It’s the Age of Sail! The crown is distilling rum on colonized islands for enormous profit. Meanwhile pirates intend to sail in, steal that rum, and drink it all. These two factions (crown 👑 and pirate ☠️) play their conflict out over a two player asymmetric card game. Each player has a deck, a hand of cards, coins, and a menu of actions to choose from each turn. But what each does from there varies substantially.
👑 The crown player will work in secret, laying traps and pushing for an economic victory. They score rum by founding it on an island and investing coins into it over time. They protect that investment by placing hazards in front of the island face-down. When the pirate player tries to raid that island the crown can decide to spend their coin to raise those hazards against the pirate, stopping them or making them pay a terrible price. The crown may alternatively place traps or economic investments on their islands, luring the pirate to certain doom or increasing the momentum of the crown’s victory. If the crown manages to hold out and fund four points of rum, they win the game.
☠️ The pirate player will assemble ships and crew. These will hopefully raid their way to where the rum is with a combination of deduction and perseverance. But regardless they will trigger and combo together unique crew’s abilities to gain an advantage. If the pirate raids four bottles of rum, they win the game.
38 crown cards 13🍾, 11🌊, 3📜 | 1 crown rules summary | 4 starting hazards 🌊 | 4 islands 🏝️ |
25 pirate cards 6⚓, 11🪝, 5📜 | 1 pirate rules summary | 2 starting ships ⚓ | |
2 decklist cards | 3 action cards | 40 coins 🟡 |
Both players want rum. The crown wins if they fund 4 points ⭐ worth of rum (where different bottles will have different point values). The pirate wins if they raid 4 points ⭐ worth of rum (where each bottle is always worth 1 point ⭐ when raided; when it comes to rum pirates only care about quantity, not quality). Each player will track their score by accumulating scored rum cards in a personal score pile.
The two players play differently.
There are a total of 7 rum cards in the crown’s deck. Either the crown will score 2-4 of those rum cards to score 4 points ⭐, or the pirate will raid 4 of those rum cards to get their 4 points ⭐.
Icon | Meaning | Icon | Card Type | |
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👑 | Crown | 📜 | Event card | |
☠️ | Pirate | 🍾 | Investment card | |
🟡 | Coin | 🌊 | Hazard card | |
🧭 | Navigation skill | 🏝️ | Island card | |
⚔ | Combat skill | ⚓ | Ship card | |
⭐ | Victory point | 🪝 | Crew card |
Each player alternates taking turns, with the crown always taking the first turn.
The turn phases are as follows:
The two players start their turn differently.
At the start the crown’s turn they may flip any face-down investment cards that are funded to their face-up side. An investment is funded if it has 🟡 on it greater than or equal to the investment’s price (shown in the top left of the card).
The top half of the text on an investment card (black text on a light background) is the funded text and is for the crown. That is executed when the card is funded and face-up. The text immediate applies and may indicate effects that triggers every turn.
The bottom half of the text on an investment card (white text on a black background) is raid text and is for the pirate. It is only executed when the card is raided (see “The Raid” below).
Example 1 | |
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This investment requires 3 🟡 on it to be funded. When revealed as funded it will give the crown 2 of the 4 points needed to win the game, and then they may choose to shuffle their hand into their deck. If raided the pirate will score 1 point, and add 1 🟡 to each ship ⚓ that participated in the raid. |
Example 2 | |
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This investment requires 1 🟡 on it to be funded. While funded it gives the crown an effect each turn where they can +1 🟡 on of their cards. If raided the pirate must pay 🟡 equal to the amount of 🟡 on the card or they may not trash it. |
At the start of the pirate’s turn they remove 1 🟡 from each ship ⚓ in play (returning the 🟡 to the bank).
Example | |
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If this ship ⚓ had 3 🟡 on it at the start of the turn, 1 🟡 would return to the bank, leaving 2 🟡 still on the ship. |
The rest of your turn (whether crown or pirate) functions largely the same. You will take 3 actions. Some of the available actions are shared, while some are only for the crown and some are only for the pirate.
Crown 👑 | Pirate ☠️ | Action |
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✔ | ✔ | Gain coins 🟡 |
✔ | ✔ | Draw |
✔ | ✔ | Play an event 📜 |
✔ | - | Play investments 🍾 |
✔ | - | Play a hazard 🌊 |
✔ | - | Recall |
✔ | - | Invest |
- | ✔ | Play a ship ⚓ |
- | ✔ | Play/Rearrange crew 🪝 |
- | ✔ | Raid |
You make take the same action type multiple times, and you make take actions in any order.
Example | |
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On their turn the ☠️ player chooses these 3 actions: 1. Draw 2. Gain coins 🟡 3. Raid |
On their turn the 👑 player chooses these 3 actions: 1. Gain coins 🟡 2. Invest 3. Gain coins 🟡 |
Take 2 🟡 from the bank and add it to your supply.
Draw cards from your deck until you have 5 cards in your hand.
Play an event 📜 card from your hand into your discard pile face-up. You must pay its 🟡 cost (shown in the top left of the card) from your supply to the bank. Execute the text on the card.
Play any number of investment 🍾 cards from your hand face-down on any islands in play that do not already have any cards on them.
Play a hazard 🌊 card from your hand face-down in front of one of your islands. If there are already hazard cards in front of the island, the new card goes in the position furthest away from the island (closest to the pirate player).
Return one of your cards that is in play (investment 🍾 or hazard 🌊) to your hand. Any 🟡 on that card are moved to your supply.
Pay any number of 🟡 from your supply. Add a single 🟡 to the same number of your cards in play (hazards or investments).
Play a ship ⚓ card from your hand in front of you. You must pay its 🟡 cost (shown in the top left of the card) from your supply to the bank.
Play any number of crew 🪝 cards from your hand into available slots on ships ⚓ in play. For each crew card you play must pay its 🟡 cost (shown in the top left of the card) from your supply to the bank.
When you take this action you may also rearrange crew 🪝 in play between crew slots on ships ⚓ in play, and you may recall any crew in play to your hand.
The details of how a raid works are covered below in “The Raid” section.
After taking your 3 actions, draw 1 card from your deck.
If you have more than 5 cards in your hand, discard 1 card from your hand into your face-up discard pile.
👑 If the crown player discards a card (through this or any other game effect), treat it as if that card had been raided. See “Raiding a card” below for details.
👑 When the crown’s deck runs out, that’s it. They must make do with the cards in their hand and already in play.
☠️ When the pirate’s deck runs out, nothing happens until they need to draw more cards. As soon as the pirate needs to draw 1 or more cards then they flip their discard pile face-down, shuffle it, and form a new draw deck. After doing so they remove the top 5 cards of their deck from the game (return to the game box). Then (if any cards remain), they resume drawing cards.
At the center of the game is the act of the pirate raiding the crown’s islands. If the pirate does not raid, the crown will eventually win.
Generally, a raid is started by the pirate taking an action to do so, although there are event cards that will also start a raid as part of their action (e.g. Treasure Map).
The 6 steps to resolve a raid are as follows:
For a detailed example, see “Example of a Raid” below.
The pirate chooses and announces one of the crown’s islands as the target for the raid.
The pirate then chooses 1 or more ships ⚓ that will join the raid. The pirate may not choose a ship that has any 🟡 on it, or a ship that has no crew 🪝 slotted into it. For each ship chosen the pirate must then pay a 🟡 from their supply onto the chosen ship.
The ships that are joined to the raid and the crew on those ships are called the raiding party.
For each face-down hazard 🌊 in front of the target island the crown may pay its 🟡 cost (shown in the top left of the card) to flip it face-up. This cost may be paid using any combination of 🟡 from the crown’s supply or 🟡 on the face-down hazard card. Any 🟡 on the hazard not used to pay its cost remain on the card after it is flipped face-up.
Immediately after flipping a card face-up the crown may pay additional 🟡 from their supply to the face-up hazard. The number of 🟡 on a hazard generally affects how many uses that hazard has.
The pirate encounters the face-up hazards 🌊 (if any) one at a time, starting with the furthest away from the target island.
Each hazard has one or more costs listed at the bottom of the card. The pirate checks to see if they can fulfill each of these costs. If they could pay multiple, then they choose one to pay. If they cannot pay any of the hazard’s costs then the raid will be stopped.
Some details on hazard costs:
Example 1 | |
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This hazard may be overcome by providing 3 🧭 across the raiding party's crew 🪝 and ships ⚓. For example, a raiding party containing a Sloop, Cuthroat Carlie, and Enric Cursemaker, from the "Example of a Raid" section below could meet this cost. If the requirement cannot be met, the raid is stopped and is unsuccessful. |
Example 2 | |
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This hazard may be overcome by either discarding 2 cards or by trashing a crew 🪝 (from the raiding party). If either cost can be paid, the raid continues (assuming there are crewed ships remaining in the raid). Note that this particular cost can always be paid, as a raiding party will always have at least one crew. However if after paying the cost there are new crewed ships remaining in the raiding party then the raid will be stopped and will be unsuccessful. |
After a hazard has been evaluated (either successfully or unsuccessfully) check if the hazard has any 🟡 on it.
The hazard is now resolved.
If the raid has not been stopped this process continues with the next face-up hazard closest to the island, then the next, until no more remain. When all face-up hazards have been resolved and the raid was not stopped the raid is considered successful.
If the raid was successful:
When raiding a card reveal it to both players.
If the card has “raid text” listed at the bottom of the card, the pirate executes it. This may add a cost or side effect to raiding the card.
Then trash the card (unless prevented by the raid text).
Example | |
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The raid text at the bottom of this card requires that the pirate pay 🟡 equal to the number of 🟡 on the investment to trash it, otherwise it remains in play. |
After a raid has ended, whether successful or not, execute the game text of all crew in the raiding party. If there are multiple crew the effects may be resolved in the order of the pirate’s choosing.
Crew effect | Event effect |
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The game ends as soon as the crown scores 4 points ⭐ of rum (via funding) or the pirate scores 4 points ⭐ cards (via raiding). Whoever hit 4 points first wins.
The crown player may look at their face-down cards at any point. They do not need to memorize what they have placed down (or what started the game face-down, in their starting hazards).
The crown player operates in secret, playing most of their cards face-down. That does mean it is possible (particularly for a learning player) to unintentionally place the wrong card type in the wrong place (e.g. an investment 🍾 in front of an island where only Hazards should go, or an event 📜 on an island where only Investments should go). This is an invalid play state. In a friendly game, find an agreeable way to roll back the mistake as soon as it’s uncovered. Learning new games is hard; be generous!
However, if a crown player intentionally does this, it’s cheating. There is bluffing in this game, but not this kind of bluffing.
The pirate has decided to raid the player. The pirate has 3 ships in play:
The raiding party |
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The pirate decides Privateer Point is the target of their raid.
The pirate forms a raiding party of 2 ships, the Longboat and the Sloop. They may not select the Brigantine because it has a 🟡 on it. They pay 2 🟡 from their personal supply, placing 🟡 on the Longboat and 🟡 on the Sloop.
Now the crown has decisions to make. They have 1 face-up hazard and 2 face-down hazards in front of Privateer Point:
The investment face-down on Privateer Point is Light Rum, and has 2 on it 🟡.
☠️ What the pirate sees | 👑 What the crown knows is there |
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The crown reviews the raiding party of 2 ships, noting they can muster 2 navigation 🧭 (from the Sloop and from Cuthroat Carlie) and 1 combat ⚔️ (from Doug Doubloon). They decide to raise the Privateers hazard, spending its 1 🟡 cost to the bank and flipping the card face-up. They pay 2 additional 🟡 from their supply and place them on the now face-up hazard. The crown could also raise “Reef” at this point, but they decide not to (known that this raiding party could bypass it).
Now that the crown is done raising hazards, the raiding party faces them. They start with the outermost hazard from the island, Privateers. This hazard has 3 choices: 2 combat ⚔️⚔️, pay 4 🟡, or trash a crew 🪝. The raiding party only has 1 ⚔️, so they can't pay the first cost. They only have 3 🟡, so they can't pay the second cost. They have 3 raiding crew 🪝 that they could choose from for the third cost, so they must choose that option. They decide to pay the third cost by trashing Peg-Leg Paul to their discard pile. Now that the hazard is faced, they removes 1 🟡 from the card (leaving 1 🟡 still on the card).
As that there are no more crew on that Longboat, it is no longer considered part of the raiding party, leaving the Sloop to continue on alone. The next hazard would be the Reef, but it’s face-down so it’s skipped.
The raiding party now moves onto Port Taxes. As it's already face-up there is no opportunity for the crown to add addtional 🟡 to it. This hazard has 2 choices: Pay 2 🟡, or the crown gains 3 🟡. The pirate has enough 🟡 in their supply, so either is an option. They opt to pay 2 🟡 to the bank. Now that the hazard is faced, there are no 🟡 on the hazard card so it is trashed to the crown's discard pile.
There are no hazards left to face, so the pirates raid the face-down investment on the island. They flip it over, and it's Light Rum. The raid text says "+1 🟡 each rading ship. Score for 1 ⭐". The pirate adds 1 🟡 from the bank to the Sloop, and keeps the Light Rum card to track that they have 1 of the 4 bottles they need to win the game. The 2 🟡 that had been on the card are returned to the bank.
Finally, the pirate triggers their crew 🪝 effects. They choose to resolve Doug Doubloon’s effect first, drawing 1 card. Secondly, they resolve Cutthroat Carlie’s ability and move 1 🟡 from the Brigantine to the Longboat.
The aftermath |
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After reviewing their starting hand of 5 cards, each player my opt to draw a new starting hand by shuffling those cards back into the deck and drawing 5 cards. To do so they must pay 🟡 (reducing their starting total). They may repeat this as many times as they like as long as they still have 🟡 to pay.
The provided 3 action cards can be useful for tracking how many actions each player has taken in a turn. They are not a required component for play.