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Buccaneer
aka Trade Winds
Geoffrey Bull; Waddington-1938|Damm/Egmont-1971 (as Pirat); 2-6; 8+
The board shows the sea as a square grid with a home port for each player.
Heaped on the central islands are diamonds, rubies, pearls, gold and rum.
Ships can be attacked and their treasures and crew captured.
Perhaps this game helped inspired
Privateer?
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link
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Buccaneer Bones
Kris Gould; Wattsalpoag Games-2013; 1-4; 15
Players race to be the first to bring back three treasures from a fictional
island. Each has an individual player mat with six sea lanes. Rolling
particular dice combinations such as pairs or trips moves the ship
corresponding to that number.
Reaching particular islands grant the powers provided by that island such
as extra dice, re=rolls or the ability to modify results.
Treasures are gained by a trips roll.
Rolls which do not advance a ship instead provide the ability on a future
turn, enable thieving from others or remove a thief.
Quick, uncomplicated and not bad for light fare. Suitable for play while waiting
for the restaurant food to arrive, for example.
[Review]
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Buccaneer Bones: Expansion Set
Kris Gould; Wattsalpoag Games-2014; 1-8; 20
Adds material needed to play the above with now up to 8 players,
or can be used to play standalone with up to 4.
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Capitán Flint
Captain Pirate
Cutthroats
Dead Man's Treasure
Doubloons
Dozen Doubloons
Dread Pirate
Dread Pirate: Buccaneer's Revenge
Find the Treasure
Flußpiraten
Hey Piraten
Händler der Karibik
Hispaniola
Josep M. Allué; Viravi Edicions-2015; 2-6; 10-20
Revolving around the press-your-luck mechanism, this card
games sees players trying to collect coins, gems and the parrot before
Flint's ghost catches each of them.
Bruno Faidutti & Gwenaël Bouquin; Cocktail Games-2009; 4-7; 8+
Players are trying to discover treasure, but need help from their
opponents in forming a crew. Then there is the question of who will be
captain ...
Adam Salsbury; The Game Crafter-2015; 3-6; 45-120
Each player operates a ship in the Caribbean, armed with cannons.
There are seven skills available for attacking other ships as well as
towns. Ships move via roll of a twelve-sided die, but can only move in
certain directions, changeable upon reaching port. Landing on another's port
incurs a fee. Combat is resolved via ten-sided dice with losers giving
up a a ship upgrade and paying a ransom. A player who goes into debt
is eliminated; the winner is the last player standing, or the one who
conquers all five towns.
aka Der Schatz des Käpt'n Flint
aka Kapten Gold
Reiner Knizia;
W. Nostheide-1991/Piatnik-2005; 3-5; 8+
A treasure map has turned up and multiple
pirates arrive at the archipelago looking for the chests and trying to
avoid the ghost guarding them.
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Paul Hedges & Eric Sargent;
Hex Head Games-?; 2-4; 45
Players represent differently-abled pirate captains who compete to claim
the most treasure from the fictional islands. The board is modular and
laid out randomly, being gradually discovered. It is possible to attack
other players, the conflicts being resolved via cards.
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Alan Anderson; World Village Games-2014; 1; 5
Card game includes 54 cards, numbered 1-12, plus 4 Blocks and 2 wilds.
At the start the player faces 6 stacks of 5 cards each.
The player combines 1-3 cards so that they add up to 12 and discards them.
Block cards are obstacles that make things more difficult.
The remaining cards are supplements used when a sum of 12 cannot be
achieved.
The object of the game is to discard all cards.
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Steve Edmiston; Front Porch Classics-2003;
2-4; 8+
Game which is won by engaging in trade at ports or by plundering
from opposing captains. Movement is by roll of two dice, combat by each
player rolling a single die.
Comes in a wooden treasure chest and includes a board in the
form of an aged treasure map, three knuckle bones (dice), four treasure
sacks, four die cast metal ships, one wind cube, forty-eight Dread Pirate
cards, four map cards, fifty replica doubloons, 120 treasure jewels,
rulebook and a captain's log.
First edition recalled for having lead content.
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Dan Tibbles; Front Porch Classics-2006; 2-4 8+
This expansion to Dread Pirate adds player-specific missions and
action cards, i.e. more engagements and adventures.
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Nicholas Hjelmberg; The Game Crafter-2014; 2-6 45
Pirates search for treasure hidden in one of nine locations on an island.
They have maps, but each shows information only for a specific longitude
or latitude. As random digging is dangerous, players challenge one another
to get maps or steal from succesful diggers. The player who finds the
treasure tries to escape before anyone else realizes the fact.
The island is different each time.
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W. Kühn; Pelikan-1975; 2-4; 8+
In "River Pirates" players try to place their river tiles as directed by
a special die. Inability to do so forces picking up some river tiles instead.
The goal is to be the first rid of all of one's tiles. There isn't a strong
connection to the pirates theme here, but one is pictured on the box cover.
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Marco Teubner; Pegasus-2013; 3-6; 25
No other information available.
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Alexander Pfister; Österreichisches Spiele Museum e.V./Pegasus Spiele-2013; 2-4; 20
"Merchants of the Caribbean" is a press-your-luck card game set in the
Caribbean along the lines of
Cirkus Flohcati (Zircus Flohcati).
Each turn players reveal cards hoping not to draw two ships of the same type
before they stop and draft either money or personnel. A big difference is that
after the current player finishes drafting the others may also each take a
card, provided they pay the main player a coin card (as in
Bohnanza
card backs serve as coins).
Personnel cards make drawing cards easier and in some cases
offer special abilities. Many also provide victory points, ten of which
plus a particular pair of personnel provide the goal.
This works fairly well, but the other-player drafting slows things down too
much. A press-your-luck game should be fast and simple, but the other-player
drafting continually interrupts the action. Probably omitting this
would work much better. Just
start each player with a pirate and two extra coins and have ships grant
two more coins than printed to compensate.
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Schaper-1957; 8+
Galleons sail the Caribbean racing to islands for treasure.
Said to have beautiful artwork.
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Islas Canarias
Leo Colovini; Clementoni-2009; 2-5
Players each run one of the Canary Islands. They each choose a hand
card whcih are placed into a face down deck along with random cards
and turned up one at a time. Most cards indicate colonists and
players are attempting to prepare their islands to be the most
attractive for settlement. There are also pirate cards to play
and deal with. This is a clever, challenging system. The only downside
is that it's not that good for two since one player
tends to get ahead and it's difficult for the other one
to catch up since they're the only one working on the problem.
[review]
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Jolly Roger
Franz Josef
Lamminger; Salagames-1992;
3-5; 8+
Flint's treasure has been found and now the race is on.
Whoever possesses the most gold after 10 treasure searches wins the game.
Basically this is a Whist variant.
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Jolly Roger Pirate Game
Whitman-1959; 2-4; 8+
Movement is by spinner as players try to be the first to win the race around
a set of islands.
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Karibik (Caribbean)
Michail Antonow and Jens-Peter Schliemann; Winning Moves-2004/Rio Grande-2004; 2-4; 30
Inspired by Rock-Paper-Scissors and set
on a simple map of the Caribbean
six pirate ships roam around grabbing treasures from ports or
from one another. Players have a simple rectangular stand in
which they place six tiles numbered between -1 and 5. Each
place corresponds to a ship. Place by place, the tiles are
revealed and the player having the highest number gets to move
the ship, the idea being to grab a treasure and get it to one
of the player's havens, or maybe hand it off to another ship.
The amount of movement is equal to the tile used, but other
player "-1" tiles reduce this. Ties are resolved using the
player's left over tile. Two new treasures appear each round
and wisely, brought in treasures are placed face down at their
ports so that players know which are still eligible to appear.
Games in this style can be frustrating at times, especially if
some players think alike and cancel one another out to the benefit of
the rest, but with the handoffs this does allow
clever plays and challenging situations. It ends when a player
reaches a set total based on the number of players, a little
artificial considering the theme, but ensuring that play does
not overstay its welcome.
[review]
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King's Gold
Stéphane Maurel; Blue Orange (EU)-2014; 2-6; 15
On a turn he pirate player rolls five dice up to three times. Crossbones
results are locked in. When all results are in, the results dictate
resolutions such as taking coins from the supply and giving them to the king,
stealing coins from another player, taking the king's coins, giving up
your own coins to the king or ending the game, which happens anyway
when the supply of sixty dries up. The skull results are critical: get
a few for a good result, but too many becomes a disaster.
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Lego Pirate Code
Cephas Howard; LEGO; 2-4; 8+
Each player has a secret code which the others, using dice and
deduction, attempt to guess.
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Paper Trails: Pirates!
(unknown); Channel Craft-2017; 2
Game designed for travelers that comes in fifty tear-off sheets.
Employs paper and pencil and dice as players race to reach the
destination before the opponent can. Movement is via dice roll, but a
bad roll causes ship damage. The first player to dig out the treasure
and bring it home wins.
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Peter and the Pirates
Pepys (Castell Brothers)-1955; 2-6; 8+
A version of the traditional card game,
Fan Tan,
including forty-four cards in eight sets of five plus special cards
for Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Wendy and Captain Hook.
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Piracy on the High Seas
Games Unlimited-1981; 2-4; 8+
Players obtain ships, captain and crew and attempt to take loot from the
treasure ship, or failing that, the other player who has it,
burying the goods on Treasure Island and returning with the map.
Includes dice, four metal ships and various cards and tokens. Sounds like
a simple roll-and-move as well as roll-and-fight affair.
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Pirate and Traveler
Milton Bradley-1911; 2-4; 8+
On a map of the world, players spinn a dial to reach the secret
destination indicated on a card. When ten cards have been completed by a
player, all become pirates and can begin to steal when landing on an
opponent. Sounds similar to Pachisi, but does feature player
elimination.
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Pirate King
Flaster Siskin; Temple Games-2006; 2-4; 8+
In this relatively simple game players sail the Caribbean Sea and attempt to
improve their ships, find treasure, capture territory and establish
fortifications. Ships are represented as cardboard illustrations in stands.
Lots of dice, money and jewels included. Very reminiscent of Monopoly.
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Pirate Plunder
unknown; All-Fair-1930; 2-4; 8+; 20
Roll-and-move game of collecting treasure chests of the highest
aggregate value.
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Pirate Sen So
TwinBlade Games-2007; 2-8; 8+
Abstract fighting game of simultaneous action selection.
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Pirate Treasure
Gamecraft-1970; 2-4; 8+
Players move their ships by rolling the dice. Around the board are
various holes in some of which are coins. One holds the treasure chest
worth ten coins. Looking in a hole can also get you captured. It's a
race to collect twenty-five coins.
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Pirate's Booty
Pirate's Booty
(unknown); Dice of March Games-2013;
2-5; 8+; 45
Card game of drafting and hand management with a humorous tone.
A pirate deck includes ships, sailors, treasures, tactics and voyages.
Plunder cards include ports, treasure ships, native cultures and even
ancient ruins of lost civilizations. Fights over these cards between
players seems to form the core of play.
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Pirate's Cove
(unknown); Gabriel-?; 2-4; 45
Roll-and-move game about moving your pirate ship to collect treasure,
avoid hazards and get back to the safety of the cove.
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Pirates' Raid
Stoll & Einson-1934; 2-4; 8+
Players control either a treasure fleet trying to transport its cargo safely
from Mosquito Gulf to Porto [sic] Rico
or a pirate fleet attempting to rob them. Firing is a function of movement.
Read our
rules PDF
for this golden age game.
Piraten Kapern
Haim Shafir; Amigo-2012; 2-5; 30
Dice and cards game in which players search for treasure while
avoiding danger. This involves continually rolling eight special dice,
setting some aside, until satisfied or crapping out by rolling three
or more skulls. The idea is to get combinations such as three-, four-,
five-, even eight-of-a-kind. There are also gold and diamonds that
give extra points. Rolling a very large number of skulls enables the
player to cause opponents to lose points. Yes, it's reminiscent of
Roll Through the Ages.
Cards provide a special goal for each turn.
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Piratenjagd
(unknown); Fröhling Spiele-1947; 2
In this German version of the abstract Fox and Geese
two frigates hunt fifteen pirate ships. The pirates must get seven ships
safely
into the bay, but the frigates win if they sink ine pirate ships. While
the frigates can move in all directions, the pirates only go forward.
A frigate sinks a pirate by jumping over it.
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Piratennest, Das
Wolfgang Kramer; Herder/Jumbo-1998; 4; 3+/8+
Players try to rescue their abducted friends.
One variant is suitable for players 8 and up.
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Pirates Melee
Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest
Pirates of the Isles
Pirates vs. Ninjas
Piratoons
Plic-Plac Pirates
Playa Pirata
Plundarr!
Sea Dogs
Sea Hawks
Sjörövarön
Skull & Crossbones
Stowaway
Tacdex: Pirates
Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy
Treasure Fleet
Treasure Island
Treasure Island
Tricky Pirates
Walk the Plank
(unknown); CastlePoint Games-2006; 2; 20
Players depart from either a hidden or the safe harbour at the start, and
move one or two spaces per turn attempting to capture opponent and the five
jewels on the board. Play tends to end when all of the jewels have been claimed;
the player with the most jewels wins.
(unknown); Friendly Games-2006; 2-4; 30
This is
Chess,
Checkers
and
Liar's Dice
repackaged in pirate settings.
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Slawomir Czuba, Wiktor Fabianski, Grzegorz Traczykowski & Jacek Zdybel; Cranio Creations/Trefl-2011; 2-4; 8+
A spin-and-move and pickup-and-deliver affair including sharks, octopi
and floating islands. It is possible to attack other pirates. Modular
board makes the setup different each time.
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(unknown); Wiggles 3D-2012; 2-4; 15
Dice rolling game in which each side
– the pirates and the ninjas –
has different special powers.
On a turn the player rolls nine dice and uses them to attack or employ
special powers. Re-rolls are allowed.
Can be combined with the other
games in the Army vs. Aliens
series, which currently includes
Army vs. Aliens
Robots vs. Dinosaurs
and
Zombies vs. Wrestlers.
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Olivier Grégoire & Thibaut Quintens; ABBA Games/Act in games/Blackrock Games/Fishing Cactus-2015; 2-4; 30
In Piratoons, players assemble ships and recruit crews.
Then one player opens a treasure box and then based on what they see in it
players race to place crew pieces, trying to gain a majority at
particular locations, before the sand timer runs out.
Not placed crew earn doubloons. Winners at each location earn tiles.
Tiles remaining in the chest are auctioned off via blind bidding,
but every player gets something, so long as supplies last.
Tiles are sails, equipment and adornments. Winning is a matter of scoring
the most points among a variety of categories such as fastest ship,
largest ship, richest pirate, not having the most empty spaces, having
the most sets, etc.
Vincent Billard; Ludobis/Neuroludic-2005; 1-6; 15; 8+
Players are using their memories to
look for cards of the same pattern or color and apparently
can sometimes pirate one another to get them.
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Luca Bellini; dV Giochi-2014; 2-4; 20
In this card game
modern pirates retrieve treasures they or others have buried on
tourist-infested beaches. Then they compete to cover as much space as
possible with beach towels and then dig up the loot at night. There is
also the ability to play cards to find out what others are doing.
Nico Carroll; TableStar Games-2008; 2-4; 8+
Similar to the Cassino traditional card game, or to
the Safarü game in the
Mü
set, but employing a pirates theme. Includes 52 cards.
Rick Westera; (web-published)-2012; 2-8; 60
An unusual pirates topic: piracy in the steam age. Features include
a randomly-generated board, a market based on supply-and-demand and
players delivering cargo where it is most in demand. Players may also
enhance their ships. This is more of a trading game, but
piracy is an option.
ignored!
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Jon Dunkelman; Orca Games Ltd.-1986; 2-4; 8+
Played on a square grid board accurately showing a portion of
of the 18th century Caribbean. A treasure chest is "buried" in one
of ten possible locations. Each player's ship goes searching and
must also contend with dangerous waters and rival ships while pickin
up clues.
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aka Pirate Island
Alga (Brio)-1984; 8+
First players fight over the treasure map, then travel to the place to get
the treasure and finally try to escape with the treasure. Dice play a
prominent role.
Notable for its beautiful hex map board and metal miniatures.
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John White; Paul Lamond Games Ltd.; 8+
Players represent pirates trying to locate and steal the treasure of
the unfortunately-named Captain Skull and escape with it before he
returns. Special cards are used to move about the board as players visit
locations, collect location cards and try to find keys to open the chest.
Includes an optional video tape which runs as the game progresses and
interrupts play from time to time so that the captain can intervene and
take actions to hinder the players. The tape lasts an hour which should
provide the maximum game duration.
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Jonathan Curley;
self-2010; 20
Web-published bluffing card game.
Competing pirate crews try to get treasure cards having various values.
The method is that of Raj
in which all players reveal their pirate cards and the highest wins.
Richard Borg; USAopoly-2014; 2; 10
A pirate-themed twist on the traditional card game War,
here a battle marker determines whether it's the high or the low card that
wins. In addition there are action cards that modify the usual rules.
Other games in the Tacdex series are titled Halo and
The Walking Dead.
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Tortuga
Jay Cormier & Sen-Foong Lim; Queen Games-2014; 2-4; 30
Dice rolling and set collection game of pirates trying to transport
treasures to the haven at Tortuga before others can steal it. Players
roll dice and assign them to boats, cannons, recruiting, engaging at
close quarters, and/or moving treasure.
There have been two small expansions so far.
Tortuga: Queenie 1: Treasure Tiles
adds 17 alternative treasure tiles.
Tortuga: Queenie 2: Island & Island Tiles
adds an alternative island and 6 island tiles.
P
John B. Morgan; Ship of Fools Game-2006; 8+
Includes 107 cards. Basically merchant ships are dealt out and players
commit hand cards to fire on them. Or boarding parties (which beat
cannons) or storms (which mess up cannons) can be used. After three rounds
the player with the most shots on a ship gains its treasure. At the end,
the governor is captured by the player holding the best hand card.
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Gem Publishing-1922; 2-4; 8+
Little is known about this game from the golden age.
Ernest Shaw; Jolly Gnomes Annual-1952; 2-4
Roll-and-move racing game in which the object is to avoid
sidetracks and be the first to reach the treasure.
Andrew Muhling; (web-published)-2015; 2-4; 30-60
A print-and-play trick-taking card gamew with area control.
Card play fuels pirate ship movement and attacking opponent characters
or ships.
Movement is also affected by the wind direction.
The goal is retrieval of treasure from five islands.
Control of three islands provides instant victory.
Evan Sass & Brian Hess; Green Ronin Publishing-2007; 3-9; 8+
Children can play this trick-taking game
of 68 cards divided into five suites: doubloons, hooks, monkeys, parrrots
and peg-legs. Since players don't choose the card they play, instead only
turning up the top one from their decks, the game goes very fast,
lasting only five minutes on average.
Amazon
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