LOOT
LOOT
LOOT Reviews
Friends from out of town introduced us to this game, and the time passes so quickly with this game. The instuctions are a little laborious, but once you start playing everyone catches on. It’s a strategy game at several levels. The cards have 1) pictures of merchant ships with differing levels of loot (gold pieces) 2) pirate ships at various ‘power’ levels and 3) pirate admirals (trump card, effectively.) As the game progresses players attempt to capture other players’ merchies and maximize gold pieces while trying to prevent their own merchies from being captured.
I bought this game on the fly cause the cover illustration looked so interesting that I couldn’t resist. The instructions were a little confusing to understand at first, but once gameplay started it was picked up pretty easy and much fun was enjoyed by everyone. The game is geared for those ages 10 and up, but it was so easy to understand and so much fun, that my 8 year old neice was able to play without teaming up with an adult. The game promotes math skills which is a HUGE plus since many games today are only about fun. This game has it all, fun, education and the artwork on the cards is fantastic. When we played, we threw in chocolate gold pieces so we’d have real pirate plunder and everyone had to speak like a pirate. It’s a really great way to spend quality time with your family and it’s fun for all ages!
A previous reviewer of this game who claimed that there is a flaw in its rules was incorrect. That reviewer wrote: “The problem is one person can basically just wait the other person out and keep drawing cards and rarely ever play until the deck is out. Then at the end, that player will still have cards after the other player has long run out, meaning that they just lay down merchant ships and collect them.” Actually, that would be impossible if the game’s printed instructions are followed. They state that “The game ends when the draw pile has been depleted and one player has played his last card.” In other words, as soon as the draw pile is gone and one player is out of cards, the game ends. And even more importantly, players at that point who are stuck with merchant-ship cards in their hands have to DEDUCT those cards’ values from their score! Here is that part of the instructions: “Total all of the gold coins from the merchant ships you’ve won, then deduct the number of gold coins from the merchant ships still in your hand at the end of the game.” Those rules make it pointless to try waiting out the other player by hoarding cards, because the hoarder risks getting stuck with them at the end of the game and paying a heavy penalty. (I wanted to point these things out because this really is a great game, and I don’t want anyone to hesitate about buying it due to misinformation!
Yo-ho-ho!)
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