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Plunderer's Delight
Aye! Plunder towns, sink ships, duel foes, woo wenches, and wage a full-fledged nautical war: These are the recreations of the hardcore pirate, and these are the reasons why Sid Meier's Pirates!® deserves hardcore praise. Harr! Give me an open-ended game with varied elements, all involving different gameplay and tactical opportunities, and I'll give you a smile. Give me the same with a piratical theme and I'll give you a smile and a knock on the head, and then take all your booty.
Duel wielding. Hell yeah!
Few games deserve the hardcore treatment more than Pirates! The elegant "do it at your own pace" style lures complacent players into laziness and hardcore gamers into something less than their usual fervor. It's tempting to take the well-traveled path, but true satisfaction can only be gained with success on the most grueling of scales. Like all great hardcore games, with Pirates! you make it as brutally difficult as you want.
Starting Point Looking at the high seas with a greedy eye, eh? Well, buckle your breeches and grab your cutlass—get started the hardcore way!
Difficulty: Hardcore buccaneers settle for nothing less than the highest difficulty setting. Expect a few setbacks, as Swashbuckler difficulty is uncompromising in Pirates!
Skill: There are few things I despise more than taking a skill that decreases the difficulty of a natural gameplay skill. Don't take Fencing or Navigation. If you can't fight or sail or learn either during the game, you don't deserve the life of a swashbuckling rogue!
Time Period: Ah, the days of Pirates Sunset are for you. Ample opportunity for riches and fame abound, but you really work for them as the pirate hunters are out in full force.
Put your hips into it!
Only the Beautiful A hardcore gamer wouldn't be caught dead with a "plain looking" girl on his arm (at least not in a game). Turn those ugly ducklings down with a firm hand I tell ye! Only the beautiful Governors' daughters or better are acceptable for a hardcore pirate.
Pick a Sword On Swashbuckler difficulty, the cutlass is actually easier to use than the rapier because it gives you such a bonus to defensive moves. Want to be truly hardcore? Earn your dueling victories with a rapier!
Outmanned Whoever heard of a pirate force being numerically superior to a defending stronghold? Bloody nonsense, that's what that is. Win the turn-based strategic land battles with skill, not overwhelming numbers. And while you're at it, stay away from small or modest villages. Prosperous strongholds and capitals are what need to be raided and plundered!
Call me Bo Jangles.
Hardcore Challenge Ready to test your mettle? Capture a trade galleon immediately and keep that as your sole ship the entire game, with a maximum of 30 crewmen—in other words, never recruit new crew members unless you drop below 30.
Retire When You're Done! Don't talk of retiring with a half-completed list of objectives on your plate. You're either done when your tired old bones can't hack it anymore, or you're done when you retire at the height of your career. Unless you've located all the lost cities, freed all your lost relatives, bested all the notorious pirates, and maximized your wealth and reputation points, you've got no business hanging it up!
Play Sid Meier's Pirates! any way you damn well please … if you're a spineless, scabrous dog that is! Don't hide behind the options, my hardcore friends. Go full tilt, take the game by its horns and make it your own. Play the game, don't let it play you!
