Introduction:
Arrgh! So ye wants to be a pirate, do ye? Well, me boyo, listen me well for it ain’t fer me own benefit’t I be tellin ye this! The pirate life, mate, she’s a fast and hard one. Ye be chased by the navy, other pirates after ye treasure…but maybe, just maybe, ye’ll be famous if ye work hard enough. She’s a mix bag’o skill’n luck, so be hopin’ lady luck smiles on ye!
Pirates Cove, published by Days of Wonder, designed by Paul Randles and Daniel Stahl, is a 3-5 player euro-ameritrash hybrid Pirate game. During the game, players try to accumulate fame points, by winning battles, earning fame through cards, and burying treasure, while at the same time trying to stay afloat and out of the way of the Dread Pirates.
Pirate's Cove
Most of my reviews start with the bits, and Days of Wonder doesn’t disappoint here. Inside the attractive box (Similarly sized to Ticket to Ride and Memoir ’44), everything is glossy and brightly colored. Player mats are simple glossy paper, which is fine. The board is a standard DoW style folding board, and it’s sturdy, sits flat, and is also vividly colored with attractive, pirate artwork. The resin player ships are simply awesome, I love them. Each player gets 4 wooden rings to track the status of his ship. Doubloons are cardboard coins, sturdy ones, and the treasure chests are wooden cubes, stained brown. Each player also gets a score marker in their color (same color as the rings and ship), and a ships wheel. The ships wheel (not a spinner, thank you) is a secret selection tool, so that players may secretly select their destination. More on this in a moment. Overall the bits are impressive, and add to the enjoyment of the game immensely.
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Bits:
Ships and gameboard, by Gollum
Treasure Chests, by Chrysophylax
Gameplay:
Pirates Cove consists of exactly twelve turns. Each turn, treasure cards are flipped up at each of 5 different islands, Tavern Island, Crew Island, Cannon Island, Hull Island, and Sail Island. A sixth Island, “Treasure Island”, contains no treasure cards. A seventh island, Pirates Cove, is a special area of the board for wounded ships. After the cards are flipped, players select using their wheel, secretly, one of the 6 islands to travel to. There is also a dread pirate who makes lackadaisical rhythmic circles around the board...and he'll fight you when you tackle him. We usually avoid him.
If two or more players (including the dread pirate) end up at the same island, it triggers combat. Players never combat at Treasure Island, but the Dread Pirate will. If not, they simply collect the treasure listed on the cards. The listed treasure can include fame points, tavern cards, treasure chests, and doubloons.
On each of the outer islands, after collecting treasure cards, players may, if they wish, purchase upgrades for their ship. Upgrading a ships sails gives you better initiative in combat. Upgrading the cannons and crew increases the number of dice you roll in combat. Upgrading your hull increases the treasure you can hold at once. And of course, any upgrade makes you potentially harder to sink. Performing an upgrade at Tavern Island lets you buy tavern cards, which can include Battle Cards, Volley Cards, Mastercraft cards, Parrots, and other goodies.
Performing upgrades are easy..there’s a doubloon symbol between each upgrade level. Pay that cost, and move the ring to the next level. You may do this as many times as you can afford.
On Treasure island, you can perform any upgrade, but it costs double what it would elsewhere. You can also bury treasure chests here for 1 fame each, or doubloons for 1 fame per 3 doubloons. Treasure chests and doubloons do not count for fame at the end of the game.
Combat works pretty well. Players finding themselves at the same island start combat. Either player may run, but running triggers the possibility of Mutiny. If a player flees and rolls a 6, he gets thrown overboard, losing treasure and doubloons. He also loses fame, while all players still at the island get one fame point. So fleeing isn’t such a good idea unless you’re hopelessly outclassed.
The player with the highest sails has initiative. He chooses a target player, then a target area of that player’s ship; hull, cannon, crew, or sails. He then rolls the lower of the 2 numbers he has for Cannon and Crew…being as you need crew to operate cannon, and cannon for crew to operate, me hearty.
Each roll of 5 or 6 counts as a hit. If he hits, the other player downgrades his ship’s target characteristic by one for each hit scored. After one player has fired one “volley”, the next player goes. In battles with more than 2 players, each player chooses his target at will. On subsequent volleys, players may re-target their guns at different ships, or different parts of the same ship.
If, during combat, one part of your ship is damaged below its lowest number, your ship is crippled and you must put into Pirates Cove for repairs. There, you must repair the crippled part back to its start space for 2 doubloons. Then, you optionally get 2 doubloons and a tavern card, or 2 tavern cards. If you can’t pay for the repairs, you just get a tavern card. If you came to the cove because you fled, then you don’t have to repair anything.
This simple combat system makes me feel like I’m really in a rollicking pirate battle. Battle and Volley cards, which last for an entire battle and just one roll of the dice, respectively, add flavor to the battles and let you weigh strengths or weaknesses against possible opponents. Parrot cards, special cards that affect your ship for as long as the parrot sticks around, also increase your abilities beyond the base abilities of your ship. These can include extra cannon, more accurate cannon, better sails or a stronger hull. When the part of your ship the parrot helps is hit, so is the parrot. Two hits, and Mr. Feathers is gone for good.
There are 12 treasure cards on each island. Each turn, new cards are flipped out and the process repeats. After the 12th turn, game over, and whoever has the most fame is the winner!
Captian's Wheel, by Ender's Game
Thoughts:
Pirates Cove is a very unique and somewhat odd blend of Euro and Ameritrash. The pirate theme, dice-based combat, and myriad of special cards are Ameritrash features, as is the direct conflict of battle and the myriad ways you can interfere with other players (like with the Consort card..which lets you steal half of someone’s points when they bury treasure.)
However, even so, it has very eurogamey elements. Not least of which is the beautiful wood components. But other elements, such as the Fame Points (Victory Points) are a very Euro touch. The simultaneous selection of destination island, plus the lack of player elimination (although a player can be beaten into nothingness, he can't be eliminated from the game entirely) make this feel very much like a euro.
How well does it blend? Well, it’s really a mixed bag. Pirates Cove feels like a euro, where you’re trying to scheme to get the most points, interspersed with dice-rolling combat and disruptive card play. It creates a bit of a dichotomy and gives the game a split personality.
As a pirate game, too, it doesn’t feel quite right. Yes, there is ship to ship combat, thankfully. However, if you really want to go far in the game, it’s best to avoid combat whenever possible. The act of sending another pirate to the briny deep seems like it should be worth more fame than it is…Likewise, losing fame for being defeated in combat makes it worthwhile not to try, not to mention the fame points that show up on treasure cards can’t be claimed if you’re always in port patching up your hull. Yes, you can claim it anyway if you win…but it’s overall much easier to try to avoid combat altogether and go where nobody else is. Seems, then, if you’re going to go for combat, you should really gear up for it..except that randomly drawn tavern cards have the potential to overpower even the most well-constructed vessel.
All of these strategies would be easier to pursue, as well, without the blind island selection. It’s a matter of hoping you don’t end up next to someone with a thousand crew and huge cannons and twenty cards when you try to sheepishly repair your sails and claim a spare doubloon or two. It really feels random, in that you can’t really do anything but go somewhere and *hope* nobody comes to pee in your corn flakes.
Pros and Cons:
Let’s go over the pros and cons:
Pirate theme!
Beautiful components
Fun battles
Beautiful components
Fun battles
Island selection system is too chaotic
Impossible to plan for battles entirely
Battle is rarely rewarded
Impossible to plan for battles entirely
Battle is rarely rewarded
Conclusions:
Although it has some issues with randomness and chaos, Pirates Cove is still very enjoyable. If you like pirate games, this is a sure thing. But just like real piracy…it can be unpredictable. A solid game system with some issues, nevertheless I rate Pirates Cove a 7/10. Arr, matey!
