Pirates the Constructible Strategy Game™ Rise of the Fiends Sneak Peek #2

Here is sneak peek #2, lots of good Pirate fun!!

Pirates of the Cursed Seas: Rise of the Fiends PocketModel GameSneak Peek #2

By Kelly Bonilla

With the Pirates of the Cursed Seas: Rise of the Fiends expansion, the Cursed get a boost in their bid to control the seas, and have even found another relic sure to aid them. Watch your crew carefully, for at any time they may fall prey to the Voodoo Doll.

The unique treasure Voodoo Doll (#064) can mean bad news for ANY crew member, unless they happen to be Cursed. At the beginning of each of their turns, the Voodoo Doll holder chooses a non–Cursed enemy crew member and rolls a d6. On a 5 or 6, that crew is turned face down and can’t use their abilities on their next turn. No doubt they’re too busy trying to dig phantom cutlasses out of their backs.

The evil Cursed leader El Fantasma has also added to his ranks of crew with the corruption of the Hag of Tortuga (#018, 4 points), gaining the ability to speak with the foul monsters of the sea. The Hag of Tortuga will add +L to the base move of any sea monsters within L of her ship, making her an excellent way to guide beasties to their next meal.

But perhaps the most sinister addition to the fleets of the Cursed will become clear as men of the sea turn their eyes to the ocean and spy only a wicked blade coming over the horizon to reap their souls; the scorpion ships have arrived! Equipped with a long, movable scythe on their bows, the scorpion ships excel at pinning and boarding enemy ships without becoming pinned themselves. After a scorpion ship completes a shoot action or move action (without ramming), if you can move her blade so that it touches an opposing ship, you can immediately attack that ship as a free action using the blade. If you do, the opposing ship must eliminate a mast. No ability can prevent this! The opposing ship is pinned and can be boarded, though the scorpion ship itself isn’t pinned. And, even though it can’t board them afterwards, scorpion ships can even pin sea creatures!

One of the scorpion ships now prowling the seas is Pestilence (#009, 17 points). The priciest of the Cursed’s new toys, she bears the Scorpion and Fear keywords and a base move of L, as well as a cargo of 3 should she need to escort treasure back to a home island. Pestilence also features two rank 3 cannons with long range and a rank 4 cannon with short range. Put these things together and you have just the thing to intimidate would-be adventurers of the seas.

The very first scorpion ship of the line (or point, as the case may be) is Scorpion (#011, 15 points). She brings the Eternal keyword along with scorpion, making her a pox for your opponents for the length of your game. Though she’s slower with a base move of S, she has four cargo spaces awaiting crew, equipment, or treasure. Three excellent rank 3 cannons at long range round out this deck piercing fiend. But Rise of the Fiends also has some excellent standard ships just waiting to leave port, as we’ll soon see.