Pirate's Cove

This review is intended to be comprehensive - below you can find detailed descriptions of the game mechanics, components, and theme, as well as my own thoughts on the game and what I like or dislike about it. If you’re looking primarily for a description or recommendation of the game, feel free to skip past the nitty-gritty parts of the review.


Contents

1.) Overview
2.) Theme
3.) What's in the Box?
4.) Rules
5.) Components: Rules and Use
6.) Quality of components
7.) Thoughts on the Theme
8.) Thoughts on the Gameplay
9.) The Final Word

Overview

Pirate's Cove is a medium-light game that takes 60-90 minutes to play. Gameplay will move at a brisk pace among experienced players. When I say the game is "medium-light," I mean that the game is easy to learn but there are a moderate number of details for players to attend to.


Theme

In Pirate's Cove, each player commands a pirate ship and sets sail in search of treasure and infamy. If they encounter another pirate during their adventure, it's fight or flight! See below under "thoughts on the theme" for a description of how the theme 'feels' while playing the game and for how the theme 'fits' with the mechanics of the game.

What's in the Box?

1 Board
7 Pirate ship miniatures (5 player ships, 2 legendary pirate ships)
5 Player sheets
5 Destination spinners ("Captain's Wheels")
5 Infamy markers (for the scoring track)
20 Attribute Rings
112 Cards (A Tavern deck which includes battle, volley, parrot, infamy, mastercraft, and other misc cards; and treasure decks for 5 islands on the board)
44 Doubloons
50 Treasure chests
6 wooden dice
1 Rules booklet


Rules

Summary

Pirate's Cove takes twelve rounds to play. At the end of the final round, the most infamous pirate wins.

Each round, players move to one of six islands shown on the board ("Pirate's Cove" is actually a seventh island, but players only go there after being defeated in battle). These islands provide different rewards, which players fight over if they happen to choose the same island. Rewards include infamy (points added to your score), doubloons (money with which to improve your ship), treasure (which can later be burried to gain infamy), and special cards (which offer players various additional advantages). These rewards are represented on cards and change every round, so players always face a new set of options when choosing their destinations. For example, one island might offer two infamy, zero doubloons, five treasure, and zero special cards on one turn, and then offer zero infamy, eight doubloons, zero treasure, and one special card on the next turn. If players travel to Treasure Island (located at the center of the board), they forgo any rewards for the round and instead may bury treasure and/or doubloons in exchange for infamy. With the exception of Treasure Island, each location on the board also gives players the option to purchase upgrades. These options are shown on the board and do not change throughout the game.

Movement, combat, rewards, and upgrades

At the beginning of a round, players use a spinner (their "Captain's Wheel") to secretly decide their destination. After revealing their destinations, players move simultaneously. Players who cross paths must ready their cannon or hoist their sales; the fastest ship goes first. A player who flees from battle forfeits the spoils and must roll a die to avoid a mutiny, but if the crew stays in line the player draws special cards and/or money as a consolation prize. Any player who suffers a mutiny immediately discards all treasure and doubloons. In combat, ships exchange volleys of cannonfire until one is crippled or runs away. The number of cannon and the size of the crew determine the strength of each volley, and players roll dice to register hits, which require a five or a six. When a player's ship is crippled by cannonfire, that player immediately moves to Pirate's Cove for repairs, and the victor gets the spoils. Players only go to Pirate's Cove when they lose a battle, and they may not enter into battle with other players who are there. Once players have collected their rewards and upgraded their ships, a new round begins.

The legendary pirates and treasure island

Players must also contend with a Legendary Pirate who is chosen randomly at the beginning of the game. There are five legendary pirates from which to choose, and though some are more powerful than others, all are quite formidable. The legendary pirate moves clockwise around the board, changing locations at the end of each turn. As such, players always know where the legendary pirate is, and so may avoid or battle this menacing foe at their discretion. Naturally, players who manage to defeat a legendary pirate become considerably more infamous.

Finally, players never battle each other at treasure island, but may battle legendary pirates there. Players may also gang-up on legendary pirates, dividing the resulting infamy if they are victorious.


Components: Rules and Use

The Board

The board features seven total locations: Pirate's Cove, Treasure Island, and five islands marked with the icons for Sails, Crew, Cannon, Hull, and Tavern (players who go to the Tavern may purchase cards from the Tavern deck). Players only go to Pirate's cove to lick their wounds after being defeated, but can move freely between any of the other locations at the start of each round. Movement is instantaneous. The board features a scoring track around the perimeter.




5 player sheets

Players use these sheets to keep track of their ship's attributes. Sail speed, crew size, cannon number, and hull capacity are shown, along with upgrade costs. There is a space for players to stowe treasure and doubloons, as well as a space for the ship's parrot.




20 attribute rings, in sets of four (plastic)

Each player uses their rings to mark their current strength levels on their player sheet. Rings move to the left after damage is sustained, and to the right after upgrades are purchased.




5 infamy markers(wooden)

Players move these along the scoring track whenever they gain (or sometimes lose) infamy.

5 player ships (plastic)

Used to show players' locations on the board.




5 Captain's Wheels(cardboard)

Players use these at the start of each round to select their destinations, in secret, simultaneously.



Legendary pirate cards

These cards indicate the various strengths of each legendary pirate.




2 black legendary pirate ships (plastic)

Used to show Legendary Pirates' locations on the board. There are two because one legendary pirate is 'summonable' by players whether or not it is already in play.




Doubloons (cardboard chits)

Used to purchase upgrades. May also be buried on treasure island for infamy. 3 buried doubloons = 1 infamy.




Treasure chests (wooden cubes)

May be buried on Treasure Island for infamy. 1 buried chest = 1 infamy. A player's hull capacity determines how many of these can be stowed on board. Players can lose treasure chests if their hull is damaged in combat.



Treasure cards

There are twelve of these for each island that players travel to (not including treasure island). They are changed each round, and indicate the rewards offered by a particular island.



The Tavern Deck, including:

Volley cards

These increase the effectiveness of a single volley. For example, "Six Gun Salute" makes successful shots from a single volley damage every section of an opponents ship, rather than a single targeted section, but the opponent (if not crippled) gets to fire two volleys in return.




Battle cards

These provide players with an advantage for the duration of a single battle. For example, "Smoke Screen" forces opponents to role sixes to score hits.




Parrot cards

Parrots provide significant advantages, but if they parish in battle players lose two fame.




Infamy Cards

These cards are immediately redeemed for infamy.






Mastercraft cards

These cards provide an extra buffer to a single part of the ship (sails, crew, guns, hull). That part of the ship can sustain two extra hits before the mastercraft cards is discarded. Players can only use one of these at a time.




Miscellaneous Tavern Cards

These provide players with various advantages




Quality of components

Pirate's Cove is a lavish production. Colors are vivid, artwork is detailed, and pieces are sturdy. This game meets a much higher standard of component quality than most board games. One could quibble over minor details (the player sheets could be player boards, a la Puerto Rico; the grid on the board serves no purpose when players move), but for the most part, bumping up the quality would make the game ornate, and I'm fine with the only ornate game at the local hobby shop being a $400 3d collector's edition of The Settlers of Catan. The rules are also clear and easy to navigate (get it?).


Thoughts on the Theme

Who doesn't want to play "a game of swashbuckling and adventure" (boxfront) where you get into Master-and-Commander-style cannon battles? At first blush, the Pirate theme feels rich: you've got a ship to build-up into the terror of the high seas, treasure to hoard, and badass legendary pirates to usurp. That cannonfire depends on the roll of the dice seems appropriate even to luck-wary players; we're all aware that pre-modern naval battles were less about aim and accuracy and more about number of cannon and rate of fire. In other words, you want to be rolling more dice than your opponent. The special cards work well with the theme, allowing for x-factor spontaneity and desperation. Defying a stronger opponent with an unexpected volley of grapeshot is rather satisfying, as is rallying behind an iconic parrot.

All the ingredients are here, and they are high quality ingredients. But the recipe leaves a lot to be desired, and the theme starts to disolve after a few rounds...

Thoughts on the Gameplay

The theme in Pirate's Cove is at loggerheads with the way the game actually works.

Take combat for example. As a pirate, you're not going to let another pirate stand (float?) between you and buried treasure. But anyone who's played a couple of rounds of Pirate's Cove knows that you avoid combat at all costs. Being crippled doesn't seem like a big set-back at first, but Pirate's Cove is a short game. If you fail in battle, not only do you give up most or all of your reward that turn, you also have taken damage that 1.) negates doubloons already spend upgrading, 2.) will cost doubloons you don't yet have to repair, and 3.) impairs your ability in subsequent fights. So if you do lose a combat, your motivation to stay out of battle only intensifies, since you are more likely to lose than you were before. Choosing a destination is about second-guessing your opponents and psyching them out; you want to figure out where they're going, where they think you're going, and then not end up in the same place as them. Rolling dice isn't fun in this particular game because when they hit the table you've already lost. Any round in which you don't have to fight is a more successful round than one in which you do.

If the game were longer, there might be a little more room for recovery. Or, if the victor won doubloons and treasure (even additional crew size?) from his opponent, players might actually seek out / stick out combat. And if this were the case, the game would have to provide for quicker refitting. Already we're talking about a very different game...

Compare combat in Pirate's Cove to combat in another theme-heavy game, Arkham Horror. In both games, you manage attributes which determine the number of dice you roll in combat, and both games require fives and sixes to hit. Arkham Horror doesn't allow you to ignore combat altogether (outskirts, terror track, random monster movement, random encounters), so the fact that players might otherwise prefer to is moot. When combat does occur, players stand a pretty good chance of sustaining damage, being frightened out of their wits, or, in the case of defeat, going insane or losing consciousness. In other words, in both games, combat isn't very forgiving. But Arkham Horror, unlike Pirate's Cove, is set-up so that defeated players can get right back in the game. For two dollars (the value of currency in both games is surprisingly similar), a player can completely recover their sanity/health on their next turn. In the grand scheme of things, that turn could be better spent, but since there are so many turns in a game of Arkham Horror, taking a breath to recover is a sensible decision. Furthermore, even though defeat in Arkham Horror entails a loss of items (thus making fights more difficult in the near-term), other players can and will reequip that player for the greater good (AH is a cooperative game). Defeated monsters are also a type of currency in AH, and can be traded in for money, clues, items, spells, etc. In short, the system in Arkham Horror provides bruising dice-based combat that is fun, necessary, and rewarding, while the system in Pirate's Cove provides bruising dice-based combat in which the outcome is a foregone conclusion: both players are worse off than they were before, one significantly so.

Fleeing is an option in Pirate's Cove, and as long as a mutiny is avoided (they only occur on die rolls of one), players can pick up two special cards. But then, who wants to feel like running away is almost a matter of course? WWBD? (What Would BlackBeard Do?).

Legendary Pirates don't add much to the game, despite being a cool idea. All of them are very strong, so players largely avoid them unless they've accumulated a fair amount of special cards to wield in battle. Even if a player has a good shot at defeating a legendary pirate, the pay-off of six infamy points is hardly worth it. You could spend two turns getting that many points from burying treasure, without having your ship nearly crippled in the process. It is easier to defeat legendary pirates when players work together, but nothing in Pirate's Cove encourages teamwork or alliances, and the infamy is divided among victorious players. Players often go to treasure island on the last turn on the game (since most will have some treasure in their hulls, and upgrades no longer matter), and the game is set-up so that the Legendary Pirate will be at Treasure Island on the final turn. Suddenly, combat is fun: players get a chance to gang-up on formidable foe, and damage sustained is irrelevant as long as their ships stay afloat. Moreover, the Legendary Pirate always fires at the strongest player in the group, so weaker players aren't punished for trying to score a few final points.

Perhaps Legendary Pirates could have guarded Treasure Island, since their movement seems like an afterthought. In fact, the game might have benefited from some sort of "scoring round" mechanic where players traveled to treasure island every fourth turn to bury treasure. An intermittent cooperative element might be a little out of place in a pirate game, but at least it would be fun, and it would also tamp down on leader syndrome. Alas, once again I'm describing a very different game...

If there's one thing that really leaves me scratching my head about Pirate's Cove, it's how little seems to happen over the course of a game. Players rarely make it to the halfway-point on the scoring track (Note to readers who play Pirate's Cove: please post the highest scores you can recall at the end of this review). Doubloons, Treasure, Special cards, Upgrades: you won't get much of anything and you won't do much of anything with it, so don't be surprised if nobody is very infamous at the end of the game.

There is some strategy to this game, but it doesn't fit with the theme at all. To play well, you employ a three-tierd strategy:

1.) Outguess your opponents so that you can stay away from them.
2.) Always focus on infamy.
3.) Buff your ship.

Getting infamy takes a back seat to avoiding combat (since combat isn't worth whatever infamy can be won at any given island); and buffing your ship takes a back seat to getting infamy, since the only reason to do so is to survive the volleys of speedier opponents and intimidate opponents so that they won't choose the same destination as you.


The Final Word

Pirate's Cove is a great looking game that doesn't deliver on the promise of it's theme and presentation. After playing you'll feel like the victim of a bait-and-switch: you came to swashbuckle, but instead you skulked.

Components: 9.5/10
Theme: 8/10 (Would be higher if the gameplay supported it)
Gameplay: 5/10

Overall: 6/10.