Until very recently, my son was obsessed with pirates, so naturally, we have a number of pirate-themed games. Sail Away is one that I bought on sale for a really good deal and ended up being very pleasantly surprised about!
The first thing that impressed me about Sail Away was the packaging. It has such great organization that it was able to keep its oversized box. I especially love the texturing of the plastic organizer; it feels like it could be a wood deck.
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How to Play Sail Away
Unfortunately, the game can only be played by up to four players. Each player gets a player board, a set of plastic pieces, a secret goal, and 4 small gold pieces. Set out the common board with the public goal, 3 pirate cards, and 3 pirate ships. In the center of the table, lay out one more island than you have players (if you’re playing with 4 people, set out 5 islands). Each player is dealt 6 ships and chooses 3 of them to start with.
On each turn, a player may place up to 2 crates on any island, but if they want to place their crates on the same island, they have to pay 2 coins for the privilege. When all resources on an island have been claimed, whoever placed the last crate on it gets to stake their claim. Staking a claim earns you 1, 2, or (in the case of the treasure island) 3 coins. Then all players claim their resources by placing their crate on a matching resource on one of their ships.
These are just some of the possible ships in Sail Away.
Sail Away is a great resource management game. Players have to choose ships, resources, and pirate actions in an effort to get the most points. Players earn points for ships sailed, public and private goals, and coins. We have found Sail Away to be great math practice as well as lots of fun!
