on 29 January 1999. Last revised by 
Description
Pirates! allows you to fight ship-to-ship, resolve boarding actions, or even fight an occasional skirmish on the beach, in a tavern, or on the heights of the volcano where the cache of gems lies hidden.
For those of you unfamiliar with Pirates!, the rules allow you to recreate quick and exciting (and sometimes hilarious) naval battles using 25mm scale ships and miniature figures. Besides these rules, we also manufacture a large range of 25mm resin-cast ships, both historical and fantastic, to go with our game. There is nothing to keep you from using ships by other manufacturers, or even scratch-building your own!
Many of our ship designs are based on Elizabethan-era ships, prominent during the time of Sir Francis Drake and the Treasure Ships of Spain. This allows us to utilize both sailed and oared vessels. Our ancient ship designs are the result of painstaking research. These 25mm ships are (very) roughly 10:1 scale to their historical counterparts as far as crew sizes, firepower, and tonnages are concerned.
For those of you who appreciate fantasy wargaming, an entire section of this book has been packed with rules for fantasy races, magic, scrolls, sea monsters, etc. We also make a range of fantasy submersibles, airships, and Jules Verne-esque ironclads. And, as if that weren't enough, we included construction rules, so that you could build your own!
What's new in this version of Pirates!? Most of the changes involve streamlining game play. We got rid of rules that were seldom (if ever) used. The crit charts have been reworked, and the old ramming rules have been completely scraped in favor of a newer, easier-to-use system. The same can be said for the boarding and morale rules. Some minor changes have been made to the weapon and crew stats.
The biggest change, however, is our inclusion of the Pirates! Ancients rules! That's right, now you can have battles between ancient galleys! We are working hard on releasing a range of ancient galleys, and the first model, the liburnium, should be available very soon. We are really excited about this part, and hope you will be too!
– from the publisher
Editions
Currently on third edition