Have you ever played a worker placement game and felt the urge to brawl with the other players as if you were in a tavern full of sea dogs? Have you ever wanted to drink some rum and go discover an ancient temple? Well, Oath of the Brotherhood has you covered! Coming out in late April from Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG), Oath of the Brotherhood mixes old and new mechanics which will ensure that every pirate adventure you undertake will feel fresh and exciting!

While the game appears simple at first glance — worker placement (a pirate and their crew) to complete missions on a board representing the famed pirate haven of Isla Granuja — Oath of the Brotherhood also uses a few important mechanics to ensure that every experience is, indeed, unique.

The first mechanic, ‘Exploration’, allows players to expand the board with new locations, making the board truly modular in the process. When a player chooses to take the action at the ‘Watchtower’ location, not only will they secure first player status for the turn to come, but they’ll also get to add a new Location to the board and overlay it directly onto the map (where the artwork integrates seamlessly onto the board). Once such a location is revealed, it becomes accessible to the entire table as a new slot for worker placement. Every one of these Locations has its own effect, which is a more powerful or more diverse version of an existing board location. As Locations are revealed, new paths to completing missions will open up, as well as new strategies and possibilities — adding tension to the entire table. Unlock powerful healing through the Witch or fight in the Arena to earn extra doubloons. The order in which players discover Locations will make resources and missions vary in usefulness as well — you’ll never play the same game twice!

The second mechanic that ensures no two games are the same is the placement and spending of resources on the player board. When a player gains an item (Allies, Equipment, or Supplies), they place that item onto their player board, on one of the corresponding spots. Each spot on a players’ board has a unique ability that’s available to be used so long as a player has an item token on it. Items like the Sword will provide a constant bonus when navigating the board, others like Rum will trigger when you use certain locations, and some like the First Mate are so powerful that they’ll be discarded after a single use. In Oath of the Brotherhood, not only do players need to decide which missions to focus on completing, but also which abilities they’ll lose access to when spending their resources (as they can’t stockpile tokens on a single spot).

Finally, players choose pirate captains that grant you special traits for the entire game. This asymmetry once again ensures that no two games will be alike. Players are incentivized to play to their captain’s strength, and this changes the value of locations on the board as well as the items gained there. Players may find that they can’t rely on their favorite tricks because they’re spending those items to complete missions, or that competition for certain locations has shifted. Will you try to join the Brotherhood of pirates as the French Gunner, Marie le Monde? Or as the Conquistador, Rodrigo de Cortez?

Through these various mechanics and abilities, players can add a considerable amount of variety into their turns.  Oath of the Brotherhood also has powerful Follower and Action cards that can break the action economy you'd normally have. Action cards have a variety of special effects on your turn, and Followers often provide additional benefits for using specific locations. For example, you could place your captain on a location to gain its resources, gain extra resources by utilizing a Follower specific to that location, use an action card to trade one resource for two others, use your First Mate Ally token to send your captain to a new location to gain those resources, and, finally, discard your Parrot Ally token to complete a mission — all of which only takes a single action, thanks to your cards. With some good planning and smart use of your available resources, you can string together turns full of combos like this and help secure your victory!

Just like no two pirate tales are the same, no two games of Oath of the Brotherhood will play out the same way. This game will please worker placement fans with a fresh take on tried and proven mechanics. AEG provides players with some new twists on a favorite genre with Oath of the Brotherhood, available at your local retailer in late April. For more information, visit www.alderac.com/oathofthebrotherhood.