Captains of the Golden Age is a board game of Dutch origin, without luck but completely based on strategy. Do we want to try that? Hell yeah!
The name says it all, this game is set in the golden age. A time when trade and war went hand in hand. The object of the game is simple: on one of the four islands you can load resources (wood, cloth, copper or rum). You can use these resources to upgrade your ship. However, you can also exchange them for pepper which you can then exchange for a share. Whoever collects four shares first wins the game. Sounds simple and basically it is.
Captains of the Golden Age
In addition to upgrading your ship and trading goods, you can also attack your opponent. This can be done in two ways. You can board the ship and steal the cargo, or you can shoot the ship and fish any lost cargo from the sea.
0% happiness
Other games often use a die or a deck of cards to add a certain amount of chance and thus luck. Captains of the Golden Age do not. Instead, the game is very fair. If you play better than your opponent, you win.
It sounds like a small change, but in practice the lack of a dice turns out to have quite a few consequences. Where in other games you rely more on the game to level the balance between players, you now have to do that yourself. So the first game was quite gentle. Collect some goods, upgrade the ship and score some stocks. Easy.
That changed in the second and especially third game. When it was clear that we were really on our own, it went wild. Attack and destroy the opponent’s ship, steal the cargo or try to use the pirate in a devious way. In this game you really have to do it yourself.
Interaction
As a result, the game leaves much more open. There are countless tactics that can all work and you have a lot more interaction with your fellow players. This creates special situations. You have to keep an eye on your fellow players. What is their strategy? Where do they sail to and what is their cargo? Who’s in front and maybe we should work together to get his or her pepper?
The effect is that you are really involved with each other. An attack where you lose pepper is a hard blow for which another player is 100% responsible, with no extenuating circumstances such as a die or an unlucky hand. This creates a completely different dynamic while playing.
We played Captains of the Golden Age with two and three players. With three players you have more interaction with your other players and the game is really more fun.
Conclusion
Where you normally play against the game and your opponent, Captains of the Golden Age is a blank canvas that the players give color to.
Want to play this game with a friend who can’t stand losing? Not recommended. However, if you have more sporty friends, then this is an ingenious board game . Everyone literally sails their own course, but crashing is part of the game and gives an extra layer that other games don’t have.
