WK Pirates of the Spanish Main and others

[boom]

I thought we had a thread in the "Other Games" section covering this, but no dice. Any thoughts on this game? I picked up a few packs for my kid to play with and gave the rules a read. It seemed pretty easy and fun and my LGS had their 3-D islands on dispay on a blue felt-covered board that was very nice looking. I had a devil of a time building the ships, though, and snapped a couple of sails at the base. Anyone know if WK replaces these casualties?

I might delve into this, in a minor fashion (say, under $50.00 worth). What do you all think of it?

[toddrew]

We haven't played it much since first got it about a year ago, but that's because HS is the main game of the house.

I would hear a lot of people say they couldn't stand the mechanics (too simple, e.g. don't account for wind, etc.), but we think they are ok, and easy to house rule in some effects (plus I think later releases added some complexity - we only have the first, Pirates of the Spanish Main.)

The best part of the game is the ships, and my son (and young daughters) still play with them all the time (and yes, there have been many casualties )

I don't like the blind purchase nature, but what can you do

[LilNewbie]

WK does not replace the masts but if you use a small amount of model glue or super glue it fixes the masts right up. It's a fun but simple game. There are some great variants on www.boardgamegeek.com . Don't pull the masts when a ship takes damage. Put the deckplate inside a card sleeve and use dry erase or water soluable markers to mark destroyed masts (tip from Netherspirit, btw.) Eases the wear and tear on the ships/masts.

Newb.

[cbs42]

It's a fun little diversion, though I have to admit that my gaming group quickly fell out of the habit.

I got a good number of boosters on discount ($2 a pack), so I figured what the heck. It was fun building the ships and messing around with the mechanics, but ultimately it fell by the wayside for us. In hindsight I think it's because the games were all just too similar.

I don't know why this is the case, because when you look at all the aspects of the game, it looks like each session should be wildly different. I mean, there's ramming, gunplay, stealing gold from opponents, variable maps, environmental effects, choosing between gold-running tactics and outright warfare, sea monsters (in the later expansions), forts (in the expansions), dealing with derelict ships, unique treasures and crewmembers, etc...

But when you add up all the aspects of the game and start actually playing, it just feels like you're playing the same game over and over. I suspect that this would be eased by creating scenarios and variants, but after half a dozen or so plays, no one was really motivated to do so.

It's still a neat little game and we got our money's worth of fun out of it, but I'm not sure we'll pick it up again.

[DFlynSqrl]

I have some cards from each of the sets, but never bothered to get the complete collection because of the whole "blind purchase" aspect. As for the game I liked it pretty well. It can be a lot of fun and doesn't really require much set up and can be played just about anywhere.

My group of friends also fell out of the habit like cbs42 said because we got burned out pretty quick. I think part of it was that everyone kept picking the same ships and same crew. I agree that creating some scenarios would be a good idea to keep the game "fresh".

If you decide you want more cards, go to the collectable card game section of Walmart (usually up front by the registers) you can sometimes find tins with Pirates cards. It's like $10 for a tin and each contains 4 boosters (usually 1 Spanish Main booster, and 3 from the Revolution series).

[ninthdoc]

Guys, if you haven't seen it yet, WK is offering the Guichuan for 12 packages of any of the sets, not just Davy Jones. An LGS here was offering older packs for $2.99 instead of $3.99. So the special could be had for $36 instead of $48.

Here is the article.

Save those packs, ski!

[DFlynSqrl]

Cool. Thanks Doc.

[netherspirit]

Originally Posted by boom

I thought we had a thread in the "Other Games" section covering this, but no dice.

We did, because I remember thread being there. I posted it in it...but after searching it appears to be gone...hmmmm

[mrbistro]

Originally Posted by netherspirit

We did, because I remember thread being there. I posted it in it...but after searching it appears to be gone...hmmmm

Yes, I posted a bunch in the old one too. I also created a thread about the Return of the Heroes boardgame, but it has also disappeared.

[toddrew]

Originally Posted by netherspirit

We did, because I remember thread being there. I posted it in it...but after searching it appears to be gone...hmmmm

Not being cheeky here, but are you sure those threads (you too, Mr. B) weren't at HQ?

[Nwojedi]

even cheaper yet, you could have grabbed mutiple Gencon Bags, and collected a whole box worth of Revolutions, or traded for other sets. I didn't get a whole box worth, but I got a decent stack. Man it's nice when you have lots of friends that don't play the game. Same goes for HS when they have exclusives.

[ninthdoc]

Originally Posted by Nwojedi

even cheaper yet, you could have grabbed mutiple Gencon Bags, and collected a whole box worth of Revolutions, or traded for other sets. I didn't get a whole box worth, but I got a decent stack. Man it's nice when you have lots of friends that don't play the game. Same goes for HS when they have exclusives.

No, you still need the slip that comes from a BnM store. Nice try, though.