Pirates

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)

WILL YOU BE THE FINEST PIRATE?

As captain of a pirate crew, your ultimate goal is to find the most incredible treasure of all times: the Golden Pineapple. The map leading to it has been cut in parts long time ago, and hidden in different places of the Caribbean Sea. In order to win the game, you will have to face and overcome all the other pirates also searching the Golden Pineapple map. Play your cards wisely to find the treasure and become a pirate of legends!

RULE OVERVIEW

Piña Pirata is played in rounds. At each round, every player receives 8 cards. The goal is to be the first to get rid of all your cards.

At your turn, you must play one card, or draw one if you can’t. A card can be played if at least one of the pirates depicted on it is also on the top card of the play area. As soon as a player has no more card in her hand, she wins the round and gets a part of the treasure map. If a player has all 4 map parts, he wins the game!

The tricky part come from the Adventure tiles: At the beginning of the game, 2 tiles are revealed. Each of those Adventures is a new rule that will change the gameplay. There are 40 different tiles with a lot of different rules. Use them as their best to play more cards than you should or prevent the other players to play theirs!

At the end of each round, the winner chooses a new Adventure and adds it to the previous ones. The more the game is going, the more special effects are triggered for more and more fun!