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The Hammer of Admiral Norrington
Nothing subtle here. I’ve tried to maximise the survivability and fire-power of the ships by taking a fine contribution from each faction… except the pirates who cheaped out and plan to profit from this venture.
Strategy wise, the fleet needs to stick together as a block of sheer muscle and cannons, with the pirates close at hand to swoop in and nab any derelict they can reach. The fleet would stick together near each fort until it is destroyed, looking to repair as often as possible. Only the pirates would aim to capture ships, while the larger vessels attempt to survive and fight back.
HMS Dreadnought (26) with Admiral James Norrington (7) and Helmsman (2)
El Acorazado (21) with Captain (3) and Helmsman (2)
United States (15) with Captain (3) and Helmsman (2)
Le Gaule (17) with Captain (3) and Helmsman (2) and Explorer (1)
El Dorado (11) with Captain (3) and Helmsman (2)
Absolutely excited to see how this basic ‘turtling’ fleet would fare.
I like the idea of storing the plates in a binder. I’ll get a few card sleeves to keep them safe between games. It will also save quite a lot of space if I can just stand them on a shelf. Thanks!
I got all the ships assembled and they fill quite a lot more space than I first anticipated. I’m thinking the glass cabinet with shelves would be the best option. The cabinets are pretty cheap and I can organise shelves into factions, subdividing shelves into sets. I can then look at the ships, easily find what I need and if I’m careful, avoid inadvertently destroying any with my inate clumsiness.
Saldy, one thing I found when assembling ships was I needed to use a fine scalpel (exacto knife) to expand the slots used to assemble ships. Most sails didn’t fit in and I ended up snapping one early on because it wouldn’t push in with light pressure. I also found that where the ship had two levels, sliding the tabs together scratched off the outer colour. I was pretty miffed and even with a lot of care and carefully expanding the slots for the tabs, a couple of ships STILL managed to lose some of the colour. The white scratch looks awful but is nit that noticeable luckily. Oh well, that’s the game I suppose.
A little hard to read, but all the named crew I have are SM, Rev and OE. I don’t have either of the two Rev I saw on your list I’m afraid. I have no Vikings or Mercenary ships.
I do have Messenger, but I’m not very good at working it and people can’t usually find it. I have moderate success in adding people.
Which named crew were you after? I have a fair few doubles, so happy to trade any of those, maybe some singles too.
I’m also interested in getting a few more cursed, especially a 5 mast ship or bigger. I think it’s the only faction I don’t have a bigger ship for.
Ahoy maties!
After a large haul of booty, I have quite the list of doubles from Spanish Main, Revolution and a few from Oceans Edge, all unpunched. The list has the number, the rarity and the ship name and how many copies I have. The * denotes that I have an early release, but unless I have multiples listed, I’d rather not trade these. The art colours are very different. C – Common, U – Uncommon and R – Rare.
Oceans Edge
C010 – Death Wind
014U – Squalo
009C – Nightmare 3
005R – Maxehebel 2
008C – Lilu
026U – Raninoidea
032C – Cat’s Claw
045R – HMS Victoria
044R – HMS Grand Temple
066C – La Reconquistador
061U – El Toro 3
078U – La Moulin Rouge 2
047U – HMS Dunlap
093U – USS Aaron Burr
065C – La Serpiente
087U – USS Kentucky
048C – HMS Concorde
030C – Lady Newport 2Revolution
028C – HMS Nautilus
014R – Lightning
058R – Le Pique
007C – Executioner 2
069R – Untited States
041U – La Cazadora 2
042C – El San Jose
026U – HMS Oxford 2
079C – Rattlesnake 3
052C – L’Atalante 4
081C – Hornet 4
057C – La Felicite
075C – Jarvis 3
084C – Wasp
003U – Golden Medusa
080C – Hannah
073U – Saratoga 2
027C – HMS Serapis
010C – Cutlass
009U – Tiger
085C – Peacock
005C – Cursed Blade 2
041U – La Cazadora
001R – Black Swan
006C – Hades Flame 2Spanish Main
Not unlimited version of Venture, punched
081C – Pescados De Planta 4
020C – Greyhound* 4
006U – Pandora
069R – El Acorazado 2
082C – El Corazon Del Mar 3
023C – Royal Fortune 4
079C – La Furia* 2
022C – El Dorado
052C – HMS Birkenhead* 3
025C – Bonny Kate 3
053C – HMS Meresman*
021C – Carrion Crow* 4
046U – HMS Oxley* 2
012U – Freedom
080C – El Duque* 2
054C – HMS Wycliffe 3
075U – L’Aguila*
055C – HMS Plantagenet*
078U – Asesino De La Nave
026C – Batavian Bat* 4
028C – Silver Dagger* 2
012U – Freedom
024C – Muerta De La Corona
004R – Zephyr
049U – HMS Dover 2
027C – Venture* 2
003R – Harbinger*
084C – El Leon*
017C – Treachery*
010U – Silverback*
018C – Longshanks*
001R – Revenant*Wanted from Spanish Main
009U – Sea Nymph
013U – Raven’s Neck
014U – Wind Jammer
041R – HMS Titan
042R – HMS Albion
044R – HMS Europa
047U – HMS King Edward
070R – La Santa Teresa
071R – El Garante
072R – La Repulsa
073U – La Joya del Sol
076U – Cazador del PirataWanted from Revolution (I can’t tell if these are ships or not)
011C – Panda
012R – Coral
029C – HMS Algiers
032C – HMS Frolic
068R – Constitution
070R – Enterprise
072U – Louisiana
083C – Flying Fish
(I have almost nothing marked off from 043-065, but not all are ships)Open to most Crimson Coast ships
Welcome! I too have just returned to the game after many years away and also started with the original Spanish Main! Spanish are actually the ships I am missing most though from that set!
You can still get cards from a few places. Hills Wholesale Gaming just sent me a large order and I have a huge surplus now. Spanish Main, Revolution and Oceans Edge are all available and nice sets. OE brings in a bit of fantasy and new terrain which I think will make the game even more fun!
The variety will certainly be appreciated! I’ll also have an American fleet with half a chance against my other factions. I know how you feel about that feeling too. I’m a bit of a collector and in one field, I have about everything there is, so anything new is both extremely rare and expensive.
My original run of SM are actually a lot darker than the later run. The ships are anyway. The actual cards I can’t tell a difference.
Edit: I opened just one Revolution pack tonight. Got the rare Bonhomme Richard! Weird though, the other ship is actually two different ships. Deck plate of Hades’ Flame and sides and sails for Executioner….
Ahoy maties!
I wanted to share my enthusiasm and good news with you guys. My big order from Hills Wholesale Gaming arrived today! I’ve yet to open the box, but I got 40 packs of Spanish Main, 36 of Revolution and 36 of Oceans Edge! A significant increase to my very humble collection. I also have 36 packs of Caribbean coming, so well on the way to diverse and interesting games.
Edit: An interesting observation. The first double (well triple) of Venture, two from the original SM and one the Unlimited… the decking is different colours. How neat! Different printing runs I suppose. I think I remember Ben talking about that on the main site…
Edit 2: I have a lot of doubled now! Missing 12 ships from SM. I did get a few doubles of El Acorazado but nothing from 70-73.
Thank you, Woelf. I have shared the answers with my group for our next game. Hopefully this weekend if I can keep the momentum up.
Thank you, Ben. We had a couple of instances where players returned a towed ship to their home island and we assumed (correctly it seems) that it could then repair the same turn it was returned/docked. That then led me to consider other ways you could on your turn repair a derelict (in the unlikely event it was captured with a Shipwright crew on board), or ways you may want to stop a towed ship from being recaptured (since you cannot shoot at your own ships to sink them).
Hi all. On our last game there were about a half dozen rule questions raised. The Pirate Code solved most of these, but I do have a timing question. When you move into contact with a derelict ship, you can tow her. She, her crew and treasure are then part of your fleet and can take actions, other than move or shoot (that’s what I remember from the Code).
So if I were to cause a ship to become derelict with one ship, then tow it with another, does the towed, derelict ship (now part of my fleet) then get an action, as it is now part of my fleet and yet to take an action on my turn?
Likewise, if I am towing and successfully dock at my home island, does the derelict ship (after being moved to a docked position on the home island) then get an action on my turn?
Example 1) where you were towing and the derelict ship being towed had a shipwright aboard, could the derelict repair itself while being towed? Repair is not a move or shoot action.
Example 2) where you dock your ship at a home island and it is towing a derelict, could the derelict (when it is placed in the docked position at the home island) take a repair action the turn it was docked?
Example 3) can your ship initiate a tow and then you immediately try to scuttle the ship you just started to tow?
Apologies if this has already been answer, which I’m sure is somewhere in the Code given how comprehensive it is.
EDIT: I had one more question as I couldn’t find an answer… can you ‘stack’ generic crew and benefit from an ability more than once? Specifically, I’m thinking having multiple Musketeer and Helmsman. I get that multiple captains would be pointless and that cannoneers can be stacked but only one per cannon on the ship.
Ahoy maties!
Last night saw the second game of Pirates, with four participants this time! As with the first battle, I kept it simple as we learn the game and made all the 40 point fleets for the players. Each fleet was a single faction to assist in keeping track of ships, and I ensured each fleet had a five mast gun-ship and at least one fast gold-runner. I’ll add that I picked my fleet last out of two remaining options (Pirates and Americans), so there was no bias or advantage in building fleets. Due to my limited collection (about 50 ships), the French fleet came in at 39 point. I mention this because for this game, I brought in a few more rules and bits so we can ease into play with the full gambit of rules. Each player was given 5 extra points for crew (with the French getting 6) so each fleet was 45 points total. I let people pick the crew from generic options. The Spanish, Pirates and British all selected a Captain and Helmsman, while the French elected to take a Captain, Explorer and Cannoneer.
The Spanish and British players placed their Helmsman and Captain on their five mast gun ships, El Neptuno and HMS Lord Algernon respectively. The Pirates elected to add the Captain to the five mast Revenant and a Helmsman to Neptune’s Hoard. The French added their Cannoneer and Captain to five mast Le Dauphin Royal while the Explorer was assigned to Le Pique.
This was also our first game with a Keyword, Schooner. I initially wanted to throw in some terrain, but as it was the French players first game and the British player wanted to keep a limit on the number of extra rules being introduced, we elected to stick with islands only.
Here are a few pictures of the ships in each fleet.
The islands were placed, we played flat Earth, an assortment of coins were selected (8 per player of random value) and home islands assigned. I got a bit lost in figuring who would chose a home island for who, but the players seemed to reach a consensus we were all happy with.
The British wound up in the middle, with the French Northeast, the Spanish West and the Pirates South East. You can see our set up in the below picture.
With sea shanties blasting from the speaker, the game got under-way.
The game got off to a quick start, with the British rushing East to contest the islands below the French and above the Pirates. The Pirates, seeing a hotly contested area to their North, sent only Carrion Crow to see if she could snatch and run with a couple of coins, while Revenant pondered towards the British schooner Apollo who was busy loading up some treasure for the British. The Spanish took advantage of their isolation, sending El Leon and El Duque to gather gold while the nippy schooner La Cazadora headed North East to contest an wild island to the West of the French. Finally, the French split, sending Le Dauphin Royal South where she could fight the British and the remaining three faster ships set sail West for plunder.
HMS Oxford rammed the Carrion Crow, before exchanging cannon fire and ultimately sinking her as she tried to steal a few coins. First blood to the British! The Crow did land one shot though, so the Oxford got a bloody nose for the effort. Meanwhile, Revenant had shot Apollo, causing her to become derilict after she had already loaded a couple of coins. It was an easy choice for Revenant to tow Apollo home with her treasure. Neptune’s Hoard and Batavian Bat flew West to grab what gold they could before the Spanish laid claim to everything to the West.
The Spanish continued to plunder unopposed with El Leon and El Duque, while La Cazadora fought the French and successfully rammed Le Pique, causing her to become derelict. Revenge came quickly though in the form of Le Mercure, who shot La Cazadora, in turn causing her to become derelict. Meanwhile, El Neptuno crept closer to the conflict as the French Duc De Bourgogne raced to join the fight.
Le Dauphine Royal fired upon HMS Cumberland, setting her derelict before Lord Algernon appeared to fend off the French. This saw the beginning of a fierce broadside battle that lasted three turns before Le Dauphine Royal was sunk (yep, the British got over-eager and fired too many cannons). A badly wounded Lord Algernon limped back home, towing the derelict Cumberland in her wake. Interestingly, or perhaps a bit of a blunder, HMS Oxford likewise chose to return home to repair, rather than exploring and taking what gold she could from the far Eastern isle.
Fast as lightning, Neptune’s Hoard retuned a fair haul of treasure to the Pirate home isle, while the Batavian Bat set off for a second slow plod to fetch a small batch of gold from the island to the Pirates North. The captured Apollo repaired one sail and went off to grab the last coin from an explored island, while Neptune’s Hoard set off at speed for the Easternmost isle the British left un-plundered. Revenant sailed toward the British to cover Neptune’s Hoard. The Spanish Neptuno caught up to and fired upon both Le Duc De Bourgogne who was coming to fight and Le Mercure who was attempting to tow the capture La Cazadora home. Some lucky rolls saw her adding two more derelicts to the game. At this point the French were out of ships and without any gold, decided to start furiously drilling holes in their hulls, remarkably scuttling three derelicts ships over a couple of turns, allowing the Spanish to only tow one ship slowly home.
By this point the French were out of the running, there would be no means to contest the remaining gold on wild islands (though HMS Cumberland had a go at intercepting the Spanish) and it was clear the game was concluded. We added up the loot and scores were as follows:
Pirates with 41 gold
Spanish with 23
British with 10
French with their bravery undeniable.
Our new player really enjoyed the game and as with last time, we all agreed it was a fun and enjoyable time. I’m looking forward to the next game, though I do really need a few more ships in my collection so that we don’t need to recycle some ships each game.
Thanks guys, that’s about what I wanted to know. I’m a bit of a history buff and I do really prefer to keep things as historically accurate as I can, so the Age of Sail is my main area of interest. The more fantastical elements are something I could miss, but I also do think that at least mechanically, some of these elements are pretty cool. It is as much a strategic game as an area of interest to me.
I’m all for keeping things simple too, where strategy, planning and a bit of luck wins the game between balanced fleets. I could see myself coming up with crazy fleets and combos…. but it doesn’t really excite me to think about it.
I’ve got some Caribbean packs arriving, then I’ll pick up Revolution and Spanish Main to top up my existing ships. The other sets are expensive and hard to get anyway, so I’ll stick to the first three releases plus Caribbean and see how it goes.
I enjoyed the video battle report. There were a few game mechanics and terms I am not familiar with, which just reminds me how early I had to drop out of playing. You clearly put a lot of thought into the fleet where I think I’d just throw together a few ships and crew and see what happens.
Not really mate. I’ve certainly had that anxiety when something particularly treasured or valuable seems to get ‘stuck’ on route or is left visible on my door step. Only ever had one item go missing while in the post, but it appeared a month later. Never had anything stolen thank goodness, but my neighbours have had a few delivery that were actually for me.
Sucks badly. It’s also a pain for the eBay seller who may end up out of an item and with no money or compensation. Not to mention that there is a set of ships floating around somewhere, likely unappreciated. Hope you can resolve it satisfactorily for everyone (or better yet, the package gets to you anyway).
Ah yes! Harbinger is the one! I felt Revenant was wrong, but the name had stuck with me. I’ve corrected the battle report. I didn’t think to write down or photograph the other ships, so while I could take a look and remember most of them, it probably adds little to the report. Next time I will record the ships properly so the ones that have stand-out turns get a mention by name.
I do see some possibly unbalanced outcomes with random coins (all the higher value being near one player, for example), but it think it’s fun to play that way. It does also preclude one way to finish the game (by reaching a certain gold value), but again, I think I’d prefer to play until all gold was plundered anyway.
Ahoy maties!
Last night I had a couple of friends over for games, which included a trial game of Pirates! I kept it simple to start with, using basic ships without keywords and sticking to single faction, 40 point fleets. My friends selected the French fleet and Pirate fleet, while I took the British.
The fleets were not master crafted affairs; I used what I had, though I made a point of including one five mast gunship in each and a couple of speedy gold runners as a minimum. No crew were included for simplicity.
Standard rules, no terrain and rather than counting out a gold value, I used random value coins. I like that wildcard.
Our table set up was pretty basic and all three of us ended up with home islands more or less in a row against the southern board edge. The British were on the left, Pirates middle and French right.
In the first few rounds the British, Pirates and French rushed north to the three most distant islands with our quickest gold runners, while our slower ships sailed to the closest middle isles. The pirates split off aggressively, attacking their two neighbours, attempting to plunder the middle islands while our gold runners were away. The pirates scored first blood, with the Harbinger blowing a three mast French ship to dereliction before using her power to capture and return both ships to the Pirates home isle for repair. The pirates attack on the British fared poorly, with the single ship out-gunned and derelict. Unfortunately for the British, the pirates scuttled the ship before they could capture her!
Meanwhile to the north, the French were hot on the tail of the cheap, single mast pirate ship attempting to plunder their northern island. This is where our ‘moment of the game’ occurred, with the British and Pirates expecting the French to attempt to manoeuvre close for a shot… but instead the French ship performed the first ram action of the game. A quick rule review… roll higher than the number of masts. Which was one. We all burst out laughing as the French ship smacked into the cheeky Pirate, making it a derelict, before boarding and retrieving the treasure. The fast gold runners of the French and British could now loot the northern islands with impunity and no more conflict occurred.
Back at the middle islands, the repaired Pirate fleet set sail again, sending their recently captured French ship for another cheeky grab at the British middle island, while their five mast Harbinger crept towards the French home island and the hovering French five mast gunship. The French-now-Pirate ship engaged the British but was devastated by long range cannons and again derelict by the British. With much thanks, they towed the Pirate-French ship home and and made her the British-Pirate-French ship.
By now most of the gold was taken. The French and Pirates exchanged a lot of insults, but little cannon fire. The game was almost over, so the British snuck over to the Pirates home isle and stole a treasure. Just because they could. With no more gold to be had, we called the game and added up the plunder.
The British had the most coins, the French not too far behind and the Pirates got an A for effort.
It was a quick, simple and fun game, with a few funny moments and we all agreed we’d happily play again.
The Nostalgic Desperate Newbie is ringing a little true for me. I didn’t ever sell my collection, but I now find myself overly keen to play, watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, trying to drag friend in and paying what is probably waaaaay too much for 36 pack box sets. The shipping is the killer too.
Newbie is correct too, as I have no great expertise in the rules, the sets, ships, naval history… just unbridled enthusiasm to get back into a great game that I only stopped playing because the games club shut down.
Yep, I think that’d be best. No duplication in the packs, at least not with ships. Crew are a little different as you may want several identical crew in a fleet, but I doubt you would want more than one of any given ship.
Even if the base box were to contain a random selection of ships as you suggest, but from a number of size/types, that would work. I don’t know the exact terminology, but you could have say 10 two mast, 6 three mast, 4 four mast and 2 five mast. Which ships is perhaps less important than having a well rounded and playable force that can remain competitive against someone with a huge collection.
Of everything, I think having the box set incorporate a known selection of generic crew is almost, or more important. Without captains, for example, you would be destroyed by an opposition who had those in abundance in their collection.
A bit rambling I know. I guess I’d summarise by saying a base box would have a good selection of competitive ships and enough generic crew that you could take on any fleet and still have a reasonable chance of winning. This is of course not good in terms of sales, as you may sell ten packs to someone looking for that one crew/ship. But it depends if people are collectors, competitive gamers, casual players or any category you wish to invent.
I was going to post my humble collection, but am having difficulty with inserting photos. I did read the thread but can’t get a result. To be continued.
Having arrived recently, I’ll throw in my two cents.
A hybrid system would be ideal in my books. I’d suggest the best way to achieve this is a mix between ‘base’ boxsets and ‘random’ card packs.
In a base box set, you get a generic crew, generic ships and maybe a couple of rare ships. But the box set should be everything you need to successfully and competitively play a game. There should be no need or requirement to buy anything further. This avoids a ‘pay to win’ feeling, ensures that after a certain financial outlay you have a competitive force and provides a great starting place for new players.
The random packs can contain some more specialised ships, crew, items etc. They may enhance one aspect of a strategy, but they are not in and of themselves ‘game winning’. Maybe some more zany ideas here. This would add that next level for players to move to after mastering the basics. It adds diversity to play and provides longevity to the game.
Having said this, I know that the random surprise of packs and the collecting aspect of the game were big hits with some people. Myself included I think. Not so much collecting, but the excitement that each pack could be anything! Realistically, random packs is a great marketing strategy too, as all collectable card games have already applied this tried and true formula. It encourages buying for the excitement, making pieces scale for rarity encourages purchasing. Collecting encourages purchasing. Let’s face it, at the heart of the game is a profit motivation and that is the driving factor. Having said that, I’ve seen Pokemon cards utilising the hybrid system successfully, so there is no reason it wouldn’t work.
Another big selling point of the original game was that you can play with one pack. A tiny outlay, give it a go then buy as much or little as you like. I thought and still think that was a neat idea.
The company that I bought mine through is called Mind Games. The particular store I went to closed many years ago, but they stocked them for some time on the counter. I’m not aware of any other stores that had them, but then again I never really looked elsewhere until just recently.
Thank you for the reply, Xerecs! I’m hoping to eventually get to five player games, so a 3×3 might not be enough then. I have a patterned blue material sheet at this point, so it’s quite a cheap upgrade, though I’d love to eventually have a mouse-pad style set-up.
I saw that the 36 pack sets were expensive, what a shame that I didn’t jump on this last year if they were less then! One big issue is that I’m in Australia, so postage from the US and taxes also add to the cost! However, slow and steady will do it. I have plenty of ships for a decent game as it is, so I’ll just grab a few extra when finances allow. I found the list of retailers Ben provided, so I’ll check out Hills as an alternative to eBay. I couldn’t find any retailers in Australia that still stocked Pirates.
Hello everyone!
I started playing Pirates back when Spanish Main first came out at my local games club (since defunct). We had a fair few of us playing, as the game appeals to the collectors, the strategists and the table top players (we were a pretty dominant group). I think the fact that the game requires little ‘effort’ or cost to enter compared to other wargaming (typically miniature cleaning, assembly and painting) also added the appeal.
Sadly I stopped playing around the Revolution series (I can’t find any later sets). I can’t really remember why we stopped, perhaps that was when the club finished.
However, the good news is I now regularly host games nights with some friends and I rediscovered my collection, safely tucked away in a few boxes. I immediately remembered the old love, the simplicity of the game, the ease of access and now I’m determined to get back into it. I played an intro game recently which went down pretty well. Now I need to work on the next four potential recruits!
After looking up the rules (which I’d forgotten), I of course found this excellent site and thought I’d sign up to make the occasional post.
I don’t know the sets past Revolution, but I saw there was a ten mast ship! Wild! I’ve already been looking through eBay and picked up some packs from Caribbean. Looked pretty novel and I enjoyed the movies.
I do have a couple of questions, one I posted on the site but may as well pop here:
What size and shape ‘ocean’ mat is ideal for games?
Anyway, before I write an essay, hello, pleased to be here and so happy to see such support and enthusiasm for a great game even years after official support ceased.
