Pirates of the Spanish Main

[Pew]

Instead of pirating the Goddess's thread . . .

Do you have any tip/ tricks/ ideas for a new gamer?

Start small?

Build a man-o-war?

Lots of little fast ships?

Build one nationality?

Search and destroy?

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Not so much strategy, as adding spice into the game...

(1) Play on a blue tablecloth. I have a large piece of fabric set aside for this purpose. Personally, I would love a large sheet of plexiglass to lay over the fabric -- more watery.

(2) Abandon those stupid island cards. Upload and print full color satellite pictures of real islands and paste 'em on cardboard.

(3) Alternately to #2, print/color copy and cut out islands from historic maps (with the old handwriting, etc.). You can Google the image "Treasure Island Map" (here is one)

(4) These cards are bulky... I keep all mine in a small tresure chest. It looks cool sitting next to the game. I keep my loose coins in an even smaller (miniature) treasure chest.

(5) Wear your pirate hat while playing (this is from William the Bloody -- probably 'cause we did this while playing "Pirates Cove" the other night).

(6) Make a sea monster token (or paint a white toy whale), and set up rules for it. Our rules: after every person's turn, roll a scatter die (a die with arrows on it) and a D6. Sea monster moves "S" (short end of card) distance x D6 roll. It stops in contact with any ship. Second D6 roll determines damage: 1-2 Ship loses all crew; 3-4 Ship loses all treasure; 5-6 Ship and all hands and all treasure go directly to Davy Jones' Locker -- do not pass Go, do not collect 200 doubloons.

-- I will post some of my own effective strategies when I have a chance to remember them. I am making my kids promise to play me a game sometime over the weekend.

[Pew]

Sea monsters?!?!?!

Most excellent!

I'll be looking at the MdRF for me little treasure chest, (a shoebox and ziploc bags don't look so piratey . . .)

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Here is a strategy which has left me undefeated thus far (admittedly, we have not played too many games, but this has ensured my victory).

Send out your huge galleons and other large 4 or 5 masted ships with all their firepower. Get them into the fray. Tie up the upposing armadas.

...but, make sure you have one (or two!) rapid sloops with an L+L movement, and don't burden it with crew. I use the pirate ship Zephyr. While it only has a cargo space of 1, it zips around the board (L+L!) back and forth between my home island and anything in range, bringing back one piece of treasure each time.

This ensures money in the back. The ship moves too fast for anyone to catch, and my larger ships handle the brunt of the battles. While a large galleon can acquire larger treasures, my little rapid boat almost certainly guarantees a steady flow of booty.

[Pew]

Right on.

I had the same tactic today. I used the Captain on my 4 masted Sea Nymph, to gain a move as well as shots in the same turn.

Still got blown out of the water by my students though . . .

[blackjohn]

The best tactic - buy more cards!

I've been battering my opponents lately. I'm something like 10 and 2. At least one of them is convinced it's because I own more cards. I think it's just because I'm thinking both strategically and tactically.

I've had success with two different strategies.

The first is lots of low cost ships. We played a three player 40 point game. I took nine ships. The other players had... 3 each. By the time they figured out what I was up to, it was too late. I had gathered a huge stack of treasure.

The other is the fighting fleet. Pick a similar sized group of ships. Outfit them with as many beneficial crew as allowable. Then drive straight at your opponent. This works well in a two player game because you get to pick your opponents home island. Pick the island closest to yours. When he goes out for gold, blockade his island. He can't land gold if you blow his ships out of the water.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Agreed -- the more ships the better. Most of the low-cost ships move faster, and can run rings around your opponent.

I usualy like to "bulk up" one large ship -- it generally draws the fire and attention of the opponent(s) while the small, fast ships do all the treasure gathering.

[blackjohn]

I don't know that I agree that more ships is better, so much as more cards are better.

My latest winning strategy - give every ship a helmsman and a captain. Of course, I won more due to luck that any other reason.

A recap, from another board I frequent...

Three cheers for Capitaine Arathiel!!! Wow! Today's game was a good one. 50 points. I went for fast ships with helmsmen. My opponent went with two ships and lots of crew. By turn two my fastest ship was in his waters getting ready to abscond with some booty. By turn three my fastest ship was completely blown out of the water by HMS Titan with Myngs and some other equally vile Englishmen! ;^)

But, as they say, revenge is sweet. And so is the French schooner Vengeance with a helmsman and the aforementioned capitaine! I was able to swoop into range with a S+L+S. Then she opened up on HMS Titan and with +1 to hit the English, we took out two masts (not good, considering she has 5 guns). But wait!!! The "good" capitaine killed his helmsman, thereby gaining an extra action, after which the HMS Titan went to Davy Jones.

[blackjohn]

I tried something new today - FORTS! I have two, but have never used them. So this time I figured I'd give them a try. My plan was simple. Take three ships. One very fast, two just fast. Run with the very fast ship to the nearest island. Grab the treasure and return. In the meantime, the other two ships run for two other islands, and hopefully get there in time to build the forts when the very fast ship gets back to my home island. It worked, with one small problem. The first island didn't have 6 gold. It had only 5!!! My opponent got tricky and did some different combination adding up to 6 coins worth 12 gold. Damn! So instead, I built a fort with my second ship when it reached its island. But I won, because one of the gold on that island was a 5!

My very fast ship was VERY fast. I took the Raven's Neck, an S+L, added a helmsman, and Captain Blackheart, and some more expendable crew. She was able to reach the first island and grab the gold on her first turn. Captain Blackheart had to kill the oarsman, of course. But hey, that's why he was there. :)