reviewed by Herb Levy
Assura/GameWorks, 2-6 players, ages 8 and up, 30-60 minutes; about $50
In the colorful era of pirates and plunder, the notorious pirate Henry Morgan had managed to “change sides”, becoming the Governor of Jamaica with the task of driving out pirates. Instead, Henry turned the island into a safe haven for his nautical brethren. To commemorate Henry’s rise to Governor, “the Great Challenge” is organized. The Challenge? Race around the island with the winner being the one with the most gold at the end. And that is the theme of the fun, family game that is Jamaica. 
Jamaica is the work of three designers: Malcolm Braff, Bruno Cathala (solo designer of many games and co-designer on Cleopatra and the Society of Architects and others) and Sebastian Pauchon (Yspahan and this issue’s Metropolys). The game comes in a “treasure chest” containing gold doubloons, food tokens, gunpowder tokens, 9 treasure tokens, 12 treasure cards, a compass (indicating each round’s first player), six player boards (representing the holds of each player’s ship), six nicely produced ships in different colors, two regular six-sided dice, a special combat die and a mounted board showing the island of Jamaica in its center with several smaller islands on its perimeter. The race course is the water surrounding Jamaica and the water is divided into sections.
All players begin at the starting (and finishing) space of Port Royal. The 9 treasure tokens are placed on the skull spaces appearing irregularly around the racing area. The treasure cards are shuffled, three of them removed, sight unseen, from the game, and the rest placed in their denoted space in the center of the board. Each player begins with an identical set of Action cards and a board which simulates the five holds of his ships, two of which are filled with three food tokens and three gold doubloons. The Action cards are shuffled and each player draws three cards which become his starting hand. With the first player randomly selected, play begins.
The first player rolls the two regular six-sided dice and now, as the Captain this turn, has a decision to make. Which die will represent the morning action and which the evening for ALL players that round? (Of course, a roll of doubles eliminates this quandary.) His decision impacts on which card each player will choose to play.
All Action cards depict some sort of pirate scene (a scene that has NO affect on game play). What IS important on the card are the two icons located on the left (morning) and right (evening) side of each card. Icons come in five varieties: food, gunpowder, gold, a green arrow and a red arrow (movement). Each player reveals his card in turn and does the action in morning/evening order. If the icon revealed is a commodity (food, gunpowder or gold), the player collects those commodities (in the amount shown on the die) and places each commodity in one of his holds. Each hold may only contain ONE type of commodity. In addition, if during the course of play, a pirate has a full ship with all holds holding something, the new commodity picked up must be loaded and one cargo already on board jettisoned! The catch: you may NOT jettison the same type of commodity. So, for example, if you’re picking up gold, you may not jettison a cargo hold of a lesser amount of gold. Either food or gunpowder must go instead.
Green arrows advance ships; red arrows indicate backward movement. Where you end up is important. Each section of the water has SOMETHING marked on its space, either a Port (showing a gold number), open Sea (showing one or more white squares) or a skull (indicating a pirate lair and a place to lay your hands on some treasure). If landing on a Port space, the player must pay to the bank gold equal to the number shown on the space. Landing on a Sea space requires a similar payment but this time in food. If unable to pay the full amount of gold or food, the ship is compelled to travel BACKWARDS to the previous space and pays what is required there. If still unable to pay, the backward movement continues until the ship stops on a space where the player CAN pay what is required. If you play your cards right, you COULD maneuver yourself into backing into a skull space.
There is no cost for landing on a skull space. On the contrary, the first player to land there will pick up a treasure. The treasure marker is removed from play and the player draws the top card from the Treasure Deck. Most of the cards carry a point value, mainly positive (up to +7) but some negative (down to a -4). Four of the cards are special and reward the player with something extra that could be the ability to hold a fourth card in his hand (rather than the normal three), a sixth hold to store more cargo, add +2 to his combat die or RE-ROLL either his or his opponent’s die in combat.
Combat occurs immediately whenever a ship lands in am already occupied space. The attacker may commit any number of his gunpowder tokens to the attack and then rolls the combat die. The combat die has values of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and a star. The number of gunpowder tokens is added to the rolled number. (A rolled star is an AUTOMATIC victory.) If a star is not rolled, the defender may then commit gunpowder tokens to his defense and rolls the die. Should the defender roll a star, he wins no matter what number the attacker rolled. High number is the victor and to the victor goes the spoils, taking either ALL of the contents of ONE hold OR picking, at random, one treasure card held by the defeated pirate. A third option for the victor is to GIVE one of his treasures to his defeated opponent. (This is an excellent way to rid yourself of a negative valued treasure). Now, the pirate, win or lose, follows the regular requirements of his turn.
Play continues as the pirates circumnavigate the island. The first player to reach Port Royal gets a bonus of 15 points, ending the game immediately. The rest of the pirates also score for their positions at this juncture. The closer they are to Port Royal, the more points (as specified on their spaces), they will receive. (Some pirates may find themselves too far from the finish line. They LOSE 5 points.) Final point totals are now calculated. Added to their score for their final position in the race is 1 point for each gold coin in their holds and the specified point values for their treasures (plus or minus as the case may be). The pirate with the highest combined total wins! 
Yes, Jamaica is a bit chaotic; your best laid plans can easily fall victim to the roll of the dice affecting both movement and battle, creating a race game where you are nearly as likely to travel backward as you are to race forward! But there ARE strategies you can implement. You can, for example, rush ahead to finish first, figuring that the gold and treasure scooped up by your opposition will not be enough to outweigh the gold you manage to obtain along the way plus the big points for finishing first. Alternatively, you might wish to lay back while others move ahead so that you can amass large cargo holds filled with gold and avoid battles that might cause you to lose your treasure. You might wish to be the “scourge of the seas” and constantly battle to steal gold and treasure. Or, perhaps a balanced approach of a little gold, a little treasure and a little battling will result in victory. We’ve played the game enough to have seen ALL of these approaches work. With the vagaries present in play, there is no sure route to victory so each captain can place his own stamp upon the gameplay.
The component quality of Jamaica is first rate, from the colorful mounted board to the artwork on the cards. Although it has no effect on play, the artwork by Mathieu Leyssenne is something that you might expect to see from Pixar or DreamWorks or some other first class animation studio, both entertaining and completely fitting with the game’s light-hearted nature. An interesting quirk is that if you join the cards, linking them, icon to icon, you create a pirate panorama. Each deck of cards adds to the ambiance as they represent ACTUAL pirates. (A short biography of each is included in the rules.) Also worthy of note is the box. The emphasis of the game is on treasure and the box LOOKS like a treasure chest. Even the box insert works. EVERYTHING fits in perfectly and can serve as a model for how inserts in games should be done. (The only quibble with the presentation is with the instructions. The instructions are written flawlessly. Everything is clear and to the point helped by the many illustrations. But the instructions are printed in the guise of a large, multi-folded, maritime map. Keeping with the theme? Yes. Cumbersome? Yes, too. A more traditional rulebook would have worked a bit better.)
Jamaica is unusual in that the force behind the game is not your typical game company but, rather, an insurance company! Having enjoyed some success with Animalia (a card game that was their first release), the company decided to go the board game route. What pirates have to do with insurance is a mystery (unless, of course, you are selling policies to protect against piracy for ships traveling the high seas). But the game itself rates highly as a light, family style, game. Taken in the right spirit, this weird race game of pirates vs. pirates is perfect for both families and those serious gamers who like to have a little lighter, frothy, fun. – – – – – – – – – – – – Herb Levy
SUMMER 2008 GAMERS ALLIANCE REPORT
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