"Pirates!" by Flagship Games - Anyone played it?

[Cherno]

So I'd love to get into pirates, I have a huge fleet of LEGO ships, a gazillion of pirates with different weapons, NPCs, monkeys, sharks, giant octopi, giant squids, various other sea and land creatures, various islands of all sizes, cannibals/islanders/natives, a 10x10 ft. area of blue carpet floor,... Practically every scenario would be possible.

My research has led me to Flagshipgames' Pirates! ruleset (I'd have chosen Legend of the High Seas, but it's pretty expensive and they wouldn't let me pay via PayPal when they had that sale a while back )

However, I wasn't able to find any information about this particular ruleset. Can anyone tell me what the rulebook includes, how complex the ship and land combat is, if there is a campaign mode or at least the option to hire crew members and buy bigger ships?

More information about my project can be found on the Classic Pirate forums:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=47266&st=0&p=858545&#entry858545

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=49275&st=45

Some pictures (more are included in the threads linked above... And yes, all that stuff has been built for gaming with it, which has yet to happen):

[Sterling Moose]

That's quite a collection!!

[Cherno]

Thanks. I started building it almost one year ago, and it has been sitting in the attic since january 

[constrict]

Wow! Really like the concept to play with lego.

[Papa Spanky]

Never played it, but i definantly will consider it if i ever get into pirate games. Did you see the old flagship site? It had some really great pictures of games there, including a life- size giant that was in the water. (just his head above the nose and hands, but still a great model) The games featured seem to focus heavily on ship to ship action, but  the rules do say they accomodate land fighting also. Judging by your massive fleet, these might be the rules you are looking for.

[Cory]

There is also the Lego Pirates rules http://sj.sjgames.com/PirateGame.html hosted by Steve Jackson Games. I've never played the rules but my son loves them.

[FifteensAway]

Played in a game where the rules were used, once or twice, and one game just plain fell apart, the other was okay for a small scale skirmish.  With such a large collection I'd be worried you'd 'break' that set of rules. 

Personally, we are creating our own rules, super simple, for our giant pirate game that will include ship to ship, ship to shore, and shore to shore actions.  Love legos.  Our game is not with legos, though.

I'm going to guess if you can create such a nice collection of ships you can also hammer out a pretty effective set of pirate rules.  Don't need much to have fun.

[Cherno]

There is also the Lego Pirates rules http://sj.sjgames.com/PirateGame.html hosted by Steve Jackson Games. I've never played the rules but my son loves them.

Yes, all those ships were originally built for Evil Steve's Pirate Game, but after I while I came to realize it's more suited to convention-style play, with lots of players, lots of space, multiple GMs, and lots of time. What I am looking for is a game where three to four players have one or tow ships each, sail around collecting treasure, maybe doing some sort of quests, fighting with the imperial navy, raid merchant ships, and spent their loot in the next port for more sailors and cannons So I wouldn't use all those ships at once, I primarily built them so players can have the option of different ship sizes should they wish to buy one.

Sadly, I'm about he most uncreative person around, so just making up a ruleset from scratch is not my thing 

And no, I haven't seen the old Flagship site.

[Mako]

I've never seen, or played them, but from reviews of others I've read, supposedly they are quite fun.

I think they are geared primarily to ship-to-ship actions though, which given your fleet of vessels, might be good.  I think they are meant to be simple, quick, and fun.

Not sure there is much covered in the way of land combat, which is the opposite of most pirate rules, which frequently seem to either omit naval actions completely, or to make them very simple.

[FifteensAway]

Cherno,

Uncreative people DO NOT create collections like that!   

[richarDISNEY]

Yes.  Have played and still do play.
It really is a neat ship to ship game.  Each fig and cannon is supposed to roughly represent 10 cannon/persons.
To hit is guess the distance, and roll a dice to see if it hits the deck or the hull.
It is really a fast paced game.
BUT, it does slow down a bit in the Hand to hand phase.
You can keep it 'historical' or add some fantasy and magic to the mix, i.e. more races, spells, monsters, etc...
There is also some campaign rules too.

This was our game of choice for  three nights a week for three years!  Really great and simple set of rules.
Not complex, just good fun.