The Shores of Tripoli

1801, and war breaks out between the United States and Tripolitania, with the US fed up of their merchant ships being plundered by pirates and Tripolitania somewhat averse to the political pressure from afar to leave them alone. In The Shores of Tripoli, two players take on the combatants in a battle that historically went the way of the USA. Will the same occur in your dramatic retelling?

The board shows the North African coast, populated by several boats flying the flags of the USA (blue) or Tripolitania (red).  The US begin with a few frigates, whereas the harbour of Tripoli hosts the smaller corsairs and a number of ground forces, represented by cubes.  Each player has a deck of cards: they deal themselves a hand of eight, and play begins.

Over the game’s several ‘years’ of play, each year is broken into the four seasons. For each season, either player (starting with the Americans) takes a single action, spending a card to do so. You can play the card for the event described on it, or simply discard it for a default action: the Americans can move ships around the Mediterranean, quite possibly attacking enemy boats as a result; the Tripolitans can go out on raids. Why raid? Because that is the Tripolitans  most likely route to victory: by collecting the 12 gold pieces owned by America at the start of the game, they can claim an instant win.

So the US need to stop them, by policing the waters and trying to intercept: every raid the Tripolitans or their allies, the other African countries, go out on runs the risk of running into any frigates in the local waters, who will attempt to sink the corsairs. Less corsairs – less gold, so Tripolitania must make sure to keep building boats to cover their losses. And conversely, the USA can suffer losses too, although the way the game is structured they tend to keep getting stronger as each year passes, making Tripolitania’s efforts to pull off an economic victory harder and harder.

The USA have two ways to win: they can force Tripolitania to sign a peace treaty (and it is force! Although a number of circumstances must be met, with the Tripolitan corsairs, allies and ground units thoroughly depleted) or they can – in the late game – push an army across the coast and take hold of Tripoli itself. Conversely, this can also lead to another, less likely, route to victory for the locals: if they wipe out the American army. Around this basic premise are a number of tactical nuances brought into focus by events on the cards: Tripolitania’s engaging of allies to help snaffle gold. The USA calling on Sweden as allies to help negate aforementioned gold-snaffling. The USA’s use of gunboats to assist attacks on harbours or ground forces. Tripoli’s one-off Guns of Tripoli card, to give a specific example, which can be catastrophic if the dice roll well for them.

Ah yes, the dice! Although the decisions in the game are card-driven, how each battle plays out is down to the dice. If the cards suggest tactics, or even strategy, the dice represent the chaos of battle and how even the luck-management (strength in numbers; additional cards played for advantages) can sometimes throw up surprising and game-pivoting results. At the end of each year new cards are received, players discard down to the 8 card hand limit, and things start over, until either player has achieved a victory-winning condition (note that for the US player in particular, some cards cannot be played for the Event until a certain time in the chronology) or the final year is played out with neither reaching victory, in which case a draw is declared.

The game also offers a solo option where Tripolitania is played by an ‘AI’