Santy Anno Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Aim of the Game
• Material
• Set Up
• The Game
  • Description of the Ships
  • A Round
    • Phase 1: "Cast Off", Reveal the Boarding Cards
    • Phase 2: Find Your Ship
    • Phase 3: Resolve the Boarding Cards
    • Phase 4: Split the Loot
  • End of the Round and Next Ones
  • End of the Game
• Boarding Cards
  • The Element Cards
  • The Colour Cards
  • The Name Cards
  • The Number Cards
• Expert Boarding
  • The Helm Cards
  • The Double Cards
  • The Coco Cards
• Event Cards
  • Whirlwind
  • Seasick
  • The Bermuda Triangle
  • Rum or the Ultimate Challenge
• Playing Without Moving Around the Table
• Credits

Aim of the Game

Avoid being demoted and get a maximum of ducats. At the end of the game (5 rounds) the player with the most money is nominated captain and wins. The next 2 are his first mates. The others lose and have to pay for the next round… and to clean the table and glasses!

At 3 or 4 players, there will be only one winner: the captain.

Material

• 58 cards (37 Basic and 15 Expert boarding cards, 6 Event cards)
• Coins representing ducats (values from 1 to 5)
• These rules
• 8 ships
• 8 pirate tiles, 8 scuttles and 8 pirate frames
• 1 "harbour" board

Set Up

• Put 8 chairs around a table and take a seat.
• Put the 8 ships randomly in front of the chairs (the numbers should not be in sequence). The 8 ships must be placed on the table even if you are less than 8 players!
• Put the harbour on the centre of the table.
• Each player takes a pirate, his scuttle and the corresponding rectangular tile. He puts the tile on the left hand side of the ship. The 8 frames, the remaining tiles and scuttles should be put back into the box.
• Sort the ducats by their values.
• Put the 15 boarding cards with a star (expert level), the 6 event cards (with a telescope on their back) in the box, they are not used in the base game.

The other cards are shuffled and piled up face down beside the harbour.

The most experienced player is called the Bosun. He will reveal the cards and double check the moves of the pirates.

The Game

You play in 5 rounds. At the beginning of each round, a series of boarding cards are revealed. All the pirates play at the same time and must try to sit down as fast as possible in front of their target ship that is established by the boarding cards.

The first 5 players that get to their ship (not necessarily the Santy Anno) get ducats: the first one 5, the second 4 and so on. So you not only have to sit in front of the right ship, but you also need to be amongst the firsts!

Description of the Ships

The ships are all different but do have common elements. It is important to take a closer look at them since all boarding cards are based on these elements and their characteristics.

Each ship has 4 elements that allow her to be identified amongst the others:

• the crow's-nest
• the sails
• the hull
• the name plate

Each element has a given colour (yellow, red, blue or green).

Each ship has 4 different colours, none of her elements having the same colour. It is also important to notice that only 2 elements do have the same colour amongst the 8 ships. For example, only 2 ships do have red sails, only 2 a red crow's-nest, etc.

The ships also have a name and a number from 1 to 8.

Finally, in one of the 4 corners, you can see Coco, our beloved parrot.

A Round

A round is divided in 4 phases.

Phase 1: "Cast Off", Reveal the Boarding Cards

All the players have to stand behind their chair and take their scuttle in their hand.

The Bosun reveals the boarding cards face up in line beside the harbour. In the first round, 5 cards are revealed. The cards will be read in the order indicated by the arrow on the harbour. To avoid other players starting to think, the cards will be placed in the reverse order of reading, from the last to the first. When the latter is revealed he shouts "Cast off!!" to start phase 2.

Phase 2: Find Your Ship

Each player looks at the boarding cards and mentally moves his pirate from ship to ship to the final destination that is defined by the complete series of moves described by the cards. You have to apply these cards one after the other following the order defined by the arrow on the harbour.

Note that the move defined by a card applies to the ship on which the pirate currently is (not necessarily the starting ship). Ships never move, and it is forbidden to move one's pirate during this phase!

As soon as a player thinks he knows his final destination (target ship), he runs around the table to sit in front of the ship and as soon as he sits, he puts his scuttle face down on the harbour. If there is already a scuttle, he puts his on top of it to create a stack. If a player put his scuttle before sitting, he has to take it back, sit down and put it back on the stack.

Two or more persons can sit on the same chair; the second one has to sit on the previous one's lap and so forth. Er… Make sure that the chairs are robust enough before starting the game… if you have some doubts, better remain standing behind the person seated and put your hands on his shoulders.

The players can choose the way they run around the table.

If all the players but one have arrived, they count down from 5 to 0. Phase 2 ends at 0. If the last player is not sitting by then, he has to place his scuttle on the left hand side of the harbour. He won't get any money in this round and has to sit onto a chair that remains free.

Phase 3: Resolve the Boarding Cards

Now that everybody is sitting, you have to check if the pirates are on the correct ship. This has to be done very carefully to avoid mistakes. Let the Bosun lead the manoeuvre.

We advise you for your first games to resolve the boarding in sequence one pirate after the other. Let the Bosun move the tiles to avoid any mistakes. This will also let you understand the procedure. To indicate that a pirate has completed all of his moves, put the tile on the target ship.

Once you know the game better and all the players understand the moves, you can apply the move defined by a card to all the pirates at once. The Bosun takes the first card and applies the corresponding moves. To avoid any mistake, the order of the colours and letters in which the moves are done are shown on the harbour board. Once a pirate has moved, he is placed on the ship. If a pirate does not have to be moved, put him on his current ship. Once the move defined by the cards has been applied to all the pirates, put them all on the left hand side of their ship and discard the card. Take the next one in sequence and apply the related moves. Do all the moves as requested by the Bosun.

Pay attention while applying this method since pirates can cross each other. After each move put the pirate on the ship, so you can easily identify which ones have been moved.

Phase 4: Split the Loot

The Bosun takes the pile of scuttles and turns it upside down to see the first one who arrived. If this one is on the right place, i.e. if he sits in front of the right target ship, the Bosun puts the scuttle on the right hand side of the harbour. If the player is not on the right place, the scuttle is put on the left hand side. The Bosun checks the other scuttles the same way. The pirates that are on the left place are put in arrival order.

Then the Bosun distributes the money to the people who are correctly seated: a 5 ducats coin on the first scuttle, a 4 ducats coin to the second and so on till the 5th one who receives a 1 ducat coin. If there are less than 5 people correctly seated, the remaining coins are put back into the box.

Finally, each player takes his scuttle back as well as the coin that might be on it. Each player has to hide his loot in a safe and secret place… such as your pocket for example.

End of the Round and Next Ones

Each player stands up behind the chair where his pirate currently is – if it is not the case yet – and all used boarding cards are discarded. A new round begins.

The Bosun reveals one more card per round: 6 cards in the second round, 7 in the third, 8 in the fourth and finally 9 in the fifth one.

Special rule for the last two rounds (8 and 9 cards). The players have to run once around the table before sitting down. Therefore, the scuttle is left beside the starting ship. It will be taken once the player has completed his round. Note that the player can then change direction to go to his target seat.

End of the Game

The game ends after splitting the loot in the 5th round. The player having the most ducats becomes the captain and is the winner. The second and third become his first mates. The others lose and have to pay for the next round… and to clean the table and glasses!

Don't forget to return the coins you might have left in your pockets!

In case of a tie, the one with the most 5 ducats coins wins. If there is still a tie, it is the one with the most 4 ducats coins and so forth. And in the very seldom case that people have the exact same coins, we advise you to do an arm-wrestling match.

Boarding Cards

There are 4 types of boarding cards in the base game: element, colour, name and number. They define the pirates' moves. Reminder: the ships do not move, and the boarding card is only applicable to the ship the pirate is currently located on (not necessarily the starting ship).

The Element Cards

The element cards (crow's-nest, sails, hull and name plate) tell you that the pirate has to move to the other ship where the shown element is of the same colour as the one of his current ship: the target ship is the one having the shown element of the same colour.

Example: "The Brain" is on a ship with a red hull ("Sahara"). He moves to the other ship with a red hull, the "Viper". If there is a pirate on the target ship "Viper", they swap their place.

There are 2 types of element card: the white ones and the ones with a colour struck out.

The white cards tell you that the boarding is applicable to all 4 colours.

The cards with a colour struck out tell you that the boarding applies to all the colours but the one shown on the card.

Example: all the pirates but the ones on a ship with yellow hull move to the ship with the hull of the same colour as their ship.

To simplify the boarding resolution during phase 3, please process in the colour order as indicated on the harbour.

To ease the resolution at phase 3, perform the moves from top to bottom: crow's-nest, sails, hull and name plate.

The Colour Cards

The colour cards do not show any element. You have to look which of the elements of your current ship has the same colour as the card. The pirate moves to the ship having this element of the same colour as the card.

Example: the yellow card is to be applied. "El Belgo" is on the "Paradise", a ship having yellow sails. He now has to move to the other ship having yellow sails, the "Royal".

To ease the resolution during phase 3, please follow the order of the letters as shown on the harbour (P, R, S and V).

The Name Cards

The name cards tell you to move to the ship that has a name starting with the same letter as the current one.

There are 2 types of name cards: the ones with a letter struck out, and the ones with 4 letters.

The cards with 4 letters tell you that the move is applicable to all letters.

The cards with a letter struck out tell you that the move is applied to all letters but the one shown on the card.

Example: the card with a P struck out is to be applied. "Beauty" is on the "Profundis". She does not move. "Edward" who is on the "Royal" moves to the "Revenge".

The Number Cards

To resolve this card, you must add the number of the current ship to one of the ones shown on the card. The result is your target ship. Take the number (positive or negative) of the card that gives you a result between 1 and 8.

Example: for the card +3/-5, the pirates on ship 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 will add 3, the ones on ship 6, 7, 8 subtract 5.

Expert Boarding

Once you are familiarised with the base game, we invite you to play with the expert cards: remove randomly 10 of the base boarding cards and add the expert cards to the remaining boarding cards.

The Helm Cards

The helm cards tell you that the pirates have to move from ship to ship in the direction shown on the card. The cards are numbered from 1 to 4 in both directions. When resolving this card in phase 3, the Bosun asks that each player takes the pirate that is in front of him and asks that everybody moves it together at his pace.

The Double Cards

The double cards show 2 ship elements. To find the target ship, you'll have to look at the colour of these 2 elements on your current ship and swap them to find the corresponding ship.

Example: the crow's-nest/hull card is to be applied. You are on the "Paradise"; this ship has a red crow's-nest and a blue hull. Your target ship will be the one with a blue crow's-nest and a red hull, the "Viper".

The Coco Cards

The Coco cards tell you that the pirate has to move to the ship having Coco in the same corner as your current ship. Again, to ease the card resolution in phase 3, make the moves in the order shown on the harbour.

Event Cards

The event cards have a special back with a telescope. There are 6 cards representing 4 different events.

The event cards should be introduced once you are familiar with the base and expert games. They make the pirate's life even spicier.

The event cards are shuffled and piled up face down next to the boarding cards. When the Bosun reveals the boarding cards, he leaves the first boarding card face down and inserts the event card - also face down - between the 3rd and 4th boarding.

The Bosun then returns simultaneously both cards (the first boarding and the event cards) shouting "cast off!".

The rest of the round remains the same with the exception of the event occurring between the 3rd and 4th move.

Whirlwind

A whirlwind increases the confusion in your quest for the right ship. The boarding card before and the one after the whirlwind are swapped. The pirates must therefore apply the 4th boarding card before the 3rd one.

Seasick

Well, there must have been something odd with the food or the rum tonight, you become seasick.

All the boarding cards after this event are impacted. After each boarding card that follows this event, the pirate has to move to the next ship in the direction indicated by the card. In fact, it is as if they applied the helm of value 1 after each boarding, even if they did not move. Note: there is one card for each direction.

The Bermuda Triangle

Even in the quietest harbour the Bermuda triangle has its effects. The boarding cards that follow this event must be read in reverse order. So the 1st, 2nd and 3rd boarding cards are applied, then the last, last but one, and so forth until the 4th boarding.

Rum or the Ultimate Challenge

"A good pirate can find his ship backwards" said Black Beard before falling into the sea and drowning.

During the second phase you have to walk backwards to get to your seat. As an ultimate challenge run once backwards around the table before getting to your seat (as you would do in the 4th and 5th rounds).

Playing Without Moving Around the Table

If there is no room to run around the table, you can play without moving.

Each of the players receives a frame for his pirate and keeps it in his hand.

The gaming rules are the same, but instead of running around the table to sit on a chair, you first put your frame under the ship that you think is your target ship and then you put your scuttle on the harbour.

Once all the players have put their frame and scuttle, the round continues with phase 3 and 4. If the frame is on the same ship as the pirate tile, this indicates that you arrived on the right target ship.

Credits

Santy Anno is a game from Repos Production.

Designer: Alain Orban

Illustrations: Gérard Mathieu

Development: "Belgians with Sombreros" aka Cédrick Caumont & Thomas Provoost

The "Belgians with Sombreros" want to thank the attendees of the gathering of friends, Frank Di Lorenzo and The Secret Money Man: Jeff DeBoer.

© Repos Production 2006. All rights reserved for all countries. This material may only be used for private entertainment.