Game: Kaiser's Pirates

Thread: Re: Nearing the P500 Goal - Get those orders in now!

finke67 — 2008-11-24T02:35:56+00:00

Pudas wrote:

Christmas 2009? I'm pretty sure you won't see (GMT's) Kaiser's Pirates before next summer.

thank you for crushing my dreams...

Thread: Re: Nearing the P500 Goal - Get those orders in now!

Pudas — 2008-11-18T16:13:28+00:00

finke67 wrote:
I hope this sucker moves fast now... It is my only preorder that still might make it in time for christmas. Tales of Arabian Nights and Washington's War are the other two I am waiting for.
Christmas 2009? I'm pretty sure you won't see (GMT's) Kaiser's Pirates before next summer.

Thread: Re: Nearing the P500 Goal - Get those orders in now!

mongoose27 — 2008-11-18T16:01:25+00:00

Thanks to everyone who place a P500 preorder. The game made the cut and is now on its way to publication. The typical trigger point is 700 orders. So, if you’ve been waiting to place your order, now’s the time so as to push it up to the next level.

Thread: Re: Nearing the P500 Goal - Get those orders in now!

finke67 — 2008-11-07T20:27:37+00:00

I hope this sucker moves fast now... It is my only preorder that still might make it in time for christmas. Tales of Arabian Nights and Washington's War are the other two I am waiting for.

Thread: Re: Nearing the P500 Goal - Get those orders in now!

maka — 2008-11-07T14:03:54+00:00

michaelwmcfall wrote:
As of today, it is at 499 preorders!!! Just one more order and it makes the cut. I hope someone sees this and does that! 499 of us are depending on you.

I got an email earlier today from GMT saying that the game has made the cut

Thread: Re: Nearing the P500 Goal - Get those orders in now!

michaelwmcfall — 2008-11-07T07:16:42+00:00

As of today, it is at 499 preorders!!! Just one more order and it makes the cut. I hope someone sees this and does that! 499 of us are depending on you.

Thread: Re: Nearing the P500 Goal - Get those orders in now!

finke67 — 2008-11-05T02:32:25+00:00

Does anybody else check the P500 list at least once a day looking for movement on this?

Thread: Re: Review-A solid multiplayer/solitaire game

Breaker — 2008-10-29T12:32:36+00:00

There has been a recent TV doco series made about the Kaiser's Pirates in WW1, by a German company. I saw the episode about the loss of the Emden and the epic journey of its crew to return to their homeland: excellent! Recommend you hunt this down if you haven't seen it.

Here in Australia, the series was called Hunt the Kaiser's Cruisers!

Thread: Nearing the P500 Goal - Get those orders in now!

Cantatta — 2008-10-23T14:46:24+00:00

The count as of 10/23/2008 at 9:45am CST is 477 pre-orders. Less than 25 orders to make the cut, so place your order today!

Note to P500 Customers: Most of the art for this game already exists, so we are in a position to move to production very quickly once the game receives sufficient P500 orders. - GMT Games

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mdu2boy — 2008-10-02T23:36:07+00:00

From Bobby Tweak's game night

Thread: 2008 World Boardgaming Championships

mongoose27 — 2008-08-18T16:23:49+00:00

We again had a great turnout with 41 players (8 more than 2007) who battled it out in 27 three & four player games. The finals featured 4 skilled players who sailed their way in through a series of heats and the semi-finals. Thanks to everyone who participated. See you there next year.

Thread: Re: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

meleegamer — 2008-06-17T19:02:44+00:00

Any news of what is happening about the 8 card supplement? Will these be in the GMT game (as presumably the card stocks will be different in this version, and therefore won't mix)?

Thread: Re: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

mrbeankc — 2008-04-18T09:06:16+00:00

Sigrdrifa wrote:

I have confidence in GMT's quality control. The Simple Truth is that I may keep my GMT P500 order up simply because I may have used these cards up and worn them out before they get it into their rather busy production schedule.

From what Gene has said that since the artwork and everything for this game are pretty much already completed (meaning I think that they intend to use the artwork from the original edition) that it could see production fairly quickly once it reaches a certain number of orders. My guess is once it gets over 500 or 600 orders it will get slipped into the schedule rather quickly.

Thread: Re: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

Sigrdrifa — 2008-04-16T06:45:22+00:00

Good to know about the rule book. The PDF version doesn't have that issue either... Dunno, something about the way Strikenet put it together.

Can't really argue with the backs comment, they are a bit... different. Though for me, they sorta blend into one of those 3D computer images (which I can't make my eyes do).

I have confidence in GMT's quality control. The Simple Truth is that I may keep my GMT P500 order up simply because I may have used these cards up and worn them out before they get it into their rather busy production schedule.

After muddling through the rules booklet (thanks for including examples, those helped clear up a lot), I've played my first couple of rounds tonight and I am really taken by this card/dice game. Mr. Day, Thanks for a great design. Turns out I've been playing your designs for a lot longer than I thought, back to MBT and IDF. And if Strikenet is your personal company, my apologies.

MJ

Thread: Re: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

Hawk — 2008-04-16T05:24:16+00:00

Sigrdrifa wrote:
The strikenet cards you sent me look like they were color laserprinted, precut punch-out cards. There's perforation along the edges, like you would find on DIY cards from Office Depot. Maybe the LBG format of KP's cards are better done. A slightly larger card format would be nice.

It doesn't kill the game, but it's not as good as it could (should?) be.
The cards in the LBG version are standard cards, pretty similar to those in Battlegroup, but not as thick as GMT's Commands & Colors: Ancients. Needless to say the LBG cards are better quality then the version you have.

The only thing I dislike about the cards is the backs, which are ugly! They are litered with hundreds of little flags, making the backs appear a bit too "loud" if you know what I mean. Since there are different types of cards, thus different card backs, I used clear sleeves to protect them, but am considering going to colored ones instead.

Sigrdrifa wrote:
I also would like GMT to look at the format of the rules booklet as printed under the Strikenet label. I don't know if this applies to the LBG version or not, but the strikenet rules have what amount to misaligned pages, where the diagram of the card is on one page and the explanations of the very same card are on the reverse of the page. Not the end of the world; I can still learn to play the game. But it would have been nice to be able to quickly reference the cards as I read about them.
I don't recall seeing this "issue" in the LBG version of the rules.

Edit: Added game links and corrected typos

Thread: Re: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

Sigrdrifa — 2008-04-15T07:14:47+00:00

RichardC wrote:
GMT needs to make the text and graphics on the cards a bit bigger and less fuzzy ( more crisper graphics), I had to buy a magnifying glass so I could see the cards better. Thicker cards would also be a plus

Richard, not rethinking or wishing the trade went other than it did . I'm very happy with the game. Just lamenting product that is not high quality.

That being said, having gotten your set in our trade, I wholehearted agree with your post. I'm unhappy with the strikenet cardstock in general. I think that if GMT were to put these cards on the same stock and lamination as their C&C:Ancients cards, it would be just fine.

The strikenet cards you sent me look like they were color laserprinted, precut punch-out cards. There's perforation along the edges, like you would find on DIY cards from Office Depot. Maybe the LBG format of KP's cards are better done. A slightly larger card format would be nice.

It doesn't kill the game, but it's not as good as it could (should?) be.

I also would like GMT to look at the format of the rules booklet as printed under the Strikenet label. I don't know if this applies to the LBG version or not, but the strikenet rules have what amount to misaligned pages, where the diagram of the card is on one page and the explanations of the very same card are on the reverse of the page. Not the end of the world; I can still learn to play the game. But it would have been nice to be able to quickly reference the cards as I read about them.

Just some food for thought, GMT...

Image

mongoose27 — 2008-04-11T19:28:44+00:00

GMT Games

Thread: Re: 2 players vs. Phantom Player?

maka — 2008-04-03T23:22:53+00:00

I'll be sure to give it a try, as I expect to play mostly the solo game, and maybe some 2 player games with my SO...

-Jorge

Thread: Re: 2 players vs. Phantom Player?

mongoose27 — 2008-04-03T20:19:10+00:00

I see. If there's an objective way to determine against which player it Phantom Player would have a better chance, then it shouldn't be too big a problem... But I can see how a random decision might not be the best...

The two live players should agree on moves as if they were playing their own hands. If they can do that, there shouldn't be any problems. In any event, that'll only make for a more enjoyable experience.

Thread: Re: 2 players vs. Phantom Player?

maka — 2008-04-03T18:51:14+00:00

Thanks for the quick answer I'm looking forward to trying the game out and have placed the preorder already. Hope it gets printed soon.

The solitaire cards were designed to interact with a single player and therefore don’t make any distinction as to selecting the best target of an action

I see. If there's an objective way to determine against which player it Phantom Player would have a better chance, then it shouldn't be too big a problem... But I can see how a random decision might not be the best...

Thanks!

-Jorge

Thread: Re: 2 players vs. Phantom Player?

mongoose27 — 2008-04-03T17:56:45+00:00

I was wondering, could the game be played by 2 players using the Phantom Player as simulating a third opponent? I read that 2 player games aren't as fun as with more players, so it occurred to me maybe that would be a good idea (if it can be done...)

Yes, I believe you could play a three-handed game with the Phantom Player as the third player. You would need to change the card count for a three-player game. The two “live” players would interact with the Phantom Player in the same manner as would normally take place during a one player solitaire game.

Where it starts to get sticky is in determining who the Phantom Player would attack or play cards against. Obviously, that’s not a decision point in a typical solitaire game since the Phantom Player always interacts with the single live player.

The solitaire cards were designed to interact with a single player and therefore don’t make any distinction as to selecting the best target of an action. If the two live players are comfortable in making those choices fairly and objectively for the Phantom Player (a dice roll can always serve as the tie breaker), I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.

Thread: 2 players vs. Phantom Player?

maka — 2008-04-02T23:03:07+00:00

I just saw the news this game will be republished by GMT. I didn't know about it before, but I'm always interested in good solo games...

I was wondering, could the game be played by 2 players using the Phantom Player as simulating a third opponent? I read that 2 player games aren't as fun as with more players, so it occurred to me maybe that would be a good idea (if it can be done...)

-Jorge

Thread: Re: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

RichardC — 2008-03-28T22:02:24+00:00

GMT needs to make the text and graphics on the cards a bit bigger and less fuzzy ( more crisper graphics), I had to buy a magnifying glass so I could see the cards better.Thicker cards would also be a plus

Thread: Re: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

Simon Mueller — 2008-03-28T16:14:50+00:00

StrikeNet games? I thought the publisher was Lost Battalion Games.

Nothing against GMT, but I don't think they can match LBG's card quality, which is magnificent.

Thread: Re: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

mongoose27 — 2008-03-28T15:45:07+00:00

Denis, thanks for quickly posting this great news!

The Kaiser's Pirates is now being published by GMT; not only are these people great to work with, their operation is top notch! The game inside the box looks almost exactly the same, utilizing all the original art, etc.

The game is essentially ready to go, and GMT has high-quality components and all the capacity needed to handle the volumes in a timely manner (as well as giving you a discount if you take advantage of the P500 plan).

Thread: THE KAISER'S PIRATES to be published by GMT Games !!

Hawk — 2008-03-28T07:20:46+00:00

Designer Jim Day and GMT Games have agreed to create a GMT version of The Kaiser's Pirates.

From THE KAISER'S PIRATES page on the GMT Games web site:

In 2007, StrikeNet Games produced a very limited print run of The Kaiser's Pirates, an exciting 1-4 player game of the commerce raider battles at sea during WWI. The game was quite successful (see reviews below) and quickly sold out the initial print run.

Link: https://www.gmtgames.com/p-226-the-kaisers-pirates.aspx

P500 Price: $34
Regular Price: $49

Thread: Re: Out of stock

Hawk — 2008-03-28T07:11:50+00:00

It would appear that it will be reprinted by GMT Games. I'll add a post in the news section with the link.

Thread: Re: Beginner Strategy - Hand Management / Decision Making

mbrugato — 2008-03-16T03:10:21+00:00

Kozure wrote:
That, combined with a definite "kill-the-leader" aspect to selecting targets based on victory points...

I've seen new players attempt to get the leader at all costs, sometimes using an attack with too low a probability of success. The 'victim' merchant survives unscathed and makes a safe passage. Thus the leader gets more a few more Victory Award points.

I'm no expert, but I usually sit out the first round whilst everybody blows their hands going for the low hanging fruit (usually sinking merchant ships). Then I try to go after their warships or raiders for more points (Interrogate is sweet if you can get it). Also try the advanced rules, this gives you a couple of new things to think about.

I hope this is helpful.

Thread: Out of stock

Sigrdrifa — 2008-03-15T16:16:17+00:00

As of last Friday 3-8-08), StrikeNet Games is officially out of stock on Kaiser's Pirates (just BEFORE I ordered it, of course). Any lurkers here on BGG who are in the know, or connected up with the game have any ideas on any planned re-prints?

That's what I get for hemming and hawing over a decision.
Matt

Thread: Re: Five-Player Variant (?)

mongoose27 — 2008-03-08T14:23:16+00:00

From where I stand, there isn’t any reason why you couldn’t play a five-player game, but you experienced two of the reasons why it could become problematic – limited number of German ships after the deal and the length of round of play.

When I originally set the number of cards to remove at the beginning of each round of play for the 1, 2, 3 and 4 player versions it was to keep the target number of turns at 14 (certain card play can change that value), but as it states in rule 2.1.4, the players can decide to remove more or less cards at the start of a round to shorten or lengthen play. With a five-player game, I suggest still removing 10 cards to shorten the length of play, which also maintains the ‘fog-of-war’ element of the game.

Thread: Five-Player Variant (?)

Kozure — 2008-03-07T00:16:50+00:00

I convinced my usually Euro-game centric friends to play Kaiser’s Pirates this past game night. Unfortunately, just as we were about to sit down to play, a player we hadn’t been expecting to come showed up, increasing our number to five. Rather than forgo the game altogether, I decided to try something unorthodox and modify the game setup to accommodate five players.

I checked the rulebook section 2.1 for the usual Action card removals for various number of players. It appears that you’re always aiming for a fourteen player-turn game, that is, each player takes fourteen turns. For example, in a four player game, you remove 12 of 92 cards, leaving 80. 24 cards are then dealt out as the initial Action card hand, leaving 56 cards. With each of four players drawing one card a turn, you get fourteen player turns per round.

I have the 8-card expansion, so I have 100 Action cards (92 base + 8 expansion). If you deal six to each player for the starting hand, you’re left with 70 action cards; fourteen player-turns per person. So, you remove no cards and start play as normal.

Now, I know this contravenes the spirit of rule 2.1.4, which tries to preserve the “fog-of-war” by having Action cards out of play, but I figured, under the circumstances, it wasn’t an untenable solution.

Also, since there were fifteen warships and raiders dealt out in the initial hand, there were only three left to draw from. Obviously this made the early play of “Breakout” cards somewhat more urgent. Ironically, neither play of the Breakout cards during the first round had the challenge beat the response roll.

The round went fairly well. As with last time I played with this group with four players, although they enjoyed it, they found the round somewhat long, so we did not play additional rounds.

I understand that had designer James Day intended that this be a five-player game, he would’ve included rules for use as such, and would have made allowances for number of players and the resultant card counts. However, I feel this worked just fine, and wondered if anyone else had thought to experiment along these lines.

Incidentally, calculating card totals for this game got me to thinking: if one owns the 8 card expansion and adds those cards to the mix, should one remove an additional 8 cards on top of the removals listed in 2.1.1, 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 to ensure the correct number of player turns? It doesn’t mention anything about that in the rules supplement included with the expansion pack.

This question raised in the Kaiser's Pirates - Expansion Deck > Rules forum: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/298658

Thread: Beginner Strategy - Hand Management / Decision Making

Kozure — 2008-03-01T03:09:18+00:00

Near-complete newbie here - learned it from Lembit at a TABSCon in Toronto and have only played it four times since.

After a couple of play-throughs with friends who normally play Euros, I found myself agreeing with their assessment that although there was certainly some strategy involved with the selection and timing of card-play to successfully target a ship, the low number of new cards drawn in a turn (1) plus the number of cards usually played in order to better guarantee a capture/sinking (usually one or two) lead to frequently just waiting several turns while passing in order to get a good hand of cards to attack, which in turn frequently depended on good card draws. Their general view was "fun game, nice graphics, but a little dice-festy/random".

What seems to end up happening (in the beginner games that I've played) is that there is an initial flurry of activity at the start of a round, followed by a long period of several turns of passing by almost all of the players, followed by sporadic action when someone manages to get a good combination of cards. You really don't have many decisions to make other than weighing the likelihood of making a sinking based on the attack vs. defence dice, and deciding who to target based on how many points they have in their victory pile. In most cases, players didn't have a response card to play in response to an intercept, so it was just a matter of dice vs. dice, which really isn't much fun, for Euro players or strategic wargamers like myself.

I'm most interested in learning other people's take on hand management decision-making in the game. In other generally acclaimed card-driven games tend to derive their tension from deciding which cards to use for one value or another, since in tKP, most of the Intercept cards are generally of the same (attack) value (varying slightly, of course) most of the time it seems to boil down to "do I have the card I want or not?" instead of "hmmm... should I sacrifice the use of this card in order to get effect A, when I really want to use it for effect B?", thus, much less real decision-making in hand management. That, combined with a definite "kill-the-leader" aspect to selecting targets based on victory points, makes the game seem shallower than I had first thought.

Once again, that's only after four plays, so I'm reserving final judgement. After playing it a few more times, I'm starting to feel like either I'm missing a critical aspect of strategy or something is lacking in terms of long-term strategic variety in game play. What is probably going to happen as I and my opponents in the group become more familiar with the action card deck is that there will be "card-counting" in the sense that as people recognize that certain action cards and combinations of action cards are played, they need not fear cards like Q-ships, minesweepers and subs and can become more bold in their attack or leaving themselves open to attack.

I've heard from fellow gamers in the Toronto area that in tournament play it's obvious that veteran players will beat rookies more often than not, so there are definitely deeper elements of strategy buried in there somewhere. It's probably just a matter of me coming to recognize them.

Playing it a few more times with a group that has played it before will also undoubtedly help, since all of my games thus far have involved people who have not played it before.

I'm curious what other beginners have thought about the aspect of hand management in The Kaiser's Pirates, and what veteran players think as well.

Thread: Re: Extra Card?

niennunb — 2008-02-22T07:43:09+00:00

Looks like one of the cards from the expansion pack made its way into your deck. Here's a link to the Expansion Rules.

http://www.strikenet-games.com/uploads/Summary_of_Expansion_...[c][/c]

Image

mbrugato — 2008-02-10T23:55:59+00:00

Back of the box

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mbrugato — 2008-02-10T23:55:02+00:00

The box cover

Thread: Re: Reading Material ????

RichardC — 2008-02-10T01:04:12+00:00

This is probably your best bet for reading material on this subject..for sale on Amazon.com

The Kaiser's Pirates: German Surface Raiders in World War One by John Walter

Bola! — 2007-08-10T12:04:17+00:00

Thanks for the answer.

It's great to get responses directly from the designer. BGG is a great resource. Glad you're here.

Thread: Re: Non-Combatant question

mongoose27 — 2007-08-09T11:42:15+00:00

Thread: Re: Boarding Party question

mongoose27 — 2007-08-09T11:39:33+00:00

Is the Boarding Party card a modifier for a separate Intercept! card, or does it act on its own?
It is used as a modifier with an Intercept! Card. See rule 3.2.5.1.

Thread: Non-Combatant question

Bola! — 2007-08-09T01:19:15+00:00

If a defender applies the Non-Combatant reaction card to an attack (and the Merchantman is neither taken as a Prize nor escapes through Safe Passage), does the Non-Combatant remain on the defending Merchantman, thus marking it as a non-combatant for the remainder of the round?

OK, OK, I admit that violates the rest of the game play, and it would effectively protect one of that player's merchantmen for the remainder of the round, changing the play balance a little. But it does fit in with the theme. One a ship is identified as a non-combatant, it would remain off the target list. OK, of course it could be mis-identified by a subsequent attacker, and presumably the ship actually attacked in the first place was not the ship on the card, since all (?) of them are Allied ships.

I guess I'm making a long question out of a tiny one. But still....

Thread: Boarding Party question

Bola! — 2007-08-09T01:10:40+00:00

Is the Boarding Party card a modifier for a separate Intercept! card, or does it act on its own?

We play the former, that it's a modifier, because that's in keeping with the rest of the game, but the text on the card could be read as the latter, that it acts on its own.

Thread: Re: 2007 World Boardgaming Championships

mongoose27 — 2007-08-05T17:19:27+00:00

We had a great turnout with 33 players and nearly 60 games. The finals featured 4 players who played a very competitive game. Thanks to everyone who participated. See you there next year.