52 replies to this topic

[Cherno]

Edit: I just noticed I put this in the wrong forum, sorry.

Hello, fellow buccaneers,

some of you may have read my last thread about the start of my fleet for Evil Steve's Pirate Game, which includes small cutters and brigs.

After countless hours constructing, designing, redesigning, testing, and a LOT of orders from Bricklink, I have the pleasure to hereby present you with my completed (yeah, sure) fleet, ready for some pirate gaming on my blue ocean carpet :)

As usual, special thanks got out to Matteo1130 for his Simple cannon design and, of course, Evil Willy  for his Tutorial on making sails.


Class 3

These ships are all based on either the Renegade Runner or the Cross Bone Clipper.













Class 4

These ships are based on the old Imperial Flagship, with the exception of the last one: This is a trading ship basically copied from Kerntechniker's  Tradingship. So thank you for your great design!











Class 5

The first two ships are based on the Carribean Clipper, elongated to a length of two middle sections and given a proper second  mast. The last one is obviously the Red Beard Runner, modified to put away with the stupid action features, able to mount three cannons on it's broadside, and given some proper rigging.

Special thanks to whoever it was who inspired me with his idea of using a red horse-helmet-thingy (?) for the red ship's figurehead. Looks really spiffy.







My whole fleet

In the background, you can see the Skull's Eye Schooner I got as a kid. I modified it slightly so the four cannons now actually stick out from the hull, which looks far better in my opinion. Well, I guess you can't really see it on the picture  









I hope I can get some people inspired to do a similar project; it has been loads of fun spending time on the floor sorting bricks and building ships.

Edited by Cherno, 06 December 2010 - 04:20 PM.

[Big Cam]

Now that is down right amazing, I don't think I've ever seen so many ships in one place.  I love your sails to the yellow is a color I've never seen on a sail before and looks really good, as do the rest of your sails, this is really impressive, nice work.

[Mr. Elijah Timms]

Awesome!  'Tis a grand sight to see so many masts bobbing on the horizon..... MORE FOR US PIRATES TO PLUNDER, Yaha!!!

Seriously though, great job!

[Admiral Croissant]

Great! Such a large fleet! You can really play some nice battles with this.
The designs are also nice, different ships but in a way also similar to each other.
Just like BC said, I think I've never seen such a large fleet of Lego ships before, good work

[amity498]

That is one really nice collection, love how the sails match in colour to the ships

You must feel like a admiral now

[Little Brick Man]

I'm speechless but truly inspired. Now will you excuse me. I'm building a big big ship.


" row, row, row a boat . . ."

[Lord Valgor]

I wish that I had enough bricks to even build one ship lol. I recently acquired the IF and want to make smaller support ships or something. Totally awesome though, a Grand Fleet for a Grand Admiral.

[Uvga]

You have a huge fleet, and all your ships are different! well done!

Uvga

[Tomcat RIO]

congrats admiral that is a mighty fleet! certainly no one would go up against such an armada. u;ve got enough crewmen to man those?!

[Matteo1130]

simply great. you've done what i dreamed about :)
hope you'll post soon some "stories" from gameplays!!

[Cherno]

Thanks for your comments.

Tomcat RIO, on 07 December 2010 - 08:42 AM, said:

congrats admiral that is a mighty fleet! certainly no one would go up against such an armada. u;ve got enough crewmen to man those?!

I think i might have just enough to man every ship with a "skeleton crew", but for a historically accurate heavy manning I need additional pirates and sailors :) Ebay, here I come!

I've made another photo to show how some colors are present in every ship class:



One other thing I'd like to add regarding making sails:

If you want to print a logo (crossed sabres, skulls & crossbones, the imperial trading symbol etc.) on the main sail, a good way to do this is to just cut out a piece of suitable fabric slightly smaller than A4 size and apply a mixture of white glue/elmer's glue and water onto the whole piece on both sides, then hang it up to dry for a few hours. Iron it flat, and temporarily fix it to an sheet of normal A4 paper with tape. Fire up your preferred graphics editing program and just print out the symbol you have chosen, choosing "center image" in the printing dialogue. You may have to use your printer's secondary paper intake in order for your printer to accept the paper with fabric on it. Additionally, you may have to put an additional piece of paper just under the spot where the image would appear on the fabric, because otherwise a mirrored "ghost image" may appear just under the original spot on the fabric (this is probably because fabric doesn't take ink as good as paper, so some ink gets stuck on the printing roll).

After you successfully printed a picture on your piece of fabric, just mark the outline of the required sail and cut it out. Punch out the holes (I happen to have a special kind of tool for that which is for applying rivets to clothing) and voilà: Your printed sail is finally ready to put up on your ship! I guess it would even be possible to just print on the colorful stripes directly on your sail if you have a color printer and enough cartridges. I used thinned down acrylic paint and lots of patience for this step ;)

If you just want to make a normal sail without a picture on it, do as explained in the sail making tutorial. However, I found that it's better to apply the glue-mixture to the whole sail instead of just the edges, as you won't have any ugly differences in lightness on your sails, and the fabric as a whole gets stronger and takes paint better.

Edited by Cherno, 07 December 2010 - 12:01 PM.

[mobricki]

This is very impressive! Please update us if you add more ships to your fleet.

[Brig. Brick]

awesome, simply awesome ...


I will try to support you with don't doing more shopping on EBAY these days.

Let me know when you finish you crew!!!

[lt.Gonville brickhead]

Awesome fleet Cherno  
the yellow actually looks great on a sail!!!

[prateek]

Wow, these are amazing. I can't believe you made just for a game. It's the most complete fleet I've ever seen!

[SkaForHire]

This is fantastic! I wish I would have color coded my fleet! Maybe when I rebuild it (I need a permanent job and house before I can take about 40 of the ships out of storage) I will follow your model.

I hope someone stickys this so I can find it again. Didn't we used to have a thread to show off fleets? I think I may have started it years ago. We should bring that back.

Great job, very excited to hear about your gaming.

[halfpenguinhalflego]

That is so amazing! I would love to an all out war with them, with landscape and everything. Congrats  

[Cherno]

Yes, terrain is still an issue. I built some small islands today for shipwrecked pirates to appear on during the game, and yesterday I built a trading post similar in style to the official Imperial one from LEGO, only slightly smaller. I plan to have two "friendly" pirate ports (Forbidden Island and Rock Island Refuge, already on my cupboard), two neutral ports (the one mentioned above plus the IMP which I still have to buy), and one enemy port (Eldorado Fortress, also on my cupboard). This could possibly be supplanted by another enemy port if I ever get arount to buy the 2009 Soldier's Fort. With these ports on the gaming surface, NPC and players have a lot of different choices of where to sail next to trade and/or do quests.

Along with the handful of small islands which often contain nothing more than a palmtree and some rocks, there is "Flag Island", with a mast and flags showing wind direction and speed during the game.

Other islands will include prisons (broadside's brig etc.) for captured pirates to rot in   or possibly be freed by their comrades, Skull Island, where some treasure and/or special items guarded by evil skeletons can be found, Enchanted Island for the Villagers, and various smaller Imperial structures defending certain parts of the "carribean" (Imperial Outpost, harbour sentry,...).

I also plan to build the swamp residence of the Voodoo Lady from Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's Revenge...



Since apparently there are some people interested in this project, I will add pictures of the stuff I built so far tomorrow.

Happy pirating,

Cherno

[Cherno]

Another Update.

As promised, I made some photos of the stuff I built this week.

Small islands for shipwrecked pirates

A bunch of small islands "deep in the caribbean" where shipwrecked pirates wait for passing ships. Note that all these guys have yellow pants (or none at all?!?). I color-code my minifigs by pants color; shipwrecked, recruitable pirates have yellow pants, pirates in a player's crew have blue, gray or red, most neutral NPCs (traders, harbor personell etc.) have white, and NPC Pirates have black. Of course, there are also ghost/skeleton pirates, but these can be distinguished easily by their skulls and white (bone) hands.

The one on the small rock outcropping is my favorite "island". The poor soul on this tiny, jagged archipelago doesn't even get to enjoy the companionship of the parrot who sits on an even smaller rock apart from the main island   Talk about social animals...



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Mmmh, fish!



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"Damn my coconut allergy!"



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This island is so small the pirate couldn't even start a fire on the beach. At least there's a palmtree protecting him from the hot, tropical sun. This is probably the classic "shipwrecked-person-stranded-on-an-island-with-palmtree image known from comics, films and so on. Let's hope he at least has a piece of paper, something to write and a bottle with cap!



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Flag Island

All three flags would actually mean that a hurricane is raging!



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A neutral port

As long as you don't start any trouble in the port itself or the waters surrounding it, you're free to dock here and trade.









Detail shot: A grumpy-looking merchant is just leaving the harbor master's office. Maybe he got his fishing license revoked, who knows...

In the background, you can see a port employee standing behind his desk with a pot of ink. Maybe he checks freight papers or something.



Every docked ship's owner has to register at the dock master and pay a small fee.

"How about three pieced of eight, and you don't have to know my name?"



The harbor master's office, currently empty.



Some affluent lady standing on the balcony overlooking the port.



The Voodoo Lady's swamp residence

I didn't have any steering wheels to spare, so I used small chariot/buggy wheels. Also, I didn't have another blue base plate, so I had to made do with several normal blue plates. This was actually a good thing, because it gave me the idea of putting sea roses on the surface in order to help holding the plates together. Necessity is the mother of invention...

Note that the tall torches are glowing in an otherworldly greenish tinge. I think this creates a suitable atmosphere for that whole swamp-voodoo-mystery-thing  



Now, who could hide behind that scary looking skull-shaped hut hidden deep in the swamps?

Why of course, it's the Voodoo Lady from Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge ™! Actually, she also appears in the other MI parts as well, but at least the skull is exclusive to this game.



On the next shot, you can see her sitting on her voodoo throne, voodoo wand in hand, surrounded by mysterious jars, bottles and containers filled with the ingredients for her voodoo spells.



A shot from the other side. Her throne is mounted on a turntable, of course, to be faithful to the MI game.



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That's all for now. Have fun watching and reading!

[lt.Gonville brickhead]

Cool port cherno you've made me really want to play Evil Stevie's pirate game

[Francis Dampierre]

Man, I've always loved the ESPG game, but I've never had enough ships to play properly. I love your fleet! The colors make the ships easily distinguishable, perfect for gaming.   One question though: in the online description for the cutters in ESPG, he described them as being comparable to the little merchant vessels from the Imperial Trading Post, whereas you seem to be using this design for your brigs. Was this done on purpose, and if so, what was the reasoning behind it? I love your design of the cutters, but they seem a bit small for fitting crew and treasure and cannon. Are you sticking to Steve Jackson's 2004 rules or have you altered them to suit your own fleet?

[Cherno]

Francis Dampierre, on 15 December 2010 - 10:37 PM, said:

Man, I've always loved the ESPG game, but I've never had enough ships to play properly. I love your fleet! The colors make the ships easily distinguishable, perfect for gaming.   One question though: in the online description for the cutters in ESPG, he described them as being comparable to the little merchant vessels from the Imperial Trading Post, whereas you seem to be using this design for your brigs. Was this done on purpose, and if so, what was the reasoning behind it? I love your design of the cutters, but they seem a bit small for fitting crew and treasure and cannon. Are you sticking to Steve Jackson's 2004 rules or have you altered them to suit your own fleet?

Good question, and i see that you read the official ESPG rules very carefully!

It is true that i didn't follow the class system as laid out in the rules too strictly. I tried to keep it simple while at the same time having a broad selection of different classes.

The ship classes i will probably be using:

Class 1 - I call these cutters. They are built using the 4-stud-wide aircraft (?) bodies.
Class 2 - These are brigs in my game. IMP style.
Class 3 - Narrow ship hull, no center sections. Cross Bone Clipper, Renegade Runner.
Class 4 - Narrow hull, one center section. Old Imperial Flagship.
Class 5 - Wide hull, two center sections (no or only one section looks really weird to me). Red Beard Runner.
Class 6 - Wide hull, three center sections. The "Big" LEGO ships like Skull's Eye Schooner.

I completely ignored all "secondary" classes like shorter, wider ships which are slower but can hold more cargo.

As you may notice, i essentially added another Class of ships before the official class system (what i call cutters). That of course means that all following ship sizes are moved one class up. This gives me six ship classes instead of five i would otherwise have. In order to still being faithful to ESPG regaring number of cannons, i just added a small custom-built cannon in the "anchor-holes" of a ship's front section from class 3 and up. You can see this on the pictures. The IMP brig luckily has these small cannons already built-in as part of it's design, although in this case, the cannons are located in the ship's stern.

You also mentioned the problem i see too when using my own class 1 cutters... They really are too small to hold any sizeable crew, let alone any treasure. For this reason, players will start with Class 2 brigs crewed by 8 pirates plus their captain, so that's a good base for buccaneering. Now, this still leaves me with six small cutters too small to be of any use, and essentially i still have only 5 classes if class 1 can't be used effectively   . For NPC merchants meant as easy prey, these ships are great, however, as NPC won't have as many men onboard. Maybe i'll get back to using the ESPG classes as written in the rules and make my cutters a special ship class apart from that, but i feel that players really should start with two cannons on their ships in order to make the game more action-oriented and lessen the impact of a cannon loss.

Edit: Some additional background information: The issue i know have with my lovely but too small cutters is due to a) them being the only ships i was able to build when i started with this project, as i had no other ship hulls of any size at all and b) not foreseeing how many crew members a player typically starts with in a straight combat scenario.

Edited by Cherno, 16 December 2010 - 12:34 AM.

[Francis Dampierre]

I see. This is the design I use for my brigs:





I usually follow Evil Stevie's class system for ships, the only adjustment I made to the rules was making it easier to get hull hits to balance the effectiveness of "deck" shots. I might try and create some of your style cutters though, I really like the design.  

[Cherno]

That brig looks really good, and it has realistic colors, too. Good job!

Good idea about the hull hits, too. I was thinking about the same, as one game report on lugnet stated that no one was able to sink anyone else the whole game :D I think it really is about capturing a ship by killing it's crew rather than just destroying it for fun. Slowing a ship with rigging hits seems to be too cumbersome, too.

[Francis Dampierre]

Quote

Good idea about the hull hits, too. I was thinking about the same, as one game report on lugnet stated that no one was able to sink anyone else the whole game :D I think it really is about capturing a ship by killing it's crew rather than just destroying it for fun. Slowing a ship with rigging hits seems to be too cumbersome, too.

Well I figured that the players, like real pirates, would be aiming to capture rather than sink. The Royal Navy, on the other hand, will aim to sink - making them all the more dangerous since all the soldiers get +1 on pretty much everything. I also added chain shot for rigging, which essentially gives better results but requires a shorter range (in essence, its only real use is during a close chase: slowing down your target or crippling a pursuer). In addition, I adjusted the -6 penalty for grapeshot to be a 6" range instead; so far it works well.

I forgot to mention how awesome your neutral port looks! How did you make that flag? I recognize the anchor-and-barrel symbol from the ITP cutter (brig?).