Yohoho and a bottle of alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage appropriate for ye age range, mateys! Today we be talkin' about Wizkid's Pirates Constructible Strategy Game, yaaaar! Many o' ye landlubbers may be familiar with the online version produced by Sony, scourge of the seven seas. However, those of ye who exclusively be sailors on the great digital ocean we know as the internet, may be surprised to know that the offline version has a very different feel to it. So polish ye hooks, sand ye peglegs, and grab yer copy of “the bible of the flying spaghetti monster” deity of pirates, so that we might set sail on the seas of reviewin', and I can ditch this corny pirate accent, YAAR!
The premise of the Pirates CSG is simple enough. You buy product in a store like any other collectible game, and then with that product you build the best fleet you can with a limited amount of build points. Inside your Pirates game packs you'll find Islands, Ships, and even Sea Monsters to add to your collection, and each has their own attributes and abilities. Also, each game pack comes with two nearly microscopic yet still functional six sided dice. It's a nice inclusion and very thoughtful of Wizkids, however I would say to be wary of small children and pets around the area because they are definitely a choking hazard.
Anyway, the basic object of pirates is to assemble a force of Ships, Crew, and other seafaring monstrosities that can either A, decimate all the Ships, Crew, and Monstrosities of your opponent, or B, plunder all the treasure from all of the islands of the game map. Speaking of the game map, I think it's worth it to say that the Pirates offline game-map is completely analog. By that I mean there are no zones, grids, or spaces to move on, there is in fact just the tabletop (and beyond if need be) that you are playing on. Every point in space on that table is a valid point to move on in the game. This means, when the gameboard is set up islands can also be put anywhere on the table (as long as they are close enough to each other). This makes every game map of pirates different, and you may play on anything from a long string of sequential islands, to a weird jagged reef formation, to a smiley face made out of landmasses. Overall it's pretty innovative, and I haven't seen many collectible games that do the same, if any actually.
So considering you are playing on a completely open analog game space, the game has to keep track of location somehow. The way Pirates does this is extremely efficient and before I tell you how I need to let you know that everything in pirates comes on a rigid card of what appears to be some sort of plastic laminated cardboard. You punch out parts of your ships, forts, sea monsters, and so on and assemble them to move around the map. On a side note, the material of these cards is extremely durable and makes for long lasting models. I've dropped many ships, kicked them, stepped on them, and other than the occasional tape fix up here or there my models are all still in working order.
Back on track, these cards also are where all the stats and abilities for the ships you are using are printed, so you'll be required to have them on hand while you play the game. Wizkids took this into consideration and made the S and L range system. All ship movement, firing ranges, and other measurements of length are represented in combinations of S length units and L length units. An S length unit is equivalent to the short edge of a card while an L length unit is equivalent to the long edge. So if an ability can be used within L range then your target can be connected to your ship with the long edge of a card and then your golden. Similarly, if a ship has a movement range of S + L it can make one line movement equal to the short edge of a card, followed by another line movement equal to the long edge. Islands have to be put greater than 3L away from each other but less than 6L away from each other, firing ranges are all either S or L, and ranges of effect are all considered by a sweeping radius of S or L. Everything in the game is governed by this system and it actually runs rather smoothly.
The only problem I have with this system is how very easy it is to be rules-lawyered. Some abilities refer to the “front” of the ship being inside a range, some refer to particular ship orientation and many of these can be looked at as somewhat arbitrary. In addition, the edges of the cards are rounded, so there are a few millimeters of space between where the rounding starts and where the rounding ends that can be called into question. Normally this doesn't come into play if you have a good gaming group that doesn't sweat the small stuff, but for tournament play, and in other areas where the less scrupulous gamers out there tend to gather, this can be extremely frustrating.
In most circumstances you won't have to fear the threat of rules-lawyering though because I have to say the Pirates community is amazing. The random Pirates players around my local gaming shop were all very nice and taught me how to play very quickly and efficiently without even a call of “lol noob”. Even at the bigger events I have seen I haven't run into many people who are out there to get their jollies off of ruining other people's fun. Even though Pirates is made by Wizkids one of the bigger collectible games companies out there, it is actually regarded as somewhat of an indie (independent) game in flavor, mostly due to the innovation, and as such it tends to draw the indie gamer crowd. While these gamers can tend to be a little pretentious, (I wonder how many other people I will insult in this review today) overall, they are some of the nicest gamers I have ever met.
So anyway you have your awesome group of Pirate friends and your awesome fleet of Pirate ships and your nearly microscopic pirate six sided dice, and now you can play. The rules of Pirates are a little complicated when you get down to the more advanced levels of play, but for a basic game you'll catch on quick enough. Basically you want to sail to islands and plunder more booty than your opponent, which is done basically just by visiting the island and storing the booty in your ship's cargo hold. Of course your enemy can ram you, shoot you, board you, and do everything possible to prevent you from getting to your home island with your treasure and that's where the real piracy comes in.
Every action in the game is based off a roll of a d6. Each ship mast has a cannon with a colored die printed on it. White die masts have a cannon range of S while red die masts have a cannon range of L. When you fire with a particular cannon, you have to roll above the result printed on the mast to score a hit. When a ship is hit, its controller chooses a mast of choice to remove from the ship. If a ship is hit when no masts remain, it is sunk. Sinking ships nets you booty and severely impedes your opponents progress, and other than a few situational miscellaneous actions such as towing and repairing, the basic game consists of this back and forth of pillage, shoot, and run.
The gameplay of Pirates is really fun, and it makes an excellent coffee table game. Even though the game is technically a collectible miniatures, or more specifically a “pocket model” game, it feels a lot like a board game you can continuously add on to, which makes it great for random gatherings that may or may not involve pretzels and age appropriate alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverages. Though you may be one of those people who wants to keep his fleet all to himself, I really think that Pirates operates better if everyone pools their pirates together. You can only use a limited amount of build points to make your fleet anyway, so you might as well let the other people around the table with a less expanded collection have a fighting chance with your reserves. Truth be told, I think the most fun way to play pirates is in a draft format, where all the ships and their corresponding cards are laid out, and everyone takes turns picking till they have their desired fleet. It's a fun way to kill some time at a party, and it makes it so that everyone has fleets of similar strength, while still retaining the fun of deck building.
That covers pretty much all of Pirates except the flavor, and flavor in Pirates really boils down to a simple question “Do you like pirates?” See there's no real story nor is there any metaplot in this game. You are just taking control of famous sea fairing captains and their ships and plundering some booty. Heck sometimes you control pirates that weren't even alive at the same time. There's no cosmic reason that has brought all these famous people and ships through time to plunder each other; Pirates is just a game where you get pirate with the big boys and it very much admits it. If you are looking for a game with a deep and involved story… actually you might like Pirates because each card has its own back-story with its own small history lesson. Just don't expect the units to tie together too much.
The final verdict on Pirates is that it's a game worth playing. It's a solid game that I think anyone can enjoy. It doesn't do a whole lot for being a collectible game, mostly just because it suffers from the problem most pocket model games have of being highly non-transportable. In the end though it's also an above average board game. You only need one pack to play, and packs are pretty inexpensive, so if you have a group of friends, a bit of time, a big coffee table, and a propensity to say YAAAARRRR at random intervals, pick up a pack of pirates and have some fun.
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Presentation Rating = 8.0
Pirates scores many points by being the first pocket model game I have seen that doesn't break after three seconds of play. The art is nice, but in the end it's a bit hard to tell one ship from another, which can be a pain if you mix up your cards.
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Gameplay Rating = 7.5
The gameplay is fun and as I said Pirates makes a very good coffee table game. The rules-lawyer loop holes though hurt the game in terms of competitive play, but as long as you take the game casually everything will be fine.
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Support Rating = 7.0
There is a good deal of support for Pirates given out by Wizkids, and you will find events here and there which is good. Overall I would say the support is solid but it doesn't go above and beyond the call of duty. You'll still have to work a bit to find a steady and or competitive Pirates playgroup.
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Innovation Rating = 9.5
This is definitely where Pirates really shines. A durable, analog, pirate based game is not something I have ever seen before nor will I see again for some time.
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