Impressions: Treasure Fleet

November 19, 2008 No comments

At RinCon I had the chance to play a hand of Treasure Fleet, a piracy-themed card game, with it’s creator, Cap’n John Morgan. It’s a fun, fast game with a lot of flavor and good opportunity for strategy and tactics. Cap’n Morgan was in full pirate garb and explained and played the game talking like a pirate, which made the game even more enjoyable. How can you not enjoy a pirate game when the guy across from you is a pirate?

The object of Treasure Fleet is to capture ships, each of which is worth a certain point value, and to score the most points by the end of the game. Each player (2-4 players are needed, and Cap’n Morgan says he prefers 3 players for the natural imbalance) gets an identical hand of cards, which consist of cannons with assorted point values and a Boarding Party card. Each player has 13 cards total, and plays 4 cards per round for 3 rounds, with one card held in reserve for reasons I’ll explain later.

There are 16 ship cards, which are sorted and dealt out 4 per round. That means 4 ships will never make it onto the table in any given game. After the ships are on the table, the players take turns laying down cannons next to ships. After each player has laid down all for cannon cards for that round, the player with the most cannons next to a ship gets that ships and the points it’s worth. The used cannon cards are discarded, and the ships go into your hand.

In the event of a tie with equal number of cannons from two players, the ship escapes and no one gets it. If you can’t take the ship, you can at least prevent another player from getting it. The Boarding Party card trumps all cannons. If you play the Boarding Party, you take the ship. If someone else plays the Boarding Party on the same ship, a tie results and the ship gets way, meaning no one gets it.

After three rounds, each player will have one card left. At this point, Cap’n John tells the tale of how the pirates have landed at the island and taken the Governor hostage – and pulls out the Governor card. The player with the highest card value gets the Governor and his point value. This means the most cannons, or the Boarding Party card. Again in the event of a tie the Governor escapes and no one gets the points.

A two-player game takes about 20 minutes, and Cap’n Morgan says a three or- or four-player game takes 40 to 45 minutes. It’s not so fluffy that those who like strategy will be bored, but not so crunchy that it can’t be easily picked up by new players. Treaure Fleet is a good time-filler to lay while waiting for players to arrive for your roleplaying game session, especially if you’re playing a pirate or nautical themed game. I would even use this as an in-game card game, having pirate player characters sitting around a table at a tavern playing each other for pieces of eight instead of less genre-appropriate card games.