Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest
Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Overview and Goal
A game of Libertalia takes place over three voyages (rounds). Each voyage begins with players gaining an identical set of 6 character cards. Every day during the voyage, players simultaneously select 1 character from their hand to play. Those characters are placed on the island from lowest to highest rank (player reputation breaks ties). Players activate daytime abilities in ascending order, then dusk abilities and loot selection in descending order (with characters entering each player's ship), then night abilities on characters in ships.
At the end of the voyage, players activate any anchor abilities and score their loot tokens and doubloons. They then discard those characters, loot tokens, and doubloons, keeping only their hands of characters that were not played. At the end of the third voyage, players reveal their final scores to determine who history will remember as the wealthiest pirate.
Components
1 game board (the island), 7 global loot tiles, 1 bag, 40 character cards + 1 reputation token per player, 48 loot tokens (10 maps, 8 barrels, 8 relics, 6 sabers, 6 amulets, 6 hooks, 4 chests), 54 doubloons, 1 score dial per player, 1 graveyard tile per player, 1 Midshipman tile (2-player mode).
Setup: Before Each Game
- Board and loot tiles: Place the island on the table using one format—Calm (easy, friendly abilities), Stormy (more complex, devious abilities), or Uncharted (place loot tiles with random sides face up, covering the board's printed loot tiles). Loot tiles with the Automa icon are used only in solo games. All loot tokens go in the bag.
- Player items: Each player claims a set of 40 sequential character cards (don't shuffle), a matching score dial set to 0, and a graveyard tile. Score dials are face up (open information).
- Reputation track: Mix together all 6 reputation tokens (not just those of players in the game) and randomly place them from left to right on the reputation track.
- 2-player games: Cover the second and third spaces of the island with the Midshipman tile. Randomly place the active players' reputation tokens on the third and fourth spaces of the reputation track, then place the remaining tokens on the other spaces.
Setup: Before Each Voyage
- Loot tokens: Randomly draw loot tokens from the bag onto the board's day spaces. Each day gets a number of loot tokens equal to the number of players (in 2-player games, 3 loot tokens per day).
- Character cards: One designated player shuffles their deck, draws 6 random cards, and reveals them; every other player gains the same 6 cards from their decks into their hands. Players end each voyage with leftover cards in hand and add each new set of 6 to them.
- Doubloons: Gain doubloons equal to the number shown below your reputation token on the reputation track (your doubloons are open information).
Gameplay
Libertalia is played over 3 voyages of increasing length: voyage 1 = 4 days, voyage 2 = 5 days, voyage 3 = 6 days.
Each day, all players simultaneously select a character card from their hand and play it face down. Reveal all cards and place them on the island from left to right in ascending rank (1 lowest, 40 highest). If the same character is played by multiple players, arrange them by reputation (the player with the higher reputation places their character to the right). Then proceed with the phases; in each phase you activate only your own character and must activate all matching abilities unless they say "may."
- Daytime: Starting from the leftmost character (lowest rank) and proceeding right, each player activates their character's daytime ability (if any).
- Dusk: Starting from the rightmost character (highest rank) and proceeding left, each player with a character on the island: (1) gains a loot token from the current day (unless stated otherwise); (2) activates any dusk abilities on their character and/or the newly gained loot token; (3) if the character is still on the island, places it face up in their ship (in front of them). Any loot tokens remaining after dusk go back in the bag.
- Night: Simultaneously, all players activate all night abilities on characters in their ship (in any order they choose).
During the voyage, gains and losses of doubloons use only coin tokens (not the score dial); doubloons never drop below 0. Whenever you discard a character card, place it face down on your graveyard (you may always look at your own graveyard).
2-Player Mode
Place the Midshipman tile over the second and third island spaces. Each day has 3 loot tokens. Characters are placed relative to the Midshipman's rank (20.5); if your character is the only one ranked 20 or less, you must place it directly to the left of the Midshipman. At dusk, if your character is directly left of the Midshipman, your opponent removes a loot token from the current day (put back in the bag) immediately before you gain a loot token. The Midshipman counts as a character but can never be discarded and cannot gain/give anything.
End of Voyage
After the night phase of the final day of each voyage:
- Anchor abilities: Activate all anchor abilities on loot tokens and characters in your ship, in any order. You can account for doubloons on your score dial now or wait, but you cannot order operations to temporarily have fewer than 0 doubloons.
- Score dials: Increase your score dial by your number of doubloons, then discard those doubloons (the score dial is open information; after the third voyage, cap it at 99 and use doubloons to represent additional wealth).
- Discard loot tokens and characters in ships: Unless a character or loot tile says otherwise, put all loot tokens back in the bag and all character cards in your ship into your graveyard. Keep all remaining character cards in your hand (so you begin the next voyage with characters others have discarded). Return any leftover board loot tokens to the bag.
After the first and second voyages, follow the setup steps for the next voyage. After the third voyage, the game ends.
Reputation
Reputation is a tiebreaker, typically when multiple players play the same character (the higher-reputation player places their character farther right). The farther right your token is on the track, the higher your reputation. When you gain reputation, move your token that many spaces right, sliding other tokens left to make room; losing reputation moves it left (sliding others right). If you would move past the end of the track, gain or lose 1 doubloon for each space you couldn't move. Each space on the track shows a number—the doubloons that player gains at the start of a new voyage. All 6 track spaces are always occupied, regardless of player count.
Loot Tokens and Tiles
All loot tokens you accumulate are public information. If an ability requires a loot token to be discarded during the voyage, it goes back in the bag; otherwise tokens remain in your supply. Loot abilities are described on the board (and on loot tiles for uncharted mode). Dusk loot abilities trigger only when first gained (not on future dusk phases or when passed between players); other tokens have night abilities that trigger at night; anchor abilities trigger at the end of the voyage. Unless stated otherwise, all loot tokens return to the bag at the end of each voyage.
Common loot: Chest (gain 5 doubloons), Barrel (gain 1 reputation and 1 doubloon), Relic (lose 3 doubloons), Hook (keep a character in your ship for the next voyage or gain 2 doubloons), Saber (discard another player's character from the island), Amulet (gain 3 doubloons), Map (gain 7 doubloons per set of 2 maps, or 12 per set of 3). (Loot abilities differ on the stormy side and on uncharted tiles.)
Adjacency
A few cards and loot tiles refer to adjacent players—the players sitting directly to your left or right.
End of Game
After the third voyage, each player reveals their score dial to determine who is the richest pirate. If there is a tie, the tied player with the highest reputation wins.