Cartagena - a simple but clever game for 2 to 5 players, aged 7 and up.
Components
6 board pieces printed on both sides. On each is a portion of the underground passage with a different sequence of the following 6 Signs: a Skull, Dagger, Key, Bottle, Pistol and a Three-Cornered Hat.
A Small Board in the shape of a Pirates Sloop.
A deck of 103 cards, on the face of one is an Arrow, the others contain one of the 6 Signs (there are 17 of each Sign).
30 Pirates in 5 colours, 6 of each colour.
Set of illustrated rules.
Objective
The objective of Cartagena is to be the first player to move all of your Pirates along the Tunnel and onto their Sloop so that they can make their way from jail to freedom and the high seas.
There are 2 variants available for this game, named Jamaica and Tortuga, and this review will cover the Jamaica version.
Setting Up
Randomly join the 6 board pieces to form a continuous corridor then place the Pirates Sloop at one end. The other end is the start of the tunnel where the Pirates will start the game.
Give each player a set of 6 Pirates in one colour.
Remove the card which has the Arrow shown on it and then shuffle the deck thoroughly, deal each player 6 cards and then place the remaining cards face down.
Game Play
The most Pirate like player (who's got the parrot that says "Pieces of Eight" ?) starts the game and play then continues in a clockwise fashion.
Each player may now make from 1 to 3 moves in any combination from the two possible actions which are:
- Play a Card and advance a Pirate along the Tunnel, up to the next unoccupied symbol shown on the card or onto the Pirates Sloop if no vacant symbols of that type are in front of him.
- Move a Pirate back to the next Occupied Symbol and pick up 1 card if there is a single Pirate there, or 2 cards if there are 2 Pirates, you may not go back to a position where there are 3 Pirates already.
Play continues until 1 player has all 6 of his Pirates loaded aboard the Sloop which then slips it's moorings and heads out to the High Seas.
NB: You may have as many Pirates advancing through the Tunnel at one time as you wish, you don't have to take one all the way from the start to the finish before introducing more.
The Hooks
The twisty Tunnel has lots of variations and so the signs are not spread equally, none of the board pieces are identical though they are reversible.
You can see where you might take advantage, if only you had the cards of the right Sign.
Your Tactics
Leapfrogging Pirates who are occupying Signs mean you might move a Pirate a long way up the Tunnel in a single turn, keep track of which Signs are on the cards you are holding.
Since you will want to move forward more than backward try to keep a few cards in your hand, optimise this by taking every advatange to be able to pick up 2 cards into your hand.
Try not to get your Pirates isolated, once they are you won't be able to leapfrog other Pirates and you will need more cards to go from the start to the finish.
Jamaica Variant
The Jamaica Variant is described above and is considered to be the more luck based way to play.
Tortuga Variant
The Tortuga Variant differs in 2 regards:
- All of the players cards are played face up so that everyone can see what each player has.
- Instead of selecting new cards from a face down stack, 12 cards are placed in line face up and cards are selected from this point until all 12 have been used when another 12 are laid out. The sequence is determined by the Arrow Card and the cards are picked up from that end.
This Variant is considered to be more of a skill based game and timing the picking up of cards becomes more crucial. Note that this can be an excellent way to introduce new players to the game as someone can assist in the choice of decisions.
Conclusion
An entertaining game which will interest children of all ages, aged 7 and up. A light game by some standards but with enough to make it a very pleasant way of spending an hour.
I haven't seen it done yet, but why not add a chase element to this game by adding a Soldier who could either:
- Put Pirates back in Jail if he lands on the same Symbol a Pirate occupies, he might move up and down the tunnel one space at a time or more, depending on the roll of a dice for example.
- Kill Pirates and eliminate them from the game if he lands on the same Symbol, if playing the Tortuga Variant he might appear after the 12th card has been picked up and then move up the tunnel one square on each players go, in this case the winning condition would be the person who had most Pirates escape.
Additional Reviews
Details from Boardgamegeek
