Saturday, January 13, 2007
Gaming begins again! 01/07/2007
Well, after a significant dry period, we were finally able to play some games last weekend. Some old friends resurfaced and dropped by the Borders to play games and catch up on things. Bart showed up first, and while he and I waited on the rest, I showed him Pirates.
Pirates
Pirates is an interesting collectible game I was shown the day before at a local game shop. I've avoided collectible card games (CCGs) such as Magic The Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and numerous others primarily because I feel as though these games encourage players to spend more to play better. I don't like the idea that someone can spend their way to a win. Pirates is somewhat different, I feel, because while it is still true that people can go to eBay and buy individual rare or very rare equipment (typical Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare distribution applies), Pirates includes enough in a single pack for two people to play a minimal, but still entertaining game.
The series that have been released thus far are as follows:
Pirates of the Spanish Main
Pirates of the Crimson Coast (added forts)
Pirates of the Revolution (added events)
Pirates of the Barbary Coast (added Barbary Corsairs)
Pirates of the South China Seas (added Chinese Junks)
Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse (added Sea Monsters)
Pirates of the Mysterious Islands (added Mysterious Islands - islands with random events/actions that occur when explored, Mercenaries)
Pirates is a collectible card game, but the cards aren't played as cards. I'll explain that for the unfamiliar. Pirates is described by the maker (WizKids Games - the makers of HeroClix) as a Constructible Strategy Game (CSG). Constructible comes from the fact that each card either contains pieces of a ship, an island, treasure, or crew, and the pieces of the ships are assembled
so that they can be used in a miniatures type of game. Some ships are larger than others. Some only take a single card, upon which is detailed the name of the vessel and vital information such as the number of masts, the number and range of cannons, speed/move range (range for both is shown in terms of S or L - S meaning the white short side of the card, and L meaning the red long side of the card), and any special abilities or properties that the ship has or bestows. For larger ships, all of the vital details are still on one card, but the others (some ships take 2 cards, some take 3) only have pieces. Each pack contains a minimum of two ships, at least one crew, at least one card with treasure, an island, rules, and a tiny little die. I've seen smaller dice, but not many. They are small enough that I will likely get more practically sized dice later one, but for now they are just fine. The early series used black dice, but later series used brown, green, and red.
The strategy comes from using these details to the player's advantage while trying to explore islands and gather treasure. It may be that during the course of exploring or gathering treasure, that another player's will use some or all of his or her ships to attack. Ships don't attack islands, but rather one another's ships. Some series contain a fort or sea monster in lieu of one of the ships in a given pack, but as yet I have not seen any of those.
The demonstration went well, and while Bart was intrigued, he did not seem overly taken with the game, unlike Sridhar was when I showed him. I will post my rating of Pirates after I have had a chance to play a bit more. Too soon to tell for now.
So, with the demo over, Bart and I continued to wait for the rest of the group to show up. We played a round of Carcassonne. We used the Cities and Cathedrals expansion, but that was it. We weren't certain how long we would have to wait for more people and didn't want to keep them waiting as we finished up the game.
Once Heather and Barbie showed up, we moved on to Ticket to Ride for four. Bart had to leave after the game was finished, so the ladies and I played a round of Clans, followed by a round of Carcassonne with Cities and Cathedrals. Unfortunately, that was all we got to do
because Heather and Barbie had to leave. So ends another gaming session.
Pirates
Pirates is an interesting collectible game I was shown the day before at a local game shop. I've avoided collectible card games (CCGs) such as Magic The Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and numerous others primarily because I feel as though these games encourage players to spend more to play better. I don't like the idea that someone can spend their way to a win. Pirates is somewhat different, I feel, because while it is still true that people can go to eBay and buy individual rare or very rare equipment (typical Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare distribution applies), Pirates includes enough in a single pack for two people to play a minimal, but still entertaining game.
The series that have been released thus far are as follows:
Pirates of the Spanish Main
Pirates of the Crimson Coast (added forts)
Pirates of the Revolution (added events)
Pirates of the Barbary Coast (added Barbary Corsairs)
Pirates of the South China Seas (added Chinese Junks)
Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse (added Sea Monsters)
Pirates of the Mysterious Islands (added Mysterious Islands - islands with random events/actions that occur when explored, Mercenaries)
Pirates is a collectible card game, but the cards aren't played as cards. I'll explain that for the unfamiliar. Pirates is described by the maker (WizKids Games - the makers of HeroClix) as a Constructible Strategy Game (CSG). Constructible comes from the fact that each card either contains pieces of a ship, an island, treasure, or crew, and the pieces of the ships are assembled
so that they can be used in a miniatures type of game. Some ships are larger than others. Some only take a single card, upon which is detailed the name of the vessel and vital information such as the number of masts, the number and range of cannons, speed/move range (range for both is shown in terms of S or L - S meaning the white short side of the card, and L meaning the red long side of the card), and any special abilities or properties that the ship has or bestows. For larger ships, all of the vital details are still on one card, but the others (some ships take 2 cards, some take 3) only have pieces. Each pack contains a minimum of two ships, at least one crew, at least one card with treasure, an island, rules, and a tiny little die. I've seen smaller dice, but not many. They are small enough that I will likely get more practically sized dice later one, but for now they are just fine. The early series used black dice, but later series used brown, green, and red.
The strategy comes from using these details to the player's advantage while trying to explore islands and gather treasure. It may be that during the course of exploring or gathering treasure, that another player's will use some or all of his or her ships to attack. Ships don't attack islands, but rather one another's ships. Some series contain a fort or sea monster in lieu of one of the ships in a given pack, but as yet I have not seen any of those.
The demonstration went well, and while Bart was intrigued, he did not seem overly taken with the game, unlike Sridhar was when I showed him. I will post my rating of Pirates after I have had a chance to play a bit more. Too soon to tell for now.
So, with the demo over, Bart and I continued to wait for the rest of the group to show up. We played a round of Carcassonne. We used the Cities and Cathedrals expansion, but that was it. We weren't certain how long we would have to wait for more people and didn't want to keep them waiting as we finished up the game.
Once Heather and Barbie showed up, we moved on to Ticket to Ride for four. Bart had to leave after the game was finished, so the ladies and I played a round of Clans, followed by a round of Carcassonne with Cities and Cathedrals. Unfortunately, that was all we got to do
because Heather and Barbie had to leave. So ends another gaming session.
