Herding Cats or The Story of running a large pirate game at BLAM

[gamer Mac]

Forgot to finish adding my pictures


British port with the floating jetty out in the water which I believe caused some navigation problems. The jetty was just a bit of terrain for my table that got left on the table by mistake during the mayhem of the set up.










Ghost ship attacks





Pirates running from ghosts

The pirates running to a priest for help with the ghosts. We had rules for fighting the ghost that meant it was very hard for normal crewmen to defeat them but someone found this priest character amongst the Spanish town and he was pressed into service. I believe he done quite well before the game ended.

[Mason]

Great pictures, Colin.
I think they show the obvious mayhem pretty well.
 

Was the Japanese ship in 'stealth' mode....?
 

[OSHIROmodels]

Was the Japanese ship in 'stealth' mode....?
 

You're not funny you know...

[gamer Mac]

Great pictures, Colin.
I think they show the obvious mayhem pretty well.
 



Was the Japanese ship in 'stealth' mode....?
 

No sorry sinking mode
The long boat beside it is trying to rescue the crew

[Elk101]

Sorry never noticed this reply the one on the far right is my brothers scratch built effort not even following any plans or anything

Cheers Colin. I really liked it and picked it over the big resin ones.

[Mason]

No sorry sinking mode
The long boat beside it is trying to rescue the crew

Aha!
I was not there on Sunday, so I had no idea.

No wonders Bibbles.....

You're not funny you know...

....is so touchy.
 

At least we know where that tradition regarding Japanese fleets began....
 

[gamer Mac]

Aha!
I was not there on Sunday, so I had no idea.

No wonders Bibbles.....

....is so touchy.
 

At least we know where that tradition regarding Japanese fleets began....
 

[henerius]

I really enjoy watching these pictures. I am just wandering where some of the ships are from?


The pirate ship (with the red Jolly Roger)

The small vessel to the left?

[Golgotha]

Great looking game cat herding seemed successful feel free to post more. Would love to take part in something like this any hints on running a bit of cat herding of ones own?

[Captain Blood]

I really enjoy watching these pictures. I am just wandering where some of the ships are from?

The pirate ship (with the red Jolly Roger)
The small vessel to the left?

Hi. Those two are mine, and they were made by an outfit called Village Green, long since defunct, and I don't think anyone else ever picked them up. Which is a pity, because they are very nice models, resin with metal parts, very similar to the ex-Dixon (now Ainsty) ships. They did a Man O-War as well.

[gamer Mac]

Great looking game cat herding seemed successful feel free to post more. Would love to take part in something like this any hints on running a bit of cat herding of ones own?

Don't do it
Get some other idiot to run it.
If you want a copy of our rules pm me your email and I'll send you what we have.

[FifteensAway]

Oh, you paupers, you.  A game with only 16 players and you think it was large.  How about 32 players!  Yes, 32, that's what I said (typed?).  We did one with 16 main ships, a few smaller ships, a whole lot more smaller boats, a few native canoes, too.  Five towns, one of which was the pirate lair.  A volcano, Davy Jones his-self made a cameo with Poseidon and a giant Octopus in the wings, fog banks and even a maelstrom on stand-by.  No ghosts or skeletal pirates, though.  Chaotic.  Heck yeah.  Fun, sure.  Problems.  Yup.  Rules?  Our own.  Play tested but still challenging.  Worst problem was it was way too easy to de-mast a ship.  Herding cats?  That would have been too easy.  Only two tables, though.  At 6' x 22' feet - each.  In 15 mm!  Would I do it again?  Of course, after I paint up some more figures I already own and prep a couple more already purchased ships, one very much a pirate addition.  And need to create better towns - though probably fewer (maybe?).  In future, however, I will greatly limit the ship action to force much more action on land to put to use the more than a thousand figures painted up for the events (ran twice at conventions). 

The moral of all of the above I've just typed.  From someone who truly appreciates what you've attempted and what was accomplished, I feel your pain, your frustration, and your sense of accomplishment.  And I'm so glad to see you had similar challenges to what we went through - and we had one game master (me) and four assistant game masters in our first outing. 

Very nice effort, nice looking ships and terrain.  Gigantic games seem to be the order of the decade for piratical efforts - several seem to be floating about.  Have to give the nod to the lads in France who seem to have set the record.  But yours was fun to read up on.  Great job.