Territory Acquisition Game: Pirate WaARRs

"Raise the anchor!" you cry as the wind fills you sails and men dash to and fro on the deck of your great galleon! The Great Wall, separating East and West, stand before you. Beyond, lie the mysterious lands, filled with untold riches and ripe for the taking! The world belongs to those take it! So raise the colours and conquer what is rightfully yours!

You play a captain of a pirate ship bound for the mysterious lands beyond the wall with full intent on making them yours. But at the same time you must protect the lands you call home from those who intend to do the same. Solidify your reign in your own lands? Or rush to the bounty beyond the wall? The choice is yours.

Pieces:

• 1x Pirate WaARRs Board
• 16x Ships (8x Red, 8x Blue)
• 28x Island cover tiles
• 24x Treasure cards 
• 84x Island Cubes
• 1x D4 dice

Setup:

1. If there are 4 players, each team covers 14 of their own islands, in any formation they wish. At least 1 island must be covered on each row.
2. If there are 2 players, each player must cover 21 of their own islands, in any formation they wish. At least 1 island must be covered on each row.
3. Each island has 3 slices, each has one island cube on it with the green side facing up representing that it has yet to be conquered.

Gameplay:

1. Each player starts with 2 ships and places their ships on their respective docks (the brown spaces). Players located on the same side of the center “border” are on the same team.
2. Roll a D4 to determine who goes first.
3. That player then rolls a D4 to determine how many spaces they are allowed move in total. Example: If Alex has 3 ships and rolls a 3 he is able to move 1 ship 3 spaces or move all his ships 1 space.
4. That player can then move their ship to any adjacent blue spaces on the board.
5. Once movement has finished play continues clockwise.
6. When a player is placed adjacent to an island that player has the choice of conquering that “slice” of the island. Unless it is already conquered by another player, in that case see Combat.
7. When you have conquered a slice of an island turn the island cube so that your affiliated colour is on top.
8. The game is won when all the islands on the opposing side are completely owned by the players of the opposite side. Example: White wins when all the islands on the Red side are conquered by the Blue team.

Additional Rules:

• Each island is broken up into 3 “slices”. Each “slice” is worth 3 gold.
• Gold is the currency of the game and can be used to purchase additional ships as well as be used to bargain with other players for slices of island.
• Use paper to keep track of your gold.
• To pass to the adjacent blue spaces on the other side of the "wall" (signified by grey spaces) a player must pay 5 gold to pass.
• Each player can command a maximum of 4 ships total.
• Players must pay 20 gold to obtain an additional ship.
• New ships always start at their respective docks.
• No more than 8 ships per team.
• Treasure chests are scattered throughout the board, placing a ship over a treasure chest allows a player to draw a single card. 
• These cards have the ability to give gold to the holder, take gold from another player, forcibly take a slice of an island, allow a player to pass the border unchallenged, and to take over an entire island at once, wipe them clean of their previous owners, and destroy opponent’s ships, and destroy your own.
• These cards can be held in your hand and can be played at anytime unless specified.

Combat:

• Two players, an invader and a defender, combating each other for a slice of an island must roll a D6 and the player with the higher roll keeps their slice. In a tie defender always wins.
• If the invader loses then they are sent to one of the red spaces on the “border”, the opposing team’s choice of which space they are sent to.
• If the defender loses then they lose that slice of the island. 
• When a ship is destroyed it is taken out of play and must be repurchased back into play and counts as a new ship.

The game so far, from a design perspective, seems to be rather exciting as it makes the player to make numerous decisions during play which affect the out come of the game. I look forward to play testing it and hopefully it does not require too much tweaking.

I thought when we convened on Tuesday morning that the game would be complete and that all we needed to do was play it, I was wrong. We still needed create the cards that were obtained when a ship is placed on a treasure icon as well as put the title of the game on the board. "Lucky" me that I just so happened to bring some of my paints from home. Originally, I brought them to touch up some of the game pieces i painted last night (that took a long time) but since we needed to get the title on the board I volunteered my services. So I got to work painting the title, mere hours away from submission. Though there was one mishap in the painting of the title. I had accidentally wrote them words in reverse, meaning that instead of "pirate WaARRs" it read "WaARRs Pirate". It was a good thing I wrote out the title in pencil first before painting or I would have been in trouble. As for the cards we quickly came up with proper titles for them and places wrote instructions for each, we simply needed to print them out. Sadly, we have yet to do a proper play test of the game. But it should be alright, right? :(