Destination: Pirate Day at The Calvert Marine Museum
By Glenn VanMeter
On 17 September our Tales of the Sail podcast was fortunate enough to partner with the Calvert Marine Museum to put on a Blood & Plunder tournament at their Talk Like a Pirate Day family event. This was an unusual gaming event for us as it was not held at a game store or a convention, but at an attraction open to the general public.
The tournament was also quite a distance away from most of the participating gamers, which is why we gave it the label of a “Destination Tournament”.
Due to the planning this event required, we needed participants to sign up ahead of time. Fourteen brave souls decided to make the trip to the museum, located in Solomons Island, Maryland. Tom Mullane came down from Connecticut to run the event with me. Most players were from the Maryland and Virginia area, but one or two came from Pennsylvania. We even had a four-player group come from as far as North Carolina complete with team shirts.
Participants in the tournament were also offered a bonus to their tie-breaker scores if they came dressed in a piratical fashion. Eight of our players took up the challenge, not including the four players in team shirts. Tom also took the chance to finally make good on a painting bet he lost last year, and wore his conquistador costume.
This tournament followed an unusual schedule. Most players are used to the three-round tournament. To keep the space occupied at most times and allow players to see the museum, we used a four-round system with a portion of the players having a free period during each round. While this precluded a “straight swiss” format, we did our best to match strong players and I think it worked overall.
The gaming area was located near the entrance to the museum, just to the right of the museum’s ticket counter. Next to and slightly behind the ticket counter was a demo table that Tom set up and manned most of the day. Throughout the day families could come into the museum for the pirate festivities, and tour our gaming area as well as the museum itself.
Several dozen walked through the gaming area, and Tom gave demos to seven or eight interested groups. The kids tended to love the very cool pirate miniatures, though parents were usually (and understandably) rather cautious about letting their kids anywhere near the miniatures. Several of the tournament players’ families attended the museum event, and they came through the tournament area to see what it is that we do at these tournaments. I’m not sure that they gained any more understanding of our hobby that they put up with, but it was good to see the support.
At the end of the four rounds and with a pizza lunch in the middle, players gathered for a group photo and to hear the results. We started with Best Dressed, for which Tom had made several treasure chest objective markers. We chose three participants who had all come dressed to the nines in period-style gear, including Andy Hodges, Mick Paul, and a totally new, first-time-playing David Ramos.
Next up was the award for best painted, which went to Drew Deming. Firelock Games tournaments don’t have a painting requirement, but we do like to promote a good-looking force on the table. Traditionally we let the venue hosts pick the nominees, and the museum staff was happy to oblige. The final superlative was for favorite opponent. Normally we have to figure out some kind of tie-breaker, but this time David Ramos was voted for by every opponent he faced.
Moving on to the score-driven prizes, we started with the Rear Admiral. Given to the lowest scoring player, Alex Brown graciously accepted after being the only player to lose all three games. The top three players each won all three of their games so the final placement came down to the first tie-breaker. This is where the decision to dress for the occasion actually could affect things. Third place went to Jeff Wiltrout, with 3 strikes thanks to the -2 bonus for dressing up. Matt Maggitti took second with a natural 2 strikes. Finally, first place went to a costumed player whose bonus put him at -1 strikes for the day, Joe Richards.
We’d like to thank first and foremost the Calvert Marine Museum for providing us with such an excellent venue for our event. This was an experiment on our part, and their cooperation and excitement is really what made it happen.
Next we’d like to thank Firelock Games and Mike Tunez specifically for sending us an amazing stock of prize support. Every player got nearly their entry fee back in blisters just for participating, with placing or superlative winners really taking home the prize from this event. Lastly, we thank all of our players. You guys not only are the reason we put this together, but you proved that it was a good idea and we can do it again. The community is excellent, and the new players at the tournament all had a great time. We can’t wait to do all of this again.
Below is a full list of rankings from the tournament. We’ll discuss a few of the lists on next month’s episode of the podcast.
- Joe Richards (English Militia)
- Matt Maggitti (English North American Militia)
- Jeff Wiltrout (French Caribbean Militia)
- Andy Hodges (French Caribbean Militia)
- Drew Deming (French Expeditionary Force)
- David Ramos (English Buccaneers)
- Mick Paul (Dutch Caribbean Militia)
- Noah Reid (French Canadian Militia)
- Andrew Dobson (Spanish Armada)
- Brian Reid (English North American Militia)
- Nate Brown (Spanish Militia)
- Jeremy Berrier (French Caribbean Militia)
- Franklin Holland (Heyn’s Commissievaarders)
- Alex Brown (English Buccaneers)
Good stuff. I wish it was closer and I was able to go. But regardless, thanks for organizing the event and all the outreach efforts.
Well done Glenn and team. Wonderful write up here too, with game and museum pics included.