Libertalia remake from Wingspan publisher finally confirmed
After last year’s rumours.
A remake of Libertalia, the classic pirate-themed board game, has finally been confirmed to be coming from the studio behind Wingspan – Stonemaier Games.
In a Dicebreaker report published last April, details surfaced surrounding a trademark application made in October 2020 for the name Libertalia from Stonemaier. The trademark would allow the owner to use the name Libertalia for “board games; tabletop games; equipment sold as a unit for playing board games,” with Stonemaier’s application following the news that Paolo Mori had acquired the publishing rights for the game from its original publisher – Marabunta - back in 2018. The trademark application also coincided with a progress report from Stonemaier which listed a game under the name of ‘Sail’ as being in development. The collective rumours strongly indicated that Stonemaier could be releasing a new version of Libertalia in the near future.
The rumours have turned out to be true, with a remake of the family board game – called Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest – having been revealed earlier this week. (Thanks BoardGameGeek.) Unlike the original, which presented players with a familiar setting of pirates vying for treasure and loot in the Caribbean, Winds of Galecrest transports players to a more fantastical world populated by flying ships and sky pirates. The players are all part of a pirating collective whose greed serves as a constant obstacle to them working together to earn loot. Each player takes control of their own sailing crew and must decide which member is going to be in charge of collecting the day’s earnings, with certain crewmembers taking priority over others.
Whilst Winds of Galecrest will feature an entirely new setting and artwork – created by Murder on the Cosmic Express artist Lamaro Smith – as well as a new reputation system that’s designed to break ties between players, deluxe style-loot tokens and a solo game mode, it will still be based on Mori’s original design, with the creator being listed on the front of the game’s box.
Besides Libertalia, Mori is otherwise best known for designing Ethnos, a board game featuring warring factions of fantasy species such as giants and merfolk, the historically themed spin-off title Pandemic: Fall of Rome and an expansion for Small World called Cursed!
Stonemaier Games, apart from Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest and Wingspan, is responsible for publishing the steampunk inspired board game Scythe, as well as a game about managing a vineyard called Viticulture.
The original Libertalia – which was released in 2012 – has players competing as rival pirate captains attempting to gain the largest share of loot possible from the day’s pirating. Each round has players choosing a card from their hand to play, with the higher numbered cards being placed earlier in the queue for the loot. Cards also have their own unique effects, which can activate at different times in a round or even the entire game. Whichever player manages to gain the most loot at the end is named the game’s winner.
Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest is set to be released sometime in Q2 2022, with a retail price yet to be confirmed.