Lords of the Spanish Main

Lords of the Spanish Main
Sun Nov 5 02:40:07 UTC 2006

A game by Philip Eklund and Sierra Madre Games, 2006

Who Are We?
Each player represents one of these:

The Duke de Lerma, advisor to the Spanish throne
Diego Fernandez de Córdoba, controller of the treasure fleet
James Kettler, King of Courland
Sir Francis Drake
Peter Stuyvesant
The Buccaneer Le Vasseur
Cardinal Richelieu
Sir Walter Raleigh
Ganga Zumba, King of the Escaped Slaves in NE Brazil

Where Are We?

In full color on thin cardboard, about A3 sized, depicting the Caribbean region from Florida to Venezuela, the Yucatan to Antigua. The sea is divided into zones and islands are studded with flags.

When Are We?

It is the year 1600. Only Spain has colonies in America and each year the galleon fleet returns with treasure worth 20 million ducats, unless someone should choose to interfere ...

Who Else Is There? (just a subset):

Pope Urban VIII
Pope Paul V
Oliver Cromwell
Obeah Sorceress
Cardinal Mazarin
Puerto Rico Black Market
Anne of Austria
Arawak Queen
Itza-Maya
Company of Scotland
Puritan Pilgrims
Svenska Ostindiska Kompaniet
Tortuga Pirates
Buccaneer King
Pirate Seafarers
English Sea Dogs
Merchant Raiders
Brandenburg Co.
Dutch Vrijbuiters
Pirate Warlord
House of Stuart
Stadholder of Holland

Who Wins?

The player with the most gold. The game can end after 1620 and certainly by 1649.

Who Else Is Included?

120 cards (must be separated or cut out)
16-page illustrated rule book including sample game, character descriptions and notes
8 A3-sized color player displays
78 counters in the form of stand-up tents

What are the phases in a turn (year)?

Reveal a card.
Capitalization and skullduggery
Auction card or Resolve event.
Trade, Raid & Interdict
Projects mature.

What are the main game mechanisms?

If you know the other Lords games, there is much that is familiar. in the economics, auctions, capitalization, cooperation with competition, and, of course comets. But the rules are shorter and simpler than in either Lords of the Sierra Madre or Lords of the Renaissance.

If you don't know the other games, the basic substructure is that each turn a card is turned up and either it's an event that's applied or it's a good thing which is sold off to the highest bidder. Most good things are not immediately usable though, oh no. They have to be "capitalized" which means that one pays one gold per turn for a few turns and only then are they available and start generating profit or fighting ability or both. So make sure you have funds to last that long.

Atop this substructure, each game has its own set of players and mechanisms. In Lords of the Sierra Madre it's about getting gold mines and smelters, connecting them together and taxing them or protecting them from being taxed and ultimately becoming rich enough to run for president. In Lords of the Renaissance it's about connecting together trade routes. In this one there are a few different things that can be done:

Every 10 years the treasure fleet sails to Spain which represents both a great potential profit for its owner and a big target for the rest of the players acting as pirates/privateers.
Each player can also control merchant ships which earn money by trading as well as pirates to prey on others' merchants.
Players can also found and raid and/or besiege colonies.

What are some of the more interesting mechanisms?

Pirates interdict the treasure fleet by going to the pirate deck and choosing a sea region. This means they are covering this region and no other and nobody else is covering this region. Then if the fleet chooses this region, they can try to interdict.
Naval combat is conducted by each player employing a square tactical battle card. By its orientation the player chooses a tactic and both reveal at the same time. The intersection of the two on the table that corresponds to the table bearing their respective seamanship levels and control of the weather vane gives the result.
Land combat is a simple affair, by attrition. Players remove until only the winner remains. It seems likely that most situations will be resolved by negotiation long before that point, however.
Anything in the game can be negotiated except for soldiers and one's personal card.
There are wars that tend to come and go. In many ways they are opportunities because players of a nation at war can attack freely, but otherwise they have to suffer the onus of a pirate flag.
As there were religious wars in the period, each personality is also rated for a religion. One rule in particular shows the designer has a good understanding of history and the way the world works. Most games would write the rule "A Protestant personality cannot become a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church." Instead the rule reads "Becoming a cardinal changes the p layer's religion to Catholic". That is, first someone buys a cardinal office, then he installs his son in it and finally, tail wagging the dog, the son is a Catholic. Reminds me of some of great Japanese high tech companies which had their humble origins selling air conditioners and the like. The point is that the only constant is change.
It's interesting too this is one of the few colonial era games I can think of where someone can a non-traditional power. Normally only the Europeans get to be portrayed (sometimes China, cf. Viceroys). But here, in a variant, the escaped slaves of northeastern Brazil can participate and at the same time players learn about a forgotten bit of history.

What kind of background notes come with the game?

There are two pages to describe the nine characters. One and one half pages describe a sample game. Half a page gives the designer's notes. Three pages give extensive footnotes on the history of the game.

How are the rules to read?

They seem easier to grasp than earlier SMG games, but I think they may always be a bit of a challenge, just because of the very nature of the game. In many games, you have specific phases and players must do specific things. For example, let's think of a similar kind of German game, In the Shadow of the Emperor. There is an election phase and there are strict steps that must be followed in conducting them. But here, matters are much more wide open. There is a turn and players may perform one or several of a wide variety of activities and there are a wide variety of potential situations. This does not always lend itself to easy explanation.

Lords of the Spanish Main-related pages on this site:

Background
Summary
Quick Setup
Official Errata
Sierra Madre Games

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Lords of the Spanish Main-related pages on this site:

Background Summary Quick Setup Official Errata Sierra Madre Games

Background
Summary
Quick Setup
Official Errata
Sierra Madre Games