Pirates Cove has captured my attention and imagination more than any game has in a long time. In fact, I’d say the last time I got this totally geeked out over a game was when I played the Traders of Genoa or Puerto Rico for the first time. Quite simply, this may be the best themed game I’ve ever seen, from the art, to the board, to the cards, the tokens, the counters, the player aids, and the ship charts – Pirate’s Cove is almost as fun just to look at as it is to play.

The mechanic for PC is wonderfully simple and easy to learn. The rules are very well written and are easy to explain. The game comes with one of the best player aids I’ve seen – which is a good thing because normally I like to make a rules summary for myself on my computer so I don’t have to go digging through the rule book to find things. There’s really no need to do that with this game. The rules are so well written and the player aid so complete that it’s very simple to get a handle on the game and feel comfortable playing it for the first time.

The object of the game is to be the player with the most “fame” points at the end of the game. You can gather fame points by doing lots of things that good pirates would do – plundering treasure and gold, whipping your opponents on the high seas in combat, drinking (yes, drinking!) and singing songs at the tavern, and beating up on Legendary Pirates (like Black Beard) as well as ships from the Royal Navy.

Each player is given a sheet with a picture of a pirate ship on it. Each ship is divided into four areas – Sails, Crew, Cannon and Hull. Each area performs a different function and provides different benefits. In addition, each area can be upgraded throughout the game to make your ship better. Your upgrades are kept track of by a series of four colored rings that run along a numerical track showing the relative values of each area of the ship. Each area is adjusted as it is upgraded or damaged in combat. This, I think, is what makes the game so great – having your own ship (and more than just a little ship token to move around the board) really brings each player a sense of ownership, and hence attaches you to the game. It really makes you feel like you’re a part of everything. It’s fantastic. Truly simple, yet a stroke of genius.

Play continues for 12 turns, each turn representing one month of the year. After the end of 12 turns the pirate with the most fame points has earned regard throughout the oceans as the best pirate on the high seas. The board is made up of 5 “outer” islands, and two islands in the center. The 5 outer islands are “upgrade” islands. Meaning that if you sail to one of them you can upgrade an area of your ship or draw cards (4 of the 5 islands grant an upgrade. The remaining outer island allows you to draw cards). The two central islands are Treasure Island and Pirates Cove. At the former you can burry treasure and get fame. The latter is where you go when you’ve had your rear-end handed to you in a fight and need to repair your ship. There is also a black ship token that moves from island to island on consecutive turns – this is the Legendary Pirate token and can be one of many pirates you can encounter in the game. If you sail to the island where the pirate is, you must fight him!

Turns are comprised of six phases – a treasure phase where a card is turned face up on each outer island (there is one card per turn for each island…this acts as the timer), the navigation phase where each player secretly selects the island they want to sail to, the combat phase where any pirates who have sailed to the same island in the navigation phase duke it out, the plunder phase where the pirate remaining at each island gets the benefits of each islands treasure card, the upgrade phase where players may upgrade their ships, and the pirate phase where the legendary pirate moves.

In combat, you may play a variety of cards to help you out. Combat is a simple die rolling system. You roll a number of dice equal to the number of crew and cannon on board. For each successful hit you reduce your opponents ship one space in the area you’re targeting. Whenever you hit an opponent such that one of his areas is reduced to zero, that opponent must retreat to pirates cove to repair – giving you more fame!

This game is very well balanced. The rules are simple and easy to learn. The mechanic is not complex, but works very well and doesn’t bog players down in too many rules. And the game looks better than anything I’ve seen to date. This is a marvelous game!! Nothing but good things to say about it.

Enjoy,
Dave