The Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest rulebooks are available for download. There is also a full rules video by Watch It Played.
If you have rule questions, please post them in the comments on this page, create a thread on BoardGameGeek, or ask them in the Libertalia Facebook group.
Dized now offers a full Libertalia tutorial to use when you’re playing Libertalia for the first time–no need to even open the rulebook! It’s currently free to use on iOS, Android, or on the web. If you find a bug, you can report it here. Norton Canes also created a random card selector web app.
Developer Daniel Risse created a card randomizer/selector web app to help players randomly select characters for each round without shuffling.
You can download or print an achievement sheet here.
75 Comments on “Rules & FAQ”
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Hello !
We have played a few games and really loved it ! However, there is a point that is still not clear for us.
In the rulebook, we read : “Anchor abilities : Activate all anchor abilities on loot tokens and characters in your ship in any order. You can account for doubloons earned at this time on your score dial or wait until the next step. You cannot “game” the order of operations to avoid temporarily having fewer than 0.”
If, at the end of the voyage, I have for instance 1 doubloon, 1 relic and 1 chest (on the calm side of the board), can I resolve the relic first so that I loose only 1 doubloon instead of 3, or should I resolve the chest fisrt so that I am then able to really pay the 3 doubloons ?
The precision “in any order” seems to imply the first option, but the last sentence seems to imply the second one…
Thanks for playing Libertalia! In that situation, you should resolve the chest first, then the relic (sad but true).
Many thanks for your quick answer !
If we’re playing the stormy side and I play a Smuggler and select a saber, do I get to use the saber during the dusk phase?
No, as you’re selecting it during the day phase. Thanks for playing!
Did your answer mean, “No, you don’t use the saber during the dusk phase (and you don’t use it at all) because you are drawing it during the day phase”, or “No, you don’t use it during the dusk phase, instead you use it during the day phase”?
Thanks for “working” on this holiday!
Love love LOVE this game!
“No, you don’t use the saber during the dusk phase (and you don’t use it at all) because you are drawing it during the day phase”. :)
In a 2 player game, I play the Brute (17) and my opponent plays the Apprentice (2). There is always a midshipman (20.5) on the board. The Brute’s effect “discards the rightmost character”. How does the game proceed?
What about if the opponent plays an 18, 19 or 20? Will the Brute discard the opponents card or cancel the effects of the midshipman for the turn?
Thanks for your question! On page 4 in the 2-Player Mode box, the last sentence reads, “The Midshipman counts as a character, but it can never be discarded and cannot gain/give anything.” So if the Midshipman would be discarded due to an ability like the Brute, it just stays on the board instead (but it is still an eligible target for the Brute).
If the Merchant is played, it says “discard either 1, 2, or 3 identical loot tokens from your ship to gain 1, 4 or 9 gold”. What happened if you only have 1 loot token? Is a token discarded if it’s the only one of its type? Or since there isn’t an identical token present does it not get discarded.
You get $1 for discarding 1 token (it’s a utility backup if you don’t have multiple same-type tokens you want to discard).
If the Apprentice copies the smuggler, would the apprentice stay on the island, or would he go to you ship right away?
Can you share the exact text on those cards? Thanks!
Apprentice: Use the (daytime) ability of a character in your ship.
Smuggler: Gain a loot token from the current day, then place the Smuggler in your ship.
“If the Apprentice copies the smuggler, would the apprentice stay on the island, or would he go to you ship right away?”
Thanks! The Apprentice doesn’t become the Smuggler, so you just gain a loot token, with the Apprentice remaining on the island.
Perfect! Thanks for clarifying that!
I’m not understanding the Brawler in solo play correctly (automa)
Daytime ability says “Discard your Brawler from your ship. If you do, Automa gains 2 reputation”
How can the automa Discard the Brawler from the ship but it’s on the island?
So by my understanding, the Brawler will always have “no effect” on the island for the automa?
Ahh I figured it out sorry, “your ship” means me as the player.
If I had a Brawler on my ship, the Automa’s Brawler would place mine in the graveyard, makes sense now😅
Thanks Keanan! I appreciate you including the card text in your question–that’s always very helpful. :)
Hi. Question about 23 Thief. Are you allowed to use the thief’s ability if you don’t have enough reputation+doubloons to cover the reputation payment?
No, you must pay the full cost. :)
Thanks Jamie!
Hello,
I cannot find any rules about determining initial reputation. How can players know what the initial reputation order should be? And if there are fewer than six players which reputation tile to not be used by players?
Thanks for your question! This rule is found in the Setup section (page 2): “Mix together all 6 reputation tokens (not just those of players in the game) and randomly place them
from left to right on the reputation track.”
Thank you for the teaching tips. I have offered to bring it in at the next game night and this video is exactly what I was hoping to find to make teaching it easier and more successful!
My pleasure! I try to make (and feature) these for each of our games. :)
Hello!
I played this game with 6 people today, and trying to refresh myself on the rules. There were a few rules the group was confused about, so just wanted some clarification
1) Before each voyage, you gain doubloons equal to the number listed for your reputations at the start of the voyage
2) If playing your carpenter, you only loose doubloons not in your chest ?
3) Is there a situation in which you would lose doubloons in your chest? For example, one player asked you to give up 2 (beggar) as you are the right most character, so you gave away your last two doubloon to them. however, someone else also played a beggar and you are still the right most but you have no more doubloon. Do you take from your chest ?
Thank you!
I’m pretty sure the rule book state that once doubloons goes in your chest they cannot be removed.
Yup found it in the rule book:
During the voyage, whenever you gain or lose doubloons, only use coin tokens ***(and not your score dial)***. In this way, even if your doubloons this voyage would drop under 0 , you simply have 0 coin tokens.
=> Your score dial is only changed at the end of each voyage.
Question about the sabre on the “calm” side
So it mentions we can discard any card remaining on the island. Does this include players with higher numbers who looted before us (disabling them to go back to their ship and activating any night and anchor abilities) OR do those players go back to their ship first, and thus the sabre can only be used on players with lower numbers who have not looted yet (and thus the sabre disables them to loot and sends them to the graveyard)?
Thanks in advance!
During the evening, you return your character to the ship as you claim a loot token. So there shouldn’t be any higher-number characters remaining on the island.
Question about the dayside ability of the hook token: Does the card selected from your ship “for the next voyage” remain in your ship throughout the next voyage or does it go into your hand for the next voyage? If read literally, I would assume it remains in the ship (thus only performing night and anchor abilities on the next voyage) but I’ve played with some players that feel the wording implies that the card goes into your hand to participate in the next voyage.
Reading it literally is correct! It remains in your ship, not in your hand (it would say something like “return this card to your hand” if it would do that–your “ship” is a distinctly different area of play than your “hand”). I’m glad you asked! :)
Thanks for the quick response! This is very helpful and settles a rather spirited Thanksgiving debate between family gamers :-)
Why does the Smuggler (13) have a “No effect” in solo play? I don’t understand how there would be no change in the game state because there will always be loot to take.
Lets say a player uses
(2) Apprentice: Use the day ability of a character in your ship.
They use:
(14) Bodyguard: Discard all saber and hook tokens from the current day.
This could lead to no loot for Automa´s Smuggler to take.
A question about Aprentice (2)
Day: use the Day ability of a character in you ship.
And Cabin Boy (5).
Day: if this is the leftmost character on the island gain 3 doubloons.
Dusk: don’t gain any loot tokens.
So I do have Cabin boy on my ship, the next turn I play apprentice and it is the leftmost on the island. Can I use Cabin Boy day power and gain 3 doubloons, or I cannot use that habilité because in the day ability and it can only refer to Cabin Boy and not who use/trigger the ability.
Asking because Infantry (29) do call itself in the day text:
If this infantry is the rightmost character on the island gain 5 doubloons.
Great question, Manoel. Even though the wording is a slightly different, the Cabin Boy is only looking at the Cabin Boy’s position on the island (and it isn’t on the island in your example, so the ability does nothing), just like the Infantry.
Sad! It was an interesting combo 😆
Funnily enough another player had the same combo idea as me on the same day, as some were questioning if it was valide, we discussed and we ruled in the same way as you said, but I wanted to have an official ruling on that!
Thanks 😊
(Been really loving the game up so far!)
Question on 13 Smuggler: “Daytime: Gain a loot token from the current day, then place the Smuggler in your ship.”
If I gain a Saber with my Smuggler, assuming I’m not the highest rank on the island, do I discard an opponent’s card when gained (during Daytime) or during Dusk after all cards ranked higher on the island have taken tokens? Or never?
Mack: Good question. A loot token with a dusk ability (like the saber) doesn’t do anything if gained in the daytime.
Rules question:
If an action removes loot from the board, leaving none for the next player, what happens?
That player doesn’t get any loot. This is the pirate life.
Two characters caused some discussion in our gaming group.
26 Cook was argued both ways:
Gain a second loot token only if you first gain a hook and gain a second loot token as long as you don’t gain a hook first. I argued that the meaning was in the illustration – you need a hook to catch a fish!
30 Merchant
To discard 1 loot token you must have at least one other token of the same type because 1 token alone is not identical to any other token. Or does it mean discard 1 token for 1 doubloon, discard 2 of the same for 4 and 3 of the same for 9?
For the Cook, the only reason that text is on the card is because there is a hook loot tile ability that removes the character who gains it. So the Cook is just saying that if it’s removed from the island by taking a hook token, it isn’t there to gain another token.
Merchant means (as you said): “discard 1 token for 1 doubloon, discard 2 of the same for 4 and 3 of the same for 9”
The cook text is very confusing. Especially, if the hook tile I not on the board (and/or you don’t know, that that tile exist in the game). A text like: if your cook is still on the island, after you took a hook token, you can take a second token. Would be better.
We are loving this remake and have played a number of games. A few questions have come up:
1. When playing the Scout, if you replace it with a card that goes to the same position on the island, do you then activate the new card’s daytime ability? (I assume yes)
2. When you play the Beggar and the rightmost character has fewer than two doubloons, what happens? (I assume you just get 0 or 1 doubloons from the player instead of taking from the bank)
3. If you play the Beggar in 2P and the rightmost character is the Midshipman, what happens? (I assume nothing – rules say “Midshipman cannot give doubloons”)
4. If you play the Smuggler in 2P and you opponent played a card of rank 1-12, are they moved to the Midshipman after the Smuggler’s daytime ability? (I assume yes, that anything which changes the cards on the island should also then have Midshipman rules applied)
Hi Scott! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the Libertalia! Here are the answers to your questions:
1. That’s correct. If the new character goes in the same place as the Scout and has a daytime power, you get to activate that daytime power immediately.
2. Correct again. Take 0 or 1 doubloons, however many that character’s player has left.
3. Spot on. The Midshipman cannot give doubloons.
4. Actually, this is a bit different than you assume. You do follow the rules of the Midshipman tile, but only when first placing the characters. In this case, there are no instructions to rearrange the characters after they’re placed, so leave them as they are. This could create interesting situations, like having a character to the left of the Midshipman but not directly to the left (so they wouldn’t have their opponent remove a loot token from that day during dusk).
Interesting, thank you! I *think* then that the Smuggler is the only possible play that leaves the space to the left of Midshipman blank at the end of daytime but the leftmost one is occupied. The Scout explicitly says to reorder cards after you replace it which I think means the Midshipman rule _would_ apply if I understand your response correctly. I can’t see a way to create that scenario with either the Apprentice or Brute.
The Brute can do the same.
First play through tonight! My wife and I are… ahem… hooked. :)
Question: if a player’s sabre discards a character from the island, is that character discarded to their ship (thematically: scared away from the loot) or are they discarded to the graveyard (thematically: they walked the plank)? We can’t seem to find clarity in the rulebook.
Love the midshipman card – makes the two-player version very playable!
Any discard goes to your graveyard. Thanks for playing! :)
This is noted on page 4 in the paragraph directly above the 2-player mode instructions: “Whenever you’re instructed to discard one of your character cards, place it face down on your graveyard tile.”
Thanks – it’s always humbling to see it clearly listed in the instructions after reading them through so many times… but only immediately after someone points it out!
The sabre seems quite powerful… I’m going to go use that to my advantage. :)
Sorry if this has been answered, but what exactly entails your “ship”? Is it your money, loot tokens and cards that have already visited the island? Do the cards in your hand count as in your “ship”? Or are they considered in your hand?
There’s your hand, the island, and your ship. Money, loot tokens, and characters you’ve removed from the island (and not discarded) are in your ship.
Thank you for the reply! Really helps clarify that for me.
Question about Treasurer. If I have 2 amulets and 1 Chest, I gain 3 doubloons. Is this correct?
The Treasurer says, “Gain $1 for each barrel, each amulet, and each chest token in your ship.”
You would indeed gain 3 doubloons.
Thank you, Jamey.
For the Topman, do you discard a maximum of 4 gold even if you have more than 4 characters on the ship? It’s unclear if you only discard from the gold gained by the Topman or from your entire gold pool that round. Thanks!
What does the text on the Topman say?
“Night: Gain 4, then lose 1 for each character on your ship.”
You’ll gain $4 into your supply of coins, then spend from your supply of coins (so yes, the number can be higher than $4).
Does the Topman count himself for characters in the ship?
What is the exact text on the Topman card?
Can you clarify the Stormy side of the Map token ability? Does “more map tokens than any opponent” mean that you have to have the single most map tiles, or does it mean just more map tokens than at least one other player?
It means that you need to have the single most map tiles.
Question about using the witch on the freed prisoner: the freed prisoner card says “if you ever gain more than 3 coins this way in a single night discard the Freed Prisoner. If I gain 2 coins from the freed prisoner and then gain 2 more coins because I copied the Freed Prisoner’s night ability, does that mean I discard it? Technically I gained the second 2 coins a different way, right? Haha.
Technically is right! :) You do not discard the Freed Prisoner in this example.
Cant wrap my head round the logic of this one ““if you ever gain more than 3 coins this way in a single night discard the Freed Prisoner. ”
Cant see a way that the a witch copying the worker makes it a “different way” you are still getting coins based on the prisoners power?
Also the fact it says “in as single night” open up the possibility that it can be triggered by multiple uses?
If the Witch gains, say, $2 coins using her ability, that’s the Witch’s doing, not the Freed Prisoner.
The ability is designed such that when the Freed Prisoner gains coins, if it gains $3 or more coins, you gain the coins and then place it in your graveyard.
Ok Great. I am correct in thinking that using the witch to gain 3 will still cause the Prisoner to be discarded?
Yes, that’s correct.
Definitely!
In this example, if you discard the freed prisoner, do you discard the witch as well since it was copying its abilities? Or do you keep the witch in your ship and choose another character from which she can copy a new ability?