Game: Treasure Island

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-14T01:10:14+00:00

Close, yet so far!

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-14T01:09:28+00:00

Black uses all but 7 counters.

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-11T05:09:45+00:00

Gunpowder & Spices

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-11T05:09:17+00:00

Amethyst & Jade

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-11T05:08:46+00:00

Pearls & Silver

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-11T05:08:16+00:00

Emeralds & Topazes

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-11T05:07:45+00:00

Gold & Sapphires

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-11T04:30:18+00:00

Small Board (12 x 12 Squares)

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-11T04:29:35+00:00

Large Board (14 x 14 squares)

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Crazy_Dave — 2007-12-11T04:14:29+00:00

Rear of Box

Thread: Session Report

garrylloyd — 2005-04-13T18:48:04+00:00

Mark K had recently received some copies of a new game by Peter Burley, the author of the excellent Take It Easy. This looked firmly in the family game camp and so we didn't have too great an expectation for the game but, on reflection, there are some interesting strategy aspects to the game and we all had fun with it.

The board represents an island where treasure has been buried by all the great pirates and the aim of the game is to find the treasure hoards and end up with the most valuable collection of gold and gems. Your expeditions start on the yellow anchor spaces, each of which has a number on it. By rolling two standard dice, if one of these has a number matching the space you want to embark from, you place a marker on the space and can then expand from there on subsequent turns. Only one marker is allowed on a space and the island has rivers and lakes that restrict expansion and it is, therefore, possible to cut off areas from the other players. Sometimes the dice can be unlucky for you and you can't roll a number allowing you to expand (although with two dice you usually have a choice of two numbers to use), but this is part of the game and by positioning your markers well, you should minimise the chances of having dice rolls that are ineffective. If you expand into a black space you discover a treasure chest and this brings you a number of treasure cards or cannons. There are fifteen types of treasure and only the person with the most cards of each type scores victory points at the end of the game, and the more cards of a type that person has the more VPs. Also different treasures generate different VPs so if the person with the most diamonds has 4 cards he scores 16 points whereas the same number of Pearls only gives 8 VPs. The cannons add an element of piracy to the game, enabling players to steal cards of a type they are collecting, or helping protect the player's treasures from attack. Once the board has been filled with markers, the game ends and the player who has managed to play the most markers receives the treasure from Davy Jones' chest. These cards could drastically change the relative positions in some of the treasure types and any cannons inevitably will lead to a final skirmish. The person who then emerges with the most VPs after all the scoring wins.

In our game, people tried to establish themselves in different regions of the island. John, however, managed a couple of unlucky die rolls early on and nearly got boxed in to just one area with the possibility of being cut off and ending his game very quickly. Through skillful die-rolling, however, he managed to escape. I was at the other extreme and had too many expeditions going on. The other players saw this as bad and set about blocking some of these off. Later on, I suffered by having four consecutive turns when I was unable to expand - ouch! Mark G managed to get into a relatively uncontested area in the South East of the island and was freely able to expand. He also mastered the art of rolling doubles (which entitles you to an extra turn) and it was no surprise to find him getting away with Davy Jones' treasure at the end. The extra cards this gave him cemented his position and he won quite comfortably.

Treasure Island has had very little publicity but is a nice family game with some strategy. Some people will not enjoy it because it is all die-rolling and sometimes luck will play its part. However, those who are able to accept the game for what it is should enjoy it. We certainly got into the spirit of the game and had fun with it. More details can be found on Peter Burley's website: www.burleygames.com .

Players Result Ratings
Mark G 47 7
Garry 30 6
John 23 6
Mark K 13 6
Nige 7 5

Thread: User Review

smug — 2005-02-17T17:50:31+00:00

My wife purchased Treasure Island to meet several criteria
- Game designed to play with 2 or more players.
- Game play not longer than 90mins
- The Pirate theme, battling with cannon & collecting treasure looked like fun (Diamonds are a girl’s best friend after all……)

Box and Contents. Sturdy Box with graphics that are nicely appointed and look very Jolly Roger. The double-sided quarter fold game board sat perfectly on our table. It can be used either for short or longer games, looks good and is well made. Two other boards are used, Treasure Trove and Davy Jones Locker (both made of card). The Treasure Trove board is double sided. One side is used during game play & contains Treasures chests, the other is used as a player aid during the scoring phase. The Davy Jones Locker board is used for skirmishing and dumping unwanted Treasure.

There are 120 small cards: 15 different Treasure types (Diamonds, Rubies, Gold, Silk etc), 14 Purple Cannons, 7 Golden Cannons and 2 Jolly Rogers. The card graphics are easy to distinguish with

There are also four dice (2 black, 2 white) and 6 plastic coloured scoring markers. The rest of the box is filled with stonking numbers of Tiddlywinks (plastic counters) in six colours, 120 for each player. We would have preferred White or Brown counters instead of the Black as the colour contrast, in our opinion, would have been better.

The rule booklet is well written. All our questions were answered. There is also a handy ‘quick start’ guide.

Play Time. The small board took us 40mins. The large board took us around 90mins including scoring.

Play. Both sides of the game board can be played with 2-6 players which is a nice touch. The treasure cards are shuffled and dealt face down onto the treasure trove board first to form ‘Treasure Chests’. The numbers of cards dealt vary with the game board used. Players then take turns throwing two dice to place counters on the board, matching a number thrown with a selected board square. Play starts from a number of Landing points. The objectives are to cover (& thus collect) Treasure Chests but also to enclose as much island area as possible & win the bonus ‘Davy Jones Legacy’ Treasure Chest at the end of the game.

When placing a counter on a Treasure square either directly or by enclosure, the player wins one or more Treasure card chests. The player opens the chest (sequentially if more than one) and lays out the treasure face up. 9 types are allowed for 2 players down to 5 for six players, a Jolly Roger card adding 1 to the total. Cannon cards revealed from a Treasure chest can be used, on the same turn, to attack an opponent or protect treasure. Any excess Treasure cards or unused Cannons are thrown into Davy Jones Locker for the other player(s) to grab on their next turn. Attacking protected Treasure leads to a skirmish which is decided by the best of 5 double dice throws. In fact all draw situations during game play and scoring are decided by skirmishes. Strategic decisions are required to make the best of the game board, optimise collection/protection of Treasure and management of the theft of Treasure from opponents should the opportunity arise.

Once the play phase is completed, the Treasure Trove board is flipped & used as a neat aid to score the Treasures. Each player marker moves around the score board based on who has the most of a particular Treasure type. No fiddling around with pencil & paper here.

Fun Factor. The Pirate theme, Treasure collection and relaxed mechanics added up to a pleasant rainy afternoons play. Treasure Island is not a brain burner, it’s more family oriented but still interesting enough to keep our attention. We did play one 'small board' game where only one cannon turned up. This restricted our chances of pirating treasure from each other which we think is a major fun feature of the game. We may add two cannons to the pack before dealing out the Treasure Trove next time. No such issue with the big board as considerably more cards are laid out. The large board is more fun as there are more cards in play and therefore more treasure types to collect and opportunities to blast away with cannon.

Wife factor. My wife enjoyed this game, as did I. We will be playing it much more.

Conclusion. For an expensive game (30 quid), we were relieved that we both enjoyed playing Treasure Island despite the dice throwing. We’re looking forward to trying this with more players. The games we’ve played have been close with neither knowing who would win until the final scoring (although I’m sure that will change with after a couple of more plays).
We rated it a 7.5