Overview

• Libertalia is an auction game with a twist.
• During three campaigns, you have to gather doubloons and booty tiles to become the wealthiest pirate.
• Each turn, you play a numbered card to try to get first pick of the booty - but each card has special powers that affect how the auction will play out.
• Every player starts with the same set of cards, and you'll have to choose carefully which moment to play each card, and to try to read your opponents' strategies.

Structure

• The game consists of 3 campaigns, broken up into 6 days.
• In the first campaign, all players have an identical random set of 9 crew cards and 10 doubloons.

Phases

Each day has 4 phases:

Phase 1: Sunrise

• In this phase, each player secretly chooses one crew card to play.
• Once everyone is ready, the players reveal their chosen crew members and place them on the cargo ship from lowest on the left to the highest on the right.
• If there is a tie, the lower tie breaker number goes the left of the higher.
• During this phase, all special actions that take place during sunrise happen from left to right.

Phase 2: Day

• The only thing that happens in this phase is all crew members with a day action (yellow sun symbol) must take it, in increasing order of rank. (lowest goes first).

Phase 3: Dusk

• Each crew must claim a booty token from below the ship.
• Tokens are chosen in decreasing order of rank (the opposite of Phase 2) so the highest ranking crew get the best selection of tokens.
• After a crew claims a booty and resolves their dusk action (red sun symbol) - if any - they are immediately placed in their player's den before the next booty is claimed (which is important if someone is claiming a sabre later.)
• In some circumstances there might be no more booty to claim when a crew's turn to claim is resolved which means they get no booty and go to their den empty handed.

Phase 4: Night

• The only thing that happens in this phase is crew members use their Night actions (moon symbol).
• The difference is all crew members in your den resolve their night actions every night.
• So that Barkeep (his action is to score you 1 doubloon each night) you played on day 1 of the current campaign, will keep paying you every night (as long as he stays alive.)
• Play those night cards early!

• Note: All crew must resolve as much of their actions as possible, even if disadvantageous to themselves or their controller!
  • The Brute might kill himself, the Cannoneer has to pay 3 gold even if there are no eligible crew in a den to kill, the Merchant will sell your set of jewels or treasure maps if you have no other sets of matching treasure.

Booty Tokens

• Chest = 5 doubloons.
• Jewels = 3 doubloons.
• Goods = 1 doubloon.
• Each set of 3 treasure maps = 12 doubloons. Incomplete sets of 1 or 2 treasure maps are worth nothing.
• Each cursed relic makes you lose 3 doubloons.
• Sabers and Spanish Officers are worth nothing but have effects when taken:
  • - When the Saber is taken you must choose a character from an adjacent player's den and discard it if possible.
  • - When the Spanish Officer is taken your character is discarded instead of being added to your den.

End of campaign

• After the 6th day of the campaign, the round is over.
• Players resolve all “end of campaign” actions (anchor symbol) of crew members still alive in their dens (yes, crew members can be killed).
• All used crew members are removed from the game.
• Each player adds up the value of their booty tokens and doubloons (returning them to the bank) and moves their score marker ahead on the track.
• Each player should have 3 cards left in their hand.
• These carry over into the next 2 campaigns.

• To setup for the next campaign each player gets 10 new doubloons and add an identical random set of 6 crew cards to the three crew left over.
• Thus players may have a slightly different hand from each other going forward.

End of game

• Rounds 2 and 3 play just like round 1.
• At the end of the game the player with the most victory points is the winner.

Crew Powers

• Parrot (1): Discard and replace with a different character (day).
• Monkey (2): Give all your cursed relics to the player on your left (day).
• Beggar (3): The player with the highest character in the ship gives you 3 doubloons (day).
• Recruiter (4): Take back one character from your den into your hand (day).
• Cabin Boy (5): Don't take any booty tiles (dusk).
• Preacher (6): Discard all booty tiles but one (day). Gain 5 doubloons (end).
• Barkeep (7): Gain 1 doubloon (night).
• Waitress (8): Discard a treasure map to gain 3 doubloons (night).
• Carpenter (9): Lose half of your doubloons (day). Gain 10 doubloons (end).
• French Officer (10): Gain 5 doubloons if you have less than 9 doubloons (day).
• Voodoo Witch (11): Gain 2 doubloons for each of your discarded characters (day).
• Freed Slave (12): Gain 1 doubloon for each character in your den with a rank higher than 12 (night).
• Mutineer (13): Discard the character with the lowest rank in your den (not mutineer) and gain 2 doubloons (night).
• Brute (14): Discard the character with the highest rank in the ship (day).
• Gunner (15): Pay 3 doubloons to discard any character of your choice (day).
• Topman (16): Gain 5 doubloons if you have the fewest characters in your den (end).
• Spanish Spy (17): Discard all Spanish officers and draw 1 booty for each officer discarded (day).
• Cook (18): Take 2 booty tiles (dusk).
• Bosun (19): Gain 2 doubloons for each character in your den with a rank lower than 19 (night).
• Armorer (20): Gain 1 doubloon for each sabre (night).
• Merchant (21): Discard 2 identical booty tiles to gain 3 doubloons or 3 identical booty tiles to gain 5 doubloons (day).
• Surgeon (22): Take back one discarded character into your hand (day).
• Treasurer (23): Gain 1 doubloon for each of your goods, jewels and chests (end).
• Gambler (24): Lose 1 doubloon for each of your booty (day). Gain 8 doubloons (end).
• Governor's Daughter (25): Gain 6 doubloons if only you have the Governor's Daughter. Otherwise, lose 3 doubloons (end).
• Quarter Master (26): Gain 1 doubloon for each of your booty (day). Lose 8 doubloons (end).
• Granny Wata (27): Gain 2 doubloons if there is only 1 Granny Wata, otherwise discard all Granny Watas (night).
• First Officer (28): Gain 1 doubloon for each character in your den (end).
• Captain (29): Gain 3 doubloons (day). Lose 3 doubloons for each of your cursed relics (end).
• Spanish Governor (30): Discard all characters from your den (day).