It's September, again and that means, Pirates!

It has become an annual thing that every September NWA turns it's collective mind to all things Piratey.

This year kicked off on Friday evening with an all in pirate brawl. Sailing our ships around three tables, shooting at each and every other player & searching the various islands for hidden plunder. And so, El h'Emmingo, brave and handsome captain of the Hairy Kraken, took to the high seas to do his best pirating.

We used the old tried and tested Legend's of the Hugh Sea's rules (from GW Historical). They have been tweaked a bit over the years to make games a bit easier to organise. In this respect everyone starts with the same crew: 1 Captain, 2 officers, 3 Cutthroats and 6 Pirates/Rogues and a small ship with 4 canon. The Cutthroats each have a musket and all the rest of the crew, a sword and pistol.

 The view from the port  with the big island visible at the far end.

The Hairy Kraken and her determined crew of cutthroats & scurvy sea dogs.

We were told to place our ship anywhere on the table. I chose the far end off the coast of the large island. The only other ship close by was Stephen's ship which was docked at the jetty.

My Plan was simple: Sail up in front of Steve's ship while he's stuck, blast his ship with canister, kill the crew and steal his ship. What could be easier?

Phase 1 of the cunning plan: "Rake 'em with canister men!"

Well, I caught Steve completely by surprise whilst his crew searched the cargo on the jetty. Unfortunately, 12 months of not pirating and I got the rules wrong and under played my canister shots, which lead to the killing of only two of Steve's crew. A musket shot took another of his crew but Steve replied with his own muskets and killed one of my jolly chaps.

I was slowing down the Hairy Kraken and kept close to Steve and in the next turn I managed to get in another two shots of canister. Steve's crew had already moved back onto the ship and my guns took three of them this time. All of my muskets missed as did the enemy's.

Now that Steve had his crew aboard he decided to sail and I had to get out of the way quickly. Unfortunately (for El h'Emmingo) the placing of the ships meant that Steve managed to get a shot of canister at the Hairy Kraken and killed 3 of the crew. The swine!

But, the blackguard Steve sailed away and E' h'Emmingo managed to turn the HK and pull up at the jetty and from there alighted  for a search of the island.

Leaving some of the crew to guard the ship, El h'Emmingo decided to head for the mysterious cave not far from shore...

El h'Emmingo leads his crew from the front.

Whereupon a ragged priest with obvious mental illness problems and a sword, charged out and attacked! I decided to try and placate him with kind piratey words but he stabbed me. So I killed him and, in traditional D&D fashion looted his bloody corpse. "Does he have a +1 sword?" I asked. Alas no... But he did have a silver crucifix and a be-gemmed rosary. He also had a hostage, who turned out to be none other than the Governor's winsome Daughter. Will she succumb to the Latin charms of the handsome El h'Emmingo?

Meanwhile, back at the ship, Tom sailed up. Musket shots were exchanged and another of the Hairy Kraken's brave crew fell to the deck mortally wounded. Then he sailed away again only to be attacked by The Kraken!

Captain Rufus House (Sean) then sailed up and decided to ignore the Hairy Kraken and take on The Kraken. Whereupon, with two extremely accurate shots from his canon managed to virtually kill the beast, earning himself the moniker: Squid Killer!

Tom v's The Kraken (with Fly as the Pirate Master) 

And so... El h'Emmingo and the remaining crew of Hairy K sailed off to the far distant port, delivered the Governor's Daughter & picked up a reward. And, as our brave legend of the high sea's sailed out of port for more adventure, the game ended with El h'Emmingo the victor with the most loot (1400 doubloons).

Here's some more photo's care of Richard B.

Charles' crew do not appear to be faring very well at all.

 And your beloved blogger in action at the far end of the table.