Plunder Review

Plunder from Lost Boys Entertainments puts players as captains of their fleet sailing the seas for treasure and plunder points. Players will take turns rolling the movement die and moving one or more of their ships across the board. Depending on where they land, they can attack other players, and islands, or pick up treasures. If you choose combat, simply roll the dice and add any bonuses. The loser will either lose health or even an island they control. Players can upgrade their ships by spending resources to add cannons, sails, or health. You can even buy plunder points if you've got the gold. The first player to reach 10 points will be the winner.

The Good: Plunder is a great sandbox game. It has several ways you can play and still be successful. If you want to chase down treasure then you can do that or you can be a menace and sink other ships. The choices are up to you. Everything is so streamlined. Most of it boils down to rolling the die and doing something. Then depending on what you did, you may need to spin the spinners for new coordinates of treasure or the storm. The upgradeable ships are one of the coolest components of any game that I've played. I love that you can visually see improvements. The maps scale depending on how many players but they never felt like they were too big. Another player or something to do always seemed to be within range. Also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the insert. Everything fits perfectly and makes setup for Plunder an absolute breeze.

The Okay: With anything that involves dice, get ready for a fair bit of randomness. That's to be expected. In the one game I played, I was trying to create chaos and get into combat and I consistently lost. Did that deter me? No. Did I win? Also no. No good pirate gives up on their goals, right?

The Not So Good: I wasn't a massive fan of the storm. I never had it actually affect my games in any of the ones I played. Most of the time I could either move around it or it just wasn't near me. When you roll a 1 on the movement die you move the storm as well so depending on your fleet you may just be able to wait it out. It's a nice idea in theory but in practice, it fell a bit flat for me. I would have loved to see it completely break the game for someone.

Final Thoughts: Plunder is a fantastic game. It's the perfect genre for a sandbox game since you can be as peaceful or chaotic as you want to be. There is a fair amount of luck involved but there's always luck when searching for treasures. It's not the most strategic of games and that's fine. It doesn't need to be. It's a great way to spend an hour or two and make your friends angry. If you are in the market for a pirate-themed game, I have no reason not to suggest Plunder. If you want some story elements to it, then maybe Sea of Legends could scratch that itch.