Our P500 page for Hunt for Blackbeard offers a brief sense of the game’s sequence of play. Here we extend our spyglass for a closer glimpse at the novel mechanisms needed to bring manhunting in the age of piracy to your game table. Note that all art work as well as game rules remain provisional, as development will yet tack to and fro.

Much of Hunt for Blackbeard is a game of intelligence gathering for the Hunters and “how not to be seen” for Blackbeard. A shared main map-board holds shifting traces of Blackbeard’s activities that the pirate hunters might discover and will be the scene for any combat between hunter and hunted. But the cat-and-mouse interplay derives from decisions logged within each player’s area hidden behind a screen.

Here we present a snapshot of play—each player’s hidden game mat as it would appear at the same moment mid-game. We won’t be able to explain everything going on and every detail of how things got there, but we will run deeper than the wavetops in our hope to confide rather than confuse! And to help illuminate the history in the game, we present situations below that mimic closely or roughly the actual course of events in late 1718, almost precisely 300 years before the moment these lines were written.

A full game of Hunt for Blackbeard lasts at most four turns. Players begin each turn drawing some random tiles, and these drawn tiles are the game’s clock. The Blackbeard player each turn draws one Acts of Piracy tile and one Pirates Life tile, adding them to respective rows on a hidden player’s mat. Have a peek at the first illustration below: we see from Blackbeard’s mat that is it Turn 3, because three gray and three white tiles have filled in the two rows at lower left, and each 4^th tile remains to be drawn.

Blackbeard’s mat and chart, just before taking actions on Turn 3. (Click to enlarge)

Blackbeard’s objective is to fulfill the opportunities and obligations represented by these Piracy tiles. Blackbeard commits his time and effort via five black pawns. By placing pawns on the tiles and then sailing to the places named on them, he adds gold cubes. If Blackbeard at game end has filled over half the gold squares of all the tiles in either row, he wins. That is, of course, if the hunters have not captured or killed him!

We are near the beginning of Turn 3; Blackbeard has yet to make this turn’s moves. We see that Blackbeard has chosen to maintain his reputation through Acts of Piracy (actual piratical activity) rather than by living it up in a Pirate’s Life. The player is ignoring the white Pirate’s Life tiles and has concentrated on the upper row of gray Acts of Piracy tiles. Blackbeard is on track: in Turn 1 and Turn 2, he filled four of the six gold boxes on the tiles drawn to that point in time.

As well, Blackbeard entirely filled Turn 1’s Seize Prize at Sea tile, yielding a Loot marker worth one gold cube and adding that, plus a bonus cube, to his Purse. Many tiles require cubes to come from Blackbeard’s Purse, so it’s always good to keep something jingling there. (The game starts with Blackbeard having already taken one Loot and in possession of a Purse of five cubes.)

Blackbeard gets five actions per turn, marked by five black pawns. The red symbols on our display show the five actions that the player took in the previous turn, Turn 2:

• In the upper left corner, Blackbeard Prepared a Defense should the hunters show up. He spent one pawn (representing his time and effort) and one gold cube from his Purse (his money) to ready a Master Gunner for his crew.
• On the Chart (a nautical term for map) at right, we see that Blackbeard sailed his Sloop from his Camp at Ocracoke Island into West Pamlico Sound and then to Bath Town. This move of two spaces cost two pawns. Blackbeard’s purpose was to reach Bath so that he could Divvy with Eden (split some booty with the reputedly corrupt governor of North Carolina). In game terms, that means to place cubes on that Piracy tile.
• Those actions left two of five pawns to plan Piracy at the locale that he reached. As no pirate hunters interfered, two pawns on Divvy with Eden—which names Bath and Queen Anne’s Creek as eligible locations—added two cubes from the Purse to the tile.

So far so good for Blackbeard! But a few complications now rear their heads. The Hunters are out there, of course, and one of them just showed up in North Carolina: Capt. Brand is leading a no-doubt well-armed overland party south from Williamsburg, Virginia. He has showed up in Queen Anne’s Creek (near the top of the Chart), blocking that locale for Piracy and, importantly, looming a short ride away from Blackbeard’s current port of call at Bath. The Hunters player places forces pieces onto the main map board only when they enter Carolina or its waters. In this case, the Royal Navy’s sloops yet remain over the horizon. But Brand is on the main board, so the Blackbeard player has marked his location as shown.

Moreover, both Turn 3’s Piracy tiles are inconvenient. Careen Sloop may only be filled back at Camp, and not until the turn after any Sailing. So this new Acts of Piracy tile is out of bounds until at least the 4^th and final turn. Buy Rum on the lower row comes with a penalty until filled: the crew is sober, grumbly, and perhaps starting to desert. Blackbeard gets just four of the usual five pawns this turn. Probably too late in the game to switch efforts from Acts of Piracy to Pirate’s Life, any attention to Rum will distract from the Piracy that needs to get done to win.

We arrive then at a fine time, dear reader, to pause before surveying the Hunters’ situation shown on our second illustration. What do you think Blackbeard should do?

• With four pawns, Blackbeard could both complete his Divvy with Eden and see to the need to Buy Rum to thereby retrieve his fifth pawn for the final turn. The hitch with that: he would have to stay put in Bath Town. His Prepared Defenses, just one of six maximum, remain unimpressive. Brand, having found nothing in Queen Anne’s Creek, can be expected to move on to the busy capital at Bath, seeking Blackbeard’s arrest
• Perhaps Divvy for two pawns, and use the remaining two pawns to Prepare Lookouts to better Escape Brand, plus another Defense?
• Or cut bait on Bath Town and Sail back to Camp, ready to Careen the Sloop in Turn 4 and hope that the final Acts of Piracy tile is not too onerous a calling (two or perhaps three gold boxes rather than four)—and that the Ocracoke Camp remains undiscovered?

We will forgive your response, “it’s hard to say.” Even aside your not having all the game details at hand, the Blackbeard player can only surmise not know how much the Hunters already ken of the pirate’s whereabouts or what they may discern of his intentions. Those royal sloops could arrive any time, almost anywhere, well-armed or perhaps not, well-informed, or perhaps not….

Aye, let us set aside what we know of poor Blackbeard’s conundrum, get up, and walk around to the Hunters’ side of the table. They have been busy too! Have a look now at our illustration of their hidden area as of early Turn 3, below near the end of the article.

To win, the Hunters must find and engage Blackbeard, thwart any attempted escape, and seize him and his Sloop in a victorious battle—a tall order, as it is not clear who will have more firepower, even if Blackbeard is tracked down. If instead it is Blackbeard who win the battle against a Hunter Sloop, the Blackbeard player will win the game regardless of Piracy cubes! But then the Hunters also can triumph without any battle at all. Wherever Hunters are, Blackbeard is blocked from Piracy. If he fails to fill a tile row with enough cubes, the Hunters win.

Like Blackbeard, our Hunters have been arming their forces and advancing them toward their objectives. But the Hunters also have been gathering information to guide them to their human target. The Hunters player draws just one random tile each turn: an Informant. These Informants might be enemies of Blackbeard, or enemies of those who harbor him in North Carolina, or just passers-by who have seen or heard something of the colony’s notorious guest.

At the outset of each turn—before Blackbeard and then the Hunters move—the Hunters player may commit pawns to Interviewing any face-up Informants (that is, Informants drawn at random and not already questioned on an earlier turn). Each pawn allows the player to inspect one face-down marker on the main map (within any locale restrictions stated on the tile) that may show the location of Blackbeard’s Sloop, or its recent passage, or the permanent site of his pirates’ Camp. We see from the illustration that the Hunters previously Interviewed both the Turn 1 and Turn 2 Informants (as it happens, each on the turn that they were drawn, though that is not required); each of those tiles is flipped over, logging that they are used up as sources.

On the Hunters’ Chart, the player has recorded the results of these interrogations, plus of any tactical Scouting done by forces arriving on the scene. The player has put various red-rimmed markers on the Chart to form an intelligence picture. Blue blanks show where nothing was found, Blackbeard’s Flag (as you might have guessed from Blackbeard’s Chart above) show the recent passage of Blackbeard’s Sloop, and reports of the Sloop herself also can be seen.

Of some great moment, the Hunters invested four of their seven pawns on Turn 1 to interrogate the rather well-informed ex-pirate quartermaster W^m Howard. That allowed the player to select and inspect four Anchorages, in this case islands where the Blackbeard player is often tempted to set Camp. The Hunters located the Camp at Ocracoke before Blackbeard had made his first move! See Ocracoke Island near the top center of the Chart. A red Sloop marker there at the Camp shows Turn “0”: Blackbeard’s Sloop has not yet moved wherever it might on Turn 1; the time-stamp shows the date of the information. The other three Anchorages inspected, Core Banks, Roanoke Island, and Nots Island, show blanks; nothing was there.

Note that these record markers have no direct impact on play. Their purpose is as an aid to the Hunters player as a reminder what is known when. The player has latitude in their use and may prefer to record the turn something was discovered or not, mark empty spaces or not, and so on.

The Camp’s site of Ocracoke is not all that the Hunters know by the start of Turn 3. Remember that Blackbeard on Turn 1 Seized a Prize at Sea off Cape Hatteras. This means that his sloop stopped a merchant vessel and did piratically make away with its cargo. Such a crime does not go unnoticed! There is another effect of filling the last gold box on such a Piracy tile with a cube, besides reaping the pirates their Loot: the Blackbeard player must flip over the facedown marker on the main map of the locale of the Act of Piracy, and it must show either a Flag that Blackbeard was there or Blackbeard’s Sloop itself. In this case, it was a Flag (Blackbeard had Sailed back to Ocracoke). The Hunters player has accordingly marked Hatteras (left center) with a Turn 1 Flag: more detail on Blackbeard’s whereabouts and a sign that he intends Acts of Piracy—most of which must occur out at sea—rather than a Pirate’s Life inland.

Eager to bring forces to bear on Blackbeard while all that information was fresh, the Hunters player spent remaining pawns on Commandeering Assets to better equip the two Hunter Sloops and Capt. Brand’s expedition and then sending them on their way from Virginia. The Hunters used the remaining three of their seven Turn 1 pawns (after Interviewing Howard with four) to staff Sloop Jane with the dashing Lt. Maynard and Extra Hands (red tiles at center right) and to reinforce Brand with an extra contingent under Capt. Gordon (blue tile). Just like Blackbeard Preparing Defenses, the Hunters must use a pawn per Commandeered Asset tile, though they never have to worry about paying from any Purse (the Royal Navy’s authority and Virginia’s wealth are ample).

Turn 2 brought the Hunters a second Informant, Condemned Pirates who can be Interviewed to Spot in any one space (these crewmen of Blackbeard’s erstwhile pirate flotilla only know a little, but that might be about anything, you just have to ask them the right question!). The Hunters player immediately Interviewed Condemned Pirates for one pawn to inspect the Ocean space off Gun Inlet, where they found nothing (blank “1” marker at left center of the Hunters’ Chart). Why Gun Inlet? The player’s idea was to bound the search problem but confirming or ruling out that Blackbeard after taking the prize off Hatteras had sailed north. This negative information—a dog that did not bark—now makes it much more likely that Blackbeard remains within the southern half of the map area.

The modest investment in talking to Informants leaves six Hunter pawns for the turn. The Hunters use two of them to Commandeer Master W^m Butler (tile in pink, showing that it applies both to the red Sloop, Jane, and the white Sloop, Ranger) and Extra Hands for Jane (white tile). Three more pawns sail the two Sloops to Cape Henry, where they will wait for Brand to be in position further south, and march Brand through Albemarle County to Queen Anne’s Creek.

With these movements, the Hunters have essentially committed to the form of their expedition. Assets that affect specific pieces—red, white, pink, blue—are only to be had on friendly ground back home in Virginia. Forces may return north for them, but there rarely is time for such reversals of course. These Hunters in our campaign are only moderately equipped. The until recently civilian sloops have no cannon, for example, which must be separately Commandeered. Blackbeard’s pirate sloop Adventure does have cannon, and perhaps fancier armament.

After completing all Sailing and Marching for the turn, Hunters get to Spot each space on the main map containing their pieces. In this case, that means Brand at Queen Anne’s Creek. This on-the-scene reconnaissance must be open; that is, the Blackbeard player sees where these forces are on the shared main map, and the marker there is simply flipped face up. Brand reveals Queen Anne’s Creek to be empty.

Of seven Hunter pawns, one to Interview, two for Assets, and three from movement leaves one for the turn. Once Hunter forces are on the main map (in North Carolina)—as Brand now is but Jane and Ranger not yet—they may Scout one adjacent space each, before and/or after moving, at the cost of one pawn per space. The Hunters have kept their final pawn so that Brand may do so. Having found nothing at Queen Anne’s, Brand Scouts Albemarle Sound to rule out the possibility that Blackbeard had slipped north via Roanoke Island. The Hunters place a blank “2” in the Sound as a reminder that Brand can continue south next turn, as the likelihood now of Blackbeard putting into Queen Anne’s is low.

Arriving at Turn 3, the Hunters draw Bumboat Traders. These local merchants ply the many inlets and anchorages of the colony—who knows what they may have spied? But time is running down. The Hunters player does not want to spend more than a pawn on further Interviews, because Sailing, Marching, and Scouting are now called for to bring Blackbeard to heel. One Hunter pawn, as shown on the illustration, goes to inspecting 1 Sound. The Hunters player would like to see whether Blackbeard is or has moved between the Camp on Ocracoke Island and the capital at Bath. After the Act of Piracy off Hatteras on Turn 1, there was no follow-on Seizure or Raid on Turn 2 (the Hunters player would have seen the Blackbeard player flip a marker up on the main map if any such Act of Piracy tile were filled in). That’s a bit odd, and raises the possibility that Blackbeard is pursuing agendas in the Towns or in Camp rather than on the sea. The Hunters player would like a better basis to know whether to press Brand on to Bath Town, or even toward Fish Town beyond.

The Hunter player secretly inspects the main map marker at West Pamlico Sound and finds the Flag placed there secretly by the Blackbeard player the previous turn (2), as Blackbeard Sailed from Ocracoke Camp to Bath. The Flag represents a recent sighting of Sloop Adventure and allows the Hunters to follow that trail. The Hunters player may immediately Spot one space adjacent by water to the Flag (again secretly). Blackbeard’s intentions toward Bath Town being the issue, the player inspects there and Spots Adventure at dock!

Interviewing occurs early in the turn, when the markers to be spotted are still those of last turn’s activity; in effect, the Informants’ information is already a bit stale. The Hunters player marks these Flag and Sloop positions with Turn “2” markers, since Blackbeard has yet to move in Turn 3. The illustration highlights this information revealed by Bumboat Traders in rose ovals.

In the two-player game, Blackbeard’s actions would occur behind the player’s screen and include secret resetting of the shared map, while the Hunters player pondered what to do next. … So what should the Hunters do next?

• For just one pawn, Jane and Ranger could Sail together from Cape Henry to any Ocean space (dark blue square, any “Inlet” or “Hatteras”). They then could Sail on for more pawns, either one pawn per adjacent space by water (light blue path) together or one pawn each if they split up.
• Brand similarly could March on by land (brown path), for one pawn per adjacent space.
• Wherever they end up on the main map, the Hunters will Spot that space, hoping to encounter Blackbeard’s Sloop.
• Brand might first Scout again before moving, one pawn to Spot one adjacent space. Each of the three pieces could Scout after moving, one pawn each.

See what move you can work out with six Hunter pawns. How confident are you that you will find Blackbeard this turn? Or are you further limiting his options in hopes of blocking his Piracy and winning without a fight? There is still another turn to go, and we have not yet considered the uncertainties of combat. Welcome to the hunt!

The Hunters’ chart and mat, just after Interviewing BUMBOAT TRADERS on Turn 3. (Click to enlarge)

Author: Volko Ruhnke