Loot is a wonderful game. A classic Gamewright card game where you, as the players, are on the open waters, as a band of pirates looking to highjack those fully loaded merchant ships, whilst trying to protect your own merchants at the same time.

What’s In The Box?

A deck of 78 cards, and that is all. You have a combination of merchant ships, pirate ships, pirate captains and the admiral.

For us, it is a game that travels on the road with us very well.

How Do We Play?

The game is for 2-5 people (or in teams in a 6 or 8 player format, but it is not so complicated that that is necessary). 2 people in all honesty is not my recommendation, 3 or more and the game just plays out a lot better.

There are 100 pieces of loot available on board the merchant ships and it is your job to have as much of that as possible by the end of the game.

A player on their turn can either play a merchant ship, a pirate ship or one of the admirals or captains if there are merchant ships in play. The starting player has to play a merchant ship to get the game going. If the player of the merchant ship (owner) has not had a pirate attack it by the time their next turn comes around, that player wins it. If the ship is attacked then the battle for the ship is on. Pirate ships are used to attack and they contain skull symbols to demonstrate their power. If a player who plays a pirate gets to the highest skull value when it comes back around to their turn, they win that merchant ship. This can go back and forward as more and more pirate ships can be added to fight over the merchant ship. It has to be a clean round for the winner to claim the merchant. If the pirates are drawn for power, keep battling until there is an out right winner. The pirate captains and the admiral trump all. It is important to note that there are 4 different pirate colours, when battling over a merchant, you can only use the colour pirate you started with. You may run out of that colour and that is just hard luck.

Why We Love Loot

This is a game that frequently travels with us because it is small and quick to play. Whether sat in the airport, a coffee shop, in a caravan you don’t need much space to play a good game.

It is a great theme with the pirates. I know my children will love this one and it is likely my eldest won’t be too far away from being able to play this one (they are young at the moment). It is an excellent game for building quick mental arithmetic for children.

There are very few drawbacks for the game as I would say it if for anyone. Arguably if you are a heavy serious gamer perhaps not the one for you. A great game to end a night on as well.

Final Thoughts

A fast-paced card game that does not take up too much time. We love this one in our house and is a regular to the table top when we are hosting friends who are not gamers. It’s easy to pick up and provides a lot of laughter.

This blog was written by David Ireland