Game: Loot

Thread: Re: Argh matey, this game has nothing to do with pirates!

stormseeker75 — 2008-10-05T13:11:10+00:00

Thank you for the terrific reply! I'm going to have to try this if I ever get the chance.

Thread: Re: Argh matey, this game has nothing to do with pirates!

sightreader — 2008-10-05T05:42:44+00:00

stormseeker75 wrote:
The game is fun, but its pretty light and it doesn't quite fulfill my gaming desire. Its not a bad start or finish to a night of games, but its lacking just a bit. Wait 'till ya try this game in teams - the strategy increases exponentially! Since you sit together, the effects of every decision your team makes gets amplified by the team size. Thus, if you decide to deplete the deck, having everyone on your team draw changes the calculations of your enemies a lot more than if you were playing on your own.
]]>
We found that teams greatly mitigate bad draws: if someone gets a bad draw, there's usually a way to combine the mix with a teammate to produce a strong combo. Thus, if all members of the team get stuck with a hand full of merchants, you can flood the board with high value ships, producing too many targets for enemies to attack and ensuring that some will get through.
]]>
On the downside, the order your cards are dealt within your team ends up becoming critical: if the first member of your team has the captain but only the following members have the appropriate pirate ships, you're screwed.
]]>
Nevertheless, team play is where this game finds its true home!

Thread: Argh matey, this game has nothing to do with pirates!

stormseeker75 — 2008-10-05T03:31:04+00:00

I'll admit it. I'm a Knizia fanboy. I'll give any game of his a chance without knowing anything about it. So imagine my surprise when I saw a Knizia game in my local Walmart? For $5 I had no choice but to give it a shot. After all, I really didn't have much to lose other than $5 and 20 minutes of my time. After my purchase, I came to BGG and did some reading up on the game and after studying the rules, I finally got the game to the table with my mom who is also a Knizia fan. When I explain a game to her and compare it to Battle Line, there are some high expectations as Battle Line is her favorite game ever. So does Loot deserve the comparison to a classic like Battle Line, or is it just another like most of the other cheap card games on the shelves of Walmart?

Rules

While not the official rules, you can read a summary here on BGG. This summary will tell you all you need to know to play the game. The rules are very simple which makes the game easy to teach and easy to play.

Components

Besides the box and the rules, the only component in the game is the deck of cards. The artwork on the cards is great with full-bleed printing on both sides of the card. The colors and numbers on the pirate ship cards are easily readable so you shouldn't have any problems identifying colors or numbers. The artwork on the pirate ship cards is terrific with bright colors and a nice rendering of the pirate ship. The Pirate captains and the Admiral are good characatures of the type of people they represent. Again, the colors are easily distinguishable so there should be no confusion.

While the look of the cards is terrific, the thickness of the cards leaves a lot to be desired. These cards are thinner than normal playing cards. I've seen thinner cards, but these are not of adequate thickness. At least the cards have a nice semi-gloss coating, but that's probably not enough to make up for the thin card stock.

I can't see these cards holding up real well, but the price is low enough that its not really a problem. I suppose you can't expect too much for $5.

Gameplay

Simple Turns
On your turn, you will score any ships you've won and then either play one card or draw one card. If you play a card, you can play either a Merchant Ship, Pirate Ship, or Pirate Captain/Admiral. You may only play one card so you have to choose wisely. The lack of being able to draw a card every turn forces you to decide when to draw and creates a strong timing mechanism in the game. I think this really makes the game because without that choice, the game would be flat. That extra decision really helps turn this from average to good.

Scoring
The first thing you do on your turn is score any ships that you are leading. This mechanic was later borrowed by Great Wall of China and I think its one that really works great. I feel like this mechanic keeps the player who started the game from having any sort of advantage. It feels like each player is the start-player which means that nobody has a head start.

Additionally, if you have a Merchant Ship in front of you that nobody has played any Pirate Ships or Pirates against, you automatically score that ship at the start of you turn. This creates a situation in which other players are forced to attack your ships.

Play aggressive or sit back
Early in the game you can choose to sit back and draw cards or play them aggressively. The merchant ships that get played and how quickly the get played will help dictate the pace of the game. In fact, there will be periods of heavy activity followed by lulls in the action. This is dependent on how the players play their Merchant Ships on the table. The flow of the game really depends on how the players control it. It can either be fast and furious or slower and more cautious. The game requires strong timing either way.

Know when to fold 'em
One of the secrets to doing well in this game is to know when to stop fighting for a ship and just cut your losses. Its far better to quit without overextending yourself than to go for broke and lose. While the game is short, its long enough to give players many opportunities to win battles. Therefore, its up to the players to decide what to fight for and when to fight for it. Those decisions are key because the player who makes the best use of his cards will win.

Trumps
The Pirate Captains and the Admiral are the trumps in the game. If a player plays a Captain, he will automatically win that Merchant Ship unless another player plays a different Captain or the Admiral. In this regard, luck plays a huge part because there are only 4 Captains and 1 Admiral in the deck. While drawing these cards is entirely luck dependent, when factored into the decision of fighting or folding, these cards provide a nice bit of tension. I dislike the luck factor associated with drawing them, but I love the way they can change the game.

Number or players and downtime
In my opinion, Knights of Charlemagne is the perfect Battle Line game for 3 players. If thats the case, then Loot is the best Battle Line game for 4. It works just fine for 3 as well, but the 4 player game is much better than KoC. There's not a lot of downtime in this game because there aren't many things to do on a player's turn. While some thinking is necessary, there isn't an overwhelming amount to consider so AP shouldn't be a problem.

Loot also allegedly works for 6 or 8 players as a partnership game. I've never tried it because I'm not usually part of a group that large. For folks that have big game groups, this might be an important factor so I wanted to mention it.

Compare it to...

I've already mentioned three Knizia games: Battle Line, Knights of Charlemagne, and Great Wall of China. The game doesn't have much in common with GwoC except the way you score the things you're fighting for. However, the way you compete for the available Merchant Ships is very reminiscent of Knights of Charlemagne and both games are derivations of Battle Line.

Overall

Loot is a terrific card game that is easy to teach and play. There are numerous choices to make throughout the game but its not overwhelming. There's a bit of luck due to the fact that its a card game, but overall, good play should prevail. You'll have a hard time finding more game for the money.

Overall, I'd rate Loot 6 out of 10. Its a game I like to play, but its not quite enough to make me want to play it constantly. The game is fun, but its pretty light and it doesn't quite fulfill my gaming desire. Its not a bad start or finish to a night of games, but its lacking just a bit. I'd still recommend you pick it up as its really affordable and a fairly solid game.

If you're looking for a decent filler card game and want one for under $10 the you should definitely look at Loot. The price is terrific and the game is enjoyable, although not spectacular. Its good enough to get played on occasion and for the price, thats about what you'd expect. Its not great, but its not terrible either. Its a fun game that offers a lot for a very low price.

Image

kevintlee — 2008-09-26T01:38:19+00:00

25 merchant ships counting upto 100 gold pieces, # per of ships of each value

Image

kevintlee — 2008-09-26T01:37:01+00:00

# of skulls per for each of the four colors plus one captian for each color and one admiral (for defending a merchant you played)

Image

kevintlee — 2008-09-26T01:35:35+00:00

Player 1 takes for his merchant deck...2x(2-gold), 2x(3-gold), 3x(4-gold), 3x(5-gold), 1x(6-gold), 1x(7-gold) and player 2 takes the rest for his merchant deck.

Thread: the search for captain Krokbens treasure

jollrikk — 2008-09-18T08:37:45+00:00

(which is actually a funny pun in swedish, but doesn't do well in english... sorry for that)

Well. I'd just like to take the opportunity of adding an extra pirate themed ingrediense to Loot: the search for captain Krokbens treasure.

When i bought Loot i got an extra card in my deck, and thought it was an awful loss just to throw it away. So if you also got that extra card and want to put it into use you might enjoy this new twist:

It works like this: I've drawn four images on pieces of paper , and glued them to cards with a black plastic back (so that no-one knows which drawing is under which card. these cards are not taken from the Loot deck but just some random cards I had laying around. They are all covered by their black back anyway). the drawings show a chest of coconuts, empty bottles of rom, fools gold (another pun in swedish: draw them like golden cats- kattguld!!! ) and finally C. Krokbens treasure. The three treasures mentioned first are worth 0 gold each while the latter is worth a massive 10 gold.

All these four cards are put in play, backside up of course, at the beginning of the game. From now on any pirate team could, instead of playing merchant ships send pirates to search for the treasure. it works just like looting merchants, with the difference that no one knows the value of the loot (the team capturing the treasure may look at it, but not show until after the game, during points tally so no one knows whether they found the treasure or just some useless chest).

Of course it seems like a waste of pirates to send them for the treasure with only a 25% chance of getting 10 gold, but thats where the extra card comes in. This extra card has a drawing of Krokbens treasure map drawn and glued to it, and it is shuffled into the loot deck. the team that draws and plays this card gets to secretly look at the treasure cards in play. That way they know where the 10 point treasure is (if still left, that is), but of course if they send their ships sailing that way it is likely that the other players will figure out that there's where the treasure is. Or is it? perhaps it was all just a diversion...?

I've played with this variant for quite a couple of times now, and it's always enjoyable. I don't introduce it to first time players, but once they've played their first game its treasure huntin' time!

good look, you sea gulls!

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

kevintlee — 2008-09-17T18:49:54+00:00

I have a seperate question....Can you attack with a second color, one that hasn't been played even if you're engaged with a first?

(ei. I played blue 3, attacked with green 4, can I attack with a second color say a tan 4 even after already playing the blue?)

When I last played I concluded that the rules only kept you from playing a color if it was already played so I allowed a second attack from the same player. (of course the rules I have 'wrainwrights' don't say the total scoring of skulls of only one color so that was another question.)

There I concluded that you could only add up the skulls of the same color.(which I was extremely confident in and still hold)

Any thoughts?
Confirmations of my conclusions?
Rebukes for taking two stances undetermined by 'wainwright'?

Thread: 1st time playing -- a game with my wife and two children, ages 6 & 5.

Larry Welborn — 2008-07-14T15:08:55+00:00

I was able to pick up a copy of Loot recently for about $5. I had read on BGG that it was a decent game and I was anxious to try it out with the family as it appeared easy enough for the children to play and both kids love the pirate theme.

The object of the game is to capture merchant ships by attacking with your pirates, while at the same time protecting your merchant ships from other players. The value of merchant ships ranges from 2 to 8, with most of the ships worth lower values. At the end of the game, each player counts the gold value of each merchant ship claimed and the winner is the one with the most gold.

I quickly explained the rules to everyone and we were soon attacking ships on the high seas. During the first few rounds, I had to continually explain the various turn options to the children, but both soon understood the game. After that, there were only a few times when I suggested some alternate moves for the children. Certainly after another play or two, this won't be necessary either.

The children opted to get lots of lower valued ships and my daughter was able to claim a few merchant ships of her own that no one bothered to attack. My wife and I concentrated on higher valued ships and there were several multi-card plays and captains played against the big boys. The children especially enjoyed playing the admiral card and captain cards.

The final score was close -- Dad 27, Son 23, Daughter 21, and wife 18, with 11 unclaimed gold for two uncaptured merchant ships.

The children were eager to play again, but my wife wanted to play Pandemic, so the Pirates will have to wait until another day to set sail again.

Thread: Re: Good for Most Ages

eskmoe — 2008-07-07T23:20:13+00:00

I had a similar response the first time I played with my 5 year old daughter. Only a big part of her getting bored with the game was due to the fact that she had miserable draws all game long. She didn't draw a single trump...err...pirate captain, and kept drawing merchant after merchant. I figured she woulnd't want to play that again for a while.

Then a couple weeks later, she actually requested to play this again. This time she had a more playable hand and she attacked everything in sight. She was throwing 4 valued pirates on 1 gold ships as my wife and I gave the 'aw isn't that cute' glace to each other and turned our attention to the big ships. This lead to her winning many uncontested ships and beating us by a WIDE margain. The smile on her face lasted the rest of the day!

So I wouldn't necessarily give up on this game working for the 5 year old crowd. Many times they are smarter then we give them credit for!

Thread: Re: Good for Most Ages

ChonChuuk — 2008-07-07T21:35:51+00:00

Glad I could help. I was a little disappointed she didn't get it because she loves pirate things.

Thread: Re: Good for Most Ages

wmshub — 2008-07-07T21:15:42+00:00

Thanks for these comments. I have loot (saw it in the supermarket, it was Knizia, how could I resist?), but haven't brought it out yet with my 5 year old daughter. Your report helped me decide to keep it in the box for another year or more!

Thread: Good for Most Ages

ChonChuuk — 2008-07-07T20:16:27+00:00

Based on some recommendations here I bought Loot for our family game nights. As I have mentioned in other reviews, I have two daughters age 8 and 5 (6 in a month). I know the game recommends ages 10 and up, but we have been able to play other games that were in this age group.

I pulled the game out yesterday and explained the rules. The rules are laid out well and are fairly logical. The only problem was the list of possible actions on each turn. It had so many options that each turn I had to go over them again with my 5 year old.

Things started out well. I sent a couple of merchants out and let everyone fight over them to get a feel for it. A few turns in I played the first Pirate Captain. That kind of threw the girls, but after the second and third captains they got the hang of it.

About 2/3 of the way through the game my youngest started getting bored. There was a little too much thinking involved for her. For the rest of the game she kept asking when it would be over.

My 8 year old was getting into it. She had finally caught on to all the possible actions and was trying to formulate some strategy. She had no merchants at mid-game, but came on strong with some nice big captures after that.

In the end, my early captures and a nice big one at the end propelled me to victory, but my 8 year old was right on my heels.

It looks like this game will not be a part of family game night for awhile. Maybe in a couple of years my youngest will appreciate it more. My wife liked the game, but wants to try it with adults next time. So it looks like this will be restricted to couples game night instead.

Thread: Re: Medium merchant control variant

Paul65 — 2008-07-06T22:28:23+00:00

Looks good - just one question for you.
Do players have a starting hand or do they start with nothing?
My thoughts is that I'd like to start with something.
I'm thinking that each player starts with 5 cards from the common deck & one from their merchant deck.
I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thread: Loot anchors Pirate Day!

sightreader — 2008-06-21T22:20:07+00:00

I tried an experiment in a pirate themed game party. We started with Pirateer. As more folks arrived, we had them join "teams" - really just glorified observers - so they could learn the strategy without re-introducing the rules again.

Pirateer starts brilliantly, but quickly bogs down as players get eliminated and the survivors just can't seem to steer the gold home.
]]>
To keep those eliminated from losing interest, I allowed them to "respawn" one new ship which, of course, slowed the game down even further.

In retrospect, I think it would have been better to have the dead folks respawn as "Pirate" (face down) ships, where the game ends in a draw if any Pirate ship seizes the gold (figuring pirates don't need a port to take the money back to)...

The next game was the ever-popular Loot, one of the best games we have for large numbers of because players participate in teams.
]]>
At this point, I was starting understand that having a pirate themed game party is a huge draw - with our ranks normally depleted to about 6 people during the summer, we pulled in 11 people.
]]>
Many folks canceled other activities in order to come - no easy feat for party animals... and even wore pirate themes!
]]>
The downside of the popularity was that it made for a very crowded table. Standing up to get a drink or something was nearly impossible.
]]>
After this, the pizza arrived and we retired to the living room for pirate movies.

Here, the disadvantage of a pirate party became evident: you're limited in your selection of games. The natural choice for so many newbies would be something like Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, but I unaccountably felt guilty about doing such a land-locked game, so they talked me into going with Pacific Typhoon's vaguely naval theme.

In conjunction with a Johnny Depp blaring in the background, there was just too much commotion for such complex rules, and attention quickly wandered and people started to dribble away. The game ended up being a slaughter, as I was too distracted trying to manage the movie and answer all sorts of questions about the rules.
]]>
We finished the night by watching Charlton Heston's Treasure Island, a great movie unless you're already tired, confused and pirate-soaked. Nevertheless, two intrepid folks stayed on until the end of the movie, and were richly rewarded by a surprisingly high quality movie.

Thread: Re: Good Game for the non-Gamer (3 games)

Mike A — 2008-06-17T13:33:05+00:00

It's much better with more players than 2. I think it's great with 3 or 4, but with 2 it can be too limiting.

Thread: Good Game for the non-Gamer (3 games)

rsmithx — 2008-06-17T05:08:15+00:00

So I purchased this game for my wife back in March, but for some reason or another it sat in our closet unplayed for 4 months!

After giving it a play tonight, that seems like 4 wasted months that we could have been having fun.

My wife isn't a big gamer, but I have been slowly working on her to expand her idea of board games beyond Monopoly and Candy Land. On the recommendation of BGG I purchased Lost Cities a while ago and she really took to that game. I feel like Loot is in the same vein as Lost Cities in a great game with very little introduction needed to get someone started in it.

Our first game we were still figuring the mechanics out and of course there were the few bumps where we had to consult the rules once or twice (can you play a pirate captain without any pirates, can you play an admiral without any pirates?) but the rules were great and had the answers to all our questions.

At the end of the first game we totaled up our points and my wife won. This was great news because it meant she would be willing to keep playing (she isn't a big fan of losing... we are working on that).

The next game I had sorta figured out that I needed to plan ahead, so I stockpiled my hand while my wife just kept playing merchant boats and I would steal most of them. Then I ran out a few 2,3 point boats, which she captured, and then followed it up with some big 6-8 point merchants and by that time she was out of pirates so I was able to win the big point boats easily and score big points. At the end of hand 2 we scored up the points and I won with a decent margin. My wife wasn't too sure what she thought of the game at this point, as typically once I "figure out" a game, she goes on long losing streaks.

The next game I tried pretty much the same strategy, but I ran in to a huge pile of merchants, so while I had a good sized hand, I couldn't steal any of her merchants because all I had were merchants in my hand. By the time I had a decent amount of pirates she had a pretty big lead, and once I started laying out my merchants she kept stealing them and ended up not only beating me, but winning with the largest margin of victory for the night. Obviously I hadn't "figured out" the perfect strategy in this simple game... which is great!

There is a surprising amount of depth available in this simple looking card game, but it also involves just enough luck that even if you think you have a perfect strategy, if the cards don't fall your way you still won't win.

I have a feeling in the coming weeks this will have a frequent appearance in my wife and I's game times... which speaks volumes to Loot's appeal to the "non gamer."

Image

whoami — 2008-06-14T12:09:47+00:00

Image

sightreader — 2008-06-13T16:41:16+00:00

Loot in teams is a great introduction for non-gamers

Image

sightreader — 2008-06-13T16:18:34+00:00

Sometimes you just can't get the right card!

Thread: Re: Loot: the best way to turn party gamers - male or female - into social gamers

sightreader — 2008-06-06T23:42:25+00:00

reapersaurus wrote:
Could you elaborate a bit on the strategies available with teams, complete with turn order?
]]>
Team tactics, of course, are generally elaborations of single player tactics, so don't expect any great revelations. Anyway, here's what I've tried so far:

Offense/Defense: One player keeps attacking, buying time for the other to draw back up. As a variant, one player depletes the draw pile while the other dumps their hand, ending the game abruptly before anyone is ready. The dumper can also draw instead of playing, prolonging the game beyond everyone's calculations.

Blitz: The two players drop a double-dose of pirates on the same ship. A variant is for the first player to set the color so that her partner can drop a captain.

The Merchant Flood: Both players flood the table with merchants when everyone else is stuck trying to fight big battles. With too many committments, suddenly all these merchants start showing up and enemies must either let them by uncontested or lose the battles they were fighting. A variant is Pirate Baiting, where you flood low value merchants to draw out everyone's pirates, then drop the hefty ones when everyone's used up. Sometimes just the threat of a potential hefty causes folks to hold off their pirates, allowing you to score a lot of quick cheapies.

Thread: Re: Loot: the best way to turn party gamers - male or female - into social gamers

reapersaurus — 2008-06-06T19:01:48+00:00

Not only is this yet another excellent session report that you festoon with excellent in-play pics, but it is of exactly what I'd been wanting to read more about : Loot in teams of 2.

Could you elaborate a bit on the strategies available with teams, complete with turn order?

The one gambit I would guess is that if the first player of the team has a 7 or 8 ship, and the captain for it, then he'd play the ship then have his partner follow immediately with a pirate ship of the same color to allow the 1st guy to plop that color captain immediately on his next turn (shortening the reaction time for other teams to get a ship and captain...?)

Thread: Re: Loot: the best way to turn party gamers - male or female - into social gamers

Twinge — 2008-06-06T15:19:20+00:00

Cheers sir, saw this on the front page - glad to see you making session reports again!

I haven't had a chance to try this with teams yet; the idea of not simply 'sailing on a prayer' does have some appeal though, so I'll probably have to try it sometime =)

I'll also note that this game does actually still work pretty well with 5 individual players (despite the game telling you not to and only having 4 colors available). Pushing it up to 5 teams of 2 might be a bit much though, since there's more cards in play and more chance for the team sailing the ship to get shut out of all the colors. I still imagine it'd work reasonably well though (even without 2 decks) - just not as well as with fewer people. 3 teams of 3 should work okay too I bet.

Thread: Loot: the best way to turn party gamers - male or female - into social gamers

sightreader — 2008-06-06T11:13:48+00:00

]]>
Unlike most games, teammates sit next to each other in Loot. Thus, as long as each team has someone who knows what they're doing, you can jump in right away and leave it up to the vets to explain the game during downtime.
]]>
The cooperative discussion of team strategy makes this game ideal for moving casual party gamers into a more the serious category of social gamers.
]]>
Gameplay is so fast and eventful - even with 8 players - that creating a session report is rather difficult, like trying to remember everything that happened in a game of Sorry! I find myself wondering if it would work as well with even more players, perhaps 5 teams of 2 - or even teams of 3 - by adding another deck.
]]>
Unlike individual play, teamplay permits combinations that are more powerful than simply launching ships and praying they get back to you. This offsets luck quite a bit: even if both players have bad hands, they can unleash a carefully timed flood of mediocrity and overwhelm everyone else trying to hang on to their committments in other battles.
]]>
Usually there's at least one amusing sea battle that sits unresolved for the entire game, often over a merchant ship so worthless that no one wants to waste cards reinforcing their pirates.

Image

sightreader — 2008-06-05T19:40:41+00:00

Team play adds a cooperative dimension to the game!

Image

sightreader — 2008-05-22T08:18:33+00:00

Arrr! Pirates brandishing their hooks (team game with 6)

Thread: Re: pirate ship color

kounabi22 — 2008-05-21T15:55:00+00:00

thanks for the replys.
i also ask gamewright this question and they answer me
"You may only attack with the color you played first."
so is clear now.

tnanks again

Thread: Re: pirate ship color

unixrevolution — 2008-05-21T11:57:06+00:00

kounabi22 wrote:
can you play a second pirate ship color to attack a merchant ship if you have already attack it with another color pirate ship as long that color is not played by anyone?

No, you have to keep playing the same color. If you could send other colors after their ships it'd break the game just a little.

Thread: Re: pirate ship color

Nogser — 2008-05-21T10:39:18+00:00

I would instinctively say "No" but it is not explicit in the rules. They are available here.

The section on partnership play does however indicate that you can't do this. It states that the partners attack ships as a team so the second player can only strengthen the attack, but cannot launch a new attack with a different colour.

Hope this helps.

Thread: pirate ship color

kounabi22 — 2008-05-21T07:04:27+00:00

can you play a second pirate ship color to attack a merchant ship if you have already attack it with another color pirate ship as long that color is not played by anyone?

Thread: Re: 3rd game of 3 - Can I finally win one please?

Hendal — 2008-04-29T15:39:57+00:00

Always a tough decision? Play a old favorite, or explore a new favorite. Kinda cool all said and down. I got in some Conquest of the Fallen Lands last night and we are just figuring it out all said and down and man was it a blast. I thought i had it going on, then I realized Mike was winning, and we had terrible positions ( my wife and I ) on the board. I made a move and then got some luck on my side and as it looked like Mike would kill us. I used a card I stole from Mike to get a bunch of points and then claimed the tile he would want to get next turn ( I used a magic card called Claim and it means no one can conquer that tile till after my next turn ) - which meant he had to go for lesser point tiles - oh the change in the whole playing field and just like that I was back in it. Yea, I ended up winning by 2 points - amazing comeback if I do say so myself - and I do!

Loot sounds like a winner, which means another game I need to get down here in the jungle.

Thread: Re: 3rd game of 3 - Can I finally win one please?

stormseeker75 — 2008-04-29T15:17:11+00:00

Great game. I can't wait to play it again today. There will be another session coming after that for sure.

Thread: Re: 3rd game of 3 - Can I finally win one please?

Hendal — 2008-04-29T14:36:01+00:00

Lunchtime session reports - sounds good to me, kinda cool really. It is so cool how a game can evolve for a person. The first game you think you understand it, then after the 2nd game your sure you understand it now, only to find out after the 3rd or 5th or so that it might be more involved then one first thought it to be. Then a few more games and it really sinks in and you start to really love the mechanics and how the game can be so different from the last one played.

Thanks for sharing, this one still sounds fun to me.

Game On'

Thread: 3rd game of 3 - Can I finally win one please?

stormseeker75 — 2008-04-29T13:40:59+00:00

After our first 2 games we were feeling pretty good about Loot. We all felt like we figured out the right way to play. So obviously, a third game was in order. We had time, and we all wanted to test out strategies that we had developed.

As the game started, Anthony again struck quickly. He nabbed the first 3 Merchants and while they were small, its still a good start. My mom and I were deadlocked on a couple of 4s so Anthony used that opportunity to pick of smaller ships.

Unlike our first games where we played cards at a frenzied rate, the idea this time seemed to be getting a ship in a tie and then drawing cards until you could take it. Every once in a while, someone would drop a Merchant and it would slip through the cracks. These were mostly small ones, but every point counts, especially when you get it for free.

My mom had the big victory, taking the 8 Merchant. It was a bloody battle and I believe her strength was only 5 Anthony trumped her with a Pirate Captain. I was helpless to fight there and Anthony seemed a sure victor. But on my mom's turn, she responded with her own Captain, giving her the lead. I couldn't compete and Anthony had no option but to let her take the ship.

By the end of the game, there were still 4 ships in play. I could have had a 5, but Anthony ended the game, discarding an unplayable card. Those 5 points would have been very helpful to me as I ended up with 24 points from 7 ships. Anthony ended up with 35 from 8 ships. My mom was the winner (again) with 37 points off of 9 ships. Her victory on the 8 ship was enough to sway the tide.

I think we learned that playing this a bit slower and more deliberately makes a better game. Our first 2 games were slugfests with everyone just dumping their hands trying to win ships. The consequence was that many ships were awarded for free. In our third game we were more patient and spread the cards out more. There were only one or 2 ships that were awarded for free which I think is why the margin between first and second place was tighter.

Three games in, and we're hooked. This may become a regular lunchtime game for us.

Thread: Re: First play - and our first of three

Hendal — 2008-04-26T01:20:32+00:00

The game sounds OK, the playing during work sounds amazing - way cool.

Thread: Re: 2nd game of three - We're getting better

Hendal — 2008-04-25T22:10:05+00:00

looks like an interesting game, may have to look into that one, thanks for sharing.

Game On'

Thread: 2nd game of three - We're getting better

stormseeker75 — 2008-04-25T20:44:15+00:00

Our first game of Loot was so successful that we figured we should play another one, just to reinforce the ideas and make sure we knew what we were doing for future efforts. Plus, the boss was still away.

I dealt out the cards and we decided Anthony would start since he finished last in our first game. The Force was definately on his side in this game because he proceeded to reel of victories on the first 5 merchant ships played. Afterwards he told me that he had no merchants in his opening hand. That was probably because I had 4. At any rate, this allowed him to keep attacking and attacking without needing to protect anything. He had high cards and had them in different colors so he was able to really bully his way to certain ships.

My mom got the first ship not taken by Anthony, but then he came right back and took the next one. It really took me a while to get going in this game due to the large number of merchants in my opening hand. But once I got going, I did pretty well. I took several 4s and 5s and I even landed the 8. My mom only managed a few more cards, so I knew it was pretty much down to Anthony and I.

Anthony's early lead was probably going to be too much to overcome, but this was reinforced when my mom let him have a 6 merchant for free. He had played it on his turn, and I followed up with a 4 of my own. For some reason, my mom chose to play her pirate ship against me instead of him so when his turn came, he got a 6 for free.

As I said, my mom was out of it early. She only managed 14 points from 4 ships. I did okay, scoring 31 on 7. Anthony won easily with 46 from 11 ships. His ships weren't huge, but taking the first five ships along with a free 6 later in the game proved unbeatable.

This session taught me that luck can play a big part in this game. Next time I draw a lot of Merchants early, I will just draw cards on my turn and hold onto the ships when I can defend them better. I had fun with this one and I learned a lot. Despite playing 2 games, we still weren't quite done.

Thread: First play - and our first of three

stormseeker75 — 2008-04-25T20:35:28+00:00

I've had Loot for a while now and for some reason, it just hasn't gotten played. Usually the word "Knizia" on anything is enough to make me jump at it, but this one remained unplayed. Today, the boss was out of the office, so I seized the opportunity to finally get a play in. I took my mom and Anthony and we sat at the lunch table.

I explained the rules to everyone which was fairly easy. There's not a whole lot to this game. Anthony seemed to pick it up pretty quickly as did my mom. I'd read the rules about 754 times, so I was ready.

As we started off, we were kind of apprehensive. Anthony was the only person to play a Merchant ship and as such, he got attacked viciously. The fighting went on for a couple rounds until he eventually won it.

My mom just could not figure out that you only get 1 action per turn. She was drawing and playing, playing and drawing. She just couldn't get it straight. To make matters worse, neither she nor Anthony could remember to score ships at the start of their turns, so I had to pay attention to everything. This was our first game, but this isn't exactly Puerto Rico. As the game wore on, they both got a bit better.

Anthony had jumped out to a small lead, but my mom soon matched him. I was way behind, but I scored several 4 and 5 ships to get right back in the hunt. Unfortunately for me, thats where I stalled. My mom caught fire right at the end of the game and scored the big 8 ship. She seemed to win almost everything. I thought I could make a run, but the game ended on Anthony's turn with 3 decent sized ships still on the table with one of them coming to me if I had my turn.

As it turns out, it wouldn't have mattered. Anthony ended up with 25 points having captured 6 merchant ships. I had 26 from 7 ships. My mom was the big winner. She scored a whopping 47 points from 10 captured ships. Like I said, she caught fire at just the right time.

Like most first-plays, this one had its bumps. But we figured it out and decided we liked it enough to play again.

Thread: Re: Deeper waters than appearances let on...

happyjosiah — 2008-04-20T13:29:42+00:00

Have you played the team version of this? For me, that is where this game really shines. We played a 4-player 2vs2 game where I was on my wife's team. The other team drew all four captains and the admiral and we still won. And there is no doubt in my mind that it was due largely to the ability to work together with another hand of cards in view. The plotting and teamwork this adds to the game are excellent.

Thread: Re: Deeper waters than appearances let on...

denverarch — 2008-04-18T15:39:11+00:00

A strength of Loot I have found is that it kind of feels like evryone is "reloading" after a skirmish. Sometimes somoone slips a merchant out, and you have to pause and either keep reloading or "fire" on the new ship. Its a great game for fast play with plenty of choices, bluffs, and "push your luck".

My deck is pretty tattered now from replay (and the fact the cards are of poor quality for the long haul).

Thread: Re: Deeper waters than appearances let on...

unixrevolution — 2008-04-18T12:53:59+00:00

The thing that gets me about Loot, besides it being so easy to teach and fun to play, is that it manages to feel more "Piratey" than heavier pirate-themed games (like Mutiny).

Thread: Deeper waters than appearances let on...

truekid — 2008-04-18T07:33:28+00:00

The game:
You can either draw a card or play a card on your turn. If you're playing a card, it's either a merchant ship for all players to attack, or a pirate ship to attack one of the merchant ships that are out there. If you alone have the highest value of pirates attacking a merchant ship at the start of your turn (or if your merchant ship from your prior turn is entirely unscathed) you win that ship. If you play a same-colored pirate on one of your prior ones, you add their values together. There are also some captains that are basically trumps, but only when you're adding to a ship that's already out there, they don't float on their own.

The good:
This game has card counting, risk management, resource estimation, and a couple of other worthwhile skill factors for such simple rules. and importantly, even if someone is playing "badly", it can be compensated for with intelligent play, smoothing over the bumps. So it has added value in mixed player skill groups.

The bad:
sometimes you draw a lot of merchant ships, or one player gets distinctly more than their fair share of top-value pirate ships. Good play can suss out most instances of someone getting high-value pirates, but the only time it's good to have merchants is if you can sneak them in while someone's got a fatter prize on the board... and it's hard to sneak stuff in when you're the one putting out the fat prizes to start with.

The ugly:
I like the lighthearted pirates, although I don't care for the name "Loot". It's a little dumbed down. also, the fact that the different colored pirate ships are only shaded differently feels a little more skimped-on-the-artwork than it needs to be. But overall, fairly par for the course.

------

a good low card-count game that supports a good quantity of players, and has an even-keeled strategy quotient without the need for jamming in extra random factors. usually games that do that feel like standard playing-card decks with a few painted-on mechanics, but this one is a notch above average.

7/10

Thread: Re: "Captain" Morgan's Loot Tips

gavagai — 2008-03-10T12:28:22+00:00

that the game is too thin is my impression as well. but i was told that it gains a lot if you play with teams. something i havent tried yet...

Thread: Re: no restriction for the Admiral

Twinge — 2008-01-26T08:14:05+00:00

I would say the Admiral is already powerful enough since he can be played without any pirates ships (captains cannot). Letting him be played anywhere just makes him far more powerful than any other card in the game. And those players with the 7 and 8 ships BETTER play them at some point (whether or not they can defend them), because they will count against them at the end if unplayed!

Though of course, as always - whatever is funnest for you group should be what goes =)

Image

anglon — 2008-01-12T16:05:37+00:00

What comes in the box?

Image

anglon — 2008-01-12T16:04:21+00:00

Opening the box.

Thread: Re: Great foreplay before some "Heavy Gaming".

Professor Plum — 2007-11-08T05:39:59+00:00

Great review! I also like this:

I was playing with my cousin and his friend and we have an average age of 30

When my wife and I play with the kids we have an average age of 22!

Gaming is making us young again!

Thread: Re: Medium merchant control variant

Spire — 2007-10-30T17:32:30+00:00

Just tried your variant. We divided the merchant ships "equally", following the other variant that you linked to. We decided to give the deck containing the 8-gold merchant ship to the starting player, as it contains one more ship than the other merchant-ship deck (13 cards versus 12).

We made another change: When drawing a merchant ship, it went into the player's hand instead of straight to sea. In a future session, we may try it as you described.

In any case, it worked very well. This is now my preferred way to play the game with two. Thanks!

Thread: Medium merchant control variant

Longshanx — 2007-10-22T06:07:34+00:00

We've tested the double action variant, and it indeed adds some more choices (read: makes the 2-player game playable). And there is yet one more tip:
* Take out all the merchant ships.
* Shuffle them, and divide equally among the players in piles face down.
* On his turn, player can twice choose from one of the following actions:
1) draw a card from the common deck (now containig only pirate ships, pirates and admiral)
2) play a p. ship, pirate or admiral
3) turn the top card from his/her merchant ships deck, thus sending her to the sea.
* The merchant ships left in players' piles at the end of game are counted against their respective scores.

If you would like to further diminish the influence of randomness, you can divide the merchant ships as in this variant.

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

Walsfeo — 2007-09-24T14:04:20+00:00

NateStraight wrote:
^ This is your confusion. ^
I have many confusions!

But it appears most of them have been cleared up for this game. And luckily all of the issues I had due to rules clarity played out the way that made sense to me, so I had an actual game experience.

This game will be hitting the table again when we don't have time for a deeper/longer game.

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

ilta — 2007-09-24T13:33:28+00:00

Yes, definitely you can strengthen your attack. Otherwise the first to lay down a four would just about always win, and besides, you couldn't get the "escalating arms race" mechanic that powers this game.

I also want to point out that I've been in a three-player game where another player and I were tied for a long time, with no further cards to play to break the deadlock, and the third player came in from nowhere and beat us both, claiming the ship. Arrrr!

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

Walsfeo — 2007-09-23T02:55:41+00:00

NateStraight wrote:
You can always play more than one pirate card on a merchant ship as long as it hasn't been claimed when it gets back around to your turn.

Good, that's how we played it. And unclaimed just meant it hadn't got back around to the person currently in the lead again.

NateStraight wrote:
Also, you always total up all of everyone's pirate cards played to any given merchant ship when determining score for claiming the ship (at the beginning of each player's respective turn, of course).Excellent, that's also how we were playing it.

Thanks much all!

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

NateStraight — 2007-09-23T02:19:16+00:00

Walsfeo wrote:
In fact the Play a Pirate Ship instructions say the score is the number of skull and crossbones on the card, and don't actually mention totaling them all up except when determining the win after ties.

^ This is your confusion. ^

You can always play more than one pirate card on a merchant ship as long as it hasn't been claimed when it gets back around to your turn. Also, you always total up all of everyone's pirate cards played to any given merchant ship when determining score for claiming the ship (at the beginning of each player's respective turn, of course). Whatever rule book or translation you are looking at is giving you bad information.

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

Windopaene — 2007-09-23T02:11:08+00:00

But if it were your ship, when it came back to you, if it wasn't tied, you would lose it, and couldn't play on it again. If it was tied, then you would be able to play on it again.

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

punkzter — 2007-09-23T01:47:38+00:00

Yes you can. The rules state that on your turn you can: Play a pirate ship to attack a merchant ship or strengthen your attack on a merchant ship. This is also explained in further detail in the "Tied Attack Strengths" section of the rules.

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

Walsfeo — 2007-09-23T01:09:55+00:00

What if it gets back around to you, and you are not winning, can you play another card to get into the winning position?

Thread: Re: Play more than one card?

Windopaene — 2007-09-23T00:15:02+00:00

Well, you can only play one card on your turn. If a battle is tied, then you can play on it, and if it stays tied, you might be able to play again when it comes around to you.

Thread: Play more than one card?

Walsfeo — 2007-09-22T22:56:44+00:00

The rules don't really state anywhere (that I can see) that players may play more than one card against a target ship, unless there is a tie. In fact the Play a Pirate Ship instructions say the score is the number of skull and crossbones on the card, and don't actually mention totaling them all up except when determining the win after ties.

We played this with the rule that until someone won a card on their turn players could keep laying down more cards to increase their total, even if the battle was not already in a tied state.

Thanks for any help.

Thread: Re: Double Action - 2 Player Variant

Steve99 — 2007-09-05T12:25:20+00:00

Great minds think alike

Thread: Re: Double Action - 2 Player Variant

Longshanx — 2007-09-05T10:58:10+00:00

I was just about to suggest this variant, when I saw it here Good idea, anyway.