Pirates "Constructable Strategy Game"

[Bullgrit]

In my local game stores and toy stores, I've been seeing these packs that look like booster packs for collectable card games. But these packs are a "constructable strategy game" by the name of "Pirates" (of the Caribbean, Revolution, etc.). The little constructed ships look cool, so I decided to buy a couple packs.

I've looked over the rules, put the ships together (one pack had 2 ships, the other pack had 1 ship and a fort -- I haven't put the fort together yet), and visited the WhizKids' Web site. I'm going to give the game a try sometime, but I'm looking for hints, advice, warnings, etc. from someone who's played it already.

Have you played Pirates? Like it? It looks easy, but is it?

An interesting complaint I have already, is that the numbers for firing ship cannons represent the number you have to roll (on 1d6) *above* to hit. If the picture shows 4 pips on the die, you have to roll 5 or higher. I'm so used to rolling to match or exceed a "DC", that having to roll over the given "DC" trips me up. I look at those 4 pips and think, "4 or higher".

Bullgrit

 

[JoeBlank]

Funny to see someone bring these cards up. I just saw them for the first time last week, at Target. The wife and I were shopping for Xmas, and we wanted to get the boys some baseball cards, and Pokemon and the like, for Santa to use as stocking stuffers. They don't actually play the card games, but they like the cards.

Anyway, we saw the pirate cards and thought the looked interesting, but decided to pass on them for now. Interested to hear what others have to say about the game.

 

[Captain Tagon]

All three of WizKids CSGs are pretty fun. A friend of mine and I used to play Pirates a lot, but he moved away so I never play it much anymore.

My favorite right now is Rocketmen, which to me plays a lot faster and simplier than Pirates, and uses really cool Flash Gordon-esque rocket ships.

The newest one is NASCAR Race Day. I think that's the name anyway. I bought a couple of packs for my sister and her fiance as they are both big NASCAR fans and we've had fun running some races the past couple of days.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

It's not a bad game. I bought 10 or 12 packs when the game forst came out about 1 1/2 years ago, and occasionally we play using whatever I got in that initial purchase. I don't really like collectable games, but it's quite playable with a small sampling of a few packs. Teflon Billy taught me how to play at GenCon 04, he plays quite a bit. Hopefully he will stop by and give his opinion.

 

[Captain Tagon]

It's not a bad game. I bought 10 or 12 packs when the game forst came out about 1 1/2 years ago, and occasionally we play using whatever I got in that initial purchase. I don't really like collectable games, but it's quite playable with a small sampling of a few packs. Teflon Billy taught me how to play at GenCon 04, he plays quite a bit. Hopefully he will stop by and give his opinion.

That's a very good point about all the CSGs WizKids do, for collectible games they are really cheap to get into. They also have a track record where you can field competative forces with common and uncommon units, the exact opposite of situations like Magic or Yu Gi Oh where you need to spend lots and lots of money to be able to really compete.

I just wish WizKids would use the same mindset with Mechwarrior and HeroClix.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My only gripe about the game is setup time/breakdown time & difficulty.

I only have so much storage space, so I must store the starships (I only have Rocketmen) in their original form, so every time we play, we must build the ships anew. A typical 2 player game starts with players getting 30 build points for their main fleet, and 30 points for their reserves. Most ships are between 9-14 points, and crew are 1-3 points each. While that means you only have a few ships, some are quite complex or have a lot of weapon/shield pods. Result...it may take you a few minutes per ship for construction.

The game itself, however, rocks! I got lucky- my FLGS overbought Rocketmen, and they're currently selling it for 1/2 price. At $2/pack, that means you can get into the game dirt cheap!

(Bad news- distribution. I've bought lots and still don't have a complete set...and an expansion set is due out any day now!)

Magic or Yu Gi Oh where you need to spend lots and lots of money to be able to really compete

I don't know about Yu Gi Oh, but I was a MTG player from Alpha to 6thEd (I quit over idiotic tournament/card rulings and the continued production of obviously broken cards)- I have made several decks that were competitive with mostly commons & uncommons. Imagination was the key.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I picked up a couple of starter boxes from Wal-Mart the other day for grins. It's a pretty simple little game that's good for a pick up, but can get slightly boring after just a few plays unless you use some of the variant "advanced" rules that can be found all over the 'net.

Kane

 

[Captain Tagon]

The set up time can be annoying. Unless you're like me and have almost as much fun putting the things together as actually playing them. Except for the pirate ships, those things getting annoying to put together with all the bending and stuff.

 

[Fenris]

I saw an ad for these and thought they looked cool. What's the age range for them? My five year old loves pirates. How sinple are the rules? My wife is not a gamer but will play some card and board games.

 

[francisca]

It's a fun game. I play the very basic game with my 6 year old, and hacked up multiplayer with my D&D group.

You might want to check out the entry at boardgamegeek.com