Jamaica - Tips & Strategies

The opening turn of Jamaica presents a significant chance of combat, with all of the pirate ships aligned to depart Port Royal. With no initial cannon on board, the ensuing battles will be left to chance, and no bloody pirate should ever willing head into a fair fight. An early loss of cargo (and possibly position) can be severe.

Consider loitering within the safety of Port Royal’s waters, loading food and gold and cannon for a turn or two, and let the congested and contested waters thin out, then sail forth confident that you can pay your gold and food expenses and meet any impending threat. The initial sacrifice of position by lagging behind at Port Royal can easily be surmounted with a fully-ladened vessel.

An important aspect of the game is the Captain’s ability to roll the action dice and assign them to the Morning and Evening spots to best suit the card he intends to play that turn.

When doubles are rolled, however, this ability is denied the Captain, as the results are the same either way.

This random factor of luck should not deny the Captain a vital tactical decision, so our house rule stipulates that doubles cannot stand. The Captain must keep one die of the initial roll (after all, its also not fair that he should get to reroll a result that he might otherwise not want), but he must then re-roll the second die until a non-double result is obtained.

The Captain then assigns the Morning and Evening dice, as usual.