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But no matter what people are saying, Libertalia is going to be a big deal. It's an exceptionally fun game with gorgeous art, which is beginning to be par for the course when it comes to Asmodee. In fact, the art is good enough that you'll want to play the game just to see all the pictures. Of course, you could just open the box and look at all the cards to see the amazing illustrations, but who buys a game just to see the art (outside, like, most of us, if we were being honest)? Mutineer (13): Discard the character with the lowest rank in your den (not mutineer) and gain 2 doubloons (night). Merchants & Marauders (2010) – a 3+hour massive game where players choose to make a fortune through trade, treasure hunting or stealing others treasures. Great for avid, strategy or power gamers.
Between campaigns, players have up to three cards left that have not been played and the first player draws 6 news cards, announces them, and players add these cards to their remaining cards in hand. A new campaign begins as the plundering continues. Another note about Automa is that it likes money and will gain a boatload of money throughout the game. A lot of the regular character abilities are translated into gaining coins (which makes sense given that this is the likely outcome when playing against other people), which definitely makes the game more challenging. I was only playing on the regular difficulty (Automa starts on 0 coins) and I’ve only beat it twice (once sunny, once stormy). So that Barkeep (his action is to score you 1 doubloon each night) you played on day 1 of the current campaign, will keep paying you every night (as long as he stays alive.) booty tiles [4 chests, 6 jewelry, 10 goods, 6 Spanish Officers, 6 sabers, 8 treasure maps, 10 cursed relics] While I’ll mostly be judging Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest on its own merit, I will spend some time looking at how it sizes up to the original. Also—and this is important—I promise not to make a single pirate joke over the course of this review. Gameplay Overview:
Sea of Thieves: Voyage of Legends
This is a game that has very simple rules, and can be learned in just a few minutes. At the same time, there’s a lot of complexity and strategy in the card interaction, so players experienced with the game have a distinct advantage over new players. I don’t normally enjoy the “Take That” mechanism. Also, I find it confrontational when people have decided to spend their time playing with me, but in this game, it works incredibly well with the theme, so everyone knows what to expect. The tactical decisions you make are based on almost complete information. You know what characters your opponent has, how much money they have and what loot items are available. One thing Paolo Mori worked on improving for this release was the two-player game, which was somewhat bland in Libertalia. And… it’s fine. Definitely better. I’m glad it was tweaked. The two-player game now adds a mid-ranked character who’s always on the Island for players to compete with. This two-player mode is certainly an improvement but still isn’t terribly robust. You place the Automa tiles at the bottom (the hook and saber have been replaced here, it’s a bit different for the stormy side of the board, where there’s a specific Automa tile for Barrel and Amulet). The reputation tokens are randomly placed with yours and the Automa’s tokens placed in the third and fourth spot. The loot tiles are randomly selected as usual but with three tiles. One is for the Pilferer who is separate to the Automa. The loot tokens are not only upgraded in terms of component quality, but also because they now have multiple ways to play with them, which helps variability. Adding more characters (and tweaking some originals) also improves overall replay value.
At the end of each voyage, some cards and most loot tokens also have an “anchor” power that activates. These mostly net you some bonus gold but there are fun exceptions such as the hook token that lets you keep a card you’ve played in your tableau, which can be handy if it has an ongoing “night” effect. Libertalia: Wind of Galecrest makes full use of the simple day, dusk, night and anchor system to come up with some really engaging effect combos, ensuring there’s plenty of variety among its motley crew. The flip side of the board even has a whole new set of loot token effects to increase player interaction.
Merchants and Marauders
No, this is a completely new edition, with every aspect of the game enhanced, expanded, and (hopefully) improved. All components and art are brand-new as well. Everything has changed in some way, including every character (and more characters for a total of 40). OK, I'll stop. Diarrhea jokes at a game blog? Gross. Just juvenile. Instead, I'll remind you to come to GenCon so I can sign your boobs.) Every player starts with the same set of cards, and you'll have to choose carefully which moment to play each card, and to try to read your opponents' strategies. Merchant (21): Discard 2 identical booty tiles to gain 3 doubloons or 3 identical booty tiles to gain 5 doubloons (day).
At the start of the first campaign, all the Player's Den players will have in hand the same 9 characters. That strange idiosyncrasy aside, the game is one of the best designed on the market. Gameplay is elegant. And once more it bears mentioning that the art design is second to none. Artists Ben Carre and Stéphane Gantiez have created a feast for the eyes, each character perfectly rendered to a degree that they could come to life right off the cards. The art alone inspires and supports the theme, and makes the game that much more enjoyable. Each set of 3 treasure maps is worth 12 doubloons. Sets of 1 or 2 treasure maps are worthless as they are incomplete. When the Saber is taken you must choose a character from an adjacent player's den and discard it if possible.During three campaigns, you have to gather doubloons and booty tiles to become the wealthiest pirate. Each player gets 10 doubloons (1 of value 5 and 5 of value 1). The remaining doubloons are set aside and form the bank.
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