Pirates of the Spanish Main is a tabletop game with aspects of both miniatures and collectible card genres. The creators of the game, WizKids, have dubbed it the "first constructible strategy game". The game was created by Jordan Weisman and designed by James Ernest and Mike Selinker.
| Players | 2–? |
|---|---|
| Setup time | 10 minutes |
| Playing time | 30–180 minutes |
| Chance | Considerable |
| Age range | 7 and up |
| Skills | Strategy, Dice rolling, Collecting |
The game won the Origins Vanguard Award 2004.
Description
The goal of Pirates of the Spanish Main is to try and collect more gold than your opponents or to send your opponents ships down to the bottom of Davy Jones' Locker. What makes the game rather innovative is the 'Constructable' element of the game. Players constuct a fleet of ships by popping out the small styrene pieces from their placeholder cards and connecting the pieces together. When play is finished, the ships can be broken down into their individual pieces and snapped back into the placeholder cards. The game is packaged so that a person may play the game with only one game pack, but several more packs are required to play using the full rules.
Factions
There are five groups a player can choose to play ships and/or crew from in the game:
First Release
Pirates of the Spanish Main was released July 2004, and was quickly sold-out in many places, resulting in a second print run which contained a noticeably higher quality than the initial print. The set included:
- The Pirate, English, and Spanish factions
- Ships for each faction ranging in size from one to five masts
- Twelve named crew members for each faction
- Generic crew for each faction
- Generic treasure (gold pieces) ranging in value from 1 to 6
- Six special pieces of treasure
Expansions
Pirates of the Crimson Coast
Released in March 6 2005. The expansion introduced several new options to the game:
- Added French faction
- Reinforced original factions
- Forts
- A new ship type, Schooner
- A new ship ability, Ghost Ship
- New named and generic crew for the original three factions and the French
- Two new generic crew
- Three types of terrain
- Fog Bank
- Reefs
- Sargasso Sea
- 9 new special treasures
Pirates of the Spanish Main Unlimited
Released on March 15 2005. The expansion was a repint of the cards from the original Pirates of the Spanish Main with the exception of changing the numbering on the cards to conform with the Pirates of the Crimson Coast numbering and rarity colors. A checklist of the cards was also added. In Europe, the expansion removed the island cards and in their place issued new rules for ship movement and a playmat.
Pirates of the Revolution
Released in June 2005. The expansion introduced several new options to the game.
External links
- WizKid's homepage for Pirates of the Spanish Main
- Pirates of the Spanish Main at BoardGameGeek