Pirates Constructible Strategy Game

The Pirates Constructible Strategy Game is a tabletop game manufactured by WizKids, Inc., with aspects of both miniatures game and collectible card game genres. "Pirates of the Spanish Main" (the initial release of the "Pirates" line) is the world's first "constructible strategy game," referring to the mechanics of creating game pieces from components that punch out of styrene cards. The game was created by Jordan Weisman and designed by Mike Mulvihill, Ethan Pasternack, James Ernest, and Mike Selinker. It was released in early July 2004. There was also an online computer game based on Pirates of the Spanish Main by Sony Online Entertainment called Pirates CSG Online, which ended on 1/31/2011.
The game won the Origins Vanguard Award 2005.
On September 14, 2009, collectible maker National Entertainment Collectibles Association announced the purchase of the Wizkids name and properties from Topps, specifically including the "Pirates" line, which was canceled.
On March 9, 2012, Wizkids announced that they plan to release a card-only version of the game, called "Pirates of the Spanish Main: Shuffling the Deck." Other games have since followed in their "Shuffling the Deck" line of card games.
Description.
The general goal of Pirates is to collect more gold than your opponents, or with variants, to achieve a given objective or destroy all enemy ships (numerous scenarios written by WizKids and others have vastly extended the playability of the game). The game's pieces include ships, forts, sea monsters, crew, islands and other terrain markers, events, gold and other treasure tokens.
An innovative feature of Pirates is the 'constructible' element of the game; each game piece (except for terrain) is created by popping out the small polystyrene pieces from placeholder cards and assembling them. As the ship, fort or sea monster is damaged by enemies during the course of game play, pieces of it are removed to record how much damage it has sustained, giving the game piece itself the appearance of slowly being destroyed. The elements removed from the piece - for example, a ship's masts - can no longer be used in the game unless another game element allows it to be replaced later.
Each game piece has a point value that is related to its overall power. The more powerful a piece, the higher its point value. Players assemble fleets of ships, monsters, forts, and crew based an agreed-upon point total, similar to the manner in which many miniature war games are played. This helps balance each player's fleet, and means that the construction of a fleet can be as strategically important as the gameplay itself.
The action takes place on a tabletop or similar flat surface rather than a game board; before play begins, players take turns populating the play area with various pieces of terrain like islands, fog banks, and sargasso seas. Face-down gold or treasure tokens are then placed on each island. After creating the play area, players then place their fleets and gameplay begins.
Players take turns moving their ships around the play area, landing on islands and exploring them, which reveals the value of the gold and treasure tokens on that island. Ships then collect treasure and attempt to return it to their home islands before their opponents. Since the game's victory conditions include both gold collection and the destruction of all enemy fleets, there are several different strategies that can lead to victory: trying to destroy an opponent before he or she can gather gold; building a fast and strong enough fleet to avoid being destroyed; or, most common, a mix of both.
The game is packaged so that one person may play the game with only one game pack, but several more packs are required to play using the full rules. Additionally, the game is far more enjoyable and balanced when each player has a larger selection of game pieces from which to choose when assembling their fleets.
The recommended "sweet spot" for playability appears to be three to five players on a 90 cm by 90 cm (3 foot by 3 foot) 'ocean'.
Configurations.
The game is primarily sold in "game packs", foil-wrapped packs of randomized styrene cards and other game components roughly the same size as a pack of baseball cards or other trading card game packs such as . Each pack includes a randomized combination of two constructible game pieces: ships (including forts and sea monsters), and various crew, treasure and terrain. These game pieces are numbered and collectible, and come in multiple levels of rarity designated by a color-coded triangle on each card's corner - the most common rarities for standard booster pack items are : Common (white for generic crew, red for ships), Uncommon (silver-grey), Rare (yellow), or Super Rare (black). Other rarity designations for non-pack ships include "Special Edition" (green), a one-off Promo (purple), and "Limited Edition" (copper) for tournament prize ships.
Unlike most trading card games, due to the limited number of game pieces in each pack, some packs do not contain any Rare or Super Rare game pieces, or may contain multiple Rares. Any given set's Super-Rares will always come all together in the same pack. Each pack also contains a cardboard island (the reverse side in later sets has printed terrain such as a fog bank, sargasso sea, or reef), a checklist and set of rules, a crew/treasure card (which may include gold pieces for use in the game), and a mini-die. Each pack generally costs $4 US.
WizKids released other game configurations as well, mostly into mass market channels such as Toys "R" Us, Target and Wal-Mart. These include but are not limited to:
On October 25, 2006, WizKids released "", a non-collectible board game version of the Pirates game that uses gameplay elements and game pieces from the constructible strategy game, but is designed to be simplified, self-contained and sold in the board game section of retail stores.
Factions.
Ships, forts, sea monsters and crew are members of various factions. The factions exist largely for fictional purposes, but there are certain game mechanics that use the factions as well. 
Releases.
Pirates of the Spanish Main.
"Pirates of the Spanish Main" was the first release, and hit stores on July 28, 2004. It quickly sold out in many places, resulting in a second "limited" print run which featured noticeably higher quality printing than the first print run (the first run cards appear extremely 'faded'). This set was printed in a number of languages: English, German, French and Spanish. The only other sets printed in a foreign language (German) were "Crimson Coast", "Revolution", "Davy Jones' Curse", "Mysterious Islands", and "Ocean's Edge".
The set introduced the Pirate, English, and Spanish factions, with ships for each faction ranging in size from one to five masts. Twelve named crew members, along with the generic crew of Captain, Helmsman, Musketeer, Shipwright, Oarsman, Cannoneer, and Explorer were also present for each faction. A number of generic treasure, in the form of gold pieces ranging in value from 1 to 7, as well as nine pieces of named unique treasure were included, along with an assortment of cardboard islands with blank backs.
At the 2004 Origins Awards "Pirates of the Spanish Main" was one of the winners of the "Vanguard Awards".
Pirates of the Crimson Coast.
The first expansion was released on March 2, 2005, and added the French faction, as well as the unit type of Forts, which were placed on islands to defend them. It expanded the rules with the Ghost Ship and Schooner ship types; the Broadsides Attack, Limit, and Ransom keywords; and two new generic crew types, the Stinkpot and Chainshot Specialists. Fog Banks, Reefs, and Sargasso Seas were added to the back of the islands as special terrain. The set also previewed the forthcoming American faction with the ship "Roanoke".
Pirates of the Spanish Main - Unlimited Edition.
This edition was released on March 15, 2005, as a second reprint of the cards from the original "Pirates of the Spanish Main". The numbering scheme on the cards was updated 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, "Revolution" added the new American faction, and special Event cards (Divers, Raft, Mermaids, Foul Winds and Becalmed). In addition, the Marine keyword and Galley ship type debuted, along with the new generic crew Firepot Specialist.
Pirates of the Barbary Coast.
Released on October 26, 2005, this set added the Barbary Corsair faction, and a new generic crew type, the Smokepot Specialist. Four super-rare cards (two ships and two crew) previewed the forthcoming Jade Rebellion faction. It is the only set to lack the Pirate faction.
Pirates of the South China Seas.
This expansion was released on February 22, 2006, and added the Jade Rebellion's Junk and Turtle Ship types, as well as the Fear keyword and game mechanic. Six new Events (Hidden Cove, Favor of the Gods, Rolling Fog, False Treasure, Duel, Cursed Zone) were included, as well as the first six-masted ships. The super-rares for this set previewed the new Cursed faction (two ships and two unique treasures). WizKids offered a mail-in promotion for the first 10-master, a junk treasure ship called the Baochuan and her captain Admiral Zheng He.
Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse.
"Davy Jones' Curse" was released on May 31, 2006, featuring the new Cursed faction, and the Sea Monster unit type, which acted as ship but could not carry crew. A mail-in promotion offered a 10-masted Cursed ship, the "Guichuan", and her captain Headhunter.
Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse is an expansion set for the constructible strategy game Pirates of the Spanish Main produced by WizKids. It expanded on The Cursed Faction and was released on May 31, 2006.
Set details
Sea Monsters
The concept of Sea Monsters was introduced in this set, with ten sea monster pieces (8 are rare, 2* are super rare): Leviathan, Calim, Calypsos, Mist Walker*, Behemoth*, Tiamat, Tsuro, Slarge Gubbit, Jormungandr, and Gog-Clocthoth.
Controllers decide whether the Monster is submerged (movement only), or surfaced (move or attack). Two of the monsters have breath weapons, Tiamat has ranked breath attack that works like a firepot. Leviathan has ranked breath attack that works like a firepot. The others have game-changing abilities such as moving in and out of fog banks (Mist Walker) - this ability is commonly called a 'fog hopper' - and eliminating masts or crew in boarding actions. Behemoth can copy another ability. Tsuro may move an opponents ship, (with proper dice roll).
Later sets fiddled with keywords such as 'Kraken', 'Titan', 'Octopus', 'Sea Dragon' and others, but for this set, the keyword was simply "Sea Monster" regardless of the creature type.
Notable ships
Notable crew
Pirates of the Mysterious Islands.
Released on November 15, 2006, "Mysterious Islands" added the new Mercenary faction, along with Jules Verne inspired Nautilus-style submarines. The titular "Mysterious Islands" were added as special islands with effects decided by dice rolls.
Pirates of the Frozen North.
"Frozen North", released on February 14, 2007, added the Norse Vikings faction and the Iceberg terrain type, as well as the Icebreaker and Longship ship types. Islands were numbered for the first time in this set. A mail-in promotion offered the "Nordic Raiders Pack" with the "Serpent's Fang" and "Polaris" ships and the "Odin's Revenge" unique treasure.
Pirates at Ocean's Edge.
Released on April 18, 2007, "Ocean's Edge" added Whirlpools as a terrain type, Windcatchers and Catamarans as new ship types, and Sea Dragons and Titans (giant crabs) as new monster types. A 10-masted ship called the "Zeus" and her captain Emperor Blackheart were available as a mail-in promotion.
Pirates of the Caribbean PocketModels.
This expansion was released on November 6, 2007, featuring crew and ships from the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, plus some other Disney pirate ships. The new keywords Parley and Eternal were included from the films, along with the new unit type Kraken (an eight-segmented version of the five-segmented Sea Monster)
with considerably different effects.
Rise of the Fiends.
Released January 30, 2008, "Fiends" added the Flotilla ship type, and an action ship called "Scorpion". The Loyal and Hostile keywords were added, and the Kraken keyword changed to Octopus. In addition to the standard checklist and rules sheet, numbered collectible stories were also included in the booster packs; the mail-in offer was for the Specter, which was a glow-in-the-dark ship. The Octopus Ochobrazo was to appear in this release, but was pulled; this unit does not exist.
Fire and Steel.
"Fire and Steel" was released April 9, 2008, adding new "Action" unit types, Bombardiers and Switchblades, and special Equipment items. More numbered, collectible stories were distributed in packs; a mail-away offer was given for the "Chum Maker" Scorpion ship.
Savage Shores.
"Savage Shores" was the final expansion, released on November 5, 2008, and was the first release to be unavailable in booster packs. It added the new generic crew types Navigator and Cargo Master, the new action ship type Hoist, and the new terrain type Trade Current. In addition, several new island types with special effects were added, as well as the new keywords Dories, Secret Hold, Born Leader and Chieftain. Two new 10-mast ships, the "Shui-Xian" and the "Celtic Fury", were also released.
Return to Savage Shores.
"Return To Savage Shores" was scheduled to be released sometime in early 2009 - the design phase was supposedly complete and the set was ready to send to the printers when WizKids was shut down by Topps. While some information on the units that were to appear in this set is available, the set has not been released and probably never will be.
Fiction.
The Pirates Constructible Strategy Game and its expansions feature flavor text on the styrene cards that hold each ship, fort, and unique crew game pieces. The flavor text forms a roughly connected story that centers on several recurring characters: Jack Hawkins, the cursed pirate El Fantasma, the femme fatale known as the Calico Cat, and others. Although the Pirates expansions span several hundred years (Admiral Zheng He sailed in the 14th century, and "Pirates of the Mysterious Islands" is set roughly in the Victorian age), the recurring characters never seem to age, but they do develop. As such, continuity in the Pirates universe is difficult to establish. Many pieces of flavor text in later expansions reference events, ships, or characters in previous expansions, so there is a coherent - if factually and historically unlikely - plot that continues to develop with each new release.
Jack Hawkins is a typical roguish pirate type, similar to Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. He can often be found stealing ships and gambling them away. El Fantasma's ghostly status was left ambiguous in "Pirates of the Spanish Main"; in later expansions, he received his own ghost ship and became a member of the Cursed faction, cementing his role as an actual undead pirate. The Calico Cat is a strong female character who provides a dramatic balance to Jack Hawkins; she is often depicted as a plucky adventurer who uses both brains and brawn to further some unknown quest for revenge. The Cat also mentors a girl by the name of Bonny Peel. It has been hinted that "the Cat" has a personal grudge against Hawkins, and is rumored to be the missing Gunn in the Pirate stories.
Several additional recurring characters appear in Pirates fiction, including Blackheart, a pirate similar to the historical Blackbeard; the Crimson Angel, another mysterious female pirate; and even non-pirates such as Charles Southwyn, a weaponmaster who helped create several ships in the "Pirates of the Spanish Main" release. Other notable characters include: Capitan Alarico Castro, a Moor who, despite a grudge against Spain, becomes an Admiral ; Davy Jones, captain of the cursed ship the Flying Dutchman; Genny Gallows whose father was killed by the English; and many others.
In addition to the flavor text on styrene cards, several pieces of fiction collectively called "Tales of the Spanish Main" by Noah Dudley and Nancy Berman appeared on WizKids' website before and after the launch of Pirates of the Spanish Main in 2004.
While some ships are historical and contain accurate historical descriptions of real events, others are either original fiction, fiction in the public domain (the Pequod from "Moby Dick"), mythological creatures, or are homages to fictional ships or characters. For example, some of the Sea Monsters in the Pirates of Davy Jones' Curse expansion are obvious homages to creatures from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.
References and homages in Pirates fiction.
A good deal of Pirates flavor text contains references to historical events or people, other fictional characters or events, or are simply references to the game's writers and designers. Pirates fiction also contains homages to other pirate fiction. Some ship names are references to other games created by Jordan Weisman. The "Pandora" (from "Pirates of the Spanish Main") is a reference to the zeppelin of the same name owned by Nathan Zachary, the main character in Weisman's Crimson Skies game. The "Black Swan" is a reference to a character from Crimson Skies or possibly to the Pirate movie of the same name.
A very incomplete list of other references for the "Pirates of the Spanish Main (the 1st Set)" alone includes:
RPG.
In 2007 Pinnacle Entertainment Group released "The Pirates of the Spanish Main", a source book for their Savage Worlds role playing game, set in the same world as the CSG.
Pirates of the Spanish Main: Shuffling the Deck card game.
Announced March 7, 2012, "Pirates of the Spanish Main™ Shuffling the Deck" is reportedly a non-collectable, stand alone card game for the entire family set in the Pirates of the Spanish Main universe. It has a tentative release date of July 18, 2012. It is not expected to be usable in any way with the collectable miniatures game.