Lying Pirates
吹牛海盗
Liar's dice first; win the bluff and you sail. First captain round the map and home wins.
- 2–6 players
- about 45 min
- Easy to pick up
- Party
- Bluffing
- Racing
The goal
Be the first captain to sail your ship all the way round the map and back to the Base tile.
How it plays
- 1Each captain starts with 5 Crew dice, shaken in a cup and seen only by its owner. Ones are wild.
- 2Betting phase: starting with the Starting Captain, take turns bidding, such as "four fives among all the dice". The first bid's quantity may not exceed the number of captains. Each later bid must be higher in quantity, face value or both; you may lower the value only by raising the quantity, and never lower the quantity.
- 3Instead of raising you may call "Liar!" or call the bid exact. Liar: lift the cups and count. If the bid fails you win and the bidder loses; if it holds you lose and the bidder wins; everyone else survives. Exact: if the count matches you win, everyone else loses, and you gain a Crew die; if not you lose, the bidder wins, and you sit out the next Betting phase.
- 4Sail phase: the winner takes a coin and the Starting Captain token and rolls the Sail die (1 or 2). The winner and the survivors all move that far, then battle each other, and the battle's winner resolves the tile their ship is on.
- 5Action phase: buy and play Action cards with coins, at most one gold and one silver card a round. The captain in last place may hand back one Crew die per tile to catch up to the next ship.
How you win
The game ends at the close of a Sail phase in which a ship has completed the lap. A lone finisher wins; captains who finish together fight a final battle for it.
First time?
- Ones are wild, so there are usually more of a number than you think.
- Losing the bet means not sailing, so a safe raise often beats a risky "exact".