dice00
05/02/05 09:56 PM
68.57.171.178
|
Let my get this up front right now. I have always despised wizkids games. I hate thier clicky tech, and the hordes of games that seem pretty identicle. I hate what they did to battletech, and I think they do very bad job of making games. 
Ok, now that thats out of the way, I came upon one very big suprise. One day whwile taking my younger brother shopping, (he was looking at a bunch of card games) I happened upon a pack of cards. It was called Pirates of the Spanish Main. The name alone intriuged (sp?) me because you just dont see many games that dont have some random anime guy pasted on it or is magic. The next thing that prompted me to buy it was the display of the game. It had 3d models of pirate ships, a small 6 sided dice and what looked like spanish dubloons, and an island. At first I thought that would make for a cool game if that was what it really was. Then I came to relize that under the display it stated how all that comes into each pack. So I was really intrested and bought 2 packs.
When home I opened a pack up to find a complete set of rules, a small 6 sided dice, a punchout island and two punch out cards that you construct into ships, some punch out crew counters and punch out coins. The ships were the most intresting part of the pack and I quickly assembled them (its really suprisling simple to put together) and just stared at them. They looked awsome. Each pack comes with two ships at random from 3 factions(spanish,english,pirates). So I went about reading the rules.
Reading the rules brought upon what was really a big suprise. The goal wasnt so much as to use your ships to blow up the other guy's ships, but instead the goal was to get the most gold from a wild island back to your island. So I gathered a friend, and we went about opening the other pack and building the other two ships. So we set up the playing field, with two home islands from each ship and one wild island to make it simple. Movement was also differnt. You use the long (red) and short (white) sides of your cards that has the ships information on it to show how far you move.
As we played 5 games we found strategies key, as we set up blockades to stop ships, sending the faster ships to fetch the gold while your other ship harrasess the enemy and many other things. Speed is another thing that was found key. Fast ships means you can get to the wild island quicker and back to your main island faster alowing for more gold to be picked up. And also the battle system was a bit differnt too. The mast of your ship showed the health. When you blow away all the masts the ship is sunk.
But the masts also show how many cannons you have operational on the ship. Plus the ability to fire every cannon on a single ship is an aswome ability. (you come to fear the broad sides of ships fast) And there is no mucking around with defence of a ship. When your ship is hit, its hit and you lose a sail. This also brings me to another point. Each ship has differnt gunning skills. Some only need you to roll 2 or more to hit while others require 5 or higher and so on. This makes it very intresting. As you play you find that the best ships dont always win, and the other player has higher value gold at the end of the game.
And on to another point, the ships. Each ship has its own personallity. Your not just getting some regular grunt ship when ever you open a pack, you are getting something differnt. Each ship has a background to it, and a special ability. This makes for great strategies just in choosing your forces. Now on to the crews. After a couple of games we decided to use some of the extra more advanced rules. The rules did not add anything diffivult or hard really, but we found that some rules we wanted to change (like you can sink a direlect ship with one more hit and got rid of the towing ability). The crews are one of the extra rules. Some crews are famouse captians, but most are pretty generic but when put on the same nationality ship gives it special abilities, like gaining an extra cannon and better firing skills and faster movement.
So I have been hooked, bought more packs then later relizeed who made it. Wizkids.  I was amazed.
This gave me new found respect for them. Only if they made more games as fun as this one. In then end I say this: Each game is fast, addicting and very fun. So pick a pack up just to try it. Its only $3 so you wont be missing much money.
Wayward can keep telling us how great something is even if it does screw us like a tentacle monster on a hentai schoolgirl.- Seo
|
Greyslayer
05/03/05 07:04 PM
216.14.198.61
|
Sounds like an interesting 'beer and pretzels' kind of game and something that hopefully won't suck the life out of your bank balance. Though I am not sure if its in Oz at the moment or not.
|
Greyslayer
05/04/05 12:33 AM
216.14.198.61
|
Well I did some research on the net and decided to get me a few blisters depending on the price. I purchased 3 pirates of the spanish main and 3 pirates of the crimson coast.
I picked up mostly spanish ships and mostly british crew (typical  ). The die are tiny about 3mm cubes if that and only in black (which is disappointing really I would prefer two colours for another reason, to allow long and short shots to be fired at the same time etc but also I use the die at the base of the masts so the numbers are easier to see as well).
Looks interesting either way...
|
Karagin
05/05/05 12:35 PM
65.129.222.52
|
Having the chance to play Pirates of the Spanish Main, I think WK has a good game here and one that isn't made to gut the wallet.
Wife likes it and so it give us something to spend a few hours playing together, which I think is an excellent thing.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
|
Greyslayer
05/05/05 05:51 PM
216.14.198.61
|
Oh btw I picked up a 'super rare' yesterday the 'Roanoke' (I like my HMS London far better for combat but with the right pirate crew the Roanoke would be a pain).
Kind of disappointed there is no dutch or portugese involved yet but perhaps they will be further addons? So far I have broken two masts too... its not at though I'm forcing these things into place or anything either.
|
dice00
05/07/05 11:55 PM
68.57.171.178
|
hey, we are talking about wizkids here. Most likely they will expansion the hell out of it.
Wayward can keep telling us how great something is even if it does screw us like a tentacle monster on a hentai schoolgirl.- Seo
|
Karagin
05/09/05 11:57 AM
65.132.126.225
|
True...I am sure we will see more expansion packs that cover other nations as well as certain pirates and minor groups as well...
What I would like to see is maybe something covering the pirate groups that operated in the Indian Ocean or the South China Seas or even something covering the Barbary Pirates of North Africa.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
|
Greyslayer
05/09/05 02:09 PM
216.14.198.61
|
being typical of the group they are aiming at they ignored the dutch east indies etc and went straight into american fleets. As I mentioned I had the Roanoke a US ship in the first expansion, the second expansions deals with more us ships and characters etc, would've prefered them trying the Dutch and Portugese.
Then again I would prefer at least 1 captain for my fleet so far 
|
Karagin
05/09/05 04:19 PM
65.129.166.89
|
Thanks for letting us know...I to wish they had gone for something other then US ships. Lots to chose from with in the time frame of the events the game is protraaying.
Karagin
Given time and plenty of paper, a philosopher can prove anything.
|
Grizzly
05/12/05 08:58 AM
64.9.50.200
|
Thanks to everyone for posting such good things about this game... I went out to the local hobby shop and picked up four spanish main packs. Part of the fun is actually putting the models together. Karagin, my wife actually likes the game too  . We have played a couple of games after we put the baby to sleep. I am thinking about picking up a couple of crimson coast packs as well. Thanks again for the tip on a decent little game! 
"I am but mad north-northwest, when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw" Hamlet
|
Greyslayer
05/12/05 10:49 AM
216.14.198.61
|
The problem with these types of games is that there are times when you collect several boosters and an essential part of a fleet, say a captain would be helpful, even one, I wouldn't care what nationality, really, please?
For competition play I can't see this game being any good, but as a beer and pretzels game and for the visual display it puts up I think it isn't bad. With this in mind I've located a few sites (forums) which have things like printer versions of the cards and some very interesting campaign rules while retaining really quick play.
Also Pirates of the Spanish Main boosters are not really available here too, only Crimson Coast ones are.
two forums I've looked at:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/10653
The campaign rules are in the files section, not as extensive as at the other forum but seem workable.
http://www.psmrealms.com/
for the campaign here go to this thread, http://www.psmrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1395 , the effort into making the rulebook for this one is amazing though perhaps the skills section etc is a little too 'funky. Oh and printing them out can certainly tax a printer.
|
NileIngrams
05/13/05 02:40 AM
144.138.219.30
|
Hehe....
thanks also for the good reviews... I've picked up 6 Spanish Main starters and I am itching to try the game out -
some time on the weekend I think. But it looks like the mechanics of the game are simple, and as there is no
paperwork, not chance of beer staining things (Though I wouldn't mind laminating the Islands - might make
good beer coasters!).
I think my goal is collecting two sets of the basic crews first up - this would make up a good set to play friendly games with.
NileIngrams NI! - The Killer of Threads!
In the time before the return of the heirs of Kerensky,
when the Successor Lords had tired of bathing worlds in Nuclear Madness,
there was an age of High Adventure!
Edited by NileIngrams (05/13/05 02:42 AM)
|
TRYCORP
08/24/05 02:13 AM
131.204.203.123
|
/me wonders how long untill wizkids puts aliens aboard the clippers..
"Machine Guns! Thats a Summoner out there! Do you plan to punch little holes in it, and have it fall down from too much ventilation!?!"
TRYCORP
Clan Nova Cat
|
Grizzly
08/26/05 06:27 PM
64.9.50.200
|
They don't need to do that... thats what the game Rocketmen is for.
"I am but mad north-northwest, when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw" Hamlet
|