Skip to Content
 

Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

9 replies [Last post]
sedjtroll
sedjtroll's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/21/2008

I put a lot of time and effort (and probably money) into Magic: the Gathering, and I'm not sorry about it in the least. I had a lot of fun playing Magic over the years and it has been very rewarding emotionally, intellectually, and even financially.

What I did notice though was the rash of other CCGs coming out. Collectible games are not only an accepted genre today, they are the norm. When the Card Game portion of the collectible market got saturated, Whiz Kids came out with collectible Miniatures games, slightly different then Warhammer-style miniatures games with regard to collectibility. Now there's Mageknight, Heroclix, and other such collectible minitures running around.

The next generation of collectible gaming appears to be evolving, and they're in the form of collectible board games. Theres a new game out who's name escapes me which is something of a chess variant, where pieces you use instead of Knights and Bishops are various beasts and characters out of some anime story, each with it's own movement scheme and the ability to 'flip' to a different (more powerful?) scheme at a cost.

Another example is the widely popular Pirates of the Spanish Main (aha! The post finally gets on topic!) which is basically a collectible miniature game where the "board" is the table with island pieces placed arbitrarily by the players, and the pieces are collectible boats which come on sturdy cards- you punch out the pieces and snap them together, a pretty clever mechanism. It is this game I'd like to discuss here.

Initially I looked at Pirates of the Spanish Main in a similar way that I looked at most of the other CCGs I tried out- looks interesting but why not just play Magic? However last weekend I finally learned how to play the game and watched some people play, and I thought it looked pretty fun actually. I think the lack of hidden information makes the game different enough from a CCG that it could be worth checking out. In some respects I don't like the idea of the good pieces being sold randmoly in booster packs, so if I want a particular one I have to buy it individually or trade for it somehow rather than simply choose the strategy I like with what comes in the box. But I do like the idea of customizing your team. So all in all I think this game might be worth trying. In fact, I'm seriously considering taking up Magic again so I can win packs of Pirates...

What do you think? Has anybody here played this game?

- Seth

FastLearner
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

I haven't played it, but many comments on the 'geek are all about how cool the ships are but how much the game itself sucks.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10653

-- Matthew

sedjtroll
sedjtroll's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/21/2008
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

FastLearner wrote:
I haven't played it, but many comments on the 'geek are all about how cool the ships are but how much the game itself sucks.

Yeah, I read those right after I posted. I get the feeling those people are blaming the game for not being something the game doesn't intend to be in the first place. Of course they're allowed to not like it, but they could try and loko at it for what it is rather then discounting it for what it's not.

But maybe they're right, maybe it's not fun. Looks fun enough to me though, I'll probably give it a try- though not to the extent that I played Magic.

- Seth

Anonymous
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

I've played it and thought it was OK. Last year's GenCon, they handed out promo ships to everyone ... I had a hard time getting the ship pieces to fit back in the card when done. I had pegged that game to be a big failure (shows you what I know :) ).

As far as getting back in to magic (I used to play too) - you should look at some of the other newer CCGs out there. The one that I'm in to now is Call of Cthulhu. I just can't get enough of it.

I've also tried the new Spycraft CCG, but I thought it was a bit too confusing (for someone who hasn't played CCGs in about 7 years anyway)

Anonymous
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

sedjtroll wrote:
Yeah, I read those right after I posted. I get the feeling those people are blaming the game for not being something the game doesn't intend to be in the first place.

You make a great point in that people expecting PotSM to be an intense and deep gaming experience will be sorely disappointed. I picked up a pack simply because my purchase at a game store didn't seem worth the use of a credit card (a die and some card protectors) so I tossed in a pack to bring the total up a little. Reading the rules left me a little dissuaded from trying it (I haven't yet despite my friends having a ton of pieces). The game system is very simple (almost to a fault), though it could also work in that anyone can learn how to play it in seconds.

This could be a great pick-up game that anyone can get in on (and can be carried in someone's pocket), but I just don't feel the urge to play it at all.

Worth it? $4 a pack isn't too bad if you just want the cool ships and maybe to play a game or two.

sedjtroll
sedjtroll's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/21/2008
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

bitraven wrote:
As far as getting back in to magic (I used to play too) - you should look at some of the other newer CCGs out there.

As I mentioned, with so much time and energy invested in Magic, even after selling all my cards I wouldn't think of trying to get into a new CCG. I may play Magic some more and I may not, but it's not worth my time to bother with Spycraft, WWF, L5R, LotR, Call of Cthulhu, VS, etc, etc, etc.

sedjtroll
sedjtroll's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/21/2008
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

SiskNY wrote:
Worth it? $4 a pack isn't too bad if you just want the cool ships and maybe to play a game or two.

I think I meant more "is it worth the time and effort" than "is it worth the money." It's never the case with a collectible game that the price tag is anywhere near an accurate assessment of the amount of money the game will cost (or is worth).

- Seth

FastLearner
Offline
Joined: 12/31/1969
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

Right, but you can still try the game if you have two players invest $8-$12, right?

sedjtroll
sedjtroll's picture
Offline
Joined: 07/21/2008
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

FastLearner wrote:
Right, but you can still try the game if you have two players invest $8-$12, right?

All other things being equal I believe you can walk into a store with nothing but a friend and $8 and try the game, yes. You should be able to try games like this with no monetary output though, if people in the area play it. Watch them play a game, ask (they might even just offer) if you can try it out with their boats, etc. After I watched some dudes play (it was like they were demo-ing it at a local shop) one of them gave me a promo pirate ship.

- Seth

Anonymous
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Worth it, or no?

Sounds like another game which is dying to have "home brew" rules written for it. :) Looking at the Geek site people are already doing so. Hmm and I've been looking for cheap pirate ships too.

Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut