After the Oasis game, we decided to take to the seas for some swashbuckling action in Pirate's Cove. Where Oasis is abstract, Pirate's Cove is filled with flavour and this was a very fun-filled hour. Each player is captain of a ship and sails around the various islands to find gold, treasure and upgrade their ship's specification. Each turn is pretty straight-forward: Firstly, a card is revealed at each island showing what bounty can be found there; players then secretly decide which island they wish to visit that turn; if there is more than one ship at an island, combat then ensues; the riches of the island are then acquired by the victorious captain(s) and each player gets to upgrade his ship if he wishes. Victory is determined by accumulating Fame Points and these are awarded for winning battles, plundering an island, burying gold and treasures on Treasure Island and collecting Fame Cards. After 12 rounds, the person with the most Fame Points is the winner.

We decided only to play eight rounds, due to lack of time, but that gave us plenty of opportunity for proving our sea-worthiness and trying out our best Captain Hook accents."Avast me hearties!". Upgrading your ship is critical to being able to fend off other pirates and some of the special cards bring strong rewards in this respect. We didn't go through all the cards before diving into the game so some of the effects couldn't have been anticipated. We all steered clear of the pirate ship until late in the game and the Royal Navy was only despatched once to see off Mark K who had a very useful parrot onboard his ship. John kept quietly plugging away, accumulating lots of gold and picking up treasures as he went. In the seventh round, Nige and I both decided to take on the Pirate Ship and stocked up heavily on Battle Cards. This enabled us to see off Captain Hook easily and we then faced each other. Nige had a strong ship but I was fast. However, Nige then produced a volley card which allowed my ship to be hit by die rolls of 3,4,5 and 6, and my fate was sealed as I skulked back to Pirate's Cove. However, Nige's booty wasn't enough to give him the win even though he accused John of some deep skullduggery in adding up the points. Nevertheless John emerged as the Master of the High Seas. Wonderful fun.