Finally got my first game after about a week of owning the starter set. it was fantastic, played the intermediate rules set. not having anyone to demo this for me and having to read the rules and start playing I very well could have got some rules wrong. I lost both my ships because my opponent killed off all my crew, it seems like the way to go, much easier to kill and it auto fills the box. again we may have played some things wrong as it was our first game but that was my initial impression. is that normal? is it a sound tactic to mainly go for the crew and wipe them out? we seemed to be within musket range most turns, and wow the chain balls are crazy. I look forward to playing many more games even tho I got slaughtered and have all ready picked up an additional ship. the other thing we noticed is that the ships are different by such a small margin it seemed like it would make no difference at all. was a little disappointed when I opened my new ship that it pretty well was identical to the one I all ready had.