Description
Hoist your flag, gather a crew and fill your coffers with gold coins. In Captain Flip you are pirate captains inviting cooks, gunners, carpenters, monkeys and parrots aboard. Every tile has two sides with a different character on each, and you only see one of them before you decide. The game was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres award in 2024.
How to play Captain Flip
On your turn, you draw one tile from the bag without looking. You may keep the character you see, or flip the tile. If you flip it, you must keep the character on the other side. You then place the tile on the lowest empty space of one of the columns on your board and apply the character's effect. Some characters give you coins right away, others only at the end of the game.
When someone completes four columns on their board, you finish the round. Then you add the coins for the characters that score at the end. The captain with the most coins wins.
Why you'll like it
- Every turn is a small bet: keep the character you see, or take a chance on the other side of the tile, which you don't know.
- The Gunner gives you a full 5 coins right away. But whoever has three or more Gunners on their board at the end loses the game.
- Where you place a character matters. The Cook gives a coin for each character in their row, the Lookout 4 coins if there is nobody above them in the column, and the Carpenter 3 coins if there is no Gunner in their row or column.
- The box holds four different boards: the pirate ship, the Kraken, the raft and the desert island. Each has its own rewards and rules, so every board gives you a different game.
Who is Captain Flip for
The game is for 2 to 5 players aged 8 and up, and a game takes about 20 minutes. The rules are simple and a turn has only four steps, and there is no text on the tiles, only symbols. According to player ratings on BoardGameGeek, it plays best with three. Families and groups looking for a short game with a bit of risk will enjoy it. You draw tiles blind, so luck plays a noticeable role. If you like to plan everything ahead, choose something more deliberate.
This is the English edition: the rules and the character overview are in English.
What's in the box
- 72 double-sided Character tiles (9 different characters)
- 58 coins
- 1 large Treasure Map token
- 1 cloth bag
- 10 double-sided Adventure boards
- 3 player aids with an overview of the characters and boards
- rulebook in English
