MallyLee

Jamaica is a quick and easy to learn Pirate racing game. Players’ Pirate Ships race around the island of Jamaica trying to be the first back to Port Royal with the most gold. Along the way, they will need gold to pay to visit ports (identified by numbered yellow pins), food to feed their crew (identified by small white squares), and black powder to increase their chances of winning combat against other pirates.

To keep the game from being too easy, you can only add items to empty holds on your player board. If you do not have any empty holds, you must get rid of an item different from the one you are placing in the hold. For example, if you receive gold you must remove black powder or food.

If you land on a space that already has a ship, you must initiate combat before carrying out any other actions. Before rolling the combat die, add black powder from your hold to increase your attack/defense but if a star is rolled, that person automatically wins. The winning pirate can give a cursed treasure or steal food, gold, black powder, or treasure from the losing pirate.

Remember it is a race! Make it to the positive point side of the board before the first person reaches Port Royal or you will receive -5 points.

I really like the 2-player variation, which includes a Ghost Ship. Without the Ghost Ship, I do not think the game would be as enjoyable or as challenging, which the game designers took into consideration. The Ghost Ship has its own special rules. Its movements depend on what order it falls in. For example, if it is last, it must move forward and if it is first, it must move backward. If the Ghost Ship is neither of these, the direction is up to the player who is currently Captain. At setup, the Ghost Ship gets the Lady Beth special treasure card adding +2 attack/defense for combat. Players cannot steal this card; however, any other treasure cards the Ghost Ship may acquire can be stolen. When the Ghost Ship wins in combat, it will take gold or treasure. If it must take food or black powder, it is thrown overboard (placed back in the bank).

Bonuses:
The rules are written like a treasure map!

The Pirates in the game are based on legendary pirates and brief biographies for each are included on the back on the rulebook.

Components:
1 game board
1 treasure map rulebook
6 ships (player pieces)
6 cargo holds (player boards)
9 Treasure markers
12 Treasure cards
1 Combat die
2 Captain’s dice
Gold Tokens
Black Powder Tokens
Food Tokens
Captain Marker (1st player marker)

My boyfriend recently debuted Hanabi at a board game night and it was a big hit. I wasn’t sure how fun a game about fireworks would be but I was pleasantly surprised. We ended up playing the game the entire night when we had two others lined up.

It definitely helps if you know the people you are playing with well to be able to read between the lines of their hints. It took some getting used to for us to remember not to look at our cards when we picked them up after being dealt.

This is a great game for gamers of all ages and I also think it’s a good intro to unique card games for non-gamers.

There are so many things I love about this game! It’s so easy to get people to play since it only takes 10 minutes and it’s simple to teach. I’ve played the first 3 modules of Escape though I also have the 2 expansions. I’ve played by myself, with 2 people, and with 4 people. The first time, I played with 2 people and we tried going our separate ways but found it was better to work together to win. When 4 of us played, we broke off into groups of two to cover more ground. We only ran into a problem when one pair had all black dice and the others had to come rescue us.

I was surprised at how much shouting was involved and how intense it gets when you are trying to make your way back to the starting tile or to the exit tile when time is running out.

I definitely recommend this game for beginners. It’s an exciting one to start out with and there are so many different ways to play even with just the base game and add 2 more ways to play with each expansion.

Play this game and keep rolling those dice!