As part of setup, you have to decide the starting ocean for the Nautilus. We pick the North Atlantic. We also have the set the starting motivation for Nemo. We roll a 6 and that sets it to War! You can randomize the motivation or pick from Science, Exploration, Anti-Imperialism or War! We will want to hunt mostly warships.
Nemo's War uses week-long turns to keep track of time. You have, at most, one year. Since several actions, some moves and a few adventure cards cost additional time; you will end up with less than 52 turns in a typical game.
The game just after setup (minus some Treasure tokens, oops!)
Each turn is divided into several steps. The first step is to roll for adventure and new shipping. On the first turn, you do not add new ships.
Week 1:
Adventure roll is: 5 (dark) + 4 (light) = 9, no adventure card is drawn. (On the first turn, you need to roll a 10 or higher for an adventure. If you don't have an adventure, you flip the turn marker to the 7+ side.)
The next step is for Nemo to take an action. There are several choices for Nemo; he can attack multiple ships, stalk a single ship, move to a new ocean, search for treasure, incite the natives against Imperial powers, or perform a repair/rest/refit cycle.
Nemo spots a couple of ships on the horizon and decides to stalk one of them! Nemo could attack both of them, but the additional preparation of following just one of the ships will increase the chance of success.
There are two hidden ships in the North Atlantic. We reveal the first ship. It's a medium-sized passenger ship. It has a defense of 9, it's worth 2 victory points (VP) and we will gain a small amount (1) of notoriety by sinking it.
Since it's not a warship (there is no cannon icon or attack value on the counter), the Nautilus immediately attacks. We need to roll a 9 or higher on 2d6, with a +1 modifier since we're Stalking the ship. We can exert, or risk, just one of our resources (Nemo, the Crew or the Hull). Resources add to our chance of success, but if we fail, then the resource takes some damage. If we completely lose a resource, we immediately end the game and take a huge hit to our overall legacy!
We decide to gamble the Hull. It adds a +2 modifier. We need to roll a 9 or higher, and we have a total modifier of +3. We roll a 2 (ouch!). There are some special resources that you can use after a bad roll to twist fate, but a natural 2 is an automatic failure, regardless of modifiers. Ouch!
Since we failed to sink the ship, the passengers will gossip and spread tales of our presence. We gain 1 point of notoriety whenever we fail to sink our target. We lose 1 Hull. The passenger ship remains face-up and the Nautilus slinks off in a morose fashion.
The last phase is to advance the turn tracker and check for any reinforcements, or the end of the game.
Week 2
Adventure roll: 4 (light) and 6 (dark) = 10. Okay, we're going to have an adventure! First, we have to place a new ship. This time of year, we only add 1 new ship, so we use the light die results. A 4 is the Mediterranean. We draw one ship, face-down, from the Unplaced Ships Holding Box and place it in the last open spot for the Med. (If an ocean is full, you ignore new ship rolls for that ocean in the future. However, if the whole ocean fills up, Nemo loses his battle against the Imperial warmongers!)
Our adventure card is The Underwater Coalfield. This card is an Event, and we retain it until used. It can only be used in the North or South Atlantic. We can discard it there to gain 2 Hull, but if we don't use it by the end of the game we gain 2 VP and a Science card (which is mostly useful for the Science motivation). You can discard cards anytime before or after the Nemo action, but we'll hold on to the card for now.
We decide to Attack. This will let us attempt to sink both ships, but at a cost. We can attack the revealed passenger ship that thwarted us last turn, or reveal the other hidden ship. We reveal! It's a Frigate. It has an Attack of 5, Defense of 8 and, if we sink it, it's worth 1 VP.
Since the Frigate is a warship, it attacks first. It needs to roll equal to or less than its Attack value. Our roll is 11. It missed! Our turn to attack, so we risk the Crew for a +3 bonus. We roll an 8 and easily sink the warship. We now have to decide to score it or salvage it for refits. We decide to score it and place the sunken Frigate in the first North Atlantic box on the sunken ship record track. (We'll gain bonus points at the end of the game based on how well we spread out the sunken ships.)
We pay 1 Notoriety to attack our old nemesis, the passenger ship. Again, we risk the Crew. We roll a 5. With our +3 bonus, we're still one short of sinking that tub. Darn! We decide to use one of our special resources. Ned Land gives us a +1 bonus _after_ the die roll. We take his counter, flip it upside down and place it in the collected treasures box. He will be worth -3 VP at the end of the game, but he gives us just enough of a bonus to sink the ship. (Why did Ned Land help Nemo in sinking a passenger ship? It's not clearly defined, but for the purposes of our narrative today, Ned broke out of the Nautilus and drew the attention of the passenger ship. While a rescue was attempted, Nemo was able to circle around and break the back of the passenger ship. Or at least, that's the way I imagine it happening!)
The passenger ship has a notoriety of 1, so we advance that track yet but again. We place the sunken ship on the record track.
Since the adventure card was drawn this turn, the turn marker was flipped back over to the 10+ side and we advance it now to week 3.
Week 3
Adventure roll: 1 (dark) + 4 (light) = 5. No adventure card, and the Med is full, so no new shipping.
Nemo Action: Move to South Atlantic. This costs 0 additional weeks (moving long distances can cost an additional week.)
Week 4
Adventure roll: 3 (light) + 6 (dark) = 9. Ship added to South Atlantic (how fortuitous!)
Adventure card: Attack of the Giant Squid! Ack, this is our first Test. We have to immediately resolve this adventure card. It has a Test value of 10, and Crew + Hull can help. If we pass, we gain 1 treasure and gain a Science card in the pass pile. If we fail, we lose 2 crew or 2 hull (our choice.)
To pass the Test, we need to equal or roll higher than the Test value. Unlike combat, we can exert all of the resources under Help. Of course, if we fail the test, we lose all the resources we gambled, plus suffer the fail effect. Eek!
We risk both the Crew and the Hull. Our total modifier is a +5. We roll a 7 and fend off the tentacle attack.
Nemo Action: Attack! The first ship is a Cargo ship. It's a biggie, too. Defense 10, Notoriety 2 but it's worth 3 VP. We risk Nemo for a +2 bonus. We roll a 9 and sink the ship, scoring it. We reveal the second ship. It's a passenger ship (D9, N1 and 2 VP). Again risking the psyche of Nemo, we attack. We roll a 5. Hmmm. We could use Professor Aronnax, and add the 2 points we need to sink the ship, but decide to suffer the loss. Nemo loses 1 point.
Our total Notoriety is now 8. We over half way to the first Notoriety reinforcement group (at 15).
Week 5
Adventure roll: Double 2s! No ship is added on doubles (there are a couple of other things that happen, but they do not affect us yet.)
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: We decide to search for treasure. We roll 1d6 and the result is a 1. Ouch. We lose either 1 crew or 1 hull. There must be some tiger sharks that ate our poor crewmen, as we go down 1 crew.
Week 6
Adventure roll: 5 (light) + 2 (dark) = 7. We add one ship to the Indian Ocean.
Adventure card: Lost Time. This is a play immediately event. We advance the turn track by 2 weeks.
Nemo Action: Search again. Roll is 6, and we reveal and take the treasure token from the South Atlantic. It's worth 4 VP. Excellent! We place the treasure token in the collected treasures box.
Week 9
Adventure roll: 5 (dark) + 2 (light) = 7. Ship added to North Atlantic.
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Stalk. Risk Nemo. Roll is 8 (+3) so we sink the ship easily. We decide to salvage the ship, and add it to the salvage track. We can use this ship to refit the ship, but all the permanent refits cost a minimum of 2 salvage points.
Week 10
Adventure roll: 6 (light) + 5 (dark) = 11. Ship added to Western Pacific.
Adventure card: The Tantrums of Ned Land. (Hmm, Nemo must have plucked him from the sea again.) It's a Test 10, with help from Nemo + Crew, so we risk both of those resources. Roll is 4. Ack! We failed. We lose the 1 Nemo and the 1 Crew, plus either 1 more Nem or _2_ more Crew (ouch!). We decide to sack more of the crew.
Nemo Action: Move to Indian Ocean (+1 week travel time).
Week 12
Adventure roll: 5 (dark) + 4 (light) = 9. Starting on this turn, we add two ships per turn. Ship added to Indian Ocean (again, how fortuitous!) but the Med is still full.
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Attack! The first ship is a Mail ship (D8, N2, 2 VP) and we exert the Hull. Roll is 11, sunk and scored!
Second ship is a Cargo ship (D7, 1 VP). This is salvage bait. Risk the Hull. Roll is 7, sunk and salvaged.
Last ship is an Ironclad! Attack 7, Defense 10, Notoriety 1 and 1 VP. It attacks and rolls a 4. That's a hit! We roll 1 die to determine damage. Roll 5 is the Hull. Our turn and we risk Nemo. Roll is 8 (+2 from Nemo), and we get exactly what we need to send that Ironclad to the bottom.
Week 13
Adventure roll: 5 (dark) + 1 (light) = 6. Ships added to Indian Ocean and Eastern Pacific.
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Search. Roll is 5, success! Wow, we found the largest possible treasure (5 VP) and we add that our collection.
Week 14
Adventure roll: 5 (light) + 2 (dark) = 7. Ships added to Indian Ocean and North Atlantic.
Adventure card: The Arabian Tunnel. This card is perfect. It's an event that we retain until used. It allows us to move between the Indian Ocean and the Med. (We're not stacking the deck, either!)
Nemo Action: Attack! First ship is another mail ship (D7, N1, 1 VP). Risk Hull and roll is 6, so it becomes more salvage. The point of Notoriety from the sinking, plus the point from pushing the attack moves the Notoriety marker on top of the reinforcements, so we take a moment to add those ships randomly to the unplaced ship box. Most of the blue reinforcements are warships, so we're making somebody angry.
Last ship is another Mail ship (D8, 2N, 2 VP). We risk Nemo and roll an 11. Down it goes to Davy Jones Locker.
Week 15
Adventure roll: 6 (dark) + 5 (light) = 11. Ships added to Indian Ocean and Western Pacific.
Adventure card: The Lost Continent. It's a Test (9; Nemo). We do risk Nemo and the roll is a 3. Oh noes! We lose a total of two Nemo.
That pushes Nemo past his decision point, so we have one opportunity to change is motivation. Since we've sunk mostly non-warships, and we're getting concerned about Nemo's mental health, we decide to switch it to Anti-Imperialism. There will no further changes to his motivation this game.
(We make a note to use Conseil for his re-roll if we get into a situation like that again.)
Nemo Action: Rest the crew. We spend a couple of weeks resting the crew. Roll is 1 and we gain no crew. Next time, we'll offer less grog while they are on vacation. (We can't use the Rest/Repair/Refit action next turn.) The yellow reinforcement ships are added from the turn track.
After the Rest action, we use the Arabian Tunnel card to move to the Med for free.
Week 18
Adventure roll: Dabo! Double 1s. No ships added. We check the Eastern Pacific (1) to see if needs a treasure refill, and it doesn't, so we're done here.
Adventure card: None!
Nemo Action: Attack! First up is a Cargo ship (D8, N1, & 2 VP). Risk the Crew. Roll is 6 (+2), so the ship is sunk and scored.
Last ship is a Frigate (A5, D8, & 1 VP). It attacks with an 11 and misses. We risk the Crew and roll a 7 (+2), so it, too, slips between the waves. We decide to salvage it for later.
Week 19
Adventure roll: 5 (dark) + 3 (light). Ships placed in Indian Ocean and South Atlantic.
Adventure card: A Runaway Reef. It's a Test (7; Nemo). We risk Nemo. In his erratic state, he is worth +3, but he is very close to going unstable on us. We roll an 11 (+3) and blow away the reef. Our Notoriety is reduced by 2.
Nemo Action: Later is now. We decide to Refit. It costs 1d3 weeks (roll is 1), plus we'll have to discard some salvaged ships. We could install any one refit, but choose the Strengthened Prow, giving us a permanent +1 to our attack rolls. We take one salvage ship, flip it upside down and place it on the Prow refit row. The other two ships to pay for the refit are discarded.
Week 21
Adventure roll: Double 6s! No ships or treasure placed.
Adventure card: The Whales. It's a Test (9; Crew + Hull). We risk both and roll a 7 (+3) to pass. We choose to collect a treasure (the smarter move would have been to gain a Crew; but we need VPs) and draw a 3 VPer from the random treasure pile.
Nemo Action: Incite. We spend the 3 VP token we just pulled. We need to roll a 6 or higher on 1d6, but we do get to add the VP spent to the roll. We roll a natural 6! Excellent. We gain two liberation points (one from the successful roll, and the other from the natural 6). The discarded treasure token goes back to the treasure pile.
Week 22
Adventure roll: 5 (dark) + 2 (light) = 7. Ships placed in North Atlantic and Indian Ocean.
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Move to North Atlantic.
Week 23
Adventure roll: 6 (dark) + 1 (light) = 7. Ship placed in Eastern Pacific (West Pac is full).
Adventure card: 42° Centigrade. This is a Test (10; Nemo + Hull). We risk both and roll a 3! Ouch. We decide to use Conseil for a re-roll. We roll poorly again (5) and still fail. Double ouch! Conseil goes off to the collected treasure box and we lose a total of 2 Hull and 1 Nemo.
Nemo is now unstable. He is worth -15 VP at the end of the game, but if we lose even one more Nemo, the game is immediately over and we lose 50 more VP! Yikes.
Nemo Action: Attack! First ship is an Ironclad (A7, D10, N1, & 1 VP). The warship attacks and rolls an 11 to miss us by a country nautical mile. We risk the Crew and roll an 8 to send the warship to the bottom.
The next ship is a Mail ship (D8, N2, & 2 VP). We risk the Crew and roll a 5 (+2 from the crew). This would have missed until we remember our Strengthened Prow, which gives us the final +1 needed to sink the target.
The last ship is a Passenger ship (D10, N2, & 3 VP). We risk the Crew and roll a 4. Not even close. We fail, and gain even more Notoriety (we're up to 23) and lose the exerted Crew.
Finally, we use the Underwater Coalfield card we've been holding to gain 2 Hull.
Week 24
Adventure roll: 5 (light) + 1 (dark) = 6. Back to 1 ship per turn. No ship added (Indian Ocean is full.)
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Move to South Atlantic.
Week 25
Adventure roll: 3 (light) + 2 (dark) = 5. Ship added to South Atlantic (how fort… ahh, that joke is old.)
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Stalk. We reveal a small Cargo ship (D7 & 1 VP). Wow, easy target. Risk Hull and roll an 8 (+4; +2 from Hull, +1 from prow and +1 from stalk). Glub, glub.
Week 26
Adventure roll: 3 (dark) + 2 (light) = 5. Ship added to North Atlantic.
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Stalk. We reveal another Cargo ship, but slightly larger than our previous target (D8, N1, & 2 VP). Risk Hull and roll is 7 (+4). Nemo is pitiless as the cargo ships crew drowns.
Week 27
Adventure roll: 6 (dark) + 3 (light) = 9. Ship added to South Atlantic.
Adventure card: The Coral Realm. It's a Test (10; Crew) and we would dearly like to pass this one. We risk the Crew and roll a 7 (+2). Nooooo! We fail, and lose a total of 2 Crew.
Nemo Action: Move to Eastern Pacific (+1 week travel time). The additional travel time adds another reinforcement group (orange) from the turn track.
Week 29
Adventure roll: 6 (light) + 4 (dark) = 10. No ship added.
Adventure card: An Underwater Forest. It's another Test (7; Nemo + Crew), but an easy one. We risk both Nemo and the Crew. We just need to roll a 3 or higher on two dice. Roll is an 8 and we easily pass. We collect two treasures. One is worth 4 VP and the other is a Wonder: Dwarka.
Nemo Action: Attack! There are four ships here, and we hope the hunting is good. First ship is a Cargo (D10, N2, & 3 VP). We risk the Hull and roll a 7 (+3; +2 from Hull and +1 from Prow) to sink it.
Next ship is a Passenger ship (D9, N1, & 2 VP). We risk the Hull and roll an 8 (+3) to sink it.
Third ship is an Ironclad (A7, D10, N1, & 3 VP). It attacks with an 11 and misses (it needs to roll a 7 or less). We risk Nemo and roll a 10 (+4; +3 from Nemo and +1 from Prow). It goes under the waves.
The last ship is a measly Cargo ship (D7 & 1 VP). We risk the Hull and roll a 5 (+3) to sink that one as well. We decide to salvage this minnow of a ship.
During this turn, we earned enough Notoriety to add the green reinforcement group.
Week 30
Adventure roll: 5 (dark) + 2 (light). Ship added to North Atlantic.
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Move to Western Pacific (+1 week travel time).
Week 32
Adventure roll: Dabo! Double 2s! No treasure is added, but now we have to check for Imperial pushback. We compare one of the doubles to the Liberation track. If the die roll (2) is less than the current Liberation, we move that marker one down. It's equal, so the liberation marker stays put.
Adventure card: None.
Nemo Action: Attack! First ship is a Passenger (D8 & 1 VP). Risk Hull and roll a 5 (+3) to barely sink it (thanks Prow!).
Next ship is a Frigate (A5, D8, & 1 VP). It attacks with a 5 and hits (eep!). The damage roll is a 4 and we lose one Hull (darn!). We risk the Hull anyways, but now it only provides a +1 bonus instead of a +2 from just a moment ago. We roll a 5 (+2) and miss! The attack ends, we gain some more Notoriety (we're on 34) and our Hull is even more beat up.
Week 33
Adventure roll: Double 4s. Nothing is added or subtracted.
Adventure card: The South Pole. This is an Event card we retain to use in the South Atlantic. We can spend some time there to earn some VPs. We'll hold on to it for now. It might be useful later, but probably won't.
Nemo Action: We keep Attacking! We reveal another ship (which is kind of silly, you'll see in a second why) and it's a small Cargo ship (D8, N1, & 2 VP). We risk the Hull and roll a 5 (+1; +1 Hull, +1 Prow, and -1 warship modifier.) If there is a revealed warship in our ocean, and it is not our target, there is a -1 modifier to attack or stalk other ships. We decide to use Professor Aronnax for his +2 bonus and successfully sink the ship.
Next ship is the revealed Frigate. It attacks and rolls a 4 and hits (again!). The damage roll is a 5; the Hull takes another ding. Our turn; we risk the Hull and roll a 7 (+2) and send our enemy to a watery doom.
The last ship is another Frigate (A5, D8, & 1 VP). It rolls a 3 (darn accurate naval gunners!) and we take a hit to the (roll 1) NEMO! Dun-dun-dunnnnn!
Nemo is broken. Our journey under the sea comes to an immediate end.
Scoring
Well, that wasn't the most triumphant ending possible, but we need to find out how our journey will be remembered by future generations.
Warships = 11x1 = 11
Other Ships = 27x3 = 81
Scourging the Seas = 3 (We could have scored more, but we only sunk one ship in the Med. If we had sunk two more ships there, we would have earned 9 more VP)
Resources = -15 (Nemo)
Tragic Ending = -50 (Again, thanks to Nemo)
Treasure = 13x.5 = 6
Wonders = 1x0 = 0
Adventure = 0 (We failed 4 VP worth of adventures)
Science = 0
Liberation = 2x5 = 10
Our total is 46 points. Ouch. That's an Utter Failure. If we had scored 5 more points, we would have least just Failed. We won't be remembered by future generations, after all. The epilogue for our motivation and our victory level is:
The Nautilus disappears mysteriously, and the world never learns about Captain Nemo. His legacy is lost forever beneath the waves.
Hope you enjoyed that replay. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Thanks!
Last edited on 2009-03-17 10:13:59 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Posted Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:23 am
