Some pirate hats and/or eye patches were worn and a wench was present, as were 7 different games that featured Pirates..

We celebrated Emily’s birthday with cupcakes and wished her well upon graduation next week from Williams College.

Skull /Skull & Roses (led by Sean) 2011 push your luck game played with coasters.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/92415/skull

Black Fleet (led by Tim) 2014 game on the high seas, delivering goods with merchant ships, stealing goods (and burying them on tropical islands) with Pirate ships and capturing Pirate ships with the Royal Navy ships….all for the love of ducats. A combination of ‘take that’ combined with a pick up and deliver mechanic. Sink a ship and it is removed from the board and re-enters at a designated port..  

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/157403/black-fleet

Port Royal (led by Sean) 2015 double deck push your luck card game. One one side cards serve as money on the other as ships, characters and expeditions. First to 12 VPs is the winner.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156009/port-royal

Pirate Den (lead by Sean) 2015 card game where players take on the role of pirate captains trying to get the most loot. Plunder the seas, steal from your rivals, and bury your treasure to protect it. The captain with the most loot at the end of the game, wins.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/156853/pirate-den

Cartagena (led by Drew) 2000 card game with a modular board, takes as its theme the famous 1672 pirate-led jailbreak from the fortress of Cartagena. Each player has a group of six pirates, and wants to be the first to have all six escape through the tortuous underground passage that connects the fortress to the port, where a sloop is waiting for their escape

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/826/cartagena

Flying Dutchman/Der Fliegende Hollander (led by K-ban) 1992 Klaus Teuber design (3 years before Settlers of Catan). As the Flying Dutchman Pirate ship sails the seven seas, it can either move onto islands or the ships (in 6 different colors) by playing horseshoe tokens to match the target number rolled by the special dice.. If the black ship is moved onto a ship space, players reveal if they are shareholders and pay the current value back to the bank as its marker is moved down to zero. On your turn, you can opt to use your Trade card to exchange share cards, effectively dodging the Dutchman’s threat. Or you can play a Smithy card, to allow you to take horseshoes at the end of the turn. But mainly you can attempt to control the Dutchman’s move, by laying down horseshoes to match the lucky number, the closest winning control. A nice rule, if there’s a tie, the players are meant to try to agree, then barter, and finally compete with more horseshoes (all to the benefit of the Smithy card players!). Played horseshoes are pooled until Smithies divy them up.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/305/der-fliegende-hollander

Pirate vs Pirate (led by Drew) 2010 release. Three bands of pirates have discovered a treasure filled island. To be victorious, be the first captain to retrieve the treasure or eliminate all enemy pirates. There are three ways to win: retrieve two of the three silver coins, retrieve the single gold coin, or eliminate all rival pirates.

The German SdJ (Spiel des Jahres) Game of the Year Nominees were announced last week.

https://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/132197/spiel-des-jahres-nominations-2022-cascadia-scout-a?fbclid=IwAR0-31J1JcNmenOBgYUxQ0GJ6Pwh8iPSe8xl9oRqoxU8bP3JVtrjCw1I2Vw

A Jury of German journalists nominates family games for the coveted award (usually guaranteeing the publisher of sales of 250,000 to 500,00 copies for the winner). .Three games are deemed finalists plus a list of recommended games. Our group has played one of the 3 finalists (Cascadia) and two from among  the recommended list – So Clover and 7 Wonders: Architects.

The Kennerspiel des Jahres is for Gamers Games. Although we’ve played none of the 3 finalists, Tim has recently ordered a copy of Cryptid and Armando is ordering a copy of Dune: Imperium

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