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Nathan James
United States
Covington
Ohio
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Capt'n W. Kidd is three games in one. The same board and pieces are used for each game but the differences in the rules are big enough to qualify them as truly different games. This review will be of the version called 'Quedah Merchant.' And this review will begin very similarly to my last, which explained 'Loyal Captain.'
All three games are played on a faux leather board which presents the player with a point-to-point map of Captain Kidd's pirate ship. Each scenario is about an attempted mutiny or fight aboard the ship. Don't get too excited here as the theme is very light. The fact that one space is next to the cannon and others surround a treasure chest makes no difference at all. There are eighteen spaces on the board. Twelve of these connect to three other spaces, and the last six spaces are designated 'start' spaces. Start spaces connect to two other spaces and have third trail leading to the start space from another deck of the ship, the gang-plank or some such.
While 'Loyal Captain' is a wholly non-random game, the game "Quedah Merchant' uses a die which gives results from 1-3. It is in a sense a 'roll and move' game. But usually you have multiple pieces you may move for any given roll, and frequently multiple paths for a given piece. The actual components representing your men are circluar tokens with pictures of pirates on them. Each token shows three paths, one points back to the space the token was last moved from and the other two show the spaces to which it may move next. So, while most spaces have connections to three other spaces a token occupying any of these spaces can only move to two of them as the third will be the sace it just came from. Rotating the tokens in place to change the spaces they can move to is never allowed.
So, you roll the die and move one of your pieces. You must move exactly the number of spaces on the die. If you are ever unable to move exactly the number of spaces you lose the game. Simple. You are however allowed to land on top of you opponent's pieces if you do so from behind, using up exactly the spaces indicated by the die. This is the other way the game may end- if any seven pieces are captured at any time the game ends, and the winner is the player who has captured more pieces. Unlike 'Loyal Captain' it is not necessary to surround the opponent's piece, just get behind it and roll the right number. Now things get a little interesting because none of your pieces can capture more than one of the opponent's pieces. Period. Each pirate may capture one enemy, and the captured token is then moved around underneath the capturing token. Until he is freed. If your opponent captures a token that was holding another of his tokens hostage he not only captures your token he also places his other piece back on the board in one of the spaces ahead of his capturing pirate. This can lead to chain reactions, so be careful of having your hostage-holding pirates in adjacent spaces.
Overall, I don't find the game nearly as interesting as the 'Loyal Captain' version. But it is a decent option for when you want something a bit lighter on the forethought aspect. It is less like chess and more comparable to backgammon, in that you are forced to move according to the dice so you are looking to find the most flexible positions. It certainly is possible for two players who don't quite 'get it' to spend a lot of time going back and forth capturing each other's pieces and freeing their own. Certainly the wise player will concentrate more on depriving his opponent of flexibilty, knowing that if the opponent can move the spaces demanded by the die the game ends in a loss for the unfortunate soul.
I think including this version certainly gives Capt'n W. Kidd wider appeal. Not everyone wants to carefully think through the tactical ramifications of a no-luck game.
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