Pirates of the Spanish Main
Pirates of the Spanish Main Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
The Game
Pirates of the Spanish Main is a fast-playing constructible strategy game of naval skullduggery for two or more players. These rules describe the two-player game; multiplayer rules will be posted later at wizkidsgames.com. Players collect ships and crew and deploy their fleets to capture and defend buried treasure. To win, one player must get more than half of the starting treasure to his or her home island. At the end of the game, the winner gets to keep all the treasure he or she collected during the game.
Contents
Each Game Pack contains these rules, one six-sided die (a "d6"), one cardboard island card, and six styrene plastic cards containing ships, crew, and treasure.
Ship Deckplate
The ship deckplate is printed with the ship's point cost, number of masts, ability, nationality, ship name, cargo capacity, base move, cannon ranges and ranks, streamers, and flag.
The Cards
Build ships by punching out ship components from one, two, or three cards. Use crew, treasure, and islands by punching them out of cards. Ships, crew, and treasure can be "popped back" into their cards for storage; islands cannot.
Ships: Use ships to explore the waters of the Spanish Main, collect treasure, and engage in sea battles. A ship's deckplate card is printed with the following important text, so you'll want to keep it handy during games: the ship's name, nationality, ability, number of masts, cargo capacity, base move, point cost, and cannon ranges and ranks.
The long side of the back of each ship's deckplate card is printed with a long ("L") red bar, and the short side with a short ("S") white bar; these bars help you resolve the ship's movement and shooting and some ship abilities.
A ship's cargo capacity indicates how many combined crew/treasure it can carry.
Crew: You don't have to play with crew in your games, but some are printed with abilities that add flavor and options to the game.
Treasure: At the beginning of the game, treasure is placed on islands to be discovered by the players' fleets. Some are also printed with abilities that affect game play.
Islands: At the beginning of the game, islands are distributed over the play area.
Setup
The game can be played on any tabletop or other flat surface, with the contents from as few as two Game Packs. Each player rolls a six-sided die (reroll ties). The player who rolls the highest result is the first player; the other is the second player.
Creating a Fleet
Ships and crew each have a point value and belong to one of three nations: England, Pirate, and Spain.
To create a fleet, determine at which point cost you will play your game. We recommend a 30-point game, although any point cost may be chosen as long as both fleets use the same point cost. Choose ships and crew (if any) with a combined point cost up to, but not more than, the predetermined total.
Indicate which ships are yours by choosing a streamer type and inserting it onto your ships' tallest masts (or by placing a token, such as a coin or bead, next to ships that can't accommodate streamers). Each ship must fly its nationality's flag from its stern (rear of the ship); players may build mixed-nationality fleets.
Placing Islands
For a 30-point game, we recommend using six islands. Adjust the number of islands used depending on the game's point cost. If you need extra islands, use similarly sized objects to represent them. Starting with the first player, players take turns placing an island. An island must be placed at least two L bars away from any other island.
Once islands have been placed, the second player chooses which island will be the home island of the first player. The first player places his or her ships so that their bows (measured from the front tip of the ship to the first mast) touch that island. The first player then chooses the second player's home island, and that player places his or her ships so that their bows touch that island. The remaining islands are called wild islands.
Placing Crew
If you have chosen crew, put them face down on either your home island or on the deckplate card of the ship they are assigned to. Each crew takes up one cargo space on a ship. No matter what a ship's cargo capacity, it cannot carry crew with a combined point cost higher than the ship's point cost.
Crew can use their abilities only on ships, never on islands. If a crew and ship are not of the same nationality, that crew cannot use its ability while on that ship. You must reveal a crew when using its ability; it must remain face up the remainder of the game.
Some crew are "linked" to other crew. When linked crew are on the same ship, that ship gets +1 cargo spaces.
The following are the basic crew types. Each confers an ability to the ship that carries it; keep reading to learn how to use these abilities in the game!
- Cannoneer: Once per turn, one of this ship's cannons may shoot again if it misses.
- Captain: This ship may move and shoot using the same move action.
- Explorer: This ship may dock and explore a wild island using the same move action.
- Helmsman: This ship gets +S to her base move.
- Musketeer: This ship gains one cannon that may not have its range or cannon roll increased. It can shoot from any mast (even an eliminated mast).
- Oarsman: If derelict, this ship gains a base move of S. This crew takes up no cargo space.
- Shipwright: This ship may repair at sea or at any island.
Placing Treasure
Each treasure is printed with a number indicating how much gold it is worth. For a 30-point game, each player should contribute six treasure totaling 12 gold. Shuffle these treasure with their gold values face down, and then distribute three to each wild island.
Some treasure is unique. At the beginning of the game, unique treasure is worth 0 gold. This value may change later in the game, depending on the treasure's ability.
Begin Play
The first player takes the first turn. Each turn, you may give one of four actions to each of your ships: move, explore, shoot, or repair. Ship, crew, and treasure abilities may affect these actions.
Free Action: Unless a game effect specifically requires one of these four actions, that effect is a free action. Free actions happen automatically and immediately; they do not count toward a ship's action for the turn on which they occur.
Moving
If a ship's movement is L, use the red bar to measure her movement; if it is S, use the white bar.
To move a ship, place the tip of her bow so that it is touching one of the ends of the appropriately colored bar. Angle the bar in the direction you want the ship to move so that she moves in a straight line along that edge; you may move the tip of the bow up to the length of the bar. At the end of the move, the ship's bow must face in the direction she moved. A ship cannot move through an island or another ship. If a ship has a combination move, such as L + S, you may take them in any order, and the ship can change direction only between each measurement.
Derelicts: A ship is derelict (cannot move) if she has no masts. A derelict may be given only explore or repair actions. A derelict can still carry treasure and crew.
The following bolded game functions may be performed using a move action or as the result of a move action.
Come About: A ship can come about (turn in place) so that her bow ends where her stern started (a maximum turn of 180 degrees). Coming about requires a move action.
Dock: After a ship is given a move action, if her bow touches an island, she is docked. You cannot dock at an opponent's home island. As a free action, a ship docked at an island may drop off and board crew or transfer crew to and from another ship docked at the same island.
Ram: Immediately after a ship resolves a move action, if her bow touches any non-bow part of an enemy ship, you can ram that ship as a free action. Roll a d6; if the result is higher than the number of masts remaining on the enemy ship, the enemy ship's player must choose and eliminate (remove) one mast. Unless the enemy ship becomes derelict from being rammed, the ramming ship automatically becomes pinned. Ships cannot ram each other while they are pinned.
Pin: A ship is pinned when its bow is in contact with any part of an enemy ship. The pinned ship can't move until the other ship moves away or is derelict.
Board: Immediately after a ship rams another ship, either player may initiate a boarding party as a free action; the player whose turn it is decides first. Each player rolls a d6 and adds the result to the number of masts remaining on his or her ship involved in the ram. The player with the highest total can either eliminate a crew on or steal a treasure from the enemy ship.
Tow: After a ship is given a move action, if any part of her is touching the bow of any derelict, it can tow that derelict. As a free action, move the derelict so that its bow touches the stern of the towing ship. The towed ship and any crew on that ship become part of the towing player's fleet.
The base move of the towing ship becomes S; the towed ship moves with the towing ship as a free action. When the towing ship docks, dock the towed ship at the same island as a free action.
Exploring
The explore action allows you to uncover treasure on wild islands and load it onto your ships. When you dock at a wild island, mark that you have been there by leaving a streamer (or other token) on the island; if you dock at an island with your streamer on it, you can explore it as a free action after docking.
Give your docked ship an explore action and look at all the treasure on that island (without revealing it to the other player) and choose which you want to take. Each treasure takes up one cargo space. Place each chosen treasure face down on the ship's deckplate card. Any treasure not taken is left face down on the island. Reveal the treasure's worth once you unload it at your home island, which occurs automatically as a free action when the ship docks there.
A unique treasure does not take up a cargo space. A unique treasure must be taken by the first player to explore the island on which it is placed. Place it face up on the ship's deckplate card; any ability it might have comes into play.
You may also "explore" any allied ship or derelict that your ship touches, allowing you to transfer treasure and crew between ships.
Shooting
Each mast of a ship has a cannon that can shoot at enemy ships. A cannon is eliminated (can no longer shoot) when its mast is eliminated. When you give a ship a shoot action, you may shoot any of its cannons at any available target within range. When a cannon shoots, draw an invisible "line of fire" from the associated mast's center point to any part of the target ship. If this line crosses your own ship's masts or sails, islands, or other ships (other than the ship the line is being drawn to), the shot may not be made. You cannot shoot at ships docked at their home island.
Each mast is printed with a red or white die. If a mast's die is red, use the L bar to measure its cannon's range; if white, use the S bar. To determine if an enemy ship is within range, place one end of the appropriately colored bar on the center of the mast whose cannon is firing; if any part of the enemy ship touches the other end of the bar, you may shoot at it.
The number of dots on the mast's die represents the rank of the crew shooting that particular cannon. You must roll higher than this number on a d6 in order to hit the target. A die roll result of 1 automatically misses.
When a ship is hit, its owner must choose and eliminate a mast from the ship. If a derelict is hit, it sinks; immediately remove it and any crew on it from the game. Divide any treasure on the sunken ship equally among the two players. Tally gold received from sunken treasure as it sinks; put it on your home island as a free action. The only exception is unique treasure, which is removed from the game when it sinks. If sunken treasure cannot be divided equally, the shooting player gets the odd amount.
Repairing
The repair action allows a ship docked at its home island to repair (bring back into play) one mast.
Winning the Game
The first player to get more than half of the starting treasure (measured in gold) to his or her home island wins the game!
The winning player gets to keep all the treasure used in the game except what was on the home island of the other player.
Rules of the High Seas
- After the game, return any ships that changed fleets during the game to their owners.
- Two sources (e.g., ships and crew OR crew and crew, etc.) that have the same ability do not stack. For example, if a ship has the Oars ability, an Oarsman on that ship has no additional effect.
- Ability text on cards supercedes these rules; that is, abilities are meant to be exceptions to these rules. The only rule that is never superceded is that a 1 rolled on a cannon roll always misses.