Arrggh!: Pirates of the Caribbean – Master of the Seas Reviewed

Elliott MillerMay 29, 2011

Game Name: Pirates of the Caribbean – Master of the Seas Strategy Game

Publisher: Jakks Pacific

Designer: Rob Stoddard

Year: 2011

Players: Two to four players

Ages: 9+

Playing Time: 60 Minutes

Retail Price: $24.99

When I first spotted this game on the shelf at Toys R Us I was a bit taken aback. Here it was, a children’s game, and a movie tie-in to boot, but the title included the words “The Strategy Game”, so I picked up the box and read the back. It intrigued me, and so I bought it.

The first thing I noticed was the quality of the components. All full color and hi-gloss. The artwork is amazing and the ships are excellent. They are a fairly large size, between 3-4 inches high, and they fit into these special plastic bases that are designed to hold the special tokens included in the game. The Flying Dutchman ship is especially cool, but the other ships from the movies are here too. Then there are the islands, each of the boards will be placed around the large center island of Port Royale, giving a random board setup to each game. They also include landmark stand-ups for each island, to give them a feeling of being 3 dimensional. They didn’t have to do that, I thought it was a great touch.

The center island of Port Royal is a plastic tray that serves double duty as holding all of the game pieces in its various compartments. Another nice touch. There is a large plastic caliper that acts as a movement measurement tool. The entire game is highly thematic and the design is just excellent.

In the game, players take on the role of one of the pirate captains from the movies. Yes, Jack Sparrow is there and a full color picture of Johnny Depp as the captain is right there on his character card. Each of the Captains will need to sail from island to island in search of the 4 specific prizes that they need to win the game. Each ship has its own home port on a different island. Players need to find the prizes and return to their home port carrying them on their ship in order to win the game.

Here’s how it all works. The islands are set up around Port Royal, about 18 inches away from each other. You will need a fairly large table, or maybe even the floor, in order to get the space you need, be forewarned. The prize cards are shuffled and two are placed on each of the islands face down, so that no one knows where their treasures are.

The map cards and captain cards are shuffled, and some are dealt to each player. The map cards give you destinations to sail to, where you will be able to draw either a prize card or pick up some easy doubloons. If you don’t have a map card for a location, you can still pick up a prize card for a cost of 50 doubloons. The captain cards do double duty as either contributing bonuses during battle, or having a special action on the to help you or hurt the other captains.

Each turn you will roll the special dice. You get 1 movement for each slash you roll, and get to draw cards if you roll a map or captains symbol. Using the caliper you move 1 caliper length for each point of movement. You can dock in a port if you are within one ship length of it.

What do you use the money for? Well, in some of the ports you can hire crewmembers for your ship. The crew members have different levels too. The higher the level, the more they help your ship. For example a level two sailor will add two movement points each turn. A gunner will add to your battle roll, and an officer will add to both. They are represented by small tokens that fit into slots on the side of your ship base. You only have eight slots, so you have to fill them with care. Each prize you get also has to go into a slot, and if your ship takes damage the damage tokens go into the slots as well. If you don’t have enough open slots for the damage tokens, you have to discard your other tokens to make room.

How do you get damage? There is ship to ship combat. Sometimes your pirate brethren will end up getting one of your prizes that you need to win the game. If they refuse to sell it on the market at Port Royale, the only way for you to get it is to attack their ship and steal it from them. Seems very pirate like to me. Attacking involves playing up to two cards to add to your attack strength, plus add the bonuses for Gunners and Officers, then rolling the dice to see how many slashes you can get. The player with the higher total has overpowered the other ship and can steal from that ship. Both ships can take damage, and you can only repair by paying 5 doubloons for each damage token.

It is a well thought out, thematic, and interesting design that has many options that you don’t really see in a game designed for children. At its core, it is a miniatures game set in the Pirates of the Caribbean universe. It was a lot of fun to play, there were many “Arrgghs…” going around the table. It can be treated as an adult game in its own right. Sure, it is not a huge strategic draw, but there is some strategy involved. I was mostly interested in the pirate theme and it is all there. We loved it, we had a blast, it was a good time.

I would only venture a few steps further to make it a game designed for grownups. I’d like to see ways to attack ports, possibly controlling them so that the only way for others to land there is to pillage them. I would love to see metal coins instead of the tokens for the doubloons, too add to the pirate feel, and I’d love to see an option for a 5^th player. Possibly the 5^th player could have several ships that represent Her Majesty’s Royal Navy, who defend ports and attempt to capture the pirates. I’m not sure how that could work out, but it would be neat, and give you a few more cool standups for the table. Plus a miniature for the Kracken emerging from the water would have been an excellent addition.

Those are just wishful thinking on my part though, the game is wonderful on its own, and it will be hitting the table whenever we get the urge to pillage on the high seas.