Charles Vane

Aggressive gunnery: the hardest-hitting and most fragile captain.

History in brief

Charles Vane first appears in 1716 among the men who sailed with Henry Jennings against the Spanish salvage camps on the Florida coast, after the 1715 treasure fleet was wrecked. He became the leading voice of the Nassau captains who wanted no master at all, and he treated the King’s pardon with contempt. When Woodes Rogers arrived in July 1718, Vane sent a burning prize drifting at the naval ships and escaped the harbour the next morning.

In November 1718 his crew voted him out for refusing to fight a French warship and elected his quartermaster, John Rackham. Vane later raided the western Caribbean, was shipwrecked, captured, and hanged at Port Royal, Jamaica, in March 1721.

Full history: Charles Vane.

In the game

• Captain HP: 54
• Crew: 34
• Style: Aggressive gunnery
• Passive: No quarter: cannon cards +2 damage; start with +3 gunpowder.
• Captain’s order, No Quarter!: all damage +3 this turn; enemy Burn 4. (every 4 turns)

Starting deck (10 cards)

• 2× Broadside (Gun, 2 energy): Fire the guns: 6 damage to the hull.
• 1× Chain Shot (Gun, 1 energy): 4 damage. Enemy Weak 2.
• 1× Grapeshot (Gun, 1 energy): 2 hull damage and kill 6 enemy crew.
• 1× Tack Hard (Sail, 1 energy): Gain 7 Block.
• 1× Pistol Volley (Crew, 1 energy): Kill 4 enemy crew. Enemy Weak 1.
• 2× Cutlasses (Crew, 1 energy): Your boarders kill 6 enemy crew.
• 1× Hold the Rail (Crew, 1 energy): Gain 6 Block.
• 1× Defiance (Signature, 1 energy): Vane: gain 5 Block. All your damage +2 this fight.

Card values are the base, unupgraded numbers before ship upgrades and captain bonuses.

Tips

• Win fast. At 54 HP Vane is the most fragile captain. Every turn a fight drags on is a risk, so put damage first.
• Use the powder. Cannon cards get +2 damage and you start with +3 gunpowder, so Broadsides and Chain Shot (which use powder) hit hard from the first fight.
• Play Defiance early. Its +2 damage lasts the whole fight. Save the No Quarter! order (+3 damage this turn and Burn 4) for a turn full of attacks.

Other captains: Blackbeard · Bellamy · Bonny & Read · Rackham. New to the game? See How to Play and the glossary.

More from the wiki

• Characters & Historical Figures – Pirate captains, Crown officials and the people of Nassau’s waterfront.
• Places & Sea Lanes – Nassau and New Providence, the Bahamas, and the wider Caribbean.
• Factions & Politics – The balance of power, Nassau’s pressures, and the history of 1716–18.
• Ships, Stores & Crew – Vessels, cargo, provisions and shipboard roles.
• Nassau City Ledger – Buildings, civic projects, resources and threats.
• World Threads – Historical pressures, expeditions and trade ventures.
• The Windward Passage – A naval briefing on the passage between Cuba and Hispaniola.
• Period Glossary – Over thirty period words for ships, ship work, officers, money, shot and pirate life.
• Charts – The New Providence harbour chart and the Bahamas & Florida Straits chart.
• Benjamin Hornigold – The founding captain of the Nassau pirate haven who became its hunter.
• Edward Teach (Blackbeard) – The most notorious captain of the age, from Hornigold’s sloop to Ocracoke.
• Charles Vane – The hard-liner who refused the pardon and fired his way out of Nassau.
• Calico Jack, Anne Bonny & Mary Read – Rackham’s short command and the two women tried for piracy in Jamaica in 1720.
• Woodes Rogers – Circumnavigator, privateer and the governor sent to end the pirate republic.
• The King’s Pardon of 1717 – The proclamation that split Nassau’s captains between a clean slate and the gallows.
• The 1715 Treasure Fleet – The hurricane that wrecked Spain’s silver fleet and filled Nassau with pirates.
• Ship Types of the Pirate Era – Periaguas, sloops, brigantines, snows and frigates: what pirates sailed and why.
• Pirate Articles & Life at Sea – Elected captains, written articles, shares of plunder and daily life aboard.
• Nassau’s Trade & Economy – How plunder became provisions: fences, smugglers, salt, wrecking and coin.
• Golden Age Timeline – Key dates from 1713 to 1726, from the treasure-fleet wreck to the last great hangings.
• Playing Blackbeard – Terror and boarding: thin the enemy crew, then take the ship.
• Playing Black Sam Bellamy – Crew and plunder: the toughest start and the richest voyages.
• Playing Anne Bonny & Mary Read – Hand-to-hand and duels: win the fight on the enemy deck.
• Playing Calico Jack Rackham – Speed and evasion: pick your fights and outsail the rest.

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