Cor blimey she be my turn to organise a fracas to “blow the man down”.

So you “jack tars” and “lubbers” get ready to “hoist the mainsail” and “splice the main brace” because there is no need to “hang the jib” as she’ll be better than “cracking Jenny’s tea cup” (well maybe not!!).

Be here or be “measured for your chains”. Suitable eye patch and hat required.

After a very “ship” week I wanted something for our Wednesday gaming that was very, very simple and easy to play.

The rules we used were Pirates of the Spanish Main a “constructible” “whizkids” strategy game. The original game was sold in packs (like football cards) that included a ship and maybe an island, crew or something else and included standard and “special” packs.

We each took a random pre-determined 30 point fleet each.

David K had the Spanish fleet of four small but very fast ships with an explorer.

Andrew W drew the British fleet with 3 very well armed ships.

 And David S was the “pirate” with a  fleet of three Buccaneers and a Captain crew card. Yes, that was with a “B”.

The game was the standard treasure game where each player had to explore uninhabited islands for treasure and get it safely back to your home Island.

The standard set-up procedure starts with each player placing islands in turn and then choosing the home island for the player to your left. Three randomly placed treasure tokens (value 1 to 4) were allocated to each uninhabited island.

The games started off very tamely with each player exploring different islands and happily collecting treasure unmolested. Finally enough was enough with David S being the true pirate he was, starting attacking first the British where his ship the Cassandra limped away after receiving a broadside, and boarding from the British and then a ramming from the Spanish.

Revenge, however, was swift as the Sea Nymph who had a Captain token (can move and shoot) quickly dealt with two of the puny Spanish ships.

Meanwhile the British and Pirates were accumulating treasure at will. The pirates were able to ferry their ill-gotten gains back to their home island without any trouble but the British had to sail through seas channels patrolled by both the remaining Spanish and pirate ships.

Little did we know at the time but the British were carrying 17 tokens worth of treasure and the pirates already had 18 back at home. When first one and then the second treasure laden British ship joined Davey Jones the game was over.

We later learned that the treasure is not lost to the depth of the sea but shared equally between the “sinker” and the “sinkee”

This meant that the Spanish received five of the British haul, the Pirates four and the British eight. The final totals being Spanish 6, British 8 and the Pirates 22.

A nice quick fun game. A real pity it is now out of print.