Listen up all of ye, there be a new pirate game about. Fore ye had Merchant’s and Marauders and Libertalia to name two, now Gamelynn Games newest, Tiny Epic Pirates! Tiny Epic Pirates (TEP) is a 1-4 player game where each player is vying to be the most notorious pirate and buries their three treasure chests before anyone else. Like their games in the past, this one is small enough to fit in a backpack with room to spare. But don’t let the Tiny keep you away, this game has the punch of a blunderbuss! There is a lot of game in that little box to offer you hours of enjoyment. As true to their other games, TEP has a very strong solo engine built in. So, let’s open up this treasure chest and see what it has.
To start, take the 16 sea map cards and lay them randomly in a 4×4 grid. Take all of the search tokens and randomly place one face down on each tile, returning the rest to the box. Place the two merchant ships on opposite corners along with a port marker in each, and the Navy ship in the corner farthest from the players. Take 1 of each good (coffee, sugar, rum, and gunpowder and randomly place one on each space on the market card, place the rest in the booty bag and draw one for each player and the two merchant ships.
Each player then chooses a ship and then gives each player the following in their color: Ship order tokens, Captain, deckhands, legend marker, and 3 treasure chests, Also give each player a helm mat, legend mat, and a gold coin. Each player will then place their coin at the one space and their legend token (bloody side down) at the lowest space on their legend mat. Take their helm card and place one deckhand in each of the deck assignments (rigging, cannons, extort). Place their captain meeple at the anchor position (hide) on their wheel. Shuffle their 5 order tokens and randomly place one in each section of their ship wheel. Place their ship in a hideout on the map and their random good on their ship. Put the merchant ship cards in a stack from lowest to highest, lowest value on top, and draw one for each merchant ship placing them at the bottom of the market card. The rest remain in a face-down pile. Choose a Captain and declare which side you want to use. Shuffle the crew cards and put the top three face up in a row. Decide the first player and start the game.
A player performs two actions per turn; move and give an order. At the beginning, each player can only move 1 space plus one if they have a deckhand at rigging. As they advance in their legendary status, their ship improves, they gain an additional deckhand, more dice, and become more fearsome. After moving they execute an order from their ship wheel. The orders are Search, Plunder, Attack, Trade goods, Hideout, and Crew up. What order a player can choose is based on the location of their Captain on their ship wheel. The Captain moves one space clockwise around the ship’s wheel executing each order as they move. A player can skip a space by reassigning one of their deckhands to the wheel in the order they wish to skip. The Captain skips the order a deckhand is placed on and executes the following one. When a player lands on a space on the wheel where a deckhand was from their last turn they return the deckhand to another assignment.
When a player executes a search order, they take the search token from the sea tile their ship is on and gain that bonus. Each Captain as a bonus, may bury treasure and plunder when executing a search order. If a player is on a sea tile with the bury treasure symbol, they pay the coin cost indicated on the tile and place one of their three treasure chests in that space. A player can plunder when they are on a sea tile that has a matching plunder symbol and draws a good from the booty bag based on the number of crates at the plunder location. A player trades goods at a market that buys their good and gains the gold at the level of the good on the market card. Then move that good to the lowest value space, shifting each good up to one level. A player crew’s up by choosing one of the three crew available from the lineup and adding them to their ship. Each crew card shows a set of dice and an order with bonus actions that may be taken when that order is given.
To execute an attack order, a player rolls the number of dice based on their legendary status and gets one hit for each number that matches their Captain and any crew cards they have. The attacker wins if they score more hits than their opponent. The winner increases in legendary status and the loser is jostled and gains a sure-fire token. If there is a tie, neither player is jostled and each gains one sure-fire token. Surefire tokens allow a player to change a die facing for an attack and are then discarded. A merchant ship’s attack value is found on the current ship card out for that color merchant. If a player wins combat against a merchant, they take the good on the ship and place it on their ship. Discard the ship card and draw a new one to replace it, placing the merchant ship in the port farthest from the attacker and drawing a random good from the booty bag replacing the one taken by the player.
A ship is jostled in three ways; losing a combat against another player, landing in a storm, or attacked by the navy ship. Any time a ship moves through or lands on a tile with a storm, they are jostled. When jostled, a player re assigns one deckhand to repair. If attacked by the navy, the player moves all of their deckhands to repair and cannot sail through storms until one deckhand is re-assigned from repair. Deckhands are only reassigned when the Captain lands on a space on the ship wheel where a deckhand is or an action allows it, such as a bonus action on a crew card.
When a Captain takes the hideout action again, in addition to moving, they may enter a cove and hide if on a sea tile with the hideout symbol. They also move the two merchant ships and the Navy. The Navy ship moves based on the legendary status of the player. As they increase in speed and strength, so does the Navy. The Navy ship will hunt for the active, and only the active. player. It moves horizontally until it is on the row of the active player and then vertical towards them. If they land on the same tile as the active player, they attack and that player is jostled. If the Navy ship ends or passes another player, it ignores them.
The game continues until one player buries their third treasure; that player is the winner. TEP has all of the challenges of some of the bigger games, but is streamlined and may be easier to get to the table. The rondel mechanic of the ship wheel limits a player’s choices but is mitigated by the use of the deckhands. The negative effect of being jostled, while limiting a player’s ability, does not eliminate them from the game. It is definitely a race with players trying to gain coins and status so that they can bury their treasure first. The game has a lot of strategic player choices in addition to the randomness of the dice; and even then, with the right crew cards, a bad roll can be modified.
The components are solid, well made, and fit the theme. And speaking of theme, it encompasses the whole game; using a ship wheel to take actions is brilliant. Having spaces on the ships themselves to carry the goods, is a nice touch.
The game plays fast, with little downtime between turns, so players who want to do well, remain engaged when it not their turn. It is not a heavy game, but it delivers like one, with lots of options and decisions for players to make. TEP feels similar to say, Merchants and Marauders, but with 2/3 less setup and rules. The solo rules are definitely well thought out and offer more challenges than just playing two pirates alone. It already has an expansion, the curse of Amdiak, that introduces a ghost ship, cursed gold, skeleton pirates, and a hunt for hidden artifacts.
Having played several of the Tiny Epic Games, this one is amazing. It plays quickly, has lots of strategic decisions, and looks great. If you like pirates, this one belongs right next to any others you already own in your own treasure hoard of games.
While currently distributing to Kickstarter backers, it is also, or soon will be, available in retail stores and online. Look for it at your favorite friendly local game store.
LISTEN UP.
Written by Ed Carter
Evan Conroy
Ron Peterson