Scuttle! is a gorgeous little game with art produced by Kelly Jo which was Kickstarted and Produced by Peter C. Hayward of Blue Beard Entertainment (yes, he really does have a blue beard) and Jellybean Games, his family friendly game producing company. I should also mention that the game is available in five languages, English, Spanish, French, German, and Slovenian.
This piratical card game is aimed at kids 6+ with a single player mode and up to 5 players able to play with teams. With rounds lasting in the single digit minutes, this fast paced game is sure to get laughs all around whilst also having the ability to be educational for the younger generation.
The cards themselves are similar to that of a normal deck of cards, there are numbers from 1-10, face cards: Aces, Jacks, Queens, and Kings all spread across four suits which have also been assigned a colour for ease of identification Hooks (Blue), Jolly Rogers (Yellow), Eyepatches (Red), and Anchors (Green).
I should also note that the game is available for free as a print-and-play version off the website though it is only in black and white and is missing the Anchor suit.
Playing the game:
The premise of the game is simple, be the first pirate to have 21 Dubloons, or 30 if you're playing on a team.
With the right players, the game turns into an epic battle of strategy and wit where use of of the cards special abilities to protect, steal, and sacrifice ones booty (the dubloon kind) can turn the tides within a round of someone winning the game. I've personally had a game last 1.5 hours, we went through the deck multiple times before a winner was declared.
There are only a couple of things that you can do on your turn. You can play a treasure, play an ability, or draw a card into your hand. They players start the game with four cards in their hand.
Drawing a card into your hand does exactly that.
Playing a treasure is simply putting down one of the number cards in front of you.
Number cards are each worth their value in dubloons, whilst the face cards have more direct abilities on how you control your treasures, either by increasing their value or protecting them.
Not so fast though, all the number cards also have an additional ability which is either Instant, or Permanent. Instant cards, resolve instantly and are then discarded, whilst Permanents stay in effect until such a time as they are destroyed or stolen. The abilities range from destroying all treasures, stealing cards from opponents, drawing when an opponent does, forcing an opponent to discard cards and a wide variety of others.
Face cards aren't worth any dubloons and don't directly add to your score. However, they are useful in their abilities. Protecting your treasures or permanents, sabotaging opponents, increasing the value of your treasures and being able to swap your hand with your opponent are all ways in which you can sway the odds in your favour.
Single Player Game
In the single player mode, you play against "The Pirate Robot" who comes with his own set of rules:
1) Play the rightmost card of the display for its ability.2) Play the top card of the deck as a treasure.3) Refill the display from the left.
This allows you to continue to enjoy the game even if you're out on your lonesome, or waiting for your fellow pirates to turn up to games night.
Scurvy
The first expansion pack for Scuttle!, Scurvy, adds new elements to the game with the addition of diseases and additional Aces, as well as a new action "Cure".
Diseases come in multiple forms and have interesting effects on the gameplay. Typhus, Scurvy, and Sailors Bane each have an effect on the cards in play. For example, if scurvy is on deck, each treasure card is worth one less dubloon for each disease present.
Diseases are immediately played, unless you have one of the new ace cards "The Ship's Doctor" which allows you to play a disease at a more opportune time for yourself. There is also the other new ace "Vitamin Sea" (of course with a cute picture of an Orange) which has a permanent ability preventing diseases from affecting you.
The "Cure" action allows a player to shuffle all of the diseases back into the deck, clearing the board of them. This can be used to great effect if you're already past the winning dubloon count but are affected by Typhus for example, where your highest dubloon treasure doesn't count towards your total, allowing you to steal the win!
The Curse of Blackjack
The second expansion pack for Scuttle! adds in a bunch of new cards in the form of additional Jokers as well as the "Summon" action, allowing you to play treasure cards from the deck immediately. If the summoned card is not a treasure, it goes to your hand.
Beware though, if you summon a treasure and it brings your total over 21, the Curse of Blackjack will come into effect and you'll lose all of your treasures!
The Joker cards add some interesting effects, giving you some control over what the next player gets as well as potentially setting yourself up in the future.
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