It's a very simple game. Two players -- each has an island that serves as base, a cannon, a ship, and 3 treasure and 2 dummy treasure tokens. You start with the cannon on the island, the ship in harbor, and the tokens upside down in a spot everybody can reach.
On your turn you roll the wind die, which indicates how many puffs of wind you get (0, 1, 2 or 3) -- you pick up a small 'bellows' and squeeze it quickly to make a puff of wind at your ship to try to move it out of harbor, across the table and into your opponent's harbor. After you finish your designated number of puffs your opponent gets to shoot at your ship with his cannon. If he hits your ship your turn is over. If he misses you get to roll the wind die again and try to move your ship some more.
If you get into his harbor (you have to touch land inside the harbor), you can pull one treasure token. Then you race home with your treasure -- back to your harbor -- the return home is automatic. Of course, you might have drawn one of the dummy treasures instead. If you collect three real treasure tokens first you win.
It's a cute little game. Adam had trouble learning how to use the bellows to move his ship around at first, but he got better at it. The only real problem was those stupid "cannon balls." They are actually cubes. The problem is that they keep getting stuck in the cannon, and I've had a couple of people express the same frustration.
After about the 5th time of digging one out with a small screw-driver I decided I'd had enough. I got two small pieces of foil and crumbled them up into little balls just the right size to fit into the cannon, and they worked perfectly. They don't get stuck, fit better so the bellows work better, and they have just enough weight to give a satisfying smack to your opponent's ship.
Of course, there is also the temptation to shoot your opponent, which I had trouble resisting and often failed to resist throughout the game
Posted Wed Mar 26, 2008 1:42 pm
