Pirates of Maracaibo
Set sail for an adventurous raid...for perhaps it will be your last! Face danger and adventure once more while you search high and low for the most valuable treasures the Caribbean has to offer, then quickly find a safe harbor to stash priceless gold, rare emeralds, and iridescent pearls. Explore, stockpile cargo, hire crew, and commandeer rival ships, but don't forget to bury your loot. As you sail, be on the lookout for a place to settle after your life on the high seas has come to an end, but before you do that, you must outpace your opponents as one trip around the Caribbean won't be enough. You must make three trips in order to retire as the richest and greatest buccaneer of all time.
Pirates of Maracaibo is a standalone game in the same franchise as 2019's Maracaibo, and players who are familiar with that game will recognize some beloved concepts from the original. However, new players can jump right in with no prior knowledge of the original game as Pirates of Maracaibo is an independent game with a more accessible rule set. The game plays over three rounds in which you sail the Caribbean, hire crew, ally with other ships, explore the shore, amass the most treasure, and (ideally) retire to a secluded island as the most revered pirate in history. Cast off sailors and swashbucklers, cast off!
Number of players: 1 - 4
Game duration: 34 mn
Complexity: 3 / 5
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Play Pirates of Maracaibo and 1060 other games online.
No download necessary - play directly from your web browser.
With your friends and thousands of players from the whole world.
Free.
Rules summary
Overview
Welcome to Pirates of Maracaibo! You're a pirate in the Caribbean in this tableau-building game, seeking to hire a versatile crew, grow your hoard of treasure, and improve your pirate ship.
Pirates of Maracaibo is played over 3 rounds. Each round, you and your opponents will sail through the Caribbean. You can stop at as many spaces as you want during a round, but watch out! After any player reaches the Maracaibo space, the round will end and all players will move back to the start.
What To Do On Your Turn
On your turn, you must perform these two steps in this order:
Step 1 - Move Your Ship
On your turn, you must move 1 to 3 spaces (each card is a space). You may move to any card that is adjacent to your current card, including vertically. You MUST end in a column that is further to the right than where you started.
If you end your movement on a card (not the Gulf or Maracaibo) with any opponent Ships, you must pay each of those opponents 1 doubloon. If you do not have enough Doubloons, pay as many players as you can (in the order of your choosing), and ignore the rest. There is no penalty for being unable to pay, so if you are broke, you can move onto a space with other Ships with no consequence!
If your ship lands on the Gulf space (to the right of the cards), you must stop there, even if you have extra movement. If you start your turn on the Gulf space, you must move to the Maracaibo space above it.
Step 2 - Perform Actions
Perform an action based on where your ship landed. There are 5 types of spaces that you can land on, detailed below:
Improvement Card
Improvement cards are cards that you can acquire in the Caribbean and add to your tableau.
You must choose one of these options when landing on an Improvement Card:
- A. Ignore the card and gain 5 Doubloons from the supply.
- B. Pay the indicated number of Doubloons in the top left of the card to acquire it. It will move below your ship board, and it will provide either an immediate benefit (beige scroll), a passive benefit or new action (red scroll) that persists for the remainder of the game, or an end-game benefit (black scroll). Any Victory Points shown in the top right are scored at the end of the game.
When you take an Improvement card, a new card from the Tier II deck replaces it.
Residence Card
Residences provide Endgame scoring bonuses.
You must choose one of these options when landing on a Residence:
A. Ignore the card and gain 5 Doubloons from the supply.
B. Pay the cost indicated in the top left and place one of your markers in an available space to indicate that you have purchased the Residence. If you cover the first slot, gain 2 VP. These cards will score VP at the end of the game based on the indicated requirements, up to a maximum of 24 VP or 25 VP. These cards stay in the Caribbean and do not move below your player board.
Location Card
Locations are permanent cards in the Caribbean that provide various effects.
When you land on a Location, you must do all of these steps in order:
1. If a Treasure tile is at this location, a treasure cube is automatically placed from the supply to its corresponding island, increasing its value.
2. If one of YOUR Black Market tiles is at this location, you may activate it.
3. Perform a Ship Upgrade
4. Perform the Location's Action. These are detailed in the section "Various Effects and Action".
The Gulf
The Gulf is the space immediately to the right of the cards in the Caribbean. You MUST end your movement on the Gulf if you land on it.
When on the Gulf, you may first perform a Ship Upgrade and then one of the three following actions:
A. Raiding with an additional 2 raiding power
B. Explore with 4 steps
C. Purchase a Residence anywhere in the Caribbean, paying its cost.
Maracaibo
Maracaibo is the final space in the Caribbean, above the Gulf. If you start your turn on the Gulf, you MUST move to Maracaibo.
When a player reaches Maracaibo, they gain 6 VP and a Ship Upgrade.
- Then, all players collect Doubloon and VP income.
- Finally, ALL players' ships move back to the start of the Caribbean, and it will be the next player's turn in regular turn order.
IMPORTANT: In the third and final round, the last player to act in the game is the player whose token is on Maracaibo. This guarantees equal turns in the game. It is therefore possible that one player may reach Maracaibo in the final round, but other players take one last turn after them.
Various Effects and Actions
Location Actions
These are the main Location actions. They may also appear on other cards, your ship upgrade board, or the exploration track.
Raiding
This is the primary way to acquire Treasure cubes, which score VP at the end and frequently appear on Quests.
- Roll all dice (you may reroll all dice once) and choose one. Add any permanent raiding power and color-dependent raiding power to this die's value.
- This total value is the amount of raiding power you can use to perform Raiding Actions. You start with 3 raiding actions on your ship and can acquire more from Ship Upgrades or Improvement Cards.
- You may perform each Raiding Action AT MOST ONCE each time you perform Raiding.
- You may use the "Acquire Treasure" actions only on the island that matches the die you selected. If no treasure is on an island, you may take it from the supply.
Quest
This action lets you take on quest from the face-up display or from the top of the deck. It refills afterward.
Quests give you an end-game scoring objective. You can score either the easier objective with fewer requirements (and smaller VP reward), or you can score the harder objective with more requirements (and a larger VP reward).
Explore
Exploring is a way to get immediate bonuses and VP on the Exploration Track.
- Add any permanent Explore bonuses to the Exploration effect's value number and move your Explorer up to this total amount on the Exploration Board.
- You may perform the action of the final space you land on or gain the immediate bonus (such as Doubloons).
Buy Good or Crew
This location allows you to do one of the following:
A. Take 5 Doubloons B. Buy a Goods or Crew Improvement card ANYWHERE in the Caribbean, at its cost plus an 3 additional Doubloons.
Bury Treasures 2x
This location lets you bury 2 Treasures.
When burying treasure, you select an unburied treasure cube that is in your hideout and move it below the line, gaining a bonus, if any.
Buried treasure are each worth 2 VP at the end of the game and sometimes are requirements for quests.
Non-Location Actions
These are found outside of Locations.
Raiding Icon without Dice
Immediately perform a Raiding action, where your strength is the printed value plus any permanent strength you have. Color-specific strength DOES NOT count for these actions.
Raiding Icon with a single Die
Immediately perform a Raiding action, where your strength is the printed value plus any permanent strength you have. Color-specific strength for the matching color DOES count for these actions.
Re-Explore (Exploration with a Lightning Bolt)
This icon lets you regain the bonus of where your explorer is currently standing.
Additional raiding actions from Improvements
These are additional Raiding effects you can use (once per Raiding action). The island that you add treasure to DOES NOT need to match the island of the die you choose.
Discounts
Reduce the cost of all Improvements and Residences by the discount shown. These stack.
Final Scoring
When all players have taken their turns at the end of the 3rd round, the game ends.
Players gain points for the following:
Income
All players take both their Doubloon income and VP income as normal.
Leftover Doubloons
Gain 1 VP for every 5 leftover Doubloons.
Rivers Crossed
Gain 4 VP for each river you've crossed on the Exploration board (max of 16 VP).
Improvement Card VP
Gain the VP shown in the top right of all of your Improvement cards.
Endgame Scoring effects on Improvement Cards
Gain VP based on all black scrolls shown on your Improvement cards. These can all be scored multiple times (e.g. if you score 7 VP for every 3 Gold, this would be 14 VP if you have 6-8 Gold).
Residences
Gain VP based on all your purchased Residences (max 24 VP or 25 VP each).
Treasure
Gain VP for each type of treasure you have. Each treasure is worth the same amount for ALL players, based on the amount of treasure accumulated on its corresponding island. If Gold is worth 3 VP and you have 5 Gold, you would score 15 VP for Gold.
Buried Treasure
All Buried treasure is worth 2VP, regardless of type.
Quests
Gain the VP from either the top or bottom of each quest in your hand (not both).
Quest Bonus
If you have completed 6 quests at either the easy or hard level, gain 10 bonus VP.
