Get ready to travel to an exotic new locale and brave new waters with the latest Pirates CSG release!
Coming in January 2025, Seas of Japan is a mixed-set mini-release featuring no less than FOUR brand-new ship/creature types!
It features 11 total game pieces – four core ships, three crew, one equipment, and three sea creatures. The sea creatures (at a minimum) will likely be a collectible element of the release. Much of the release is still in progress, including the distribution model – the collectibility aspect may depend on how I can make the product. It is more likely to be collectible if I can make it on styrene sheets with full cards.
The entire mini-release is rather exotic – probably the most exciting part is that ALL the ship/creature types are new designs! There is a lot of novelty with it, compared to something like the Golden Seas set. It is a “mixed set” release, with game pieces from both of my huge custom sets: Age of Sail and Epic Seas. This means it will have both historical game pieces, and fantasy elements.
It is more focused on gold than combat, unlike my recent releases (HMS Victory and the Cursed Mega Pack). It’s a bit gimmicky, but that’s in contrast to products like Golden Seas.
The pictured ship is the flagship of the set – one of two Japanese atakebune!
Atakemaru
Nationality: Japan
Point Cost: 12
Flags: 3
Cargo: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 4S-5L-5L
Link: Kuki Yoshitaka, Mukai Tadakatsu
Ability: Atakebune. Two hits are required to eliminate one of this ship’s flags.
Atakebune keyword: A ship with this keyword printed on its deckplate card has removable flags that are treated exactly the same as masts on a normal ship (they can be replaced by fire masts).
This ship may be given move actions when it has no flags; its printed base move becomes S. When given a move action, this ship can rotate on her bow (the front of the ship) OR stern (the rear of the ship) in any direction as an additional, final movement segment (she cannot rotate on both bow and stern in the same move action). This ship cannot pin or be pinned.
This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls for every crew assigned to her. If this ship wins a boarding party, she may steal one treasure from the enemy ship (winner’s choice), and eliminate one crew (loser’s choice).
This ship cannot be assigned treasure except for treasure taken via boarding party.
Crew assigned to this ship do not count towards the ship’s point limit.
If this ship has no crew, she cannot be given move actions.
Flavor Text: Mukai Tadakatsu wanted a new atakebune modeled after the six legendary Tekkōsen of Oda Nobunaga’s navy. With Yoshitaka in command of the war fleet, the Tokugawa Shogunate aim to strike fear in anyone opposing their rule.
Is this an official set? No, we are not Wizkids and none of this is technically official.
What do I get when I buy the set? 28 ships, 4 forts, 16 named crew. 10% chance of getting a Super Rare.
What factions are in the set? Pirates, English, Spanish and Dutch.
Will there be additional sets? Other production methods are currently being explored, and more sets are likely to be produced.
Why are there no Cursed (or insert favorite faction here) in the set? The set takes inspiration from the first 3 sets of Pirates, and I didn’t want too much of a supernatural element. It takes me back to the “glory days” of the game. Also, there wasn’t room for a lot of factions due to the sheer volume of work and time involved in actually making the set.
Why was the crew artwork generated with AI? Primarily, to save time and money. I am not a company with the money to fund an art team, nor am I a professional artist, nor am I someone who is going to let people’s opinions on AI art stop me from going after my dream of restarting the game.
-I made sure to research AI image generators, and only use the most ethical one I could find (Adobe Firefly).
-If the crew artwork was human-made, there is a good chance that the set wouldn’t be out by now, and/or would be more (possibly much more) expensive.
-I did not want a set with no crew artwork, so I was willing to take the “hit” from the anti-AI-art crowd if it meant seeing my vision for the set through to completion.
Why are there no coins in the set? The idea is to have sets that are as compatible as possible with the original sets of the game, and making coins that have identical backs, sheens, and edge textures identical to the original styrene coins is not easy. In addition, most players of the game already have more than enough coins to use for the game, so it was not a focus of production given how time-consuming it was to make everything else. Future sets and/or products might include new coins.
Why is it not collectible? Collating random booster packs by hand would be difficult for an individual, and the production method of 3D printing (additive rather than subtractive manufacturing) is not conducive to cards that get pieces punched out of them.
Why do the cards have rarities if it’s not collectible? It’s generally best to design files that are compatible with the highest amount of production and distribution methods, so I went with that as a default mode from the start. This way if a collectible distribution model becomes more feasible, the card files would be ready to go without needing to overhaul anything.
Why isn’t the set balanced? Why are some game pieces overpowered or underpowered?
Since I did nearly everything to make this set come to life, there was only so much time for playtesting. Balancing a game that already has over a thousand game pieces is difficult. The sheer volume of playtesting required to make sure a new set is “balanced” at this point is enormous. In addition, having everything be perfectly costed/etc could arguably be bad for business. Players usually gravitate towards the best game pieces, so it could be in a company’s best interest to put out awesome, memorable game pieces that attract attention (and even negative attention from overpowered game pieces could be good for the game’s publicity).
I understand that not everyone will like the new things that I make for the game. Feel free to make your own perfect custom set that is balanced against everything and that everyone loves, with all human-made art.
My design philosophy: Make all game pieces usable, or at least interesting to play. This doesn’t mean they will appear usable to everyone. This means they will be usable to me – I change up my fleets often, I’ve played games in the thousands of points where almost all game pieces eventually become usable, and I’ve played the game nearly 600 times. As a result, my definition of usable is probably different than some other players.
I can’t please everyone. Sometimes it feels like I can’t please anyone. At that point, the default becomes just making stuff that I find fun, interesting, or awesome (preferably at 2 or more of those 3). If you don’t like the direction I’m taking the game, feel free to make, design, produce, market and sell your own set(s). 🙂
Bottom line: If there were more game pieces/factions/etc in the set, it probably wouldn’t be out by now, maybe not even at all in 2024. I believe one of the reasons that nobody has ever done this is because nobody has been willing to take the plunge and work on it full-time for an extended period. For a set to be released where one person does the vast majority or all of the work, extreme amounts of time must be invested. Negative aspects of the set needed to be accepted to even get the project off the ground. Certain things were left out just to make a release possible in the first place.
Relevant comment: “Whoever is leading the charge in FFXVII’s development will make whatever Final Fantasy game they want. People will buy it. Some of those people will love it, some will hate it. A lot will compare it to its predecessors. Either way, people will be disappointed and internet arguments will be an inevitability.”
Vulkan is one of the modern legends of Pirates CSG, having pioneered a DIY method of producing both custom and replica ships via 3D printing and decaling. His efforts from 2021 and beyond have been instrumental in the game’s continuation. He was also a key collaborator in the development of Pirates of the Golden Seas, as his knowledge and expertise greatly helped shorten my learning curve and 3D printing troubleshooting.
(Ben) If you design any digital artwork for Pirates CSG, which is your preferred program to use?
(Vulkan) If you make your own custom ship, what do you want it to be? (in-depth design, ship type, etc.)
Are you tired of the game being out of print? Have you waited years for our beloved pirate game to come back? Get ready to hoist the colors!
The first set to be commercially available since 2008 will soon be for sale!
Pirates of the Golden Seas is a half-size custom set that has been in development since 2021. After years of progress, hundreds of hours of work, hundreds of failed 3D prints, thousands of painstaking meticulous file edits, playtesting and more, the set is finally ready to sail. Disclaimer: This set is not associated or affiliated with Wizkids.
The initial print run is only 10 copies of the set due to the slow and labor-intensive production method, but I will be exploring additional production method options this year.
Each set is planned to be sold as a factory set (non-collectible). This is due to the difficulty of making random packs out of ships that only have 1 card each (the deckplate/stats card). However, it can bring relief to fans of the game who dislike the collectible pack sales strategy and proponents of one-time purchases and the living card game model.
The set contains 48 game pieces: 28 ships, 4 forts, and 16 named crew. There are 4 factions, including one new faction. The set will also be packaged with some other goodies, including a new alternate ruleset initially developed for use with the set. I generated the crew artwork with Adobe Firefly, which is the most ethical artwork generator I could find. From Adobe: “The current Firefly generative AI models were trained on a dataset of licensed content, such as Adobe Stock, and public domain content where copyright has expired.”
The set will cost somewhere north of $200 USD, given the enormous amount of hours and labor that have gone into making the set a reality. Tens of thousands of dollars have been foregone in potential wages and opportunity costs to develop and produce the set. Sales of the initial production run will be limited to 1 per customer.
I extend a massive thank you and appreciation to my main collaborators: Gigi, Chops, Xerecs and Vulkan. They each played a direct role in the set’s completion. Gigi designed the artwork for more than half the ships and also made the new ship designs. Chops made the initial designs for most of the new faction’s game pieces. Xerecs was a reliable partner for playtesting and rule/ability changes. Vulkan’s advice shortened the production process by many hours. I also have to thank the other gracious members of the community who helped me in some form or another: Woelf, DoubleAAsauce, TilorFire27, Arshellan and Gladius.
The set currently does not have a release date, but the set will be released in summer 2024. To stay in-the-know about Golden Seas, subscribe to The Pirate Press email newsletter for game piece previews!
Let’s have a look at the first game piece preview from Pirates of the Golden Seas!
HMS Devastator
Nationality: English
Collector’s Number: 012
Point Cost: 22
Masts: 5
Cargo: 4
Base Move: L
Cannons: 2L-3L-3L-3L-2L
Link: Captain Armstrong
Ability: This ship’s cannons may not be eliminated (masts still may be). If derelict, she cannot shoot. If this ship hits an enemy ship on a 5-6, also eliminate one cargo from that ship.
Flavor Text: Reinvigorating England’s presence in the North Sea is the Devastator. Capable of a heavy broadside unmatched by most navies, she sails forth proudly from Devon with freshly minted cannons.
The latest English flagship is an absolute powerhouse. This is the most expensive ship in the set. I wanted this set to have a classic feel, almost like a different take on the original Spanish Main set. A grand English warship to start off the game piece previews, which will continue up until the set is released.
Pirates of the Golden Seas is the largest project I’ve undertaken in my 13+ years of obsession with the game, bigger than Command the Oceans (the 3 month long full time campaign game I played in 2017) and anything else I’ve done. It has also been by far the hardest, with dozens of 3D printing setbacks, redoing a lot of the artwork files multiple times, and learning new software, hardware, and processes to produce the set.
I have avoided much of the previews and hype I usually share because I wanted to make sure it was possible before making a formal announcement. Many Pirates CSG projects have been started and abandoned over the years, including some of my own projects. I did not want an undertaking of this size to end up as false hope or a failed venture.
Getting this project off the ground was a huge workload. Every ship is 3D printed, with the longest prints taking over 5 hours to print just a handful of ships. In addition, every single ship has to be decaled by hand – for 10 sets, that means individually decaling 320 ships/forts, 480 cards, and 160 crew chips. As mentioned, in the near future additional production methods will be explored to hopefully drive down the time and money costs of making a set. Other distribution methods than a factory set may also be pursued.
There are some compromises I’ve had to make during production – sometimes the curved bow areas need glue to keep the decals from peeling, and pennants are generally a nightmare due to how small they are and the tolerances of getting them to fit onto mainmast slots (any potential future set I make will likely have the later mast designs to avoid pennants). However, there are also some advantages to the production method. PLA (polylactic acid, the filament type I used with the 3D printers) is less brittle than styrene, making the parts much harder to snap. In the main Pirates CSG survey, breakability of the parts was one of the chief complaints about the game, so this should be a major improvement. In addition, the artwork really pops from the glossy vinyl decals, with lamination doing a great job of protecting the ink.
Often when playing Pirates CSG at a game store, LGS, or a friend’s house, you have to pack up the necessary items to play a game of Pirates and hit the road. Hopefully you didn’t forget anything! I have accumulated many experiences with the “traveling collection”, where it’s only feasible to bring a bag or box to the game venue. The basics are easy, so I won’t spend much time discussing those. However, having played over 500 games of Wizkids Pirates since 2011, I have some additional tips on what to include in the box/tin/chest/etc that you bring to gaming events.
The Basics
-Your fleet with all ships, crew and equipment, as well as the coins you want to contribute
-Islands and terrain, especially if there are any specific ones you want to use such as Mysterious Islands, icebergs, etc.
-At least one d6
-Rules, Master Keyword List, The Pirate Code, and Reference Diagrams (you can also download PDFs of these from the bottom of my homepage for easy reference on your phone – highly recommended as this can save a lot of time when you need to look up rule text or FAQ answers)
-Spare deckplate for measuring L and S segments so you don’t need to use a deckplate from your actual fleet (more of a preference, but a great way to make sure your fleet’s deckplate area is never disrupted or confusing to other players, and you can keep crew/equipment/coins on the deckplates of your ships throughout the game without upending them)
Recommended
-Forts: one of each you own! They are applicable to many games, and you never know when you’ll want to build one or more of them. In addition, you might capture a ship belonging to a faction you didn’t already have in your fleet, which would then allow you to build forts of that nationality.
-Events: great for 0LR+5 decisions. They can also be brought in via specific Mysterious Islands.
-Multiple pieces of every terrain type: great for the Setup phase with terrain contributions to ensure you don’t run out of your favorites. In the case of the Lost UT, you might want to put down 6 of a single type all at once (Lost is from the most common set, Ocean’s Edge). Extra terrain is also good to have on hand if you have “terrain creators” in your fleet, such as Calypso, smokepot specialists/shot, or navigators. Sometimes I’ve been surprised by the quantity I’ve needed.
-Equipment: factionless and therefore usable by any fleet even if there are faction-pure house rules in place. Also a decent choice for 0LR+5 contributions.
-Extra coins if using gold bonus abilities (depends on your group’s rules for tracking bonuses at home islands (HI’s)).
-Fire masts
-Pennants or tokens for marking islands explored
-Playmat/fabric for an ocean surface
Advanced
-A large selection of “essential” or oft-utilized UT’s. This stack can come in handy if you encounter Pandora’s Box or generative Mysterious Islands. The Setup rules call for placing treasure after seeing your opponent’s fleets and choosing home islands, so classics like Wolves, Lost and Plague can be great to have on hand if you want to throw in some wild cards not originally in your anticipated treasure contribution.
-A crew for the Castaway UT that is optimal for your fleet. SM Calico Cat (SAT), SM Genny Gallows (+2 Gold), and SM GC-001 El Fantasma (HI Raider) are usually good choices, along with SS Bianco’s Haulers (can’t be shot while docked) and RotF Gus Schultz (Eternal). Generic crew might be better in some cases too. Think about what UT’s other players could contribute that might be found on islands – this maximizes your preparedness for whatever could be thrown at you!
-Paper crew chips in case other players may have forgotten some generic crew
-I like to have a few tiny d6 of different colors available that I can put on the deck of ships that have been hit by special shot types. This might include green for stinkpot/Fear, orange for chainshot, etc. Helpful as a reminder for when my turn comes back around.
-Extra ships and crew in case you are providing fleets for other players. This is especially useful at open play board game events, where you never know when a new player will want to join and learn the game. Having stuff on hand to make a quick beginner fleet is a good way to ensure new players have a chance to play!
Here’s a look inside one of my well-used play tins. Usually I’ll have a second one for the ships and forts. (that Slipstream card is 3D printed, not cut haha) The large tins that were released with the Ocean’s Edge and Caribbean sets are ideal for storing a large amount of game items, and can easily be brought safely on a plane (I recommend taping down the sides with some clear shipping tape). You may be able to find some on eBay(affiliate link that helps my efforts to keep the game alive if you purchase from it. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.).
Did I forget anything that you should always have with you as a Pirates player? Feel free to comment below any thoughts you have on this topic, and thanks for reading!
Pirates Constructible Strategy Game Wikipedia page
This is the Pirates CSG Wikipedia page (text version; image version here) before Wikipedia’s rules were strictly enforced, leading to a lot of the information on the page being deleted. This is the full and more useful version, though I’ve made some edits for clarity/brevity/etc.
Disclaimer: I did not invent Pirates CSG, nor did I write the actual Wikipedia page entry for the game. A lot of the information on this page comes from the supercollector Holofernes.
The Pirates Constructible Strategy Game is a tabletop game manufactured by WizKids, with aspects of both the miniatures game and collectible card game genres: a constructible strategy game (CSG) produced by WizKids. “Pirates of the Spanish Main” (the initial release of the Pirates line) is claimed to be the world’s first “constructible strategy game,” referring to the mechanics of creating game pieces from components that punch out of styrene cards. The game was created by Jordan Weisman and designed by James Ernest, Mike Selinker, Mike Mulvihill, and Ethan Pasternack. It was released in July 2004. Pirates CSG is a tabletop strategy game depicting naval battles and a 17th century hunt for treasure. An online computer game based on Pirates of the Spanish Main by Sony Online Entertainment called Pirates CSG Online was also created, which ended on January 31, 2011. On September 14, 2009, collectible maker National Entertainment Collectibles Association announced the purchase of the Wizkids name and properties from Topps, specifically including the Pirates line, which was then canceled.
The general goal of Pirates is to collect more gold than one’s opponents. Additional scenarios also exist, created by WizKids and others. The game’s pieces include ships, forts, sea monsters, crew, equipment, islands, terrain, events and treasure tokens.
A distinguishing feature of Pirates is the ‘constructible’ element of the game; ships and forts are created by popping out the small polystyrene pieces from placeholder cards and assembling them. As the ship or fort is damaged by enemies during the course of game play, pieces of it are removed to record how much damage it has sustained, giving the game piece itself the appearance of slowly being destroyed. The elements removed from the piece – for example, a ship’s masts – can no longer be used in the game unless another game element allows it to be replaced later.
Each game piece has a point value that is related to its overall power. A more powerful piece usually has a higher point value. Players assemble fleets of ships, monsters, forts, and crew based on an agreed-upon point total, similar to the manner in which many miniature war games are played. This helps balance each player’s fleet, and means that the construction of a fleet can be as strategically important as the gameplay itself. The standard build total is 40 points.
The action takes place on a tabletop or similar flat surface rather than a game board; before play begins, players take turns populating the play area with islands and (optionally) various pieces of terrain such as fog banks, reefs, sargasso seas, icebergs and whirlpools. Face-down treasure tokens are then placed on each wild island.
Players take turns moving their ships around the play area, docking at islands and exploring them, which reveals the value of the treasure tokens on that island. Ships then collect treasure and attempt to return it to their home islands before their opponents. Since the game’s victory conditions include both gold collection and the destruction of all enemy fleets, there are several different strategies that can lead to victory: trying to destroy an opponent before they can gather gold; building a fast and strong enough fleet to avoid being destroyed; or, most common, a mix of both.
The game is packaged so that one person may play the game with only one game pack, but several more packs are usually required to play using the full rules. Additionally, the game is far more enjoyable and balanced when each player has a larger selection of game pieces from which to choose when assembling their fleets.
The recommended “sweet spot” for playability appears to be three to five players on a 90 cm by 90 cm (3 foot by 3 foot) ‘ocean’.
Configurations
The game is primarily sold in “game packs”, foil-wrapped packs of randomized styrene cards and other game components roughly the same size as a pack of baseball cards or other trading card game packs. Each pack includes a randomized combination of two constructible game pieces: ships (including forts and sea creatures), and various crew, treasure and an island/terrain. These game pieces are numbered and collectible, and come in multiple levels of rarity designated by a color-coded triangle on each card’s corner – the most common rarities for standard booster pack items are : Common (white for generic crew, red for ships), Uncommon (silver-grey), Rare (yellow), or Super Rare (black). Other rarity designations for non-pack ships include “Special Edition” (green), a one-off Promo (purple), and “Limited Edition” (copper) for tournament prize ships and some Promos.
Unlike most trading card games, due to the limited number of game pieces in each pack, some packs do not contain any Rare or Super Rare game pieces, or may contain multiple Rares. The Super Rares of any given set will always come together in the same pack. Each pack also contains a cardboard island (the reverse side in later sets has printed terrain such as a fog bank, sargasso sea, or reef), a checklist and set of rules, a crew/treasure card (which should include gold pieces for use in the game), and a mini-die. Each pack had an MSRP of $3.99 (USD).
WizKids released other game configurations as well, mostly into mass market channels such as Toys “R” Us, Target and Wal-Mart. These include but are not limited to:
Promotional pieces and packs: Various ships since the game’s inception have been sent to retailers to be given away, usually in a clear plastic wrappers. Some of these are Limited Edition items, and some are duplicates of items found in common booster packs.
Tins: A small tin box decorated with Pirates artwork which contains multiple Pirates booster packs. With Ocean’s Edge, some Special Edition tin exclusive card packs were also included in the tins. Also released were “Mega Tins” – slightly larger tins containing Ocean’s Edge booster packs, and a special plastic wrapped pack containing faction-specific junk ships and crew. Two of the factions were only available in Tins exclusive to specific US retailers, Wal-Mart and Target. Finally, Rise of the Fiends “Treasure Chest Tins” contained one of four Megacards.
Value Boxes: A small cardboard box with a window in it, typically containing one of four possible Special Edition prebuilt ship, crew, standard gold treasure, islands, and occasionally a full-sized die. The prebuilt ships have a green corner rarity indicator which is referred to as “Special Edition”. These have been released for a number of sets since Revolution.
Megapacks: A booster pack twice the size of normal packs, containing four ships or creatures, a megacard (double-sized card), one mini-die, and several terrain. Released only for Oceans’ Edge.
On October 25, 2006, WizKids released “Pirates: Quest For Davy Jones’ Gold”, a non-collectible board game version of the Pirates game that uses gameplay elements and game pieces from the constructible strategy game, but is designed to be simplified, self-contained and sold in the board game section of retail stores.
Factions
Ships, forts, sea monsters and crew are members of various factions. The factions exist largely for fictional purposes, but there are certain game mechanics that use the factions as well.
The Pirates, representing the popular view of Pirates around the “Golden Age of Piracy”. They are mostly absent in Pirates of the Barbary Coast.
The Barbary Corsairs, who represent the pirates that operated in the Mediterranean Sea during this time period. They only appear in “Pirates of the Barbary Coast”.
The Jade Rebellion, a fictional group representing a confederation of Asian pirate-revolutionaries in the South China Sea. They only appear in “Pirates of the South China Seas”, with the exception of a super-rare “intro” pack from “Barbary Coast”.
The Cursed, consisting of ghosts and other supernatural characters, ships and sea monsters.
The Mercenaries, introduced in “Pirates of the Mysterious Islands”, a collection of steampunk-like scientists, revolutionaries and ships, including submarines.
The Vikings, introduced in “Pirates of the Frozen North”, which are not historical Vikings but Norse sailors who use Viking mythology, symbols and names for their ships.
Releases and expansion sets
Pirates of the Spanish Main
“Pirates of the Spanish Main” was the first release, and hit stores on July 28, 2004. It quickly sold out in many places, resulting in a second “limited” print run which featured noticeably higher quality printing than the first print run (the first run cards appear extremely ‘faded’). This set was printed in a number of languages: English, German, French and Spanish. Other sets printed in a foreign language (German) include “Crimson Coast”, “Revolution”, “Davy Jones’ Curse”, “Mysterious Islands”, and “Ocean’s Edge”.
The set introduced the Pirate, English, and Spanish factions, with ships for each faction ranging in size from one to five masts. Twelve named crew members, along with the generic crew of Captain, Helmsman, Musketeer, Shipwright, Oarsman, Cannoneer, and Explorer were also present for each faction. A number of generic treasure as well as named unique treasure were included, along with an assortment of cardboard islands with blank backs.
At the 2004 Origins AwardsPirates of the Spanish Main was one of the winners of the Vanguard Awards.
Pirates of the Crimson Coast
Pirates of the Crimson Coast is the second set and the first expansion to the Pirates of the Spanish Main. The expansion was released on March 2, 2005, and added the French faction, as well as the unit type of Forts, which could be built during a game on islands to defend them. It had 130 total pieces, and had a compass as its expansion symbol. It was the first set to introduce forts and the schooner ship-type and French ships. There was a single “super rare” piece included in the set, the Roanoke, a preview of the American faction from the following set, Pirates of the Revolution.
Pirates of the Spanish Main—Unlimited Edition
This edition was released on March 15, 2005, as a second reprint of the cards from the original “Pirates of the Spanish Main”. The numbering scheme on the cards was updated to conform with the “Pirates of the Crimson Coast” numbering and rarity colors. A checklist of the cards was also added. In Europe, the expansion removed the island cards and in their place issued new rules for ship movement and a playmat.
Pirates of the Revolution
Pirates of the Revolution is the third installment of Pirates of the Spanish Main. Released in June 2005, “Revolution” added the new American faction, and special event cards (Divers, Raft, Mermaids, Foul Winds, and Becalmed). In addition, the Marine keyword and Galley ship type debuted, along with the new generic crew Firepot Specialist. As its name suggests, it takes place during the Revolutionary War. It contains a total of 144 new ships, crew, forts, and treasure, printed on a deep blue background with the star expansion symbol printed in the corner. The set expands the role of the American fleet, previously introduced in Crimson Coast, with 22 new ships, plus a host of unique crew including John Paul Jones. The expansion includes reinforcements for the original factions from the two previous sets. It also contains four ‘Super Rare’ pieces: a Pirate chain shot specialist, Wesley (who shares the name & image of the character from the film The Princess Bride), and two ships: Star of Siam and Asp.
In the 2005 Christmas season, WizKids released six collectible tins containing Revolution packs in an Unlimited Edition. The game pieces are the same, but the collector numbers are preceded by the letters “UL”, and four new ships were added that only came in Special Edition boxes – Hangman’s Noose, Red Curse, Concord, and Franklin. The tins were mostly sold in mass-market retail outlets like Toys “R” Us and Target. By early 2006 the unlimited packs were showing up in regular hobby stores as well.
Pirates of the Barbary Coast
Released on October 26, 2005, this set added the Barbary Corsair faction, and a new generic crew type, the Smokepot Specialist. Four super-rare cards (two ships and two crew) previewed the forthcoming Jade Rebellion faction.
Pirates of the South China Seas
This expansion was released on February 22, 2006, and added the Jade Rebellion’s Junk and Turtle Ship types, as well as the Fear keyword and game mechanic. Six new Events (Hidden Cove, Favor of the Gods, Rolling Fog, False Treasure, Duel, Cursed Zone) were included, as well as the first six-masted ships. The super-rares for this set previewed the new Cursed faction. WizKids offered a mail-in promotion for the first 10-masted ship, a junk treasure ship called the Baochuan and her captain Admiral Zheng He.
Pirates of Davy Jones’ Curse
This expansion was released on May 31, 2006, featuring the new Cursed faction and the Sea Monster unit type, which act as ships but cannot carry crew. A mail-in promotion offered a 10-masted Cursed ship, the Guichuan, and her captain The Headhunter. The Super Rare cards in this set were printed on a semi-translucent plastic stock, giving them a ‘ghostly’ appearance.
Pirates of the Mysterious Islands
Released on November 15, 2006, “Mysterious Islands” added the new Mercenary faction, along with Jules Verne inspired Nautilus-style submarines. The titular “Mysterious Islands” were added as special islands with effects decided by dice rolls.
Pirates of the Frozen North
Released on February 14, 2007, FN added the Norse Vikings faction and the Iceberg terrain type, as well as the Longship and Icebreakership types. Islands were numbered for the first time in this set. A mail-in promotion offered the “Nordic Raiders Pack” with the Polaris and Serpent’s Fang ships and the Odin’s Revenge unique treasure.
Pirates at Ocean’s Edge
Pirates at Ocean’s Edge is the ninth expansion in the series. The set was released on April 18, 2007. It added new sea creature types including giant crabs, prehistoric sharks, and sea dragons. Ocean’s Edge also added whirlpools as an additional terrain type, and Windcatchers and Catamarans as new ship types. A 10-masted ship called the Zeus and her captain Emperor Blackheart were available as a mail-in promotion. The expansion includes the return of the junk and galley ship types. Along with being sold in the traditional booster pack format, the set features new two-player ‘Mega-Packs,’ which is how a player could obtain sea dragons, wind catchers, or catamarans. This is the first set to feature 32 islands instead of the customary 16. A number of ships from South China Seas have been converted to English, French or Cursed.
Pirates of the Caribbean PocketModel Game
The 10th expansion was released on November 6, 2007 as a tie-in to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It featured many characters and ships from the first three films in the series, plus some other Disney-created pirate ships. The new keywords ‘Parley’ and ‘Eternal’ were included from the films, along with the new unit type, the Kraken (an eight-segmented version of the five-segmented Sea Monster).
Development and Disney partnership
Wizkids announced on July 23, 2007, its partnership with Disney, to create a Pirates set using content from all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It was scheduled for release in October 2007, but was delayed until November 6th. This set was the first release to use WizKids’ new PocketModel name to describe their constructible games. The expansion features ships and characters from all three films, and is completely compatible with all previous sets. Like most Pirates releases, each game pack includes two non-assembled ships, one island/terrain card, a treasure or crew card, a rule book and a miniature die, with an original MSRP of US$3.99. Wizkids also released collector tins, as with previous Pirates sets. The game was sold at hobby shops nationwide, as well as traditional retail stores such as Target and Wal-Mart.
New features
Krakens – Sea Monsters which have eight segments and can “wrap” around ships.
“Eternal” keyword – Eternal ships, when destroyed, appear back at the player’s home island, essentially making them immortal.
Ship cards have a new, sturdier design. Masts have been redesigned with fewer cutouts and wider mast ‘notches’ to prevent snapping, cannon rank dice appear on both sides of a mast, the pennants for the center mast are gone, and there are some new faction flag designs.
Rise of the Fiends
Released January 30, 2008, RotF added the Scorpion and Flotilla ship types. The Loyal and Hostile keywords were added, and the Kraken keyword changed to Octopus. In addition to the standard checklist and rules sheet, numbered collectible stories were also included in the booster packs; the mail-in offer was for the Specter, which was a glow-in-the-dark ship. The Octopus Ochobrazo was to appear in this release, but was pulled; this unit does not exist.
Fire and Steel
F&S was released April 9, 2008, adding new ship types with movable parts – Bombardiers and Switchblades. It also added Equipment, a new type of cargo similar to crew. More numbered, collectible stories were distributed in packs; a mail-away offer was given for the Chum Maker Scorpion ship.
Savage Shores
SS was the final expansion, released on November 5, 2008. It added the new generic crew types Navigator and Cargo Master, the new ship type Hoist, and the new terrain type Trade Current. In addition, several new island types with special effects were added, as well as the new keywords Dories, Secret Hold, Born Leader and Chieftain. Two new 10-mast ships, the Shui-Xian and the Celtic Fury, were also released.
Return to Savage Shores
RtSS was scheduled to be released sometime in early 2009 – the design phase was supposedly complete and the set was ready to send to the printers when WizKids was shut down by Topps. While some information on the units that were to appear in this set is available, the set has not been released and probably never will be.
The Pirates storyline
The Pirates Constructible Strategy Game and its expansions feature flavor text on the styrene cards for each ship, fort, and unique “named” crew game pieces. The flavor text forms a roughly connected story that centers on several recurring characters: Jack Hawkins, the cursed pirate El Fantasma, the femme fatale known as the Calico Cat, and others. Although the Pirates expansions span several hundred years (Admiral Zheng He sailed in the 14th century, and Pirates of the Mysterious Islands is set roughly in the Victorian age), the recurring characters never seem to age, but they do develop. As such, continuity in the Pirates universe is difficult to establish. Many pieces of flavor text in later expansions reference events, ships, or characters in previous expansions, so there is a coherent – if factually and historically unlikely – plot that continues to develop with each new release.
Jack Hawkins is a typical roguish pirate type, similar to Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. He can often be found stealing ships and gambling them away. El Fantasma’s ghostly status was left ambiguous in Pirates of the Spanish Main; in later expansions, he received his own ghost ship and became a member of the Cursed faction, cementing his role as an actual undead pirate. The Calico Cat is a strong female character who provides a dramatic balance to Jack Hawkins; she is often depicted as a plucky adventurer who uses both brains and brawn to further a quest for revenge. The Cat also mentors a girl by the name of Bonny Peel. It has been hinted that “the Cat” has a personal grudge against Hawkins, and is rumored to be the missing Gunn in the Pirate stories.
Several additional recurring characters appear in Pirates fiction, including Blackheart, a pirate similar to the historical Blackbeard; the Crimson Angel, another mysterious female pirate; and non-pirates such as Charles Southwyn, a weaponmaster who helped create several ships in the Pirates of the Spanish Main release. Other notable characters include: Capitan Alarico Castro, a Moor who, despite a grudge against Spain, becomes an Admiral; Davy Jones, captain of the cursed ship the Flying Dutchman; Genny Gallows whose father was killed by the English; and many others.
In addition to the flavor text on styrene cards, several pieces of fiction collectively called Tales of the Spanish Main by Noah Dudley and Nancy Berman appeared on WizKids’ website before and after the launch of Pirates of the Spanish Main in 2004.
While some ships are historical and contain accurate historical descriptions of real events, others are either original fiction, fiction in the public domain (the Pequod from Moby Dick), mythological creatures, or are homages to fictional ships or characters. For example, some of the Sea Monsters in the Pirates of Davy Jones’ Curse expansion are obvious homages to creatures from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos.
References and homages in Pirates fiction
A good deal of Pirates flavor text contains references to historical events or people, other fictional characters or events, or are simply references to the game’s writers and designers. Pirates fiction also contains homages to other pirate fiction. Some ship names are references to other games created by Jordan Weisman. The Pandora (from Pirates of the Spanish Main) is a reference to the zeppelin of the same name owned by Nathan Zachary, the main character in Weisman’s Crimson Skies game. The Black Swan is a reference to a character from Crimson Skies or possibly to the Pirate movie of the same name.
A very incomplete list of other references includes:
Scrye the Explorer (PP-375) – Reference to Scrye magazine, in which the promotional piece appeared as an insert.
Pandora (PS-006) – Reference to the zeppelin of the same name from the Crimson Skies universe, also created by Weisman, along with the legend of “Pandora’s Box“.
Jack Hawkins – Reference to PotC’s Jack Sparrow (in name and looks) and Jim Hawkins (Jim and Jack are interchangeable names) who was once in the British navy and turned to piracy.
Sea Monkey – reference to the Lucasarts adventure game Secret of Monkey Island the flavor text tells the story of it from the game.
Announced March 7 2012 and released on July 18 2012, “Pirates of the Spanish Main™ Shuffling the Deck” is a non-collectible, stand alone card game set in the Pirates of the Spanish Main universe. Aside from the theme and some artwork, it has no relationship to the collectable miniatures game.
Cross-promotional (i.e., advertising related) game pieces
2004 – Scrye the Explorer (SM card # PP-376) – exclusive Explorer crew packed in the Sept. 2004 Scrye magazine (issue 75) along with the ship Bloody Throne.
2004 – The Bloody Throne (SM card # PP-375-C) – Exclusive three-masted ship packed in the Sept. 2004 Scrye magazine (issue 75) with the crew card “Scrye the Explorer”.
2006 – Gale Force Nine (SCS card # 301) – A four-masted Pirate ship LE, free by mail with proof-of-purchase when you buy either one of two island terrain sets from the Gale Force Nine game company.
2006 – Two Home islands released with the “Donald Duck & Co. #26” (Kalle Anka) comic magazine only in Scandinavia on 7/20/06 – these packs contained two ships (El Cazadora & Glorious Treasure, both identical to their English releases), a paper slip of treasure coins to cut out, rules, and two cardboard islands which are labelled “Home” on one side. Due to their limited distribution, these two islands are highly prized by completist collectors and quite hard to come by.
2007 – USS Denver (Ocean’s Edge card # SOE07) – four-masted American ship available with a $25.00 purchase from the cross-promoted Sony Online Entertainment online version of this game.
2007 – Flying Dutchman (POTC card # 300) – Special Edition Promo ship with advertising text, tied into the Disney related Pirates of the Caribbean set. Widely available as a hand out with purchase from retailers.
Convention-exclusive game pieces
2004 – Shrink wrapped four-masted Pirate ship Revenge handed out free to attendees of the Origins 2004 game convention. The ship’s card contains promotional text advertising the game rather than flavor text. Collector’s Number PP376.
2005 – Convention Megapack – Added two new American ships Providence and Destiny and an American Helmsman crew.
2006 – Shrink wrapped 10-Masted Jade Rebellion Treasure ShipBaochuan and Admiral Zheng He crew.
2007 – Shrink wrapped package with two Cursed nautilus-style submarines, the Locker & the Pyre, the crew Edward Low, and a Unique Treasure (UT) called Gem of Hades.
2008 – Convention package with four Pirate ships Royal Rover, Queen Anne’s Revenge, Amity, Minerva and four Pirate crew Bartholomew Roberts, Blackbeard, Thomas Tew, Christopher Moody.
Value box, hand-out & mail-in redemption pack game pieces
2005 – Value Boxes (Revolution) – Special Edition (green cornered) assembled ships in a box which includes a stack of cards from the set. This release included four new Pirates of the Revolution ships, (Franklin, Concord, Red Curse, and Hangman’s Noose). These four ships only exist in the “UL” (Unlimited) version.
2005 – Pirates of the North Pole Ship & Crew (Sleigh & Captain Whitebeard – Distributed to WizKids employees, envoys, registered retail venues and business associates as a Holiday present. Also given away in a drawing for members of WizKids online Pirates community. On Christmas Eve they gain special bonuses. They are not legal for regular play.
2006 – Value Boxes (Davy Jones’ Curse) – Wave 1 had new ships (Boneyard, Fool’s Gold, Electric Eel, and Drowned Man) and Wave 2 included new ships (Broken Key, Black Diamond, Nightmare and HMS Richards). Wave 2 was released in October 2006 – this was the only set to feature eight total Value Boxes.
2006 – 10-masted Cursed Treasure Ship (Guichuan) – A customer loyalty promotional piece for customers who sent twelve proofs of purchase from “Pirates of Davy Jones’ Curse” to WizKids along with a redemption certificate.
2006 – Value Boxes (Mysterious Islands) – new ships (Tasmanian Devil, Revolution, Empty Sky, Independence).
2006 – “Message In A Bottle” promo pack – two submarines (USS Mercury, Slipstream), crew (Thane Hartless) and the Unique Treasure Abandoned Crew. This was a customer loyalty promotional piece for the Pirates of the Mysterious Islands set in return for proof-of-purchase for four boosters, four booster wrappers and one each of the four special messages (paper slips) from the boosters.
2007 – Promo ship Obago – a giveaway sent to retailers to hand out as they saw fit.
2007 – “Nordic Raiders” promo pack with two longships (Polaris and Serpent’s Fang) & a Unique Treasure Odin’s Revenge. Available after sending in ‘four lost pieces’ of armory found on crew/treasure cards, four wrappers, receipt of purchase, and postage.
2007 – Value Boxes (Ocean’s Edge) – new ships (Last Hope, Jape, HMS Burma, USS Seattle).
2007 – 10-masted Pirate Treasure Ship (Zeus) – Same requirements as the Guichuan (12 “regular” wrappers or 12 “mega-pack” wrappers or a combination of both, alongside a coupon from the site and proof-of-purchase).
2007 – Value Boxes (Pirates of the Caribbean) – new ships (HMS Diamond, HMS Phoenix, Neptune, Sea Nymph).
2008 – Rise of the Fiends Cursed Ship (Specter) – originally customers had to mail in the Specter story (a paper insert) from a pack, but after a packaging problem in which few of the stories were actually in the packs, WizKids changed this to any story from this set, plus a receipt & postage.
2008 – Value Boxes (Rise of the Fiends) – new ships (HMS Forge, Rusty Harpoon, Hades’ Realm, Isabela).
2008 – Value Boxes (Fire & Steel) – new ships (HMS Resolution, Nox, Lucky Seven, Crocodile).
2008 – Fire & Steel Cursed Scorpion Ship (Chum Maker) – customers had to mail in the Chum Maker story (a paper insert) from a pack plus a receipt, wrapper and postage.
2008 – Promo Ship Obago Deuce – This extremely rare ship was scheduled to be a late-year promo for an in-store handout, but was only distributed in very limited quantities to employees and convention-helper Privateers. Some have made their way out on the resellers market as well. About 30 are known to exist, but more are assumed to have been printed. As such, this is the rarest ‘produced ship’ in the series, and highly sought after by collectors, though thoroughly unspectacular in game-play.
Other collectible elements, tins and other unusual releases
2004 – Set of eight mini-busts (statuettes) of Pirates of the Spanish Main characters, including: Calico Cat PP388, Captain Blackheart PP389, Jack Hawkins PP390, Christopher Myngs PP391, El Fantasma PP392, Diana Doone PP393, Luys de Alva PP394 and Skyme the Monkey PP395.
2004 – A series of Pirate-themed temporary tattoos were given out at conventions. At least 8 are known, all images of crew from the PotSM set.
2004 – Gold coins were purchasable with the styrene “coins” from the treasure cards in this set, which could be used in the Pirates Gold auction at GenCon 2004.
2004 – Several one-off prizes were created for the Pirates Gold auction event at GenCon 2004, including a wooden replica period ship with a Pirates of the Spanish Main plaque, several constructed game pieces signed by Jordan Weisman and Mike Mulvilhill and mounted in shadowboxes, pirate items such as a replica cutlass, and more. Most of these pieces had a small gold sticker “seal of authenticity” from WizKids.
2005 – Jack Hawkins Advantage Trophy (PP471) – a full color “trophy” / bust featuring pirate Jack Hawkins, which was larger and much more detailed than the earlier mini-busts.
2005 – Six different tan Pirates of the Spanish Main tins containing three Spanish Main and one Revolution booster pack.
2005 – Six different blue Pirates of the Revolution tins, sold in mass market retail outlets such Wal-Mart (contained no unique new pieces).
2006 – Gale Force Nine licensed items for use in the game, including a ship (Gale Force Nine), a special vinyl map, a booty finder pack (containing island exploration tokens and a range finder tool), and two different 3-D island sets.
2006 – Special “UK only” tins containing one pack of each of the first five releases available at Toys “R” Us (which contained no unique new pieces, despite WizKids’ announcement that they would).
2007 – Ocean’s Edge “Megapacks” containing 1 of 6 random “megacards” (Skipping Stone, HMS Hermes, Shal-Bala, Angelica, Ghost Walker, Mystic).
2007 – Six different “Ocean’s Edge” tins featuring OE packs and multiple faction specific, tin-exclusive cards (card numbers 143-162) released to various retailers (two designs of which were exclusive to Target and WalMart stores respectively, and contained factions not found in the other tins).
2007 – Four different “Pirates of the Caribbean PocketModels” tins featuring one of four Special Edition “Megacard” Krakens, 10 ships, three terrain cards, five or more crew or treasure cards, two dice, complete game rules. Each of the four distinct tins features cover artwork of one of the main characters from the movie and randomly contained one kraken (A Fearsome Creature, Beastie, Kray-Kin, The Kraken).
2007 – “Pirates Plunder Pack” box containing various packs, a new vinyl map, and an exclusive glow-in-the-dark 10 masted Cursed junk ship (Delusion).
2008 – Rise of the Fiend “Stories”, one of ten possible paper inserts in booster packs telling different crew/ship stories. A packing error made these stories very hard to collect as they do not appear in every pack as advertised – more like one in ten packs.
2008 – Fire & Steel “stories”, one of ten possible paper inserts which appear randomly in every booster pack.
2008 – A “treasure chest” shaped tin containing various packs and one of four exclusive Rise of the Fiends megacards (USS Mercury, Polaris, Terrox and Grinder).
2008 – A “Scavenger Pack” box containing three packs worth of Savage Shores items, one pack each of Rise of the Fiends and Fire & Steel, and one of six exclusive pre-assembled Megacard ships (visible in a window on the box). Purchasing all six variations of the box will net the buyer two new exclusive 10-masted ships (Celtic Fury and Shui Xian). To build Celtic Fury, you need one card each from the boxes containing ship #s 045, 046 & 047. To build Shui Xian, you need 1 card each from the boxes containing ship #s 048, 049 & 050. MSRP $14.99.
2009 – proposed but not released – “Admiral’s Armada” box set containing 13 Pirates booster packs (one for each previous set), Dice, Rules of play.
2009 – proposed but not released – a “Pirates Adventure Book” box including new ships, crew and treasure: one Pirate fleet with ships Charming Mary and Mercy, and crew Sean ‘Cannonball’ Gallows; and one Cursed fleet including ships Demon’s Heart and Wraith, and crew El Fantasma; also four Unique treasures (a Red, Blue, Yellow and Green ‘Gem Shards from the Eye of the Leviathan’); a new plastic Map with 6 preprinted islands on it, and four “fiction pieces” with scenarios. At least two prototypes exist, but neither contain the new ships, crew, or UTs.
2009 – proposed but not released – “Ship In A Bottle” boxes containing one of four new exclusive prebuilt ships (visible through a clear, bottle shaped window), three Fire & Steel packs, two Rise of the Fiends packs, one Ocean’s Edge pack, and dice. Two pre-production examples of these Ship in a Bottle ships are known to exist (Spanish ship #135 Castigue, and Pirate ship #136 Blue Heron), though both are missing deckplates and as such are incomplete for actual game play purposes.
Awards
The game won the Origins Award in 2006 for CCG or Expansion of the Year Winner.
This is the Pirates CSG Wikipedia page as it appeared before the site’s editing guidelines were strictly enforced, leading to a lot of the information on the page being deleted.
Marques Miguel Antonio from Davy Jones’ Curse – Mike Mulvihill’s personal crew in the game
Mike Mulvhill is one of the true giants of Wizkids Pirates CSG history, having designed the majority of the game pieces! He was heavily involved in numerous aspects of the game from Spanish Main through Rise of the Fiends, and helped with certain aspects on Fire and Steel. The game was basically his in terms of game design, concept creation, game mechanics and gameplay concepts, as well as rules, factions, and the specific individual game pieces.
Questions of the Day:
Ben: Would you buy a similar but not compatible version of the Pirates of the Spanish Main IP from Wizkids? (similar theme and artwork, but not compatible with the original CSG)
Mike: Would you be interested in a scenario model of play?
How do you play the game? Do you play it for a 30 minute quick game, or larger games that take longer?
Would you have liked to see the minor faction storylines in more of the sets?
Pirates CSG on eBay: https://ebay.us/5C1kyR (affiliate link – purchasing through it will help support my content and efforts with the game!) This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
Marques Miguel Antonio from Davy Jones’ Curse – Mike Mulvihill’s personal crew in the game
Mike Mulvhill is one of the true giants of Wizkids Pirates CSG history, having designed the majority of the game pieces! He was heavily involved in numerous aspects of the game from Spanish Main through Rise of the Fiends, and helped with certain aspects on Fire and Steel. The game was basically his in terms of game design, concept creation, game mechanics and gameplay concepts, as well as rules, factions, and the specific individual game pieces.
Questions of the Day:
Ben: Would you buy a similar but not compatible version of the Pirates of the Spanish Main IP from Wizkids? (similar theme and artwork, but not compatible with the original CSG)
Mike: Would you be interested in a scenario model of play?
How do you play the game? Do you play it for a 30 minute quick game, or larger games that take longer?
Would you have liked to see the minor faction storylines in more of the sets?
Pirates CSG on eBay: https://ebay.us/5C1kyR (affiliate link – purchasing through it will help support my content and efforts with the game!) This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
Marques Miguel Antonio from Davy Jones’ Curse – Mike Mulvihill’s personal crew in the game
Mike Mulvhill is one of the true giants of Wizkids Pirates CSG history, having designed the majority of the game pieces! He was heavily involved in numerous aspects of the game from Spanish Main through Rise of the Fiends, and helped with certain aspects on Fire and Steel. The game was basically his in terms of game design, concept creation, game mechanics and gameplay concepts, as well as rules, factions, and the specific individual game pieces.
Pirates CSG on eBay: https://ebay.us/5C1kyR (affiliate link – purchasing through it will help support my content and efforts with the game!) This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
