Ice Pirates
| Ice Pirates | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dan Isaac | ||
| Players: | 2 - 5 | |
| Length: | unknown | |
| Complexity: | unknown | |
| Trios per color: | 5 | |
| Number of colors: | 1 per player + 2 (opaque) | |
| - - - - - - Other equipment - - - - - - | ||
| 1 postcard per player, a few chits or markers | ||
| Status: Initial design (v0.5), Year released: 2005 | ||
| Inspired by the "Pirates of the Spanish Main" Constructible Strategy Game from WizKids | ||
Overview
An adventure game on the high seas with hidden treasure.
Premise
You are a ruthless Pirate in charge of a fleet of mighty sailing ships afloat in a sea full of islands rich with treasure. Your only problem is that there are other equally ruthless pirates who are in charge of equally mighty fleets of ships afloat in the exact same sea. And guess what... they are after the same treasures as you. You must explore the islands, battle your opponents, and pilfer their ships and homes in an effort to become the wealthiest Pirate around. Only then will you get the respect you so rightly deserve.
Equipment
- 2 differently-colored opaque stashes of Icehouse pieces which will be used to create the Treasure Islands
- 1 additional stash of Icehouse pieces per player (each of a unique color)
- 1 postcard (or similarly sized object) per player which will be used as each players Home Islands
- A few chits or markers of some sort to indicate damage on the ships
Goal
Collect more than your fair share of treasure, from 4-8 treasures based on player-count.
Setup
Create 10 Treasure Islands by randomly assembling nests of opaque pyramids in two colors. Set the completed Islands upright in the middle area of the table. They should be distributed approximately evenly with no two nests closer than about 4 inches (the size of two larges) from each other.
Next, each player places their Home Island on the table. Like the Treasure Islands, they should be no closer than about 4 inches from any other (Home or Treasure) Island. Any remaining pieces may either be stored on your Home Island, or somewhere nearby but outside of the play area.
Play
Players alternate taking turns until one player has collected enough treasure on their home Island to win the game. Turn consists of up to three Actions:
- Fire a cannon from a ship that has not fired its full battery yet this turn
- Make repairs to one of your ships (That ship may not take any actions other than repairs this turn.)
- Move one of your ships that has not yet moved this turn
- Transfer cargo to and/or from one of your ships
=Firing a Cannon
During a single turn a ship can only fire its cannons a number of times equal to its size, and each shot requires one turn action. So a Small ship may only fire once per turn, a Medium may fire up to twice, and a Large up to three times in a single turn.
All ships can fire cannons at objects up to a distance of one Large away, but only in specific directions.
To fire a cannon, hold a Large piece (regardless of ship size) such that the entire base side of the Large touches one of the two long sides of your ship. The Large piece indicates your possible target area. If the object you wish to shoot at lies in the area covered by the Large piece, and is not obstructed by anything, then you can hit that target.
Illus. 1 Firing a cannon - cannon range examples (Blue pieces indicate the ship position. Gray area indicates where the cannons can reach.)
When a ship is hit from cannon fire, it takes one point of damage. You can use some form of chits or other markers to indicate ships that have already taken some damage. The damage stays with the ship the remainder of the game until it is repaired. For large and medium ships, make sure to move the damage counters along with the ship whenever you move it.
A ship is Disabled (stood upright with its cargo stacked in a tree on top of it) when it has taken damage equal to its size. A Disabled ship cannot take any further damage until it has been repaired. However, it also cannot perform any other actions besides repairs.
Making Repairs
You can use your turn-actions to make repairs on a ship which has received damage. It is possible to perform repairs to remove some or even all of the damage on a ship. You can use any number of your turn-actions to remove one point of damage each from a ship. For example, you can use all three of your turn-actions to fully repair a large ship which has been Disabled.
Any ship which receives repairs in a given turn must not perform any other actions that turn. (Neither before nor after the repairs.)
A Disabled ship which receives repairs should be laid back down on the table such that it generally covers the same area that it did while it was upright. It can be pointed in any direction you wish. Any cargo that is still with the ship is returned to its hold. (Nested back inside of the ship.)
Ship Movement
As one Action, a ship can move up to a maximum number of steps based on its size.
make table Large ships can move a maximum distance of up to one (1) step as one Action. Medium ships can move a maximum distance of up to two (2) steps as one Action. Small ships can move a maximum distance of up to four (4) steps as one Action.
Each ship-movement step is made as follows:
- Take a spare pyramid that is the same size as the ship that you plan to move.
- Place that piece such that the center of the new piece's Stern (base of the pyramid) touches the Bow (point) of the ship to be moved.
- Orient the new ship in the direction that you wish it to move and place it down.
- Then remove the original ship from the old position. (Any damage counters and cargo should be moved to the new ship location as well.)
See Illus. 2 below where the blue piece indicates the original ship, and the gray area shows the possible positions for the ship after one step.)
Continue this process until you have either gone as far as you wish, or until you have traveled the maximum distance allowed based on the size of the ship. (See Illus. 3)
History
Ice Pirates is the Martian translation of the Pirates of the Spanish Main CSG from WizKids. It was created by Dan Isaac, and is the predecessor of Armada.
Rules are available online.
The game requires three complete stashes, including two opaques. Thus, it requires a TenHouse set of pyramids or a FiveHouse set along with the discontinued grey stash.
| Entered in the Icehouse Game Design Competition, Autumn 2005 |
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| Iceberg – Ice Fu – Ice Ice Baby – Ice Pirates – Intersect |