Stonemaier Games | Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest | Board Game | Ages 14+ | 1-6 Players | 45-60 Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

With the fast setup, quick tear down, short playtime, and pretty components, I think it should be able to hit the table without intimidating anyone. I cannot foresee a day where I will get bored of playing Libertalia: Gales of Windcrest, it really is that good. I’ve been a fan of Smith’s artistic style ever since the first time I laid eyes on the card art for Murder on the Cosmic Express and Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest certainly does not disappoint with his interpretation of sky pirates. I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work, but whether it works well is another question entirely :-). I’m so pleased that there’s a successful publisher out there now actively working to bring out-of-print licences back to life, and not just copying the original verbatim.

It might not shine as brightly at two as it does at three, four, five and six, but that’s not something worthy of dwelling on. That is often where most of the fun in the game is: The intricacies of predicting the plays of others and doing one’s best to undermine it. At the end of a voyage, anchor abilities are also simultaneously activated by loot tokens and characters on your ship. With the basics mastered, the strategy of optimising when to play cards from your hand and how best to utilise them, really comes to the fore.Players send crew members to an island of riches every round, and that simple choice is at the heart of the game.

But that doesn’t stop it from being an entertaining light game that strikes a good balance between strategy and second-guessing. Also, I find it confrontational when people have decided to spend their time playing with me, but in this game, it works incredibly well with the theme, so everyone knows what to expect. If you enjoyed this review and would like to read more like this, consider supporting the site by joining my monthly membership at Kofi. One player randomly draws 6 new characters from their deck and all other players again retrieve those same numbered characters to their hands.

I never played the original, but heard great things about it, and I am excited to play this fine-tuned version! If you play the Smuggler, you get to choose a loot token during the day phase instead, so you could force some other poor sap to take the hook.