Pirate King

• Designer: Frankie Bu
• Publisher: Gigamic
• Players:2-5
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Prove your worth and become the Pirate King by facing challenges that will test your luck. In Pirate King!, every decision matters, and only those capable of mastering their ambition will claim the pirate throne. Across 7 rounds, you’ll compete against other captains to build the best deck of cards while avoiding the dreaded curses lurking in the seven seas.

Those who manage their luck well will gather valuable resources, such as gold and swords, to trade for powerful market cards or defeat terrifying monsters. These cards provide victory points and special abilities to help you get ahead of your rivals. However, greed is always lurking, and it could leave you empty-handed if you don’t play carefully.

After seven rounds, the player with the most victory points will be crowned the one and only Pirate King. Only one can claim this title—will it be you?

Each player starts by choosing a captain and an initial deck, while the market and monster cards are placed in the center of the table. Every captain is unique, so choose wisely, as their abilities will aid you on your journey.  Each round, the table will show 2 Monster cards and one Loot card per player.  Someone is given the Captain token to be the start player.

During the game, players will simultaneously reveal cards from their decks, one by one, deciding each turn whether to keep risking or stop before luck turns against them.  The cards in your deck can have varying special effects.  If a player reveals three curses (skulls), they explode and lose all the resources they’ve gained that round, falling to the last position.  

Once all players have stopped or sunk, cards are collected.  First, players compare the number of sword icons on their cards.  The player with the most gets to choose which Monster card they want to add to their discard pile.  All cards have varying abilities as well as special effects.  If there is a tie, the order of the tied players is determined by the current Captain.  Whichever player is ranked last in the tie takes the Captain token immediately as compensation.  The second Monster card is then taken by the next most number of swords.

Loot cards are collected in a similar fashion, going from most to least coins, with ties again being broken by the decision of the current Captain.

All gained cards are placed in the player’s discard pile, and you shuffle to make a new deck any time that you need to draw a card and your deck is empty.

Repeat the process for seven rounds, and after the seventh round, players calculate their score by looking at the value of their cards (bottom right corner).  The Captain token is also worth one crown.  The player with the most crowns wins.   If there is a tie, the tie is decided by whoever has the Captain token.

My thoughts on the game

Pirate King is a press-your-luck game where players constantly assess their situation to decide whether or not they can afford to look at the next card on their deck.  Coming from Gigamic (from Wimerux, France) – there is an expected bit of zaniness and high levels of player interaction.  Other players can force you to draw more cards or can add skulls to your area to cause you to bust – even if you’ve already passed out of the round!

In each of the seven rounds, players have two different objectives, namely to collect swords (to kill monsters) and to collect coins (to buy loot cards).  The draft for cards is an interesting deckbuilding exercise – as you will at times want cards for their abilities and at times for their victory point value.  The cards all have different actions, and I do like the way that each Pirate also brings a unique flavor and action to the game.  

The rules could use a bit more meat on them – there are a number of places where we had to make house rulings – such as can you still be affected by actions when you have passed out of the round…  But we figured we’d rule in the favor of the “French spirit” of gaming; that is, whatever leads to maximum chaos.

For me, there’s a bit too much randomness and possible targeted play for me to really like.  For a short filler it’s fine, but even in that setting, I’d choose something that I have a bit more control of.  It only took me one or two rounds where I still ended up sinking after I’ve decided I was done drawing cards to know that this sort of game isn’t for me at all.  If you love games with wild swings of fate and unpredictable results from flipping over each card, you should give this a try.

Until your next appointment,

The Gaming Doctor