Pirates

Setting: In 1675, after a long career in piracy, Captain Henry Morgan skillfully gets appointed to be Governor of Jamaica, with the explicit order to cleanse the Caribbean of pirates and buccaneers! Instead, he invites all of his former "colleagues" to join him in his retirement, to enjoy the fruits of their looting with impunity. Each year, in remembrance of the "good old days," Morgan organizes the Great Challenge, a race around the island, and at its end, the Captain with the most gold is declared Grand Winner.

Goal: The game ends on the turn when at least one player's ship reaches the finish line, completing one circuit around the island of Jamaica. At that point, players are awarded different amounts of gold in accordance with how far away from the finish line they were when the race concluded. This gold is added to any gold a player gathered along the way by detouring from the race to search for valuable treasure, by stealing gold or treasure from other players, or just by loading gold as directed by the cards the player played during the race. The player with the most total gold acquired through all these means is then declared the winner.

Gameplay: The game is played in rounds. Each player always has a hand of three cards, and a personal board depicting the five "holds" of their ship, into which goods can be loaded during the game. Each round, one player is designated as "captain," with the next clockwise player being captain in the following round, and so on. The captain rolls two standard D6 dice, examines her cards, then announces which die will correspond to the "day" and which to the "night." Each player then simultaneously selects a card from their hand and places it face down in front of them. Each card has two symbols on it, one on the left - corresponding to "day" - and one on the right ("night"). The symbols indicate either ship movement (forward or backward) or the loading of a type of good. After every player has selected a card, all cards are revealed simultaneously and then resolved clockwise one by one, starting with the captain's. When it is a player's turn to resolve her card, for first the left symbol on her card and then for the right symbol, the player will load a number of goods or move a number of spaces equal to the number of pips showing on the corresponding day or night die for that round. Thus the main decision each player makes during the game is which of their current three cards would best serve them on a particular turn, given the values of the day and night dice. Finally, during the race, when a player lands on a spot already occupied by another player, there is a battle. Battles are mainly resolved by rolling a "combat" die, but players may improve their chances by using "gunpowder" tokens from their holds, if they loaded any on previous turns. The winner of a battle may steal some goods or treasure from the loser.

In Sum: This is a pirate-themed tactical race game with player interaction and side goals (e.g. detouring for treasure), so that the winner is the player who best balances their position in the race with their success at the side goals.

Merchants & Marauders lets you live the life of an influential merchant or a dreaded pirate in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. Seek your fortune through trade, rumor hunting, missions, and of course, plundering. Modify your ship, buy impressive vessels, load deadly special ammunition, and hire specialist crew members. Will your captain gain eternal glory and immense wealth - or find his wet grave under the stormy surface of the Caribbean Sea?

In Merchants and Marauders, players take on the role of a captain of a small vessel in the Caribbean. The goal is to be the first to achieve 10 "glory" points through performing daring deeds (through the completion of missions or rumors), crushing your enemies (through defeating opponents and NPCs in combat), amassing gold, performing an epic plunder or pulling off the trade of a lifetime, and buying a grand ship. While some points earned from performing various tasks are permanent, players earn points for amassing gold, which can be stolen or lost (or at least diminished) if their captain is killed. Points due to gold are hidden so there's some uncertainty about when the game will end.

A big component of the game is whether (or when) to turn "pirate" or remain as a trader or neutral party. Both careers are fraught with danger: pirates are hunted by NPCs (and other players) for their bounty and blocked to certain ports while traders are hunted by non-player pirates as well as their opponents and generally have to sacrifice combat capability for cargo capacity. Although players can kill each other, there is no player elimination as players may draw a new captain (with a penalty) so it's possible to come back from defeat.

In the adventure game North Wind, cities are suffering heavily under constant raids from pirates. As freelance trade captains, the players bring food and other goods to the cities, in addition to fighting the pirates whenever they encounter them. Fighting without cannons leads to poor results, however, and cannons are expensive. With each success, though, a player can better equip his three-dimensional ship and strengthen his crew.

In the end, the player who finds the best mix of trading and fighting will prove to be the victorious captain.

Set the sails and weigh the anchor! Several pirate ships cruise the seas, on the lookout for precious hidden treasure. It´s a matter of honor to discover it, load it on board, and to be the first to bring it into the harbor – despite competition from the other pirates, tornadoes and the seal of fate. The pirates are none too friendly: they steal, plunder, and sink ships wherever they can. But too much greed can put their pirate treasure at stake. An absolutely merciless game for the whole family. Board, or be boarded. Contents: 1 game board (17.3 x 17.3 inches/ 44 x 44 cm), 4 ships, 1 dice, 64 treasure pieces, 1 tornado piece, 1 wind wheel, 1 small basket, 1 instructions (from the Selecta homepage)

From the publisher:

"At the start of each round, six cards are lined up between the players with each card corresponding to the numbers 1-6 on a die. The cards show sailors of different nationalities or special actions with which the players can influence the die results or enlarge their team. The player take turns rolling dice and assigning one of them to a card until a player wants to get out and start shanghaiing, at which point the cards are distributed to whoever has more dice on their side."

At the end of the game, the stronger nationality score victory points equal to the value of the weaker team. Having a monopoly causes you to score the value of your own team.

Expanded by:

Shanghaien: Extrakarte 1
Shanghaien: Extrakarte 2
Shanghaien: Extrakarte 3

Online Play

Yucata (turn-based)