Captain’s Wager

Bid your tricks exactly. Sirens, Buccaneers and the Dread Captain upend every hand. 2–6 players.

Who To Play With

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How to play Captain’s Wager

  1. 1Ten rounds. Round 1 deals one card each, round 2 two, up to ten in the last round.
  2. 2The deck has four suits numbered 1 to 14: Compasses, Anchors, Lanterns, and Cannons, which are always trump. It also has 14 crew cards: 5 Surrenders, 5 Buccaneers, 2 Sirens, 1 Turncoat and 1 Dread Captain.
  3. 3After the deal everyone secretly bids how many tricks they'll take; the bids are shown together once everyone has chosen.
  4. 4The player left of the dealer leads the first trick; whoever wins a trick leads the next. Follow the suit of the first numbered card if you can. Crew cards can always be played instead. If a Buccaneer, Siren or the Captain is played before any numbered card, there's no suit to follow for the rest of that trick.
  5. 5Who wins: the Dread Captain beats everything, unless a Siren is in the same trick, because a Siren catches the Captain. Otherwise the first Buccaneer wins, then the first Siren, then the highest Cannon, then the highest card of the suit led. Surrenders never win (if everyone surrenders, the leader takes it). The Turncoat is played as either a Buccaneer or a Surrender; you say which.
  6. 6Scoring: bid 1 or more and take exactly that many, and you score 20 per trick. Miss, and you lose 10 for each trick you're off. Bid zero and take none for 10 points per card dealt that round, or lose that much if you take any.
  7. 7Bonuses, paid only when you make your bid exactly (zero bids excepted): +10 for each 14 you capture (+20 for the 14 of Cannons), +20 for each Siren your Buccaneer takes, +30 for each Buccaneer your Captain takes, and +40 when your Siren catches the Captain.
  8. 8After ten rounds, the highest score wins.

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