Pirates (2021) Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
• Setup
• Playing the Game
• The Actions in Detail
  • 1. Assemble Boarding Party
  • 2. Capture
  • 3. Mutiny
  • 4. Ransom a Pirate
• The Black Spot
• The Sea Monster
• Ending the Game and Final Scoring
  • Final Scoring

Components

• 13 Ship cards (yellow border)
• 6 Lost ruins cards (grey border)
• 1 Sea Monster (card with red frame)
• Each ship / lost ruins card shows: the number of ducats gained by boarding the card; the booty token(s) gained by captain and mate for boarding the card; the anchor(s) / wheel(s) for end of game scoring; the minimum number of pirates required to board the card; and the number of ducats to be paid to the pirate bearing the "?" sign.
• 36 Booty tokens (6 each of saber, rum, relics, treasure chest, wheel, and anchor)
• 75 Coins (20 x 1 ducat, 20 x 5 ducats, and 35 x 10 ducats)
• 1 Black spot
• 1 Display board (assembled from two pieces)
• 25 Pirates (5 in each player color)
• 1 Rules booklet

Setup

1. Place the display board in the center of the playing area.
2. Shuffle all ship cards, lost ruins cards, and the sea monster card together, and stack them facedown on the display board. Reveal the top four cards from the stack, and place them face up onto the four spaces of the display board.
3. Sort the ducats and booty tokens by denomination, and put them on the display board as a general supply.
4. Keep the black spot next to the display board.
5. Each player takes 5 ducats from the general supply into their own treasury, as well as 5 pirates in a color of their choice, and places them face up in front of them. Randomly determine a first player.

Playing the Game

The game is played in a series of turns, starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise. The active player must always choose one of four possible actions:

1. Assemble Boarding party
2. Capture
3. Mutiny
4. Ransom a pirate

There are 4 cards to board at the start of the game. Once all 4 cards have been boarded, the display is refilled. The game will proceed until all 20 cards have been claimed. Once the final card has been boarded the game ends immediately, and final scoring takes place.

The Actions in Detail

1. Assemble Boarding Party

The active player assembles a boarding party by placing a single pirate or a boarding party already lying in front of them on top of another player's single pirate or boarding party. The player takes the new stack and places it in their playing area.

The top pirate in a boarding party is the "captain," while the second pirate is the "mate." All other pirates make up the "crew." The color of the captain clearly indicates the player who controls this boarding party.

When assembling a boarding party, the number shown on any single pirate or captain does not matter. A new boarding party may be assembled as long as the new party does not contain more than 9 pirates. (Example: a party made up of 10 pirates is not allowed.)

Note: Forming a boarding party always involves the pirates of the active player and one or several other players (never the active player alone).

2. Capture

Capture one card: ship, lost ruins, or sea monster.

A player may capture any face up card from the display board (only) with a boarding party. They may do so using any boarding party for which their pirate is the captain, and the party must contain at least as many pirates as the number showing on the card (the minimum number of pirates required to board the card). The party is placed on the card to be captured.

Sharing the loot

The players must divide the booty and ducats among all pirates in the boarding party.

• The captain chooses one booty token depicted on the card, takes it from the supply, and places it in front of them.
• The mate (second pirate from top) receives the other booty token (the one not chosen by the captain). If there is only one booty depicted on the card, the mate receives no booty.
• Next, the captain takes as many ducats as depicted on the card from the supply into their own treasury. They must then pay the mate and crew as follows:
  1. Each pirate (mate and crew) in the party belonging to another player is paid a number of ducats equal to the number shown on that pirate. A pirate marked with a "?" receives as many ducats as indicated on the card.
  2. In case the captain has not enough ducats in their treasury to pay all pirates, the missing ducats are paid from the general supply.
  3. If the captain paid every pirate in the boarding party from their own treasury, they take the captured card and place it face down in their playing area. If any pirates were paid from the general supply (even in part), the captured card is instead discarded.

Cleanup and new cards

Return all pirates of the boarding party back to their owners. These are placed in their respective playing areas and are ready to be used again. Only after all 4 face up cards have been captured should the display be refilled with 4 new cards from the deck.

3. Mutiny

The active player takes the black spot from where it is and places it in front of another player. By doing this, they incite a mutiny against this player.

The active player chooses one boarding party of the affected player which contains at least one of their pirates and places one of their pirates in the stack on top (thus promoting it to captain and downgrading the previous captain to mate). This party is then immediately placed on a face up card in the display area, if the party has the required number of pirates as depicted on the card.

The captain chooses one booty token, the mate receives the other booty token, if a second token exists.

Finally, the captain takes as many ducats as depicted on the card from the supply into their treasury, then pays the mate and crew. Because this is a mutiny, the captain must pay twice the usual amount to each other pirate.

If the captain does not have enough ducats to pay all pirates, the remaining ducats are paid from the general supply. In this case remove the boarded card from the game.

If the captain is able to pay all pirates from their own treasury, they take the card and place it facedown in their play area.

All pirates then return to their owners. Refill the display with 4 new cards from the stack only after all 4 face up cards have been boarded.

Important: You can choose the Mutiny action only if the chosen player has a boarding party that is strong enough to board one of the available cards!

4. Ransom a Pirate

This action is possible only if the active player has no single pirate or boarding party. To ransom a pirate, the active player chooses any of their own pirates which is part of a boarding party belonging to another player. They pay 5 ducats to that player and retrieve their pirate. If the player does not own 5 ducats, the missing amount is taken from the general supply.

The player then immediately performs the action "1. Assemble boarding party". Then, the next player takes their turn.

The Black Spot

At the start of the game, the black spot is next to the display board. When the first mutiny is incited, it is placed in front of the affected player. From now on, the black spot is always in front of a player. When a player incites a mutiny, they take the black spot from its current location and place it in front of the player suffering the mutiny.

Exception: If a mutiny is incited against a player with the black spot in front of them already, the active player must take the black spot themselves!

The player "owning" the black spot at the end of the game must pay 10 ducats to the general supply!

The Sea Monster

The player who captures the sea monster as captain gains both booty markers as their reward: 1 wheel and 1 anchor. The mate does not get a booty marker. But mate and crew are paid as normal. Furthermore, that player will not need to pay 10 ducats in case they have the black spot at the end of the game.

Ending the Game and Final Scoring

As soon as all 20 cards have been captured the game ends immediately, and the final scoring takes place.

Final Scoring

Booty tokens

The player owning the most booty tokens of each kind (saber, rum, relics, and treasure chest) gains the printed amount of ducats. In case of a tie for the most tokens all tied players gain that amount. All other players receive 1 ducat for each of these tokens.

Anchors and wheels

Each player who has one or more wheels will earn ducats. The amount is greater the more anchors they have. The total is added to the ducats they have gathered.

1. Each player counts the number of anchors on their lost ruins cards and the number of wheels on their ship cards. The player owning the most anchor tiles (booty tokens) increases their number of anchors by 1. The player owning the most wheel tiles (booty tokens) increases their number of wheels by 1. If several players are tied for the most anchor or wheel tiles, all tied players increase their respective number by 1. Players owning anchor and wheel tiles that did not increase their respective numbers receive 1 ducat for each of these tokens.
2. Now players gain ducats for each wheel based on the number of anchors they have collected (see chart).

Anchor/Wheel table: amount of ducats per wheel

Number of anchors	0	1	2	3	4+
3 players	0	2	4	6	10
4 players	2	4	6	10	15
5 players	3	6	10	15	20

Example 1: In a 4 player game a player has 2 anchors and 4 wheels. According to the table, they gain 6 ducats for each wheel. 6 ducats times 4 wheels = 24 ducats.

Example 2: In a 4 player game, Anne has 6 wheels and 2 anchors on her 4 ship and 2 lost ruins cards. Since she has the most anchor booty tiles she adds one more anchor for a total of 3. According to the table she gains 10 ducats for each of her 6 wheels for a total of 60 ducats.

Black spot

Finally, the player with the black spot in front of them must pay 10 ducats to the general supply! (However, if they own the sea monster as well they do not need to pay this penalty).

The player owning the most ducats is the winner of the game! In case of a tie for the most ducats the tied player owning the card with the highest value of ducats is the winner.