Meuterer (Mutineer, pronounced MOY-ter-er) is a lesser known game, partly because it has never been translated from its original German, and partly because it comes in the form of a small deck of cards. Don't let that fool you. It is, indeed, a board game; there are no trump suits or tricks. For those wanting to try it, there's a fairly decent implementation on BSW.

There is a Pirate variant, but I'm only going to discuss the basic game. Also, I feel that this game only works with 4 players, for similar reasons as In The Shadow of the Emperor: creating 2v2 situations is much more fun and interesting than 1v2 or 2v1.


Components

The only components in Meuterer are cards, but there are many types:

12 Islands
1 Ship
2 Destinations (1 for the Captain, 1 for the Mutineer)
7 Roles (Captain x2, Mate, Mutineer, Deck Hand, Merchant, Cargo Master)
36 Goods (Ruby x4, Salt x5, Wine x6, Cloth x7, Corn x8, and Sword x6)


Objective

The goal of the game is to have the most Victory Points after 8 rounds. VP's are gained by:

+ being the Captain (or Mutineer) when sailing to an island,
+ helping the Captain (Mate) or Mutineer (Deck Hand) with the above,
+ selling goods.


Setup

Shuffle the 12 island cards and deal them out in a circle. Each card is placed gray side up, except Hochland which is placed tan side up. It is the starting island. Place the ship card there. Choose a player at random to be the Captain. This player takes the 2 Captain cards (one shows 0 and 1 on its sides, the other 2 and 3). The other 5 role cards are placed face-down in the center of the circle of islands. Shuffle the goods cards, and deal 5 to each player.


Game Play

Each round plays out exactly the same:

The Captain Makes an Offer: The Captain offers from 0 to 3 VP's to any player willing to choose the Mate role and help him defend against a possibly mutiny. If the Captain remains the Captain at the end of the round (ie no mutiny, or unsuccessful mutiny), then the player (if any) choosing the Mate role gains the VP's offered by the Captain plus one.

Play Goods: Starting with the Captain and going clockwise, each player may play a card from their hand, or withdraw. If a player withdraws, they pick up the role cards, secretly choose one, and place the rest back. The Captain does not choose a role; he already has one! Any players who have not withdrawn may continue to play cards in clockwise order until they run out or withdraw themselves. When the Captain withdraws, he places the tan destination card as many island away from the current island as the number of cards left in his hand (0 to 5 spaces). Of the cards played, the only goods that may be sold are the ones shown on the (1 or 2) tan islands. Islands with a ? icon will buy any single type of good. However, players may still play any good cards at the time, including swords.

Reveal Roles/Mutiny: Everyone reveals their selected role card. If the Mutineer was chosen, the Mutineer places the gray destination card based on his remaining cards as the Captain did, then a battle occurs between the Captain/Mate and the Mutineer/Deck Hand. If any of these roles were not selected, they simply have no effect. Starting with the Captain and going clockwise (these 4 roles only) one time around the table, players may play as many (more) swords as they wish from their hands. Previously played swords count. The Mate role inherently counts as 1 sword. The other 3 roles do not. If the Captain/Mate sword total is greater than the Mutineer/Deck Hand sword total, the Captain wins. He gains the VP's shown on his destination island, and the Mate gains the VP's offered by the Captain PLUS ONE. Otherwise, the mutiny is successful. The Mutineer gains the VP's shown on his destination island (which could be the same island as the Captain's), becomes the new Captain (immediately), and the Deck Hand gains 2 VP's.

Sell Goods: Goods may be sold at the current island or the previous island. [Note: This is the most-often misunderstood thing when learning the game. The "new" island chosen by the Captain or Mutineer this round is not the current island. No goods may be sold there. On the first round, and on any future round where the ship did not move on the previous turn, there will be only one island at which to sell goods.] The only goods that may be sold are the ones shown on the island(s). If more than one player has a choice about where to sell which goods (? icon, or both islands accept the same type of good), then players assign goods to sell in order starting with the Captain. At each island, only the player(s) selling the most goods gain VP's. The island card shows the payout based on the number of tied players. For example, if the island shows 4/3/2, and a single player has the most, then he gets 4 VP's. If two players are tied for the most, they each get 3 VP's, etc. If a tied player chose the Merchant role, they gain VP's as if they were alone. The other tied players score normally.

End of Round: Flip any previous island (if there is one) to its gray side. Flip the new island to its tan side. Move the ship card there. Return all role cards face-down to the center of the table. Discard all played cards. Starting with the Captain, refresh each player's hand to 5 cards. Any player who chose the Cargo Master refreshes to 8 cards and must discard 3. If necessary (it almost always is), reshuffle the discard pile into a new draw deck.

End of Game

There is no final scoring. Whoever has the most VP's after 8 rounds wins.

(this image shows custom pirates, and a custom score board available here)

Interconnections

Meuterer has a lot of interestingly connected mechanisms.

The first is that the distance the ship moves is based on the number of cards in the Captain's (or Mutineer's) hand when they withdraw. Normally, you will be playing goods that you hope to sell at the current and previous island(s). Competition for the sale of goods is based on number. So the Captain/Mutineer must weigh these factors carefully. If you really want to move the ship, say, 4 islands, then you must play exactly 1 card. This may put you out of contention for any VP's from selling goods. And for a potential Mutineer, it may affect the choice of role.

Conversely, you may have valuable goods in your hand (eg 2 Rubies), and want the ship to land on a specific island so you can sell them next round. If the current Captain has withdrawn, you can tell if the ship will go there or not. But what if there's a mutiny? If every other player has withdrawn, then you can tell every possible destination island. But who might be a possible mutineer? Do you want them to win? Do you want to help either the Captain or the Mutineer?

Role selection itself is a very fun part of the game. Do you play all the cards you want first, then just choose from whatever roles are left? Or do you withdraw early to grab the specific role you need? If you are the second player to choose a role, then you know the role chosen by the other player. You can make a pretty good guess about the possibility for a mutiny and its success at this point based on what role has been chosen, what role you are going to choose, the number of cards played (and hence remaining) by all players, the number of swords already showing, and sometimes the current score.

Unlike other games that use the "withdraw" mechanic (eg Taj Mahal, Beowulf, Condottiere, Iliad), Meuterer doesn't suffer as much from the competition problem, because all players refresh their hands back to 5 cards at the end of the round. Because of this, players can stall by playing unwanted cards to wait and see what other players do. You might choose not to compete if you are going to lose anyways, saving your goods for the next island. You may want to see what the next island will be before committing certain cards. You may want to see how many cards various players play before deciding if you want to mutiny (if it's still available). You may want to know if you are going to tie or not before choosing the Merchant role.

Unlike some other role selection games (eg Citadels, Mission: Red Planet, Puerto Rico), once you are the Captain, you retain that role until a mutiny is successful. If the other players allow it, you could gain 4 or 5 VP's almost every round without selling any goods. However, in order to keep the Captain's hat, you must defend it by offering some of your booty for a player to choose the Mate. It's very difficult to keep being the Captain and to keep accumulating lots of VP's for islands. Once your VP's get too high, players will mutiny out of sheer defense. If you think you are going to lose, and you have an idea who has chosen the Mutineer, it may be a good idea to play out all your cards that will be useless next round so you can draw new ones.

Swords may be played just like any other goods card. It may be that you are dumping them to draw more cards later, posturing (or bluffing) for a potential fight, or simply playing them to stall. The Captain playing a single sword is often enough to dissuade a mutiny. Since additional swords are played during the battle in turn order, your position relative to the Captain will also affect your choice of roles if you have any swords to contribute.


Summary

As the above mechanisms and interactions can attest, I love this game. At only 3½x2¼x¾ inches, Meuterer is by far the most fun per cubic inch of any game I've played. That being said, I'd still like to see it reprinted (in English) with a board, thick island tiles, wooden ships/markers, score/round track.

Components:
Rules: (translations)
Fun:
Luck:
Complexity:
Replayability:

Overall:

Have you ever played a 3-player game? (Not challenging your statement, as I've never played, but just curious if you have.)

-Gary

I don't know actually. If I have, it would have been a long time ago on BSW. Your question is a good one. If others have good/bad experiences with 3, I'd love to hear about it.

Barely functions as a game with 3 players. Having four different roles being used is essential for appropriate mutiny tension, or else it's pretty much crap.

I have played it several times with three players and it just doesn't work. It is far too hard to successfully mutiny, which in itself does not break the game, but makes it much less fun and interesting.

This games predecessor, Verräter, is also best with four, but in my experience, doesn't suffer as much with only three.

I agree that it isn't worth it to play it with only 3-players. It is a fantastic game for 4, and only 4, players.

I've really enjoyed my 3 player games of it, even better than some 4 player games of it. There's more to the game than just mutiny.

However, in the case of Verrater there isn't much to the game aside from treason. But because of how the traitor doesn't need support in that case, it's not as dependent. Based on that I would think that I would like it with either 3 or 4, but in actual experience I find that I prefer it with 4.

I guess I'm just backwards from others here.

I actually like the game with three as well as four, it's just a different game. It reminds me a little of San Juan in this way, where the game seems dramatically different (and requires different strategies) with 2pl vs 3pl vs 4pl. I think the comment that the mutiny tension is different is correct, but I also agree with Mike (who commented while I was reading this) that there is more than mutiny to the game. In three player games I actually feel a bit more in control. In the 4 player game, if you are down by round 3, you aren't going to come back, but the three player games are a bit more high scoring, and I think a slow start is not going to cost you the game.

I'll side with the "4-player only" camp. In fact, I'll champion that opinion: 3-players, this game is barely functional, and really lacks any of the tension that makes it excellent as a 4-player game.

I also agree with the reviewers summary: inch-for-inch (deck of cards in slim box) and pound-for-pound (lighter than average deck of cards), the best game ever made.

Great review for a cheap but very good game!
I'm siding with the 4 player camp too...
Great game for non-gamers and GIRLS too!