Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest is the new implementation of the classic Libertalia board game and is now being brought to us from Stonemaier Games. Today we are going to look at this new version and see what it does different, what it does similar and overall how it feels. We will try to answer the question of “should I buy this” Both for someone who owns the original and for those new to the game!
Libertalia takes place over three rounds that each act as a voyage. On these voyages you will command your crew against rival ships as you come to an island and attempt to loot and plunder all the treasure. Each day of the voyage players take a turn by secretly playing a card face-down and then revealing them at the same time. Once the three voyages have finished players compare treasure in their total amount of coins and whoever has the most is declared the top Captain!
Gameplay occurs over three phases each day until the end of the voyage During these phases players will take turns and progress through the course of a day. The phases are:
Daytime-here the characters each kick their daytime ability if present going from the lowest rank to the highest. Each ability completes before the next players.
Dusk-starting with the highest order/rank and moving down players will take their choice of a loot token and then use any of the dusk abilities they have as well. At the end of their turn they will come back to the ship with their collected loot.
Night-Now players look at all of the characters in your ship and activate any and all night abilities. This is done in any order by all players until all abilities are resolved. These day to dusk to night patterns repeat for each day on the voyage which progresses from four then five than six days on the last Voyage.
At the end of each Voyage players will play all of the Anchor abilities on their character cards or loot tokens. These will help you to gain doubloons and possibly even lose some depending on your loot tokens. Players will take the coins and add them to their stash and then take all of those and add them to your score dial on your treasure chest. Once all that is completed players will discard their loot tokens and move all characters in their ship to the discard pile. This then leads to the set up for the next Voyage and continues until the last Voyage in which players will add all of their treasure to see who comes out as the winner!
So What’s New?
There are a few different things that set this one apart from the original and we will go into detail here about these aspects. Ultimately it is a game that if you know how to play the original Libertalia this one will be smooth to learn as well. Blind card play, matching crew members and the treasure that is taken in order are all familiar mechanics for this one, but let’s talk about what sets it apart as different and new.
The Reputation Track. This track will allow players to decide the turn order when cards of the same number are played. This track is full no matter how many players are in the game and allows everyone to move in a more or less favorable position along the line to determine where their crew members will slot in. I appreciated the balance of higher reputation giving you less money to start the round and the lower reputation people getting more money. This track may be the best addition from the base game because it eliminates the need for random card numbers to determine the player order. I also like that it adds a new resource that you need to manage and use to score coins/points to win the game.
The artwork. The original style of Libertalia was down and dirty Pirate themed. It was classic in that style with pirate characters that you would expect to see in a movie or comic book with characters like Blackbeard or Jack Sparrow. Although I can appreciate that theme I can see why the choice was made for the new one. Stonemaier has sought to move into a more family-friendly version of art with pirate characters that are more anthropomorphic in style and substance than the original. These characters are human-like but have all sorts of animal characteristics and styles that come across more whimsical then fantasy pirate themed. It’s neither good nor bad but it is different and a style I expect more family/general gamers to enjoy as opposed to your more traditional gamer.
Hand size. So this is definitely a different style for this game and I think it affects the gameplay the most. In the original Libertalia you start with nine cards and then draw six more the next two rounds. Here you start with six and draw six more then next two rounds. Giving you a starting hand that is 33% smaller to begin with.
I think this change has made the most impact in two different ways. It is easier to choose a card from your hand when you have less cards and really keeps the AP down from what the previous version did. The limited choice by only starting with 6 cards gave some players less variability that they have to deal with which can be welcoming. Also there are quite a few cards that play off of each other so I think it’s important to keep the choices tight so that you can see them jockey back in forth. However this also makes for less choice and variety that often felt like it capped my ability to play outside of what everyone else was playing. There were quite a few second and third voyages where we all started with only one card left in hand so the variability felt way less than in the original version of the game, and that variable “who has what card left in their hand” feel was definitely missing to me.
Treasure Loot Tokens. These chunky tiles are awesome. They are very similar to the ones from Azul in size and quality, I really appreciate the effort that Stonemaier consistently puts into their components and these really shine. The way you obtain these and they score is fun and I honestly like the variety of having more and less friendly tokens. The ones that involve more player interaction and a little more “unfriendly” but I love when games give me options that can affect other players.
Overall Impressions
I enjoyed the theme and the mechanics of the original game enough to play it anytime someone asked. The mystery of who’s going to play what and when along with the fight over the treasure is a fun pirate theme that just slides into the game so well. I owned it at one point but did sell it because I just never got it to the table. But I would gladly play it anytime if someone asked.
This new version/imagining of that original game is definitely a different experience that takes some of the best parts of the original and adds to them but at the same time it also subtracts certain aspects as well. If you love the original for all of its pirate theme and artwork, you probably won’t love this one. If you liked the larger hand of cards to manage and pull from, you probably will not care for this version of it as well. Basically if you have been searching to get your hands on a copy of the out of print (OOP) version of Libertalia, you may want to keep looking.
However I will say that this game excels at everything it sets out to do. It is aesthetically fun, light and whimsical in theme with silly animal-pirates that will appeal to all ages including younger ones. Everyone I have introduced this to who had no experience with the first version of the game loved it and the few that knew both liked it well enough. I had someone who didn’t like the original version play it and they felt the same was about this one which made me think that even though it was different it wasn’t that much removed from the original!
I think there was a goal here of setting out to do the things that original Libertalia did well and add aspects that will make this more appealing to a larger market of players. In my experience with the game so far I would say that if that was the goal they have a game that will be successful for that very reason. It has been an enjoyable experience for everyone who has given it a chance. I can see families and even more casual gaming groups enjoying this one the most. So if you have a crew of your own itching to sail the seas and loot for treasure together this may be the choice for you!
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