This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Summary
Game Type - Family Game (Euro/Conflict Hybrid)
Play Time: 50-80 Minutes
Number of Players: 3-5 (Best 4-5)
Mechanics - Bluffing, Simultaneous Action Selection, Dice Rolling Combat
Difficulty - Moderate (Can be learned in 30-60 minutes)
Components - Excellent ++
Release - 2002
Designer(s) - <PERSON> Largo)
<PERSON>
Overview
Pirate's Cove is a game from the golden days of publisher Days of Wonder (DoW). Released in 2002 I was shocked to see that it pre-dates their early mega-hits Ticket to Ride and Memoir '44 and was their second big box game to be released after Mystery of the Abbey (although this could be technically incorrect as I suspect Abbey may have been acquired as its date is listed as 1995, which to my memory is a little early for DoW).
INSERT - A little research later and I see that Mystery of the Abbey and Pirate's Cove were both released in 2003 with DoW having an official launch date of 2002.
Pirate's Cove is a classic trademark Days of Wonder game. The game-play is light to medium at best, easy to learn and play and it looks a million dollars in the process. They also liked to go for the big themes in those early days and here it was Pirates.
I remember well the times when Pirate's Cove was released. Heavy Euros were still king but games like this one were opening the market up to, and gathering interest from, more casual game players. These were the days when Days of Wonder were spoken of with awe and reverence as the company that would challenge the classic euro-companies for market share. Component quality certainly improved in the years following releases such as this one.
To the game itself and Pirate's Cove was a classic DoW release as it hit 'theme' square in the stomach, pitting each player as a daring Pirate Captain, hell bent on sailing the high seas and gaining fame and fortune in the process. Legendary Pirates sail ominously around the island archipelago and ships are rigged to plunder riches and bury it on famed Treasure Island.
Argh me hearties!
The Components
Pirates Cove was probably the first DoW game to really catch the eye of gamers and have them goo-ing at the production quality. Everything is so colourful and bright as a button…
Board – The board is a simple yet perfect draw card. 299
A gorgeous island archipelago is depicted with no less than 7 islands, separated only by a sapphire blue sea. Each island is adorned with an icon to clearly identify its purpose during the game and a card outline on the outer islands highlight where various card decks need to be placed.
Pirate’s Cove was one of the earliest boards I can remember that took my breath away and got me excited to play the game. I remember well seeing the use of grid squares and assuming that there would be mechanics for ships to move and potentially board one another. Alas I was soon to learn that movement was more abstract in nature. More on that later.
The board is surrounded by a score track, just one feature that is replicated in the design of Ticket to Ride.
Image Courtesy of vekoma
Navigation Wheel – A key mechanic of the game is the means of selecting a destination and this is the purpose of the Navigation Wheel. Shaped like the wheel of an old wooden ship, it depicts the 6 island locations that can be traveled too each round. Each location uses the graphic icon associated with each island on the board, making it very clear as to a player's chosen destination each round.
Image Courtesy of mpot
Player Mats – The player mats are another high gloss, colourful creation. Each mat depicts a pirate ship, complete with 4 rows of numbers that represent the relative strengths of each section (sails, crew, cannons and hull).
Each row features a small doubloon value between the larger numbers and this represents the cost to upgrade any one area to the next level.
The final elements of the player mats include a space in which to place a Parrot Card should one be drawn and a circle in the lower right, which is used to place treasure and doubloons as they are collected.
The only gripe I have with the mats is that they are a little thin and flimsy. Whilst I’m sure it was a cost decision to not provide a thicker mounted mat, this is probably the one production choice that lets the game down. Most people who are concerned seem to laminate the mats and that works fine. 336