Features/New Stuff: Barbary Corsairs, Galleys, cardboard LE (Limited Edition) crew
Ben’s Rating: 16/20
Beautiful Barbary Corsair galleys at the 2014 Fleet Review
Pirates of the Barbary Coast (BC) was the last set from 2005. The Barbary Corsairs and their Galleys gave players the best “minor faction” to use. This is another set with some historical tie-ins, and the only set without the Pirate faction. Overall the set is very balanced and playable, but not quite as exciting as the sets released just before and after it. You can find all of the game pieces in the Master Spreadsheet, and I’ve ranked the Top 10 here.
Ratings
– Art: 5/5. Tons of great artwork – the Barbary Corsairs are arguably the prettiest faction, while the crew art feels very thematic.
– Set Quality: 4/5. The Corsairs are the strongest minor faction in the game and arguably better overall than the Cursed, one of the eventual Big 6 factions. Many other quality ships from the other factions, and the set feels very balanced overall – a return to normalcy after some problems in RV. However, the lack of the Pirate faction and (for me at least) the lack of any larger (4 or 5 masted) square rigged ships hold this set back from being a standout.
– New Content: 4/5. Corsairs and galleys are welcome additions, but sometimes the set feels rather lackluster, especially in comparison to the first 3 sets. However, the combination of good named crew, fun UT’s, an awesome SR pack, and new editions of SM crew make up for the set being a little boring.
– Collectability/Misc: 3/5. The Corsairs hogged almost all of the rare ships, while the cardboard crew PR’s were somewhat obnoxious and bizarre after the already-established crew chips. IMO, this set feels like the least likable of the first 5, so it loses a point for miscellaneous/intagibles as well, partly due to the above deficiencies.
= Overall: 16/20. Interesting and cool, but doesn’t stand the test of time as well as SM/CC/RV.
Basic Rules (.docx file download, with the Windlass font)
This is my attempt to combine the Start Here rules and Complete Game rules into one document, while simultaneously changing a few things that I believe are the best house rules, and also keeping the overall document relatively short by saving space where practical. These are the basic rules that I intend to teach new players with. I talk about some of the changes in the video below.
Features/New Stuff: America, Events, overpowered (OP) stuff, Special Edition boxes
Ben’s Rating: 17/20
The mighty Constitution, signaling the arrival of the Americans!
Pirates of the Revolution (RV) came out in 2005, featuring the introduction of the American faction. Revolution is sometimes considered the “best” set, with fast ships and some of the most usable ships in the game. RV also marked the first time Events were used, as well as new tins with varying artwork. One of the most historical sets, it’s also a favorite of American fans. You can find all of the game pieces in the Master Spreadsheet, and I’ve ranked the Top 10 here.
Ratings
– Art: 5/5. Absolutely agree with godmason – simply fantastic!
– Set Quality: 4/5. The “best” set for gameplay, but unfortunately it was plagued by a small handful of OP (and arguably game-breaking) pieces. Also, I haven’t seen it discussed much, but the small Spanish representation and lack of inspiring named crew don’t help.
– New Content: 4/5. The Americans are the highlight, with events as the lowlight. Another batch of interesting UT’s and the SR pack help make things interesting.
– Collectability/Misc: 4/5. Collectibility gets a 3/3 here, but a point is lost due to the overall “likeability” being lower than SM and CC in my opinion. Indeed, the named crew options are rather atrocious for 3 out of the 5 nations, while the massive mistake that was events has not been fully corrected (banhammer please).
= Overall: 17/20. The favorite of many old-school players, and for good reason. The reasons listed above keep it from being the best set ever.
Ready to experience the awesomeness of Pirates of the Revolution? eBay has it.
Below you can check out the entire Set Review Podcast episode for a full overview of all the game pieces.
Features/New Stuff: France, Terrain, Schooners, Forts, Specialists
Ben’s Rating: 19/20
The mighty and spooky Deliverance, the first ship in the set (#001)
The second set came out in 2005 – Pirates of the Crimson Coast (CC). This set introduced the French, the Schooner ship type and forts. This is another classic set with a TON of great ships and crew. It can also lay claim to the title of “most perfect set”, as it got the highest rating from me when ranking all the sets. It also has the lowest number of votes for “least favorite set” in the Pirates CSG Survey. You can find all of the game pieces in the Master Spreadsheet, and I’ve ranked the Top 10 here.
Ratings
– Art: 4/5. More nice historical designs, with slightly more flair than SM. Nice red background on the cards.
– Set Quality: 5/5. Large quantity of good or great ships for all main factions. For me, the forts make it from a 4.5 to a 5. Also, some rather memorable UT’s.
– New Content: 5/5. The final entry to the “Big 4”, France was immediately established as a powerhouse faction. Terrain was a HUGE addition, while forts were a great mechanic – very aesthetic and fun, while providing a nice diversion from the usual naval affairs.
– Collectability/Misc: 5/5. Picked up where SM left off with the faction-based checklist. A perfect little introduction to the super rare concept, and plenty of fantastic commons and uncommons for people with less money to spend. Almost loses a half point due to the cards seeming to fingerprint easily, but perhaps that’s just my experience.
= Overall: 19/20. I actually prefer SM, but CC could be considered a more “perfect” set.
Contents of a Pirates of the Spanish Main pack I opened
In 2004, Wizkids launched the Pirates of the Spanish Main product line. The first set introduced three factions – Pirates, English, and Spanish. Spanish Main (SM) was the first set I bought and it is still my favorite set. If you like the basics of the game, a limited number of factions, and a more historical set than most of the others, this is the set for you. You can find all of the game pieces in the Master Spreadsheet, and I’ve ranked the Top 10 here.
Ratings
– Art: 4/5. Great historically-based artwork that set the foundation for how the hulls and decks would look for the rest of the sets. It may look bland nowadays but I’ve always liked the historical theme of Pirates a lot. The cards are the perfect parchment color for the 17th/18th century.
– Set Quality: 5/5. Tons of great ships, most of which are at least playable today. Large numbers of ships per faction meant that each was quite competitive. The standout ships are some of the most beloved and useful in history.
– New Content: 5/5. Tough not to give a 5 here – without this set, there’s no game. Things were fun right from the start, with enough abilities and combos to keep things interesting.
– Collectability/Misc: 4/5. Relatively easy to find, both back then and today. Not extremely difficult to get a full set, and rares were plentiful enough to keep you happy and not get bored with the typical rarity of CCG’s. Loses a point due to the somewhat inferior numbering system used in the first print runs, which becomes more confusing with the Unlimited edition’s release.
= Overall: 18/20. The gold standard and foundation for everything that came afterwards. Still a fan favorite!
DISCLAIMER: This Pirates CSG Review is extremely biased, and was written by a non-gamer who is likely the biggest current fan of this game in the world. As a result, I thought I’d never write a Pirates CSG Review, but I originally posted this in June 2017. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.
Pack art for the first set, Spanish Main
Theme
Pirates Constructible Strategy Game, also known as Pirates of the Spanish Main and Pirates of the Cursed Seas Pocketmodel Game, is a miniatures game about piracy, exploration, and naval warfare. Various aspects of the Age of Sail are introduced throughout the expansions that were released from 2004-2008. The theme is heavy on gold, plunder, combat at sea, and just general piratey goodness that you’d expect from the game’s title.
Rating: 9/10. While the theme is consistent throughout the sets, Wizkids deviated from the historical theme by adding various sea creatures, non-historical ship types, and ship types that weren’t really contained to the Age of Sail. This also compromised the pirate theme to some extent, as the golden ages of piracy didn’t involve sea monsters, Vikings, or submarines. I have a Ranking of all the sets.
Price
The “game in every pack” was priced at an MSRP of $3.99 (This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated). This gave you two ships, a crew, treasure, an island, and the full rules. Barely enough to play, I’d recommend at least 3 packs to play a two player game. However, this still leaves you with a very low base cost compared to other games. This is one of the biggest strengths of Pirates – it doesn’t take a fortune to amass a solid collection and an impressive armada of beautiful constructible ships. Nowadays, the game is often found for cheaper prices than when it was in print, as my eBay price history spreadsheet shows. The longevity of the game is also proven there, as prices have risen since around 2015.
Rating: 10/10
Quality
Since the game has constructible parts, this is an important aspect. The ships are more durable than you would expect, and the first ships I have that I built in 2005 have held up extremely well over the years. Some breakage problems may occur when building ships, but this is almost always due to rushing and inexperience. If a slot is too tight, widening it with a spare game piece (such as a pennant flag) or even a pen or item with similar width can often remedy the problem.
In addition, the other items (islands, coins, crew chips) are very well-made, colorful, and very good quality when you consider that most of them are contained in small booster packs that are not very well protected.
Rating: 10/10
Artwork
Most naval games have stock game pieces to represent specific unit types, or miniatures that can be painted or customized. Pirates is a beauty right out of the pack. Nearly every ship in the game has its own unique artwork, as do the named crew and even some of the common generic crew from the later sets. There’s something for everyone, whether it’s the historical ships of the first 3+ sets, crazy Cursed contraptions from the later sets, or really well-done crew portraits that look like paintings from the Age of Sail period. In addition, the pack artwork for the sets can draw you into the game by itself, especially if you’re nautically inclined like myself.
Rating: 10/10
A large campaign game of Pirates CSG in progress. (Economy Edition, June 2015)
Learning
The rules are presented in a somewhat haphazard fashion, because the Start Here rules assume you only have a single pack to play with. In addition, the Complete Game rules do not cover the basics that the Start Here rules cover, so you need both in order to play the full game. Lastly, there are numerous loopholes in the rules that were fixed by a large FAQ (The Pirate Code) that can be cumbersome to search through while playing something that apparently started off as a “beer and pretzels” game.
Rating: 7/10
Weight
This category is perhaps the most difficult to explain. I come from a non-gaming background and the full rules and scope of the game took some time to learn. In addition, almost all of the players I’ve taught (15 as of this writing) have said that Pirates is the most complex game they’ve ever played (including one person who saw a demo turn and was completely scared off immediately!). However, most “gamers” consider the game to be pretty light, and I think the complexity rating has something to do with when the ratings were assigned.
As more expansions and game mechanics were released, the game has become more complex. The vast number of abilities available and the large amount of potential rules (including the Pirate Code and various confusion over rules loopholes) can make it a rather complex affair. Finally, one of the biggest strengths of the game, its wide-open and customizable nature (you can do whatever you want, there is no board, and there are endless combinations for fleet construction and build totals), actually makes the game far more complex, but in a good way. Taking everything into consideration, Pirates can be as simple or complex as you make it. The Start Here rules are decidedly simple, but when you incorporate the full rules and play larger or multiplayer games, it can become quite complex.
Rating: 6/10, so medium/moderately complex (completely depends on how you play)
Luck
There is considerable dice rolling involved, and quirks of the treasure distribution can lead to blowout victories.
Rating: 7/10, moderate luck but not so much that strategy is compromised
Interaction
You’ll want to look at the fleets you’re facing, as well as thinking about what type of opponents you have. There is plenty of interaction within the combat system for the game. The possibility of bluffing for face down crew or treasure coins adds further interaction. Throw in the theme and personal nature of the gameplay, and you have a very fun and engaging game.
Rating: 8/10
Waiting
The length of a player’s turn depends entirely on the build total chosen. For a standard 40 point game, turns usually take 1-5 minutes. As players become more experienced, play can go faster and be quite competitive and equal in nature. In huge games with hundreds or thousands of points, a single turn could take 30+ minutes to resolve.
Rating: 3/10 (minimal waiting in most games)
Length
VASSAL Campaign Game 1, played from February-May of 2016.
Once again, this depends on the size of the game. A standard 40 point game usually takes an hour or less, though it could vary from 10 minutes up to about 2 hours. It depends heavily on how many players are involved, their experience level, and the number of complicated mechanics (Unique Treasures, combat) that take time to sort out. Larger games could take most of an afternoon or evening. Huge campaign games, where gold is spent along the way to acquire new ships and crew, are potentially infinite in length. The longest campaign games I’ve played took 3-6 months to conclude, but they’re usually the most fun. (VASSAL Campaign Game 1, VASSAL Campaign Game 3, Command the Oceans)
Rating: 4/10 (based on an average 40 point game)
Replayability
As said previously, this game has so many options for ships and crew that you’ll never run out of fleets to make. In addition, you can set up the map any way you like, so even the “board” is completely customizable. Last but not least, there are a TON of scenarios, house rules, and custom rulesets created for this game, many of which can be found in the Files section. I’m at nearly 400 plays and I cannot envision ever getting tired of it.
Rating: 10/10
Extras
This game is amazing. It works well at any player level, since even the rules are incredibly customizable. It works well at any number of players – I’ve had a ton of fun playing by myself, and in larger groups. The historical connections are very fun (including a handful of historical ships and crew), and the flavor text was a great idea to give the game a story.
Finally, the collectible nature can be a good or bad thing. I’m in the middle on that aspect, but just the excitement of eBay auctions on rare pieces, one-of-a-kind prototypes, and “crazy collectors” on various forums can make the collecting experience fun. Also, this isn’t a game you need to spend much on to have a competitive fleet – oftentimes the commons are better in gameplay than the Limited and Special Edition items. Throw in a great VASSAL module (+ tutorial) and you even have the option of playing remotely against anyone in the world.
Rating: 10/10
Comparison
With a strong emphasis on the theme, an incredibly rich and diverse array of game pieces, the constructible aspect, and the stunningly massive customizability that can please any pirate, this game stands out from any competition. The artwork is top-notch, the miniatures are beautiful and creative, and the open world is truly inspiring. I cannot emphasize enough how much the customizable aspect helps this game. Non-gamers can play a game using the simple rules. Wargamers can incorporate the ships and even some of the rules into their massive global conquests. The game can be played on a small coffee table, multiple tables using round earth rules or whirlpools, or on a huge ocean in the VASSAL module. The 1,400+ fleets at Miniature Trading are just a taste of what’s possible when making the game a personal challenge to build the best or most creative fleets around.
Rating: 10/10
Pros: Theme, artwork, fun, complexity options, infinite possibilities, board game without a board
Cons: Luck-based, setup and cleanup time, games can take longer than expected
Overall
I’m as biased as it gets, but this is BY FAR the best game I’ve ever played and it’s a unique experience that has no equal.
Rating: 10/10
Pirates Life
Want to buy Pirates CSG?
Click here to buy on eBay, which has the best selection for the game (This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated). Hill’s Wholesale Gaming often has the best prices on packs, but not every set. If you go the pack route, you can check out my Sets page for more information and ratings to help guide your decision.
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed my Pirates CSG Review and get Pirates CSG fever like I’ve had for many years now! (I got back into the game in 2011) Feel free to leave comments below about your experience with this great game!
These are parts of emails exchanged between myself and B.J., the creator of the Pirates module.
a7xfanben wrote:
Do you know what your basic process was to start making a new ship model for the module? Assuming I can figure out how to edit it, that’s the main thing I would focus on, but I’m not sure where to start (though I’ll soon peruse the Designer’s Guide).
bj_o wrote:
I started off by tearing apart the old French-made module, and figuring out what I wanted to do differently. My version is a bit of a mess, but I did try to build things piece by piece, as in there’s different parts that plug together to make one ship. For example, each ship piece calls a prototype ship definition, which calls a ShipOps prototype, which also calls a ShipStats prototype. There’s a reason to the madness, and part of it was not duplicating and redefining certain actions many times over. I think there was another reason, but I honestly can’t remember it right now. A lot of it seemed to be necessary to get Vassal to play nice and the way I wanted.
a7xfanben wrote:
Do you know if the “observer” category is unlimited? I noticed that I could move things normally even as an observer, so I’d be intrigued to find out if the game could feature more than 4 or 5 players.
bj_o wrote:
I have no idea if there’s any “observer” limit. The main drawback that I know of would be that observers wouldn’t have access to a private window, so any coin flips or other formerly private actions would be public. Each of the private windows had to be coded separately, but more could be added fairly easily.
a7xfanben wrote:
When you created the artwork/files for the different ship types, did you download or take anything from the French version? There is a 10 mast junk on the French module, and I was able to get it in the correct format, but now I’m realizing it’s more complicated because I’ll need individual file pictures for each mast.
bj_o wrote:
I didn’t use anything from the French version. I didn’t want to reuse anyone else’s work without their permission, plus it didn’t work with the scale I picked anyway.
a7xfanben wrote:
Do you happen to have any old files that you didn’t end up using? I ask because I found your Photobucket picture with all of the different ship types, and I can see you had begun working on a squid, shark, and serpent. If you had any old files of artwork or anything like that I would try to put it to good use.
bj_o wrote:
I actually do have a svg file where I drew those out to scale with the existing ships. The shapes were drawn out in Inkscape, then imported that into GIMP to do the shading/texturing/etc. I usually scaled up to work in 4x scale in GIMP, then reduced back down afterward. (See attached files!) [files are on dropbox]
a7xfanben wrote:
I know you used GIMP to create the artwork – did you measure out the scale from real-life ships? Now that I’m actually trying to edit the module I’m even more impressed by how much effort was put into it.
bj_o wrote:
I didn’t use any real-life ships because these didn’t always match up to anything real. I used the assembled game ships as a guide and measured those, ending up with a 30px/cm scale, e.g. the cards are ~8.85 x 6.35 cm, so they are scaled to ~266 x 191 px for graphics (L = 252px, S = 174px).
For all the ships, I had been going with a semi-realistic style, and I pretty much hit a wall when I got to the creatures. After a while of trying to figure out a good way to depict them, I lost interest, and that’s where we are now.
a7xfanben wrote:
Just to clarify – when you say you drew out the shapes in Inkscape, you mean that you drew the parts out and saved each file separately and then uploaded each individual mast picture file along with the hull to complete the ship type? I can’t download Inkscape or GIMP right now but I’m wondering if I could figure out something with Paint.
bj_o wrote:
Not quite. The shapes were drawn in Inkscape, then imported into GIMP. GIMP also converts the Inkscape shapes into paths that I used to finish drawing all the components. For a ship, the hull was created on one layer, and each of the masts were on separate layers. Each layer was then exported to its own image file for Vassal to use.
One thing to understand is that for the “fire” to show up where the center of the masts were, all the mast images and the fire image all had to have the center of the image in the same place. That’s usually the center of the mast. For example, a square rigged mast shows the sails billowing out to the right, but there’s a lot of empty pixels to the left so that the mast is in the middle of the image. I also had to make sure the center of the ship (i.e. the rotation point in Vassal) was in the middle of the hull image.
I’m probably confusing the issue more here. I could probably explain it better visually, but I don’t have the time at the moment. You might be able to experiment with Paint, but it doesn’t support transparency.
bj_o wrote:
I sent you all the remaining artwork I had, so there wasn’t really anything else beyond the squid and shark that wasn’t used.
But if you have an image you can use (at the right scale), it’s easy to add it to the game. If you go into the editor, expand the item labeled “Ocean [Map Window]”, then expand “[Map Boards]”. Right click on [Map Boards], “Add Board”. Name it whatever, and select your image for the Board Image. You don’t have to tell it a size or anything. Save the module, and you’re done after that, but you’d have to make sure everyone has a copy of your modified module.
Now to start a new game with your map, you’d need to go into the “Build your own” option in the Ocean Layout and select your new map board.
a7xfanben wrote:
Out of curiosity, did you create the artwork for the stern flag and the deck/sail details in GIMP as well? (We’re adding a Dutch faction; creating a crew chip was easy but the stern flag will be a bit tougher.) I’m not a fan of doing artwork stuff on a computer, so I’m struggling to make a 10 master look very good lol.
bj_o wrote:
I did do it in GIMP, although a lot of it was drawn in Inkscape as shapes first, then imported into GIMP to add textures/shadows/etc.
This is version “2.1” finished on 3/2/2018 and released yesterday with the start of the Caribbean game. The module size is smaller, and it did take less time to boot up than with the previous module version.
An important aspect of this edit that I should have mentioned in this post:
Page 103 of the VASSAL Designer’s Guide has instructions for deleting unnecessary files. This was important in making the module size smaller when I deleted all the world territory files and replaced them with much less space from the Caribbean territories.
Not the most important thing to keep in mind while editing the module, but something I had to search for a while to get. Deleting files while in “editing mode” on the module itself is not the same as deleting the files permanently by going into the BuildFile.
I have also put these on the front page of the site to accompany the various useful documents near the bottom of that page.
The main difference is that the google sheet can be viewed online in a browser, while the file can be changed to your liking if you want to edit it. The file also has the filters enabled properly, which can be difficult to do in shared google sheets.
Credit to:
-Original Wizkids documents provided by Woelf
-Jolly Roger spreadsheet by Holofernes
-Miniature Trading database
Pros of my spreadsheet:
-Don’t have to scroll to the right for anything important (flavor text and treasure values off to the right) (Basically a rule of Pirates CSG spreadsheets in my opinion – if you can’t easily see all gameplay-relevant data without scrolling, columns should be shrunk down for ease of use.) -All flavor text included -Factions color coded for maximum ease of use (I like the new design so much that I think I will be converting my custom sets to the same color scheme!) -Took the best stuff from each resource used (Holofernes’ notes from Jolly Roger + filtering, flavor text from Wizkids spreadsheets, Miniature Trading database for cannons and some flavor text (a/b for crewfer twofers/etc are lowercase because that is how they appear on the WK documents) -Includes unreleased and “lost” items from official Wizkids documents
Cons: -Some columns do not display well at all with the filter view. Those are the ones I slanted so they would be more legible (it gets worse if they are horizontal). -Filter view does not seem to work with Google Sheets version for online viewing, unless you create a temporary filter view yourself. Even tried allowing editing mode and locking the sheets, but that didn’t work either. (https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/docs/68RwOGYUCqA/PFFYjiaKBwAJ) To view filters in online version: Data>Filter Views>Create new temporary filter view The .xlsx file of the spreadsheet has the filters. -Likely some minor mistakes due to copy/paste errors or excessive dragging of cell data. (please point out so I can fix them)
As many of you know, I love making my Pirates games as big as possible. With considerable experience in this field, I have learned a lot about what it takes to play long games. I may expand upon this thread in the future, but at least this is a start. This is not meant to deter anyone from attempting these kinds of things, but rather as a warning to be prepared.
A “huge” game is subjective, but I’d start by suggesting anything that exceeds 1,000 points is huge. That can be 1,000 points at the start (ex: a 2 player 500 point game, or a 5 player 200 point game), or 1,000 points at the game’s peak if it is a cumulative game. This is not to say that 800 points is low, but rather big or “quite large”. There’s no exact science to it, but I think 1,000+ points is about right.
Now that I’ve established what I’m talking about, here are my tips and tricks to making these behemoths work.
1. You must have immense amounts of passion and time.
These games are not for the faint of heart. You really have to LOVE Pirates CSG to even make it through to the end. It’s also a big plus if you like the historical topic of naval warfare (specifically during the age of sail), since with larger games come more realistic navies and battles. As for the time portion, I would recommend establishing some kind of endgame rules if you know you have a limited amount of time. It could be a certain date, a certain number of turns, or whatever else fits your criteria (also consider the biggest fleet by point size when an endgame condition is met). Obviously if you’re playing a “regular” non-cumulative game, the game still ends with the last treasure coin. However, cumulative games have the potential to be infinite in length, which is why you may want to consider an artificial endgame scenario, rather than playing until there’s only one fleet left.
2. Planning is huge.
For Economy Edition, I allowed two full weeks for preparation and planning. It can be shorter if your “real life” isn’t busy at the time, or if you’re planning something smaller than a game like Economy.
Ask yourself these questions:
Where will the game be played?
How many players?
How many points? (Including the starting fleet for a cumulative game; I’d recommend 20, 30, or 40.)
What playing surface will be used? Are you going to write battle reports? Are you going to take pictures? If so, how aesthetically pleasing do you want your game to be? Will you make or purchase custom islands and terrain for use in the game?
How many islands will be used? (home islands? wild islands? mysterious islands?)
How much terrain will be used? Do you want to string terrain together and/or feature certain types of terrain more heavily than others?
Will any house rules be used?
Which factions will be participating? Are there pre-set/permanent alliances to beef up weaker factions? What about privateer rules?
Will there be unique treasures?
How will the gold system work? For a cumulative game, how often is treasure replenished? What is the maximum number of coins that can be on a wild island? If treasure is replenished, are UT’s ever replenished as well? (Not necessarily the same UT’s you’ve already used in the game, but do UT’s appear outside of the setup?)
Lastly, what are your goals for the game? Do you want it to exceed a certain point total? What strategies are you focusing on? Does each fleet have certain game pieces and combos they’re looking to use since they can’t use them in a smaller game?
3. Tips from experience
These tips are mostly from things I’ve done wrong. I generally get better and better at doing this with every huge game, but it’s almost inevitable that something will come up or that something will go wrong.
– Don’t place the islands too far apart. The more open ocean there is to travel, the slower the game will progress, and the more time you’ll spend sailing around. Once you have dozens of ships in play, it does become tedious to move each and every one of them turn after turn. Also, games are generally more exciting and fast-paced when things are closer together, and huge games are no exception. I would recommend ~2L between islands, but definitely make a few closer or farther so the ocean doesn’t look or play too artificially. I would recommend stringing terrain together and placing it next to and touching islands.
– Don’t play on the floor, especially if it’s the room where someone sleeps! Even if the ocean is out of the walkway and away from potential disturbances, your game is never safe! Don’t suffer like I did. If you do play on tables, you may need more than one to accommodate such a large playing area.
– Don’t overestimate how much you can play. Depending on your life circumstances, try to play an hour or two per day, or possibly 1 turn per day. The key is to be consistent. It may go fast at first, but when purchases are made in a cumulative game, it really slows down. For games exceeding 1,000 points, I’d allow at least an hour for turns, with more time necessary for purchases and battles.
– Be realistic about how long the game is going to take. I only allowed 3 weeks for my Century of the Empires (CotE) game, which I wrongly thought would be enough. Depending on how ambitious your goals are, try to allow multiple months. Giving the game a longer window also allows you to (hopefully) focus more on non-Pirates stuff, which gives you flexibility. That being said, if your game exceeds 2,000 points, it’s very difficult to make much progress unless you devote a considerable effort to the game. I have found that each round of turns takes around 1 hour for every thousand points in play, though it certainly varies. (ex: a game with 2,500 total points in play could take around 2.5 hours to play one round of turns)
– Plan out your purchases. For a cumulative game, it’s tempting to want to play constantly so the game can progress and the fleets can grow larger. However, it’s possible to fall into a “purchasing trance” and simply launch random ships turn after turn until all of the fleets just resemble massive gold fleets with no direction or strategy. This is fine at the beginning of games, but once you’ve got between 100 and 300 points running gold, you should think more about the specific strategies that each faction should use to try and dominate the sea.
– The more table space and time you have, the better. I cannot overemphasize that enough, especially the time part.
4. My history of huge games
Here are the different huge games I’ve played at various points in time. I’ve linked to the battle reports for them, as well as a summary of each one.
Summary: My first cumulative game, at least as far as I can tell. This may be my favourite battle report I’ve ever written, even though I wrote most of the report years after the game took place. This is my most nostalgic game of Pirates. It’s the only actual game to feature the harbour system, which was mostly used during Historical Fantasy Scenarios.
Pros: Epic battles, massive fun with the Cursed Conch and it’s effect on the game, and using the harbour system in a real game.
Cons: Far too much distance between islands and harbours, not to mention the locations of the harbours themselves on the ocean. I used an entire room for this game, and as a result the English and French harbours were considerably more isolated than the Spanish, Pirate, and American harbours near the middle of the sea.
Overall size: Unknown. I never did a point count, but according to my original reports, there were over 100 ships in play at some point. Estimated size between 1,200 and 2,000 total points. I used almost my entire room for the ocean, so it was a very long rectangle with another rectangle for part of it (shaped somewhat like 00oo). After measuring the same area, the total length was about 15 feet. The narrow end of the rectangle had the English and Spanish harbors (3.5 feet wide), while the bigger end with the Pirate, American, and French harbors was 6.5 feet wide. When combining these two areas (8.5×3.5 and 6.5×6.5), it gives a total ocean size of 72 square feet!
Summary: Still the largest “regular” game I’ve played, this was the first of three 5 player 500 point games. The first one was definitely the best of the three, and it remains one of the absolute best games I’ve ever played. It featured a lot of memorable moments, and the finish was downright epic, including the top 3 fleets being within 5 gold of each other!
Pros: Start out with long turns, and then the game gets faster as you go along (the opposite of cumulative games). Very fun and fast-paced gameplay, with a lot of big decisions affecting the outcome.
Cons: None.
Overall size: 2,520 points at the start of the game. This includes the four 0LR +5 crew. Essentially a 2,500 point game. 157 total ships.
Summary: Similar to the first one, just not as exciting and memorable.
Pros: Same as before.
Cons: Not as exciting as the first 2,500 point game.
Overall size: 2,520 total points. 165 total ships.
– Pirates CSG combined with RISK (June 2012)
Battle Report (the rules are in the post, and more recently I’ve posted them to BGG)
Summary: This remains my only personal custom ruleset. Combining the land warfare of RISK with the naval warfare of Pirates, this game was epic indeed. Coming up with the rules and designing a global ocean took a lot of time, but I was eventually satisfied with the setup. This was also my first time playing a huge game that utilized a custom ruleset.
Pros: Truly realistic “global” scale, using real-life territories, continents, and locations. Very interesting take on the world of Pirates CSG to combine it with another game. Grand scale that makes you feel like you’re playing a game of life rather than just a petty war in the Caribbean.
Cons: The RISK portion was underpowered. If I play this game again I’m going to edit the ruleset so troops can acquire gold over land.
Overall size: Unknown. Definitely a huge game, but probably under 2,000 total points. The only clue is that at the beginning of the final battle, the two combatants combined for 62 total ships, with the other fleets having already been eliminated.
– Third 5 player 500 point game – Defence of St. Helens Island (June 2012)
Battle Report (background info in the previous post, but a very short battle report)
Summary: The biggest deathmatch I’ve ever played. A fun scenario, but the fleets were probably too big (maybe the only time you’ll hear me say that!) for it. It was more memorable than the second 2,500 point game but slightly disappointing overall. However, the scenario itself is brilliant and rather interesting.
Pros: HUGE deathmatch! Lots of chaotic fighting, especially around the forts and entrance points.
Cons: Fleets were a bit too big – lots and lots of rolling dice.
Summary: A monumental achievement for me on so many levels. The MT era of battle reports was born, as well as the advent of pictures. This was the first cumulative game ruleset created by someone other than me that I played. This game and its reports redefined my standards for battle reports, and I’d like to think they’ve only gotten better and clearer since then. The game itself was absolutely fantastic; CotE is one of the best rulesets created for this game.
Pros: Epic ruleset, huge ocean, big fleets. There are certain things in the ruleset that mimic real life, colonization, and empire in ways that RISK cannot. I love upgrades and the slow but natural pace of the game. Definitely a ruleset worth playing over and over again.
Cons: Inevitable rich-get-richer/poor-get-poorer nature of a cumulative game. Also takes forever, which I didn’t realize. 3 weeks was a decent start, but not long enough.
Overall size: 1,212 points in the sea at the end of turn 41, when gold production stopped. This sounds low based on the scope and nature of the game; it felt bigger than 1,200. The game ended up taking 62 total turns. The ocean was somewhat of a giant square, as you can see in the pictures, somewhere around 6 feet by 6 feet.
Summary: After two years of smaller games, it was finally time to take on my most ambitious project yet. The ruleset was key, and it proved to be possibly my favourite ruleset yet, mostly because it limits the rich-get-richer/poor-get-poorer aspect that usually dominates cumulative games.
In the back of my mind, I kept thinking to myself that I wanted to make this game bigger than anything I had ever done. I accomplished that goal, but at what cost?
Pros: Biggest physical game ever (at the time). Best-looking game I’ve ever played (at the time). Unique, custom made islands, terrain, and locations used for the first time ever. New concepts including the lagoon, arch, and gold-laden shipwreck. A blue ocean was used for the first time. MASSIVE fleets, huge launchings, epic strategy plays, incredibly diverse fleets, extremely unique ruleset that made the game more fair, shiny gold, shiny silver, chain exploring with native canoes, tons of fun, very intense battles, crazy house rules. Also introduced stuff from my custom set, CC Mike’s set, and RtSS. Nuff said?
Cons: The biggest disaster in my history of Pirates CSG. A horrific accident destroyed the entire setup and many ships were destroyed beyond repair. The bigger the stakes, the bigger the potential fall.
Overall size: 2,846 points at the end of turn 33. At the time, this was the biggest game I’ve ever played. Turn 33 alone saw over 1,000 points’ worth of purchases, meaning that one turn saw more stuff introduced than entire games start off with! Those 2,846 points accounted for 163 total ships, showing how heavily crewed a lot of them were. A number of turns later, another ship count revealed 181 ships in play, making this one of the biggest games ever by ship count as well as point count. In addition, with a higher number of ships the second time around, it’s possible that the game exceeded 3,000 total points. The ocean was about 5 feet long by 3 feet wide.
Summary: After reviving the VASSAL module, Xerecs and I became excited by the possibilities of campaign games on the module. We hastily planned the first one, which would be a “regular” cumulative game with no special campaign ruleset or many house rules. Each of us controlled 3 fleets, which we HAD to play independently.
Pros: First campaign game played remotely (as far as we know). The first of many campaign games between Xerecs and a7xfanben! Plenty of custom game pieces were used. In addition, the interaction between leaders through the VASSAL chat was very unique (much of it wasn’t recorded, but the game was more complex than the battle reports show). It also became the largest game of all time (making my Economy Edition the biggest physical game ever played haha).
Cons: Typical negatives of a standard CG. The rich got richer, and the poor got poorer, almost without exception throughout the entire game. As the game swelled to enormous size, the map started to look a bit too small, but the chaotic and bloody War for CG1 brought the game to a relatively quick end. This was about as “normal” as campaign games get, but it was a fantastic test of VASSAL’s capability (as well as Xerecs and I’s capability!) to run a long campaign game. One of the biggest problems concerned the lag – when the game size reached ~2,000+ points, zooming out to see more of the ocean produced a lag in the module. This was countered by simply ignoring the lag, and sometimes by not zooming out at all.
Overall size:
Official new records: (some since broken, see Command the Oceans below)
Total points: 3,516 (likely reached about 3,700 soon afterwards)
Total ships: 208
Largest single-turn launching: 628 gold (English battle fleet)
Largest recorded single-fleet point total: Spanish at 1,631 points
Largest fleet of any faction: Spanish at 111 ships
Ocean size: Using a pixel-to-feet converter (a standard ocean block on the module is 3000×3000 pixels), the ocean was 7.8 feet long by 5.2 feet wide (40.56 square feet).
Summary: For the second VASSAL campaign game, which started just a few days after the first one began, Xerecs and I wanted more than just 2 players. The game would be played at a slower pace than CG1, and we managed to bring El_Cazador and ownage98 into the fold. This brought us to a whopping 4 players, a large number of people to play a campaign game with, let alone remotely using VASSAL. Each player would control 1 faction-pure fleet, and just like CG1 there was no special ruleset.
Pros: This gave El_Cazador his first campaign game experience, and allowed Xerecs and I to have a distraction from the intensity of CG1. It was also a great chance to try out some custom game pieces, which we did. As the game took longer than CG1, an edit to the module was completed during the game, which allowed the first usage of 10 masters on VASSAL, during a campaign game no less.
Cons: A huge disappointment. After committing to the game, ownage98 realized he was in way over his head, leaving the game after just a few turns. This took the Americans out of the game and left a void in the western area of the sea. It also left us with 3 players, which was only 1 more than CG1. Other problems began to develop. The ocean was a bit “tall”, and I should have made it as wide as the ocean for CG1. El_Cazador’s frequent absences and hiatuses were a much bigger problem, as he was too busy and/or disinterested to pursue remotely consistent play. As you can see from the battle reports, the game went for long stretches with no turns being played, and even when turns were played, they often ceased soon afterwards for another hiatus. There was no combat until late June, after starting the game in February. You’d think that would spark more playing, but again the game suffered a huge delay, with the next turn happening in late September. El_Cazador tried to sail his fleet off the map before Xerecs and I convinced him to keep playing. The game became lopsided towards the end, and an interference by the dominant faction unintentionally caused the game to stop and end prematurely after a chain reaction which would have led to a predictable finish even had we kept playing.
Overall size:
Final point count: 82 ships, 1,417 points
Largest fleet: English at 1,222 total points (a half-turn after the last report with some launchings)
Possible records:
The longest campaign game I’ve played by how long it took (10 months), but certainly not close by how many turns were played or total time in hours spent playing the game.
7 ten masters in the English fleet (though “only” 6 for most of the late-game action)
6 cancellers in the English fleet
Ocean size: about 27 square feet (a 2×2 grid using regular ocean tiles)
Summary: With the introduction of the third Ocean Terrain Contest, I made a bunch of cool new pieces to use in games. However, I wanted a way to show them off in an actual game where they were used. Thus, a “last hurrah” of sorts in regards to physical campaign games. A HUGE game was planned, with house rules created for the gameplay and for the new island/terrain pieces I made. The game quickly became the best-looking and biggest game I’ve ever played, eventually far surpassing even Economy Edition in just about every category you can think of.
Pros: I got to show off many of my cool island/terrain pieces. However, the game became much more than just that, since now this game is more about its own legacy than OTC3. I experimented with various house rules. I got into some video content for the first time for a physical game. I did a lot of awesome narrative stuff to make the game exciting and fun to read about, including some big surprises and twists. I had a lot of fun with the strategic and tactical side of things, especially with a whopping EIGHT factions participating. For some factions, I got to use almost my entire collection since the game got so big. I have over 3,500 awesome pictures to use for years to come. The battle reports have inspired multiple people with their own CG efforts, and tons of people have enjoyed reading about the game. Almost the same things about EE could be said here, as it became the greatest campaign game ever by most aspects you could consider.
Cons: The most frustrating, trying, and difficult game I’ve ever played. The physical hardship of EE was multiplied by 3, both for the length of the game (1 month vs. 3) and the points involved. A full round of turns in a 9,000 point game can take 8 hours, so things progress at a glacial pace regardless of how often you play. There was a lot of bumping things, knocking stuff over, moving between rooms to check a crew setup for a gunship, etc etc. Overall it’s an experience I would not want to repeat again. The lessons hold though – have an unlimited amount of time to play the game, and try to play entirely on tables. You need serious real estate and literally unlimited time to get these things right.
Overall size:
Official new records:
Total points: 9,078
Total ships: 509
Largest recorded single-fleet point total: Pirates at 2,347
Largest fleet of any faction: Pirates at 131 ships
Ocean size: 42 square feet between the 3 oceans involved.
– VASSAL Campaign Game 3 (September 2017-March 2018)
Summary: After having 3 different players combined between CG1 and CG2, CG3 set a big new record at 6 players, with 4 of them being new to campaign games. It was decided that the Economy Edition ruleset would be used, and the ocean would be the same size as CG1.
Pros: Having a lot of players was fun, and gave them some valuable experience with a large game. The EE rules are good, and some players utilized game pieces from RtSS along with some customs.
Cons: The game eventually became lopsided and one faction was able to run away with the game. Unfortunately there was a domino effect that resulted in 3 of the 6 players hardly getting to play, so their first CG experience was quite limited.
Overall size: 2,414 points (American fleet at the end)
Ocean size: Same as CG1, so 40.56 square feet.
Official new records:
Largest recorded single-fleet point total: Americans at 2,414 points
Most cancellers ever seen in a fleet? (likely): 9 (Americans)
Most players ever seen in a campaign game? (impossible to know for sure): 6
Most players ever seen in a virtual/VASSAL campaign game: 6
This is a page for all the different ideas for games that I have heard about or created. I think it will be useful for reference in case any players want some fresh takes on Pirates CSG. Hopefully it will also spark interest for people to start playing. 😀 If anyone has more ideas, please post them here!
-Cumulative games – treasure is spent as the game progresses, making the game bigger and bigger (these games usually either end with a time limit where you count up how many points each player has, or it devolves into a deathmatch).
–Multiplayer setups thread (linked to the post concerning custom terrain rules, but there are other ideas throughout the thread as well; pictures of thread here)
-Pick your absolute favourite game pieces and create fleets just for fun. Also check out Miniature Reviews of game pieces you have to inspire their usage!
-Use the Return to Savage Shores game pieces by using proxies. (found in the Master Spreadsheet)
-500 point games – these are huge games that take a while but are quite fun. I’ve played 3, including one as the Defence of St. Helens scenario, but the first one was the best.
-300 point games pitting a fleet of huge ships against a fleet of small and tiny ships. The third paragraph of this post gives a brief insight into my experience with this idea.
-100 point deathmatches (when you’re looking for a bloody battle without gold)
-Regular 40 point games. What I like to do is have a 3-game series between the fleets to determine which one is better. Sometimes I do a tournament with at least four fleets, and one time I did eight.
-Make fleets using ONLY game pieces that you’ve never used before. This will open your eyes to some ships and crew that are overlooked and underrated, not to mention that it’s actually fun to change things up and stop using your HMS Titan and La Monarca.
-Vary the playing area. Use a bigger table/floor space than you usually do, or confine the game to a very small space.
-An idea by godmason to have a single wild island with at least 100 gold on it, surrounded by terrain and possibly some forts and flotillas.
I had a flurry of ideas once I heard about and played Water World. This is what I wrote down; I may expand upon it or explain myself better in the future:
-Fog home islands (HI’s move around, combine with HI raiding)
-One HI for all fleets (+ one HI for all fleets but with islands that have multiple beaches (inspired by rossinaz’s islands))
-Sea is entirely made of terrain – no open ocean (maybe with icebergs) (example game)
-Every ship automatically has the HI raiding ability (maybe with one HI for all fleets, fog HI’s)
-All gold starts on HI’s, players rob each other (probably have every ship get the HI raiding ability)
-Use only Unique Treasures, possibly with just 1 wild island (tested out)
-Round earth with home islands close together on edges of map, HI Raiders mandatory/every ship has HI Raider. Include Wine as well.
-All sunken ships become wrecks at the bottom of the ocean. Submerged submarines can be given explore actions underwater where they sunk to recover gold (which is NOT revealed when ship is sunk), + crew that now have Ghost Ship or Eternal keywords. If shipwreck within S of an island, can use an action to try and raise it (only works on 5-6 or with Hoist ship, etc).
-Uneven tables at different heights. Waterfall into bay. Can only go down onto lower ocean, not back up unless Turbine/Submarine (perhaps sea creatures too). 1 whirlpool on lower table that can be used to get to 2+ whirlpools on higher table.
-Table bottleneck – line up 2 tables diagonally with small space connecting them. Can also create a bottleneck with land dividing ocean with tables still aligned.
-Team-based play: “games with teamates and allies having to work together towards a goal in hybrid style games more along a campaign or 2 vs 2 match.” (Daddy Garand)
-Have treasure in the water, and ships pick up coins as they sail over them. (similar to video games like Sonic where in-game currency is accumulated as you speed through a map) When a ship is made derelict or sinks, she could spill all the coins in her cargo hold!
-Blitz/Speed Pirates: time limit on turns. (ex: each player only has 2 minutes to finish all their actions with the exception of die rolls/etc resulting from their final action; no actions can be taken past the time limit) (use chess clock/etc)
-“Open Strategy” game. Players are encourage to talk about every minute aspect of the tactical and strategic elements of the gameplay. Great for learning and “what if” scenarios/etc.
-Expanding on Captain Randy’s 9 Pirate Lords idea, have a PotC themed game where the 9 Pirate Lords battle against the antagonist alliance from At World’s End – Lord Beckett’s English fleet led by Davy Jones. (regular game or deathmatch, with a build total likely in the 100-200 point range)
-“A very underused game mechanic in my opinion is the you cut I choose method. My playgroup usually likes to take turns having one person set up the game board, but the person who does gets to choose his/her home island last.
It creates cool map layouts as it allows for one person to be creative, but at the same time balance as the person making the map doesn’t want to be left with the worst position on the board so it encourages the person setting up to be as fair as possible.” (MangoSmoothie)
-Expanding upon the Race scenario linked above: line (“drag race”) vs. circle/oval (or other!), have islands with UT’s on them (power-ups/upgrades/etc), shortcut opportunities, NPC creatures.
