Forum Overview :: Reviews :: Review: Libertalia (board game)

[quote name="blackwater"]Pretty much the first comment everyone makes about Libertalia is "is this going to be about Libertarianism?" Actually, though, this is just a pirate-themed board game in a fantasy setting. So basically... yes. Anyway, Libertalia is an auction-based game with a few interesting aspects. Play takes place over three "missions" (or something like that) that are each broken up into six days. When you're setting up the mission, you put out one treasure per player per day. So each day has a separate set of "booty" tokens equal to the number of players. The booty tokens for each day are visible to everyone. Some are worth a lot more than others. On each day, all the players simultaneously, and secretly, play a character card from their hands. For example, you could play the "captain," or the "parrot", etc. etc. All the cards are revealed simultaneously. Then you get a chance to perform the special actions on each card. The advantage to playing a card with a high rank is that you get to choose your "treasure" earlier than people with lower-ranking cards. This matters because treasures count for points. Some treasures are actually negative points (cursed relics). Once you have played a character card, it goes in front of you (there's a term for this, but I forget... in the "mess hall" or something?) The game sounds simple enough, but there are a lot of interesting special abilities on each card. For example, some character cards assassinate other character cards. Some character cards are worth point if you can keep them alive until the end of the week. A lot of cards allow you to collect points based on how many treasures or characters you already have. There are a lot of characters in the game (I think there's like 50 or something?). But at any one time, you'll have a pretty small subset of those in your hand (I think like 9). Everyone gets the same set, so it's fair (mostly). I say mostly because in order to avoid ties in rank, some colors get slightly better or worse variants of each card. As you might have guessed, this game has a scoring track, and that's what you're trying to advance on each mission. The missions are fairly self-contained. I liked the pirate theme more than I thought I would. It's also a bit lighter than some of the other games out there. A lot of other bidding games (like Ra, Amun Re, or Modern Art) just feel like you have to commit to a strategy early on and stick to it. I suppose it is because those other bidding games place a premium on collecting "sets" of things. With Libertalia, there is one treasure that you can collect a "set" of, but it's not the decisive factor. Mostly, it just seems to be about being clever and a bit lucky with the cards you are stuck with, which are also the same as what other players get. I didn't feel like I had to lock myself into a master strategy early on. I just had to play as best I could in a single week. I haven't played this that much yet, though, so it will be interesting to see if more strategic depth emerges later. Bottom line: I give this a thumbs up, especially if you like saying the word "booty."[/quote]