Quick Summary
Pirate's Cove has it all--fantastic art, high quality components, and an elegant design that perfectly fits its pirate theme. The original game was published in Germany (with the title "Piratenbucht") and is reprinted, all in English, by a new American game company called Days of Wonder.
Each player has a pirate ship that is rated for speed, crew, cannon, and hull. Each turn (there are twelve turns in the game), players secretly choose which of six islands to sail to in order to recover treasure, fame, gold, and special action cards that might be available at that island. The hull value determines how much treasure a ship can carry.
Each island allows a player to exchange gold in order to upgrade one of the elements on their ship or achieve some other benefit.
Ships that choose the same island have to engage in combat or flee. To fight, the ship with the greatest number of sails gets to shoot first. The lowest rating for crew and cannon determines the number of dice to roll. The pirate taking the broadside first declares which part of their opponents ships they want to hit, then roll the dice, with a 5-6 indicating a hit.
The visits to islands is further complicated by a roving dread pirate that is not controlled by any single player. Toward the end of the game, fighting this pirate can bring about considerable fame.
The game design here is elegant but simple and captures much of the drama of sailing the high seas for fame and fortune. The illustrated instructions are a model of clarity and the quality of the game pieces are excellent.