Cutlass vs. Legends of the High Seas

[Thargor]

It works fine for multiple players.  You just sort out the initiative order at the beginning of each turn.

Each player activates 1 character in turn until all characters have activated.

The USP for this game is the combat play.  Attacker and Defender have 6 cards depicting body locations, generally the Attacker will get to select 2 locations, the Defender 3.  The attacker reveals his cards and the defender reveals if he has blocked them by choosing the same locations.  It works the same way for both melee and ranged attacks.

Once you've hit a location, it's the normal routine of strength of the weapon vs toughness of the character, plus a fate card each ( cards numbered 1-10  used instead of dice for this game).  If the Attacker's total is higher he causes damage equal to the difference between the 2 totals.  Draw another Fate card and if it is equal to or lower than the damage caused, it also causes a critical hit in that location.

Each of the body locations affects one of your stats, so taking a critical hit will affect how well that character runs/ attacks/ defends/ etc.  Causing a critical in an arm, will negate any weapons carried in that hand (crucial when facing arquebusiers).

[richarDISNEY]

Freebooter's Fate is really well done.
Also look at Flagship Games' Pirates! -- These are my 'go to' rules...

[Mako]

I get the impression, whether deserved or not, that LotHS and Cutlass are somewhat similar in overall play.

What sets Cutlass apart from the former is they use different sized dice for various troop ratings, and they have rules for fantasy pirates, like Ratmen crews, Elves, etc.

The above is based upon inquiries I've made about Cutlass.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of info, or rave reviews about them, so I haven't sought them out as a must buy.

[Captain_Hook]

I've read a few descriptions of how the Flagship Game's Pirates plays out in ship o ship combat, but how does it play in a skirmish on land?

[Mako]

I'm not 100% sure, but seem to recall it is pretty much a naval game, with ship to ship, and boarding actions only.  Possibly some rules for naval bombardment too.

If I recall the review correctly, there isn't much in the way of rules for land battles.

[Elbows]

I have grown tired of the LOTOW rules set...and when I had my LOTHS book (someone lifted it...) I found it was even MORE limiting/limited...but I suspect with a plethora of house rules it could be fun.

I'll be looking into these other rules sets for sure.

[Mako]

I've heard that the LotR, and LotOW rules are a bit better, and that some people have even considered using aspects of those to bolt on to the LotHS rules, but don't recall any specifics on what they liked more about those, or why.

That would be interesting to know, since perhaps with a few minor modifications LotHS could be made to be a lot better.

I was really disappointed with the LotHS naval rules.

[FifteensAway]

I can't speak to the High Seas variation, but I tried Lotow once - and that was about seven times too many.  Sure, the rules "work" but you can eat shoe leather to survive, too.

As to pirate rules, I'm still searching (co-wrote, sort of, the rules for our giant game we did but those need some tinkering).  Did try the Flagship rules in one game but that game just fell apart (more the fault of the person running than the rules but the rules didn't pull me in.)

If you are going for a small scale game, they should be pretty easy to come up with.  Ours had to accommodate up to 32 players so that was different kettle of boiling rum with rotten fish in it.