Libertalia, what a strange name. For those who are not familiar with its legend, Libetalia was a legendary free pirate colony, founded in the late 17th century in Madagascar, under the leadership of Captain James Misson, although most historians have expressed doubts over its existence outside of literature.
Libertalia, the board game, was a huge success when orininally published back in 2012 by Marabunta. Despite its success, the game became soon out of print with fans speculating about a reprint or new edition for many years. The time has finally come for a brand new edition of Libertalia but not just as a reprint but a brand-new game, revised and expanded.
If you are not at all familiar with the original game here’s a small resume of what it’s about. You are an admiral who commands a bunch of sky pirates (instead of sea pirates at the original game) in search of adventure and most of all, mythic loot. At the course of the game you will make 3 voyages, each lasting one day more than the previous one, starting with the first one which lasts 4 days. Each day of the voyage, you send a character to a different island to search for treasure but guess what: your opponents will do the same. They will also send a character to the same island with the same goal.
Each voyage begins with players gaining an identical set of 6 character cards. Every day during the voyage, players simultaneously select 1 character from their hand to play. Those characters are placed on the island from lowest to highest rank (player reputation breaks ties). Players will activate daytime abilities on those characters in ascending order, then dusk abilities and loot selection in descending order, with characters entering each player’s ship. Lastly, night abilities on characters in ships activate.
At the end of the voyage, players will activate any anchor abilities on characters and score their loot
tokens and doubloons. They will then discard those characters, loot tokens, and doubloons, keeping
only their hands of characters that were not played. At the end of the third voyage, players reveal
their final scores to determine who history will remember as the wealthiest pirate.
Now let’s go through our usual scoring categories:
Components
Stonemaier games always excels in producing games with great components and Libertalia is no exception to that. The gameboard is made of hard cardboard of high quality and it is double-sided. The difference of the 2 sides has to do with the loot tiles which depict the benefits of the loot tokens. You can sail to the high seas with calm weather (easy and friendly abilities of the loot tokens) in which case you use the “calm” side of the board or stormy weather (more devious abilities of the loot tokens) in which case you use the “stormy” side. In each of these two cases the abilities of the tiles are printed on the board. You also have the choice to mix calm and stormy abilities and use the loot tiles instead (using either side of the board). That is an excellent design choice, making players feel that the publisher has covered all possible ways to play. The loot tokens are made of the same hard cardboard as the board.
The gameboard’s graphics are superb, featuring the sky ships flying with calm or stormy weather on the upper side and beautiful pictures of a sandy beach with loot on the lower side. It’s also very handy that the basic rules of the game are printed at a special place on the board in case someone forgets.
The loot tokens are heavy, colorful, two-sided and made of bakelite that feel superb in the hand, like something really precious. The bag storing the tokens is pretty simple. It could have some kind of design too, but everything else is so well done that i wouldn’t dare grumble about it.
The doubloons are cardboard but you have the option to buy magnificent metal doubloons especially for this game here.
The brand new art of the pirate characters features anthropomorphic creatures serving as pirates. I guess that makes a nice combo with the notion of sky pirates but i must admit that I would prefer normal pirate figures. It’s purely a matter of taste however.
The scoring dials are a great way to keep the scores and have a beautifull, intricate design.
A special mention should be made for the box that is very well organized to store all the components in an orderly way.
10/10
Gameplay
The heart of each board game, gameplay, in Libertalia, is pretty simple at its core but intriguing enough to keep you interested. The choice of the character you will send on the island each turn is the most crucial choice you will make in the game and it isn’t an easy one. Each turn, you have to anticipate what characters the other players are going to send but you can never be sure about it. The truth is that the more the players the more difficult it will be to make such a prediction but also the more entertaining it will get. The most fun moment of the game is surely the moment when all players reveal their chosen character. The key gameplay element of the game is that day abilities will trigger from the leftmost (lower ranked) character on the island to the rightmost (higher ranked) but the dusk abilities and the loot selection will trigger in the reverse order.
The pirates themselves have a rank and an ability. Although choosing a higher ranked character will increase your chances of getting the loot you want, a pirate with a devious ability may give you better results. All is dependent to what your opponents will do. After all you don’t really know if your pirate will stay at the island till the end of the day or he will be kicked out before he gets his hands on the loot. That is really fun anyways.
The popularity track, another new feature of the game, affects how ties are resolved in a meaningful and fair way. Whoever is in the rightmost position on this track will get a better position on the island in case that another player has chosen the same pirate but boosting your reputation doesn’t come cheap. You must invest on pirate abilities that improve your position on this track to take benefit.
The increased number of characters, 40 instead of 30 of the original edition, certainly adds to variability. Moreover, the way players draw and use cards over the course of the game, which is another updated feature gives players a wider range of choices. At the beginning of each voyage players draw the same 6 characters but on the first journey they use only 4 so they have 2 left to use on the second one. Then on the second journey they draw another 6 so they have in total 8 characters from which they play 5. In the last voyage they have 3 players left from the previous one and 6 new, and they play 6.
The game excels with a player number 4 to 6, but is also interesting with 3 or even 2. The 2-player game although not superb is also enhanced in this edition by adding a fake “third player” just before gathering loot. I’ve played some 2-player games with my little son, 7 years old, and we both enjoyed it very much.
Going solo, is also an option, by following the special solo rules included in the game. This mode adds two AI players to the game, named “Automa” and the “Pilferer” that play in a specific way while the human player plays normally. Automa is a regular player following simple rules, while the Pilferer is not really a player, he just adds a character on the island and removes a loot token during the dusk phase. The AI players use their own special deck of cards and special loot tiles. Overall the game experience of playing solo is very rewarding and presents an entertaining way of passing time on your own and experimenting with your strategies. 8/10
Learning Curve
The rules of Libertalia are pretty straightforward and simple and the rulebook well-written. The basic stuff is also printed on the board in case you forget, plus the setup time is also very small. Taken that into account, the learning curve for the game is small and you can start playing immediately after reading the rules without probably having to look at the rulebook again. 8/10
Theme
In a pirate game it’s kind of important to really feel like a pirate while playing. And in Libertalia the feeling is there. You have the power to instruct certain members of the crew to go to the island. While on the island, certain things may happen to them and they may return with interesting loot or maybe not. It’s important that in this edition, each player has its own ship whereas in the original game, there was one ship for all players which would result to multiple copies of a character being all in the same ship
At the end of the journey, it’s a bit peculiar thematically that all the characters that participated in the voyage, just die. It certainly works technically for gameplay’s sake but it comes unnatural if you think about it. Maybe the whole idea of the graveyard could be more abstract like just characters exiting the game.
Another element that works well thematically, is the day/dusk/night sequence. During day the pirates do things on the island, then a little while before leaving the island (dusk) they do some more things and gather loot and then they return to the ship. Finally at night more things happen aboard the ship. The pirates’ abilities match well with their identity, for example “The Preacher” grants you reputation by discarding loot. It all feels very “piraty”! 10/10
Replayability
Libertalia will be a strong candidate for landing often on your gametable due to many reasons:
The variety of characters and the way random characters are drawn and used each turn guarantee that different sets of pirates will be available for you to play in each voyage and each game.
Moreover, replayability is boosted by having the chance to use diffent loot tiles in each game, probably a random mix of calm and stormy ones. Calm abilities are targeted towards more novice players and are more peaceful while stormy abilities target more experienced players. The “uncharted” mode in which you randomly choose which side of each tile to play provides for dozens of possible combinations of loot tiles abilities. And of course you can always choose the combination of tiles that matches best your gaming group.
The game’s duration, being not more than an hour, also fits most gamenights standards. Moreover there are moments in the game where players play simultaneously, like when choosing and revealing characters to send to the island, or resolving the “night” abilities at the ship or even the scoring process. That gives players no time to get bored. 9/10
Player Interaction
Being a pirate game and having no interaction between players would be unacceptable. Fortunately, in Libertalia, there is a lot of interaction mainly through character abilities. During daytime, pirates can change their or other pirates’ positioning on the island and even kill other pirates. This kind of interaction produces sheer fun during the game. Some special characters can even resurrect their mates from the dead. 9/10
Final Thoughts
Libertalia was a fun game right from the start. This new edition (or really a redesigned game) improves every aspect of the original, brings it more to a balance and provides even richer gameplay. With the variety of pirate characters and the numerous combinations of loot tiles, every game is guaranteed to be a unique experience. The game’s components are top-notch and can even be upgraded with metal coins. Player interaction is abundant and surprises await any player daring to sail the skies for loot and fame. A game targeted to not only pirate fans but anyone looking for a fun, easy to learn, family game. What else could someone ask for?
Recommended for: Everyone
According to our scoring system for board games, scoring categories have different weights. Components have 13% weight, Gameplay 35%, Learning curve 6%, Theme 5%, Replayability 26%, Player Interaction 15%. According to this system and the above scoring in each category, overall weighted scoring of the game is:
Overall: 8.77
