Age of Exploration: Part 1
Pirates CSG Mega Pack for November 2026
Here are the game pieces for the Age of Exploration Part 1 Mega Pack, released starting in November 2026 for subscribers of my Buccaneer’s Booty Box! My subscribers voted for the theme in the poll, which is one of the perks of being a “Buccaneer’s Booty Box Brethren”.
It was hard not to get off-track during the research phase. I was tempted mightily by the epic and tragic stories about the Fall of Tenochtitlan and the search for the Fountain of Youth. In the end I decided to focus exclusively on the Spanish and Portuguese, because with only 12 cards to work with, I could only fit so many icons of exploration into the pack. If there is an “AoE2” release, it would probably still have Spanish/Portuguese but hopefully also some combination of English/French/Dutch game pieces. For this one I really wanted to focus on the truly famous and influential ships and explorers of the era, with a trio of incredibly important voyages easily taking up the majority of the card slots.
Santa María
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 113
Nationality: Spanish
Point Cost: 11
Masts: 3
Cargo: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 5L-3S-5L
Ability: If this ship carries no crew, she gets +2 cargo capacity. This ship may dock at an enemy home island or fort and randomly trade one cargo from this ship with one cargo from that home island or fort. If able, she must leave on your next turn.
Link: Christopher Columbus, Juan de la Cosa
Flavor text: The flagship of Christopher Columbus’ first voyage of discovery to the New World. Her armament consists of a few bombards and culebrinas. Although slower than the other ships in the expedition, she was able to cross the Atlantic Ocean successfully.
I think this was the first ship I learned about as a child. For gameplay, I didn’t want the ship to be a 10/10 because she didn’t survive the famous voyage (Columbus’ first journey to the New World). I don’t love the +2 cargo ability with no crew, but I thought it was fitting for a famous carrack to have it. The real attraction is the new ability, which I call “Columbian Exchange”. Quite curious to see how that will play out long-term in games! Not much reason to have stellar cannons on most of the ships in this release, as they were usually lightly armed merchant/ocean explorer ships.
Similar to Halve Maen and some of the other famous historical ships I’ve made, the replicas and references online from fame alone helped guide some of the artwork. I wanted it to be a lighter shade of brown than the other ships in the release. The Captain’s ensign of Columbus’ ships is flying from the mizzen. This ship has the first of 3 different crimson cross designs in this release, as I wanted to make each of them a bit unique. Plus various texturing on the hull and sails to make it look a bit weathered/aged.
Victoria
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 114
Nationality: Spanish
Point Cost: 10
Masts: 3
Cargo: 5
Base Move: L
Cannons: 5S-4L-4L
Ability: This ship cannot sink, but she can be scuttled. This ship can use Parley against English ships.
Link: Juan Sebastián Elcano, Luis de Mendoza
Flavor text: “I was the first to sail around the world, and it was I who guided you, Magellan, to cross the Strait. I dared, and deservedly I am called VICTORY: my sails are wings; my prize is glory; my battle, the ocean.”
The “cannot sink” ability has come very close to appearing on a ship or two in past historical releases I’ve made (notably HMS Victory and HMS Barfleur, which got alternate abilities instead). Here it finally shows up in my Pirates CSG Relaunch. She was the only ship to complete the entire (first) circumnavigation of the globe, and looks to have been afloat for at least a whopping 52 years. I didn’t personally find evidence of Magellan being in command of the ship (his flagship being Trinidad), which is why he doesn’t link to it.
This was one of the rare times when I did a full quote for the flavor text. It’s something I like to do on occasion to change up the flavor text as opposed to just summarizing the ship’s life/etc. Here it felt quite epic and appropriate. It’s straight from a 1500s map, translated from Latin.
I wanted to emulate the color scheme of the 1992 replica, at least for the hull. The ship was understandably in bad shape when she returned from the circumnavigation, so the sails, deck and hull all have damage. The sword-like crosses on the sails are inspired by the replica that was at SAIL Amsterdam in 2015.
São Gabriel
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 115
Nationality: Portuguese
Point Cost: 10
Masts: 3
Cargo: 5
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 4S-4L-4S
Ability: Filching Gold. (Once per turn this ship can randomly take one treasure from any ship she touches.)
Link: Vasco da Gama, João de Sá
Flavor text: The construction of this carrack was aided by Bartolomeu Dias, who lent his valuable expertise after a harrowing journey around the Cabo das Tormentas. Now serving as Vasco da Gama’s flagship in his pusuit of a sea route to India, she is loaded with victuals for the long voyage.
Here we have another famous carrack! Vasco da Gama’s flagship in his voyage to find a sea route to India. The ability comes from a specific part of the journey, where they stole from some Arab merchant ships off Africa. Sometimes there is surprisingly little ability inspirations found in the voyage descriptions even for historical ships that have records, but I didn’t want a ship this recognizable to have no ability.
I love name dropping Dias in the flavor text; he was part of the stiff competition for one of the named crew slots but just missed out.
For the artwork, I was excited to find this incredible painting of the ship. Perhaps not a historically accurate hull, but I really enjoyed differentiating the ship and making it a bit more fancy/unique than the other carracks here. I think the gold-yellow vertical beams will make the ship stand out on the table.
Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 116
Nationality: Portuguese
Point Cost: 16
Masts: 3
Cargo: 7
Base Move: S
Cannons: 3L-2S-3L
Ability: This ship’s cannons can shoot twice per shoot action. This ship’s L-range cannons eliminate crew instead of masts if they hit.
Link: Vasco da Gama, Luís de Menezes
Flavor text: A huge carrack built in Cochin, India. She mounts 140 artillery pieces across 6 decks, with many light swivel cannons ideal for wiping out crew on enemy vessels. The ship will be Vasco da Gama’s flagship on his upcoming third trip to India.
This is definitely the most unique ship in the release – expensive, slow but heavily armed, and with two new abilities based on her historical armament. Absurd to think about that many guns on an 800-ton carrack… especially when the Santisima Trinidad was the only ship of the line to reach 140 cannons – but almost 3 centuries later at almost 5000 tons! Of course, they weren’t 32-pounders/etc – I wanted to reflect as much in the abilities. The way I did it was to basically double up the cannons (with the first ability), but most of them aren’t powerful/heavy enough to actually take down masts (hence the crew elimination ability). This way, her theoretical “max output damage” per shoot action could be 2 masts and 4 crew, still quite intimidating. I think a Musketeer crew will pair nicely with the 2S in the middle, giving her even more firepower.
I looked at a few ship models for artwork inspiration, ending up with a unique deck wood pattern and top netting/grating in the middle. Very aged/weathered sails. There are actually 140 guns on the hull art, which was tough to pull off. A lot of them are shrunken down to fit the huge quantity of small caliber bores sticking out from the sides. Various carrack paintings (and ship models) inspired the look, where the barrels are pointing in various directions out of the gunports rather than a dead-on view that I typically do for standard cannons on ship hull art.
Bérrio
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 117
Nationality: Portuguese
Point Cost: 8
Masts: 3
Cargo: 3
Base Move: S+S+S
Cannons: 5S-4L-5S
Ability: Caravel. (This ship’s masts do not block her lines of fire. This ship cannot be pinned. When given a move action, this ship can rotate on her stern (the rear of the ship) in any direction as an additional, final movement segment.)
Link: Nicolau Coelho, Pedro Escobar
Flavor text: She was launched as São Miguel. Her nickname is based on her previous owner from Lagos. Piloted by Pedro Escobar, her captain Nicolau Coelho plans to utilize her speed to assist in da Gama’s exploration of the African and Indian coasts.
The caravel makes its return to the game! Credit to Vindaga Games for the original outlines of the ship type. This was another ship on da Gama’s first voyage to India (along with São Gabriel and São Rafael). It gives the Portuguese their second ship type (otherwise all carracks), along with being the cheapest and fastest ship overall. The few depictions I found showed her as a 3 master, though the Portuguese may also get a 2 masted caravel eventually.
I wanted to keep the art simple for multiple reasons – it’s the first caravel I’ve made artwork for, and some of the depictions of Portuguese caravels and their modern replicas are very simple in terms of wood lines, lack of stern details, etc. The sail gradients have a slight pink to blue-gray color scheme, with the main new artwork feature being the yard+sail shadow on the backs of the sails (inspired by this photo).
Christopher Columbus
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 118
Nationality: Spanish
Point Cost: 7
Ability: Limit. Captain. Explorer. Born Leader.
Link: Santa Maria, La Niña, Juan de la Cosa, Alonso de Ojeda, Juan Ponce de León, Pedro Alonso Niño, Bartholomew Columbus
Flavor text: An abundance of seafaring adventures and self-education prepared Columbus for one of the most important voyages of all time. Born in the Republic of Genoa, his journeys were eventually funded by the Crown of Castile. Using the trade winds to cross the Atlantic, he discovered the New World and thus initiated a long period of intense exploration, colonization, death and riches.
One of the most iconic named crew that could ever be part of Pirates CSG! You can’t tell the full story about the Age of Exploration/Discovery without him. He has Limit as a “most accomplished of his era” device, similar to Lord Horatio Nelson. There are a number of different ways to take him in terms of historical abilities, but I feel this powerful set will instantly make him one of the most powerful Spanish named crew in the game (as he should be). Ideal for saving cargo spaces on a hybrid ship.
As always, none of my inclusions of historical figures are an endorsement of their entire breadth of life activities or misdeeds. It’s called “Pirates” and the entire game is based on crime, so leave your morals on the dock. 🙂
Prince Henry the Navigator
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 119
Nationality: Portuguese
Point Cost: 8
Ability: Hostile: Barbary Corsairs. This ship gets +2 to her boarding rolls. Once at the beginning of each of your turns, roll a d6. On a result of 6, any ship in your fleet may be given two actions that turn. This crew can use their abilities on islands.
Flavor text: Infante Dom Henrique is a child of King John I of Portugal. His reputation bloomed after the conquest of Ceuta, but was nearly destroyed as a result of the Tangier disaster. Now he focuses his efforts on funding maritime exploration, with the new caravels taking Portugal’s growing colonial empire to previously unknown lands.
He has Hostile: Barbary Corsairs for a number of reasons. I don’t want to make new factions for every country/kingdom/sultanate/etc from the Age of Sail or before. Various historical “factions” from the North African coast and nearby may be absorbed into the Corsair faction in gameplay for practicality. Henry helped capture Ceuta (+2 boards) but later had a disaster at Tangiers against Muslim opponents, and was later described as wanting to stop pirate attacks – thus the keyword seemed to fit.
Later on he was more of an administrative crew who directed and/or funded various expeditions, hence the Admiral’s Action (AA) ability which can also be used on islands (since he didn’t really go to sea much if at all).
Ferdinand Magellan
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 120
Nationality: Portuguese
Point Cost: 6
Ability: This crew can use their abilities on Spanish ships. Portuguese crew can use their abilities on this ship. Once per turn, if this ship is within S of a wild island, you can mark it as explored without docking at it. The island becomes unexplored in regards to all other players. When another face up crew on this ship would be eliminated, turn it face down instead.
Link: Francisco Serrão
Flavor text: Sailing for Portugal, he reached the Malay Archipelago and was wounded at the Battle of Cannanore. Sailing for Spain, his current voyage could become the first circumnavigation. He renamed the South Sea to “Mar Pacifico”. Only time will tell if the Strait named for him was more dangerous than what he will encounter while sailing west into unknown territory….
The historical icons keep coming! This was one of the hardest releases I’ve made in terms of historical crew competition. A solid half-dozen people just barely missed out, with at least 3 of them being Portuguese as well. Overall I think these 3 Portuguese were the right crew to include after Columbus.
He bridges the gap between the Spanish-Portuguese connections often found in Age of Exploration stories. Including the S-Explorer ability in this release was always inevitable but I’m happy there’s not a ton of overlap. Ex: Spain gets a named crew with Explorer, while Portugal gets two different named crew with Explorer/S-Explorer. Somewhat early on in his adventures he saved Serrão, hence the Doctor ability which will make him a more interesting crew. I went as low as I felt comfortable on his point cost, both to make him more useful/powerful (it’s Ferdinand Magellan after all!) and because S-Explorer is worth closer to 1-2 points than the 3 it originally appeared as. (ex: with Doctor at 4, S-Explorer ~1.5, and the faction abilities ~1 point, with a discount or rounding down due to the “should be overpowered” effect I like to add to massive historical figures that should make an impact on gameplay based on their real life accomplishments)
Vasco da Gama
Set: Pirates of the Age of Sail
Release: Age of Exploration Part 1 (November 2026 Mega Pack)
Collector’s Number: 121
Nationality: Portuguese
Point Cost: 7
Ability: Explorer. Once per turn, roll a d6. On a 5 or 6, this ship may be given an extra action. This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against French ships.
Link: São Gabriel, Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai, Pero de Alenquer
Flavor text: After discovering an all-important sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope, he returned to Portugal despondent over his brother’s death at the end of the voyage. Falling out of favor with King Manuel I, he nevertheless returned to prominence years later with John III in power. Sailing for a final time aboard the Santa Catarina do Monte Sinai, he took his sons to India.
Finishing up the quartet of huge named crew, we have another historical icon. He’s the main linked crew of the release, and should pair well with either of the new Portuguese carracks. As usual his reputation precedes anything I can elaborate on or rephrase, so feel free to read up if you’re not already aware of the historical importance of these 4 people.
There you have it! AoE1 gives the Portuguese a major boost, while giving the Spanish perhaps the most name-brand recognition of any possible linked combo in the entire Age of Sail.