🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <NOUSEK.91Oct22110858@acis1.astro.psu.edu>, nousek@astro.psu.edu (John A.
Nousek) writes:
|> I bought "Blackbeard" and found it to be an OK game for playing with
|> my kids (ages 10, 11).  

   The best pirate game I ever played was not a historical game per se, and
I'm sure many people may not have heard of it, but it was an old Parker
Brothers game from the 1960s called "TRADE WINDS", their pirates of the
Caribean board game. The components were excellent and it actually had some
strategy to it. You had these little plastic ships, a big beautiful board with
a hole cut out in the middle that the Treasure Island stuck out through.
Treasure was things like little wooden barells or rum worth two points, little
opals worth three, plastic bars of gold worth four, and plastic gems worth
five. You could carry the treasure in your little plastic ship but if any
fell out, it was washed ashore to an abandoned island.

   There was a deck of random event/treasure cards and a deck of crew cards.
The crew cards had pictures of red and black pirates on them. Your movement
was determined by the total number of pirates in your hand, while your combat
strength was determined by absolute value of number of red pirates minus
number of black pirates. You could engage in both combat (with other ships) and
trade (either with open ports or other player's ports if they were not there).

   The strategy mostly came in assembling your crew (trying to get all one
color of pirates) through trade and combat along with massing the required
21 points of treasure needed to win. It was one hell of a lot of fun. I still
have it at home even though attrition on the plastic treasure pieces has been
atrocious over the years.

"Avast, ye scurvy dogs, ties 'em to the comfy sofa!"-pirates on Count Duckula.
"Remember, save the planet, defy authority, and watch your cholesterol!"-PLCL
"Nulla Quaestio!"                Dave Arlington