Jamaica
Raise the sail and straight on 'til morning.
How else could the honorable Henry Morgan celebrate his 30 years of governing Jamaica than with a race around the island? Gathering every Pirate and Buccaneer around, the "Great Challenge" will be a memorable race. Not to mention - what's better than a race where you can earn some booty and shoot at your opponents? The ''Great Challenge'', that's what!
The goal is to sail around the island of Jamaica as fast as possible, while gathering the goods required: gold for port taxes, powder for naval battles and food to eat while out on the high seas. Each time the pirates meet, they will have to fight to try and steal the contents of each other's holds (and maybe pawn off a chest full of cursed gold at the same time).
And so, hoist up the sails and head towards Port-Royal. May the fastest and richest win!
User Reviews (4)
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Board your ships and ready the sails for a fun pirate themed racing game.
The Story: The story behind the game is interesting. It is about an ex-pirate who has “cleverly” become the Governor of Jamaica. Instead of driving out the pirates, he welcomes them all to live on the island without consequences. 30 years later, “The Great Challenge” is created to celebrate his decision. That challenge you may ask? A race around the island, and whoever has the most gold in their holds win!
Game play Basics: This game is definitely a ton of fun! It is a racing game at heart, with some light strategy, resource management, and a bit of good ol’ fashion pirate fighting. The strategy on which card you want to play each turn. Do you want land on someone and attack? Or stock up on food you will need further ahead? Or perhaps get dubloons needed for ports and to win the game. There are many decisions to be made. Since the holds of the ship have limited room, you can’t have anything you want. And the fighting is my favorite aspect of the game. When you land where another player’s ship is, a fight begins. Using cannons and the attack die, the winner gets to steal resources or treasure from the loser!
All of this while racing to the finish.
Pros: ARTWORK. Beautiful. The board is incredible.
The layout of the board.
The insert. One of the best inserts. Pieces fit perfectly.
Game play. Smooth easy playing for any age.
Cons: The “action” cards seem a bit limited at times. I wish there were more cards for each player. Shuffling through again is a simple fix. The cardboard pieces tend to peel away at the edges easily.
Final regards: I recommend this game for any gamer that enjoys a easy to learn game that can easily get 6 players around the table. The game is more fun with more players since pirate battles are more likely to happen. It creates a certain atmosphere that just isn’t there with only two or three players. While the action cards can get repetitive and slightly dull, the amount of decision making easily compensates.
If you are looking for a party game, family game, light game, or racing game, I believe this game is for you.
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)
When we start boardgaming with our daughter, we picked 2 games from our local store, Carcassonne Jr and Jamaica….We have play these 2 games again and again but a few years later we still play Jamaica.
Jamaica is a pirate themed game putting the players in a race around the Jamaica Island. Players have to gather gold, food, canon powder in order to progress around the island and even participate in a naval combat
Each turn the first player (the captain)roll 2 dice and according to his card hand he chooses which die he wants to use for the day action and for the night action (no rest when you are in a race).
After that, each player chooses a card to play and one after the other each player plays his card and do his two actions. Get food, gold, canon powder, move forward or backward and even find treasures.
When your boat finishes in the same space as another boat a simple dice roll naval combat begins and the winner can steal the looser precious goods.
The components are amazing…It’s all very colorful, even the box is made to be a treasure chest. Everyone likes the little pirate boats. The character card are really impressive.
The rule book is well made, clear and simple to understand. The game doesn’t take long to learn (30min) and to teach (5min)
The set up is quick and simple, it only takes a few minutes and you are ready to sail on the Caribbean seas.
The game is not too long to play, around 30min. Even with 6 people it doesn’t take more than 60 min.
The game is light on strategy and requires some decision making (which card to use according to the dice and which dice to use for the first and second action).
The game has also some player interaction since the decision of the captain (first player) can ruin your plan and during the naval combat…it’s always fun to steal other player’s goods and treasures.
It’s not rare to play 2 or 3 game in a row. Each game is different due to the actions cards and dice rolling.
Last thought: simple to learn, play and teach. Really fun to play, it’s a family winner
This is a race game on the surface, but there is a whole lot bubbling underneath that makes it a fun, dynamic, competitive strategy game. You need to manage several different aspects at once: resource management of food, gunpowder, and doubloons in your limited hull; movement to the optimal board spaces for your current situation; stockpiling enough resources to get by but not so many that you waste them; using up precious gunpowder attacking or defending; and much more. Race as your favorite plundering pirate to discover invaluable treasures, steal from your competitors, feed your crew, pay for port services, attack other ships, and curse your competition!
Each round consists of that round’s captain rolling two dice and selecting which to play for the morning action and which to play for the evening action. Then each player, starting with the captain, chooses which of their action cards to play to either move or collect a resource (food, doubloons, or gunpowder) based on the face-up number on each die. This is a very fun aspect of the game and necessitates some moderate planning ahead to see if any of your action cards have a movement to get you a treasure card or a particular resource that is running low in your hull.
As you travel around the map, you must pay food to travel on the sea and doubloons to land at a port. You have to be careful, though, because if you move to a spot where you can’t afford to pay, you must pay all you can of that resource then move back until you land on a space where you can pay everything…and then you have to pay that, too. See if you can use this to your advantage to land on treasure spaces at a very cheap cost!
Another fun feature that I love about Jamaica is how a battle is forced every time two players land in the same spot. A star rolled on either side is an automatic win. Do you use six gunpowder tokens to really ramp up your attack so you can steal that player’s treasure card or food tokens just to get blown away by a single star roll? Or should you play conservatively relying on the luck of the die?
Overall, this is a very fun, pirate-themed game with incredible artwork and very high-quality pieces and boards. I give it a solid 8.