AAR: Treasure Islands

Alright, freshly back from GenCon I tackled the August solo mission. Lt. Commander Alan James Ball, commanding the frigate HMS Terpsichore, sailed out into the Caribbean to search for reported pirate treasure. This is his story...

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-4...asureHunt1.jpg

Click on the link above to go to the Google+ gallery with the AAR in pictures, then come back here.

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Damn, 15 turns is short. I managed only to search at 4 spots, fired only one broadside at the enemy frigate and still didn't quite make it off the board! I'd have secured one measly treasure if I had made an inch more distance.

I ran into a couple things that weren't clear to me for this scenario, but it was easy to just keep playing. Here's my thoughts on these.

1. If a treasure marker is the AIs target, how do you determine it's facing towards the AI ship? I assumed them treasure markers as facing straight towards the setup area, but in retrospect it might have been better for the AI if they had faced the other way.
2. That's because The movement AI doesn't seem to be very good at approaching a stationary target. If you roll high, it will turn away and takes ages to get closer. I believe this scenario would profit from special movement rules for moving towards treasure markers. Or was I doing something wrong?
3. If the AI goes for the treasure, does it target the closest one each turn? Or does it choose one in the first turn and stick to that, even if through manuevering it gets closer to another one?
4. What happens if the player flips a treasure marker currently targeted for by the AI? Does it roll again for intent?
5. Who goes first in searching if both are in range of the same marker?
6. The victory conditions mention points for 1-2 treasures and for "all" treasures. How many do I get when I find 3?
7. Once the AI decides to go after the player ship, does it ever go back to treasure hunting? If so, how?

When the AI decided in my game to go for treasure first, it became quite clear that it would take quite long to get there. To keep it more interesting, I rolled for intent again every time a treasure marker got flipped, even by me. That way I couldn't be sure what the AI was doing too far into the future.

Still, an awesome scenario, Jim. It was great fun to try it out and failing to escape on turn 15 was horrible! ;)

very enjoyable Report and presentation, Ralph. :thumbsup:

2. my AI ship captain also was drunk, I think. (because of his slalom run)
3. I would say that the AI ship is targeting alway the same target until it gets a treasure. (think it was described like that in the scenario rules)
4. Iwould say yes.
5. as described in the rules: the player ship
6. same for me (only 3 treasures, nothing more)
7. yes, in case of getting in range for a treasure flipping

Ralf, thank you for being the first AAR on Treasure Islands (I think you just beat out Fred in getting yours posted)! It was another great report with splendid photos and presentation. :thumbsup: :salute:

It's been several weeks since I've looked at the scenario, but let me try and answer your questions. I see Matthias has commented as well and we seem to be agreed on the answers. :happy:

1. If a treasure marker is the AIs target, how do you determine it's facing towards the AI ship? I assumed them treasure markers as facing straight towards the setup area, but in retrospect it might have been better for the AI if they had faced the other way.

Good question and it needs clarification. I would say that the treasure markers 'as a ship' should be facing away from you. I would base that on how I've seen the AI function in most of the solo scenarios I've played.

2. That's because The movement AI doesn't seem to be very good at approaching a stationary target. If you roll high, it will turn away and takes ages to get closer. I believe this scenario would profit from special movement rules for moving towards treasure markers. Or was I doing something wrong?

No, you weren't doing anything wrong. I could see having special movement rules for this, especially if I try to enhance it later. In all my testing with the treasure marker acting as a 'player ship' and the frigate is the AI ship it did continue to move towards the marker at least until it was close enough to 'search'. I may have been lucky in my rolls?

3. If the AI goes for the treasure, does it target the closest one each turn? Or does it choose one in the first turn and stick to that, even if through manuevering it gets closer to another one?

If you roll for the AI Frigate to go for a treasure it will always head for the closest treasure and it will stay on that target until it searches it (or it is denied the treasure if you search it first).

4. What happens if the player flips a treasure marker currently targeted for by the AI? Does it roll again for intent?

Another good question. See the latter part of answer to question No. 3. Yes, you would re-roll intent if you're denied the treasure target while heading towards it.

5. Who goes first in searching if both are in range of the same marker?

If there's a tie on searching the player ship gets to search first.

6. The victory conditions mention points for 1-2 treasures and for "all" treasures. How many do I get when I find 3?

I debated giving a 1/2 point for the "3rd" treasure, but thought that would complicate the record keeping for Eric. As it stands now there's no ability point award for the third treasure.

7. Once the AI decides to go after the player ship, does it ever go back to treasure hunting? If so, how?

Once the AI comes after you the only mechanism that will change this is if the AI can search a treasure before you. It's the trigger that calls for a die roll and at that point it could be reset to go after another treasure or continue coming after the player.

I've posted some of your questions and my answers up on the original August Scenario thread. Hopefully these clarifications will assist others in their scenarios.

There's always room for improvement and I appreciate yours and everyone's comments on this endeavor. Thanks again!

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Originally Posted by Uthoroc

2. That's because The movement AI doesn't seem to be very good at approaching a stationary target. If you roll high, it will turn away and takes ages to get closer. I believe this scenario would profit from special movement rules for moving towards treasure markers. Or was I doing something wrong?

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This is a good point. The AI was designed with the idea of:
a) trying to turn the AI ship's broadside toward the target, while
b) assuming that the target is moving forward, and
c) that the target will normally be turning to also expose its broadside

anything beyond that is a matter of trying to minimize turning into the wind and tacking, trying to maintain a bit of unpredictability, etc.

You would therefore want a different template to get the AI ship to approach a stationary target

When I played the scenario I rolled "attack player ship" first thing, so it was never an issue...


Awesome AAR by the way! Makes mine seem a bit crude, but oh well, we all have to do what we can :happy:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nightmoss

Once the AI comes after you the only mechanism that will change this is if the AI can search a treasure before you. It's the trigger that calls for a die roll and at that point it could be reset to go after another treasure or continue coming after the player.

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Huh, I totally missed that. The AI did get a treasure at one point, incidental to chasing me, but I didn't think to re-roll its action...

I'm PM'd Ralf about Question 2, but this is something I think we'll need to address for future solo scenarios. So if anyone has ideas please share. Coincidentally, I found the same issue coming up when testing DB's Egmont ship.

If an AI ships decides to disengage/flee from you, where does it flee to if that spot is a stationary point on the mat? And once it gets there, how best do you scroll it further on?

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Originally Posted by fredmiracle

Huh, I totally missed that. The AI did get a treasure at one point, incidental to chasing me, but I didn't think to re-roll its action...

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I'm not going to complain. This is all testing for the big campaign next year. :happy:

Thanks for all the answers guys, I'll be trying to come up with some suggestions for "moving towards a fixed point" rules.

As for the 3 treasure reward, why don't simply say:
"a. Recover 1 to 3 treasures and be off the board..."

That way people won't wonder about what happens with 3 treasures.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Uthoroc

Thanks for all the answers guys, I'll be trying to come up with some suggestions for "moving towards a fixed point" rules.

As for the 3 treasure reward, why don't simply say:
"a. Recover 1 to 3 treasures and be off the board..."

That way people won't wonder about what happens with 3 treasures.

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Thanks Ralf. I added this to the clarification post on the main August Scenario thread. "If you recover 1 to 3 treasures and get off the mat by the end of Turn 15 you will get One Ability Point."

That was a most interesting depiction of the action Ralph. This is almost professional presentation, and as such is well worthy of rep.
Rob.