Fire and Steel
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Mini Set Review
Product: Pirates of the Cursed Seas: Fire and Steel
Average eBay pack price: $10.01 (from 2023)
Cheapest place to buy: eBay
Factions: Pirates, English, Spanish, French, Americans, Cursed
Features/New Stuff: Bombardiers, Switchblades, equipment, historical LE’s
Ben’s Rating: 10/20
The wacky new ship types
Fire & Steel (F&S, 2008) continued the trend of the game delving more into the fantasy aspects, with new ships equipped with movable steel blades and huge flamethrowers. It was a large set, but a slow and boring one. There’s just not a lot in the set to get excited about. You can find all of the game pieces in the Master Spreadsheet, and I’ve ranked the Top 10 here.
Ratings
– Art: 4/5. Plenty of variety and good designs, with some ugly ones as well. The named crew portraits seem below average.
– Set Quality: 2/5. The gold standard for mediocrity in Pirates. So much quantity, and so much of it boring and/or below average.
– New Content: 2/5. Another colossal failure that partly led to the game’s downfall. Giant flamethrowers and freaky blades that pop out from the sides of a hull. Not as bad as Scorpions, but two Pokeship designs instead of one is just sad. On the other hand, equipment would have been perfect to introduce early in the game, such as CC or RV. However, at least it was great when it arrived – lots of variety, mostly historical, and good point costs (once you see the errata). The 0-value gold coins can be evil but funny.
– Collectability/Misc: 2/5. Somewhat fun to collect due to the sheer number of game pieces, including cool SE’s and LE’s. However, it’s a little TOO hard to collect – beyond the LE’s being pricey, you’ve got a Big 3 of very tough acquisitions – the Chum Maker, Raptor Maw, and the big one, the Obago Deuce (and I’m not even including the SiaB’s!). I would say this is the most boring set, so the intangibles are bad. It gets a 1/2 for Miscellaneous due to the Historical Pack and having just enough cool stuff to be worth investigating.
= Overall: 10/20. The most boring set in my opinion. I still enjoy all the sets, but I usually enjoy this one the least.
Below you can check out the entire Set Review Podcast episodes for a full overview of all the game pieces.
This game seems old but GOLD! I love old classic games. I think Fire and Steel can be fun, but as you said the set can be boring somehow.
I love your review for this game it is honest, with good details. I am amazed that I can find a review of this honest and trustworthy.
Thank you and looking forward to reading more of your new posts!
@Mohammad: Exactly right! Not too old compared to some, but not “current” unfortunately as a collectible game. F&S was underwhelming, but every set has usable game pieces. Some of my favorites from F&S are the San Pedro and Skin Flayer.
I definitely want to be honest in my reviews, because there are enough other people in the Pirates CSG community that would call me out if I said it was a great set! Because it is not! LOL!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting!
Ben