Libertalia - Tips & Strategies

I love me some Parrot! Used strategically, the Parrot is one of the most powerful characters in the game. I used him to swap in my Quartermaster on a particularly weak booty pool, so that I could select the Spanish Officer and keep the Quartermaster out of my Den. I used the Surgeon to return the Parrot to my hand, which came in handy the next campaign when I used it to swap in the Topman when I could get something with him and it had become obvious that I’d have the fewest characters in my den.

Other uses I can think of right offhand are getting Granny Wata in play effectively, and strategically dropping the Cook to pluck two booty tokens, which has all SORTS of strategic value.

In short, always remember that the Parrot is your friend!

My friends and I love the crew of Libertalia so much that we just hate seeing cards not put to good use during play. When we are in the mood for a more lengthy game session (which means, usually always) we tack on a fourth campaign voyage.

The youngest player, as usual, draws another six cards from his shuffled deck, which the other players then match. This leaves only three unused cards.

For an extra bit of mystery and bluff on the final voyage, we permit each player to discard one card from his hand and replace it with one of the three unused cards, if he so chooses.

Some people do not like the “silver mark tie-breaker” inherent to the different colored crew cards, believing the various crews to be unevenly balanced in this regard.

As an alternative, the silver mark values can be completely ignored and a more unbiased method used to determine hierarchy – the roll of the dice.

Use one or two simple six-sided dice to roll off between equal-ranked characters, with the winner gaining the higher status. Pirate-themed “bone” dice would add nicely to the feel of the game.

The great thing about Libertalia is that no one has better cards than anyone else – you all get the same to play with through the game. The main issue and fun arises from not knowing what others will play. The first way to remedy this is to keep track of which important cards have been played and therefore, you know who has not played them. The stand-out cards include: Governor’s Daughter, Granny Wata, Beggar (you don’t want to be on top when everyone else plays him), similarly the Brute, and the highest numbered card available (often 28-30).

The other issue you don’t have control over is how to impact the winner when s/he is more than one player away from you. Most cards impact cards on the ship or your neighbors. This is where diplomacy is recommended to point out a) who is winning, & b) what those players can do about it – especially if they’re new or may not be aware. This isn’t always recommended, but there’s not much you can do when the winner runs away because her neighbors were only paying attention to their own coin status.

Most often in my groups when a game is taught, the rules are presented mostly through words, with small examples set up as needed. The times I’ve seen Libertalia‘s rules explained (including when teaching it myself) blank stares and confusion dominate the reactions.

While the mechanics of playing Libertalia are not difficult, it ends up being really hard to explain if people aren’t seeing the course of a turn. Once a turn has been played out for everyone it generally clicks and you can then mention how starting hands are determined, the three “week” structure of the game, and get started.

Others games that fall into this category of easy sequence of play but tough to explain well are Goblins, Inc, Galaxy Trucker, and Space Alert.

In Libertalia, don’t just explain how to play, put out sample cards on the board and show how the day, dusk, night order works. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and avoid those blank stares!

For better immersion, I picked up some cheap eye patches and doubloons to replace the game’s money tokens. There was plenty of room for everything in the game box and it is a lot more fun to play with kids (and children trapped in the bodies of grown adults).