presents his Intimidation Doubled entry.
After a successful launch at Salute, Cutlass is now available online for worldwide shipping! Priced £20.00 GBP.
Click here to order
Remember, any orders of £50.00 GBP or more go post-free worldwide.
Cutlass is a fantasy pirate rulebook for use with our pirate ranges. 124 pages, full-color. Filled with excellent artwork, photography, graphics and miniatures.
(This is very general overview to how the system works, and certainly not a guide on how to play the game! Hopefully it should give a general idea in your head as to the type of game Cutlass is.)
Cutlass is a fantasy pirate skirmish game. A crew/gang consists of around 10-30 models and a game takes a couple of hours.
The book has an introduction to the rules, actions, skills and weapons, encounters and campaign sections.
The campaign system is really the heart of the game. Your crew will increase (or decrease!) in number, gain skills, injuries, weapons and better attributes. You will also earn money to buy equipment, crew members and territory. At the end of each game there is a post game campaign sequence where all this happens. Roster sheets, tokens, charts etc.. are all in the book. We will also supply online versions of these free of charge.
You can also easily play one-off games, should you wish.
The game is land-based. That's to say, we haven't made rules for ship-to-ship combat. There's no reason you can't use the existing system aboard ships with existing ship rules.
Currently, you have the choice of seven different faction types to choose from: Royal Navy, Pirates, Privateers, Undead, Orcs and Goblins, Dwarfs, and Elves. Each has different strengths in different areas represented by their stats and skills they can acquire.
You must decide whether your crew wants to be famous or infamous at the start. Depending on your actions during each game, your crew will become more famous (or infamous)! You start with $500 USD and can purchase crew members and weapons as you choose - allowing you from the start to go for a small, well-armed crew, or weaker with greater numbers.
There are eight different encounters in the book, and four special encounters. Encounters are basically the storyline, guide to the game you're about to play. It outlines objectives, how to win, and any post-game events. A campaign is designed so that the players can invent a running storyline should they wish. To this end, the campaign can come to an end. In the book, once certain criteria are met - e.g., a gang gets to a certain size - this triggers the 'final reckoning!' So there will be an ultimate winner of the campaign.
Gameplay
The game is best played on roughly a 48" by 48" table with some scenery, buildings etc. There are pictures of the table we made in the book for inspiration.
The game uses a dice system and the following dice: D4, D6, D8, D10, D12, D20. We will be supplying packs of these on our website.
Broadly speaking, the dice represent the models' statistics. So the higher dice you roll for a particular stat, the better you are. As you get post-game increases, you may, for example, increase a stat from a D6 to a D8, D10 to a D12, etc.
Dice rolls are also open-ended, meaning should you roll a maximum, you can roll again adding the totals and so on...
There are two types of modifiers in the game. Weapons, skills, injuries, and a number of things can trigger these.
One is +1 dice, meaning you roll two of the given dice and choose the highest. The other is +1 level, meaning you roll a dice level higher (e.g., a D10 would become a D12 for that roll).
Models have stats in Reactions, Accuracy, Combat, Dexterity, Constitution, Damage, Daring. These are used throughout the game for the model to perform any given action - e.g., Accuracy is used for shooting.
There are no strict player turns in Cutlass. There is an active gang and an inactive gang. A leader has a special stat called Authority. This is rolled at the start to give each player an 'action point' total. The highest is active. We provide special action-point charts in the book to keep track. The active gang can declare an action (there is movement, shooting, combat, and a catch-all category called 'special actions' which involves re-loading, regrouping, etc., etc.). The number of models that can perform that action is equal to the current action-point total - e.g., if you have an action total of eight and declare a movement action, eight models may move. You then reduce your action total by one, to seven. Next, seven models can perform the given action.
At certain points, the inactive gang can choose to try and 'react' should they wish. They make a test at the cost of one action point, and if successful, become the active gang immediately.
In this way, tactics come into play, and when and how you choose to use your action points is very important! It allows for fast-paced action games where the tide can quickly change in favor of the other player! Once both players have an action of zero, there is a recovery phase - the leaders then re-roll their Authority test. Suffice to say, your leader is very important to you!
The specifics of how each encounter is won or lost is detailed in the particular encounter. There is also a generic win/lose system for one-off games or other encounters. We encourage gamers to create their own encounters and share them with the community.
What else is in the book?
The book is filled with superb graphic design, layout, artwork and photography.
All the gameplay charts, rosters, and tokens are at the back for you to photocopy.
The book also contains a number of special characters and hired hands. These bring another level of depth and interest to your games, being able to bring in Cannons, Giants, or Pirates of worldwide renown!
- Quick reference guide
- Supplied at the back for easy use during gameplay.
- Gallery
- Pictures of all the current ranges of Black Scorpion miniatures, helping you recruit your next crew member!
All this and more!
In summary, it's a fun, fast-paced game that allows you to create your crew in the image and way you like. Hope you enjoy it!
Cutlass Tokens & Charts
In the back of the book, you will find all the tokens and charts you need to play the game.
But we've made them available online for free! Easier to print-out rather than photocopying your book. I'm sure you'll agree they look fantastic, and may be useful for other gaming, too.
So you have:
Both roster sheets: picture picture
Action-point tracker sheets: picture
Loot tokens: picture
Action tokens and blast marker (you probably want a couple of copies of the action tokens): picture
I recommend getting them printed at a professional printer on card, it will make a big difference!
All remain copyright Black Scorpion Miniatures. Permission granted to download and print for personal use only.