2-3 Players

With so few players, death is rare and most games end by amassing 25+ Doubloons. Forget the combos: They are not worth it.

Store a few Shields just in case, but otherwise only keep Doubloons and Jolly Rogers, rerolling the rest.

When stealing Doubloons, try to keep everyone else below 13 Doubloons (you can only gain at most 12 Doubloons each turn).

4-6 Players

This is when combos and attacks increase in value, and people have motivation to gang up on others.

Both collecting 25+ Doubloons and killing all other players are very possible, depending on the amount of Doubloons gained by all players.

If the former happens, the situation would be similar to 2-3 players, but people would also kill others to plunder their treasure. In that case, make sure you deal the final blow, or at least ensure whoever does that can't win.

If it's the latter, focus on Cutlasses, Shields (there are no means to regain health) and combos. Who kills who doesn't matter, just stay low to make sure you aren't the target.

In both cases, people might focus on different objectives if things change. Watch out for that!