GMT Board Games

One of the most popular, and successful, Avalon Hill games of the late 1980's was Blackbeard, a pirate game totally different from any others available because it simulated the actual life and careers of historical pirates, and how they went about their chosen professions.

Richard Berg has now taken the original and redesigned it, almost entirely, to bring it into line with what gamers like to see and play these days. All those pirates you loved - Black Bart Roberts, Long Ben Avery, Ned Lowe, L'Ollonais, and, of course, Edward Teach (Blackbeard) - 23 in all, are still there, as are the King's Commissioners sent out to stop them. However, the entire play system has been overhauled, and the result is a game that highlights and specializes in player interaction, with almost no down time for any players.

Players represent individual pirates, using them to gain Victory Points by amassing booty and, even more importantly, earning Notoriety for their dastardly deeds. Seizing merchants with cargo ranging from useless paper to the monumental treasure of the Mughal emperors, attacking and sacking ports, fighting storms and scurvy, seeking safe haven in infamous pirate ports such as Tortuga and Madagascar, and, hopefully, using Letters of Marque to retire successfully.

And while the player is doing this, all of the other players, at the same time, are playing their cards and seizing opportunities to stop the pirates. There is a constant interplay among players, and you never know what is going to happen when you set out to do something.

We've simplified movement (no more hexes) and ship battles, w'eve expanded the use of Royal Navy warships, we've even added individual hostages! (Yes, there is a "Governor's Daughter".)

The Time: Circa 500 A.D.

The Place: The first islands of a new culture, later to be known as Polynesia.

The Situation: You lead a tribe looking to expand its influence throughout the South Pacific.

Conquest of Paradise is a game of empire building in the "Polynesian Triangle" of the central Pacific Ocean for two, three, or four players. Players explore the unknown ocean around them, hoping to discover the most lucrative island groups, and colonize them. They build canoes and train warriors to create a force to defend their empire, while forging lines of communication with their developing discoveries. Resources are scarce; using them wisely is a key to victory. Investing in exploration widens your empire. Building warriors strengthens your empire. Investing resources into cultural innovations can yield unexpected dividends, like tattooing, hula dancing, surfing, or even the giant moai statues of Easter Island fame.

Conquest of Paradise is a game of exploration and empire building, but also (as you'd expect from a GMT game) CONFLICT. Choosing when to build those expensive warriors, and when and where to fight, given limited resources, is key to your success.

From colonial times to the present, Manifest Destiny reflects the history of American progress. As a player you nurture a mercantile empire from humble beginnings in Louisanna, Mexico, Pennsylvania, Quebec, or Virginia and expand it over time. You try to amass 30 victory points by purchasing Progressions, researching breakthroughs, and controlling cities.

The battlefield is unfamiliar, a clear valley dotted by copses of trees and cultivated fields. The town at the valley's center is the strongpoint of your army's defense, held by stout infantrymen against two massed enemy assaults already this morning. Now, having fought off the enemy, you prepare the counterattack. Your lines, populated by more hearty infantrymen, extend away from the village on both sides to the foothills on the flanks, where your elite cavalry brigades await your word to attack. Your plan is "feint in the center, envelope the flanks, then, as the enemy's resolve begins to weaken, crush the enemy with a massed infantry assault by your Elite Guard reserves..."

...And you have the cards in your hand to make the plan work! But what cards is your enemy still holding? Will he play REGROUP to rally his center and hit you again? Or a SUPPLY card or a LEADER to coordinate a spoiling attack on your cavalry wings? Or will his GUERILLAS harass your advance and impede your flow of reinforcements? What if he has his cavalry positioned to WITHDRAW and then turn on you with a COMMITTED ATTACK? Or has he prepared a nasty AMBUSH on your route of march? So many "what if's...," but time is fleeting - the time to Manoeuvre is now!

Manoeuvre is a fast-playing game of battlefield command, set in the early 19th century. Multiple geomorphic game maps provide the chessboard-sized battlefields over which eight different armies of the period move and fight in one-on-one battles. As the commanding General of a nation's army, you have at your command units and a 60-card national deck which represents your army's specific troops and unique strengths. Your job is to utilize those assets and manoeuvre your forces to achieve battlefield supremacy.

The Sword of Rome is the latest in GMT’s acclaimed line of card-driven board games. It uses the popular base system invented by Mark Herman and featured in Ted Raicer’s Paths of Glory. This time, event cards and point-to-point maneuver enable up to four players to recreate the vicious struggles among the peoples of Italy and Sicily in 4th and 3rd Centuries BC. Who will dominate the western Mediterranean–and with it earn the right to vie for control of the known world?

The Sword of Rome includes rules and events for city loyalty, Roman colonies, tribal raids, Gallic indiscipline, Greek siege craft, Indian war elephants, Roman and Macedonian-style infantry tactics, the mountain fastness of Samnium, and much, much more. The game covers over 100 years of classical history in just 9 hands of cards.

This expansion kit for Wray Ferrell’s award-winning Sword of Rome game adds Carthage as a player power and requires ownership of Sword of Rome.

Carthage now has their own customized deck of 38 strategy cards plus there are 8 new events that replace cards in the Etruscan, Roman, and Greek decks. Additionally, Carthage has special powers that emphasize its historic strengths.

Perhaps Carthage will ally with the Greeks and sweep north using their combined navies to turn the tide, but what of Sicily? It now provides reinforcements and VPs for conquering it for both the Greeks and Carthage, but at a severe cost to the side that is denied the island. Perhaps the Greek player has allied with you just to encourage you to sail to Rome so he can launch a Sicilian campaign. And what of failure? The Carthaginian general who has the audacity to lose a battle may be crucified for his incompetence. The generals who survive always keep in mind that their mercenaries' loyalty lie not with Carthage, but with silver and gold.

This package includes a Europe Engulfed-style thicker cardboard map as well as an updated Rulebook for Sword of Rome.

Winds of Plunder is a Euro-style board game set at the close of the Golden Age of Piracy. In this game, pirates have naught to fear but each other as they plunder the Caribbean. But peace has broken out in Europe, and the clock is now ticking on the days of easy piracy.

As the name implies, there are two central elements to each turn of the game: manipulating the Winds, then gathering as much Plunder for your ship as possible. Plunder translates into Victory Points, and the player with the most Victory Points after nine game turns is the winner.

Plunder takes many forms: directly with Victory Points gained from ports, each other, and from establishing reputations in the various map areas; indirectly at the game's end with Weapons, Crew, Provisions, and unused Wind cubes.