Pirates of Van Zandt TextVersion

The Pirates of Van Zandt
A piecepack game by Andy Van Zandt
Copyright 2008 Truekid Games
www.TruekidGames.com
This may be used for any purpose as long as this header is included and unaltered.

Intro:

Loose lips sink ships, and due to the loosening of several lips by a little bit of grog, several groups of pirates just realized that they've all buried their treasure near each other, in the same group of islands! Now they've all rushed out, not as much to defend their own treasure, which has no doubt been ingeniously hidden, but to unearth the booty the other groups have hidden and claim it as their own.

Disagreements may arise, such as Who exactly is on whose island and YARRRRRR!. These should generally solved with tap on the shoulder with a cutlass, or a friendly reminder via cannonball.

The Setup:

Give each player all the coins, the pawn, the ace and null tiles of their suit.

The Pawn is their captain. The ace and null coins are their cannonballs (used value side up), the other coins are the crew (used value side down, except when they are required to reveal their value). The ace tile is their whirlpool, and the null tile is their ship. Place everything except the whirlpool on their suit- side up ship.

Turn the rest of the tiles suit side down, they will be the island(s). Roll 1 of the dice to determine the island configuration (make sure the gaps are large enough to slide the ships through, and that the tile edges on outlying islands still maintain general edge alignment with the others):

Then, starting with the youngest player, each player in turn places his ship (loaded with captain, crew, and cannonballs) directly adjacent to a land tile (ships can't overlap). Then each player, in the same order, takes the dice of their suit and places it in any square on the board. These are the likely spots for buried treasure.

Play:

Again, starting with the youngest player, each player takes turns. During each turn, you may take two actions, which can be any combination of the following, as long as you meet the requirements (including two of the same action in a row):

Action List:

• Move a ship along a coastline
• Move a ship into or out of the open ocean
• Fire a cannon
• Attempt a boarding action
• Move a crew/captain
• Attack with a crew member
• Dig for treasure
• Place or remove your whirlpool
• Recruit new crew members
• Gather supplies
• Drop off treasure

Thorough action descriptions:

Ship actions (you may not take a ship action unless your captain is on the ship):

• Move a ship up to 8 squares (not tiles) along the coast. The gaps between islands are generally considered to be one ship wide, so if you're touching two coasts, you may move along either. Ships and whirlpools obstruct coastlines they are adjacent to, so you may not move along coastlines that have one of those next to it.

• Move a ship out into the open ocean (hereafter referred to as Open-ocean). Place the ship in front of you. While a ship is open-ocean, you may perform open-ocean actions, and your ship may not be shot with a cannonball or have a boarding action taken against it. You may move open- ocean even if your ship appears to otherwise be blocked in.

• Fire a cannon! Remove a cannonball from your ship, and indicate a legal ship or crew target, then place the cannonball in front of you to show it has been used. If it's a crew member, he's killed and is placed in front of the owning player. If it's a ship, that ship cannot move until ALL living crew members on the adjacent islands get back on the ship. You may fire a cannon across any amount of land OR water (NOT both, in any combination), in a straight line. It stops when it either hits a legal target, or crosses a different type of terrain. If you kill a crew member carrying treasure this way, the player of the same suit as the treasure must place it back as a potential treasure spot anywhere on the board.

• Boarding action! Your ship must be adjacent to another ship to take this action, and you must have 2 cannonballs, which you place in front of you. (They are not shot as per Fire a cannon, they are used up as part of the boarding action). Add up the value of your crew (plus any bonuses for the captain), then subtract the value of the opposing ship's crew (also with their captain bonus, if appropriate). If the result is greater than zero, all opposing crew are slain. If there is treasure on the boat, you may put it on yours. If there is no captain on that boat, you MAY move your captain and all crew onto it. If you do, that boat is now yours, and the your prior one is available for other people to take. If the result is zero or less, the opposite occurs, and the player who was attacked slays your crew, and may take your treasure and boat, if applicable.

Crew actions:

• Move a crew member or captain one square along land (The ship itself counts as one square). If your captain is in an adjacent square at the start of the move (including being on the ship), you may move that crew member two squares instead. The captain can only ever move 1. All movement is orthogonal, none may be diagonal.

• Check for treasure. If you have a crew or captain adjacent to a potential treasure spot THAT DOES NOT MATCH YOUR SUIT, Roll the dice for that treasure spot. If the number matches ANY of the values of the crew/captain that are adjacent to the treasure spot and belong to the checking player, you've found treasure! Place it under the checking piece and move the piece two spaces immediately (three if he was next to his captain). If the dice is rolled and does not match any of the values, the player whose suit matches that treasure-spot-dice may place it anywhere on the board as a potential treasure spot, and chuckle about how well he hid his treasure. No, you may not collect your own treasure, you're after theirs! Keep the same number face up on the treasure dice, that's its value.

• Attack another player's crew member that is adjacent to one of yours. Flip over your crew member and the opposing one, if one of them is lower, that one is killed. Place him in front of the owning player. Any crew that is in any orthogonally OR diagonally adjacent space to his captain counts as being 1 point higher for attack purposes (whether you're the attacker or the defender). If you kill a crew member carrying treasure, your attacking crew member picks it up (unless it's your suit, then you must place it anywhere else on the board and it becomes a potential treasure spot again).

• Place or remove your whirlpool. It must be adjacent to land. It cannot overlap a ship. Ships cannot move along coastline it is occupying. Once placed, it cannot be moved elsewhere. If you remove your whirlpool, it goes into the box, and cannot be used for the rest of the game.

Open-ocean actions (these may only be taken while your ship is open-ocean):

• Recruit crew: if you have any slain crew members in front of you, you may recruit them ALL as new crew. Place them back on your ship, suit-side up.

• Gather supplies: if you have any cannonballs in front of you, you may put ONE of them back on your ship.

• Leave open-ocean. Move your ship to any available coastline.

• Drop off treasure. Move any treasure on your ship into the area in front of you. It's now safe.

Winning the game and notes about the captain:

If any one player claims 2 treasures and no one else has any, he wins. When 3 treasures have been claimed (assuming the prior condition wasn't met before then), each player with treasure compares total values, the higher value wins. If there is a tie for first place, play continues until the 4th treasure is claimed. If the 4th treasure is claimed, and there is still a tie for first, each player rolls the treasure dice they have collected, highest result wins. Repeat until a clear winner is determined.

If it was not clear from the above descriptions, the captain cannot attack or be attacked, and cannot be killed. Any of his crew that is in any diagonally or orthogonally adjacent space gets +1 attack value and +1 to movement. The ship cannot do anything besides hold crew while the captain is not on it. The captain can check for treasure, he counts as the null result.