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From a beginner's view
What you should know before blowing off this amazing game
A beginner's insight by: sixersballernum3

I started playing the game of Pirates about a month of two ago. I had remembered hearing about it on the Pojo.com forums, and saw a pack at my local supermarket.

The thing that first caught my eye was the fact that you could play a simple game of Pirates with only ONE game pack! I gathered up a friend right away, and was in love with the game ever since.

Mind you, there were some things along the way that threw me off track a bit. Not necessarily the rulings, but exactly how to delve into this CSG when there were already two sets, and I didn't necessarily think I would have a chance at this game, since most games require you to buy packs and packs and packs of their newest sets to even stand a chance at the game.

I figured I was doomed. Suckered into spending all my money on this game that I would never do well at anyway.

Well, this is where I start my points.

1.) Pirates of the Spanish Main does not require hundreds of dollars to have a good fleet. Don't let that assumption scare you away from the game.

Sure, you CAN spend that much money on the game, but I've only bought about
15 packs of the game, and I can hold up against my friend's fleet, who has been playing MUCH longer than I.

Another thing that worried me about this game was the fact that these things look REALLY fragile, but trust me, most breaks and snaps, which are extremely rare if you take good care of your ships, are nothing a little nail polish or super glue can't take care of.

Now then, I realized I could have a decent fleet and save my ships from total destruction, but next there was the looming question, with so many different things to collect, won't this game be extremely confusing?

There's named crew, regular crew, treasure ships, points, cargo, and all this other stuff that I knew NOTHING about.

The answer? No.

2.) Pirates of the Spanish Main is a very simple game to learn.
Don't let the assumption that it ISN'T drive you away.

I realized that every little aspect of this game tied neatly into a very simple game plan. For more specific information on how the game plays, you can check out Captain WildWill's Intro to Pirates, or check out the Pirates official site!

Okay. Easy to obtain, easy to save, easy to play. I was on my way to being a big fan. But there were two more things I wasn't sure about.

One of them was, how do I know what ships to use? There's 5 nationalities, all different point values, and only so many points allowed.what do I do?!

I want some crew, I want some forts, I want good ships, but, how do I do it?

Well, to answer your question, you need to try and balance it out.

Don't use a crew with an effect that you like if it won't help you in the game you're in.

Try to balance out your ships- three will usually do it in a thirty point game, even two sometimes. If you use too many, you won't have enough points left over for forts and crew, to help you and your sea dogs along their journey to the gold.

In the end, it all comes down to this.

3.) Simple logic will guide you on your way to the best-balanced fleet.

Okay. I'm ready to battle. I know everything I need to know. I'm using logic to tell me what ship does what, et cetera et cetera,

Only one problem left.

I need more pieces!

Yes, it is bound to happen to all of us. We will play so much that we realize, hey, that piece would fit in quite nicely.

Once again, have no fear. There are a few good ways to obtain ships safely within your budget.

One of them is to trade online. There are many forums that allow trading, and in these forums you can give up the ships and pieces you don't need for the ones you do.

Then, of course, there's online. If you look, you can find packs for almost a dollar under retail, or you can find boxes that will save you up to FORTY dollars if you were to buy those packs separately.

What's it all come down to?

4.) When in doubt, there's always a way to get the stuff you want within your budget.

These are all the problems I ran into while I was learning the game, and I hope my sharing my beginner's view with you, it will better enable you to get into this amazingly fun game.

Until next time, I hope to see you on the Spanish Main.

~ sixersballernum3

Want to contact me about my article? Have a problem, a suggestion, a comment? E-Mail me at xxsystmrckerxx@gmail.com