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Tortuga 1667 is a fun social deduction game where you’re all attempting to get the most treasure for your country. But, do you know who is really French? Do you know who is British? Or will you get marooned to Tortuga and become the governor of the Island?
Setup:
Each player is given a character card, 3 vote cards and a loyalty card. The loyalty card will state whether you are British or French (Dutch card is in play with an odd player count). The vote cards will impact a number of things. Whether you successfully attack and steal treasure, whether you successfully mutiny and maroon your ship’s captain to Tortuga or whether you successfully win a brawl on the Island of Tortuga and claim treasure for your country.
At the bottom of the play mat are 5 Tortuga cards. Each of these cards have different play effects such as the pistol card where you can shoot another player. A letter of Marquis where you can move to whichever ship you want. The dreaded black spot where you get marooned to Tortuga. At the beginning of the game, player’s meeples are placed in a bag and drawn at random and placed evenly across The Jolly Roger and The Flying Dutchman. Where you are placed on a ship will impact what you can do on a turn. The majority of treasure chests start on The Spanish Galleon ship.
How to play:
- On your turn, you have one action and you can to a number of things based where you are on the play mat: If you’re in the captain slot on a ship, you can attack another ship to gain treasure or choose to maroon one of your shipmates to Tortuga. If you decide to attack, players will blindly play one vote card. A torch and canon is needed to succeed but if a bucket of water gets put in play, an attack fails. If you’re the first mate, you can decide to call a mutiny against your captain and the other crew mates on your ship vote on this. If you’re the cabin boy, you can decide to change the position of one of the treasure chests on the ship. Do you want it in the French hold or the British hold?
Players may also choose to reveal one of the Tortuga cards at the bottom of the play mat, choose to look at two of these cards or choose a player to reveal one of the cards. This will impact your game play.
Players who are marooned to Tortuga can choose to go on an empty row boat space to go to the ship they want to go to. However, if you're the Governor of Tortuga you can call a brawl on your turn. Players will put cards into a vote and whoever has the most flags (British or French) win the treasure chests on their section on the island.
When the Spanish Armada card is revealed, the country with the most treasure chests wins the game.
Thoughts:
Façade Games always knock it out of the park with their book games and Tortuga 1667 is another fantastic game. I love the social bluffing aspect of the game. Especially where people bluff that they’re a nationality they’re not. It makes for good table top banter amongst players which makes it a great game to play with a group of friends. The play mat is beautiful, the illustrations on the cards are stunning and the instructions are easy to follow.
Scores:
Zatu Score: 87
- Artwork: 5/5
- Complexity: 2/5
- Replayability: 4/5
- Player interaction: 4/5
- Component Quality: 5/5
You will like:
- · Stunning artwork.
- · Easy to learn.
- · Great social interaction between players.
- · Fun theme.
You will not like:
- · It is not as fun to play with a small amount of players. It is better with 6 or more.