King of Pirates Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Game Board
• Game Setup
• Important Game Concepts
• Phases of a Turn
  • Phase 1: Upkeep Phase
  • Phase 2: Movement Phase
  • Phase 3: Combat Phase
• Action Cards
• Pirate Skills
• Captain's Skills
• Game Contents

The Game Board

Put the Game Board in the middle of the table. The board comprises 61 tiles: 7 Pirates Lair (one in the center and one in each corner), 3 Strongholds (British, French and Spanish), 3 Cities, 6 Treasure Islands and a lot of sea.

The Point Track is the golden ring. Use this to count the amount of Doubloons you have collected. The skull is the beginning and the end.

Tile types:

• A small treasure island - shows a hidden rating of 3 and a value of 2000 Doubloons.
• A large treasure island - shows a hidden rating of 4 and a value of 3000 Doubloons.
• A city - shows a Defense Value of 10 and a Loot Value of 6.
• A stronghold - shows a Defense Value of 11 and a Loot Value of 8.
• A Pirates Lair - All Pirates Lairs are neutral, the color of the flag is just an indicator of your starting position.

Game Setup

Place the ocean tiles with sharks randomly on the darker empty spaces in the center of the map, and the ocean tiles without sharks randomly on the lighter empty spaces of the map.

• Shark tiles are marked with green.
• Ocean tiles are marked with red.

Place the Flying Dutchman at the center space of the map.

Each Player picks a color and places the Player Piece on the corresponding Pirates Lair, marked with pirate flags matching your color.

Place the tokens, dice and cards and make room for discard piles.

All players put their Point Track Token on the skull of the Point Track.

Each player starts with a Ship consisting of 2 parts, front and rear of the ship. It holds one sail.

• Front part of the ship.
• The rear with the Captain's cabin.
• Fill your ship with Rum and Cannonballs.

The middle parts of the ship may be bought later in the game for 2.500 Doubloons each. Each adds one sail to your ship.

Each Player draws 3 random Pirates Cards, picks 2 to keep and discard 1.

Your Pirates are placed on the Ship, the one who resides in the rear cabin is the Captain.

Each Player receives Cannonballs and Rum, equal to their maximum capacity, i.e. corresponding circles on the Ships and (if relevant) skill circles on your Pirate Cards.

Each Player draws 3 secret Action Cards from the Action Card Deck.

The most pirate-like player starts the game. If you can't decide who that is, the first player to call it starts the game (calling dips is a very pirate-like thing to do).

Important Game Concepts

Mutiny: When you get a Mutiny, your Captain is discarded, you are returned to a random Pirates Lair determined by rolling the Compass Die and your turn ends. This can be prevented by either the scapegoat ability of a Crewmember or by playing a Keelhaul card.

Pirates Lairs: In Pirates Lairs you can restock your Pirate Ship and you cannot be attacked by other players or the Flying Dutchman.

The Flying Dutchman: Whenever the Flying Dutchman is at the same space as your Ship Piece, your entire hand of cards and all of your Pirates are discarded. Then your Ship Piece is returned to a random Pirates Lair, determined by rolling the Compass Die. If it was your turn when this occurred, your turn ends.

Scurvy: For every Scurvy token you have, your movement is reduced by 1, and you have -1 to all Combats. There is no upper limit to the amount of Scurvy you can have, but your movement can never be reduced to less than 1.

Rum: Rum is needed to keep your crew happy, and the amount of Rum you have will determine for how long you can plunder the world without restocking your ship. If your crew craves Rum and you do not have any, they will start a Mutiny.

Cannonballs: Cannonballs are used in Combat to increase your chance of successfully defeating your enemy. Discarding one Cannonballs token allows you to re-roll one or both dice.

You may use as many Cannonballs from your Ship as you wish during a single Combat, so having many Cannonballs will help you plunder stronger targets for increased efficiency.

Warships: Warships force you to stop and fight, unlike all other ships on the board you must stop your movement if you enter any space with a Warship.

Phases of a Turn

The Turn consists of 3 phases:

1. Upkeep Phase
2. Movement Phase
3. Combat Phase

Phase 1: Upkeep Phase

1A. Draw 2 cards from the Action Deck. Note, that a Player may only hold up to 6 Action Cards at the same time so it may be necessary to discard or use a card before drawing.

1B. Roll the Compass Die and move the Flying Dutchman 1 space as indicated by the color on the die and the direction on the compass. Whenever the Flying Dutchman moves off the map, return it to the center Pirates Lair.

1C. Unless you are at a Pirates Lair, also roll the Upkeep Die. The Upkeep Die has three results:

• Your crew get Scurvy. Take 1 Scurvy token from the Scurvy pile.
• You lose 1 Rum. Return 1 Rum from your ship to the Resource Pile.
• You lose 2 Rum. Return 2 Rum from your ship to the Resource Pile.

If you do not have enough Rum you will get a Mutiny!

1D. Players may now play the Mutiny card, before moving on to the Movement Phase. (The Mutiny card reads "Current player gets a Mutiny".)

Phase 2: Movement Phase

Move up to 1 Space on the map for each sail on your Ship / each Pirate with the +1 Movement skill.

Whenever you move onto a space containing an undiscovered ocean tile, turn it over. If the tile is empty, simply remove it from the board.

If you move onto a space containing a Warship, you must enter combat phase.

If you move onto a space containing a Merchant Ship, a Stronghold or a City, you may enter combat phase. Otherwise you will continue your move.

If you end your movement at a Pirates Lair:

• Get rid of all Scurvy tokens you have.
• Buy additional pieces for your ship for 2.500 Doubloons each.
• Draw a number of cards from the Pirate Deck equal to "the number of vacant positions on your ship +1" and make any desired adjustments to your crew.
• Gain Rum equal to your current maximum.
• Gain Cannonballs equal to your current maximum.

Example: You sail into a Pirates Lair: you return your 2 Scurvy tokens to the supply. Then you buy the +2 Rum ship-upgrade for 2.500 Doubloons. Then you draw 3 Pirates because you now have 2 vacant positions on your ship. Finally, you stack up to 6 Rum and 2 Cannonballs on your ship, and an additional 7th Rum because you have a Pirate that allows you to do so. You may draw 3 Pirates to choose from and keep two, because you have two vacant positions and you may draw 1 extra Pirate Card.

If you end on a Treasure Island:

Dig for Treasure. When digging for treasure, turn in a number of Treasure Map cards equal to the hidden rating of the desired treasure.

The number of Treasure Map cards needed is reduced by 1 for each skill your Pirate has that Counts as 1 Treasure Map, and by 2 for each skill that Counts as 2 Treasure Maps.

So if you have both a Captain with the Count as 2 Treasure Maps skill and another Pirate with the Count as 1 Treasure Map skill you will need 0 Treasure Maps to dig up the 2000 Doubloon treasures.

If a Treasure Island has this banner, give 4 Treasure Map Action Cards or use your Pirates Skill. Then you move 3000 on the Point Track.

Phase 3: Combat Phase

When you attack Warships, Merchant Ships, Strongholds and Cities, to steal its treasures:

Roll the 2 Combat dice, you need to roll the target's Defense Value or higher to successfully conquer it. When you conquer a Ship or Town, you draw a number of Loot Cards equal to the Town's Loot Value and move the amount of gained Doubloons on the Point Track.

• Merchant Ship (British) - Defense Value 6, Loot Value 2.
• Merchant Ship (Spanish) - Defense Value 8, Loot Value 4.
• City (French) - Defense Value 10, Loot Value 6.
• Stronghold (Spanish) - Defense Value 11, Loot Value 8. Conquering this Stronghold gives you 8 Loot Cards, according to the Stronghold's Loot Value. The Cards are returned to the discard pile.
• Warship (French, 3 sails) - Defense Value 10, Loot Value 1.

If you fail your attack, you can use Cannonballs to re-roll one or both dice. Each Cannonballs token is one re-roll (1 x Cannonballs = a re-roll). You can use as many Cannonballs as you have, so it is possible to re-roll several times during the same combat.

If the Warship is defeated it is removed as normally. Remove any ships defeated in combat from the board.

If you are at the same space as another player, you may attack that Player's ship:

• Attacker: Roll the 2 Combat Dice, and use any Cannonballs if desired.
• Defender: Then the Defender rolls the 2 Combat Dice and uses any Cannonballs if desired.
• All Players: It is possible for all players to play Action cards during a Player vs. Player Combat (Scurvy and Mercenaries).
• Winner: The results are then compared, and the winner draws 4 cards from the Loot Deck and steals as many Doubloons as the cards allow from the loser.

The attacking player wins any ties as he/she had the element of surprise.

Action Cards

The Action Cards can manipulate the outcome of the game. They have a wide variety of uses that can either benefit yourself or hurt your opponents.

Since all players can play cards during any player's turn, the rule is that the first card played is the first card to take effect.

To keep the confusion to a minimum, some of the cards have been restricted to some parts of a turn:

• Cards with an A are playable at any time during a turn, so a way to keep people from plundering the Strongholds can be to move the Flying Dutchman on top of them during the Combat phase.
• Cards with a C can only be used during the Combat phase.
• Cards with a C* may also be used during the Combat phase, and only during combats you take part in, either as the attacker or the defender, as described on the card.
• Cards with an M can only be used during the Movement phase.
• Cards with a U can only be used during the Upkeep phase.

Ambush (C) - You gain +3 Combat when Defending this turn. Ambush: Ambush can only be played when defending from an Attack by another player. You gain +3 Combat for 1 turn only.

Assassination (A) - Choose a Crewmember in play and discard it. Assassination: You can assassinate a Pirate at any time, unless the Pirate is immune to assassination. If a Captain is assassinated, another Pirate will be promoted to Captain if possible. Note that a Ship can sail without Pirates.

Assault (C) - You gain +2 Combat when Attacking this turn. Assault: Assault gives you +2 Combat when Attacking this turn.

Citrus Fruits (A) - Your Crewmembers are cured of all Scurvy. Citrus Fruits: You lose all Scurvy tokens. This card can be played during a combat to remove the combat penalty from the Scurvy token(s).

The Flying Dutchman (A) - Move the Flying Dutchman 1 Space in any direction. The Flying Dutchman: You may move the Flying Dutchman 1 Space. This card can be played as another player's Action Phase is resolved, in order to prevent him from winning a Combat.

Keelhauling (U) - Prevent one Mutiny. Keelhauling: This card can prevent a Mutiny.

Mercenaries (C) - Choose a Player or Nation to gain +1 Combat this turn. Mercenaries: This card can be used to give yourself +1 Combat, or to give a town +1 Combat on another player's turn. Also, it can be used to give either opponent +1 Combat when 2 opponents are fighting each other.

Mutiny (U) - Current player gets a Mutiny. Mutiny: This card can be used to give a player a Mutiny.

Scurvy (A) - Choose a player, that player gets 1 Scurvy Token. Scurvy: This card gives 1 Scurvy Token to a player. Remember this affects Combat and Movement efficiency.

Soldiers (C) - Choose a Nation to gain +2 Combat this turn. Soldiers: A Nation-Controlled ship, City or Stronghold get +2 Combat for one turn only.

Tailwind (M) - You may move up to 2 additional Spaces this turn. Tailwind: You may move up to 2 additional spaces this turn. This bonus Movement ignores the Movement penalty from Scurvy.

Treasure Map (M) - 1 clue for a Treasure. Treasure Map: Counts as 1 clue for finding treasure at the Treasure Islands.

Pirate Skills

These skills are always in effect from each of your crewmembers.

• +1 Combat vs. other Players - You have +1 Combat vs. other Players.
• Count as 1 Treasure Map - Count as 1 clue toward finding treasures.
• +1 Maximum Cannonballs - You may have 1 additional stack of Cannonballs on your Ship.
• +1 Maximum Rum - You may have 1 additional Rum on your ship.
• +1 Combat vs. Nations - You have +1 Combat vs. Nations (Ships, Cities and Strongholds).
• Immune to Assassination - This Pirate is immune to Assassination.
• Sacrifice to prevent Mutiny - You can discard this Pirate to prevent a Mutiny.
• +1 Movement - You can sail 1 additional Space each Turn.
• +1 Loot Card - You draw 1 additional Loot Card from each City, Stronghold or ship you conquer, this does not include other Players.

Captain's Skills

These skills are only in effect when the crewmember is the Captain on your ship.

• +2 Combat vs. other Players - You have +2 Combat vs. other Players.
• Immune to Scurvy - Your crew are immune to Scurvy, so simply discard any tokens you would get.
• +2 Combat vs. Nations - You have +2 Combat vs. Nations (Ships, Cities and Strongholds).
• Other Pirates count as Captains - Your other Pirates have their Captain's bonuses activated.
• Count as 2 Treasure Maps - Count as 2 clues toward finding Treasures.
• +2 Loot from French - Against the French only: Draw +2 Loot Cards.
• +2 Loot from Spanish - Against the Spanish only: Draw +2 Loot Cards.
• +2 Loot from British - Against the British only: Draw +2 Loot Cards.
• +1 Black Card per turn - You Draw 1 additional Action Card on each turn, and may hold 1 additional Action card.
• Move 2 on the victory track - During your Upkeep, you may steal up to 200 Doubloons from another player. Move the scoring tokens on the Point Track. You can only steal Doubloons if the opponents have them.

Note: the skill icon for the last entry is labelled "Move 2 on the victory track" in the printed rulebook; the text beside it refers to the Point Track.

Game Contents

• 6 Point Track Tokens
• 1 Compass Die
• 1 Upkeep Die
• 2 Combat Dice
• 21 Cannonball Tokens
• 12 Scurvy Tokens
• 37 Rum Tokens
• 18 Shark tiles
• 24 Ocean tiles
• 1 Flying Dutchman
• 6 Player Pieces
• 6 Ships in 4 parts
• 1 Game Board
• 20 Pirate cards
• 52 Action cards
• 36 Loot cards