On Friday, before seeing Dead Man's Chest, we played the new Alea game Rum and Pirates. For the record, I think the English name could have been more exciting. The game has a much cooler name in German. The first time we played R&P we were suprised at how light the game was, coming from Alea. But after some discussion we realised there was more to it than we'd originally thought. The rules are explained in another review, so I'll skip the specifics and talk about what I think of the game after a few playings.

Rum and Pirates a sort of area influence game, in that you place your pirates on the board in order to get actions which give you points. When you run out of Pirates (or things you want to do) you have to "board the ship", which is an end-of-round chance to get some more points. So there's a constant question: Do I put more guys down, looking for points on the board, or do I board the ship, looking to win those points? Further, when on the board, there are different ways to get points, and depending on where the Pirate Captain is, it may or may not be efficient enough to go for them.

Here are some strategic tips we found as we played the game:

1. Pirates are your resource, use them sparingly!
As I mentioned, R&P is like an area influence game. Like Luis XIV or El Grande, there's a benefit to placing your guys later in the turn order, and boarding the ship later than other players is a significant advantage as well. The Sleeping Accomodations from a single round can account for 15-20% of your score, and especially in a 3 player game it's not hard to get 2 or 3 of them.

Initially we were cavalier about spending gold coins to extend our turn for more actions. We came to realise that this simply meant putting more of our Pirates on the board faster, and for the most part that's a bad idea. Extending your turn should only be done when the reward is significant. It's not as if you won't get another chance to move the Captain!

2. Get as many Pirates as you can, as fast as you can!
Recruiting new Pirates is key, as Pirates are sort of like action points. Remember that each Pirate recruited will be useful for you on that round, and each subsequent round as well. So the earlier you recruit, the better. I believe this is why there is a Recruiting spot right next to the Headquarters starting location - to give the first player a benefit for having to go first (when going last is a little better) - especially in 3 or 4 player when they'll have to go first twice over the course of the game.

3. Gold is precious, hoard it!
It's good to have a lot of gold. More accurately, it's terrible to have no gold. A good trick if your opponents are gold-poor is to frequent the taverns- especially if there are 3 tiles of the same color. If they can't (or choose not to) join you for a drink, then you score a lot of points. It's also good to have a gold handy in case the situation arises in which you have a great scoring opportunity 2 intersections away, or when you're at the edge of the board and you want to "pac-man" over to something useful. In order to have an extra gold handy for that, and to keep extra gold for other people's tavern visits, it's important to have a lot on hand. I recommend the Pirate Supplies spaces for easy Gold income, unless the tile is very highly valued and you already have some coin, it usually seems best to sell the booty for 2 coin.

4. Work the Boat points!
Being last to board the ship has a lot of advantages. Not only do you win ties in the roll off for the points, but you also get to see how many Pirates your opponents are bringing on board. If you think they've put "too many" guys on the boat, then you can spend the rest of your guys on the board picking up points. If you have enough guys to follow them onto the boat and have a good chance at some of those points, then do it! In a three player game it's particularly easy to sweep the boat points, which not only puts you ahead 10 points or so, but keeps your opponent's Pirates (the ones they boarded the ship with) from doing anything that round. Because of all this, it's good to use the Rest action to pass your turn when there's no good move but you have a lot of Pirates left. This is another reason to hoard gold, so you can out-pass your opponents and still have Gold leftover.

5. Respect the Rum!
Re-rolls don't suck. Much of the game is influenced by the die roll. I wouldn't waste a rum barrel to avoid the sting of a Scorpion. It depends on the situation whether to use one while fighting for a nice bed to sleep on. It's always good to be able to re-roll a bad roll for a Tavern tile, because if you don't then those points might go to someone else. So while they're really only used for the Tavern spaces and the end of round scoring, re-rolls are definitely worth having.

6. Randezvous not bad, but not great.
I've found that while the points for Randezvous are decent, the time and effort to complete them is not so hot. In many cases it will be easy enough to complete the missions, but the rewards don't seem high enough to me to have to worry about not completing it. I've been avoiding them, especially in the late game. Obviously in the early game there's no harm in picking them up, as you'll have all game to find your destination. Maybe I'd be happier with Rendezvous if you could score them when an opponent moved onto the correct space...

7. Passing is good - free passing is better!
Anytime you have the opportunity to step into the Headquarters space, take it. It's a free pass - you get the guys you play back (or other guys, if you have a long alley full of Pirates somewhere), and it doesn't cost you a gold. It's not bad to avoid leaving that for an opponent, so consider it even if it's your second move and would cost you a gold. That's equivalent to a Rest action, but it denies an opponent the free pass option.

All in all we decided it was a neat little game. As you can see, there's a lot more to it than what you might get at first glance. Keeping in mind the guidelines above, you should do well. Also, don't overanalyze your turns too much, remember it's a fairly light game.

- Seth

I played this in a 5-player game last night and we all liked it a lot.

Great intro to the game, Seth! I just received my copy and am really looking forward to my first game.

I think you might be misplaying something, though, based on my reading of the rules here on the Geek. With 2-3 players, you lay out only a bunk and a hammock; the bedroll remains in the tray.

Additionally, with 2-3 players if you are the only player left on the boat after fighting for space, you receive only the bunk tile, not both tiles. (With 4-5 players, if you're the sole winner or the winner against only one other competitor, then you receive the bunk and the bedroll; the hammock goes to either the second place pirate or back in the box if you were the sole pirate on board.)

Indeed, we had the bunk scoring wrong when we played. Ah well, at least this mistake didn't invalidate the game or make it less interesting, like when I first played Shadows over Camelot... wow did we do things wrong then!

I've played 8 times now. I've found that rum is better than I initially thought, I think its above average in terms of the value compared to other board spaces, unless its late in the game.

I find the uses of it to be ranked:

Best use: Pubs. When you are rolling for a pub, and whiff,you use it. You probably get points and deny an opponent.
If there are multiple different numbers left, like 3 and 4 for example, and you rolledlow, you get the best return. You have a 75% chance of getting something in your 2 rerolls, and a good chance its a 4. You make like a 2.5 point expectation value on using a rum here. If its a single type of number left, then the expectation value of using rum is:

For a 5: 5 * .30 = 1.5
For a 4: 4 * .55 = 2.2
For a 3: 3 * .75 = 2.25
For a 2: 2 * .89 = 1.78

So its best on 3s and 4s. I'dstill use it on a 2 however, in mst cases. On a 5, ther is a good chance the tile will come arond to you again if you dont use it, so I wouldnt use the rum.


Middle use: Scorpions. But only when the odds are resonable. basically, you use it on those times when you got unlucky and rolled high and got hit, when there was a good chance of avoiding it. Of course, youre only using the rum on a scorpion
when you already got hit with it.

Need to roll to avoid scorpion:

1: .30 chance of avoiding -2, netgain .6 (dont use)
2: .55 chance of avoiding -2, netgain 1.1 (probably dont use)
3: .75 * 2 = 1.5 (probably use)
4: .89 * 2 = 1.78 (use)
5: .97 * 2 = 1.94 (use)

So on the better scorpion uses your gain is decent, but the problem is this is a rare use. If it does occur howeve,r it is good.


Least useful: Boats (in most cases).

I find this least useful because the boat points are awarded based on many rolls, not just one roll. It is uncommon that you are in a case where that marginal roll makes the big difference. Also, you can spend rum rerolling a 1 into a 4, only to have someone later roll a 4+ and beat you.

It is most useful when you were last to the boat, so you know you need a certain number, and down to the final guys, where this roll makes the difference. When these cases arise, go for it.


Essentially, Rum tends to give you reasonable chances of 2-4 point gains, probably having an expectation value near 2. Its actually a bit better than that, because you also deny the points ot one opponent. So in a 2 player, this value is doubled, to 4ish. In a 3 player its worth 2 + 2/2 = 3. In a 4 player its worth 2 + 2/3 = 2.66, etc.

The problem however is that these opportunities to use rum dont always arise. Thus, rum is better early than late, since your chances of having opportunities with good expectation value are higher.

In 2 player, rum is better but there are the least chances to use it well. So its wonderful early, and not so great late. With more players, it is of less value but remains a good choice later in the game.


Early I would take it over most tiles, and plan to use it in pubs mostly.

And note that that is per barrel, right? And the Rum tiles give you 2 barrels.

Wanted to voice my agreement that Rum is pretty good. I was able to eek out a victory in my most recent game despite the fact that I was never able to recruit another pirate into my camp. But I had plenty of rum which helped me rock the pub-crawl and avoid all but one scorpion sting.

-MMM