Legend of the High Seas: campaign starts

The 'every other Wednesday' group started Legends of the High Seas last week, and i've been so busy lately I haven't had time to post anything since then, so I'll correct that now.  Up front I have to apologize that my crew aren't painted- like I said, I've been crazy busy lately, and that's a project that isn't near the top of the list- but I'll be trying to find time somewhere to get to them.

Legends of the High Seas is very similar to Legends of the Old West, which we ran last time (you can find many reports of 'El Rojo's Bandidos' under the old west tag).  There are fewer crew options: Pirates, Royal Marines & Privateers, and the game seems to have less stress placed on characters.  I decided to run Privateers, for no better reason than I always liked the idea of privateers: pirates in everything but name, balancing the distinction with nothing more than a piece of paper to say they can.  Elizabeth was pretty bold and shrewd.  To give them a bit of a different flavor I'm saying mine are Dutch privateers.

One aspect of the game I like is that each Captain can pick a trait, which modifies the rules for your crew.  Privateers have the worst leadership in the game, so I was tempted to take the trait that ups their leadership, but in the end I went for the cash: 2 gold off the cost of everyone on the crew.  That adds up quick, and allowed me to take some decent gear.

My Crew are:

Captain Roeland Vos with sword & pistol
First Mate Cobus de Haan with sword & pistol
Cabin Monkey Chim-chim with hand weapon

4 Mercenaries with swords
5 Mariners with hand weapons
2 Mariners with blunderbuss

My first game was against the Royal Marines, all named from characters from 'Master & Commander'.  The scenario saw us both coming through a town looking for the treasure being guarded by the civilians: 4 buildings had a chest, guarded by a civi.

The Royal Marines were few in number, but well armed as nearly all of them had muskets with bayonets.  But the layout of the town meant there wouldn't be a lot of opportunity to take advantage of the range, if I could keep buildings between us as I advanced.

The coastal town.  I set up along the right side edge, and the Marines along the left edge.

In an attempt to scare the marines my privateers coated themselves in white wash. Clever fellows!
I split into two groups, one led by the captain, one by the first mate, dividing up the crew types as evenly as I could. I made it to the first two buildings and dispatched the chest-guards, leaving some crew behind to guard the booty as the rest advanced on the Brits' position.

On my right flank, all of the British officers had climed to the roof of a building to try to get a vantage with their guns, my more numerous men took the first floor of the building and guarded the stairs, effectively 'treeing' the limeys.

On my left flank, my mariners get ready to ambush the British corporal, there was a fight and soon he and a soldier who came to his aid were brought down without any casualties on my side.  captain Vos managed to shoot 2 soldiers dead: no leading from behind for this captain! Even Chim-chim the Sumatran monkey-boy managed to bring down a soldier.

In the end, I had the chests, and the only British to survive were the tree'd officers, who negotiated for their release: they laid down their arms and were allowed to depart.  This must have greatly displeased the admiralty, because the commander was reassigned to some remote fort in Canada. His luck managed to prevent two of his men's wounds from being fatal, but the loss of all the command meant this crew was retired after one game and will reset anew the next meeting.  ... in game terms: at first i was impressed with the marines' perk that they don't need to spend any of their won booty on upkeep for their crew, like Privateers and Pirates do (their wages are paid by the crown) but if they roll a '12' on 2d6, then the commander is reassigned... and wouldn't you know it? He rolled a 12. Yikes.

For my crew, I won a good amount of doubloons, and since I made sure the chests were guarded by one of each of my crew types, everyone on my crew got a skill roll!  The Captain got an increase in Courage (which I was happy with, since privateers start so low at it) and then both officers and every single crew group all got the same result: +1 attack! wow! So much for guns, this is going to be a run at 'em crew!

I'll hope to get some paint on this crew as the league progresses.

I've just about finished my Blood Bowl team, and the next league game is tomorrow, so look for an update on them soon!