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.
Shane’s in-game crew, Thane Hartless from Mysterious Islands (#302, a Limited Edition Mercenary reroller)
Very excited to have Shane Hartley on the podcast! He was the Art Director and one of the graphic designers for Wizkids Pirates CSG throughout the production run, one of the core members of the team. He also made it into the game – you probably already knew him as Thane Hartless from Mysterious Islands!
Tiffany O’Brien is one of the key figures of Pirates CSG history, having held multiple important positions at Wizkids while the game was still in print!
Question of the Day: Do you wish the Dutch had been a faction from the start in Spanish Main? Would you prefer them as one of the major factions in the game?
Today (2/7/2019) I messaged Zev Shlasinger (formerly of Z-Man Games, creators of Merchants and Marauders), who now is part of their board game department.
Inspired by the annual “State of the Union” address, as the arguable leader of the current Pirates CSG community, I hope to make this an annual tradition.
2018 was a very dark year for the game of Pirates CSG. The potential closure of Miniature Trading prompted me to create a new forum on this website, which is an upgraded version of my old Weebly site. The community has become somewhat fractured, although it was already like that before the Miniature Trading crisis hit.
However, there is plenty of good news. The forum at Pirates with Ben is up and running, and Miniature Trading is still alive! Various parts of the community grew in the past year, with the Facebook group surpassing 200 members and the Discord server being created. However, the scattered community is part of the reason I plan to do things mostly on Pirates with Ben going forward.
Plenty of content is still being created, between my youtube channel and the Pirates CSG Podcast. It is quite possible that 2019 will see a bit of a decrease in video and audio content overall after the explosion of those in 2017 and 2018. Of course, there is still plenty to talk about, and plenty of games to play.
There is a lot of uncertainty in the Pirates world going forward. After a slight dip in some prices, it seems that the market is still one for sellers, with the Shui Xian recently auctioning for $79 and an Obago Deuce commanding a whopping $500 on eBay. Regardless, it seems like a great time to finish the decade strong!
Feel free to respond to this State of the Community address, and add your own thoughts! 😀
(one previous known high was $232.50, hard to find others that have been exchanged since vosarnath’s at MT a handful of years back)
-Having slight technical issues that may compromise podcast episodes and THC a bit
-Between godmason being busy, my impending life changes, somewhat declining content base, and technical issues, expect shorter and less episodes this year. Suggesting topics is great!!
-Short solo episodes may sometimes be even less than 30 minutes, I can cover a bunch of stuff quickly it seems, especially with only one opinion on each topic.
-Trying to do a post/page every day at PwB, going through MT content for some of my best stuff
-Commenting on my content at PwB will help the site grow and be popular as a “hub” for Pirates CSG – plus I’ll respond to all comments!! Thank you!
-Looking at podcast data from SE, seem to have about 33 unique IP’s per episode.
Game essentials – measuring card or straws – latter great for arches and planning moves/premeasuring, Use a big d6 from SE boxes/etc for ease of use and likely better results (fun idea though – 10 tiny d6 for a Zeus shoot action since all cannons the same)
Another idea on playing solo without favoring a faction – really delve into each faction, especially before playing. Maybe stop playing favorites in general, force yourself to use a faction you’ve NEVER played before. Read a book on the Spanish Empire and then see if you like playing them better. Make customs inspired by pop culture to play the Cursed or Vikings, etc. Just think outside the box and try to really become a fan of each faction. Partly due to knowing almost all the ships and crew in the game, I find it easy and fun to play as any faction. (ex: Vikings in CG4 should be fun, and somewhat groundbreaking in terms of factional play in CG’s)
Interesting fleets for x point games – try 20 points sometime. Fast, forces you to be efficient with building, probably no +5’s, easy to get going, fun with multiple players OR multiple fleets per player, etc. Played Water World game against repkosai in 2017 with Libellule + bonuses, was very fun!!
Originally posted to Miniature Trading on January 22nd, 2018
Inspired by the annual “State of the Union” address, as the arguable leader of the current Pirates CSG community, I hope to make this an annual tradition.
2017 was a solid year for myself and my fellow pirates. The game at large continues to see fresh players. Many new members introduced themselves at Miniature Trading, the hub of all Piratical content on the web. The subreddit has swelled to 169 readers as of this writing. The Facebook group has 86 members, with new people joining each month.
The community continues to innovate and new things are being introduced even as we approach the 10 year anniversary of the shutdown of Wizkids. Two YouTubechannels have sprung up. A podcast is thriving with 15 episodes so far and more on the way.
As far as play goes, 2017 was no subpar year. Things started off with the 2017 Campaign, and continued with the CoEC 2017 game. Then we set an incredible record with SIX different players in the same campaign game, VASSAL Campaign Game 3: Economy Edition. Not long afterwards, the unprecedented Command the Oceans game obliterated the previous record for the largest game in Pirates CSG history. In a fitting end, the year culminated in crowning a new champion at the end of Tournament #2.
Various events have taken place across the lands. An event at Pax Unplugged reinvigorated the interest of at least one former player, and possibly ignited a spark in the minds of various others. An upcoming event at Con of the North may yield similarly exciting results. There have been reports of various players teaching other players how to play.
On the more “futuristic” front, we had a series of impressive developments. No less than 4 surveys have been created, which will help the podcast and video creators going forward, as well as providing important information for a potential long-term relaunch of the game. Getting in touch with some of the corporate employees was a wild ride, and even one of the game designers himself responded! Pirates fans have much to look forward to in 2018, whether it be the possible conclusion of CG3, many more podcasts, more videos, Ocean Terrain Contest #3, and some potential unannounced plans by two of the greatest to ever play the game….
As the game enters its 10th year of being out of print, I urge you not to despair. The general bull market is always nice, and the active gaming community shows that our niche has staying power for the long haul. Beyond that, it’s even possible that the rights to the game will expire in the intermediate-term future.
It’s a Pirates’ Life for me, and I hope it is for you too! Let me know if you want me to continue this State of the Community address each year in the comments below.
I’m sure I’m forgetting something… must have been the rum.
