All against all.
Game invented by ?.
Published by ?.
Copyright 1993, 'game author'.
Translated by ?.
For 2-5 players from 10-110 years old.
Let's take ourselves off into another time. A time when the sea was swimming with pirates. It was hard for a trading ship to bring its wares to harbour. As players, you must try to get your own ships safely to harbour, while at the same time capturing the ships of your opponents. Players try to get their own ships through one round unscathed, or to get the strongest attack on an opponents ship and to keep it that way for a whole round.
A ship's boy is chosen, who shuffles and deals 6 cards to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down in the centre of the table.
There are 21 trading ships. Each has on it a number of gold coins which show its worth. There are 5 each of values 2,3,4,and 5 and one ship with the value 6.
There are 40 Pirate ships. The number of skulls show their strength. There are four different colours, red, green, blue and yellow. In each colour there is one ship with one skull, three with two skulls, three with three skulls and two with four skulls. There are 4 pirates, one in each colour, and 1 admiral card.
First decide who is to start. The game is played in a clockwise direction, each player in turn. The player whose turn it is may either draw a card or play a card. There are four possibilities in playing a card:
A player may only play at most one card per turn.
A player may draw a card to restock his hand as long as there are cards to be drawn. Once the cards are all gone the player must either play a card or throw one away. Only pirate ships, pirates and admirals may be thrown away, trading ships must be played.
By playing a trading ship card the player is sending it on a trading voyage. The card is placed face up on the table so that its bottom is pointing towards the player who has played it. The ship must sit undisturbed for a round in order that it may be said to have completed its voyage and come safely into harbour. But danger is everywhere, and the other players won't make it easy for you, they are always trying to attack and take over your ship.
Players use pirate ships to take over ownership of other players ships. The player lays down the pirate ship next to the object of the attack, with its keel towards the player who has played it. The number of skulls shows its strength. A trading ship can be attacked by several players at once. A player may also defend his own beleaguered trading ships, by making his own pirate attack on the ship. A player who has the strongest attack in place for a whole round wins the ship and its freight. The first player to attack a trading ship can choose any colour pirate ship that he likes. Any subsequent players attacking that ship must use a different colour from one already involved in the fight. A player can strengthen his attack by placing another pirate ship in the same colour onto the first. The number of skulls on both ships is added together to give the total strength of the attack.
A pirate in the same colour as the pirate ship, strengthens an attack which has already started. The pirate card is put down onto the trading ship and is stronger than any number of pirate ships. If several pirates board a ship in the same round, the last one played wins the ship. A pirate cannot be played unless a pirate ship in the same colour has already been used by that player to attack the trading ship.
If an admiral card is played by a player on his beleaguered ship, then that means that the ship has been successfully defended. The battle ends immediately, and the player turns over the card and lays it down in front of them.
If a trading ship is the subject of several simultaneous attacks, all of the same strength, then the cards remain on the table, and the attack may be restarted at any point.
The first thing that a player should do when he takes his turn is to check if any of his ships or those he is attacking have remained unattacked, or whether his attack is still the strongest. If so, he takes the ship card and any pirate ships etc and puts them all face down in front of him.
The game ends when all the cards have been drawn from the stack and one player has played his last card. Any captures, or successful voyages, possible with the cards on the table are carried out. Trading ships that are the subject of multiple attacks of equal strength remain on the table.
Every player adds the total of gold coins on the ships which he has laid face down in front of him. The value of any trading ships which the player still has in his hand are subtracted from the players total. The total is the value of his fleet.
The player with the highest number of gold coins in his ownership is the winner.