Let’s capture The Pirate’s Flag!

The Pirate's Flag board game — Race to grab the Pirate’s Flag, then battle for control of it on the way back to sea.

Who doesn’t love playing Capture the Flag?

Although I haven’t played it for years, I remember a lot of fun times playing it with friends.

So when I first saw The Pirate’s Flag at SaltCon in March and heard it was about capturing a flag and getting it back across the end line, I didn’t hesitate to sit down and play.

That’s right, The Pirate’s Flag is a board game to sit down and play with your friends rather than running around a large field chasing each other.

And in The Pirate’s Flag, just like you might expect with pirates, it’s every player for themselves. There aren’t any teams in this version of capture the flag.

We were taught the game by the game designer, Tucker Smedes of CardLords, and we even convinced him to join in playing with us rather than just teaching.

And even with just one play, I can tell The Pirate’s Flag is going to be a great family board game. I say “going to be” because it’s not yet available in stores. But that doesn’t mean you can’t get a copy. The Kickstarter campaign for The Pirate’s Flag starts this week. So you’ll be able to help fund the first production run and get a copy for your own family.

But first, let me tell you more about this fun game.

How to play The Pirate’s Flag

The objective in The Pirate’s Flag is to be the player who carries the flag across the finish line and off the board – which in this case is The Dread Sea.

Players race through the Serpent’s Pass to capture the flag with dice rolling and card playing and then battle over it all along the way until someone gets away with it.

Each player is a captain of their own ship and will have their own unique special ability they’ll be able to use once during the game.

The flag begins the game at the far end of The Serpent’s Pass in the Dread Captain’s abandoned ship. And all the players start with their ships placed at the entrance to The Serpent’s Pass.

Players don’t start with any cards, but will acquire them through the course of the game.

On a player’s turn, they roll the dice and move that exact number of spaces in the direction of their choice. The only time players can stop early are to pick up the flag in open water, when they visit a Trading Post, or when they stop to battle another player.

Players can also play cards that modify their movement.

Until the flag is first captured from The Dread Captain’s ship, players roll 2 dice for movement. After the flag is snagged, all players just roll 1 die for movement.

There are a number of special spaces on the board that affect players – such as Hazard spaces and Trading Posts. If a player ends on a Hazard space, they move spaces according to the Hazard. If a player stops on a Trading Post, they can discard a card from their hand and draw 2 cards.

There are also 2 Waterfalls in The Serpent’s Pass. When heading toward the Dread Captain’s ship, players may use the Waterfalls as shortcuts. But they’re only one-way, so they can’t be used as shortcuts heading back toward The Dread Sea.

There are also 6 Docks on the board – signified by a dock and a yellow line between spaces. Every time a player crosses a Dock line, they draw a card from the deck.

The first player to make it to The Dread Captain’s ship grabs the flag and begins heading back to sea. This player will also get the bonus of increasing their hand limit by +1. (Normal hand limit is 5 cards.)

This also triggers the beginning of Battles!

When a player moves into a space with another player who is carrying the flag, they can choose to stop and Battle.

To Battle, both players roll a die and the player with the highest result wins the Battle and gets the flag. If it’s a tie, they roll again until there’s a clear winner. If the attacking player is the winner, they get to roll again and move.

Just like with movement, there are some cards that impact battles. Players may play cards on any players’ turn unless the card says otherwise.

Play continues until a player is able to get the flag off the board and into The Dread Sea. That player wins!

Can the whole family enjoy The Pirate’s Flag

The Pirate’s Flag is a fantastic board game the whole family can enjoy playing together!

The number of players is 3 to 6 with a publishers recommended age of 8+. And this is the perfect sweet spot for family games. So it’s a good thing the game play fits in so nicely for families as well.

One reason for the 8+ is because of the card text. Cards are a big factor in the game so players should be able to read their own cards and understand their options.

Of course we love the fact that up to 6 players can play together because that’s our exact family size. We also think grandparents would be happy to join in playing as well.

The combination of dice rolling and card playing adds plenty of luck to the game. But players still get to make plenty of choices during the game to add bits of strategy to their play.

For example, since the cards have a big impact on the game, players may want to stock up on them as much as they can. And since players choose which direction they want to sail after they roll their dice, they can also choose to cross back and forth (on subsequent turns) across Docks to collect more cards.

Players can also choose whether to race to The Dread Captain’s ship to retrieve the flag or just hang back and wait for the player who does get it to return their direction and start battling. After all, only one play has to get the flag initially – then it all comes down to battling. But there’s a nice bonus for the player who does get it first – increased hand size. And having more cards to impact game play is a very nice thing.

We’ve complained about “roll-and-move” games in the past where players simply roll dice and move around a board because they don’t offer much in the way of strategy or even choices. Yet even though the main movement mechanic in The Pirate’s Flag is dice rolling, it’s only one element.

While playing, we never felt like the dice rolling was deterministic because of there being so many cards that can alter the dice results.

Plus, players can play cards on other players’ turns. So if the player with the flag rolls well to get away, other players may play cards that limits the result. Or they can use cards that pull them in closer.

The wide variety of cards keeps every game fresh. And you never know when someone else is going to play a card that impacts your grand plans.

The same thing holds true even in the battles – with cards that can impact the outcome.

The best part of the game is that there’s plenty of light fun to be had the entire game.

Even when it’s not your turn, you’re invested in what’s happening on other players’ turns. Because where they go and who steals the flag will impact what you’ll try to do on your next turn. Plus, players can play their cards on other players’ turns, so they’ll be watching for opportunities to use them wisely throughout.

Everyone’s engaged the whole time in the game. And we love that level of interaction for a family game.

Plus, it’s a game where the kids have just as good a chance at beating their parents – which is always fun for them!

Another element that’s a great factor in fun family games are the visuals and components. And The Pirate’s Flag hits high in that area as well.

Even though we played a prototype, everything was close to final production quality. The artwork on the board and cards is very fun and nicely done.

And the ships are fantastic! Each ship has a unique shape and are fun to move around the board. They also have a hole for the flag in their stern, making it easy to swap the flag from one ship to another – which happens a lot during a game.