Port Royal: Review

Port Royal: Review

Information:

Mechanics: Push your Luck, Set Collection, Drafting

Player Age: 8+ 

Player Count: 2 - 5 Players 

Time to Play: 20 - 50 Minutes 
Designers: Alexander Pflster
Artists: Klemens Franz, Atanas Lozanski

Publisher: Steve Jackson Games, Pegasus Spiele
Year Published: 2014

BGG Complexity: 1.61/5

Disclaimer: A review copy for the game was provided by the publisher.

Objective:

It is time to push your luck and control the the port by trading with ships, recruiting crew and gathering gold. The aim of the game is to reach 12 influence points which are gained from crew members or via completing missions.

Card Anatomy:

Coins:

The back of every card doubles as a coin. Whenever a player gains a coin they will take a card from the top of the deck and keep it face down in front of them.

Ships:

While revealing ships in the discovery phase, if two of the same country’s ships are revealed and are not removed by characters then the player will push their luck too far and bust, which automatically ends their turn. All the revealed cards are placed into a discard pile.

These ships can be traded after the discovery phase where the player trading with the ship will gain coins equal to the coins on the card (this can be increased with 'Trader' characters).

Ships can be repelled when revealed if the player has strength value equal to or higher than the strength on the ship. The players strength is gained from 'Pirate' or 'Sailor' characters. However, any ship containing a skull cannot be repelled.

Characters:

There are several characters that will help you to do several things; gain strength to repel ships, add money while trading, give items to complete missions, or various other unique abilities. Each character has an ability that will always be active once the character is hired (the cost is on the top left of the card). On the top right of the card there are influence points that the player earns for hiring this character.

Missions:

When a mission is revealed, it will instantly move to a separate area in front of all the players. These missions are for any player to complete when they are the active player.

To complete a mission, a player must discard characters that give symbols which match the mission. The player that completes the mission will gain coins found on the top left of the mission card, and will gain the influence points found on the top right.

Tax Increases:

The tax increases will instantly occur once revealed in the discovery phase, to be discarded afterwards. When revealed, any player with 12 or more coins will be taxed and lose half of their coins. Then, based on the card, either the player with the highest strength or lowest victory points will gain one coin. This coin can help earn enough money to buy one of the recently revealed characters.

Setup:

- Shuffle all the cards and place the deck face down.
- Each player will take three cards face down as coins.
- Determine the start player (everyone will have equal turns before the game finishes).

How to Play:

The players will take turns in order until one player reaches 12 victory points. Once someone reaches 12 points, turns will continue until the last player in turn order has had their turn (everyone must have equal turns). Each turn has a discovery phase and a trade and hire phase.

Discovery Phase:

During the discovery phase the active player will draw and reveal one card at a time until they choose to stop. Here, it is possible to push your luck too far and reveal two ships from the same country. If the player cannot repel the latest ship, they will bust and have to discard all the cards revealed and pass the turn onto the next player. In this phase, any missions revealed will be kept out for the rest of the game and any tax increases will instantly happen.

Trade and Hire:

If you didn't bust in the discovery phase you will be able to hire any characters by spending the cost on the card, or by trading ships to receive gold. The amount of cards you can trade/hire is based on the amount of countries on ships that are revealed.
- 0-3 countries: you can choose one card to hire/trade.
- 4 countries: you can hire/trade two cards.
- 5 countries: you can hire/trade three cards.

After the active player has traded or hired their available cards, each other player  can trade/hire one of the cards available, starting with the next active player. This can change to two cards if that player has the 'Govener' hired. The catch is that if they take a card, they will have to pay the active player one gold (two gold if they use the 'Govener' to gain two cards).

Ending the Game:

The last round occurs when a player reaches 12 points. The round will end when everyone has had equal turns (that means the player directly before the first player will be the last player). Whoever has the most points at this point will be the winner.

Final Thoughts:

Pros:
- There are numerous paths to focus on such as trying to complete the missions, focusing on repelling the ships, or using costly characters to help in other ways.
- Using the cards as money helps randomise the game and keep it portable with cheaper production costs.
- interesting  push your luck mechanisms.

Cons:
- The game box is larger than it needs to be.

'Port Royal' has an interesting push your luck mechanism that has players trying to get the cards they need revealed, as well as numerous unique countries to try to gain more cards from the reveal line. However, not only do you push your luck and risk going bust but you also risk revealing cards that your opponents need or revealing a tax increase and losing your hard earned money. This is the kind of game that is great at any player count. It has a tense back and forth between two players as you are trying to stay in the lead, but at a higher count the game goes fast as every player is watching every turn closely for valuables they can gain during other player’s turns. This is a good push your luck game with numerous paths to victory and I would recommend it for any fan of this mechanic.

Click...feed the addiction:

Steve Jackson Games
Pegasus Spiele
Port Royal on BGG
Expand Your Game Facebook page
Expand Your Game Instagram