Black Fleet

One of the games we brought home from GenCon was Black Fleet.  It's a simple pickup and deliver game with a couple of "Take That!" elements. And some of the cutest/best bits I've seen in a while.

 

The goal of the game is simple: Rescue the Governor's Daughter by raising enough money to pay for her ransom.




Each turn, you'll play a card.  This card allows you to move three ships - your merchant ship, your pirate ship, and one of the navy's ships. The card may also allow you to draw some other cards that do a variety of things.  The goal of the merchant is to haul cubes from one location to the next.  The goal of the pirate is to steal cubes from merchants and then bury them.  The goal of the navy is to sink the pirates.

Merchants start with and can carry three cubes, pirates can carry one cube, and the navy doesn't bother with these goods cubes.

Hauling cubes to a port gives you money.  Attacking merchants gives you money. Burying treasure gives you money.  Sinking pirates ... gives you money. Surprising, no?

What is surprising is that the money is metal coins.  Small metal coins, but still metal coins.

Each player has a bunch of upgrade cards in front of them, too.   Every player has a different set of upgrades, too.  One upgrade that I had allowed my ships to move across island spaces. Another gave me extra money when my merchant sank a pirate.  One of my opponents had a merchant who was capable of sinking pirates. You need to purchase all of your upgrades before you can pay the ransom for the Governor's daughter.

As I said: It's not a difficult game.  In fact, it's quite simple. You could play this with a ten-year-old.

It's not a game that will hit the table every week for me, but it's also not a game that will be banished to the garage.  I look forward to playing this one some more.