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.
There’s some version or another of Peter Pan that has Captain Hook deliver a quick monologue to Pan just before the good captain is vanquished. “You’ve defeated my men, taken my ship,” that sort of thing. While I cannot find this monologue in any edition of the script, I remember it very clearly from the summer camp production in which I played Captain Hook. I’d think I hallucinated it, but my prop hook was broken during the fight and I improvised a tidy, “broken my hook,” to cover the malfunction. You don’t forget that kind of triumph.
Hook isn’t yet defeated in the moment when he makes that speech. Well. He may be defeated, but he doesn’t feel it. He uses the line to lure Pan closer, to take one final lunge at the buoyant brat. Down, but not out. Lying to himself until the last moment that he has a chance. From the characteristically superb historical ephemera included with Fort Circle Games’s new release Hunt for Blackbeard, it seems to me that Blackbeard was in a similar position in 1718, as Virginia Colony and the Royal Navy closed in on his position.
“Down, but not out” just about sums up Blackbeard’s situation perfectly in Hunt for Blackbeard. The great terror of the Caribbean—or at least that’s how the unparalleled American myth machine remembers him—has gone from commanding a fleet to barely staffing a single vessel. What crew he could assemble may well have been riddled with turncoats. He’s been reduced to hiding away in the waters off the coast of North Carolina, where he’d bought himself favors galore.
In this hidden-movement game for two players, one player dons the mantle of Mr. Beard, while the other strives to hunt him down. It is a beautifully presented game of cat and mouse, one in which both players have to use their time wisely. The Royal Navy has a single goal, to catch Blackbeard, but they must decide on how best to apply their resources. Blackbeard can try to outlast the Royal Navy, but he can also claim victory through adequate acts of privacy. Get that reputation back into gear. Put a little fear in their hearts. Back in the sea saddle again, old chap.
In practice, the Royal Navy can move from port to port, checking for Blackbeard, and they can tap networks of informants around the map. It is possible to find Blackbeard’s ship without capturing him—Johnny the dockhand might be happy to tell you he’s seen the man for a penny farthing, but he’s not taking matters into his own hands. Blackbeard, meanwhile, has to decide if piracy is worth the risk. You can raid towns, but doing so gives some indication of your position. Maybe it’s better to sadly crawl from port to port.
The most remarkable thing about Hunt for Blackbeard is its brevity; it really does play in about half an hour. Designer Volko Ruhnke, he of the COIN series among many others, has somehow figured out how to jam this whole story into a shockingly tight package. It is, if nothing else, devoid of fat.
That isn’t to say Hunt for Blackbeard is lean and mean, though. For how quick the game goes, how admirably it boils the idea down to the essentials, Hunt for Blackbeard feels uneven. Like many hidden movement games, the hunter can find themselves making arbitrary guesses. The format, which requires a good amount of closing your eyes or turning away, is a little awkward. The ending often feels less satisfying than you would want, regardless of the outcome. The sense of narrative within the game itself, a hallmark of the best historical games, is somehow lacking. It feels a bit too repetitive, a bit too dry. These are ships chasing one another on the high seas, for God’s sake. Why don’t I feel the wind and hear the gulls?
Maybe that’s asking too much, but I would tell you that’s what’s missing. Ruhnke has done that before. Fort Circle Games has delivered that sort of experience before. I wanted Hunt for Blackbeard to be a schooner, and instead it feels more like a paddleboat. But a paddleboat is nice too.
