Bluff, plan, and plunder

In 🏴‍☠️🦜 Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest you are an admiral commanding a crew of sky pirates in search for booty. Sounds cool, doesn't it? 🤩

I never knew Libetalia before, so when this new edition was released I was excited to try it. 🤗 Watching a playthrough video immediately sold me on the concept: simple ruleset but deeply tactical gameplay because of the mind-games that arise when choosing your cards. Do I choose this one? But what if my opponent also chooses that one? Maybe I should do this instead but could that be also countered?🤯 It’s absolutely great.

Your opponents actually get the same 6 cards as you do, so you know what they might play and that makes the game very interesting. You also do 3 voyages during the game, getting 6 new cards for every voyage. The first two voyages are only 4 and 5 turns long so some of the cards are left over. That means you will theoretically know what cards everyone has but - unless you are good keeping track - you will forget who played what - sometimes even with 2p 😅

There are 40 cards you randomize from, each with their own unique abilities, and you only see 18 cards during a game - that means every game will have a different combination so the game always remains fresh.👍

Another thing that influences your decisions are the loot tokens. These are pulled randomly from a bag for each turn of the voyage. Maybe you want to a play a card for its ability, but maybe it’s better to play a card with a high number so you get to pick the loot first. The abilities of the loot tokens are also variable so you can change things up a bit.

The art and components are magnificent.🥰 The loot tokens are chunky acrylic pieces and you get a bunch of treasure chest shaped dials too. Libertalia scales from 1 to 6 players.

I’m pleased to say that 2p works marvelously.👌 There is a Midshipman neutral character on the card row - depending on where you are in the numerical order you might get to discard a nice loot token to deny your opponent or discard a bad one so you don’t get left with it. It keeps things interesting for sure.