Avast, me buckos! Heave to, an’ prepare ta be boarded!… By teeny tiny buccaneers!
This super sweet little tabletop game is produced by Wizkids Games, and they’ve managed to combine two of my all time favoritest game things: miniatures, and piracy. Then, on top of that, for the love of gawd, they added die rolling!! These men are frickin’ geniuses!
I have a collection of 25mm miniature figurines that is so extensive that I cannot possibly hope to finish painting it within this lifetime, so to say that I enjoy collecting and painting the little buggers is an understatement. And to me, one of the most fascinating role playing genres is the high-seas adventure of pirates, whether historical or fantasy. (Ya can’t go wrong with a poor pirate accent, me mateys! Aaaar!)
Buying a booster pack gets you a copy of the rules, two ships, and a totally bitchin' teensy-weensy six sided die! It's one of those 5mm ones that weigh the same as a molecule of air. (Man, I love those things! Makes me feel like a god while I play! Just don't sneeze...)
The rules, both basic and advanced, are also free for download on their website.
[On an unrelated note, as is my luck, when I purchased four booster packs today to add to my fleet, three of the four packs had the same pair of ships. This would have been okay if they were gnarly ships, but one was the HMS Lord Walpole. Lord Walpole? That sounds like something kinky you'd request from a hooker.]
Anyway, the game is also collectible in the sense that the different ships have rarities. The company calls it a CSG, “constructible strategy game”. There are almost 70 ships to collect.
These babies come on sturdy, thick styrene card stock, about the size of a regular CCG playing card. The pictures are amazingly well done, very colorful and detailed. The cards have scored pieces of ships on them, ready to be easily punched-out and assembled. Most ships require more than one card to hold all their pieces, so buying one ship may get you two or three cards to punch pieces from. The assembled ships are about three inches long.
Once you pop your ship parts from the card, they're fitted together with a delicate hand using the simple slot-and-tab method. No gluing or cutting, so you can even break them down afterwards and put them back in to their card frames, if you want. They form warships of various sizes and power, with which you’ll quest for gold and plunder, and occasionally blow the ever-lovin’ crap out of your opponents’ fleets.
Once the ship parts are removed from the card, you can’t just toss the empty card border away. The cards hold all the useful info and stats for your ships, plus the edges are used to measure movement of your Lilliputian vessels and the range of your cannons. The card lists cargo capacity for each ship (so you can haul away booty), as well as your movement rating, your cannons’ power and ranges, and any special abilities your boat has.
You also need treasure coins and islands, which come on separate cards in each booster. Coin markers are stacked on islands, and are loaded onto your ship when you reach the isle.
Now, before I bought booster packs, I got some Pirates ships off eBay. Since I was just buying specific ships and not sealed booster packs, I had no island cards to start with. This isn't really a problem, since just about anything you have handy can be an island; drink coasters, napkins, cards from other games, etc. The islands are placed on the table before play, and swashbuckling opponents will try to reach these with their ships during the game. The islands don't have any special abilities themselves, so it doesn't matter what you use as an island.
In the advanced game, there are also crew cards and other goodies, which we'll discuss later, mmmm-kay?
BASIC GAME
To begin a game, each player has a home base island. Your ship starts here, and it's the only place you can repair your damaged galleon. The idea behind the game is to sail forth, explore islands, and bring home booty!
What be ye orders, Cap’n?
On your turn, you may choose to do ONE of the following for your ship:
On your turn, you move your ship according to the movement notes on each boat’s card. (You actually lay the card down and use it as a measuring stick to sail your vessel around.) This movement noted on the card will either be a red “L”, which is the length of the long side of your card, or a white “S”, which is the shorter side. Most ships have a combination, such as a Movement of L+S. This means that you first move one long side, then one short side. You’re allowed to make course changes between each move. This course change may allow you to come broadsides or go narrow when facing an opponent, which may be useful in combat, described below.
If you've sailed up to some island, you may explore and collect gold. Each island has a number of treasure markers on it, and on the bottom of the markers are written values in gold pieces. When you explore an island, you take as many markers as your ship can hold (per the ship's card stats), and when you get them back to your home island, you flip the markers over to see how many gold pieces they're worth. The winner is the pirate who collects the most plunder.
Any good pirate likes to fight as much as pillage. So sometimes, you wanna send your opponent to the bottom of the ocean before he swipes all yer loot.
Ships have differing number of masts, with larger ships sporting more sails. The number of masts is also the number of cannons your ship has, and the number of cannon hits your barge can take before sinking. (So, a three masted ship also has three cannons, and takes three hits before blub-blub-blub.) Cannons either use the long or short side of the card as their range measurement, just like with movement. If your ship is close enough to another that you can measure from your firing cannon to any part of the target ship with your card, you can open up a can of cannon-ball whoop-ass on them.
Each mast has an itty bitty d6 die face printed on it, which shows you the number you need to beat on a d6 to hit an opponent with that cannon. The dice are also either red or white, which tells you whether you use the long or short side of the card to measure that cannon's firing range. So, for example, if my mast has a red d6 with four pips showing on it, that means the cannon has Long range (uses the long, red, side of the card to measure distance), and I need to roll a five or six to hit my target.
If you get hit, you lose a mast. This has no effect on your movement, but once all your masts are gone, you get to explore Davie Jones’ Locker! (Fer all ye landlubbers out there, that means you sink.)
Your final choice is to make repairs on your turn. For every turn your man o' war stays docked at your home island, you may replace a lost mast. And swab the deck, of course.
That’s all it takes to play the Basic game. The “Complete Game” adds some interesting elements, but is not any more difficult. The additional rules just make things fun…
Make Sail!
Explore!
Guns to Port, Ye Scurvy Dogs!
Tar An' Pitch, Me Lads!
COMPLETE GAME
In the complete game, ships have point costs listed on their cards, with bigger, more bad-ass craft costing more points. Each player may design a fleet of ships that use up to the agreed-upon point allotment for that game. So Capitán Eduardo el Feo, pirate scourge of the Caribbean, may design a buccaneer fleet of twelve lightly armed but fast boats, while Commodore Nathaniel Bridgewater Crumpet III may lead five huge gunships that are ponderously slow, but bristling with cannons.
There is crew to be considered, as well. Each ship belongs to one of three seagoing powers: the Brits, the Spanish, and the pirates. Instead of treasure, you may fill cargo spots on your ships with crew cards. These crews give their vessels special abilities, but only if they’re on ships of their nationality. For instance, Shipwrights may repair damaged ships while at sea. Musketeers act as another cannon for your ship. Helmsmen allow your ship to move further, etc. But a British captain isn’t going to function on a Spanish ship, and a Pirate oarsman isn’t going to row on a Spanish galleon. You may mix and match ship nationalities within your fleet during the game, but you’d do best to crew each individual boat appropriately.
Rules for ramming and boarding actions also make things more swashbuckley for your armadas. Rammed ships lose masts, and those with no masts left after a solid ramming aren’t sunk, they’re just floating derelicts. They may be repaired later by shipwrights, or even towed away by another ship. After a ram, you might also try to board the opponent’s schooner and steal her loot. Aaaaaar!
This game rocks! Pirates are kewl! Tiny ships are bitchin’! Gamers love to roll dice! It’s collectible! It’s constructible! It’s cheap! It’s easy! It just all around shivers me timbers!
If you like this set, then you're in luck. According to the Wizkids website, the first expansion set, Pirates of the Crimson Coast, which includes French ships, forts, and terrain effects, should be out by the time you read this!
And if you want to sound more like a pirate while playing (which, really, is half the fun), check out sites such as this one..
So get yourself an armada and sail around the dining room table.
Eyepatch optional.
For more reviews and other gaming goodness, please feel free to stop by The Penderyn Campaign site.
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