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Händler Der Karibik box art
2013 Ranked #6,104

Händler Der Karibik

A push-your-luck trading game where merchants draw from a harbor, raid ships, hire people, and complete expeditions for influence. Drawing too long risks duplicate ships that clear the harbor, turning greed into a sudden lost opportunity.

Family Games Card Game Nautical Open Drafting Push Your Luck

Players

2-4

Play time

Not listed

Age

8+

Complexity

1.85/5

Rating

6.84

Harder to teach Highly interactive Deep strategy

Overview

At a glance

Is this game right for my group?

ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.

Teachability 2.3/5

Harder to teach

Replay value 4.0/5

High replayability

Interaction 3.6/5

Highly interactive

Player scaling 4.0/5

Scales well

Strategic depth 4.5/5

Deep strategy

See all 5 specifications

How it plays

How does it play?

The merchant players in Händler der Karibik, which won the Austrian Game Designers Competition, are trying to earn as much as they can out of the Caribbean Sea, but if they set their goals too high, they might take home nothing for the day.

Core mechanisms

Key systems that shape the decisions players make.

Read the full game description

The merchant players in Händler der Karibik, which won the Austrian Game Designers Competition, are trying to earn as much as they can out of the Caribbean Sea, but if they set their goals too high, they might take home nothing for the day. The 110-card deck depicts a coin on the back of each card — with players earning and paying coins throughout the game — and different items on the card fronts. On a turn, a player can first draw as many cards as he likes, one at a time from the deck, placing them in the harbor (an area near the deck). Each card shows one of the following: Person, who stays in a face-up row next to deck. Ship, which the player can attack immediately if he has enough swords on his people cards, after which the ship is discarded; otherwise, the ship stays in the harbor. Expedition, which remains above the harbor until a player fulfills it by discarding people who have the items required for the expedition. Tax Increase, which forces everyone with twelve or more coins to discard half their money, after which the card is discarded. If the player draws a ship with the same name as a ship already in the harbor, he's spent too much time dilly-dallying and his turn ends (after using the ship to attack, if possible), with all the cards in the harbor being discarded. Otherwise, the player can stop whenever he likes, then use/acquire one card if three or fewer ships are in the harbor, two cards if four ships are present, and three cards if five ships are present. Players rob ships, collecting the number of coins shown on them, then discarding the card, while they hire people, paying the number of coins depicted. After the active player takes his 1-3 cards, each other player may pay the active player one coin in order to take one card in the same way. When one player has at least ten influence points — which are on both people and expedition cards — and has fulfilled at least one expedition, the game is played to the end of the round, giving everyone the same number of turns, then the player with the most influence points and at least one Expedition wins.

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Editions

Language and publisher variants currently recorded in the catalog.

Edition Year Language Publisher / Region
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Player resources

Rulebooks, player aids, FAQs, and solo resources.

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Game and edition data

All specifications (5)

Play and group

Players
2–4
Best with
2–4
Play time
20 min
Age
8+
Complexity
1.9/5
Credits and catalog connections

Credits

Designers

1
Alexander Pfister

Artists

1
Klemens Franz

Publishers

1
Österreichisches Spiele Museum e.V.