Friday, June 13, 2025

Now With More Pirates!

Years ago, I wrote about the board game Maracaibo -- a beast of a game from designer Alexander Pfister that ultimately proved to be too much for my gaming group. But it has a fair amount in common with another game we enjoy more, Great Western Trail, and so I always remained open to revisiting it.

I still haven't done that. But I have now played the game's spin-off, Pirates of Maracaibo.

Pirates of Maracaibo keeps many of the same core elements of Maracaibo -- you sail around the Caribbean, gather treasure, upgrade your ships, and tromp through the jungle, all trying to amass the most points. But the game board has been replaced with a deck of cards that are arranged on the table like a map, with new cards dealt to replace the ones scooped up by players as you go.

I was interested in Pirates of Maracaibo because it seemed like it might be a simpler version of Maracaibo. Having now played it a few times, I'm really not sure that it is. It feels like some element of every major theme or mechanic in the original game is present somewhere in the spin-off. There's just a lot to understand before you can start the first game. And that probably all makes sense -- if somebody truly wants an "easier Maracaibo," then Great Western Trail exists.

But Pirates of Maracaibo does play faster than its "big brother." It shaves about a quarter of the run time off the Maracaibo experience. Maybe Maracaibo fans who have played that game many times would point to some critical change that the Pirates version is lacking, some element that justifies the longer run time. Or maybe you just like playing longer games -- some groups do. But for me, it's nothing but a good thing that a substantially similar game has been released in a smaller package.

Still, Pirates of Maraciabo is very much a gamers' game. I'm not going to bring any new people to the hobby with it, nor will I convince any people who haven't liked Alexander Pfister's other designs that they'll enjoy this one. (Even if this time, two other co-designers are credited: Ralph Bienert and Ryan Hendrickson.) It all comes down to what my same group thinks of this game versus the others. It's clear that Pirates of Maracaibo isn't a big enough hit to displace another game we're already playing. Whether we like it enough to put it into rotation with the others? That remains to be seen. For now, I'd give Pirates of Maracaibo a B.

No comments: