by: Michael Barnes

First, a message to anyone out there who thinks they’ve got a great idea for a pirate board game. Hang it up. You’re done. Pick another topic, because this one is finished.

Merchants & Marauders, recently released by Z-Man Games, is the best pirate game I’ve ever played, period—and I’ve played pretty much all of them. Ironic, because I don’t really like pirates or pirate games very much but M&M has won me over with its fun and detailed adventure game framework.

In addition to the usual piratical affairs that you’d expect from such an offering (plundering fat merchant vessels, burying treasure, tapping into the rum cargo and so on) the grapeshot-through-the-sails nautical naughtiness is tempered with the ability for the player to choose an honest life buying goods low and selling them high at ports of call. But with nations going to war, NPC navies and pirates on the prowl, and a tantalizing PvP element you can rest assured that this is not a friendly pick-up-and-deliver game at all.

Players choose from a stack of Captain cards, each with the expected special ability and a couple of stats indicating how many dice they’ll roll in a skill check with skulls (surrogate fives and sixes) indicating successes. Each captain starts out their Caribbean cruise in either a sloop or flute with generally low ratings in terms of hull toughness, crew capacity, cargo holds, and cannon. Over the course of the game and once some money starts rolling in by fair means or foul, it’s possible to not only upgrade the ship with a number of special equipment chits but also to buy bigger, faster, and more dangerous vessels.

Once outfitted, the captains have three actions per turn and there are only three core activities available. In addition to sailing, there is also a scouting action selected with an attendant die roll to find merchant vessels or other player and NPC ships in a sea region- very basic stuff. The port action is more complex as it compounds several functions including repairing/upgrading the ship, buying or selling cargo, acquiring or fulfilling mission cards, or asking around for rumors. Essentially, these are the chief decisions a captain makes over the course of the game, and I like that the turn structure is kept simple and direct.

Of course, there is much more to consider than whether to move or take care of business on shore. Ship-to-ship combat is brutal, dice-rolling fun that might find you lurching away, sails in tatters and hoping that the next event card doesn’t send that Dutch Galleon your way if your country is on the other side of an ongoing war.