I just received my new GMT edition of the Kaiser's Pirates and have had the opportunity to check out the components.
The Kaiser’s Pirates was originally released by Strikenet Games (under the "Lost Battalion Games" brand) for $44.95.
The new GMT edition is available from GMT for $49, which includes the eight expansion cards Strikenet made available for about $4, so the price has remained pretty stable.
What has changed considerably from the original edition?
Well, for one thing, the box is much bigger.
The cover graphics of the GMT edition are quite appealing compared to the original. <PERSON> has done a nice job once again with the cover art.
I have to admit that I was quite surprised to see TKP in a full sized bookcase box - I was expecting the same box size as Pacific Typhoonor Atlantic Storm; in fact the contents of all three games combined could fit inside the new GMT box.
COMPONENT COMPARISON
TKP is a card game, and GMT has done a great job with the cards. The quality is superb and are much better than the original.
As you can see from the photo above, the cards in the GMT edition are made of much thicker cardstock. They are also slightly wider.
Graphically speaking, the GMT cards also look nicer.
TKP is a card game about World War I shipping raids. There four decks of cards comprised of
- action cards
- merchant ship cards
- warship/raider cards
- a deck for solitaire play
The game also comes eight dice (two each of 4, 6, 8, and 10-sided dice) and sixteen wooden cubes (10 red, 6 black). There's nothing to choose between the editions - they're both of good quality.
The Merchant ship cards come with an accurate silhouette of the merchantman and also notes whether or not it was sunk or captured during the conflict.
Similarly, the warship cards have their silhouette and some details about the armaments etc of the vessel.
The Action cards contain two sections and let you perform one of three actions. You can turn the card sideways to use the intercept orders to let one of your warships to intercept an enemy merchantman. 92
The same section gives you a generic British attack value to intercept one of your opponents warships/raiders (assuming they've been recognized). Otherwise, the card’s upright action section will have one of roughly 40 non-intercept actions, some of which can be used to react to opponent's cards. The rules have complete descriptions of all the cards.
Finally, the Solitaire deck let's a "phantom player" play against you. In my opinion, this is what makes this game shine - it plays as well solo as it does with other people.
RULES COMPARISON
The GMT rules are more or less the same as the original, but have been cleaned up and look better organized. There's also a card manifest in the back of all the ships in the game. I think the rules also benefit from being on full sized pages - they look easier to follow and it's easier to find things.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
I think the new GMT edition of TKP is very nicely done, and the new cards are beautiful. I'm somewhat surprised to see it in the bookcase box format rather than in the smaller box format, but that's a minor quibble.
I think this game is well worth picking up if you enjoy other naval card games such as Atlantic Stormor Pacific Typhoonand is a great solitaire game to boot. 993