Just need to get them trimmed and painted up....

A Gentleman's Game?

Whats in a game?

Do differing types of games make us play differently, and behave differently whilst playing them?

Does how you win the game, thus affect how you strive to play it?

Does it matter if you have fun actually playing it, or are we just there as an exercise in trying to win, not necessarily at all costs, but the win is foremost in our minds, and without that win, the game is less 'fun'?

Do we sit there staring at our man dollies, trying to figure out the exact stratagem that will hopefully work, at the same time trying to run over in our minds the probability of what the Dice Gods are going to do us as our little chance-cubes clatter across the table... their results lifting us in joy or sending us crashing to the depths of despair...

Does it matter if our opponent enjoys the game, whether they win or lose? Does how the game makes us play and thus act, affect this?

Come on Smithers - your move ol' chap...

Having a physical opponent introduces a social aspect to the game, giving us someone to interact with as we play the game. This then to me should be an important part of the game, as if it isn't important, then I may as well just play computer game against a faceless opponent, whether 'real' or AI...

There's a whole gamut of games available to play out there, some perhaps by their nature being more competitive than others.

Anyone who has followed this blog will probably know I've been playing a lot of Flames of War over the last couple of years, with probably an average of roughly a game per week. Sadly my win/loss record is not the best, despite my best efforts to learn the game, its tactics and try and mitigate my luck. (It really bugs me when people say you can make your own 'luck', by learning the odds and playing accordingly, hmm, I'm not so sure... if you roll one dice needing a 6 and get it, that's lucky in my book! If you roll two dice, needing either of them to be a 3 or more and roll snake eyes, then that's unlucky).

Flames of War, is clearly a tournament game. You typically win the game, by either capturing an objective (or conversely defending one), or breaking (destroying) your opponents force... However, how well you manage to do this, scores you points for the game, that then can be thrown into the tournament pot to see who's the better player overall over several games...

... and I think its this tournament mechanism that can lead to 'frustration'... not only can you beat your opponent, which is fair enough, but you can morally grind him into the dust by getting the best score too...

... or perhaps it encourages ridiculous do-or-die defenses, when the game is clearly already won by one side, the other guy stubbornly refuses to give up, in some Hitler/Stalin inspired 'not one step back' approach... perhaps the hopes of stealing a point off the opponent for the tournament score level, encouraging this playing style...

Not one step back!

I think its this aspect of the game that's perhaps getting to me, as I like the game for the most part otherwise - I like the look, scale, miniatures, and game play for the most part - a couple of things niggle me but I can live with them...

For me I think, there is clearly a point a which the game is won, most people can see this a mile off... a gentleman at this point would concede defeat and resign, he wouldn't keep playing on manically. Having offered up his resignation, I wouldn't expect his opponent to force him to play on, just so he can score more tournament points... so maybe the game and I are at odds? Its not my opponents fault, its the way the game is making him play?

When this scenario is played out repeatedly, game by game, week after week... is it any wonder the player who loses the most becomes more and more frustrated despite his best efforts?

When you play the same opponent with the same army repeatedly and keep losing, how long before the nervous tick develops?

Cartoon fun .. inspired by Larry Leadhead - thanks Larry for the laughs!

The reality is some players have a better gamer's mind than others, perhaps simply being more intuitive, quicker learners, better able to assimilate the requirements to pull off the wins repeatedly; the optimum force composition, tactics and probability to succeed in getting these wins.

This is clearly shown by the same names appearing at the top of the tournament rankings, with us other lesser mortals down the other end of the tables as also-rans, patsies and whipping boys...

So I do not deny there is a skill level here, probably not something I will ever have in abundance....

So perhaps to stay sane in a leisure time activity that is meant to be fun and enjoyable, and distract us momentarily from the stresses of real life and work, I may have to find a game that better suits my approach to gaming? Or perhaps concede I am simply not a good player generally, resign my gaming commission, hang up my dice, rulers and templates and simply paint for fun, and perchance become what GW and Mr Johnson et al, wants me to be ... a 'Collector'... Perish the thought!

Or perhaps the game can still be fun and enjoyable if approached in a differing manner, must we strive to beat and crush our opponent...?

I am not just poking the finger at FoW here... I assume other tournament orientated games have similar issues; WFB/40K? I suppose any game which score you points for how well you did or didn't do, will be affected by the problem...?

I cannot help recall the introduction of the Black Powder rules, with its 'Gentlemanly' approach to the game... with units not even having a points value... the whole thing being scenario driven... and played out for the fun of the experience of the game, with the winner or loser, almost not seeming to matter... it certainly seemed a more pleasant environment to game in...

I say, can you see where I dropped my die? Darned things over here somewhere...

Please excuse this cathartic ramble... there are times when one needs to clear ones head...

I think a gaming break over the Xmas period and an indulgence of painting simply for the enjoyment of it, thanks to Curt's Painting Challenge, is the way for me to chill out and to return to sanity...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year... Hope you get all the man dollies, paints and brushes you need to keep you smiling!