Oars, sails, parrot … go! – review of the board game “Jamaica”

Pirate raid around the island? You got it. In Jamaica, you’ll steer your ships to collect as much loot as possible and arrive at the finish line with a hold full of gold. Ready?

Henry Morgan was to keep order on the island entrusted to him. Instead, he organized a ship race and invited famous highwaymen. The task of the players will be to play one of them and be faster (and richer) than the others. All available characters are pirate celebrities living at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries, so the authors smuggled a small dose of historical knowledge into this family board game.

The controls in hand

After choosing a captain, each one receives a deck of their own color and draws the top three cards to add to their hand. Everyone places three food and coin tokens in their holds. In the central part of the board, we place nine treasure cards and the combat / missing die. Ships go to Port Royal and treasure tokens go to the spaces with skulls. The resources (food, money, gunpowder) and two normal dice should be within reach of all players.

It is a turn to roll two dice and then place them in the navigation box in the center of the board. Their value will correspond to the actions in the top corners of our cards. After selecting the cards and placing them face down in front of us, starting with the first player, we reveal and perform both actions in a fixed order – first in the morning and then in the evening. We can move forward, backward, or collect coins, food, or gunpowder. By stopping on the fields, we pay the indicated resource cost or draw a treasure card if we find the appropriate token. Failure to pay will cause you to go backwards on the race track, so you need to be careful in managing your cargo. At the end of the round, we draw a card to always have three in our hand. When someone crosses the finish line, we count the points (coins and a place on the board) and choose the winner.

Family racing

Jamaica is a simple family game with a small dose of negative interaction. We can pick up treasures and cargo, because by hitting a field occupied by another player, we trigger a battle. The result of the die roll and the powder tokens spent are decisive. However, this is an additional attraction, because it is more important to get to the finish line as quickly as possible and collect as many coins as possible. Of course, the loot from winning skirmishes also counts.

What delighted me the most after opening the box was the workmanship. A beautiful board, solid and thick chips, colorful ships and fairy-tale graphics on the cards. Everything is consistent and fits with pirate fun. Although the suggested age for players is 8+, I think younger children will also be able to play games on their own. A beautiful shell will certainly encourage them to race and stay with the board for longer.

The manual, which has tabs informing about what is in a given part of the book, also deserves praise. A very functional solution that makes it easier to find the information you need, because although adults will not have to reread the rules, children will surely come back to them.

We can seat up to six people in Jamaica , which is a huge plus for kids who can play with more friends. With a full squad, you have to wait a while for your move, but the crowd at sea around the island means more skirmishes, and thus – more frequent changes in the holds and more emotions. In two people, unfortunately, you have to control the third ghost ship, but in such a simple game it did not bother me, and even allowed me to initiate battles with the rival without the risk of losing my own loot.

Is it a good proposition for everyone? Unfortunately not. Seasoned players will be bored, because rolling a die and choosing one card is not enough to interest them. However, I believe that Jamaica is suitable for any other group. It can connect different generations, interest people who have not previously played modern games and bring parents and children closer during a family game. It’s a good board game in its category, beautifully crafted, a bit random, but giving you the ability to move around or retrieve resources, which gives you a little bit of control over your dice roll. And if you like pirate atmosphere, just like me, then Jamaica is for you.