Guns or Treasure
Guns or Treasure Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
8 Captain Cards
Captain Cards give you a special power to use during the game.
Note: For your first game, we recommend playing without the Captain Cards.
90 Ship Cards
Ship Cards are used to build your fleet. The face up or "bow" side of the Ship Card will generally be kept hidden from other players (unless it is the first card of a ship). The face down or "stern" side of the Ship Card is the side you will generally show to other players. The face up side shows if the card is a Gun, Treasure, or Bomb Card by the icon in the upper left. In the case of Gun or Treasure Cards they also have a number indicating the card's value.
Ships will be built during the game by placing one card face up (bow side) and additional cards face down (stern side) below the face up card. This means the value of the first Ship Card is revealed while the value of all additional cards is concealed.
Objective
The object of the game is to end with the most treasure. You gain treasure by battling other players' ships or retreating with your ships.
Setup
- If you are playing with Captain Cards, shuffle the Captain Cards and deal 1 to each player. Each player chooses if they would like to play side A or B of their Captain Card and then places that side face up in front of them so the Captain is visible to all players.
- Shuffle the Ship Cards and deal 6 to each player. Form a deck with the remaining Ship Cards placing them face down, within reach of every player.
- The Leading Player is the player who has most recently won a game of Guns or Treasure. Alternately, the Leading Player is the player whose birthday is closest to September 19th (International Talk Like a Pirate Day). The leading player will signal the end of the round.
How to Play
The game has 3 phases, which occur in this order:
- Shipbuilding
- Marauding
- Scoring
1. Shipbuilding
During the 4 rounds of this phase, players will play a total of 12 Ship Cards to build their ships. Each card will add either guns, treasure, or a bomb to a ship.
When you play a card, you must do one of the following:
Either Start a new ship: Place a card face up on the table so that the gun, treasure, or bomb symbol is visible.
Or Continue building on one of your existing ships: Add a card face down to the back of a ship, concealing the new treasure, gun, or bomb you have added. Even if the ship already has a face down card, you may add additional face down cards. Vertically splay out the cards so that the large sail of each card is visible and it makes one long ship. This allows all players to easily count the number of cards in the ship.
During a round, each player plays 3 of their 6 cards. Rather than take turns, players play simultaneously. After everyone has played 3 cards, the Leading Player signals the end of the round using a pirate phrase like "Arrg!" or "Walk the plank!"
Once the round is over, each player draws 3 cards from the central deck until they have 6 cards in hand. The player to the left of the Leading Player is now the new Leading Player.
Repeat these steps for Rounds 2, 3, and 4. By the end of Round 4, each player should have played 12 cards and have 1-6 ships. This ends the Shipbuilding Phase.
Note: Since the ships are being built in drydock, you may go back to building a previous ship even after starting a new ship. At any time, players may remind themselves of their ship contents by looking at their facedown cards. However, you cannot change any cards that have already been placed. Ships must have both a face up and face down card to be completed, but you may have incomplete ships with only a face up card at the end of Rounds 1-3.
Clean Up Shipbuilding Phase
At the end of the Shipbuilding Phase, players discard their leftover Ship Cards to the central discard pile. Beware: Any ship consisting of only 1 card is incomplete and is also discarded!
2. Marauding
Now it is time to begin the Marauding! The player with the most revealed treasure (face up on their ships) goes first. In the example with 4 ships, the player has 7 revealed treasure. If 2 or more players are tied with the most revealed treasure, the tie is broken by whoever has the most revealed guns. If there is still a tie, players flip a coin to break the tie. Play continues in clockwise order. During the Marauding Phase, each player must Attack on their first turn. On each remaining turn, players must do one of the following:
Either Attack another player's ship
Or Retreat and score
Attack Another Player's Ship
When you Attack, choose one of your ships to attack with and another player's ship to target. Then the attack begins! Both players flip over their cards. The player who has the most guns wins. If the number of guns is tied, the attacker wins. The winning player places the Treasure Cards from both ships in a personal Treasure Stash. Discard all Gun Cards.
Example: Thunderbeard's attacking ship (on the left) has 11 guns while the target ship has only 4 guns, so Thunderbeard gains all 9 treasure from both.
If either ship has a Bomb Card, both ships are instantly destroyed, and all cards are placed in the discard pile. There is no victor in that attack.
Retreat and Score a Ship
After everyone has attacked once, beginning on their second turn, players may choose to Retreat one of their ships instead of attacking. If they choose this option, they place all treasure from that ship in their Treasure Stash. Discard any Gun or Bomb Cards.
Continue taking turns in clockwise order, skipping any players who no longer have ships. Play continues until all players have no remaining ships. Then the Marauding Phase ends.
3. Scoring
During final scoring, players count up the total treasure in their Treasure Stash. The player with the most total treasure wins! If there is a tie, the player with the most Treasure Cards wins. If there is still a tie, the player who went first during the Marauding phase wins.
Optional Variants
Longer
For a longer game, continue playing until one player has won 2 games. All players start by playing side A of their Captain Card. When a player wins, that player flips the card and plays side B to indicate that they have won 1 game.
Simpler
For a simpler game, play without the Captain Cards. This can be helpful for your first game or for younger players.
Pirate's Bluff
At the end of each round during the Shipbuilding phase, each player discards one card and places two cards down in front of them, one face up and the other face down. Each player then steals one card from in front of the player on their left and keeps the card that remains in front of them. At the beginning of Rounds 2-4, players draw 4 cards to have a total of 6 cards in hand.
Captured Treasure
Whenever a ship is defeated, you add all the treasure from the defeated ship to the victorious ship. The victorious ship is still in play. The owner can Attack or Retreat with it on their next turn. It can also be targeted by other players. If the ship is defeated, all the treasure is transferred to the new victorious ship.
Spanish Armada
At the end of the Shipbuilding Phase, flip over the top 3 cards of the deck to start 3 neutral ships. Instead of discarding their remaining 3 cards, each player adds one card from their hand face down to each of the 3 ships. These ships do not attack, but may be attacked by any player. If a player loses an attack to a Spanish Armada ship all cards from both ships involved are discarded.