Main Catalogue |  Historical Wargames |  GMT |  Winds of Plunder

Winds of Plunder Price: £27.99 Board Game; 3-5 Players by GMT Games Winds of Plunder is a Euro-style board game set at the close of the Golden Age of Piracy. In this game, pirates have naught to fear but each other as they plunder the Caribbean. But peace has broken out in Europe, and the clock is now ticking on the days of easy piracy. As the name implies, there are two central elements to each turn of the game: manipulating the Winds, then gathering as much Plunder for your ship as possible. Plunder translates into Victory Points, and the player with the most Victory Points after nine game turns is the winner. Wind direction and turn order are both re-established each turn by voting with a renewable but limited supply of Wind cubes. Players must decide whether to seize control of the winds directly, cooperate with others, or position themselves while plundering to take advantage of their opponents\' placement. But while voting for wind direction can be cooperative, the same Wind cubes voted also apply to control of turn order for plundering -- and there, it\'s every pirate for himself! After establishing the wind direction, players spend actions and sail in order to gain plunder. The route to victory becomes easier for the players who amass the most Weapons, Crew, and/or Provisions aboard their ships as they sail. Each of these shipboard items confer special advantages. Plunder takes many forms: directly with Victory Points gained from ports, each other, and from establishing reputations in the various map areas; indirectly at the game\'s end with Weapons, Crew, Provisions, and unused Wind cubes. Counter Magazine Review: 3-5 players, 90 minutes designed by Al Newman reviewed by Alan How The GMT games in my collection come in two categories: the lighter type of wargame, such as the card based wargames, and the Euro-style games. Winds of Plunder is definitely in the second category and as it is about raiding the Caribbean, you will immediately deduce that it is another pirate-based game - a theme we have seen a lot of in the last few years. The board is split into 4 vertical zones which the players will move across, trying to maximise use of the wind, which is the central system of the game. Each zone holds 4 ports on separate islands, which are drawn on a diagonal so that each island in a zone is slightly to the east or west of other islands in the zone. All players receive a number of wind cubes and a dial. Simultaneously players select their preferred direction - N,S,E,W. The dials then are revealed. This provides each player with an indication of the favoured directions. Next players select a number of cubes. These are cast in favour of the direction that each player chose on their dial and the outcome is the wind direction for the round. Highest bidder is first player and receives a tie break marker. Starting with the new first player, each person moves their ship one or two zones to a new island if east or west is the wind for the round. If north or south are selected, then players may move in the same zone or to an adjacent zone south/north of their current island location. As the cubes used to determine the wind are depleted from players hands, the selection and number of cubes is critical to keeping your ship moving effectively. Fortunately, if the wind is really no good for you, there is an option of using several cubes and moving in a direction of your choice, but this is expensive as it uses up all your actions in the next phase. Knowing the wind direction, players must move to an appropriate island. Each player then has 3 action points they can use to acquire action cards, play action cards or replenish wind cubes. The more action points you spend, the better the benefits. The actions can be taken before or after sailing and there will be good reasons, depending on your circumstances, for doing one or the other. When you land at a port, you are trying to gain reputation, (if you are the most powerful pirate present); booty (additional VPs when you show a treasure card); and a victory point tile which is visible, so you know how many VPs are to be received. When you complete a set of port visits in a zone, you score more VPs depending on how quickly you achieved this feat. The VP tile also shows how you increase your strength in weapons, crew or provisions, so some planning is need to get your pirate with the right blend of these. So you choose your wind direction, consider where to go and lay claim to some VPs, but as this is a pirate game, there is some interaction in the form of fighting. You carry this out by visiting an island where there is another pirate. A comparison of the weapons (listed on a chart by the side of the board) shows who is strong and who is weak. Weak pirates need more weapons or plenty of distance between them and the stronger ships, so you may try to get the ``most crew\'\' card , which allows an extra action, or the ``most provisions\'\' one, which scores one more VP at each island. Winds of Plunder has a certain amount of planning to it, though your plans can be voided by awful wind directions or cunning playing of action cards. I liked the game, perhaps because of the planning, but also because I felt there was some flavour in there too. Of course, fate can play a hand in your game, so if you are the weakest ship and are being pounced on and not making progress the game can feel more punishing. But the time goes by quickly as each player\'s turn is quickly over and after 9 rounds it\'s all over. At first you think this is an insufficient number of rounds, but you realise that the game makes you focus and on subsequent games, the flow and pace of the game work well. Greg previewed the game three years ago in issue 25 and the final version has lived up to the promise that Greg described. Winds of Plunder works well, has plenty of player interaction and has some good systems. It is not a great game, but will fit into most people\'s collections as a solid middleweight game. It is also one of the better pirate games of recent years, a time when pirate-themed games have been very popular. I thought that 2004 was the peak year for pirate-related games, because I remember several of them from that Essen, but it turns out that 2006 was the age of the pirate with 42 games that year. 2007 seems to be doing well too with a further 27 in print or on their way. GMT continues to deliver and with the remake of Blackboard in their P500 line look to be on another pirate based winner. More ...

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