Guest Author - Hope Evey

Who doesn't enjoy pirate stories?!?

I mean, of course, the fun, heart-of-gold, swashbuckling pirates of movies and books. WizKids has created a way for you to play at being a pirate in the comfort of your own living room. Pirates is a constructible and collectible strategy game.

Constructible The game is sold in small packs of flat cards. You pop out the shape of each part of the ship from the card, and build the ship. From the two dimensional cards you build a three dimensional ship. That tickles me no end!

Collectible There are many ships from four different nations, different crew members, and, of course, treasure. When you buy a pack of Pirates you get two ships, one treasure or one crew card, and enough components to play a basic game, but you won't know exactly which ships or crew/treasure until you open it. Through collecting and trading with other players, you can build your own, personalized armada.

The first thing I like about this game is building the ships. I keep one of the ships on my desk at work. Thankfully none of my co-workers have noticed me sailing "El Ballista" across my keyboard while I wait on hold!

And then, I enjoy the game itself. There are two ways to play. There's a basic game, for two players. It has simplified rules and only requires one pack. I like it as an introduction to the game, and as a way to get used to the pieces and how the game flows. The two players take turns, each player taking one of four actions on her turn. She can either: A. move a ship, B. Explore (aka collect treasure!) C. Attack! or D. repair her own ship. You win by either taking the most treasure, or sinking all your opponent's ships.

This is great fun, but after a while I was ready for more - the Advanced Game! This version has a few more rules, a little more complexity, allows for multi-player games and special scenarios. Anything could happen!

Here's where I must make a confession. I'm still learning to play the Advanced Game. As much as I adore this game, strategy isn't my strong suit, especially not in a multi-player game. What I've played of the Advanced Game I've enjoyed. I just haven't played all that well! Thankfully, I'm playing for the fun of it, and I'm sure I'll get better at it as I get more practice.

A lot of department stores carry Pirates, as well as hobby and game shops. For more about how to play, where to purchase the game, and some fascinating pirate fiction, surf on over to the WizKids Pirates website. I hope you have at least as much with it as I have. Arrr!!