Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Fortunes of Scoundrel Bay has, on the surface, everything that makes me typically dismiss the latest eurogame from the assembly line: It’s clearly inspired by Alexander Pfister’s Maracaibo and Boonlake, it has questionably silly cover art, and maybe one of the most generic and forgettable “this is a pirate game” names of all time (honestly, we accidentally called it “Scoundrels of Fortune Bay, Bay of Scoundrels, Founders of Fortune Bay, etc.)
I was surprised to just have a great time with Fortunes of Scoundrel Bay (FoSB). It’s always a treat to be delighted by the mechanical flourishes in a design, and this one has plenty of thoughtful choices that come together in a surprisingly mid-weight package.
We’re pirates, yar, but we’re also homebodies
Fortunes of Scoundrel Bay has an interesting rhythm compared to many games that feature seafaring as a central theme. Instead of sail, sail, sail, you are often sailing 1 or 2 spaces, then you’re doing a bunch of different activities for several rounds, then you might sail another space. The arrangement of the board is the shape of a bay, rather than a large expanse of ocean, and this is reflected in how the game plays. You’re more of a pirate party barge than a terrifying group of cutthroats. These pirates love to hang.
On your turn, you’ll play a multi-use card, from a hand of 3, to one of 3 spaces on your player board. You can recruit additional cards by playing them into a tableau below your board. This will usually give you some resources, and move citizens (pirate meeples) onto your board, making them members of your pirate crew. These crew members are used for all sorts of things, but the more you have on your player board, the more food you’ll have to come up with to feed them.
So, instead, you want to send them off on various missions. Pirates that are available on your board are sent on various invasion missions, which is the second task. Wherever your boat is located, if you play a card that matches an adjacent flag, you get to send pirates to do various tasks. It’s standard resource conversion stuff—some spaces give you one-time bonuses in the form of treasure, others are majority competitions for endgame scoring, and others let you collect cargo, which can eventually be delivered.
Once you’ve offloaded your pirates, they’re permanently offloaded, so you don’t need to feed them anymore. However, the beaches on the game board result in negative points, so you’ll often get bonus actions that allow you to move your pirates slowly around the board, resulting in a fun little game of pirate pilgrimage.
The final action is moving your boat, which also makes use of a card. Similar to Maracaibo, you’re given some goodies depending on how far you move your boat, and at the end of your movement, if you land where there’s a sea monster, you do some sea combat. You roll a die, and if you have met some track thresholds on your player board, you successfully beat up a mermaid and get movement on another track that scores endgame points and functions as a tiebreaker.
Chill pirate vibes, baby
FoSB has me split between two ideas. While I find the game very enjoyable to play, the pacing of the system can be a little jarring and feels almost forcibly balanced, to the point where moving quickly to rush the endgame requires you to sabotage your game to be successful. Unlike its clear inspiration, Maracaibo, where moving quickly across the board simultaneously allows you to run a lean engine while forcing other players to adapt, Fortunes of Scoundrel Bay almost forces everyone to move at a methodical pace, which is great if you like to take your time, not so great if you want to push and pull at the other players.
Additionally, it can feel a little bit like the game is forcing you into making the best choices by virtue of them being the only choices. The card selection system often feels too restrictive, and players who are unfamiliar with the game might find themselves more at the mercy of the card flop than they were expecting.
All said, I have enjoyed my time with this game—in spite of the zillions of mid-weight euros I have played, finding one that’s novel and engaging always cheers me up. There’s a fair share of interaction, fun choices to make, and clean aesthetic design that makes sailing through the bay of geriatric pirates a good ol’ time.
