The Pirates Constructible Strategy Game (rebranded as Pirates of the Cursed Seas after a soft reboot) was a "Constructible strategy game" created by WizKids, Inc. (A subsidiary of the Topps trading card company). The premise of the game was to build fleets of 17th and 18th century sailing vessels to search for treasure and defeat other ships in combat, essentially every Pirate story made but in miniature. One of the unique selling points of Pirates was its "Constructible" label- all ships were made of perforated styrene cards and would be sold in booster packs like more conventional trading cards, requiring the players to build the ships after opening.
The game was produced between 2004 and 2009, after which is was cancelled following Topps selling the WizKids brand to National Entertainment Collectibles Association. It comprised of 13 different sets and at its height ten different factions, allowing for a wide selection of playstyles and ships to choose from.
Tropes
- Arch-Enemy: Several crew and ships have rules that give them bonuses in combat against certain factions or types of ships, such as a Hunter of Monsters that adds to boarding rolls when fighting sea monsters or a ship crewed by former Barbary slaves that gains a bonus when fighting Corsair ships.
- Ascended Extra: The Cursed were originally just one new flavor of pirates introduced in Set 6 and then removed from there. However, they would return in Set 9 and become a main faction in the soft reboot, essentially becoming the main villainous faction of the game as the generic Pirates became more sympathetic.
- Awesome, but Impractical: A frequent concern with some ships, usually relating to their high points cost. For a short list:
- The HMS Dreadnought possesses five masts and five cannons that hit on a 4+ die roll, and these cannot be eliminated until all of its masts have been shot away. The drawbacks? it is the most expensive regular ship in the game at 26 points (when most games run 40 point fleets) and slower than a glacier when sent out with no crew. Giving it a captain and a helmsman will tack on 5 more points, bringing the total cost to 31 points. While it might have a chance of doing some damage, if its sunk, captured or wrecked, then half the player's fleet is gone.
- The Constitution has a similar problem; it is slightly faster than the Dreadnought, and its rules make it more durable (requiring two hits from the same shooting action to eliminate one mast), but its point cost of 22 without crew can be a hard sell for some players.
- The promotional 10-mast Junks. On one hand, ten masts means ten cannons, making them the hardest hitting and most durable ships in the game, the "Junk" special rule allows them to bypass the restriction on firing through your own masts, and their vast holds allow for much more treasure and crew to be carried than most ships. On the other hand, their size made them incredibly slow, the ships themselves were so long that getting all ten cannons to hit a target and exploit the "Junk" rule was next to impossible, and all that power comes at a hefty price (the cheapest, Zeus, clocks in at 23 points, and that's not including its special crewmember Emperor Blackheart which raises the cost to 35).
- Anachronism Stew: Golden Age-style pirates still operating in sets that the flavor text places in the mid 19th century? French ships flying the tricolors before the American Revolution? American ships still using the 13-star flag into the 1850s? Yes, it happens.
- Bulletproof Human Shield: Ships normally cannot shoot through other ships or even through their own masts. There are some ships that can get around this rule, and the entire "Junk" style of ship ignores their own masts when making a shooting action.
- Boarding Party: Boarding is a free action conducted after a ship has rammed an enemy ship during a move action. Players roll off and add the result to the number of masts still remaining on their ship- winner either steals a treasure from the loser or kills one of their crew. Some ships and crew can board enemies from range rather than having to ram, and others have additional abilities that allow them to damage the ship further or massacre the entire crew compliment instead of killing just one. The Barbary Corsairs of Set 4 have this as their hat, as many of their crew and ship abilities provide bonuses to boarding.
- Breath Weapon: Some sea monster and sea dragons have breath attacks separate from their main attacks, such as Tiamat (which breathes fire, with the same rules as a Firepot attack).
- Composite Character: Prominent character Jack Hawkins combines the name of Jim Hawkins with the looks and roguish personality of Jack Sparrow.
- Captain Nemo Copy: The real deal shows up in Set 7, complete with the Nautilus, but he is joined by a wide collection of captains who also command similar submarines and have a similar disdain for normal society.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
- Most of the factions introduced in sets four through eight would never appear again afterwards, and were removed entirely following the soft reboot started by the Pirates of the Caribbean tie-in (though they were still legal to play). The only ones that got any further mentioned were the Cursed (who became an Ascended Extra) and the Jade Rebellion (who were absorbed into the Pirate faction following their destruction at the hands of other powers).
- Game mechanics and pieces such as events and forts were dropped after Set 3 (though events would return in Set 5 only to be discarded again), ostensibly to keep ship combat and island exploration the main focus and not bog down the rules.
- Crossover: The game had a soft reboot with Set 10 based around the first three of Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The rules were stripped down to basics and only two factions were present (Pirates and the British, with Britain using the Blue Ensign from the films instead of the White Ensign of the main game design), and all pieces were considered legal with models from older sets.
- Critical Existence Failure: Averted for the most part; if a ship loses its last mast, it is rendered derelict and cannot move or perform actions other than Explore and Repair, but otherwise remains in play until it is sunk with the next shot or scuttled by the controlling player. Sea Monsters, Titans, Sea Dragons, and a few ships play the trope straight and are immediately removed when they lose their last segment or mast.
- Combat Medic: Some crew have the ability to prevent other crew aboard their ship from dying, instead turning them inactive until the next time they are needed.
- The Dreaded: The "Fear" keyword gives ships/crew a chance to nullify their opponents abilities or movement for sailing too close to them, symbolizing the opponent's crippling worry about facing that ship in combat.
- Davy Jones: Jones is a playable crew piece first introduced in the sixth set. Here, he's depicted as something akin to a God of Evil and leader of the Cursed Faction, with rules that either allow him to copy other abilities on the fly or move ships friend and foe alike based on his whims.
- Do Not Run with a Gun: One of the core rules of the game is that each ship gets one action during a player turn, with moving and shooting being separate actions. There are rules that can get around this, but are generally tied to specific crew and ship abilities that are not universal.
- Excuse Plot: There are a few thin plotlines running here and there, but it has little overall impact on gameplay and mostly serves to add some flavor to the setting.
- Fantasy Kitchen Sink: While there were always hints of nautical folklore within the setting (such as ghost ships and supernatural encounters), Pirates truly embraced it with the sixth set "Davy Jones' Curse", which introduced the Cursed faction with their menagerie of zombie pirates, voodoo witch doctors, ghosts, and sea monsters. More weirdness would follow with steampunk submarines straight out of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Vikings seven hundred years too late, giant crabs, Sea Dragons, and more.
- Fragile Speedster: Most ships with 1 or 2 masts tend to be faster than anything larger, often with multiple movement segments enhanced by their small size. They generally don't carry enough powerful cannons to be a serious threat to larger ships, but those that do can become quite the Pintsized Powerhouse when crewed correctly.
- Giant Enemy Crab: Titans, introduced in the ninth set "Ocean's Edge"; they function similarly to sea monsters in that they cannot repair like normal ships, but they have some advantages in that they can carry crew and cross over islands and rough terrain, something sea monsters cannot do.
- Ghost Pirate: The hat of the Cursed faction- fleets of ghostly pirates and zombies that practice voodoo magic, tame monstrous sea creatures, and serve under Davy Jones himself (who is a full on God of Evil). Early set character El Fantasma was only implied to be ghostly, until he was reassigned to the Cursed and rumor became fact.
- Hates Everyone Equally: An extremely rare ability (as in, only five ships out of hundreds possess it) grants the ship a +1 to cannon rolls against any ship of any nationality or faction (the more common ability grants a +1 to hit against ships not of the shooter's faction, or a +1 against a specific faction's ships).
- Historical Domain Character: More prevalent in the earlier sets, but a number of historical figures such as Henry Morgan
, Woodes Rogers, and John Paul Jones make appearances as playable crewmembers. - Hired Guns: The Mercenary faction of Set 7 are a collection of sailors and ships who are not true pirates but displaced revolutionaries or outcasts who will sail for the highest bidder. Their named characters can be set on any ship of any faction, but it automatically becomes a part of the Mercenary faction with the built-in drawback that it can no longer dock at the player's home island.
- Horny Vikings: Introduced in Set 8; they are not true Vikings, rather being Scandinavian Pirates who adopted the aesthetic, though they do have a knack for monster hunting and generally oppose supernatural forces like the Cursed.
- Hollywood Voodoo: The Cursed practice voodoo and have a few witch doctors among their ranks, with rules that allow them to possess and capture enemy crew or control sea monsters to attack other ships.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Any ship that has cannons with rank of 5+; in a game where the mechanics require one to roll higher than the printed dice number, that can mean a 1-in-6 chance of hitting anything (and a 6 may as well not even be there). Many ships with poor cannon ratings often trade firepower for speed, making them ideal treasure ships to score points while ships with better guns go hunting.
- Kraken and Leviathan: Introduced in the sixth set, sea monsters (originally comprised of giant squids and sea serpents, though massive sharks were added in the eighth set) are special units that have a number of unique rules; they can submerge to avoid terrain hazards and cannon fire, and when ramming they pinned the enemy vessel instead of the other way around. However, they cannot repair segments like ships could repair masts, cannot carry crew, and are eliminated after their final segment is removed rather than being rendered derelict like ships. Combined with a generally high point cost, sea monsters definitely fall into the realm of Awesome, but Impractical compared to other ships.
- Kill It with Fire: Firepots, introduced in Set 3, are some of the most dangerous weapons in Pirates; fire causes Damage Overtime that can only be removed on a lucky roll or stopping at a friendly home island for repairs, and it can spread so rapidly that even the largest ships will burn down in a handful of turns. Firepots were such a
Game-Breaker that when they were revived in Set 12, their ability to spread was reduced from 50% to 33% on a dice roll in order to be a more viable piece. - Leave No Survivors: All crew will go down with the ship if it is sunk, unless special rules kick in or the "Raft" event is played. There are also rules where a victorious ship can massacre the entire crew compliment of a ship if they win a boarding action rather than killing just one crew.
- Made of Iron: Several ship abilities allow this to happen in different ways; some allow a ship to ignore the first hit it takes so long as all masts are still up, others require multiple hits before losing a mast, and some can take the damage but do not lose their cannons until all masts have been removed.
- Mighty Glacier: Most ships with 4 or more masts; carrying the most cannons and the most hit points in the game, they take a larger space on the board and will move slower than most smaller ships. Adding a helmsman for additional speed and a captain to allow for the ship to shoot after moving can make them a dangerous Lightning Bruiser, perfect to raid enemy ships or defend from other large ships.
- Multinational Team: Some ships and crew abilities allow for players to mix and match crew of different factions, when normally crew can only serve on ships of their faction. And of course, there is no rule saying that all ships in a fleet must be of the same faction, so it is perfectly possible for American, British, French, or Spanish ships to sail and fight alongside one another.
- Pirate: It's in the name of the game. Pirates have their own faction based around the more stereotypical image of Golden Age pirates, and several of the later sets have factions dedicated to unique regional pirates such as Muslim Corsairs, Anti-Imperialist Chinese or Japanese pirates, or Scandinavian Viking fanboys.
- Pirate Booty: The goal of the game is to sail out to "wild islands" and uncover abandoned caches of pirate treasure to bring back to home base, while capturing or sinking your opponent's ships to prevent them from doing the same. Some treasure is "Unique" treasure, which does not provide points for winning but does grant special abilities in game which can help or hinder the ship that carries them.
- Public Domain Character: Less common than Historical Domain Characters, but there are a few here and there. Captain Nemo, Ned Land, and Professor Arronax from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea are the most prominent in Set 7, though others such as Fagin and Jim Hawkins are alluded to, and the Pequod is an American ship in Set 6.
- A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: The Viking faction introduced in the eighth set, "Frozen North", bringing Vikings back seven hundred years after that culture died off. They are not technically Vikings, being Scandinavian pirates who sail on modernized longships and style themselves after Vikings without indulging in the Rape, Pillage, and Burn aspects and wars of conquest of Viking culture, but the distinction is minimal as to be nonexistent.
- Pirate Girl: Several female pirates show up across the sets. The most prominent one is the Calico Cat, an Ambiguously Brown woman with a mysterious past who may or may not be a Rebellious Princess looking for revenge against a former lover who abandoned her at sea.
- Put on a Bus: The generic Pirate faction was absent from the "Barbary Coast" set, though popular demand would see them return in the "South China Seas" set.
- Ramming Always Works: Ramming is a free action that happens when a ship touches an enemy ship during a move action. While damage is not guaranteed, it is one of the only ways to get around defensive abilities that make some ships more resilient against cannon fire. However, it comes with risks- a ship remains pinned and cannot move until the rammed ship moves or is rendered derelict (leaving them vulnerable to enemy cannons), and there is a chance a Boarding Party may come aboard to kill crew and steal treasure.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Surprisingly for a game about pirates, averted; an enemy home island is the only place that a ship cannot dock, and while there are ship and crew abilities that can break this rule they are few and far between and often limited in scope.
- Robinsonade: Abandoned crew are a unique treasure that can be picked up and grant all the necessary rules to their rescuer as if they were regular crew. Interestingly, a crewmember for the British is named "Robinson", and his main mechanic is that crew on his ship will wash up on nearby islands if they would otherwise be eliminated.
- Salvage Pirates: Derelicts can be explored just like islands, allowing players to cripple then loot an enemy ship before sailing off or sinking the ship. For a more traditional example of the trope, ships that run aground on reefs are considered wrecks- not sunk so their crew and treasure is still in play, but unlike a derelict they cannot be fired upon or sunk by enemy ships who can then explore and loot the wreck to their hearts content.
- Skull for a Head: Fairly common among the Cursed, with two of their named characters (Sammy the Skull and the Wraith) having it as their defining feature.
- Submarine Pirates: The other main gimmick of the Mercenary faction is Nautilus-style submarines (Captain Nemo himself is the unofficial leader of this faction). Submarines can submerge and ram enemy ships while underwater, but are otherwise treated just like any other ship in the game. Besides the Mercenaries, the Pirates, Cursed, and Americans all got submarines as well (though the Cursed only through a limited edition promotional pack handed out at events).
- Wooden Ships and Iron Men: Firmly rooted in the setting; there are dozens of sailing ships heading out to collect treasure and battle in close range cannon duels, with risks of sea monsters and plagues abounding.
