Pirates of Maracaibo (2023) is the card game version of Maracaibo (2019). I first played Maracaibo only earlier this year, and I greatly enjoyed it. Finally I found an Alexander Pfister game which I truly liked (the game is also designed by Ralph Bienert and Ryan Hendrickson). Despite being a card game version of its older brother, don't think of Pirates of Maracaibo as a simple version of the game. It is not at all simple, and I would still consider it a heavy game. Not even a mid-weight game. The main thing that's missing compared to the original is the three major powers - the English, French and Spanish - and how you need to support one of more of them. However in Pirates of Maracaibo you get to collect and bury treasures instead, which is actually a little similar mechanism-wise. The card game is just the original presented differently using different mechanisms, but most of the elements are still here. This is not a game for people who want a simpler game. It is for people who like the original, and want something "same but different".
The board is made up of cards and the setup is random every game. You can even use different shapes for the board. The game is played over three rounds. Every round the players will sail from left to right. You are allowed to move up to a certain number of steps, and every turn you must move to a new space at least one column to the right of your current column. You may move further if you want to. When anyone reaches the shore of Maracaibo on the right, the next turn will be the last for everyone before the round ends. If you are too far behind, you might not reach Maracaibo in time to enjoy its rewards.
On your turn, you sail to a new location and use it. Sometimes you get to buy that card, and it becomes your equipment. When you do this, a new card will be drawn to replace the one you have just bought. In some cases you can't buy the card and you just use the ability provided. Some islands let you pay a large sum to enable a game end scoring condition. At some islands you can build your own black market, which gives you a benefit the next time you visit the same island.
This is the exploration part of the game. When you advance your pawn here, you get to enjoy the benefit on the space you land on. The further you progress, the bigger the rewards. When the game ends, you score points based on how many rivers you have crossed.
There are many possible upgrades at your ship (i.e. player board). They are divided into four levels. You can only access Level 1 initially. Only after you have surpassed certain numbers of upgrades will you gain access to higher levels.
During the game you may collect treasures. They can be gems, gold or pearls. Their point values can be manipulated, so you need to balance between collecting them and manipulating their values. One action you can do is to bury treasure. Doing this can give you benefits. It just feels right to be able to bury treasure in a pirate game!
The cards you buy enhance your abilities and encourage you to specialise. You will want to plan your strategy around your strengths. During the game you get to collect mission cards too, and they also drive your strategy. Each mission card has two levels. You already score points if you achieve the first, but you will score more if you achieve the second too. How players develop their abilities and which missions they pick will drive them in different directions and give them different priorities.
Like its predecessor, Pirates of Maracaibo offers you many opportunities to customise your abilities. You will be unrecognisable by the end of the game. You will have many tools, ship upgrades, and black markets. You will have a set of missions which will differ from your opponents. I would argue that this is actually a relatively peaceful game. Sometimes you do compete for the same things. Manipulating the values of the treasures can affect your opponents. However you will be kept pretty busy customising your own abilities and completing your own missions. If you want to play competitively, you should watch your opponents. If they are doing too well, you can take deliberate actions to disrupt their plans - going where they plan to go to force them to pay more, or buying what they need. When I played I was mostly busy with my own business and I didn't pay much attention to others. I will need to play more to get to a higher level of play. I greatly enjoy that sense of power seeing how much my humble pirate enterprise has grown throughout the game.
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