August 13, 2004 |
Scott threw a party and I brought a bunch of games. As expected, we only played one. As expected, that game was Pirate's Cove. Scott was too busy being a host to play, and Rakesh and Amanda were kind enough to play together.
| Pirate's Cove |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| The Plague of the East and Captain Amanda Magic Dice | 39 | 1 | * |
| Mange-Ridden Mike | 38 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Captain Morgan and OJ | 38 | 2 (Tie) | |
| Kaptain Karla | 23 | 4 | |
| Lady Annie of the Matchstick Cannonballs | 20 | 5 | |
Notes: There was quite a bit of oddity in this game. It started with Captain Morgan & OJ (Dan) zipping around, going wherever he wanted. Lady Annie was blown out of the water twice early (something that never happens). Mike was pretty successful, and Karla started slow as well. Though Captain Morgan didn't have any battles, he didn't amass too many fame points.
In the next stage of the game, Rakesh and Amanda, having won a couple early battles thanks to kind dice (they never ended up at Pirate's Cove the entire game!) avoided everyone else, and made a trip to treasure island in order to get a single upgrade and to avoid everyone. Mike lost a particularly poor fight to Annie (I rolled 6 straight times without registering a single hit), and then, in a three-way fight among Mike, Annie, and Karla, Mike and Annie targeted each other, with Mike sending Annie to Pirate's Cove and Karla sending Mike there soon after. Lady Annie swore infinite revenge on Mike after that but never had a chance to execute it, as they never ended up on the same island after that. Lady Annie was particularly frustrated by that point.
Captain Morgan was still missing everyone, but bad luck caught up with him. He had acquired the "Infinite Treasure" parrot, and had once again hoarded too much treasure. He then lost his parrot and some treasure (only about 2 or 3). Dan still remembers his 23-treasure triumph many months ago and hangs on to his parrot too long. Or, what he'll also do, is run away if he goes to an island with an opponent. This results in a possible mutiny and not getting any treasure chests anyway. I believe that if Dan would use the parrot in moderation he'd fare better.
Mike had Billy Bones' parrot, which lets him use cannons in every fight regardless of crew strength. I didn't get to use it, though, until about the 11th round, because the cannon island was always inundated with folks, and if I wanted to go there I almost always had to fight.
There was also one point where the meta-game got in the way of the game. Annie and Dan both picked an island, and Annie was very upset that she was doing so poorly. Dan, in his infinite mercy, left the island to Annie, though he probably could have won. It cost him at least 5 VPs. At another point, Dan played the "treasure stealing" card, which I disallowed. Dan was pretty good about it, though, because he knew I hated that card and had forgotten to announce it. Let the record show that that card is hereby disallowed when we are playing my copy of Pirate's Cove.
In the end, Rakesh and Amanda managed to avoid the other pirates and win every battle, and four of us (without Annie or Karla, I forget whom) managed to blow Captain Hook down to the bottom of the sea. Rakesh and Amanda were short on cards (it was their first time and they didn't realize their value, nor did they lose any battles and end up at Pirate's Cove), so I thought I might catch them if I stayed close. Alas, I (and Captain Morgan) fell 1 fame point shy of being the most notorious pirate of the year.