Tiny Epic Pirates puts players at the helm of their ship trying to amass wealth and fame to become the most notorious pirate. Randomly set up the map in a 4×4 grid and place the ships. Also, randomly place actions on the rondel so every game is different. When it’s your turn, you can place deck hands to skip up to 4 possible actions.
There are 6 to choose from:
Plunder – Go to a settlement and collect booty to add to your ship.
Trade – Sell at a matching merchant.
Crew Up – Add members to your crew.
Search – Take a token from the map and gain its reward.
Attack – Battle another player or ship to gain rewards.
Hide Out – Reset your deckhands.
Place the captain on the action you want and move your ship. Then carry out the action and bonus actions based on your crew. If you passed the line before your Hide Out action, move the merchant ships and the navy ship and the next player goes. The first player to bury all three treasures wins.
The Good: I say this about every Tiny Epic game but how do they fit all of this in the box? I loved how the game flows. Every turn you decide how far you want to push your captain or decide if you hide out since the Navy ship is hunting you. Combat is simple; roll the dice and determine hits and compare to the merchant vessels damage card or compare against the other player.
The Okay: The buildup to bury treasure took a long time. Let alone 3 times. There are only a handful of ways to make money. Pulling cubes from a bag means you could pull cheap ones and need to repeat the process. Attacking merchant ships can get you cubes as well but even those could be bad.
The Not So Good: Setup time takes quite a while. You need to set up the map, the merchant, the ships, your player boards, and get all the search tokens out. For a box this size you’d expect it to be a bit quicker.
Final Thoughts: Tiny Epic Pirates is my favorite of the series. I was surprised at the depth of the game. It’s held back a bit by some time issues but the gameplay is great. Having to decide what’s worth it and what isn’t is an interesting mechanic. Overall, I definitely recommend this.
Not just on weekends. I’m a guy who plays board games with his wife and friends. Follow for reviews of games and more!
