Pirate Lords
Pirate Lords Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 21 pirate cards (7 sailors, 7 shooters and 7 boarders)
- 21 regular loot cards (yellow card backs): 7 worth 2 points, 7 worth 3 points and 7 worth 4 points
- 6 last loot cards (red card backs): 2 worth 2 points, 2 worth 3 points and 2 worth 4 points
- 7 ship cards
- Rulebook
Pirate professions are marked by an icon at the top of each card: a sailor has a ship's wheel, a shooter has a pistol, and a boarder has crossed sabres.
About the Game
Pirate lords are the players, and each of them recruits a crew of pirates while merchant fleets gather off the shore. To attack a fleet and seize its treasure, the players must send to sea two sailors, two shooters and two boarders. One player alone finds such a crew hard to assemble, so the pirate lords agree on joint operations and divide the loot among all the participants. When the stack of loot cards runs out, the game ends and the player with the most victory points wins.
Setup
Shuffle the pirate cards and the ship cards together into the game deck and place it face down in the middle of the table.
Shuffle the regular loot cards (yellow backs) and the last loot cards (red backs) separately, and place them next to the game deck, so that the 6 last loot cards lie at the bottom of the stack and the regular loot cards are on top. These stacks also lie face down.
The players take turns, starting with the player who was last at sea.
Gameplay
On your turn, turn over the top card of the game deck. If it is a ship, place it face up in the middle of the table next to the deck (into the caravan, alongside the other face-up ships) and turn over the next card. Keep drawing and placing cards until you get a pirate: a sailor (ship's wheel icon), a shooter (pistol icon) or a boarder (sabre icon). A pirate's profession can be identified by its colour, and also by the icon at the top of the card.
If you got a pirate, place it face up in front of you. Then you may propose that the other players attack the caravan (see below). If you do not do this, or if your proposal is rejected, pass the turn to the player on your left.
The Three-Card Rule
No player may have more than two pirates of the same profession (sailors, shooters or boarders). If you turn over a pirate and you already have two pirates of the same profession, immediately discard the pirate you have just turned over (place discarded cards face up next to the deck). After that, each other player must discard one pirate of the same profession, if they can. You do not draw another card in place of the discarded one. Instead, you either propose to the other players an attack on the fleet, or pass the turn to the player on your left.
If the Deck Runs Out
Sometimes the game deck runs out before the players have attacked a merchant caravan. In this case, each player, starting with the player who could not draw a card on their turn, gets one last chance to propose an attack on the caravan. If none of these proposals succeeds, gather all the pirate and ship cards (from the table and from the discard pile) into the game deck, shuffle it, and continue the game.
Attacking the Caravan
To attack the caravan, the players together must discard six cards: two pirates of each profession. After that, the players receive as many loot cards as there are ships in the middle of the table at the moment of the attack.
On your turn, after you have drawn a pirate from the deck, you may propose that the other players attack the caravan. This is done as follows:
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The initiator of the attack chooses which players and which of their cards will take part in the attack, and moves these cards closer to the middle of the table. The initiator must choose exactly six cards: two sailors, two shooters and two boarders. These cards may belong to different players.
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The initiator decides how to distribute the loot in case of success. They take all the ship cards lying in the middle of the table and distribute them in front of the players taking part in the attack. If all participants in the attack agree to this proposal, each of them receives as many loot cards as there are ships in front of them.
Example: Anna, Boris, Viktor and Galina are playing. It is now Boris's turn. He draws a card: it is a ship, and he sends it to the middle of the table. The caravan now consists of 5 ships. He draws again: it is a shooter. Now there are two pirates of each profession on the table, and Boris decides to propose an attack on the caravan. He moves his shooter and a boarder forward (he keeps one more boarder unused), skips Viktor (whose sailor and boarder are not taking part), moves Galina's shooter and boarder forward (she has no more pirates), and Anna's two sailors (she keeps one boarder). He then pulls two ships to himself, two to Galina and one to Anna.
Then each player who has been invited to take part in the attack either agrees with the proposal or does not. If all participants agree, the attack succeeds (see below). If anyone disagrees, the initiator may change the proposal. All players may discuss different options and put forward their ideas, but only the initiator has the right to make a new proposal.
If the initiator cannot or does not want to put forward a proposal that suits all participants of the possible attack, they return all cards to where they lay before the proposal and pass the turn to the player on the left.
Example: Galina agrees with Boris's proposal, but Anna wants more loot. After some negotiation, Boris agrees to give her two of the cards and to keep one for himself. [Editor's note: the printed example says "loot cards" here; the context shows these are the ship cards being divided, and the numbers are transcribed as printed.] All three agree; Viktor is not asked, since his sailors do not take part. The attack succeeds.
If all participants in the attack have accepted your proposal, take from the top of the loot stack as many cards as there were ships in the caravan. Look at how many points are printed on them (without showing them to the other players), and deal these cards face down to the participants in the attack according to your proposal. You must give each participant exactly as many cards as there were ships in front of them at the moment of the attack, but you decide which cards go to whom. Of course, you may keep the best cards (with more points) for yourself and give the worse ones to your opponents. Each player secretly looks at the cards they receive and places them face down in front of them, without showing them to the other players. However, players may look at how many cards remain in the loot stack and how many such cards each player has.
Example: Boris takes five loot cards: two with four points and three with two points. He keeps one card for himself, naturally a four-point card. He gives Galina another four-point card and a two-point card, and gives Anna two two-point cards.
Note: The initiator of the attack (the current player) decides which cards go to whom. Sometimes it makes sense to decline to take part in an attack, so that you can put forward the same proposal on your own turn, when you will distribute the loot yourself.
When the loot cards have been dealt, discard all the ship cards and the 6 pirate cards that took part in the attack. Shuffle the discard pile into the game deck, shuffle the deck thoroughly, and place it face down in the middle of the table, as at the start of the game. All pirate cards that did not take part in the attack remain with their owners.
Example: after the attack, Anna and Boris each have one boarder left, Galina has nothing left, and Viktor, who did not take part in the attack, has kept both his sailor and his boarder.
After the attack the game continues, and the turn passes to the player on the left.
End of the Game
If, after you have distributed the loot of a successful attack, only the last loot cards (with red backs) remain in the stack, the game ends immediately. Each player adds up the points on all the loot cards they received during the game. To this sum, add 1 point for each pirate that remains in front of the player at the end of the game. The player with the greater total of victory points becomes the pirate king and wins. In case of a tie, the player with more points on their loot cards wins. If that is also tied, the player with fewer last loot cards wins.