Mutiny Review

According to several comic book writers and what seems like a whole subsection of geeks, pirates are the new monkeys. That of course is open to debate (simians always will be much cooler than murdering, thieving seamen in my humble opinion!), but no one can deny that pirates should make for much more satisfying subject matter for a board game - after all, unless we're talking about giant irradiated super monkeys trampling over densely populated cities, the life of a primate really isn't all that interesting.

Back to pirates though - Mutiny is a game that concerns itself with, rather unsurprisingly, a mutiny onboard a pirate ship. Players are crew members bargaining with the easily bribed seamen on board using rum and doubloons, in order to secure their important talents and eventually take control of the ship. Players win when they have collected ten or more cutlasses.

Play takes the form of blind bidding on each pirate in turn. Several players on Board Game Geek have complained that no screens were supplied so it is nearly impossible to make true blind bids, but myself and everyone I have played with have never had any trouble keeping all doubloons and rum concealed in one hand, sorting out the bid out of sight of the other players and then all revealing the bid simultaneously in the other hand. Each pirate has a different primary and secondary power which will be worth a different amount to each player in each round (the Gunner for instance tends to be worth a lot every round due to his primary function giving the winning bidder two cutlasses and the secondary function for the runner up one cutlass). Once bidding has been resolved for all five pirates - players use a combination of rum and doubloons, with ties decided by the player who currently has the spyglass - the powers are resolved in order from the first pirate to the fifth. There are also map tiles to take into consideration - each round one is placed face up next to the row of pirates, and it shows bonuses and penalties for the winning bidder of each pirate for going either north or south during that round. The player who wins the bid on the Pilot gets to choose the direction that the ship sails, which can be quite harsh for some players!

Despite the entire game revolving around the blind bidding system, due to the fantastic illustrations and the implementation of certain mechanics (between rounds, any rum used during the bidding phase 'disappears'), Mutiny is steeped in theme and really does evoke the feeling of being involved in a cut-throat battle for control of the ship and the crew of a wayward vessel. The descriptions of each pirate help to clarify why each one is able to offer each of their powers to players and everything is handled in a logical manner according to the theme.

Mutiny doesn’t have a lot of replay value, due to the central gameplay mechanic, but is a lot of fun while it lasts. Blind bidding games are often hit or miss for many gamers as they are admittedly quite an acquired taste - if you are not a fan of blind bidding games, Mutiny is definitely not for you. However, the theme is incredibly well integrated and the graphic design is up to the usual high standards set by the rest of Fantasy Flight's Silver Line titles - so as long as the auction mechanic isn't a total turn off, Mutiny comes highly recommended by myself and my crew.

Summary

Presentation: Nicely packaged in the standard Fantasy Flight Silver Line box, illustrations and component quality is high throughout. The components are all made of sturdy cardboard which will stand up to serious punishment! 8.9/10

Clarity of Rules: Fairly dense-looking rules, but this helps to ensure that there are no clarifications needed during play. A few of the concepts do take some time to get used to though, but this is more due to the nature of the game than the rules themselves. 8.5/10

Game Length: Pretty short - with games lasting around 20-30 minutes, it doesn’t outstay its welcome – although games can eventually become repetitive. 7.3/10

Value: Replay value isn’t too high as the blind bidding can get old unless you can vary your game group – it seems that certain people tend to always rely on the same tactics from game to game. 5.9/10

Overall: A good example of the blind bidding genre, but one that can grow tiresome fairly quickly. Surprisingly effective integration of theme into gameplay though, which is very impressive. 7.1/10 (not an average)

Review by Jason M. Brown