Misc., Pirates, Legends of the High Seas, 28mm

This week we played out a piratical Tabletop Teaser, something we’d promised Henry Hyde, of the excellent Battlegames magazine. As we’d all recently used Warhammer’s Wild West system, we opted for their very similar pirate set called Legends of the High Seas. The original Tabletop Teaser appeared two years ago in Battlegames Issue 5, but an earlier version can also be found in Charles S. Grant’s Scenarios for Wargames (1981). The game will be published in a new book of Charles’ Tabletop Teasers, to eventually be published by Battlegames as a stand-alone scenario book.  We modified the shape of the island a bit, to fit our own island terrain (lovingly crafted by Hugh Wilson), but the idea was the same. Two pirate crews land on different ends of an island, and follow a trail of clues in the search for buried treasure. To make things interesting the island is also defended by locals – in our case Cimaroons (runaway slaves) – who amused themselves by taking pot shots at both groups of interlopers.In our game, Barnacle Bill’s crew landed on one side of the island, and Black Jack’s men appeared on the other. Each crew consisted of 20 pirates, split into two groups, one led by the Pirate Captain, and the other by his Quartermaster. While Master Mynd’s group attacked the village, Black Jack searched for treasure. His first clue led to a second one, which he misinterpreted. The clue Look for two dead wooden sentinels was meant to guide him to search beneath two dead trees in the centre of the island.Instead he headed straight for a wrecked ship, whose two masts were still standing! Meanwhile Barnacle Bill’s crew crossed and re-crossed the lagoon in search of clues, and battled the Cimaroons. Caught between the two pirate crews, the surviving locals fled into the jungle, leaving the island to the pirates.Now, before the game started, both Quartermasters had been told that an old shipmate of theirs had been marooned on the island, and if they found him, he’d help them find the buried treasure. Master Mynd eventually stumbled across the castaway – Black Angus, and his trusty sidekick Roger the Cabin Boy. As Master Mynd now knew where the treasure was, he decided to stab his Captain – Black Jack – in the back! You can never trust a pirate!Of course, by this stage Black Jack was already at the wrecked ship, where he stumbled across the hiding place of the treasure, without needing to follow the clues or find a castaway. He barely had time to dig up the chest when Master Mynd’s party arrived, and a hum-dinger of a scrap began between the two halves of the same pirate crew. barnacle bill marched to the sound of the guns, and joined in the melee, hoping to win the treasure for himself.Inevitably, that’s when the second great act of treachery happened. While all this had been going on, Master Bates and his men had been rowing around the headland, and appeared off the beach where the wrecked ship lay. The treasure chest was guarded by Captain Black Jack and a couple of his men, while the rest were fighting it out on the shore.Bates and Black Jack promptly struck a deal, and as the sun set over Treasure Island, the two new-found allies were seen rowing towards Black Jack’s ship, the Wenchy Lass. All Barnacle Bill, Master Mynd, Black Angus and the rest of Black Jack’s crew could do was howl with rage as the treasure was snatched from under their noses!All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable game, and while I’m not really a great fan of Warhammer (too much unnecessary die rolling for my tastes), I must admit that the rules worked very well indeed. More importantly, everyone had a great time