How to Play Pirates Cove

Setup

• 1

  Give each player a ship place mat, nine gold, a navigation wheel, a ship token, four ship markers and a fame marker matching the color of the ship token. Place the fame markers on the start of the fame track.

• 2

  Pile all the treasure and gold on Treasure Island in the center of the map. Shuffle the treasures deck, and place twelve treasure cards face down on each of the five outer islands. Shuffle the tavern deck, and place it face down on Tavern Island.

• 3

  Have each player place their ship markers on the skull spaces of the ship. Players may now spend gold as indicated on the place mat to advance any of the four markers forward as much as they can afford.

• 4

  For each player fewer than five in the game, add a black pirate ship to the board on an outer island, starting with island one, and flip over a legendary pirate card to be represented by each black ship.

Gameplay

• 5

  Start a new turn by moving all black pirates one island clockwise.

• 6

  Secretly set your navigation wheel to the island to which you wish to go.

• 7

  Reveal your navigation wheel. All players move their ships to the navigated island.

• 8

  Begin combat for any ships moving to the same outer island. Whichever ship has the highest Sail ranking attacks first. Attack by rolling a number of dice equal to the lower of Cannon ranking and Crew ranking. For each five or six rolled, reduce one ranking of the opponent's ship one space. When a ship has a ranking reduced to zero, it is crippled and sent to Pirate's Cove.

• 9

  Continue combat until each island only has one ship remaining. Players on those islands get the treasure listed on the treasure cards, and may spend gold to improve the ranking associated with the island (Sails on Sail island, &c). Players on Tavern Island may also spend two gold to draw a tavern card.

• 10

  Ships at Treasure Island or Pirate's Cove do not enter combat. Instead, players at treasure island may exchange treasure for fame points, and players sent to Pirate's Cove may draw a tavern card, two gold, and set their destroyed ranking back to the lowest number.

• 11

  Play until the treasure cards run out. Whoever has the most fame wins!