Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Shiver Me Timbers is a highly thematic, strategic sandbox game set in the Golden Age of Piracy.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Action Points
Spend a limited allowance of points across several possible actions each turn.
Modular Board
Build the play area from interchangeable sections that vary between games.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Simultaneous Action Selection
Choose actions secretly or concurrently before revealing them together.
Take That
Direct negative effects at selected opponents.
Read the full game description
Shiver Me Timbers is a highly thematic, strategic sandbox game set in the Golden Age of Piracy. The game is heavily Euro-inspired: It uses a tactical card-based combat system and takes lots of strategic planning to use your available actions to optimal effect and become the most notorious pirate of your era. Each playing will vary as you randomly reveal five of ten vastly different victory conditions: One game, you'll be rescuing your lost family, the next you might have to conquer enemy ships and fortresses or face the hideous Kraken. At the beginning of the game, each player secretly chooses two of the revealed conditions as their personal goals. After all players have chosen, they set-up the fully modular board, each of them trying to find a constellation that optimally supports their hidden agenda. Then they outfit their modable ship miniatures, select their starting abilities and equipment and set sails to fight, conquer, trade, loot, hunt for treasure and much more. During play, every achievement is rewarded with victory points. The game continues until all five victory conditions have been met. There's a final scoring in which players collect extra points if they managed to achieve the goals they chose, and highest point total wins. —description from the designer