Buccaneer (game)

"Buccaneer" was a board game published in Britain by Waddingtons between the 1930s and 1980s.

The game board depicted the sea, broken into squares. Around the edges were ports, some of which were owned by players, others were "free ports". At the centre was Treasure Island, upon which was placed realistic looking treasures: diamonds, rubies, pearls, gold bars, and rum barrels.

Diamonds are worth 5 points.Rubies are worth 5 points.Gold is worth 4 points.Pearls are worth 3 points.Rum is worth 2 points.

Each player had a ship which they would sail to Treasure Island and pick up a "Chance Card." These cards contained instructions, either bad ("You are blown to Cliff Creek") or good ("Take treasure up to 5 in total value"). The treasure would be placed inside the plastic ship, which could contain up to two treasures, and the player would sail back to home port to unload the treasure, or trade treasure and crew at the other ports.

Players could attack other players' ships during the game and capture their treasure or crew. The number of spaces a player could move, as well as the outcomes of battles was decided on the crew cards in the hand of each player.

The winner of the game was the first to acquire five treasures of the same kind. However, in some versions, including the 1958 version; the winner was the first to collect 20 points worth of treasure.

The game went through several different revisions. The most obvious version change was during the late 1960s-1970s. These changes included shrinking of the playing area from 24x24 squares to 20x20 squares, the reduction and re-location of certain ports, reduction in the amount of treasure available, along with the maximum number of players being reduced from 6 to 4. A version of the game named "Trade Winds", with slightly different rules and board additions, was available in the US. The winning condition for "Trade Winds" was to gather treasure worth 20 points at their home port.

To coincide with the recent Pirates of the Caribbean movies, a special "Pirates of the Caribbean" edition of Buccaneer was launched in 2006

External links

* [http://buccaneer.stevechampion.com/ Describes various editions, with links to PDF rules]
* [http://vzone.virgin.net/vintage.games/shop/buccaneer.htm Descriptions of various editions]
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