Components
- 15 ship cards
- 24 pieces of booty
- 25 wooden discs
- 1 sheet - with 25 pirate stickers
- 75 coins
- Instructions
Object of the Game
All hell is loose near the port. Many of the pirates are casting jealous glances at the riches in the large trading ships. And hatching plans to get the lucrative booty.
The motley teams are quickly gathered and they then decide which ships are to be relieved of their Playing equipment treasures and ducats.
But even the strongest captain must take care, as each pirate wants a proper wage for his work. If the booty is too small and the pay too high, the captain will have to pay.
The player with the most money at the end wins.
Setup
The ship cards are shuffled face down and the top three are laid face-up in the middle of the table. Each player takes 5 Pirates in the color of his choice and lays them face up in front of him. In addition, each player receives 10 ducats.
The rest of the money and the 24 pieces of booty are laid ready as general stock visible to all players. With fewer than 5 players, the surplus pirates are removed from the game.
Note: the 3 face-up ships are played first. Only once all 3 have been boarded are 3 new ship cards turned face-up.
Ship Card
Game Play
Play passes round in a clockwise direction. The eldest player begins. The player whose turn it is must always choose one of two possible courses of action.
- Moving a pirate
- Boarding a Ship
If possible, the player must carry out one of these two options. However, if a player has no free pirate piece available when it is his go (all 5 are in other piles), then he does not move in this round.
A. Moving a Pirate
A player takes his own pirate or his own pirate stack and puts it on an opposing pirate or pirate stack.
The player puts down the newly formed stack in front of him; this makes him the captain of this boarding party. A pirate stack belongs to the player whose counter is on top.
Not allowed:
Once a stack has been made it may not be separated. A player's own pirate or pirate stack may not be put on another of his own pirates or pirate stacks.
A move which would make a pirate stack have a height of more than 9 pirates is not allowed. Players are not allowed to look at the value of the pirates concealed in a stack.
B. Boarding a Ship
A player can only board a ship as captain. To do this, a player puts one of his own pirate stacks on an upturned ship card.
The pirate stack must have at least the required number of pirates.
Sharing out the Booty
The captain shares out the booty. First he chooses one of the pieces of booty pictured on the ship card and takes it from the general stock.
The player to whom the second pirate in the stack belongs gets the other pictured piece of booty from the stock. Should there be no second picture (with small ships), he does not get any booty.
The captain now takes the amount of money shown from the stock. Then he pays the crew which took part in the boarding of this ship. He pays out the amount of ducats indicated on the pirate pieces of the other players which were involved in the boarding party.
There are pirates who have a question mark instead of a number. If they have taken part, they are paid the amount which is shown next to the question mark on the respective ship.
After all the pirates who took part have been paid, the players are given back their pirate pieces and they lay them face-up in front of them.
There is not enough Booty
If there is not enough booty to pay all the pirates belonging to the other players, the captain must use his own money. If he does not have enough money at his disposal, the missing amount is paid to the other players out of the general stock.
Although the captain now has no money, he keeps his pieces of booty.
New Ship Cards
The card of the boarded ship is removed from the game. When the last of the face-up ship cards has been boarded, three new ship cards are turned up.
Note: as there are 15 ship cards, 3 ship cards are laid out a total of five times during the game.
Mutiny
If a player has 3 or more of his playing pieces in a stack belonging to another player, this player may mutiny and force the captain to board a ship.
When it is the captain's turn (the owner of the stack), the mutineer can challenge him to board a ship. If there is a choice of several ships which can be boarded, the captain alone decides which ship he will board.
The rule still applies: the pirate stack must have the required number of pirates to board the ship.
Example: 3 of black's playing pieces are in red's stack. So that these pieces are not blocked for too long, black can mutiny. As soon as it is red's turn, black challenges him to board.
The boarding is carried out as usual. The stack is broken up and the pirate pieces are returned to their owners.
If the captain has several stacks where a mutiny is taking place, only one ship is boarded. The captain decides which of the stacks he is going to use to board.
"Red" must comply with the challenge and decides to board the bigger ship although he would have liked to wait for an even bigger ship with more booty.
End of the Game
As soon as all15 ships have been boarded, the game ends and scoring takes place. Points are awarded for ducats and pieces of booty. Whoever owns the most pieces of booty of one kind is paid the amount shown on the booty in ducats.
If several players have the same number of one kind of booty, they share the corresponding amount; any remainder is discounted.
Players who have pieces of booty for which they received no money get, as a small consolation, 1 ducat for each of these pieces of booty.
The player with the most money is the winner.
Example: Karin and Nico have each gained 2 treasure chests, Kim and Nina each have 1 chest. Karin and Nico have the most treasure chests and share the 15 ducats (each receives 7 ducats). Kim and Nina each get 1 ducat for their treasure chests.
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