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I would argue that Unique Treasures and rare coins (such as 0’s, shiny silver, etc) are one of the most irreplaceable types of game pieces.
Crew are proxied all the time, and new copies are easily made. They are also usually on the “sidelines” of a game where having a perfect back (showing the faction flag) is often not considered, or can have any discrepancies easily explained. Ships can be 3D printed, whether for proxy or replicas. Custom islands and terrain are arguably better than the official versions, with the cardboard versions extremely cheap and widely available.Special coins, on the other hand, must conform to a certain standard. It’s important that they have identical backs, and preferably a sheen close to what Wizkids produced. Common coins such as 1-6 can be scratched off to make proxy UT’s, but it’s tough to beat the original artwork quality on such a small piece.
Coins also go through more wear and tear than almost any other game piece. This fact is also nearly unavoidable, compared to crew stored in their cards in card sleeves and ship masts that are not taken out for fear of excess wear or breakage. Shuffling coins and moving them around during a game is essential, which can cause some scratching over time, further exacerbating the eventual need for replacements (and most special coins are Rare, if not even higher rarity).
New coins could be 3D printed/etc, but it would be very hard to get them to a distinct quality to where they are indistinguishable from Wizkids coins. If it’s too easy to tell them apart (or if they have rough edges, decals falling off, etc), players can gamify what they see on islands after the treasure distribution is finalized.
Just a random thought I’ve been having for a year or so now. It’s part of why I don’t have many UT’s up for trade – in an ideal world, over the decades I’ll play enough to where I’ll need duplicate UT replacements when a primary copy gets scratched/changed enough to where it’s easy to spot it on an island.
HWG added a lot of sets to their inventory today, and have a small Black Friday sale on RVx9 through Monday!
Blindside feels too cheap. How does Black Mark work on a ship? It’s only worded for crew so I think you’d need to make a new ability. I think I get the general gist, but would it be mandatory to use it? (or declare it’s being used from the start of a game)
Same deal as the above post: HWG PotCx36 (sale through 11/30)
Hydra is interesting. Cannon ability is too hard to use with Mercenary, but the last ability could allow it to operate at sea for quite some time.
I think Shadow of Cygnus should be at least 1-2 points higher; it’s probably at least as good as Forward.
Cutlass looks like a good specialty ship. Defining “defensive abilities” could get a little ugly, especially with the introduction of new custom abilities. For example, could that ability itself be cancelled? If not, could the ship’s ability shut down an enemy canceller if the canceller was trying to cancel the ship’s Captain?
Hero’s Blade seems like a bit of an unwieldy hybrid. The lightning rod flavor text gave me an idea you may have thought of – perhaps on a 1, the lighting is absorbed into the ship (rather than deflected) and gives it a fire mast. That might bring the cost down to 15-16 and make it slightly more appealing overall (or less appealing in a CG haha). Either way, I definitely see some high-value named crew coming aboard her to optimize, especially folks with Reverse Captain and/or Reroll.
I do wish Wizkids had used different language with similar ability triggers. I think “when this ship shoots” would be easier to understand, because oftentimes when they say “given a shoot action”, they actually meant to include the free shoot action after moving from Captain. That distinction could mean a big difference in how often an ability can and would get used.
Let me know if you’re in Las Vegas and can play Pirates!
We’re looking at a larger-scale meetup at Dice Tower West in early March 2024!
Algolmantis here and I’m glad to be back in the scene but my username is just my gamertag. I used to play Pirates way back when it first came out and to my delight it made a pretty decent splash at our FLGS.
Welcome aboard matey, glad to have you here!
The root of the issue is that Ransom was introduced in Crimson Coast, while the 0-Point rule was added later in Revolution, but Ransom was never updated to address it directly.
Interesting, I didn’t know about that part. I could ask Piranha if he remembers any direction from Wizkids about it.
I’m not so sure it should override the 0-point crew rule, since it doesn’t indicate that it’s supposed to. To me any rules updates at this point in the game’s life should be edits, not additions.
The Mike Mulvihill Supercut podcast is here! No new content vs. the 8 separately released episodes, but I wanted to have it available all in one place and one file. 8+ hours of Pirates info and discussion! 😀
https://pirateswithben.com/pirates-csg-podcast-mike-mulvihill-supercut/The Mike Mulvihill Supercut podcast is here! No new content vs. the 8 separately released episodes, but I wanted to have it available all in one place and one file. 8+ hours of Pirates info and discussion! 😀
https://pirateswithben.com/pirates-csg-podcast-mike-mulvihill-supercut/It doesn’t explicitly disable the 0-point rule, but that’s implied, because otherwise it largely defeats the purpose of Ransom. You CAN transfer the captured Ransom crew to other ships in your fleet, regardless of nationality, but the only island you can unload it to is your home island.
I’m finding that quite confusing. This is how I see it based on the keyword and Pirate Code (emphasis added):
Ransom: If a crew with this keyword is captured or transferred to a ship opposing to its original owner its other abilities cease to function regardless of nationality…
This would mean abilities like Reroll/etc cease to function.
Ability Conflict Hierarchy: -This list applies only when two or more abilities conflict. When an ability and a rule conflict the ability always takes precedence regardless of the terms used, unless specifically stated otherwise.
Placing Crew rule:
-A zero-point crewmember can be assigned only to a ship of its own nationality. Whether or not some other ability would allow that crew to use its abilities on another ship is irrelevant.
I think the flaw lies in the wording of the Ransom keyword. It should specify that when the ability kicks in, it also disables the 0-point crew rule. It says “its other abilities cease to function”, but makes no mention of essentially cancelling the 0-point crew rule. I understand that abilities override rules, but the Ransom ability specifically refers to other abilities and doesn’t include any rule overrides. Thus, based on what I’m reading, the 0-point crew rule still has to apply.
Rules come before abilities, so usually when an ability takes precedence, it’s quite clear in the ability wording (it’s obvious what rule it’s changing/etc). In this case, it is not clear. I personally don’t think it’s heavily implied enough to read into it so that the 0-point rule would be disregarded. It does make the negative of Ransom less negative, but there is still often quite the incentive to tow the captured ship back to your home island, as the ship might sometimes be more valuable than the 5 gold in the long run.
I totally understand that Ransom would be more thematic with what you’re saying, I just don’t see enough justification in the written rules to warrant that. Maybe there’s something I’m missing though! 🙂
Just to confirm: If you capture an enemy ship that has a Ransom crew on it, and the two ships are of different nationalities, you cannot transfer the Ransom crew to the towing ship due to the rule that 0-point crew can only be assigned to ships of their own nationality?
Why does the Pirate Code make an exception to the above 0-point crew assignment rule for Captain Nemo’s “shanghai” ability? (an ability which says specifically “captive becomes assigned to this ship”)
Do you know if “Shanghai” was the ability shorthand that Wizkids or the community used before 2011? (such as during the production years)
Hi! I had a “chicken or the egg” style of question referring to the working in parallel with Game Design team on the first set.
Which mechanics arose from the constraints of the physical ships?
Versus:
What changes to the physical ships were made specifically to aid the gameplay mechanics?
Here is the episode – I think it’s mostly answered in the question “For some of the ship designs that had rules integrated into their physicality, which came first?” If you still have the question or a related follow up after checking out the episode, feel free to ask!
Part 8 wraps up the epic discussion with PCSG game designer Mike Mulvihill!
Uhyggelig feels underwhelming to me. I could see her at 10 points.
Is Abraham’s +2 bonus for cannon and boarding rolls? It might be better to have a semicolon so it doesn’t seem like a separate ability. I could see someone construing it as +2 to d6 rolls against sea creatures. I’m not sure if I love Wizkids’ way of doing it, but it is pretty clear. Ex (Kodiak): This ship gets +1 to her boarding rolls. She gets +2 instead if her opponent is a sea monster.
Solomon Kaine looks quite useful! Name threw me for a second since I just rewatched Mission Impossible 6. XD
2 packs of Revolution are on the way to help get my partner into the game. Looking forward to deep diving into the podcast and looking at some of these custom sets!
Awesome! Thanks for the kind words and glad to have you aboard matey!
Namazu and the Trident target an area rather than any ship specifically, so Parley won’t work even if it’s the only ship within that target area.
That also means that Namazu could effectively “shoot” (just not with its cannons) at ships docked at a home island, correct?
If a ship has both of these abilities aboard:
-Masts on this ship cannot be eliminated by shots unless the cannon roll is a 6.
-Two hits from the same shoot action are required to eliminate one of this ship’s masts.
Does the first hit of each pair also have to be a 6, or can it be any regular hit because only the second hit would actually eliminate a mast?
Can Behemoth benefit from copying All-Powerful from a crew after kraken cancelling shuts down the All-Powerful ability? (Each turn roll a d6, on a result of 5 or 6 no crew abilities can be used this turn.)
Can a kraken surround a titan that is on an island? If so, do you move the titan into the kraken once the kraken is as close to the island as possible?
If a ship with only fire masts is wrecked on a reef, does the ship stay in play with the fire masts still there (permanently until game end), or does the automatic scuttle still happen and take her and her cargo out of play?
It’s determined by the ship’s current controller, so you make the check when that player starts their turn, regardless of when the ship was actually lit on or fire or when it lost its last non-fire mast.
Because of this, couldn’t you delay (or eliminate the need for) the automatic scuttle by capturing the ship that only has fire masts? It seems the requirement to scuttle the ship on its next turn would reset every time the ship changes hands.
How to use Double Shot….
Once per turn when this ship is given a shoot action, one of her cannons can shoot a double shot. Declare which cannon will shoot the double shot before rolling the d6. If it hits, the cannon can shoot again. If either cannon roll is a 1, remove Double Shot from the game and eliminate a mast from this ship.
I assume it would be best to use it on the most accurate cannon available, but only at the end of the shoot action. That way, you have the best chance of hitting in order to get the second shot, but if it backfires, you can just eliminate a mast that has already shot (therefore not needlessly losing that shot).
Of course, that assumes positioning and targets that would allow you to do such a thing – sometimes it might be more optimal to shoot at different targets at the beginning vs. end of the action, or you may only have the most accurate cannons in range of something you’d prefer to hit later in the action vs. right away. Though I think those considerations are more fringe cases than anything else.
The standard rule still applies, but by taking as much as you can carry you’re more likely to get to the good stuff. You can also take as many zero-space UTs as you want.
I didn’t clarify enough, or I’m reading into your answer too much heh.
Ex: Cannibal King (who has the Hoard ability) wins a boarding party against Congress. Congress has crew and treasure. Can the loser choose to just lose one crew, or does Hoard require them to lose all their treasure instead since abilities override rules? When applying Hoard or Massacre (kill all enemy crew if you win a boarding), I assume those are instead of the result the loser would normally choose? Or can they choose to lose (in the case of Hoard) crew and then get their treasure taken as well? (potentially making the abilities “in addition to” IF the loser chooses to also lose the opposite type of cargo, for example if they want to sabotage a ship just before capture)
Does Hoard override the loser chooses rule? I think it does but couldn’t recall for sure so I played it the other way against T O’B.
Can the Maui’s Fishhook use her ability before receiving any segments? “Once per turn as part of a move action, this ship can randomly take one treasure from any ship up to S away from her.”
-Ex: First action to go through whirlpool, then second to come back through the same one. Ability was used in between to nab a coin and then flee on the same turn.
Can the fort Thompson’s Island (+1 to cannon rolls when a ship is docked at it) benefit from a flotilla being docked at it? Essentially, can flotillas dock as a free action at islands when the towing ship docks even though they have no bow?
Am I correct in saying that fog hoppers cannot use a second action to go into a fog bank on one turn and move out of a different one with the second action? “If this ship (sea monster) ends her turn in a fog bank, on her next turn she may use her move action to move out of any other fog bank in play.” Essentially next “ship’s turn” means next player’s turn, not the ship’s next action, right?
