Imagine you just got your new ship the size of the Eifel tower and your feeling great but suddenly a small Indian canoe charges straight for you at the speed of sound and some guy gets of and starts thrusting at you
@@kv-2thekingofderp866 The biggest wooden sailing ships where around 100 meters long and built around 1825. Less than 10 were built as it turned out wood is not strong enough to build that big - and they all disappeared/sunk within a year. One of the biggest was "Columbus" from 1825 that only managed one trip across the Atlantic, before it disappeared on the way back - it had a sister vessel that didn't even manage to cross once, before it was lost.
The crazy thing is this video didn't even go into the dance and romance rhythem game or the turn based strategy land battles, or the stealth city infiltrations. Spiff didnt even split his treasure or retire. So much more to this game than even this great video points out.
I'll be honest, I visited a library once when I was really young that had this game on a computer. I loved it, but I was never able to return to the library or remember what the game was called. Until now, while browsing your videos Mr. Spiffing Brit, I have been reunited. Thank you.
@@Arius90 right! I think playing like that is why he's still sharp mentally. Plus he has people on there he's interacted with for decades, they started out kids themselves and have kids of their own now lol
I'm trying to remember the game that was civilization where you chose to play as a color (white, yellow, red, &blue) you claim the land that you wish and you build the city up and there are also pirate ships that will accost you if you come near them. This would have been in the late 90s early 2000s and it was a game I played after I already owned Caesar III. Anyone with any information please help
@Matthew it still escapes me. It was some sort of land claming city building game from which you played from four colors (red, white, blue, yellow) the land looked like some of the civilization games but I don't think the map was ever hidden at first but if def had pirate ships that you could battle with. Also the land in some cases would have gold or iron ore above the mountains and in some cases you got both gold & iron. Other than that I don't recall much more. Played a lot of Caesar III but that was another I can't find and don't remember.
The best part about this strategy is that it has historical precedent: 17th century buccaneers actually did use small, fast canoes to capture ships, and as I recall their skills in boarding and hand-to-hand combat were unmatched at the time
So each class of ship (sloop, brig, frigate, etc.) each have 3 size variants: small, medium, and large (e.g. Sloop, War Sloop, Royal Sloop) The War Canoe is actually the small variant of the pinnace class (pinnace being the default medium), and there exists a large variant: The Mail Runner. The MR is just as fast as the War Canoe but caries more guns, crew, and a bit more cargo. Thing is that they don't spawn randomly: the only way to find MR is to have one of the governors task you with protecting a peace treaty/war ultimatum. This can be done by visiting the governor of a faction that has been at war for some time visa versa regarding peace. However, the easiest way to spawn an MC is to gain a wanted level/bounty, then visit a friendly Mission. The friar will (should) offer to mitigate your bounty if you can bring them to the nearest faction's port. This will spawn a Jesuit MR. Also, side note, the Flag Galleon (not the War Galleon) isn't tit-for-tat the most powerful ship in game. That goes to the Ship-of-the-Line, the large variant of the frigate class, and which only spawns for a (non-Spanish) faction that has seen a large number of its ships sunk (i.e. farm one faction in one location enough, and a SoL should appear) *EDIT* For accurate name of ship being Mail Runner not Mail Carrier, as well as holy shit >200 likes, I came only to serve yet you all have showered me with praise thank you.
I did not know about the Mail Carrier. As a kid, the one time I saw a SoL, I accidentally sunk it. I recently replayed the game and had to farm the French for quite a while before I got a SoL. Next time, I'll have to try getting a MC. Thanks for the new info!
@@australiangamer7956 The MC is hard to find, as CG said, and war canoes spawn occasionally along coasts. For the "exploit", the war canoe was perfectly fine to use as the example since crew size and firepower didn't matter. Also, if I remember correctly, the MC hitbox was slightly larger, but I could be wrong.
The funny thing is, historically, small and easily maneuverable ships were preferred by most pirates for exactly the reasons you're using them in game - they could easily catch the bigger trade galleons and usually easily overwhelm them because the merchants weren't exactly skilled fighters. And at the same time, they easily outran any given bigger war vessels that governments would send after them.
The game actually encourages it: some of the best pirate ships are explicitly said to be War Sloops and Brigantines because of their fast speed and large number of cannons and crew for their size.
@@shadonaifairn85 SO damned slow! By the time those cannons are brought to bear, the other ship has already gotten close enough to score some nasty hits and board you. So very much true. Especially if you're against the wind, which has happened so much to me.
Funny enough. I was reading a book on pirate history and they did use small boats without cannons. If they noticed that a boat was sailing near their location, they would board a boat and attack. A lot of training ships didn't have any guns & crews were exhausted or sick. I guess this is one of the reasons for heaving the canoe in the game at all.
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 sword techniques once, but I fear the man who has practiced one sword technique 10,000 times." - Captain Bruce Lee
I am sorry to tell you but this is accurate up to 4th difficulty, on 5th you'll be experiencing defeat ever so often, enemy's "special move" matters and regular captains can yeet you off the ship with same ease as you had on low diff.
“This game came out in 2004.” Huh. I remember primarily playing Pirates! Gold in 1993, and remember my dad playing the original Sid Meier’s Pirates! even earlier. I didn’t realize they remade it again.
I played huge hours of the original back in 1989 or so, great memories. To highlight, no in game map, so the Caribbean had to be printed out on paper if you wanted to do any sort of effective navigating. I did really enjoy this remake too, might have to reinstall and give it a go again.
I still have the original 3.5 disc version, it was a boot disc you could use to ignore passwords on the school pc's and jump straight into the game, many hours of fun! This version is a vast improvement the other releases.
@Christa Simon Oh! A real life treasure hunter. Maps reveal all, right? I wouldn't mind bathing in sunlight searching for that X marks the spot myself.
@@ilet3049 I remember playing the original on my Amiga with an Atlas next to me to navigate! Bought the new one a few weeks ago after watching this video and am loving the new one (new to me, 16 years old to everyone else!).
I remember playing this. I was engaged to a French governors daughter. I went on a few missions. When I got back the Spanish had taken the island and my French fiancé was now Spanish. I loved it. Would love to see this game remade.
@@jamiegladwin Yeah. I played the original on my Commodore 64 back in the 80's. The graphics were... about what you would expect from a 1980's computer.
they should really think about making a sid meier's pirates 2, i'd love to see it with civilization 6 graphics and much more updated technology, it really was such a great game, hell even the much more watered down ps vita version that i 1st played was great
Uhhh... I can agree with new graphics, but out of any game you could choose, Civ VI? I appreciate the depth of gameplay, but the game makes me want to vomit and subsequently kill myself, I couldn't play it for more than an hour without refunding it. I'll stick with Civ V.
@@HashtagTSwagg how is Civ 6 any different from Civ 5? i've played both and they both felt pre much exactly the same, how does 6 make u want to vomit and want to kill yourself and not 5? also i said 6 because it's the latest in the series
@@FuryousD First off, the graphics with the map and peeling back of the FOW are the absolute worst, making builders temporary may or may not make more sense but was still a bit of an obnoxious mechanic, districts were something I had dreamed about ever since I played Civ V but I felt the execution of them was horrible, I tried working with social policies and whatnot or whatever you want to call them and was infinitely confused by them, whereas in Civ V it was pretty simple, if not maybe too simple and conflicting but whatever, I'm not sure how I feel about what I've seen and know about the great person system, and to finish it off, as I said I just kind of abhor the art style, Civ V still looks beautiful to me after all these years but yet I just cannot stand looking at Civ VI. I think they also made leaders a bit more complicated and took it back to a more Civ IV type of feel, which I'm divided on as well, but as someone with minimal playtime in the game around when it came out, maybe I remember incorrectly.
@@HashtagTSwagg honestly i've had minimal play time aswell, although with me it's because my computer is over 10 years old and half the time the game lagged very bad so i stopped playing and never really got much of a feel for it, imo it didn't feel that different to 5 at all though. the only thing i really care about is that they finally added Australia as a playable country (and it was op).
Late to the party, but Sid Meier's Pirates! has been a favorite game going back ~30 years, back when you needed the manual to answer questions as copy-protection. Only fault is it gets really, really repetitive after a while.
btw I still have the manual for Fugger II without that, you dont know how many people should produce on how many ovens/sheep/cows/etc whatever you wanted to produce^^ without that you are lost
I remember accidentally sailing into an enemy port when I was a kid and just being flabbergasted that you could ATTACK THE PORT. There were land combat mechanics and everything that I had no idea existed, despite playing for dozens of hours. 10/10 masterpiece
So I too discovered that mechanic and may have over done it a bit. I completely removed one of the factions from the carribean. They still had ships sailing around weirdly just no cities
I was always wondering about it because in the top 10 pirates screen you see that henry morgan plundered 3 and black beard 2 and so on and i always wondered how i could do that. Than I got to the marquis hideout for the first time, where you need to do it and was really amazed. It was only later that I realized you could do it to any city
@@patrickbohn5235 There are still settlements, can't attack those so you can never remove a faction. Plus I bet you didn't remove the spanish. So many spanish cities... Claiming it all for the Dutch was borderline impossible.
When I played this game my computer was a clunker and could barely run it at minimum settings. The game ran at something like 10 FPS so I did almost the exact same strategy. While I didn't spam thrust the sword combat ran at such a slow speed I had absolute ages to see what the opponent was doing and select the correct counter. While the ship to ship combat ran at an actual reasonable speed. So I just ran around in a big ship doing enough damage to the sails for me to catch up and board and just used my massive crew and matrix reflexes to win by boarding every fight.
Yoooo I get it. Had windows xp loaded on '95 hardware and a 10 gb hard drive, when I got the game again a few years back I had no idea it was supposed to run that fast
When I was young I didn't figure out the war canon trick. However, despite that, I managed to go on a campaign of taking out famous pirates, sacking cities and finding treasure to gather such an insane amount of money that I was able to keep the crew together for over two years. That being said, I somehow doubt that any of the crew that was with me at the start of that journey was with me at the end of it. The replacement rate was fairly high.
@@juliane.mfarias9285 In fairness I had all the upgrades for helping keep the Crew happy... also that 'Crew of Thesus' comment above isn't that far off.
actually, the wind rotates and changes speed, game adjusts to the player and the direction you're going and time you're meant to spend on your journey sea battle wind also rotates
Baron Raymondo: “You are a master Swordsman, I will tell you everything” *Gives player 1/4 of a map* Player: “Where is the rest of the map?” Baron Raymondo: “If you want the other 3/4 of the map you’ll have to let me go and duel me again another 3 times.”
Best exploit for this is to quick save your game before you go into combat with the Baron. Defeat the Baron, and then when the map fragment is displayed, do a screen cap (the Windows 10 Game Bar is good for this.) Reload your save game, fight and beat the Baron again, and screen cap the map fragment. If you are lucky you'll be able to do it in four goes. If you know the world well enough, you should be able to figure out where the relative/treasure is.
I still install this game once every few years and always end up playing it for 60+ hours each time. I really dont understand why it's not all that complicated but it just has a charm that most other games dont have
"And we are going to lose most of our crew here, but, you know, these things happen." LOL "Some of you may die, but that's a risk I'm willing to take." (Lord Farquaad)
On the C64, back in the 80s, I usually tried to make the whole map English (or sometimes, Dutch). That was the real task, and almost impossible, because your enemies always captured towns back. But I think I got to over 80%... And: Pirates was, hands down, the most sophisticated game of that era. If you will: the very first open world game. :)
Yeah, the C-64 was the by far best version. Combat was slightly different from the PC remake Spiff played but the effect was the same, I basically could cheese a war galleon with a tiny pinnacle when it came to boarding every time. The Amiga version was odd though, I remember that it was actually pretty hard to board there. And yeah, I don't think you could get 100% of all colonies but you could get rather close.
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 „Open world“ as in „you choose what to do and where to go next“. Not many games in the 80s offered that feeling, except RPGs like Ultima. But I was to eager to call it the first one, I admit. :)
I bought this game on steam for two dollars. I wasn’t expecting much from it. *Now I have 300 hours in game* This game is the definition of a Hidden gem.
It's the definition of a Classic game. Not a hidden gem, it was very popular when it came out (just look at this video's comments). By the way, this is the 2004 remake of the 1987 version, also widely popular.
@@tarekmoneimsaid Actually it's a remake of the 1993 remake of the 1987 version... Pirates! Gold from 1993 is the best version of the game on PC, but I actually think the PSP version of the game is the best (it was a port of this version but they improved a lot).
@@IPromiseTomorrow GOG has the original game (both the true original from the 80s and Gold from the 90s as a bundle) as well if you want to look for that.
@@a-blivvy-yus hm. I'll see eventually after I play the one I've played before. Though I doubt it since I'm going to play the one I've played since I was a kid lol
I spent countless hours playing this game (or the game that this game is a remake of to be accurate) on the Commodore 64. I did not have acces to a map at first, but eventually I just learned to navigate the Caribbean by heart. Some of the long crossings against the wind did kind of require a comic book to read while sailing though.
Ditto to both. The first games were especially tense since my friend and I didn't realize it was based on history. All we did was to pop the C64 floppy in and get to the game. So the decision to sail south from Haiti felt like being Christopher Columbus, with no idea if we'd find land on the other side or starve first. :)
I put my skill in medicine. You can be active longer. And I STILL win every duel. I always went hunting for Henry Morgan. The Queen Anne's Revenge is hands down the best ship in the game.
@@juliane.mfarias9285 Im talking about advancing in difficulty. The AI gets faster, changes moves more often and the Penalty on getting countered increases, it gets really intense. Sure it's not impossible but you surely ain't winning with just spamming thrust at that point of the game. Try swashbuckler and you'll understand what I'm talking about ;)
@@kontrolleti7189 I completely agree, on swashbuckler even with a fencing skill, silk fencing shirt, steel cuirass and perfectly balanced swords, duels are very difficult, if the opponent has a rapier, I usually just give up.
not dancing with the plain daughter was a mistake. If you do well at dancing with them you actually get cool gifts like balanced swords, pistols, and other cool stuff that make you undefeatable
As someone born in the Caribbean I can say, the wind is actually accurate XD As kids we used to make kites and have competitions. Easy to plan, even for kids, because tthe wind is always blowing and always from the same direction. The only real question is how hard is the wind blowing today.
That's good to know! As a kid playing this game I was always mad that there were not seasonal shifts in the wind patterns - heading west was always terrible and I wished there was a time of year that would be good to head that way!
The one thing you gotta look out for when spamming thrusts is being outnumbered by the enemy crew. If the disparity is too severe the bigger side's captain gets a speed boost, and in extreme circumstances the enemy's thrust will land while yours is still winding back (source: Henry Morgan dumped me on a deserted island for like 2 sodding years).
That means the devs did take in account the possibility of someone cheesing the combat system. And they were apparently fine with it as long as you weren't too absurd.
I feel proud that I discovered the war-canoe + all board all duel thing on my own when I played this as a kid. I didn't really look up game stuff on the internet back then, it was an independant discovery for me.
I personally used Brigs of war until I needed to kill the marquis or take a city for the English. Then I grabbed a frigate or galleon or whatever was around and picked up a bunch of dudes But still having figured it out a long time ago back when I was a kid, was amazing and I felt so smart and proud of myself
Same, i learned the spam thrust by raging. And I always had war canoe, with a flag galleon, and at least a large cargo ship so i can reach millions of gold by buying sugar and spice from the indians and sell it to rich spanish ports. Or luxuries/goods to the english and french
Arrrrr, matey! I played the CGA version on a 8086 and two 5,25" disks. Together with Civilization #1, this is the game I played the most. So no, I do not think this version needs any update.
I played the original on a Commodore 64! It was hands down my favorite game and to this day, I'm convinced that Sid Meier is probably the best game designer who ever lived.
Yeah. Its mind boggling that games such as pirates or elite were made for 8 bit computers in the 80s while most of the others were something like donkey kong.
It seems all his games have endless replayability.. Easy to learn & hard to master.. I always had rated Civ as the best game ever made since playing the second installment in '96.. But Pirates is right behind perhaps in my top 5.. Maybe even top 3.. I'm just coming off a session of it now on PSP.. I can't believe I've been a fan of it for almost 33 years..
"We are not a master swordsman, we only know one move!" "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." Bruce Lee.
I first played this game on XBOX when i rented it from Blockbuster in 2008 i think... since then i have gotten for PC as well. This has been one of my favorite games ever played by far, and few people even know about it. You play this the same way i do. LOL
This game brings back so many awesome memories. I played the heck out of this when I was a kid. It's definitely a little busted- even the 10 year old me could handle the higher difficulties with ease- but it's so much fun no matter how you play it.
If I remember well, having any ship slower than you in your fleet actively slows you down. So you're better off with just the indian canoe, capturing ships and selling them directly with their loot.
Easily one of my favourite of all time. I used to play this and "Tortuga, Pirates of the new world." love em, recently bought Sid meier's pirates again in steam and started playing again. Gold.
One concept you are missing though is that a fleet moves at the speed of its slowest ship. So keeping a slow galleon in the fleet slows down your speedy war canoe on the main map (not in battle). So the best route is 2 war canoes with upgraded sails and hammocks. Sell off all other captured ships quickly. Also, dance with all the girls for the first dance. They give you stuff. Only marry a beauty though.
Andrew Latamore I found that as long as all your ships have cotton sails, you can run your fleet at the speed of a mail canoe. Ships without cotton sails will drag you back.
The one true Sid Meyer's Pirates! is exclusively available in majestic 200p. With your choice of CGA, Tandy or even EGA graphics if your PC is up to it!
@Dalle Smalhals Yeah... by only one I meant all the ports of the original, not specifically the DOS version but it's the one I fell in love with. No doubt the C64 version is even better where they differ but, at their core I bet they're pretty much the same.
The only exception i'd say are the "Marquis Martolbon fights" where you need to "Battle of Attrition" him down and that's the one situation where i'd say Cutlass is good.
@@keith3278 I actually learned that the hard way. I played the game as a kid and, because I was stupid and bad at games, I played usually on the easier difficulties. I did very quickly start using the rapier once I learned I could and never touched a different weapon, so I didn't know that the speed I could dodge attacks at would be different. Nowadays though I play on the hardest difficulty with only moderate difficulty. Hardest thing is fecking dancing. If I could use the DAMNED WSAD keys it would be a Godsend, but *no*, arrow keys and mouse, because I can't numpad for the life of me.
@@HashtagTSwagg All the dances do have a preset pattern, but i agree fully, good god those dance patterns are nightmarish to memorize. [I'm dead certain Spanish dances have the fastest tempo. Convince me otherwise.]
@@keith3278 Well, at the absolute least I've memorized the different patterns you might see - if you move forward you'll always turn one way, backwards the opposite way, so on and so forth. On Swashbuckler, yeah, holy feck it's difficult and usually I mash whatever button I just pressed until I get the move perfectly. The only thing that ever gets me is turns - left, right, I gotta move my mouse for those and I have almost no time for it. Gah!
I used to play this game on the Amiga. The atmosphere was incredible, I fully felt to be in the Caribbean. Little dumb me didn't really know what was going on, I would just go around and plunder everything without really paying attention to the main story, but when I started realizing what was going on the game became even more fun. When I first put my hand on the remade version I was blown out of the water. This is one of the best games I have ever played. I spent HOURS AND HOURS saliing the Caribbean for the four nations: I still think that the atmosphere of the Amiga version was somewhat superior, the world in this remake seems a little bit smaller, what with the actual world map, the ability to zoom in and out, and the possibility of seeing the ships on the map (whereas on the Amiga the sea was IMMENSE, one had to use the sextant or whatever that tool was called to calculate their position, and match that to an actual map, and the ships were way more elusive), but this is truly a gem, way more colorful and "fun pirate life" than the first version.
My dad actually introduced me to Sid Meier's Pirates, and it was one of the first games I ever played. He, too, had discovered the small, fast ship to board + rapier thrust meta, and I used it pretty often, too. I preferred to have a bit more fun with the ship-to-ship combat, so I'd often use Brigs or the Queen Anne's Revenge, but I'd always keep a Royal Sloop in reserve if I ever needed to zoom. Other than that, it was just a massive flotilla of Treasure Galleons trailing after me, since they had the most cargo capacity.
I used to sit on my Father's lap as a kid and watch him play Sid Meier's Pirates! The nostalgia that is hitting me right now is immeasurable. What an amazing game. I still have the original CD of this game and will never get rid of it. This video is also like maybe 10% of all that this wonderful game has to offer. Thank you for making this.
This isn't even a joke. "Boarding only" really is the optimal way to play the game. No damage to your prizes and there is no danger of losing a sword fight as long as you keep upgrading your equipment.
@@rustyshackle8000 There's a special fun in crippling a ship before boarding though. Once you become a captain(?) repairs become free so you might as well just cripple it first so it can't run away
This is basically how I've long played the game with just one exception...I use a broadside or two of grapeshot as I'm closing in to lower enemy crews.
So glad you gave this game some love, it's my all time favorite! Beat it with 126 fame more than I can count. The board only war canoe/mail runner strat is definitely the way to go.
This strategy is flawed especially with the "massive war ships." If for some reason you end up parrying more times than usual and do not win the duel prior to your rapidly shrinking crew dying out, you are instead thrown in a prison.
True, but the rapier is still the best sword because of how much better the timing because. The dueling minigame is amazingly easy even when played correctly.
The infinite thrust-straregy isn't gonna cut it on the higher dificulty levels against Marquis de la Montalban. Baron Raymondo is not that bad, but the Marquis is faster than you. You might as well pick up on all the fencing moves throughout the game, because you're gonna need them in the boss fight.
I remember my opponent accumulating wounds (in the DOS version) culminating in my losing a frantic "co-op"-like hot-seat battle where the enemy captain was a bloody stumbling mess. Don't know if the game kept track of that afterwards as the "adult" watching us escalated the fight IRL; but it was an interesting result.
I've got an actual exploit for you: If, during a duel, you turn on caps lock and press the p key (or press Shift+P but why would you), you can freeze time and see what your opponent is about to do. You essentially get ultra instinct in all of your battles and can parry or dodge all attacks. I was able to beat the hardest duel in this game as a 40 something year old in poor health. Nothing can beat ultra instinct!
Lots of memories. Freshman year of college in the dorms. One of the guys brought in his C-128 and we played this quite a lot. Didn't have the map but I had the atlas from my geography class so we used its map of the Caribbean to navigate. Good times. : )
Though the War Canoe is certainly overpowered, nothing beats the excitement of catching a Ship of the Line and learning to blast enemies to pieces with it. I did several Lets Plays back in 2004 describing my endeavours to get a whole fleet of 8. Damn, those were good times.
Actually one of my first games on the Amiga 500 back then - still love it! A great game to sink some hours into it on an afternoon and then let it rot for another 2 years to come back. Classic! Legacy already passed on to my 8 years old kids.
Also: Rhythm dancing, turn-based strategy city attacks, treasure hunting with an eyeglass, and stealth escapes from constables. The worst game I spent tons of hours playing.
@@ILubBLOfficial I think he means worst as in the game is a trap as any other Sid Meier game. Much like with Civilization, if your time played isn’t in the triple digits, then you haven’t really played the game.
I loved this game as a kid!!! I'm so glad that other people know about it, because it felt like it was just me and my brother years ago. Even though most people had at least heard of Sid Meier's games, it felt like nobody seemed to know this one.
I played this game several times since I was a teenager and seeing you play it really makes me want to play it again. It really is one of the best pirate games ever made!
I remember when I discovered this game at my friend's house. Him, his brother and I spent days comparing body counts of Dutch merchantmen and Spanish treasure ships. Ahh, them memories.
it's a hidden gem. and honestly? I'm kinda glad. Yeah it's sad we won't really get anything more from it, but we also won't get some cash grab preachy thing that absolutely mangles these precious memories.
I love it. As soon as I saw The Spiffing Brit had a video on Sid Meiers Pirates I said to my self "He's going to do the Fencing thing isn't he?" ... "Yep." Good show, sir, good show.
My 21 year old brother has 38 hours on this, my dad played this all the time, he had it on CD when it came out, just bought it on steam and it’s as amazing as I remember
When I was young and went to my Grandparent's house they had this game on the Wii and I used to always abuse thrusting, but I never knew that the Canoe could be so powerful.
The feeling when Spiff DOESN'T get a Mail Carrier (which is a Canoe but with bigger crew numbers base)...or hunt down the MOST notorious Pirate to get a Large Frigate...which is FASTER than the War Galleon, but has equal cannons and crew. Perfectly balanced.
@@kilppaTrue, but I doubt Spiff would attack a British Warship...Nor spend the time to get France or the Dutch strong enough to steal one from them. Also, the feeling when Spiff doesn't even attack a town for super easy money...And colonialism.
I love Sid Meier's Pirates and loved seeing your gameplay, but I don't think you can call thrust spamming an exploit, especially since it doesn't work on the highest difficulty when they thrust faster than you.
And it's not really necessary. Each attack leaves you open to a counter-attack, no defensive moves necessary. If they wind up for a slash, poke them with a thrust, etc.
19:58 "I think it's safe to say: we basically won the game at this point" Oh now ... no no no spiff how could you say this ... nobody simply wins Sid Meier's Pirates ... it's a grind ... a long and tedious grind 4x4 and sometimes even 4 times more. And all this while growing older and slower having to split up the treasury and fleet from time to time ... having to rebuild it again, before splitting up again. Also a few points ... *nerdy piratepedia reader incoming* - technically the strongest ship is the Ship of the Line: few more guns, more men, and faster too - in the same spot ... Mail runner ... it's the most gunned up version of the war canoe, which doesn't really matter if you have no aim xD but yeah (also I saw in the wiki that you get a mail runner for free if you start at 1640 with Spain ... too bad they don't have tee). - why do you not dance? Who cares how a woman looks if they have the goodies? You get free items if done right! You could get better swords and gear to fight even faster! There should be two items per lady without any marriage. And if anybody tells me dancing is dumb ... aging on sea while having no music instruments is dumb, so get your boots polished and rock!
"And all this while growing older and slower having to split up the treasury and fleet from time to time ... having to rebuild it again, before splitting up again." I've found that raiding lots of ships and having a neverending supply of food is a pretty good way to keep mutineers at bay, so you can keep on pirating. Splitting up the loot is the worst thing you can do for your longevity, as you lose, what, 6 months each time you do so? So the way I play, is I get, IIRC, Blackbeard's ship ASAP and add a single treasure galleon to my fleet to be able to move any spoils to the nearest dock after I plundered a ship (or I'll keep the ship and sell it at the dock. Keeping only these two ships (but fully decked out) I can cover at least half the story before I run into the first mutiny. Rinse and repeat. Oh, and of course marry the prettiest woman out there. There's that as well. For all others, just make sure you don't dance with them to the point where they'll want to marry you, and you're good (unless you want them all, of course, in which case, have fun)
Ive always thought as a kid it was nearly impossible to actually beat at all, find all the treasure, family aztecs/mayas, killing the top10 pirates and 100 other things. Meanwhile your character gets slower and slower as he ages. I got to the point where i just simply couldnt win a sword fight and because of that i couldnt beat the guard captains to take towns or do ANYTHING
I remember getting this game on my C64. When I was about 20 years old, I went to a tiny town in the Southern Alps of New Zealand for 8 months, (Autumn thru Spring) and purchased a season ski pass, a caravan rental which back then was NZ$25 per week with free electricity. (That's about US$15/wk). I would ski Monday thru Thursday - avoiding the crowds on weekends and school holidays. Then play Pirates mostly on my days off. Ski, Beer, a few girls in a tourist town now and then and Pirates - yes some other games of course, but Pirates back then was my go to. Also Colonization.
I loved this game! I remember hunting it down when I knew I couldn't get my hands on asscreed black flag (turns out I liked sid meiers pirates more anyway!). Found the small ship/fencing advantage at once, I even tried using galleons later but did SO MUCH WORSE. Could never go bigger than a brig, but sloop of war was my favorite just for the extra crew and storage over canoes. WOW I need to play this game again!
I remember playing this game when I was a kid, amazing experience. Haven’t thought about this game in years and it randomly occurred to me so I watched this video. Great video on it. There’s a lot of game beyond just this as well. I’m getting nostalgic at the thought of it right now
I remember playing the original version before the upgraded one with cutscenes etc. I was hooked then and I'm still hooked now. As you say, one of the best games ever made.
A bit late, but the "spam Thrust" with the Rapier only works in the early game, when your char is young and quick. Once your char starts to get older and slow down, the Cutlass actually becomes a better option, due to the debuff that is inflicted upon an attacker when they've had multiple attacks foiled in a row, which slows down both their attack speed and defense speed. When old, with the Cutlass, you can slow down a much faster opponent enough to land hits on him, but would get destroyed by that same opponent if you tried to out speed him with a Rapier. Your character never dies from age btw, the only thing that can force you into retirement is if you're crew is unhappy and mutinies. So long as you have 2k+ Gold per crew member, you can keep them at max happiness indefinitely, and pirate for as long as you want. I literally had a char that was 130+ years old with a crew of 1,000+ and millions of gold in one of my big playthroughs.
I had the original PC version which came with a wall poster size map and captain's log style instruction booklet. I bought the re release you're playing here and to this day is still one of my favourite games.
Guys I just spent the past month taking half of the carribean under my black flag and gaining a full fleet with maxed stats but one british tea trader on a war canoe just took my capital ship. Is this a glitch?
The orginal was in the 1990's and was amazing Sid Meire is an amazing game maker. Civ 2 i logged to many hours on. I played it for 3 days when my dad died
The original version of this (titled merely "Pirates!") for NES was my favorite game as a kid. I sank thousands of hours into terrorizing the Caribbean in that game.
@@justinvaughn8051 not quite. Pirates gold was a compilation of the best parts of several different releases. So it has the best music, the best graphics, the best gameplay out of the original releases. It also features in town gameplay similar to what would be revisited in the version shown here.
Never tried the indian war canoe. I always thought the Brig of War was the best ship available. Great combination of speed, maneuverability, cannon, crew, and storage capacity. Good flashback Spiff!
Imagine you just got your new ship the size of the Eifel tower and your feeling great but suddenly a small Indian canoe charges straight for you at the speed of sound and some guy gets of and starts thrusting at you
sounds like a porno
"Ship the size of the Eiffel tower"
The biggest ships in the Age of Sail were up to 50 meters long. Only the modern Aircraft Carriers are that big.
Also, I hate to be that guy, but 15 knots = about 28 kmh (or about 17 mph for americans). that war canoe can almost catch my moped.
@@kv-2thekingofderp866 The biggest wooden sailing ships where around 100 meters long and built around 1825. Less than 10 were built as it turned out wood is not strong enough to build that big - and they all disappeared/sunk within a year.
One of the biggest was "Columbus" from 1825 that only managed one trip across the Atlantic, before it disappeared on the way back - it had a sister vessel that didn't even manage to cross once, before it was lost.
@@kv-2thekingofderp866 no, ships were a bit larger than what you say, and modern ships are around 10-15 times their size on average
"I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand thrusts once, but I fear the man who has practiced one thrust ten thousand times." -- Luce Bree
most underrated comment in this entire comment section.
🤣
Oh crap you beat me to it
the best comment ever lol
@@oj3730 no
The crazy thing is this video didn't even go into the dance and romance rhythem game or the turn based strategy land battles, or the stealth city infiltrations. Spiff didnt even split his treasure or retire. So much more to this game than even this great video points out.
don't forget wading inland to find buried treasure! this game was so good
the last time I got really into this game I got the spanish ship of the line and started raiding their towns and cities with it.
Yeah, his crew was super miffed, and ready to mutiny on him. You let your crew morale get too low and you can lose everything.
MasterKestral yes yes yes to all points
@@madladjunoir288 still is
I'll be honest, I visited a library once when I was really young that had this game on a computer. I loved it, but I was never able to return to the library or remember what the game was called. Until now, while browsing your videos Mr. Spiffing Brit, I have been reunited. Thank you.
Love this game and the original on on the old comador 64.
It is on Steam, and it is inexpensive. I still play it occasionally, and it really holds up, even in the graphics department.
@@Arius90 oh wow that takes me back, RS was the first MMO I ever played, and my dad (nearly 90) STILL plays it even today lol!
@@Arius90 right! I think playing like that is why he's still sharp mentally. Plus he has people on there he's interacted with for decades, they started out kids themselves and have kids of their own now lol
@@gusmc2220 Your dad must have the Guinness' World Record as the World's Oldest MMORPG player?!
I'm just picturing 75 guys in a canoe... Going at the speed of sound...
ownerfate
Are you saying they‘re...
Rowing around at the speed of sound?
@@darkshowlp got no place to go, gotta follow the north star
75 guys rowing at the speed of sound da da daaaaaaaaa
These aren't small lake canoes they're built more like the viking ships.
watch Erik the Viking with tim robins.
It's because of this game I know all the towns and cities of the Caribbean. Great for geography.
Same here but to be honest my insterest in history sparked when I first got my hands on Call of Duty Roads of Victory.
@Out Of Context well tbh you could name alot of the tribes/clans and regions of ancient rome.
Medieval history from AoE:2 campaign
I'm trying to remember the game that was civilization where you chose to play as a color (white, yellow, red, &blue) you claim the land that you wish and you build the city up and there are also pirate ships that will accost you if you come near them. This would have been in the late 90s early 2000s and it was a game I played after I already owned Caesar III. Anyone with any information please help
@Matthew it still escapes me. It was some sort of land claming city building game from which you played from four colors (red, white, blue, yellow) the land looked like some of the civilization games but I don't think the map was ever hidden at first but if def had pirate ships that you could battle with. Also the land in some cases would have gold or iron ore above the mountains and in some cases you got both gold & iron. Other than that I don't recall much more. Played a lot of Caesar III but that was another I can't find and don't remember.
"Sid Meier's Pirates is the greatest sea pirate game ever."
I always knew you are a man of culture, Spiff.
sea of thieves has entered the chat
@@blackbird000 and doesn't come close
@@blackbird000 Thanks for the laugh, because Sea of Thieves is a joke.
@@alexubel but... i like the game...
Well... he did play it on one of the easiest difficulty levels. :)
The best part about this strategy is that it has historical precedent: 17th century buccaneers actually did use small, fast canoes to capture ships, and as I recall their skills in boarding and hand-to-hand combat were unmatched at the time
Yes. This game is perfect
Lol Pirates STILL DO use tiny ships to board large ones. XD
So each class of ship (sloop, brig, frigate, etc.) each have 3 size variants: small, medium, and large (e.g. Sloop, War Sloop, Royal Sloop)
The War Canoe is actually the small variant of the pinnace class (pinnace being the default medium), and there exists a large variant: The Mail Runner. The MR is just as fast as the War Canoe but caries more guns, crew, and a bit more cargo. Thing is that they don't spawn randomly: the only way to find MR is to have one of the governors task you with protecting a peace treaty/war ultimatum. This can be done by visiting the governor of a faction that has been at war for some time visa versa regarding peace. However, the easiest way to spawn an MC is to gain a wanted level/bounty, then visit a friendly Mission. The friar will (should) offer to mitigate your bounty if you can bring them to the nearest faction's port. This will spawn a Jesuit MR.
Also, side note, the Flag Galleon (not the War Galleon) isn't tit-for-tat the most powerful ship in game. That goes to the Ship-of-the-Line, the large variant of the frigate class, and which only spawns for a (non-Spanish) faction that has seen a large number of its ships sunk (i.e. farm one faction in one location enough, and a SoL should appear)
*EDIT* For accurate name of ship being Mail Runner not Mail Carrier, as well as holy shit >200 likes, I came only to serve yet you all have showered me with praise thank you.
I did not know about the Mail Carrier.
As a kid, the one time I saw a SoL, I accidentally sunk it. I recently replayed the game and had to farm the French for quite a while before I got a SoL.
Next time, I'll have to try getting a MC. Thanks for the new info!
This game taught me save scumming as a kid
@@LowRise I did that as an easy exploit in many games. Too bad iron Man runs in certain games make that nearly impossible lol
Why didn’t he do the mc then?
@@australiangamer7956 The MC is hard to find, as CG said, and war canoes spawn occasionally along coasts. For the "exploit", the war canoe was perfectly fine to use as the example since crew size and firepower didn't matter. Also, if I remember correctly, the MC hitbox was slightly larger, but I could be wrong.
“And we can just keep thrusting into this dude”
-The Spiffing Brit 2019
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Only one reply?? Hahaha
Indian War Canoe *teleports behind you*
“No hard feelings kid.”
Nothing personel kiddo
"Heh, you made me use 10% of my max speed."
Nothing personnel kid *
The funny thing is, historically, small and easily maneuverable ships were preferred by most pirates for exactly the reasons you're using them in game - they could easily catch the bigger trade galleons and usually easily overwhelm them because the merchants weren't exactly skilled fighters. And at the same time, they easily outran any given bigger war vessels that governments would send after them.
You don't even have to go back to the age of the pirates, you can just look at Somalian pirates using small boats to catch up to giant haulers.
Doesn't matter if they'll kick your ass in a straight fight if they can never actually catch you.
Yes, I never went bigger than a frigate. Galleons and war galleons were just floating tanks that maneuvered like land tanks
Except that isn't realistic at all and the larger ships with more sails were a lot faster.
@@Merknilash Faster in a straight line, sure, but from what I can tell wouldn't the be slower turners?
I'm just amused at the fact that small fast ships overloaded with crew is accurate pirate tactics
The game actually encourages it: some of the best pirate ships are explicitly said to be War Sloops and Brigantines because of their fast speed and large number of cannons and crew for their size.
@@mrfunnyperson100 add that to the fact that the ships with more cannons are bigger, slower targets...
@@shadonaifairn85 SO damned slow! By the time those cannons are brought to bear, the other ship has already gotten close enough to score some nasty hits and board you. So very much true. Especially if you're against the wind, which has happened so much to me.
Basically Sir Francis Drake's MO. He overtook many larger ships slipping in at night. Terrorized the spanish with a sloopl
Funny enough. I was reading a book on pirate history and they did use small boats without cannons.
If they noticed that a boat was sailing near their location, they would board a boat and attack. A lot of training ships didn't have any guns & crews were exhausted or sick.
I guess this is one of the reasons for heaving the canoe in the game at all.
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 sword techniques once, but I fear the man who has practiced one sword technique 10,000 times."
- Captain Bruce Lee
I am sorry to tell you but this is accurate up to 4th difficulty, on 5th you'll be experiencing defeat ever so often, enemy's "special move" matters and regular captains can yeet you off the ship with same ease as you had on low diff.
Wait people play above basic difficulty?
@@amidamaru4414 If you play on higher difficulty you get a bigger portion when you pay out your crew.
Hugh Mungus yeah but I always made way more then was needed to get the max wealth score
I fear more the crate of Yorkshire Tea, it always wins.
“This game came out in 2004.”
Huh. I remember primarily playing Pirates! Gold in 1993, and remember my dad playing the original Sid Meier’s Pirates! even earlier. I didn’t realize they remade it again.
I played huge hours of the original back in 1989 or so, great memories. To highlight, no in game map, so the Caribbean had to be printed out on paper if you wanted to do any sort of effective navigating. I did really enjoy this remake too, might have to reinstall and give it a go again.
I still have the original 3.5 disc version, it was a boot disc you could use to ignore passwords on the school pc's and jump straight into the game, many hours of fun! This version is a vast improvement the other releases.
@Christa Simon Oh! A real life treasure hunter. Maps reveal all, right? I wouldn't mind bathing in sunlight searching for that X marks the spot myself.
@@ilet3049 I remember playing the original on my Amiga with an Atlas next to me to navigate! Bought the new one a few weeks ago after watching this video and am loving the new one (new to me, 16 years old to everyone else!).
And you could use the strategy in the original, only without the war canoe.
“I’m just going to keep thrusting into this dude”
Y’arrr, tis an accurate assessment of me pirate life.
PFFFFFFTTT-
Ye be plundering booty?
"Just keep thrusting into this dude."
-The Spiffing Brit 2019
UWU
... and then select your Rapier
Or as Spiff is able to only say it "frust". Dude th-front's like a champ.
I remember playing this. I was engaged to a French governors daughter. I went on a few missions. When I got back the Spanish had taken the island and my French fiancé was now Spanish. I loved it. Would love to see this game remade.
Spanish: "you may be french but now you are spanish"
This is a remake
@@jamiegladwin Yeah. I played the original on my Commodore 64 back in the 80's. The graphics were... about what you would expect from a 1980's computer.
@@jamiegladwin Remake of a remake. I spent so much time playing Pirates! GOLD on the Genesis.
@@whoareyou1034 It's almost like I'm married to a completely different person!
they should really think about making a sid meier's pirates 2, i'd love to see it with civilization 6 graphics and much more updated technology, it really was such a great game, hell even the much more watered down ps vita version that i 1st played was great
Uhhh... I can agree with new graphics, but out of any game you could choose, Civ VI? I appreciate the depth of gameplay, but the game makes me want to vomit and subsequently kill myself, I couldn't play it for more than an hour without refunding it. I'll stick with Civ V.
@@HashtagTSwagg how is Civ 6 any different from Civ 5? i've played both and they both felt pre much exactly the same, how does 6 make u want to vomit and want to kill yourself and not 5?
also i said 6 because it's the latest in the series
@@FuryousD First off, the graphics with the map and peeling back of the FOW are the absolute worst, making builders temporary may or may not make more sense but was still a bit of an obnoxious mechanic, districts were something I had dreamed about ever since I played Civ V but I felt the execution of them was horrible, I tried working with social policies and whatnot or whatever you want to call them and was infinitely confused by them, whereas in Civ V it was pretty simple, if not maybe too simple and conflicting but whatever, I'm not sure how I feel about what I've seen and know about the great person system, and to finish it off, as I said I just kind of abhor the art style, Civ V still looks beautiful to me after all these years but yet I just cannot stand looking at Civ VI. I think they also made leaders a bit more complicated and took it back to a more Civ IV type of feel, which I'm divided on as well, but as someone with minimal playtime in the game around when it came out, maybe I remember incorrectly.
@@HashtagTSwagg honestly i've had minimal play time aswell, although with me it's because my computer is over 10 years old and half the time the game lagged very bad so i stopped playing and never really got much of a feel for it, imo it didn't feel that different to 5 at all though.
the only thing i really care about is that they finally added Australia as a playable country (and it was op).
@Otto Litmarck no, i didn't even know there was one on the original xbox
Late to the party, but Sid Meier's Pirates! has been a favorite game going back ~30 years, back when you needed the manual to answer questions as copy-protection. Only fault is it gets really, really repetitive after a while.
Yep. Spent hours on the Commodore 64 plundering The Spanish Main.
I loved this game on my Apple IIe. Played it everyday. Pirates is the reason I am a gamer
I just remember my 11 year old ass jacking it to the beautiful Dutch broad on the gold! version for the genesis.
This is a timeless classic, and simply a damn great game.
btw I still have the manual for Fugger II
without that, you dont know how many people should produce on how many ovens/sheep/cows/etc whatever you wanted to produce^^
without that you are lost
I remember accidentally sailing into an enemy port when I was a kid and just being flabbergasted that you could ATTACK THE PORT. There were land combat mechanics and everything that I had no idea existed, despite playing for dozens of hours. 10/10 masterpiece
So I too discovered that mechanic and may have over done it a bit. I completely removed one of the factions from the carribean. They still had ships sailing around weirdly just no cities
I was always wondering about it because in the top 10 pirates screen you see that henry morgan plundered 3 and black beard 2 and so on and i always wondered how i could do that. Than I got to the marquis hideout for the first time, where you need to do it and was really amazed. It was only later that I realized you could do it to any city
@@patrickbohn5235 There are still settlements, can't attack those so you can never remove a faction. Plus I bet you didn't remove the spanish. So many spanish cities... Claiming it all for the Dutch was borderline impossible.
When I played this game my computer was a clunker and could barely run it at minimum settings. The game ran at something like 10 FPS so I did almost the exact same strategy. While I didn't spam thrust the sword combat ran at such a slow speed I had absolute ages to see what the opponent was doing and select the correct counter. While the ship to ship combat ran at an actual reasonable speed.
So I just ran around in a big ship doing enough damage to the sails for me to catch up and board and just used my massive crew and matrix reflexes to win by boarding every fight.
This ^
@Kanye 2024 a real toaster, that's for sure.
Yoooo I get it. Had windows xp loaded on '95 hardware and a 10 gb hard drive, when I got the game again a few years back I had no idea it was supposed to run that fast
"See this is why I hate video games, it just appeals to the male fantasy"
*T H R U S T T O W I N*
I spat my drink reading that
Fantasy? I won IRL using that tactic several times 🧐
just keep thrusting into the dude to win...
@@murphy7801 pause
Back innthe dayMy high school gf throughly enjoyed the male fantasy that is lego star wars. And the thrusting as well. Nyah!!
When I was young I didn't figure out the war canon trick. However, despite that, I managed to go on a campaign of taking out famous pirates, sacking cities and finding treasure to gather such an insane amount of money that I was able to keep the crew together for over two years. That being said, I somehow doubt that any of the crew that was with me at the start of that journey was with me at the end of it. The replacement rate was fairly high.
Crew of Theseus
69 👍
How do you keep your crew happy? I have more than 50K on gold a crew of less than 150 and they are silling whining!!
@@juliane.mfarias9285 In fairness I had all the upgrades for helping keep the Crew happy... also that 'Crew of Thesus' comment above isn't that far off.
@@MrTroves I have that but keeping them happy for 2 years? Nah, they are angry after the first year
"the winds always go east to west" - yeah, they're called trade winds
actually, the wind rotates and changes speed, game adjusts to the player and the direction you're going and time you're meant to spend on your journey
sea battle wind also rotates
@@HarissonLA that's odd, i've never had the winds change direction in any of my pirates play through
@@95keat same that I've noticed
@@HarissonLA The difficulty level affects how predictable the winds are.
on the lower difficulties it's always straight east to west, but on higher ones it can change in an instant.
Baron Raymondo: “You are a master Swordsman, I will tell you everything”
*Gives player 1/4 of a map*
Player: “Where is the rest of the map?”
Baron Raymondo: “If you want the other 3/4 of the map you’ll have to let me go and duel me again another 3 times.”
It is the pirate way.
Best exploit for this is to quick save your game before you go into combat with the Baron. Defeat the Baron, and then when the map fragment is displayed, do a screen cap (the Windows 10 Game Bar is good for this.) Reload your save game, fight and beat the Baron again, and screen cap the map fragment. If you are lucky you'll be able to do it in four goes. If you know the world well enough, you should be able to figure out where the relative/treasure is.
@@widyasantoso4910 Indeed. You only ever need one fragment. There's at most two locations on the map that fit whatever map fragment you get.
He was the ancestor to the Riddler.
I might try this but I don't think that's how it works, I think fragment you get is pre-generated when you just discover him in the rumor
Ive spent SOOOOO many glorious hours on this game when i was a wee young 14 year old lad! ;D
Me too
I still install this game once every few years and always end up playing it for 60+ hours each time. I really dont understand why it's not all that complicated but it just has a charm that most other games dont have
Bro, I used to grind this game
Loved the game as a kid
I want this experience back in next gen
"And we are going to lose most of our crew here, but, you know, these things happen."
LOL "Some of you may die, but that's a risk I'm willing to take." (Lord Farquaad)
Basically that, but just said nonchalantly
On the C64, back in the 80s, I usually tried to make the whole map English (or sometimes, Dutch).
That was the real task, and almost impossible, because your enemies always captured towns back. But I think I got to over 80%...
And: Pirates was, hands down, the most sophisticated game of that era. If you will: the very first open world game. :)
Aye, I had quite a few very late nights/early mornings thanks to trying that.
Yeah, the C-64 was the by far best version. Combat was slightly different from the PC remake Spiff played but the effect was the same, I basically could cheese a war galleon with a tiny pinnacle when it came to boarding every time.
The Amiga version was odd though, I remember that it was actually pretty hard to board there.
And yeah, I don't think you could get 100% of all colonies but you could get rather close.
Great game that I played a lot of....but, its not an open world game. Nice try though.
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 „Open world“ as in „you choose what to do and where to go next“. Not many games in the 80s offered that feeling, except RPGs like Ultima.
But I was to eager to call it the first one, I admit. :)
@@sidneyvandykeii3169 how isn't it an open world game?
I bought this game on steam for two dollars. I wasn’t expecting much from it.
*Now I have 300 hours in game*
This game is the definition of a Hidden gem.
It's the definition of a Classic game. Not a hidden gem, it was very popular when it came out (just look at this video's comments). By the way, this is the 2004 remake of the 1987 version, also widely popular.
@@tarekmoneimsaid Actually it's a remake of the 1993 remake of the 1987 version... Pirates! Gold from 1993 is the best version of the game on PC, but I actually think the PSP version of the game is the best (it was a port of this version but they improved a lot).
It's in steam O. O!
I played this when I was seven.
I'll definitely buy it now!
@@IPromiseTomorrow GOG has the original game (both the true original from the 80s and Gold from the 90s as a bundle) as well if you want to look for that.
@@a-blivvy-yus hm. I'll see eventually after I play the one I've played before.
Though I doubt it since I'm going to play the one I've played since I was a kid lol
I spent countless hours playing this game (or the game that this game is a remake of to be accurate) on the Commodore 64. I did not have acces to a map at first, but eventually I just learned to navigate the Caribbean by heart. Some of the long crossings against the wind did kind of require a comic book to read while sailing though.
Yeah, I had copy of a paper map...
Ditto to both. The first games were especially tense since my friend and I didn't realize it was based on history. All we did was to pop the C64 floppy in and get to the game. So the decision to sail south from Haiti felt like being Christopher Columbus, with no idea if we'd find land on the other side or starve first. :)
Amiga 500 for me. Good times!
dude i know, they should have added a fast time button like in Mount and Blade
I put literally hundreds of hours into the NES version in the late 80s. Was so happy to see the PC re release in the 2000s
Same here. I just watched this thinking that this is basically an exact copy of that game, just updated a bit.
@@leemorganio8156 even so still fun
It was out on pc in 1993 on DOS, called Pirates! Gold
@@stephenwalker700 1987 c64 micropros
That’s got to be the best pirate I’ve ever seen.
So it would seem....
so it would seem
I put my skill in medicine. You can be active longer. And I STILL win every duel. I always went hunting for Henry Morgan. The Queen Anne's Revenge is hands down the best ship in the game.
How do you win Duells? Spamming thrust doesnt work after early game stages :/
@@kontrolleti7189 Practice my friend, practice
@@juliane.mfarias9285 Im talking about advancing in difficulty. The AI gets faster, changes moves more often and the Penalty on getting countered increases, it gets really intense. Sure it's not impossible but you surely ain't winning with just spamming thrust at that point of the game. Try swashbuckler and you'll understand what I'm talking about ;)
@@kontrolleti7189 I completely agree, on swashbuckler even with a fencing skill, silk fencing shirt, steel cuirass and perfectly balanced swords, duels are very difficult, if the opponent has a rapier, I usually just give up.
"The governors rather plain-looking daughter." eh, don't you mean "this perfect specimen of British female good looks"?
What do you call a beautiful woman in Britain? A tourist!
"In Britain, nothing is made for the women, not even the men..."
Y I like that 😂😂😂😂
Check out that beak! 🐔
not dancing with the plain daughter was a mistake. If you do well at dancing with them you actually get cool gifts like balanced swords, pistols, and other cool stuff that make you undefeatable
As someone born in the Caribbean I can say, the wind is actually accurate XD
As kids we used to make kites and have competitions. Easy to plan, even for kids, because tthe wind is always blowing and always from the same direction. The only real question is how hard is the wind blowing today.
That's good to know! As a kid playing this game I was always mad that there were not seasonal shifts in the wind patterns - heading west was always terrible and I wished there was a time of year that would be good to head that way!
@@garretteverett2613West is left east is right
@@bluecatdk You're not wrong. I must have mixed up my memory of which way was the slowest sailing.
The one thing you gotta look out for when spamming thrusts is being outnumbered by the enemy crew. If the disparity is too severe the bigger side's captain gets a speed boost, and in extreme circumstances the enemy's thrust will land while yours is still winding back (source: Henry Morgan dumped me on a deserted island for like 2 sodding years).
I had double the crew vs Capt Kidd and still lost
That means the devs did take in account the possibility of someone cheesing the combat system. And they were apparently fine with it as long as you weren't too absurd.
I feel proud that I discovered the war-canoe + all board all duel thing on my own when I played this as a kid. I didn't really look up game stuff on the internet back then, it was an independant discovery for me.
I knew they were fast, but I still went for the Frigate class ships ASAP. I prefer overwhelming firepower.
I personally used Brigs of war until I needed to kill the marquis or take a city for the English. Then I grabbed a frigate or galleon or whatever was around and picked up a bunch of dudes
But still having figured it out a long time ago back when I was a kid, was amazing and I felt so smart and proud of myself
Same, i learned the spam thrust by raging. And I always had war canoe, with a flag galleon, and at least a large cargo ship so i can reach millions of gold by buying sugar and spice from the indians and sell it to rich spanish ports. Or luxuries/goods to the english and french
This was a great game back in the day.. it needs a 2019 update..
Arrrrr, matey! I played the CGA version on a 8086 and two 5,25" disks. Together with Civilization #1, this is the game I played the most. So no, I do not think this version needs any update.
My favourite game on Commodore 64. Unfortunately I don't have the Commodore anymore, so...
@@frigginsepone446 Available for PC at GOG.
It was on steam for like $2.50 over the winter sale
And bring back the silver train and the real treasure fleet.
I played the original on a Commodore 64! It was hands down my favorite game and to this day, I'm convinced that Sid Meier is probably the best game designer who ever lived.
Yeah. Its mind boggling that games such as pirates or elite were made for 8 bit computers in the 80s while most of the others were something like donkey kong.
It seems all his games have endless replayability.. Easy to learn & hard to master.. I always had rated Civ as the best game ever made since playing the second installment in '96.. But Pirates is right behind perhaps in my top 5.. Maybe even top 3.. I'm just coming off a session of it now on PSP.. I can't believe I've been a fan of it for almost 33 years..
Tea is now in Stardew Valley - and not as a glitch item.
They finally had the good sense to allow me to drink my Yorkshire tea
Not doing a thrust attack - Its a trap! an attack of yorkse tea!
@@safermonk It's*
@@JorgetePanete you just couldn't resist...
Did they add the Dino Mayonnaise?
"We are not a master swordsman, we only know one move!"
"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times." Bruce Lee.
I first played this game on XBOX when i rented it from Blockbuster in 2008 i think... since then i have gotten for PC as well. This has been one of my favorite games ever played by far, and few people even know about it. You play this the same way i do. LOL
Is it backwards compatible on XBOX?
I had the wii version. Yes, there was a wii version.
@@makodolphus7810 now that I have to try. Yes I love inflicting self punishment.
This game brings back so many awesome memories. I played the heck out of this when I was a kid. It's definitely a little busted- even the 10 year old me could handle the higher difficulties with ease- but it's so much fun no matter how you play it.
If I remember well, having any ship slower than you in your fleet actively slows you down.
So you're better off with just the indian canoe, capturing ships and selling them directly with their loot.
You're best off with the Brig, as it has special modifiers attacking from windward, and can actually carry crew and plunder.
Easily one of my favourite of all time. I used to play this and "Tortuga, Pirates of the new world." love em, recently bought Sid meier's pirates again in steam and started playing again. Gold.
One concept you are missing though is that a fleet moves at the speed of its slowest ship. So keeping a slow galleon in the fleet slows down your speedy war canoe on the main map (not in battle). So the best route is 2 war canoes with upgraded sails and hammocks. Sell off all other captured ships quickly. Also, dance with all the girls for the first dance. They give you stuff. Only marry a beauty though.
Andrew Latamore I found that as long as all your ships have cotton sails, you can run your fleet at the speed of a mail canoe. Ships without cotton sails will drag you back.
Exactly: ALWAYS dance with girls for their stuff. Also NEVER pay for info about your family: jesuit missions give that info for free every time.
I loved this game
Especially fighting all factions simultaneously and cheesing all benefits, getting a major title from all four
Lovely
The graphics are even better when its 240p
@@thespiffingbrit the large pixels makes you think of high quality tea
The one true Sid Meyer's Pirates! is exclusively available in majestic 200p. With your choice of CGA, Tandy or even EGA graphics if your PC is up to it!
@Dalle Smalhals Yeah... by only one I meant all the ports of the original, not specifically the DOS version but it's the one I fell in love with. No doubt the C64 version is even better where they differ but, at their core I bet they're pretty much the same.
I'm *sure* you mean *144p*
anyone who's played this game even for a few hours will figure out that the rapier is the best sword in the game lol
The only exception i'd say are the "Marquis Martolbon fights" where you need to "Battle of Attrition" him down and that's the one situation where i'd say Cutlass is good.
@@keith3278 I actually learned that the hard way. I played the game as a kid and, because I was stupid and bad at games, I played usually on the easier difficulties. I did very quickly start using the rapier once I learned I could and never touched a different weapon, so I didn't know that the speed I could dodge attacks at would be different. Nowadays though I play on the hardest difficulty with only moderate difficulty. Hardest thing is fecking dancing. If I could use the DAMNED WSAD keys it would be a Godsend, but *no*, arrow keys and mouse, because I can't numpad for the life of me.
@@HashtagTSwagg All the dances do have a preset pattern, but i agree fully, good god those dance patterns are nightmarish to memorize.
[I'm dead certain Spanish dances have the fastest tempo. Convince me otherwise.]
@@keith3278 Well, at the absolute least I've memorized the different patterns you might see - if you move forward you'll always turn one way, backwards the opposite way, so on and so forth. On Swashbuckler, yeah, holy feck it's difficult and usually I mash whatever button I just pressed until I get the move perfectly. The only thing that ever gets me is turns - left, right, I gotta move my mouse for those and I have almost no time for it. Gah!
@@HashtagTSwagg you can actually use WASD keys if you edit the KeyMap.ini file located in your Documents folder
I used to play this game on the Amiga. The atmosphere was incredible, I fully felt to be in the Caribbean. Little dumb me didn't really know what was going on, I would just go around and plunder everything without really paying attention to the main story, but when I started realizing what was going on the game became even more fun.
When I first put my hand on the remade version I was blown out of the water. This is one of the best games I have ever played. I spent HOURS AND HOURS saliing the Caribbean for the four nations: I still think that the atmosphere of the Amiga version was somewhat superior, the world in this remake seems a little bit smaller, what with the actual world map, the ability to zoom in and out, and the possibility of seeing the ships on the map (whereas on the Amiga the sea was IMMENSE, one had to use the sextant or whatever that tool was called to calculate their position, and match that to an actual map, and the ships were way more elusive), but this is truly a gem, way more colorful and "fun pirate life" than the first version.
My dad actually introduced me to Sid Meier's Pirates, and it was one of the first games I ever played. He, too, had discovered the small, fast ship to board + rapier thrust meta, and I used it pretty often, too. I preferred to have a bit more fun with the ship-to-ship combat, so I'd often use Brigs or the Queen Anne's Revenge, but I'd always keep a Royal Sloop in reserve if I ever needed to zoom. Other than that, it was just a massive flotilla of Treasure Galleons trailing after me, since they had the most cargo capacity.
Now you have to play The Pirates of the caribbean game from *2003* .
Only for windows 7.
that game is the reason i had to return sids pirates... it just didnt stack up
Best game I ever played
Or a slightly more modern "Sea Dogs: To Each His Own" which was made by same people, just without that much of a clusterfuck during development.
Windows 10 now supports to play some games were not available on it a year ago
Age of Pirates 2 from Akella(same developer as Pirates of the Caribbean) was awesome.
Firing the guns on those ships with 30+ cannons was beautiful.
Drinking game: take a shot for every “indian war canoe” you hear
and "thrust" :3
I would rather keep my liver sir. So no thanks.
I am in, just have to make sure my wife is ready to drive me to the hospital.
and "greatest X ever"
We tried to do so... But... FFS... Too fuckin much
The Spiffing Brit: SID MEIERS PIRATES!
Me: Yes.
I used to sit on my Father's lap as a kid and watch him play Sid Meier's Pirates! The nostalgia that is hitting me right now is immeasurable. What an amazing game. I still have the original CD of this game and will never get rid of it. This video is also like maybe 10% of all that this wonderful game has to offer. Thank you for making this.
This isn't even a joke. "Boarding only" really is the optimal way to play the game. No damage to your prizes and there is no danger of losing a sword fight as long as you keep upgrading your equipment.
I can attest to this. I've played this game for years, and I've always played this way ever since.
@@rustyshackle8000 There's a special fun in crippling a ship before boarding though. Once you become a captain(?) repairs become free so you might as well just cripple it first so it can't run away
Once you get older and increase the difficulty, dueling becomes nearly impossible
@@shanewalker3273 But you still gotta drag that broken ship to harbor. Not worth it imo. No need to cripple it as long as you use a fast ship.
This is basically how I've long played the game with just one exception...I use a broadside or two of grapeshot as I'm closing in to lower enemy crews.
So glad you gave this game some love, it's my all time favorite! Beat it with 126 fame more than I can count. The board only war canoe/mail runner strat is definitely the way to go.
While you were busy colonizing, I was studying the *T H R U S T*
is that a [REDACTED] reference?
I was doing both, you can probably guess the order.
Loved the game with the exception of sneaking out of jail and the dancing. I even like the board game-like land battles
This strategy is flawed especially with the "massive war ships." If for some reason you end up parrying more times than usual and do not win the duel prior to your rapidly shrinking crew dying out, you are instead thrown in a prison.
True, but the rapier is still the best sword because of how much better the timing because. The dueling minigame is amazingly easy even when played correctly.
@@lampostsamurai2518 Sure but try playing on the hardest difficulty with a smaller then average crew against a massive crew.
The infinite thrust-straregy isn't gonna cut it on the higher dificulty levels against Marquis de la Montalban.
Baron Raymondo is not that bad, but the Marquis is faster than you. You might as well pick up on all the fencing moves throughout the game, because you're gonna need them in the boss fight.
I remember my opponent accumulating wounds (in the DOS version) culminating in my losing a frantic "co-op"-like hot-seat battle where the enemy captain was a bloody stumbling mess.
Don't know if the game kept track of that afterwards as the "adult" watching us escalated the fight IRL; but it was an interesting result.
I've got an actual exploit for you: If, during a duel, you turn on caps lock and press the p key (or press Shift+P but why would you), you can freeze time and see what your opponent is about to do. You essentially get ultra instinct in all of your battles and can parry or dodge all attacks. I was able to beat the hardest duel in this game as a 40 something year old in poor health. Nothing can beat ultra instinct!
"we can just keep thrusting into this dude"
context...
It's funnier without context.
Lots of memories. Freshman year of college in the dorms. One of the guys brought in his C-128 and we played this quite a lot. Didn't have the map but I had the atlas from my geography class so we used its map of the Caribbean to navigate. Good times. : )
Though the War Canoe is certainly overpowered, nothing beats the excitement of catching a Ship of the Line and learning to blast enemies to pieces with it. I did several Lets Plays back in 2004 describing my endeavours to get a whole fleet of 8. Damn, those were good times.
I'm off to go check those out after this video
Actually one of my first games on the Amiga 500 back then - still love it! A great game to sink some hours into it on an afternoon and then let it rot for another 2 years to come back. Classic! Legacy already passed on to my 8 years old kids.
Also: Rhythm dancing, turn-based strategy city attacks, treasure hunting with an eyeglass, and stealth escapes from constables.
The worst game I spent tons of hours playing.
@@ILubBLOfficial I think he means worst as in the game is a trap as any other Sid Meier game. Much like with Civilization, if your time played isn’t in the triple digits, then you haven’t really played the game.
@@bronzin1445 don't ever ever play any strategy game during the week or you will go to your work sleep deprived. only play on weekends.
I loved this game as a kid!!! I'm so glad that other people know about it, because it felt like it was just me and my brother years ago. Even though most people had at least heard of Sid Meier's games, it felt like nobody seemed to know this one.
Sid Meyer's first pirates game was released 1987...it was an awesome game then, and this was simply a modern update of that game.
I played this game several times since I was a teenager and seeing you play it really makes me want to play it again. It really is one of the best pirate games ever made!
I am reinstalling Sid Meier's Pirates and will be implementing this strategy. I have already dubbed it "the Spiffing Somali pirate strategy."
Enjoy your victory
I remember when I discovered this game at my friend's house. Him, his brother and I spent days comparing body counts of Dutch merchantmen and Spanish treasure ships. Ahh, them memories.
I will never understand why this game hasn't been remastered or a sequel made. I've been mad about that for years now
it's a hidden gem. and honestly? I'm kinda glad. Yeah it's sad we won't really get anything more from it, but we also won't get some cash grab preachy thing that absolutely mangles these precious memories.
I felt that way about Alpha Centauri and then Beyond Earth happened.
Have you seen his video on Civ VI where they made a Pirates themed expansion? Kind of a spiritual successor
"Pirates!" Back when the highlight was the theme song when you succeed at taking a ship.
A fast galleon at that ;)
I love it. As soon as I saw The Spiffing Brit had a video on Sid Meiers Pirates I said to my self "He's going to do the Fencing thing isn't he?" ... "Yep."
Good show, sir, good show.
My 21 year old brother has 38 hours on this, my dad played this all the time, he had it on CD when it came out, just bought it on steam and it’s as amazing as I remember
When I was young and went to my Grandparent's house they had this game on the Wii and I used to always abuse thrusting, but I never knew that the Canoe could be so powerful.
The feeling when Spiff DOESN'T get a Mail Carrier (which is a Canoe but with bigger crew numbers base)...or hunt down the MOST notorious Pirate to get a Large Frigate...which is FASTER than the War Galleon, but has equal cannons and crew. Perfectly balanced.
Was hoping someone had mentioned this
No, no, no. Ship of the line is where it's at if you want to go the firepower route. It's better than Large frigate in every way.
@@kilppaTrue, but I doubt Spiff would attack a British Warship...Nor spend the time to get France or the Dutch strong enough to steal one from them.
Also, the feeling when Spiff doesn't even attack a town for super easy money...And colonialism.
I love Sid Meier's Pirates and loved seeing your gameplay, but I don't think you can call thrust spamming an exploit, especially since it doesn't work on the highest difficulty when they thrust faster than you.
And your crew is dead in a couple seconds
And it's not really necessary. Each attack leaves you open to a counter-attack, no defensive moves necessary. If they wind up for a slash, poke them with a thrust, etc.
And as you get older you get slower and worse at fighting.
Beating marquis montablan on the highest difficulty for the final time at 40 took many attempts to do. The thrust technique would have been useless.
Or when you get older
19:58 "I think it's safe to say: we basically won the game at this point"
Oh now ... no no no spiff how could you say this ...
nobody simply wins Sid Meier's Pirates ... it's a grind ... a long and tedious grind 4x4 and sometimes even 4 times more.
And all this while growing older and slower
having to split up the treasury and fleet from time to time ... having to rebuild it again, before splitting up again.
Also a few points ... *nerdy piratepedia reader incoming*
- technically the strongest ship is the Ship of the Line: few more guns, more men, and faster too
- in the same spot ... Mail runner ... it's the most gunned up version of the war canoe, which doesn't really matter if you have no aim xD but yeah (also I saw in the wiki that you get a mail runner for free if you start at 1640 with Spain ... too bad they don't have tee).
- why do you not dance? Who cares how a woman looks if they have the goodies? You get free items if done right! You could get better swords and gear to fight even faster! There should be two items per lady without any marriage. And if anybody tells me dancing is dumb ... aging on sea while having no music instruments is dumb, so get your boots polished and rock!
I mean, that build also isn't great for conquering towns either - a lot of fun.
THANK YOU. This is spot on. He is playing a strategy that will burn him out before he has found more than two family members.
"And all this while growing older and slower
having to split up the treasury and fleet from time to time ... having to rebuild it again, before splitting up again."
I've found that raiding lots of ships and having a neverending supply of food is a pretty good way to keep mutineers at bay, so you can keep on pirating. Splitting up the loot is the worst thing you can do for your longevity, as you lose, what, 6 months each time you do so?
So the way I play, is I get, IIRC, Blackbeard's ship ASAP and add a single treasure galleon to my fleet to be able to move any spoils to the nearest dock after I plundered a ship (or I'll keep the ship and sell it at the dock. Keeping only these two ships (but fully decked out) I can cover at least half the story before I run into the first mutiny. Rinse and repeat.
Oh, and of course marry the prettiest woman out there. There's that as well. For all others, just make sure you don't dance with them to the point where they'll want to marry you, and you're good (unless you want them all, of course, in which case, have fun)
Ive always thought as a kid it was nearly impossible to actually beat at all, find all the treasure, family aztecs/mayas, killing the top10 pirates and 100 other things. Meanwhile your character gets slower and slower as he ages. I got to the point where i just simply couldnt win a sword fight and because of that i couldnt beat the guard captains to take towns or do ANYTHING
Can you get a ship of the line when youre english?
I remember getting this game on my C64. When I was about 20 years old, I went to a tiny town in the Southern Alps of New Zealand for 8 months, (Autumn thru Spring) and purchased a season ski pass, a caravan rental which back then was NZ$25 per week with free electricity. (That's about US$15/wk). I would ski Monday thru Thursday - avoiding the crowds on weekends and school holidays.
Then play Pirates mostly on my days off. Ski, Beer, a few girls in a tourist town now and then and Pirates - yes some other games of course, but Pirates back then was my go to.
Also Colonization.
Ah the Spiffing Brit, beating and besting Somalian Pirates to the chase by nearly 300 years in the art of using fast boats to take big ships.
I loved this game! I remember hunting it down when I knew I couldn't get my hands on asscreed black flag (turns out I liked sid meiers pirates more anyway!). Found the small ship/fencing advantage at once, I even tried using galleons later but did SO MUCH WORSE. Could never go bigger than a brig, but sloop of war was my favorite just for the extra crew and storage over canoes. WOW I need to play this game again!
Sid Meiers Pirates is such a great classic. Merry Christmas Spiff, and all.
AARRRRGGHHH and a merry christmas to you too!!
I remember playing this game when I was a kid, amazing experience. Haven’t thought about this game in years and it randomly occurred to me so I watched this video. Great video on it. There’s a lot of game beyond just this as well. I’m getting nostalgic at the thought of it right now
I spent hundreds of hours sailing around the Caribbean in this game! So many great memories!
Yet another plain daughter...
Well yes, you picked the British side... remember ? 😊
Ha! Should have chosen the Spanish.
Most beautiful people in the world. The British and Irish.
HA!!
TheTaterTotP80 I'm of British ethnicity myself, but it was too good of a joke to turn down.
See, finally someone with a sense of humor. 😀
"this games broken so we can just keep thrusting into this dude"
Are we still playing the same game?
Simulating ALL aspects of pirate life
*Sweat intensifies*
I remember playing the original version before the upgraded one with cutscenes etc. I was hooked then and I'm still hooked now. As you say, one of the best games ever made.
"So you need to keep thrusting into this dude"
2min later: *Denys dancing with the daughter because reasons*
A bit late, but the "spam Thrust" with the Rapier only works in the early game, when your char is young and quick. Once your char starts to get older and slow down, the Cutlass actually becomes a better option, due to the debuff that is inflicted upon an attacker when they've had multiple attacks foiled in a row, which slows down both their attack speed and defense speed. When old, with the Cutlass, you can slow down a much faster opponent enough to land hits on him, but would get destroyed by that same opponent if you tried to out speed him with a Rapier.
Your character never dies from age btw, the only thing that can force you into retirement is if you're crew is unhappy and mutinies. So long as you have 2k+ Gold per crew member, you can keep them at max happiness indefinitely, and pirate for as long as you want. I literally had a char that was 130+ years old with a crew of 1,000+ and millions of gold in one of my big playthroughs.
_Little mutiny and..._
*I'm the captain now*
I had the original PC version which came with a wall poster size map and captain's log style instruction booklet. I bought the re release you're playing here and to this day is still one of my favourite games.
Guys I just spent the past month taking half of the carribean under my black flag and gaining a full fleet with maxed stats but one british tea trader on a war canoe just took my capital ship. Is this a glitch?
@@thespiffingbrit As all things should be
What did it cost?
The orginal was in the 1990's and was amazing
Sid Meire is an amazing game maker. Civ 2 i logged to many hours on. I played it for 3 days when my dad died
Original was 1987 on the C64. 1990 was the Amiga port. (which is the one I played as well)
Civ 2 was the best civ game ever made
@@odurden1607 hands down!!!
The original version of this (titled merely "Pirates!") for NES was my favorite game as a kid. I sank thousands of hours into terrorizing the Caribbean in that game.
Called Pirates gold on segs genesis
@@justinvaughn8051 not quite. Pirates gold was a compilation of the best parts of several different releases. So it has the best music, the best graphics, the best gameplay out of the original releases. It also features in town gameplay similar to what would be revisited in the version shown here.
Remembered playing this on C64 back in the days...and the first ship I met was a war gallion, winning over it...was quite fun
My money’s on the Dutch!
Edit: damn I was wrong.
well, what did you expect?
Nokia3310 for him to pick the Dutch. Did you not read my comment?
FaZe_Autism: Darn those tulips!
I always picked Dutch I dunno why
goed gedaan man, trots op je
Never tried the indian war canoe. I always thought the Brig of War was the best ship available. Great combination of speed, maneuverability, cannon, crew, and storage capacity. Good flashback Spiff!
As a kid I actually did notice it is easier to take ships via sword fighting them. But I usually use the sloop of war
I would use either a pinance or a warcanoo