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Weekly Trash - Pirate's Cove
- ChristopherMD
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- Road Warrior
I wasn't sure about including this one as its probably borderline Ameritrash due to some obvious Euro influences. But its got too much of the good stuff to ignore. Lots of dice combat, unbalanced cards, legendary pirates, and great components. Plus a lot of the Eurofans don't seem to want it in their houses. Their loss is our gain.
This game is all about combat and treasure hunting. When you're not upgrading your ship to win more fights or hold more treasure, your getting into or carefully avoiding ship battles. Some people criticize the fact you want to avoid battle sometimes, but that just seems realistic to me. You should be afraid to die! Stick with treasure hunting and you'll retire a rich man.
The combat is always fun in this game. The cards can be brutal at times, but the cannon shots with the dice are nerve-wracking wondering if they're going to hit your ship. The board and bits are all gorgeous and really bring out the style of pirates the game is going for. These aren't cutthroat reality or Hollywood blockbuster, but the literary Treasure Island kind of pirates. They don't want to bring terror to the high seas. They just want to find some loot and hit the tavern.
What are your thoughts on this game? Ameritrashy enough? Any strategy or is it all just dumb luck? Do you play with any house rules?
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It is probably due for a retry but I think i will wait until my son can play with me.
-M
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Uh...unless we're talking about Blackbeard.
Carry on.
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- ChristopherMD
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Or is it because the other players don't have to follow any kind of script on where they will show up? That it seems they randomly choose their destinations instead of proceeding logically. I suspect this is it because I've heard similar complaints about other games where players secretly choose from a selection of things. But is random the right word for it?
I'm not saying anyone's wrong about the game being very random. I just think its worth discussing why it might be that way.
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It's been a MONSTER hit with every group we've introduced it to. We've played it with ATers, with casual gamers, and even with non-boardgamers.
This gets tagged with "Euro" sometimes, and I don't even begin to see it. For one, it's hard to get passed the purely dice-based combat system with a bunch of cards in the mix adding chaos. Some people say "the only way to win is to avoid fights" but that's just not how we roll. Unless our ships are in tatters already, when it's time for fighting both sides are itching for a brawl.
Conventional wisdom is that the first player to get sunk cannot win...my youngest brother had this happen to him in our last game where he was sunk first turn. He ended up craftily re-building, choosing some lower-hanging fruit, and ended up winning the game by 3 points, the sneaky bastard.
It's an "8" for me, man. Nice bits, a good theme (before the Pirate them got completely whored out), dice-rolling, card playing, trash talking. Not deeply strategic but who gives a shit? It plays in 60-90 minutes, there's blowing stuff up, it's all good.
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The phrase "TOO RANDOM~!" is hereby *banned* from these hallowed halls.
Uh...unless we're talking about Blackbeard.
Carry on.
Arrr!
String him up, me boys!!
--Mike "Teach" L.
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--Mike L.
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- metalface13
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And it's OK. It's got great bits. The pirate ships are cool, all the illustrations on the cards are great and the map looks really good too. It's short and simple so I can it being a hit with nongamers and casual gamers. I'm not rushing out to buy it but I'd accept it in a trade.
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Cool I just "Hit Puberty"...Yay!
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For the same reason I like the mechanic of the Black Pirate's location being known. Like a double dare for those willing to take him on...and sometimes a race if it happens to be the gold ship!
I also like the various builds you can bring to the ship to score points. Are you a treasure hoarder, gold guy, sleek and fast, cannoned up? Trying to decide what you need and what you may have to encounter to get it is one of the delicious decisions each "month"
Card balance rarely seems to be trouble as people have to GET those cards...and fair enough if they do.
I think this game, when played with spirit and verve, is worthy of much more than a "meh, Bill isn't here yet, let's play Pirates Cove" idea. Timing is short, AP is almost impossible due to the "1,2,3 drop'em" style we force with the wheel...and when the cannons do get to blazing it is a rousing affair for all involved!
Great game indeed and very worthy not only of the AT list of fun, but as a solid all round game that fun lovers everywhere should enjoy.
By the way...have you seen the pics of the guy who pimped out his Cove with resin cast treasure chests? Amazing work!
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