Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
I do not own and have only played the original Libertalia a few times. Libertalia Winds of Galecrest refreshes things and adds the reputation mechanic. It also adds 10 new characters and new artwork. It is different from the original but not drastically.
I would’ve really liked a further card clarification booklet. It’s not essential, but it would’ve been a “nice to have” especially at two player. Paolo Mori’s design hadn’t left my collection since that fateful August day. It survived more than a few of my purges, including the Great Board Game Dump of 2017, where so much of my cardboard went to a better place.Once you have played through the specified number of days the voyage ends. Now you activate any anchor abilities on your loot tokens or crew members on your ship. Next, total the amount of doubloons you gained from this voyage and add it to your score dial. And lastly discard all your loot tokens and crew members on your ship. To start the next voyage another random six crew members are added to everyone’s hand, you gain income, and loot tokens are put on the specified number of day spaces. Players resolve all “end of campaign” actions (anchor symbol) of crew members still alive in their dens (yes, crew members can be killed). This is a simple competitive game that I can bring out and play with just about anyone as it’s really easy to teach. The pirate theme is always easy to convince people to play, so it’s not hard to find people to enjoy it with. The arrrs will be in full swing before you know it. Pirate games need treasure, and Libertalia gives treasure collection its own phase. Your crew’s abilities will be played from lowest value to highest (typically higher numbers have stronger effects), but you collect booty from highest to lowest (assuming your crew survived the day).
The game scales well between 2 and 6 players, really coming alive with three or more, but we play it often just the two of us and it gets rather heated, in a very good way. 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.) There are a wide variety of crew cards (40 total) but each player starts with the same crew members, and your hands will slowly diverge over the course of the game. There’s plenty to pay attention to, but not so much going on that you’ll suffer choice paralysis. Libertalia is simple enough to work as a kidsboard game, but strategic enough to be fun and provide plenty of replayability. Starting from left to right, the characters chosen will activate a daytime power, should they have them. This may be gaining doubloons, taking loot tokens or making matters difficult for your opponents. Once the day has happened, the dusk phase happens, starting with the rightmost player. You should know the board is double sided with a nicer and meaner side based on the loot token abilities. You can even use a mix of nice and mean abilities using the loot tiles. But no matter what there is some take that in this game.There is one aspect of the game that may not sit well with some (especially family gamers), and has to do with some game effects targeting female characters. After a crew claims a booty and resolves their dusk action (red sun symbol) - if any - they are immediately placed in their player's den before the next booty is claimed (which is important if someone is claiming a sabre later.) Libertalia’s strength is in Mori’s design. With each player beginning the game with the exact same cards, emphasis is on timing and card choice as opposed to player resources and random card draws. The 30 different card effects are well thought out and work well in combination with each other. The resulting card interactions, (and consequently, player interactions) provide an entertaining and compelling journey toward Pirate retirement. Night abilities happen at the end of every turn where that character still resides on your ship, which is a fancy way of saying “the table in front of you.” 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:
Great Deal 
New Comment