LIBERTALIA: WINDS OF GALECREST Review: Enjoy Searching For Treasure and Stabbing Your Friends
Have you always secretly wanted to be a sky pirate that was half-animal/half-human, that constantly attacked and back stabbed your friends for the best loot? Have you ever wanted to strategically choose a crew of animal/human hybrids while trying to outwit your opponents? Have you ever wanted a game that gave you some of the thrills of poker while still being fairly strategic? If you said yes to any of these parts, then Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest might be an excellent game for you and your crew of gamers. As one of the newest Stonemaier games, it is safe to say this game is a joy to play with a name like that remaking an already popular game.
Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest takes a number of simple ideas and constructs it into a well designed, easy to approach, easy to learn, surprisingly replayable and fair game. The strategies and depths won’t blow anybody away, but for how easy the game is to dive into, there is a lot of reward for your effort.
The game itself revolves around players choosing crew members which use abilities to go to an island and take some loot. This happens over a series of days that make up a few voyages until all the loot is gone from the island. What makes this game so interesting is that players all have access to the exact same crew cards each turn, but can use them in different ways and at different times. Juggling when to fight for certain loot or be willing to give up other advantages makes this game a great way to take easy choices and make them into strategic mind games.
No, this game isn’t an original. In fact, it is a remake or re-envisioning of a game from about 20 years ago by the same name, Libertalia. A number of the mechanics are almost identical, and the same type of gameplay is found through and through. However, this new update is a bit more friendly with more charismatic aesthetics. There are also more crew members to choose from which helps rounding out the game to be more replayable.
It is hard to describe the game much more without going into excessive details, but if you want a game with a lot of direct interaction between players and some levels of strategy, this game really hits the spot. I don’t think it’s the best game of the year or would be something I would pull out at every game night, but it does do a lot of things very right and can be easier to approach for players less familiar with board games.
