Pirates Behaving Badly – Preview
So surely, if we are being serious for a minute, well maybe being picky for a minute, then I would maybe argue that a pirate behaving badly isn’t that much of a thing to worry about. A pirate behaving badly, now does that mean a pirate whose behaviour is bad. Or are we talking about a pirate who is being bad at being a pirate which means that they board ships only on invitation and give away treasure and riches, and every now and again by way of a plank, they rescue people from the sea? Or does it mean as Green Meadow Games intend, that it is a pirate who is behaving badly as we would expect a pirate to do so and therefore we are in a whole load of various amounts of trouble. I don’t know. I thought I had some kind of clever opening going on here and now I’m not so sure.
So forget it, what does it matter. Pirates Behaving Badly is shiny and bright as opposed to being briny and rubbish, (careful now), and the first thing you’ll notice is that this is a game that ate all of the coloured crayons in the before having a stomach ache and then having a bad case of the sea shanties all over a deck of cards. Primary colours in all of its glory, effusing a brightness that sits well and stands out on the table. This is a game for young ones around the table and even though the box says 8 up, I wouldn’t be surprised if you could easily get this played with someone younger if they had a bit of guidance for the first couple of rounds. It’s clearly aimed at the younger end of the market and so it is only fair to judge based on the intended audience. Your personal hand consists of your captain card, and a mixture of different cargo and crew, wit the cargo being numbered one to six and the crew having symbols on them that define what actions they take if they are played in a round. You’re aiming to be the first to deliver four sets of cargo before anyone else.
It’s set collection primarily, but don’t be fooled into thinking that this is something too simple, there seems to be a bit of Go Fish DNA in here, as well as your usual set collection antics but there are some additional pirate shenanigans to concern yourself over. You take one of Five total actions on offer here. Hence the recommendation that younger players will need a little bit of a hand to truly understand how to play. The first action is play a set, where you play either three cards of the same crew type of number, or play a run of three numbers but the same colour. Then you have the expected asking another player for a card, requesting either a colour or card type, and this mechanic allows you to steal other player’s cards, but also potentially allow you to take hold of their captain and scupper their efforts for several rounds. You can also play a crew card, and these come in three different flavours, the sharp shooter which allows you to guess the colour and number of the captain, do this correctly and the captain is lost at sea, tantamount to the player having to lose their hand, draw a new captain and essentially be starting again. Otherwise, matching a cargo means you steal it from the other player. The swashbuckler is where you name a colour or number and the opposite player must surrender any cargo cards matching either correct value. Its a way to help yourself to a large amount of opponents cards, but also leaves you open to them being taken back, so you’ll need to take in account player order to be able to pull it off effectively. The last action is the self inflicted grenadier, which allows you to clear your hand and redraw the same number of cards.
Yeah, I can see it and you can possibly see it, but this is a game where the niceness can be thrown out the window, and so if you are playing it with younger children I would make sure that you try to prevent cutlasses being drawn at the table. However you can’t always be sparring back and forward as this means you’ll miss out on being able to play hands to the table and win the game. That’s one of my concerns, that you end up with a war of attrition, but it will depend on everyone having lots of action cards, which based on the hand size of only eight cards shouldn’t be too much of an issue. I reckon. Pistols at dawn kind of a situation. But hopefully no tears before bedtime. I guess the main thing to remember here is the fun, but also the fact that this isn’t a game that doesn’t have tacked on tactics for the sake of trying to be different, and its likely to see more than a couple of visits to the table.
Pirates Behaving Badly has a lot of the right things going for it. Bright colourful presentation with family friendly illustrations. A basic game that isn’t too difficult to learn even if younger players might need prompting now and again what they can play. I’m impressed how cut throat the game actually is. Its more pass the rattlesnake than pass the parcel. That’s the thing, you’ll need to be honest with yourself if the group you play with are happy to take set backs and cards being stolen that they were just about to definitely play this minute honest. Also, nothing wrong with teaching people life isn’t always fair. Especially if you’re a Piate.
Oh wait.. I forgot the RRRRRRRRRR.
Designed by Taylor & Patty Hayward
