Yo ho ,yo ho, A nostalgic life for me!

[nic-e]

Avast ahoy and other such nonsense!

Let me tell you a tale, A tale of terrible import times, delayed production runs and sold out print runs.
 A tale filled with artificial rarity, low stock and an ocean of useless plastic push out frames....
A tale of PIRATES!

When I was 11 in the ancient past of 2005, My dad took me into forbidden planet.Back in these lawless days the upstairs of forbidden planet was a den of piracy and terror, Where collectable card games and miniatures ran amok.
Armed with nout but my pocket money, I bought myself a single packet of pirates of the Spanish main, Wizkids then well loved pirate pop out game.
Being a new convert to the churge of games workshop, I quickly tossed the rules sheet and anything else that was not a pirate ship and spent my time thinking "huh,I bet a game with these ships would be cool"

Fast forward.....
The sea going empire of funko pops has taken over the pirate den of forbidden planet, and the bandits and brigands of the sea have been sunk beneath the ways of corporate takeover.
If only there was a 23 year old with some early 2000's nostalgia that could brave the dark waters of the internet and bring back that long lost booty...


Oh wait!




That's right, for the princely sum of 12 of the empires finest pounds, I got myself 15 pirates of the spanish main fire and steel boosters, 1 oceans edge special edition starter box and one rise of the fiends special edition starter box! I also have a whole bunch of random booster packs int he post ,which set me back a mighty £3.

For me this game is perfect, It's exactly what I've been after. Quick, fun , simple to teach and easy to remember. It's so simple that I managed not only to get my dad to try a game, But had him coming up with campaign ideas after 5 games.

It also scratches my absurdly tiny modelling itch, Something I haven't been able to really do since my scarif board.
I've already assembled the two starter boxes and two booster packs and have worked out that for my investment i should be getting about 66 ships, Which to me seems a fairly solid start.

I'll be posting up scenery and scratch builds as I come up with them.
Join me on my voyage into the swirling whirlpool of pointless nostalgia.

[mweaver]

We have a fair few of those ships somewhere.  Only played the game a couple of times, but for a time our RPG went all nautical and they were often useful for blocking out engagements.  Quite decent models, and easy to assemble.

-Michael

[HerbyF]

It tis a wonderful little table top game. I have quite the fleet(s) myself. Mostly the sit in boxes as I have very little time for gaming these days.

[DintheDin]

I mark this thread, eager to know more about this!

[warlord frod]

Yes, this is a great game for quick Pirate goodness. The ships really look nice and are way cheaper than all the other miniature options (Plus no painting, basing etc.) Only one caution is when removing sails take care because you can break off the tab at the base. I look forward to pictures of your adventures 

[YPU]

Ah yes, I remember picking up a few of this games pieces on sale as well. Ship combat always had its charm to me.

[nic-e]

Good to see there's still some interest in the game guys

I just took delivery of 12 more boosters, this time 3 each of original spanish main set, davey jones curse, Barbary coast and oceans edge.

With all of this I think I now have more than enough ships to play some pretty big games.

After playing a few games I found that while the treasure hunting is a fun little scenario, It doesn't really incentivise combat or opponent interaction, So i'll be writing up some short scenarios for more naval combat style games.

[YPU]

The game was pretty widespread, but never THAT popular, which results in you getting good prices now. Lucky you!

[nic-e]

10 packs in and 18 packs to build!
I may have underestimated how much storage space I have...



From left to right we have
British
Pirate
spanish
french
Persian (?)
American.

[Toman]

where did you find them so cheep?

[nic-e]

where did you find them so cheep?

Ebay, From a collectables store. I'll look for the name for you if you like.

Be warned,I think i may have bought out most of the packets on ebay right now apart from the fire and steel packs. the store i got mine from was selling them off in lots  of 15 for £7.(but be warned, these are the american packs and so come with an extra bunch of external packaging.but you do get two mini dice per pack!)

If you ask around any forum there seems to be alot of people willing to part with their doubles, But I'm quite enjoying the experience of tearing open boosters.

[hentzau]

Man, I have a ton of these ships.  I don't think I actually played the game that much...I don't remember playing more than about 5-6 games, but I collected the ships like crazy.  I think I have all of the first wave sitting in a binder in my basement, and a big chunk of the second wave.

[Toman]

I actually have a bunch of these. just thought it would be cool to get some new packs for my son and nephews to open since they beg me to play this all the time

[HerbyF]

Persian (?) Not Persian, Barbary pirates, Moroccan, north Africa, Mediterranean. 

[nic-e]

Took the pirates to game night tonight.

We'd normally be playing D&D however by brother in law is our DM and had the terrible idea to have children!

We played a 4 person ,50 point game, no crew or terrain in this case to get settled with the bigger game.

We added in a rule that aswell as treasure, you also get treasure equivalent to a ships point cost if you destroy that ship, In order to incentivise combat. This little addition completely changed the game and made it go from a bit of a slow race to a real naval scrum!




Here we see the middle scrum as the remainder of my pirate fleet flees the undead pirates and tried to assist the english fleet in destroying the french flotilla that has dominated the boards edge ...



And here you see us get mown down as the last british and pirate ships that survived massacring the french become prey to an undamaged undead fleet....