SID MEIERS PIRATES IS A PERFECTLY BALANCED GAME WITH NO EXPLOITS - Boarding only challenge IS BROKEN 

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

"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

I'm just picturing 75 guys in a canoe... Going at the speed of sound...

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.

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.

It's because of this game I know all the towns and cities of the Caribbean. Great for geography.

"Sid Meier's Pirates is the greatest sea pirate game ever." I always knew you are a man of culture, Spiff.

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 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

Indian War Canoe *teleports behind you* “No hard feelings 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.

“And we can just keep thrusting into this dude” -The Spiffing Brit 2019

I'm just amused at the fact that small fast ships overloaded with crew is accurate pirate tactics

"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’m just going to keep thrusting into this dude” Y’arrr, tis an accurate assessment of me pirate life.

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

“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.

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.”

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.

"Just keep thrusting into this dude." -The Spiffing Brit 2019

"the winds always go east to west" - yeah, they're called trade winds

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

"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)

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.

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.

"The governors rather plain-looking daughter." eh, don't you mean "this perfect specimen of British female good looks"?

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.

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.

Tea is now in Stardew Valley - and not as a glitch item.

Ive spent SOOOOO many glorious hours on this game when i was a wee young 14 year old lad! ;D

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. :)

The graphics are even better when its 240p

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.

That’s got to be the best pirate I’ve ever seen.

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.

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.

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).

Snubbing the Average Looking Daughters because you are holding out for better? Or because you want to avoid that sodding annoying dancing mini game?

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

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 was a great game back in the day.. it needs a 2019 update..

"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.

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.

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.

Now you have to play The Pirates of the caribbean game from *2003* . Only for windows 7.

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.

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.

While you were busy colonizing, I was studying the *T H R U S T*

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.

Drinking game: take a shot for every “indian war canoe” you hear

It's 2024 and this is a vastly superior pirate game to Skull and Bones

I'm surprised you haven't done this before. What's more British than absolute naval domination? On another note, gonna do the same with Cutthroats?

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

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?

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. : )

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.

Yet another plain daughter... Well yes, you picked the British side... remember ? 😊

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.

Loved the game with the exception of sneaking out of jail and the dancing. I even like the board game-like land battles

"Pirates!" Back when the highlight was the theme song when you succeed at taking a ship.

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.

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 loved this game Especially fighting all factions simultaneously and cheesing all benefits, getting a major title from all four Lovely

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.

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.

"we can just keep thrusting into this dude" context...

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.

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.

"[T]he wind always points form East to West". From the wiki: "On Apprentice difficulty, the wind is always blowing from East to West. Wind direction will never change at all at this difficulty. As difficulty is increased, the wind's maximum deviation from this angle will increase proportionally. Therefore, at Swashbuckler difficulty it is possible (though rare) to see the wind coming directly from the North or South, and some players have reported seeing winds blowing slightly East of this." Two things with this: 1. the lower the difficulty the more true that is, which makes me wonder what difficulty you did this on (just for curiosity because I remember the game being harder on higher difficulties). 2. Of course the wind primarily goes from East to West, the wind in the Caribbean comes from the Atlantic Ocean, which is to the East.

The Spiffing Brit: SID MEIERS PIRATES! Me: Yes.

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.

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.

Stat wise, the spanish war galleon is not the best ship in the game. It's actually not that good, slightly better than a fast galleon in my opinion. There is a rare ship called "ship of the line" that out classes it in pretty much every way. It only comes out during war time and after you have really pissed off a nation (other than the spanish, they can't spawn them).

Tl;dw summary: Just keep thrusting into that dude to win.

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

"So you need to keep thrusting into this dude" 2min later: *Denys dancing with the daughter because reasons*

>most powerful ship in the game *ship-of-the-line laughing in the distance*

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.

"this games broken so we can just keep thrusting into this dude" Are we still playing the same game?

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.

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.

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.

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 am reinstalling Sid Meier's Pirates and will be implementing this strategy. I have already dubbed it "the Spiffing Somali pirate strategy."

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 will never understand why this game hasn't been remastered or a sequel made. I've been mad about that for years now

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!

_Little mutiny and..._ *I'm the captain now*

My money’s on the Dutch! Edit: damn I was wrong.

Spiff’s casual dismissal of the governor’s daughter cracked me up

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

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.

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!

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 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.

I spent hundreds of hours sailing around the Caribbean in this game! So many great memories!

How to win in a game about pirates by The Spiffing Brit: *Thrust into him until he submits*

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.