How to Play Flying Pirates Board Game (Rules and Instructions)

Over the years Parker Brothers has created a lot of board games. Some become classics and household names that everyone has heard of. Others are kind of forgotten about. One of these later games is Flying Pirates which was released back in 1990, and then was basically forgotten about. Like a lot of Parker Brothers games, Flying Pirates is a family/children’s dexterity action game. Where the game differentiates itself is by having players shoot pirates out of cannons hoping to get them to stick to their opponent’s ship sails.

Year: 1990 | Publisher: Parker Brothers | Designer: NA | Artist: NA

Genres: Action, Children’s, Dexterity

Ages: 5+ | Number of Players: 2 | Length of Game: 5-10 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

Components: 2 cannons, 20 pirates (10 each color), 2 pirate ships, 6 sails/masts, 1 game board, instructions

Where to Purchase: eBay Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.

Objective of Flying Pirates

The objective of Flying Pirates is to shoot pirates out of your cannon to weigh down your opponent’s ship in order to sink it.

Setup to Play Flying Pirates

Assemble each ship and then snap it into one of the sides of the gameboard.
Each player chooses a cannon and takes all of the pirates of one of the colors.
Place the gameboard with the two ships attached inbetween the two players.

Playing Flying Pirates

then start shooting pirates from their cannon towards the other player’s ship. There are no turns in the game so players can shoot their pirates as quickly as they want.

Pirate In Cannon in Flying Pirates — The purple player has loaded a pirate into their cannon. When they press down on the button the pirate will be shot out of the cannon.

Any pirates that hook onto the sails will stay in place.

Successful Shot in Flying Pirates — The purple player shot their pirate and it has stuck to one of the red player’s sails. This will weigh down the red ship getting it closer to tipping over.

Any pirates that fall off the sails can be picked up by the player and fired again.

Missed Shot in Flying Pirates — The purple player has missed this shot as it didn’t stay on the ship. They can pick up the missed pirate at any time and shoot it again.

Players will keep firing pirates at the other player’s ship. Each pirate that attaches to a ship will weigh it down. Eventually one of the ships will have too much weight on it which will tip it over. The player who tips over the other player’s ship will win the round. If all of the pirates are stuck to the ships and neither ship sinks, the round ends in a stalemate (neither player wins).