Pirates: Tides of Fortune

Pirates: Tides of Fortune is a free to play browser-based 2D MMORTS developed by Plarium. Players begin the strategy MMO game with an upgradeable island and a handful of resource points to put into their gold and lumber facilities. As you progress through the game and earn more resources, you can expand your island with several different structures like rum distilleries. These distilleries are paramount in progressing through the game, rum being of obvious importance to pirates. To get resources, players can either create their own, or raid other players for their booty. Additionally, flotsam (pieces from a shipwreck) can be collected from around the shores of players’ islands, which can contain every available resource in the game. This serves as a nice means of burning time while players wait to finish researching technologies or completing new structures.

From the world map, players can see shipwrecks to salvage and other islands to pillage. Some will make for easy prey, but landlubbers beware: some will be defended by captains from neighboring islands. Troops, which are needed to attack other players, can be obtained from the tavern once it’s built. Players with the necessary resource like gold and rum can deploy their pirate fleet comprising both offensive and defensive troops. They each serve a distinct purpose, and certain missions will call for one or the other.

Once a player has attacked another player, they will appear on each other’s “enemy list.” Players can attack people on their list as much as they please, provided they have the resources. Players can also attack certain points held by other players such as stashes of gems or gold. Each point has an expiration date that ticks ever closer while it is occupied. Additionally, if a player is part of an alliance, they can deploy troops to protect points held by their friends to ensure it is not successfully plundered before the timer runs out. Players can research defensive technologies and build certain structures like walls to protect their strongholds from enemy attacks.