I've been holding off on a review of this game as I had a lot of trouble putting my feelings in writing. However, I think I've figured out why I like this game as much as I do.

First of all, the theme of this game is surprisingly well applied. Creating a crew of pirates feels perfectly attuned to the game, as you simply take a stack and put a stack you own on top of it, as if you've just hired a whole team. Taking ships makes sense as well, because, if you've ever sailed a tall ship like the ones portrayed, the bigger ones truly need more crew to sail, and will similarly be more likely to be carrying more goods/money. Since these two things are practically the entire basis of the game play, what results is a fairly light game with an almost entirely appropriate theme.

However, after multiple plays, it becomes clear that the most obvious strategies are not often the best. It may often be to your advantage to take an opponent's highest value pirate instead of his lowest, even though you will most certainly have to pay him out later. Also, planning ahead can often be useful to build a team that could take a larger ship when there are only small ships available to capture. And after you've become more familiar with the play you'll discover that it is not only necessary to allow for some mutual benefits, but strategically taking (or leaving) a stack could cause a player to get screwed over in the future. The endgame seems to especially lend itself to fierce battles to keep one player from gaining too much (and I've seen a game where the last ship was a 3 taken with 6 pieces!). There are so many new things to learn about the game that it has yet to get old for me.

And then, there is the gameplay itself. To me, the play of the game reminds me quite a bit of Puerto Rico. First, from the start, there is a very limited amount of a random element that still manages to make each game play very differently. In Puerto Rico it is the available settlements; in this game it is the various ships available for boarding. Each ship is different, and you need to start almost immediately coming up with some idea for a plan. And yet, like PR, nearly every turn you are required to tweak your ideas and regroup because so much can change between this turn and the next. While it can often be easy to predict the boarding of a ship (as a player has to have the stack available to do so) surprises can happen, and you may be out of a stack and the pirate you wanted to use and have to drastically rework your ideas. This is pushed even further by the fact that, since no new ships are turned up until all three current ones are gone, you could suddenly be faced with three ships that have nothing you planned for.

Additionally, what it seems to do even better than Puerto Rico is the fact that sitting next to a newbie is not as terrible. Since a player can take any other player's pirates, the player to your right need not affect your play at all for each turn. Dealing with new players is much more easily handled as their play can equally affect anyone and you have to be able to deal with it. (and the simplicity of the game means you should often get new players. It is SO easy to learn)

I suppose the only really down points are that sometimes it seems very obvious what needs to be done, and that the game can lend itself to kingmaking with the wrong people. However, this to me is minimal, and a game like this should never be bogged down by too much analysis paralysis. There is also a slight memory element involved in the game because you cannot look at the pirates in a stack besides the top one, but usually they are fairly easily deduced and this has never been too much of an issue for the people I've played with.

Just a couple of add-ons since a lot of people seem to consider these other things. The artwork is very good, especially the ship cards; different size ships have different styles with huge 4-masters and tiny schooners, and the compass rose on the back is very elegant and stylish. The pirates are a little cartoony (and one is definitely Jimmy Buffett) but it doesn't distract you too much. The pirate pieces are wooden counters that you put a sticker on, but this doesn't bother me because they are solid and come with replacements just in case. The instructions are simple (in English) and we had few questions. And, it is reasonably priced at 25 dollars.

So, to sum up:
Surprisingly well done theme
Variety of strategies
Simple gameplay
Just enough random elements to make each game different
Newbies don't break the curve
Great Artwork

This one goes to my top ten.