Gravity Feed Box – Pirates of the Caribbean 24 pack box

Posted on August 9, 2023August 11, 2023 by Ben

Gravity Feed Box – Pirates of the Caribbean 24 pack box

Recently I managed to acquire my first gravity feed box of Wizkids Pirates product – a 24 pack booster box of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean set. It features the image-changing effect of the Flying Dutchman on the front, showing the ship at various stages of construction.

The PotC characters featured on the pack art for the set are on the sides:

I realize it’s not the most special item, but still a pretty cool and unique part of the game’s packaging history. The kind of thing you have just to have the unique box. I generally like regular booster boxes more than the gravity feed box style, but it’s a solid concept. The Pirates of the Caribbean set is also a pretty decent one, with various impressive game pieces and incredible characters in it. If you’d like, you can help out the website by buying some packs through the eBay affiliate link.

The back:

This is the quick unboxing video I did:

I got it for about $200 from Poland. I partly bought it since these gravity feed box items seem quite rare. The only other set I’ve seen them from is Fire and Steel, and I’ve only seen a couple of those. One F&S gravity feed box sold on eBay in 2023. Here are the pictures from it (not my pictures!):

The supercollector karakas529 also has one of the boxes:

Here is the Buy/Sell/Trade facebook group where I found the box for sale. (Please make sure to answer the membership questions and agree to the group rules if you request to join the group!)

Have you come across any gravity feed boxes of Pirates packs at any point in your life? I’m curious to know if they made them for any other sets!

Pirate Posters – Unique Collector’s Items

Posted on March 13, 2023March 13, 2023 by Ben

Pirate Posters

A little-known aspect of collecting Pirates CSG “things” are the pirate posters that Wizkids made during the production days of the 2000s. I happened across a Barbary Coast poster on eBay back in 2015 and bought it for probably $20 or $30. I had no idea how rare it might be. The most prominent collector of the pirate posters that I’ve seen is DoubleAAsauce/PirateCaptainAndrew. He’s got most of the poster variants known to exist, and told me that my Barbary Coast poster was the only one from that set he had ever seen or known about. I traded it to him for posters from Spanish Main and Crimson Coast, since I couldn’t pass up the 2-for-1 deal and I like those sets more than BC (still a good set though).

Here they are framed in all their glory!

Framing and Background

The posters are 17×22, so I bought frames according to that. The framing process was pretty simple and easy, and now I can have them on display all the time instead of hidden away in a binder or rolled into a cardboard tube.

I must credit Andrew for bringing my interest in these posters up a few notches. Before his posts about them in the Discord server, I didn’t give them much credit. However, now I see them as gorgeous and historical display pieces that bring my passion for the game to life on the walls of my room. Excited to hopefully acquire more someday, though they seem to be quite rare.

Here is the Pirates of the Barbary Coast poster:

Each poster has four identical quadrants on the back. Here they are in set release order (SM, CC, BC):

I hope you enjoyed this overview of the pirate posters I’ve had in my collection. I’d love to know which is your favorite! Leave a comment below with your thoughts! 😀

Pirates: 2022 Year in Review

Posted on January 1, 2023January 1, 2023 by Ben

Pirates: 2022 Year in Review

Hi everyone! This is a thread where you can share what Pirates stuff happened over the past year. It can be just about anything, from accomplishments to purchases to cool ideas. If this seems too vague, you can look at mine for an example. There’s also the option of stating your Pirates Goals for 2023.

It will be nice to look back upon the entire year and find joy and amazement in how much we’re capable of. List (possibly with links and/or a short description) everything you accomplished in 2022 in regards to Pirates that you thought was a good thing that happened. Everyone could make their own post and contribute their own things that they did or are currently doing. When I think about this past week for example, I don’t really think much of it, but when I consider everything I’ve personally done in the entire year, I feel amazed! I think others could share that feeling as well if they look back at everything. Also, little things count too, so it doesn’t have to be all about one particular event or anything. Once everyone has posted, we can talk about what we accomplished as a whole community.

A7XfanBen

Pirates Goals for 2022 (set last year)
-I played way more than 10 games and way more than 5 physical games. No games on water but I did play outside (both epic scale and tabletop) and in 4 different major cities: Seattle, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Portland Oregon.
-Organize a Pirates CSG community event in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) for a date or weekend in the second half of the year: Accomplished in mid-October with the PNW Weekend Marathon.
-Play my turns in CG4 when/if I am able: No turn available for me to play in CG4 this year.
-Teach at least one person how to play the game: Taught one friend how to play.
-Improve Pirates with Ben: Not accomplished.
-Be able to make replica ships (3D printed with artwork on them): Not done.
-Release videos that bring value to the game’s fans. Record cool Pirates CSG stuff: This was done, though I feel a lot of the videos were random or circumstantial (oh hey I’m playing let me record, or hey I got this lot, I’ll record the unboxing) rather than intentional and valuable.
-Release at least two podcasts. Continue trying to get special guests on (former Wizkids employees/etc): Only one podcast released, and I didn’t get any former Wizkids employees on.

General accomplishments:
-Met up with 25 people in person to play or talk about the game (3x as many different people played with compared to 2021!). Further developed my knowledge of the game, especially regarding underrated or underutilized parts of the strategic meta, especially around the Setup rules and using everything possible to your advantage.
-Brought the Pirates CSG community together physically more than ever before with various meetups, scheduling various games and meets even in cities not my own.
-Gave away various packs to curious onlookers in public games, and gave away a bunch of stuff from the Holiday Booty Contest.
-Continued collecting, including high priority wants such as HMS Phoenix and Tasmanian Devil.
-Due to my online presence as the biggest (public) fanatic of the game, I received some amazing gifts – a 1200+ ship lot in Olympia WA, and the Epic Scale Fleet from Captain Redgoat of PDXYAR fame in Portland OR.
-Released 39 videos and 1 podcast.
-Had a ton of fun making new fleets and coming up with new combo ideas. Some still to be tested out in future games.
-Contributed to the Scan Project.

Games:
-Played 50 games, my most since 2017 and more than I played from 2018-2021 combined! (42 across those 4 years)
-The majority of the games were in person, with I think 48 of the 50 being physical games and only 2 virtual.

Pirates Goals for 2023
-Be able to make replica ships. (3D printed with artwork on them)
-Release videos that bring value to the game’s fans. Be intentional about video topics and improve my production/editing/video quality aspects.
-Release at least two podcasts. Continue trying to get special guests on (former Wizkids employees/etc).
-Improve Pirates with Ben. (specifically, the signup issues with spam/bot accounts, and increasing the site’s presence online)
-Play at least one game in every month of the year.
-Play my turns in CG4 when/if I am able.
-Teach at least one person how to play the game.
-Give away some of the free stuff I’ve received to players.

Overall in 2023 I’d like to focus more on what’s best for the game and community long-term, rather than slipping into the “ease” of simply playing a lot because it’s fun.

Feel free to comment below with your own 2022 Year in Review! Or post your submissions for the 2022 End of Year Awards!

Game Modes for playing Pirates CSG

Posted on November 24, 2022November 24, 2022 by Ben

Game Modes for playing Pirates CSG

Important to note: None of this is official.

Through the years many complaints have been lodged by the Pirates CSG community regarding game pieces that are “too good”, “unfair”, “fun killers”, and the like. A problem seen in various other collectible games, it’s no surprise that Pirates has its fair share of broken or overpowered game pieces. One of the biggest issues I see in regards to playing the game is when players do not approach fleet building with similar mindsets. If no discussion occurs prior to the game on the relative strengths of each fleet or general player intentions, you may end up with a highly competitive fleet wiping the map of a gimmick fleet. The result can be less fun had on both sides. In addition, some game pieces have even been deemed “unsportsmanlike” despite no official ban list from Wizkids, their usage often resulting in angry or butthurt players who feel they need similarly nasty things to even compete to a reasonable level of play. Much more could be said about all of it, but I’ll skip straight to what I think are some “game modes” or formats that I hope players can use to avoid feeling disgruntled. If players agree to a game mode before building fleets, hopefully all parties involved will enjoy the game even more than they usually do. 😀 I have included Return to Savage Shores (designed but not released) for the sake of completeness. For reference, all game pieces can be found in the Master Spreadsheet.

Unlimited

Ban List: None.

Rule Changes: None.

Description: Pirates CSG as we all know it – standard, normal, no holds barred, the “proper” game mode for competitive playing, and how Wizkids intended the game to be played.

Semi-Limited

Ban List:
Ships: Banshee’s Cry, Le Bonaparte (DJC), HMS Grand Temple, Zeus, San Cristobal (004 version), Sirène
Crew: Captain Jack Sparrow (058 version), Lord Mycron, Capitaine Baudouin Deleflote, George Washington LeBeaux (RtSS)
Forts: Paradis de la Mer
UT’s: Blood Money, Cursed Natives, Altar of the Loa
Events: Mermaids, Hidden Cove, Becalmed
Islands: Mysterious Island #1, #4,#5, #6, #11, #12, #14, Savage Shores islands 103, 105, 108

Rule Changes:
-Treasure is not revealed when unloaded to a home island.
-The “more than half of the game’s starting gold value” endgame condition is not used.

Description: This mode is designed to eliminate the most powerful or broken game pieces in existence. It would likely make the UPS (Universal Pirate Shipping) strategy much less effective by banning CJS and Hidden Cove. Some of the biggest fun ruiners in the game are also listed – mermaids, Bonaparte, and Altar of the Loa. The islands are largely those that bring game pieces in from outside the game or can decide a game on a single d6 roll. The rule change is to prevent gold bonus abilities from triggering the more than half gold rule (as they add gold to the original 30) – although the gold bonus abilities are extremely good, there are bigger fish to fry at this level of OP/broken.

Limited

Ban List: Same as Semi-Limited, plus:
Ships: Darkhawk II, HMS Titan, Bloody Jewel, La Santa Isabel, Enterprise, Nubian Prince, Tiger’s Eye, Virtuous Wind (both versions), Santa Ana (SCS), Behemoth, Slipstream, USS Kettering, Le Coeur du Lion, HMS Endeavour, Hai Peng, Kray-kin, The Kraken, San Cristobal (both versions), Rising Sun, Sol, Morning Star (205 version), USS Morning Star, Frontier, American and Spanish Native Canoes, Libellule, Baochuan+Admiral Zheng He, Guichuan+The Headhunter, Celtic Fury, Shui Xian, Fortaleza, Zhànfu, Fetu, Orphan.
Crew: All 0LR +5 point crew, all crew with the Sac ability (eliminate a crew for an extra action), all crew with +2 gold bonus ability, Davy Jones (both versions), Grim the Savage (FN), Calico Cat (OE), Crimson Angel (OE), Emperor Blackheart, Calypso, Cursed Captain Jack, Griffin (207 version), Master Bianco (SS), Bianco’s Haulers (SS), Captain Charles Richard, Cargo Master (both versions)
Forts: Fortaleza Dorada
UT’s: Natives, Wolves, Pandora’s Box, Nemo’s Plans, Runes of Magic, Runes of Odin, Lost, Dead Man’s Chest (PotC), Kraken Gong, Voodoo Doll, French Royal Decree, English Royal Decree
Events: All
Islands: All mysterious islands

Rule Changes: Same as Semi-Limited, plus:
-The Captain keyword is built-in to the Sea Monster keyword.
-Shipwrights do not take up cargo space.

Description: By far the mode with the most comprehensive changes, Limited is designed to cover most bases in regards to what players see as overpowered. The rest of the ships with the “UPS ability” are here, along with many of the game’s best overall pieces. Some inclusions (such as the Runes) are designed to limit the “swinginess” of a game, lessening the direct impact a single game piece or combo can have on the outcome. The omission of cancellers is largely because they are one of the only defenses against submarines becoming nearly invincible. Whereas Semi-Limited only aims to tamp down on overpowered or broken game pieces, Limited has an additional goal of making the game more fun/fair as well as balanced for a casual audience.

Please let me know what you think of these game modes for Pirates CSG in the comments below. I would especially consider editing the Limited format, with feedback from the player base.

Pirates: 2021 Year in Review

Posted on December 25, 2021December 25, 2021 by Ben

Pirates: 2021 Year in Review

Hi everyone! This is a thread where you can share what Pirates stuff happened over the past year. It can be just about anything, from accomplishments to purchases to cool ideas. If this seems too vague, you can look at mine for an example. There’s also the option of stating your Pirates Goals for 2022.

It will be nice to look back upon the entire year and find joy and amazement in how much we’re capable of. List (possibly with links and/or a short description) everything you accomplished in 2021 in regards to Pirates that you thought was a good thing that happened. Everyone could make their own post and contribute their own things that they did or are currently doing. When I think about this past week for example, I don’t really think much of it, but when I consider everything I’ve personally done in the entire year, I feel amazed at myself! ? I think others could share that feeling as well if they look back at everything. Also, little things count too, so it doesn’t have to be all about one particular event or anything. Once everyone has posted, we can talk about what we accomplished as a whole community.

A7XfanBen

Pirates Goals for 2021 (set last year)
-I played 14 games, my highest total since 2017.
-I played a turn in CG4 that took about 33 hours.
-I taught two players how to play.
-Pirates with Ben still sailing along.
-I’ve learned more about the production side of the game, lucked into acquiring a Cameo 4, bought a regular printer for artwork, and now just need to put it all together.
-I released 63 new youtube videos and 2 podcasts.

General accomplishments:
-Met up with 8 players from the Pirates CSG community and Tiffany O’Brien. Reached new strategic heights in gameplay, theory, and experience.
-More videos and podcasts than in 2020.
-Contributed to the Scan Project.
-Established a new “Washington collection” of over 1000 ships and over 800 packs.
-Acquired various new game pieces, including prime wants such as the RotF LE’s, Specter, and Raptor Maw.
-Made various plans and set things up for the future.

Games:
-Played 14 games
-Continued CG4.
-The majority of the games were in person. Of the 9 players I played against, 8 of them I had never played against in real life before this year!

Pirates Goals for 2022
-Play at least ten games. Of those, play at least 5 physical games. (Tentative goal: Play a game on water)
-Organize a Pirates CSG community event in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) for a date or weekend in the second half of the year.
-Play my turns in CG4 when/if I am able.
-Teach at least one person how to play the game.
-Improve Pirates with Ben.
-Be able to make replica ships. (3D printed with artwork on them)
-Release videos that bring value to the game’s fans. Record cool Pirates CSG stuff.
-Release at least two podcasts. Continue trying to get special guests on (former Wizkids employees/etc).

Feel free to comment below with your own 2021 Year in Review! Or post your submissions for the 2021 End of Year Awards!

UNBOXING THE MOTHERLODE | Massive Pirates CSG Collection Haul

Posted on September 26, 2021September 26, 2021 by Ben

UNBOXING THE MOTHERLODE

Documenting my hoarding habits from purchases made in the time period of November 2020 through September 2021. Most of it is contained within this youtube playlist, with 18 separate videos showing the stuff I got!

Before it was all unveiled. The 11 boxes totaled 138 pounds!!

Phase 1 Comics and Games order:

The same order at the bottom right. 8 Ocean’s Edge Special Edition boxes from the UK at left, Troll and Toad order at upper right.

Packs of SM, RV, and OE along with some Plunder Packs:

Super awesome to get a set of Revolution from Holofernes himself. (one of the most legendary and complete supercollectors ever, and the main editor behind the Wikipedia page for the game as far as I know)

Finished the boxes with one from Matt L. Quite excited to finally get most of the CC LE’s, MI SR’s, the Independence and HMS Mirage.

This weekend it took quite a while to get everything sorted and organized. My way of organizing ships is by faction (based on a combination of history, preference, and size), then mast count (biggest to smallest), then ship type (ex: 5 masted square rigged before giant squids), then set (chronological), then collector’s number. In this way, English 5 masters from SM would be the first ships in my collection, followed by those from CC and so on until the 4 masters start with SM again.

Here are some in progress sorting pics. The big stack at lower left is 133 Unique Treasures. Left of that are a bunch of Ocean’s Edge megacard ships, with punched deckplates above those. In the middle section are each faction’s ship and crew piles, with the huge stacks at the back being the second stacks of unpunched ships for each of the Big 5 factions.

Sorting English ships by mast count:

Absolutely ridiculous towering stacks of unpunched ships and crew:

This is after I got the Big 5 into a 5000 count storage box. The box can hold over 1000 ships, as it is not full here with 970 unpunched ships in it. For now I thought it would be fitting to store the UT’s in the treasure chest tin. 🙂

I’ve always wanted to have a massive card box full of Pirates stuff after seeing artisturn’s collection, and here it is! Almost 1000 ships! O_O

And now it is time! The full grand pictures!

THE MOTHERLODE

The Numbers

So there you have it. 870 packs, 3109 ships including over 1100 not even in packs, 509 crew, 133 UT’s, and a dream come true.

I think this concludes UNBOXING THE MOTHERLODE. XD I am officially a Hoarder!!

The Infinity Campaign | A Culmination of Pirates CSG

Posted on November 20, 2020November 20, 2020 by Ben

Pirates: 2020 Year in Review

Posted on November 15, 2020December 19, 2021 by Ben

Pirates: 2020 Year in Review

Hi everyone! This is a thread where you can share what Pirates stuff happened over the past year. It can be just about anything, from accomplishments to purchases to cool ideas. If this seems too vague, you can look at mine for an example. There’s also the option of stating your Pirates Goals for 2021.

It will be nice to look back upon the entire year and find joy and amazement in how much we’re capable of. List (possibly with links and/or a short description) everything you accomplished in 2020 in regards to Pirates that you thought was a good thing that happened. Everyone could make their own post and contribute their own things that they did or are currently doing. When I think about this past week for example, I don’t really think much of it, but when I consider everything I’ve personally done in the entire year, I feel amazed at myself! ? I think others could share that feeling as well if they look back at everything. Also, little things count too, so it doesn’t have to be all about one particular event or anything. Once everyone has posted, we can talk about what we accomplished as a whole forum.

A7XfanBen

Pirates Goals for 2020 (set last year)
-I did play at least one game – in fact, a handful of “endable” games. (as opposed to the next goal lol)
-I played a bunch of ridiculously long and epic CG4 turns.
-I did teach 2 new players.
-I was able to be on Pirates with Ben more than I expected.
-I did a podcast and a bunch of videos!

I was fortunate to have more free time than I expected this year, which allowed me to exceed my own Pirates expectations and goals for the year.

General accomplishments:
-Bought a 3D printer and made some ships from it!
-Recorded 29 videos with one still in the works. +1 podcast.
-Helped some creators with custom game piece feedback and expanded the Customs Database.

Games:
-Played 5 games (Of the 5 games, 2 were teaching new players and 1 was introducing a player to VASSAL)
-Continued CG4… and then some. To say the least. 🙂
-Played with 3D printed ships and wood paste ships for the first time

As a side note, the (extremely fun) time I spent playing CG4 this year probably would equate to 100+ games of “standard” games (1v1 at 40 points)…. One of the reasons I don’t care about yearly game count anymore. It does already feel healthier to go with “impact” and fun factor with games played. Though I still miss my relatively gargantuan totals from 2011-2017.

I know it’s boring, but my goals for next year are for now going to be nearly identical to this year.

Pirates Goals for 2021
-Play at least one game. (Tentative goal: Play a game on water)
-Play my turns in CG4 when/if I am able.
-Teach at least one person how to play the game.
-Check in to and maintain Pirates with Ben when I can.
-If able, contribute to the Pirates realm of 3D printing/etc, with testing/creating 3D print files/looking into an artwork solution/etc.
-I’d love to do a podcast episode and maybe a few videos, but these seem less likely than the above.

Feel free to comment below with your own 2020 Year in Review! Or post your submissions for the 2020 End of Year Awards!

Cheerleaders Aren’t Useless! (barely)

Posted on October 13, 2020October 13, 2020 by Ben

Cheerleaders Aren’t Useless

But only in the most niche of circumstances

“Friendly ships within S of this ship get +1 to their cannon rolls.”

Ah, the “cheerleading” ability. Sometimes the bane of a player’s existence – as soon as you see this ability, you know the ship is almost definitely downright unusable. I mean, Le Solitaire is probably the worst ship in the entire game. 17 points for a 1 master moving L with a 5L cannon! C’mon!! XD

However, cheerleaders aren’t useless… at least, not quite always.

Cheerleaders have a very niche use in massive games. They can be worth it believe it or not. They are best as behind-the-lines cheerleading ships that try to absolutely MAX OUT how many cannon bonuses they can give out in a single turn. It comes down to ship movement logistics, which are key in a campaign game, especially during large battles. The order in which you give gunships and support ships actions becomes very tactical, in order to sink or tow enemies at the right time, or to make room for a new gunship/etc.

Solitaire and Crete Argentee at the bottom there in an optimal situation where there is a defined “front” rather than a pell-mell battle

With cheerleaders, most of them are small and can hide behind the big gunships on the front lines. Before giving the cheerleader’s move action for the turn, shoot with the ships within range of the ability to get the bonus. Include more ships by moving captained ships within range of the ability to max out the “first round”. This can easily be 3-4+ ships in a serious battle that get the +1 to cannons bonus, which stacks with World Hater (“This ship gets +1 to her cannon rolls against non-faction ships”) and potentially other cannon bonuses available. With most gunships at 3+ cannons overall, this could easily result in 10+ cannons getting boosted, which is no small thing if you can get it on multiple turns in said battle.

Then you try to get it again with a whole new “batch” of ships. You still get to move the cheerleader. It’s best to have a helmsman, and sometimes there’s a slight chance of it getting an AA (Admiral’s Action – “Once at the beginning of each of your turns, roll a d6. On a result of 6, any ship in your fleet can be given two actions that turn.”) just because of how many cannons it might be able to improve. Move the cheerleader down the battle line. New gunships within range are now boosted as well and you can move even more gunships within range to max out bonuses. In a big battle it’s quite possible to give 6+ ships cannon bonuses in a single turn, which is like having an extra World Hater ability on all those ships for that turn (WH normally 4 points so ~24 point “value” for example), but still stacks with WH and other bonuses.

It also gets crazier because with two cheerleaders in one area, you might even be able to double up because the ability is not getting stacked on ships in range of more than one cheerleader (ability is on different ships). The Pirates, French and Americans each have multiple cheerleader ships to pull this off with. You can easily find them by searching for the ability text from the top of the post in the consolidated Master Spreadsheet.

They are terrible in 40 point games, and need a build total of 100+ (preferably 150+) to really even consider using them.

The Pirates have launched multiple cheerleaders in CG4 (being played with @Xerecs and PirateAJ14) including the Fantasia and Scepter. (read from the beginning if you don’t want to get spoiled; then you can continue with the CG4 tag)

So here I am in 2020 after all these years defending one of the worst ship categories in the game. XD Only after over 400 games of experience and hundreds or thousands of hours playing massive campaign games.

TL;DR – Cheerleaders aren’t useless and can be extremely effective in large battles.

Question of the Day: Have you used the cheerleader ability in a game before?