review: Pirates of the Spanish Main

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

reference: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=909

It does sound like a really good game to get as a gift. Who wouldn't like to play with the ships on their own?

Oh, and I freely admit that my blurb for this one was pretty lame. GIve me a break. I'm doing NaNoWriMo

[House of Mustard]

This game is insanely fun, and intensely unsatisfying.  Every time I play I get upset that combat is pointless.  Who wants to play a pirate game where combat is a waste of time.  Consequently, I've always played it from a combat standpoint -- chasing down the other ships and blowing them up -- and I've always lost.  

[Fellfrosch]

I should point out that by outlawing captains and focusing on combat, you suddenly have a very intriguing strategy game. When a full volley from one ship practically destroys another, and when virtually the only way to get into range with the enemy is to expose yourself to a turn of fire before you can fire back, the tactics become very tricky and very deep.

[Lieutenant Kije]

I've played this once and came to many of the same conclusions.  I don't like that combat is incidental, the game is very very simple, and the flavor is great (the coolest thing about it.)  I wouldn't invest in it myself.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

are the ships worth using for anything else?

[Lieutenant Kije]

I suppose they're okay in the bathtub, but I don't know if they float right-side up.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I think the ships would be good in miniature scale napoleonic, or navy wargames... and fans of the Jack Aubry books would get a kick out of them...
What I didnt like was the islands...

you get a few in each pack but they are kind of pointless especially since the whole point of 3d ships is to have a game with 3d looks... flat islands punched out of cards are... yawn boooring....


Best to ditch the islands cut out a few pieces of foam and paint and flock them,... then mount the whole thing on a 2x2 piece of fiberboard painted sea green.

Its also interesting to note that untill recently thanks to a production problem you couldnt find POTSM anywhere....

Now everywhere I go has at least on box...

Its a neat game, but I think it needs more depth.

[JP Dogberry]

Hey, i've seen this game a lot and thought it looked kind of fun. Ia ctually figured it was mostly like a CCG, and you had to pay a fortune to play. However, if everything you need is in one pack, I might buy three or four. In fact, I might buy three or four today, and bring it down to Coffs to play with some friends.

[JP Dogberry]

Sorry to double post.

I bought two packs today, and now I want to buy more. The little ships are so cool looking, even if when I play I hate the game, I love the models.

One of my masts broke in half (Didn't have the right mindfulness putting it together) but I fixed that with just a little sticky tape. There's a good hint right there - the tape is clear and almost invisible, and the mast looks cool and won't fall apart.

The dice is the smallest I've ever seen, it's so cool!

I also discovered the masts for the front of a four mast ship actually fit in the back mast slot better than the back mast.

[Fellfrosch]

Yeah, I was way more excited about collecting the game before I actually played it--the ships are very cool-looking, and the flavor is very good. I think that some good house rules could really snazz it up, so maybe I'll work on some. Or maybe one of you will beat me to it.

[Fellfrosch]

The next set will add terrain and forts to the game. Forts seem like a pretty interesting idea, not only because they help you get gold (which is how you win), but because they give you a reason to fight (which is fun). I guess we'll see.

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/pirates/pirates_article.asp?cid=39437

[Fellfrosch]

With the next set only a week or so away, they've announced a third set coming out in June:

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/pirates/pirates_article.asp?cid=39623

[Fellfrosch]

The new set will include ways to set ships on fire: http://www.wizkidsgames.com/pirates/pirates_article.asp?cid=39828

That will be a huge help against super-ships that can, at present, be very hard to beat.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

The new set will include ways to set ships on fire

Couldn't you just use a match?

[Entsuropi]

Games workshop should release Man o' War again. That had skaven ships with doombells in them. As Fell may attest, one does not get any cooler than that.