Wizkids Pirates Islands

[John_Young]

Has anyone else seen these?

I went to my local gaming store last week and was floored to find a set of 6 BEAUTIFUL painted plastic islands for Pirates of the Spanish Main. $30 for the set. Each is lovingly hand painted and has fabric on the bottom so they don't slide or scuff.

Went back this week and now they also have a set for Pirates of the Crimson Coast. Just as wonderful!

They appear to be done by an outside group using the license, but are still marvelous! Gale Force Nine Islands

I recommend that all hard-core Pirates gamers to go set a set or both today!

[Pirate Petee]

Kind of small in comparrison to the ships and pricey too. You can still make better ones.

Island and Game Board

[John_Young]

Actually, the islands are to scale if not bigger than the one's provided in the game packs.

[Pirate Petee]

Oh yeah, they are way better than those islands, I was saying by judging from the pictures, they seem to be a little small and bit oversized on the price side.

[John_Young]

They do look small in those pics... but trust me... wow.

I asked the shop where I bought mine if I could see them out of the box and was just floored...

It sure beats the idea of making my own like I was planning on.

[Pirate Petee]

I'll probably pic them up if I see them.

[Pew]

They appear to be done by an outside group using the license . . .

"GALE FORCE NINE OFFERS WIZKIDS-LICENSED GAMING SCENERY

October 19, 2005 (Earlysville, VA) — WizKids Inc., creators of the runaway hit games Pirates of the Spanish Main and HeroClix, entered into an agreement with Gale Force Nine (GF9), a specialist hobby accessory company based in Earlysville, Virginia, to produce a range of gaming scenery for MechWarrior®, Pirates of the Spanish Main™, and Rocketmen: Axis of Evil™.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with a company dedicated to expanding the hobby gaming market with such excellent games,” said John Kovaleski, President of GF9. “Producing this dynamic scenery was very exciting given our great materials and the rich background of MechWarrior, Rocketmen, and Pirates of the Spanish Main.” The scenery is intended to enhance the gameplay experience for game players of all ages.

“GF9 is a proven leader in terrain and scenery in the gaming industry,” said Mike Samora, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at WizKids. “This looks to be an excellent partnership for both companies.”"

Those look great, but, questions:

Are they randomly packaged?

How do you place forts on them?

(I'll prolly get them anyway . . )

[John_Young]

LOL.

No, the islands come as a set of 6 certain islands for Spanish Main (which the sticker on the bottom says "Spanish Maine") and 6 certain islands for Crimson Coast. No randomness.

I was considering the forts... maybe they'll do a pack of forts to attach to the islands.

[JoshuaRed]

Get some sandpaper, a block of florist's styrofoam, some model railroad scenery and you could churn out boxloads of random islands all day. But the instant gratification of buying stuff is sometimes more fun!

Here's my only gripe with the WizKids Pirates games....the flags & pennants only fit on the ships backwards, against the wind!

[John_Young]

Well... I bought em because... try making islands when yer a Stay-at-home Dad with a 10 month old when yer not out ta sea... lol.

And The pennants and flags all fly backwards in the movies and video games (like SM's Pirates!).

[Jib]

I want big ships. I saw a fella make copies of the ships out of PVC board and they rocked! Anyone else tried this?

[Pirate Petee]

Get some sandpaper, a block of florist's styrofoam, some model railroad scenery and you could churn out boxloads of random islands all day. But the instant gratification of buying stuff is sometimes more fun!

Here's my only gripe with the WizKids Pirates games....the flags & pennants only fit on the ships backwards, against the wind!

Don't use florist foam, use insulation foam. Florist foam isn’t sturdy enough. After you carve and shape your island, paint it with wood glue and the sprinkle sand all over it. After that drys spray paint it flat black and then dry brush it. Then use flocking. Its easy and cheap.

Terrain Tips

Texturing and painting

[JoshuaRed]

Well I was just speaking figuratively on the relatively high cost of those Islands, but if I were to make my own, I would certainly take that advice - florist foam is pretty weak and mushy, I can see how it wouldn't hold up, and would end up full of finger holes from picking them up.

[LongTom]

I make islands out of Celluclay. These are really strong. It's not exactly cheap to get started: the big bag costs something like 25 dollars, but you probably could make 200 islands before you used the whole thing up. You can also get smaller bags.

You just splat down a blob of clay, and start shaping it into geography and rock details. When it looks about right, stick it in the oven at 200 to harden the top side. After two hours or so, it's a good idea to pull it out of the oven and hollow out the insides that are still wet (if you leave them solid, they tend to warp rather badly as they dry), then back in the oven for a final dry cycle. If they do come out a little warped on the bottom, just sand them flat again.

Then paint on some white glue and sprinkle sand, foliage, etc. in strategic places. A little paint here and there for effect (whitecaps on the beach, for instance) and you are done.

I like to trace the official cards onto paper for the base (or you can make bigger ones of your own design, of course). Having no ocean margins, they end up a little more massive than the cards, but they are still "official" sizes as far as their literal footprint.

[Sam Flint]

I made about 15 islands in a single weekend when I first started playing. Then I went out and bought a piece of white project display board and spray painted it in a light blue. I made some darker hightlights as well. Then with a little of that wax tacky stuff i was able to adhere the islands to the board to prevent them from moving during game play but also did not ruin the board underneath so we can move them around each game.

I made the islands out of pink insulation foam, black paint, grey paint, white paint, railroad fine flock, and railroad grade sand and some wood glue. Buying a foam cutter made life wonderful and using a soddering iron to make some more of the intricate shapes and what not made the islands look pretty darn good.

1 hard weekend = hours of pirate playing fun.

P.S. Has anyone picked up South China Seas yet? Is it any good?

[LadyBarbossa]

I've not seen the islands yet. Eventually I may purchase them.

That was my worry as well.. the size of the islands. Would they hold the forts, are they large enough for that? What about coves with colonies, ports, etc on them?

The Gale Force 9 islands are what some of us who are inept to make their own islands, want.

I have gotten a hold of some South Chine Seas cards & I like South China Seas FAR better than Barbary Coast. More piratical stuff in South China Seas than Barbary Coast.

[LongTom]

Yeah, forts are a problem for 3D islands. It's pretty hard to get a fort to sit straight on anything except the flattest islands (unless you build them as plateaus). Looks to me like some of the shorter Gale Force 9 ones will accept a fort, but the taller ones probably won't.

For me, I just replace the 3D island with one of the standard island cards when somebody builds a fort there. Oh well.

[Pew]

All you folks that have created your own islands . . . can ya post up any pics?

[Sam Flint]

I did a some brief coverage of the game on my website and in the article included pics of some of my home made islands.

here is the link:

http://www.collectiblebitsbox.com/potsm/POTSM.htm

[LongTom]

All you folks that have created your own islands . . . can ya post up any pics?

Here are a few.

Some 3D Islands

[Patrick Hand]

Finished painting the Islands today. well except for the Pyrate Island, So I'm using one of the cards untill I can make it.....

I made the islands outta Sculpy... so they are heavy enough not to slide around, Sculpy is easy to form and takes details realy well...

You can also see the movement gage that I cut out of some sheet brass.....(next to the cute little dice that come with the game....)

[LongTom]

Nicely done, Patrick! Are the little flat gold things on top of each island platforms to put treasure on, or forts, or what?

In the second picture, I like how one ship appears to be on the mountain top of an island. (Forced perspective is a pita. You can see where it really sits in the first pic.) Must be a Ghost Ship! Either that, or it's the HMS Ark, Capt. Noah commanding

[Patrick Hand]

The gold things are the treasure coins on the Islands....

Yah... th' perspective did kinda mess up on that one ship....

[Patrick Hand]

I'm just going to post this idea here......

I think I came up with an interesting variation to the Pyrates of the Spanish Main game...... I don't have a group that I play the game with yet.... so maybe someone else might want to try it....

OK as shown in my eairlier post, I have 6 islands on my board..... for this game, Make one card more than you have islands.... on each card, You list a location.... Port Royal,... Tortouga.... etc..... shuffle the cards, and place all of them except one (the treasure card) on each island.... now the object is to go to each island to figure out what the one treasure card is by elimination..... kinda a Pyrate like Clue..... But you still get to shoot at other ships and all the fun stuff......

[Pew]

::Knocks on door,

"Hi Mrs. Hand, Can Patrick bring his islands over and play Pirates?"

OK as shown in my eairlier post, I have 6 islands on my board..... for this game, Make one card more than you have islands.... on each card, You list a location.... Port Royal,... Tortouga.... etc..... shuffle the cards, and place all of them except one (the treasure card) on each island.... now the object is to go to each island to figure out what the one treasure card is by elimination..... kinda a Pyrate like Clue..... But you still get to shoot at other ships and all the fun stuff......

Add ALOT of islands for this idear, like 20 or so:

Name each island as you have Mr. Hand . . .upon landing on an island pull the card for that island . . on the reverse side there are clues (a treasure map if you will) as to the whereabouts on which island Blackbeard's treasure is located, (meaning using compass points and directions, i.e. the island 2 L from the shipwreck NNW of Kidney Island) . . whereabouts you would find another card (or treasure map) for directions to the next clue. . But, you still place 4 "1's" of gold on each island, yet the treasure is 4 "6's" of gold . .adding a bit more of seamanship and adventure to the game . . .and still following the rules to obtain the most gold . .

Another thing we like to us is a weather die:

Sunny, Cloudy weather: ship movement as normal,

Windy weather: add an S to ship movement,

Rainy/ bad weather: subtract an S from ship movement.

It adds another dementia . . I mean dimension to the game . .