Pirate Treasure Hunt (Part 2)

Where the yellow and cyan lines cross, marks the spot to dig for treasure..

In my last post my Pirate crew were headed towards their objective of a treasure site and as it wasn't completely obvious how and why they had the objective, here's a more detailed explanation.
Mt crew were following two clues, "the Treasure lies in a line East-West of the Monkey God" and "the Treasure lies in a line North-South of the Cairn" (from the two clue cards I drew).
The photograph on the right shows where the treasure could lie, from the first clue card about the Monkey God in yellow).
In light blue is where the treasure could lie in respect of the second clue, about the cairn.
Where these two lines intersect will be where the treasure must be,

The crew triggering another Event.

My crew were headed eastwards towards the rough ground, just north of the Cairn where the treasure lay.

Another  Event card had to be drawn

These were predetermined as being only spear armed.

So my crew had a fight on their hands, it just remained to determine where the Natives were (16 inches a random direction from the centre of the square).

"Great, they're behind us!"

"Great, we're behind them"

So the next bit should have been easy, a quick in-sight test (I was using my version of THW rules), charging, shooting and hand-to hand, reaction test etc.
Unfortunately I'd all bu  forgotten how THW rules work (and the odd times when they don't !).
In this situation I had two crew facing rearwards with pistols, so were out of range.
I threw for initiative. which according to the rules, if the Pirates win then they duck back, they are out of charge range and pistol range of the natives.

The Natives on the other hand, if they lose the initiative, must also duck back!This certainly needed looking at.

The fight starts

Moving on, the Natives won the initiative and charged the pirates, the pirates go their two pistols shots off, before being enveloped in Natives spear.
 After the crew reacted and joined in. one pirate had been forced back and one killed as well as one native.

Two more natives and another pirate fall

 After two rounds of melee the Natives morale failed them and they fled the scene, allowing the pirates to carry on eastwards toward the rocky outcrop (and yet another Event)

The first mate (bottom left) fells the Natives' Leader.

Onwards towards the treasure site and another Event...

...which was the Shamanic Beads, to be given to Umbopa, if encountered

The event turned out to be an item, which helps in the interaction with a character.
The a counter is put on both the card and the character that has it.

Captain has the beads and two crew dig up the Treasure.

So there can't be any events as I don't move from this place until the treasure was dug up.
Once dug up, I needed to dig out some treasure chests (one of the many things I forgot)

Luckily I had some half-finished chests  handy

And of course, with the treasure came two new clues.

The treasure has to be in the Lonely Grave!

Cross-referencing the Lonely Grave East-West line (it's on the top row), with its North-South line, means the treasure is in the Lonely grave.
We set off westwards, to the column the Grave is in , then Northwards, meaning we would have three more Events before we could dig up the treasure!

West, to where the crew had just come from...

...then North towards the Lonely grave, triggering a new Event.

Another item

Another item, another pair of counters (blue this time)

Moving North to the sallbit of jungle and yet another event...

Yet another Item (yawn)

Through the jungle...

and out the other side to...

...the Lonely Grave  and another Event.

The Event turns out good for us.

 A quick "meet and greet" later and my smooth-talking captain convinced the woman to help us read the runes on "Lookout Rock" (with the aid of the flowers she'd obviously just dropped in the forest).
 We dug the treasure up, and backtracked with the woman south, then west towards "Lookout Rock"

"Yo ho HO etc."

With just the Captain and 1st mate not carrying any treasure, our journey to "Lookout Rock" was merely for curiosity.
The runes were read and the treasure too far for us to contemplate going for - there were after all, three groups of natives out there still to be encountered!

Walking over ground we'd previously trodden meant we'd get no more Events and so I called the game there and then.

The idea had worked, but would have been far better of course with two or more crews. Eight crew was probably not enough to get two treasures and fight the natives and another crew (or two!)

So, what can I conclude from this venture ?
Firstly the game worked as proof of concept, the cards etc. worked fine and as expected.
The Event cards, which were really an afterthought, worked but need a little more thought as they were put in place to substitute for another pirate crew. They could of course be put into a stack and drawn each turn, perhaps on the result of a die roll, thus not having the ;safe; avenue of retreat ?

My smoke markers for those that need to load their weapon.

The size  of force and forces to be met, need tweaking and I should really sort out rule interpretations as the THW rules didn't really cut it, despite my best efforts.
Having all the relevant bit to hand would have helped - how do you signify when a figure has fired and needs to reload before he shoots again ? I used some cotton wool 'smoke' on 1cm square bases (re-purposed) and two can be seen in use in one or two of the photos above.
 Finally would I play this again?
I would, but I would like an opponent and would have to have  simplified rules.

My latest acquisition - for about £6 from Hobby Craft

I've also acquired this :

It's a card cutter, that puts those neat rounded corners on cards.
The more observant amongst you will see that the 'used' cards have rounded corners whilst those still to be drawn have not.
As the cards were laid out before I purchased this I cut them as they were drawn.
 As an aside, I've also re-cut all my "Jimland" cards and rounded their corners too - with some not-too surprising results, which will be explained in more detail in the future.



So that's it for this this week's post, one which should have been posted on Friday last, but like many others real-life reared its ugly head and thwarted my best efforts to post, despite being 90% finished! (the dog ate my homework too).

Thanks for taking the time to read and as always, your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.