No Treasure for Pirates

Dear King Don Juan
We have found a Corvette we named Celebre to be sailing threw San Juan, I assure you it was that Captains fault he entered your waters, He has been dispatched South to seek this Bernard Fokke or other opportunities.
​
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Buccaneers from Tortuga raid Port de Paix, Its Governor gives into Black Henry's demands

And the Dutch were found sailing toward Guinea and were promptly asked to leave.

GPS to Lanzelot
Apr, 1656
 
T003, Apr. 1656: the three damaged Dutch ships retreated, but one Fluyt bravely proceded right into the harbour of Plymouth, landing a Line Infantry on English soil. The heavy guns of Plymouth make minced meat out of her and send her to Davy Jones' Locker!

The Dutch Line Infantry is also shelled by a Coastal Battery that was quickly turned around to point landwards.

The fleeing Dutch ships were caught up with by English Corvettes, one Dutch ship was sunk and two were captured and brought to the drydocks of Plymouth for overhauling.

The Frigates "Elisabeth" and "Mary" with a few support ships meet the French fleet at Martinique and ask, whether they may join the southward expedition to find the legendary "Cutthroat Island". We are not superstitious and don't believe in ghosts and such. We are sure that all these rumours can be reduced to natural causes. Probably someone trying to make big profits and to escape prosecution by spreading ghost stories... The Royal Navy will gladly help putting an end to this.

A message is dispatched to King Philip of Spain and the Viceroy Don Juan of the Spanish Main:
Dear King Philip and Viceroy Don Juan,

as you have probably heard, at this moment an expedition is equipped with the aim of clearing up the mystery of the so called "Undead Pirates". These scoundrels are threatening the safety of all Christian Sea Lanes, so surely you don't want to stand aside and watch, while others are going to fight against this common enemy? All Christian Nations should stand united against this shameless act of Piracy, so we hope, that you will also be able to contribute a few well-equipped Warships to this mission?

Signed: Oliver Cromwell, First Lord Protector of England
and Bertrum Wilberforce, Viceroy of New England
in the Year of our Lord 1656
Click to expand...

GPS, T003, Apr. 1656 to Jarovid/Spain
 
Absolutely Wonderful! This game is showing character.

Captain "to be added" of the French fleet at Martinique
Yes I see them, they are welcome to join the fleet, send the signal. They've sent a signal in reply saying Spanish ships might join the convoy, should we drop anchor and wait a turn for a response.



A message from Captain Black Henry to King Philip and Viceroy Don Juan
You will find a party of Buccaneers nearing Santo Domingo, they are asking nicely for 30 gold, if you do not pay they will raid that city.
Click to expand...
 
King of Spain replied to his cousins, rulers of England and France, that he does not see a point in going to the end of world to seek trouble, when you can find one at your very doorstep.

Answer to smelly and not so well dressed pirates, swarming around Santo Domingo, was cannonade from our coastal batteries which damaged "Ol' bucket" to 8/13.

Also one of our galleons that was trapped inside harbor fired salvo and wounded some of pirates' captains, unfortunately, not too serious (3/4).

GPS to English Pirates.
 
French Heavy Frigate Solide sees a damaged Ol' Bucket sneak into Port de Paix harbor.
Black Henry sends 2 fast ships South to aid France and England with the Undead.

The Swashbucklers accepted peace with Spain and pocketed some coin

France played tomorrow
 
GPS to Lanzelot

Bayonne descends into chaos until the city is better entertained. French Convoy surrounds a ship with an undetermined nationality flying a skull and crossbones. A French Frigate mysteriously damaged
 
T004, May 1656:
After some mortar fire, an English Line Infantry finally defeated the remains of the Dutch Line Infantry at Plymouth, that landed there last turn.

At Namibia, an English Frigate sunk a Dutch Large Merchantman.

At Martinique, the English Flotilla sets sail and takes course towards Cutthroat Island. The winds are favorable and the commanding Admiral Lord Lindsay expects to reach its destination in July.

North of the Bahamas an English Merchantman with important cargo for the colonies has gone missing. Immediately upon receiving the news of the missing ship, the commander of Nassau, Admiral Lord Haldane, ordered an intense search operation to be carried out by 8 English warships. Close to the last reported location, a ship showing no colors but with the name of "Sea Wolf" was detected. Still enraged about the loss of so many fine English sailors and the lifes of the passengers, the English fleet opened fire immediately and captured the Sea Wolf. A short while after that two more ships were discovered in the region which might also have been involved in the aforementioned incident: the "Phear" and the "Wraith". One of them shows the marks of a recent battle.

Survivors of the Sea Wolf were interrogated afterwards and it was discovered, that the captured Sea Wolf apparently belonged to the pirate union of the Swashbucklers. All this results in the

Message from Oliver Cromwell to the Sun King, Louis XIV:
"Our most honored Majesty, we ask you to keep your Corsairs at bay, or we will be forced to give our Bahamas Fleet the permission to proceed against any ship in that region that does not show colors.

As a compensation for the lost cargo of our Merchantman, we demand the delivery of two slave workers.

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England"

GPS T004 to Jarovid/Spain
 
Again endless waters without anything noteworthy. Only a lone French Sloop is encountered and the temptation to relieve her off her cargo is big, but Mad Jack has a firm grip on his men and holds them back, awaiting the outcome of the "Sea Wolf Affaire".

GPS to the Swashbucklers/Eclipse, T004
 
Louis XIV's response
Click to expand...
Spoiler :
Greetings Lord Oliver Cromwell
Condolences for your losses.
If you haven't heard those Pirates are rogues, they have attacked Port de Paix and extorted Gold from one of my Governors.
For that reason I am dispatching a couple of ships to watch or sink any they find at the Captains discretion, particularly if it appears they are within range of any of my cities,

As for compensation France will not pay for their actions but we will make them pay for their own actions. If we do find France somehow played a part in this then we would have no problem compensating you.


​

Pirate turn
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Spoiler :
Crooked Island
Captain we Arrr getting a message from Phear wait, and one from The Wraith, we hear them!,

It becomes dark, and time stops I mean saved, I don't know why I said that Captain?

It begins again and one of them said A Giant. and we lost them in the wind, the other said, A Kraken! We heard them from here. Then we heard, That way! We lost them too Captain.


Buccaneer of Crooked Island reports, that the Sea Wolf was captured by the bloody English!

Captain Henry Scarlett from a secret Cove
Get our ships back here!
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England" You or the Real King of England owes me a Ship!


Louis XIV's turn
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Spoiler :


Caravel Voyage and Riptide sail from Bayonne to the New World, joining them directly Ecueil a fast Corvette. and Louis grants Bayonne gold to rush a Frigate to join them to become France's third Navy in this era.

Go seek out those Pirates, they owe me some gold, and I could use their ships if you're able Captain.

France's second Navy reaches "Cutthroat Island"

OoC; We are missing out on a rich experience knowing who does what to whom here

GPS to Lanzelot June, 1656 AD
 
T005, June 1656:

A Dutch Frigate is spotted near Rotterdam, just within reach of the English Homefleet. 5 Corvettes and a Caravel attack and sink her.

Report from Admiral Lord Lindsay, commander of the expedition to Cutthroat Island, to Viceroy Wilberforce:
Spoiler :
"This morning, after four weeks on sea, when the sun rose, I went on deck and eyed up the accompanying ships of my Flotilla, and noticed that a Corvette was missing. No traces of her to be seen anywhere, no wrack parts, boats or survivors. This is very strange indeed, the common men already start talks about sea monsters again - it has been difficult enough at the beginning of our voyage to convince them that there are no such super-natural things. Now they say, "well, what if they are 'natural'?" I fear the worst for the discipline on board.

Nevertheless the remaining ships proceed carefully towards Cutthroat Island and keep their eyes open. But nothing out of the ordinary can be spotted, except a Portuguese vessel and the French fleet, which we have now caught up with.
We expect to reach our destination any day now and will open fire as soon as we see anything unexplainable."


Lord Lindsay signals to the Commander of the French fleet:
Spoiler :
Greetings Monsigneur! Glad to find you here. We lost a ship in unexplainable circumstances yesterday. Any strange occurrences on your voyage? Recommend to open fire on Cutthrout Island as soon as we get into range. Have experienced soldiers on board who can take islands as soon as the defenders have been worn down by our combined guns.


Message from Cromwell to King Louis:
Spoiler :
Dear Sir,
we can understand your point of view on the latest incidents. If the Swashbucklers act on their own, we won't hold you responsible for the damage they cause.
Sincerely, Oliver Cromwell


GPS to Jarovid, T005, June 1656
 
Let's say "I" the Swashbucklers sank your Merchantman, you a pretty sure I did it, In normal circumstances you could rule out France and Spain to not have "Privateers" and an act of war not present, yet but really no way to tell if the Swashbucklers or the Peglegs were to blame. Considering this fact and subtract English hunting down Peglegs and France the Swashbucklers and vice versa we are playing at approximately half of the games potential.

And to see the bonus of characters emerging from our writing which I vigorously applaud, potential ship promotions and future addons and upgrades to them, I feel that as we go on we will be reminded of this. Are you both happy with this?
 
Those pirates should all go down to the bottom of the deepest sea, as far as we are concerned.

If it only wasn't so hot, we would start chasing them right away.

GPS to english pirates.
 
The Peglegs are also enjoying their Siesta in a fresh off-shore breeze...
But rum is slowly quickly running low, so we will need to sail some place else soon. Nothing whatsoever happening here in these quarters of the ocean...

GPS to Eclipse/Swashbucklers

Considering this fact and subtract English hunting down Peglegs and France the Swashbucklers and vice versa we are playing at approximately half of the games potential.
Click to expand...
I didn't quite understand this. Do you mean, we should play the Pirates as "independent" faction, attacking everybody? Up to now I viewed the pirates as "privateers more or less loyal to their crown", so the Peglegs are England's "unofficial supporting force" while the Swashbucklers are France's. Similar to how, when Sir Francis Drake got his letter of marque, he remained loyal to his Queen Elizabeth (marauding only foreign ships but leaving English ships alone).
 
Lanzelot said:
I didn't quite understand this. Do you mean, we should play the Pirates as "independent" faction, attacking everybody? Up to now I viewed the pirates as "privateers more or less loyal to their crown", so the Peglegs are England's "unofficial supporting force" while the Swashbucklers are France's. Similar to how, when Sir Francis Drake got his letter of marque, he remained loyal to his Queen Elizabeth (marauding only foreign ships but leaving English ships alone).
Click to expand...

What I mean is playing the Pirates as Privateers is a wonderful work around to get this game going but I would be open to allowing other players in to take over, in my case take over France and I would remain as the Swashbucklers for example.

Our activity here could attract some interest
 
France's turn

It is War
France's Corvette "Celebre" fires the first shot at Cutthroat island
The shot misses

Frigate Mercoeur fires
Pirate Fortress destroyed

Frigate Faucon fires
The shot misses

Frigate Beaufort fires
Tavern destroyed

NETR
GPS to Lanzelot July 1656AD
 
T006, July 1656:

Lord Lindsay also reaches Cutthroat Island, and as the governor of that island doesn't look too nice, war is declared and fire opened. The four English warships send 4 well-aimed broad-sides into the settlement, destroying the Stone Walls, the Palisades and damaging two pirate ships slightly. The defenders, however, look too scary to risk an amphibious assault on the island. The Admiral decides to continue the cannonade for a while and see what happens.

GPS to Jarovid/Spain, July 1656
 
I noticed another glitch in the biq, while looking up the capabilities of the Ships of the Line:
the Ship of the Line 1st Rate has bombardment range of 50... I'm sure this is not intended... :D

Should we make a house rule, that we don't shoot at targets further away than 2 tiles?

Also the Ship of the Line 3rd Rate has lethal land bombardment, while 2nd and 1st rate don't have that capability. This looks like a mistake as well, but nothing we can do about (unless we find someone who is able to change unit attributes in a .sav file. I think it is possible somehow, Eclipse may remember that we once had a member of the GOTM staff do this for us in one of our PBEMs. Don't recall the details anymore. Or we just live with it.
 
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