You already know what I'll say lol.

Seriously though and here's what it is for me. I like games that offer unprecedented amounts of depth. A majority of Sterns don't do that that for me. I feel that JJP pours their hearts into creating not only deep but also high quality code that has a ton of variety. In a home environment JJP games are the best fit for the type of ruleset and code design I prefer. That's just me though.

Pirates of the Caribbean offers a crazy amount of depth with its ruleset, has a boat load of features, and has some of the best animation and callout work in pinball. That's ultimately why I bought an LE, just has it delivered today actually.

I can't comment on Black Knight 3 gameplay as I haven't played one. I can already tell though based on what I've seen and read that it won't offer the depth and code variety I personally want in a game.

Pirates offers way more variety then LOTR. With LOTR you have 6 main modes that always play the same, 3 main mulitballs (the movie ones) and 3 wizard modes. It's a hell of a ruleset but it, like all pinball machines, will play the same as pinball code once completed is static.

With Pirates the character feature and the abilities for each changes how every game is played as does the randomly selected 25 chapter modes from a pool of 125. It's very unlikely you will play the same game twice. Since chapter modes can be completed anyway you want and the character ability (and disadvantage) affects how they are completed it ends up resulting in a ton of variety. Same goes for playing the 5 movie multiballs. Then there's the pirate lane awards and map awards system which adds another layer of depth. Finally theres 5 progressive based wizard modes that are classic Keith Johnson wizard modes like Destory the Ring, Battle the Wicked Witch, etc. Oh, and then attempt or beat everything and theres the Break the Curse Super wizard mode lol.

The depth of Pirates is impressive but what impresses me more are the multiple ways it can be played and that's big plus considering once pinball code is completed it never changes. With Pirates theres always a different way to play the game.

Exactly, well said. You can't change every coil setting strength either on a modern Stern which is a real bummer. I can't believe they are still using that old outdated menu system on their LCD games.

Theres not even a TNA around me on location but theres a Pirates within an hour drive. TNA is also a $6k game, Pirates LE is $9500, that will affect numbers on here.

Considering how popular TNA is and how everyone went nuts about it I'm surprised only 50 people more list it in their collections then Pirates which costs much much more. That's impressive for Pirates and not everyone lists their games here and theres a ton of sales outside of Pinside as well.

Sounds like you are trying to talk yourself out of Pirates lol. May be best to go with a different game and or get the game that you enjoy playing the best.

I was just thinking of number of shots that pass through or drop into an area between Pirate's and BK3. BK3 premium / LE has 7 of these types of shots, Pirates is at 16 and that's not counting the extra ball shot! That's not a knock against BK3, just pointing out that Pirates may offer the highest number of shots that I described above in pinball, passing TZ and WOZ as well.

Theres a character that allows you to pick your chapter which would let you focus on one movie. The pick a character feature adds a tremendous amount of depth and strategy to the game. It also helps to add a lot of variety as well.

On a very simple level POTC rules can be broken down to this.

1. Theres a shot on the playfield for each movie, 5 in total
2. Hit a movie shot 3 times to qualify a chapter from the movie
3. Hitting the chapter area will randomly select a chapter from qualified movies (use Tia Dalama if you want to select a specific movie chapter)
4. Movie mutliball qualifiers are always on screen, for example one has you hitting 8 shots representing the "9 pieces of 8" on the playfield to qualify it (similar to Fellowship MB in LOTR)
5. Play the 5 chapters and multiball for a specific movie to quality that movies wizard mode
6. Play all modes to start Break the Curse super wizard mode

Items to take things to the next level

1. Character selection will affect how modes and multiballs are completed as well as scored.
2. Pirate lane awards selected using the lockdown bar button, completed by spelling Pirate using the inlanes , collect at shot by chest. Can increase scoring, light liars dice video mode, light extra ball, etc
3. Map awards can result in a ton of different awards including plundering opponents points, gold, their character and even their ball
4. Number of shots completed in chapter modes affects movie multiball scoring
5. Number of jackpots collected in movie multiball and number of characters collected in chapter modes affects movie wizard mode scoring (timing out modes and multiballs will result in very low scores)

Every other pinball machine currently released, including BK3, will always play statically meaning chapters and multiballs will always play the same way. Even the 4 characters in Star Wars don't affect how individual modes and multiballs are played / scored. The randomly selected 25 chapter modes from a pool of 125 at the start of the game, character abilities, character disadvantages, Pirate lane awards, and map awards system will ensure that every game of Pirates plays differently. As a buyer of the game for my home Pirates is a game I don't see becoming tired of for a long time, if ever.