Libertalia
Libertalia is a game designed by Paolo Mori and published by Marabunta.
Number of players: 2 - 6
Game duration: 18 mn
Complexity: 3 / 5
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Play Libertalia and 948 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
- Libertalia is an auction game with a twist.
- During three campaigns, you have to gather doubloons and booty tiles to become the wealthiest pirate.
- Each turn, you play a numbered card to try to get first pick of the booty - but each card has special powers that affect how the auction will play out.
- Every player starts with the same set of cards, and you'll have to choose carefully which moment to play each card, and to try to read your opponents' strategies.
Structure
- The game consists of 3 campaigns, broken up into 6 days.
- In the first campaign, all players have an identical random set of 9 crew cards and 10 doubloons.
Phases
Each day has 4 phases:
Phase 1: Sunrise
- In this phase, each player secretly chooses one crew card to play.
- Once everyone is ready, the players reveal their chosen crew members and place them on the cargo ship from lowest on the left to the highest on the right.
- If there is a tie, the lower tie breaker number goes the left of the higher.
- During this phase, all special actions that take place during sunrise happen from left to right.
Phase 2: Day
- The only thing that happens in this phase is all crew members with a day action (yellow sun symbol) must take it, in increasing order of rank. (lowest goes first).
Phase 3: Dusk
- Each crew must claim a booty token from below the ship.
- Tokens are chosen in decreasing order of rank (the opposite of Phase 2) so the highest ranking crew get the best selection of tokens.
- After a crew claims a booty and resolves their dusk action (red sun symbol) - if any - they are immediately placed in their player's den before the next booty is claimed (which is important if someone is claiming a sabre later.)
- In some circumstances there might be no more booty to claim when a crew's turn to claim is resolved which means they get no booty and go to their den empty handed.
Phase 4: Night
- The only thing that happens in this phase is crew members use their Night actions (moon symbol).
- The difference is all crew members in your den resolve their night actions every night.
- So that Barkeep (his action is to score you 1 doubloon each night) you played on day 1 of the current campaign, will keep paying you every night (as long as he stays alive.)
- Play those night cards early!
- Note: All crew must resolve as much of their actions as possible, even if disadvantageous to themselves or their controller!
- The Brute might kill himself, the Cannoneer has to pay 3 gold even if there are no eligible crew in a den to kill, the Merchant will sell your set of jewels or treasure maps if you have no other sets of matching treasure.
Booty Tokens
- Chest = 5 doubloons.
- Jewels = 3 doubloons.
- Goods = 1 doubloon.
- Each set of 3 treasure maps = 12 doubloons. Incomplete sets of 1 or 2 treasure maps are worth nothing.
- Each cursed relic makes you lose 3 doubloons.
- Sabers and Spanish Officers are worth nothing but have effects when taken:
- - When the Saber is taken you must choose a character from an adjacent player's den and discard it if possible.
- - When the Spanish Officer is taken your character is discarded instead of being added to your den.
End of campaign
- After the 6th day of the campaign, the round is over.
- Players resolve all “end of campaign” actions (anchor symbol) of crew members still alive in their dens (yes, crew members can be killed).
- All used crew members are removed from the game.
- Each player adds up the value of their booty tokens and doubloons (returning them to the bank) and moves their score marker ahead on the track.
- Each player should have 3 cards left in their hand.
- These carry over into the next 2 campaigns.
- To setup for the next campaign each player gets 10 new doubloons and add an identical random set of 6 crew cards to the three crew left over.
- Thus players may have a slightly different hand from each other going forward.
End of game
- Rounds 2 and 3 play just like round 1.
- At the end of the game the player with the most victory points is the winner.
Crew Powers
- Parrot (1): Discard and replace with a different character (day).
- Monkey (2): Give all your cursed relics to the player on your left (day).
- Beggar (3): The player with the highest character in the ship gives you 3 doubloons (day).
- Recruiter (4): Take back one character from your den into your hand (day).
- Cabin Boy (5): Don't take any booty tiles (dusk).
- Preacher (6): Discard all booty tiles but one (day). Gain 5 doubloons (end).
- Barkeep (7): Gain 1 doubloon (night).
- Waitress (8): Discard a treasure map to gain 3 doubloons (night).
- Carpenter (9): Lose half of your doubloons (day). Gain 10 doubloons (end).
- French Officer (10): Gain 5 doubloons if you have less than 9 doubloons (day).
- Voodoo Witch (11): Gain 2 doubloons for each of your discarded characters (day).
- Freed Slave (12): Gain 1 doubloon for each character in your den with a rank higher than 12 (night).
- Mutineer (13): Discard the character with the lowest rank in your den (not mutineer) and gain 2 doubloons (night).
- Brute (14): Discard the character with the highest rank in the ship (day).
- Gunner (15): Pay 3 doubloons to discard any character of your choice (day).
- Topman (16): Gain 5 doubloons if you have the fewest characters in your den (end).
- Spanish Spy (17): Discard all Spanish officers and draw 1 booty for each officer discarded (day).
- Cook (18): Take 2 booty tiles (dusk).
- Bosun (19): Gain 2 doubloons for each character in your den with a rank lower than 19 (night).
- Armorer (20): Gain 1 doubloon for each sabre (night).
- Merchant (21): Discard 2 identical booty tiles to gain 3 doubloons or 3 identical booty tiles to gain 5 doubloons (day).
- Surgeon (22): Take back one discarded character into your hand (day).
- Treasurer (23): Gain 1 doubloon for each of your goods, jewels and chests (end).
- Gambler (24): Lose 1 doubloon for each of your booty (day). Gain 8 doubloons (end).
- Governor's Daughter (25): Gain 6 doubloons if only you have the Governor's Daughter. Otherwise, lose 3 doubloons (end).
- Quarter Master (26): Gain 1 doubloon for each of your booty (day). Lose 8 doubloons (end).
- Granny Wata (27): Gain 2 doubloons if there is only 1 Granny Wata, otherwise discard all Granny Watas (night).
- First Officer (28): Gain 1 doubloon for each character in your den (end).
- Captain (29): Gain 3 doubloons (day). Lose 3 doubloons for each of your cursed relics (end).
- Spanish Governor (30): Discard all characters from your den (day).