TalaiaTricks, corsairs and trade
A trick-taking game set in the 18th-century Balearic Islands. Barbary corsairs lurk off the coasts of Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera; when a watchtower lights its fire, that island becomes trumps and the price of its goods shifts at the Llotja. You win tricks, but above all you move the market: at the end of every round you sell what you have stored in your warehouse.
Tricks, corsairs and the market
Talaia is played over four rounds with a deck of 85 cards. It has the bones of a classic trick-taking game —whoever leads chooses the suit and everyone else must follow— but every trick won pushes the price of a commodity up or down, and the big points come not from the table but from the Llotja.
Each trick you win is worth 1 point at the end of the round. There are no trumps until someone lights the watchtower, and whoever lights it stakes +3 or −2 on how many tricks they end up taking.
The winning card raises the price of its island: a lot if it is a low card, a little if it is high. If a trump wins, the price drops. Corsairs send it tumbling.
The last card of each round is not played: it goes into your warehouse. At the Llotja you secretly choose what to sell, and each card fetches the current price of its goods.
Four islands, four commodities
Each island is a suit of twelve cards, and each card is a link in the production chain of its goods: from the raw material, which is the 1, to the ship that exports it, which is the 11; the 12 is the island's sea chart. With three players, Formentera stays in the box.
Mallorca
Menorca
Eivissa
Formentera
Fire on the watchtower!
Every round starts with no trumps. The first player who cannot follow suit and plays a card from another island may call «Fire on the watchtower!»: the island just played becomes trumps until the end of the round, and the Fire card is placed on that island's product for everyone to see.
Lighting the fire is optional. If you pass, the next player who is void will have the same option. Once lit, the watchtower stays put for the rest of the round.
At the end of the round, whoever lit it scores +3 if they have as many tricks as any other player, ties included. If not, it was a false alarm: −2.
Every trick won by a trump lowers the price of its goods by 1: the militia eats the provisions. Lighting the fire on the island you are hoarding in your warehouse comes at a cost.
Fire
Smoke
The Smoke signal. Each player has two Smoke cards for the whole game. Whoever calls «Smoke!» when playing their card makes that trick go to the highest card of the island they played, even if it belongs to someone else: trumps and corsairs are ignored. Only one Smoke may be used per trick.
Board her or plunder
There are four Corsair cards, with no island and no number. They can always be played, even when you could follow suit, but when you play one you must announce out loud how it attacks.
Only when you lead or are void. If there is no trump in the trick, the first corsair to board wins it.
It can always be declared, but the corsair cannot win the trick: it is only there to hurt the market.
If there are corsairs in the trick and a trump does not win it, the price of every island that appears in it drops 1 per corsair, instead of the usual rise.
If a trump wins the trick, the corsairs are repelled: the winner keeps them face up and scores +2 for each one at the end of the round.
If the last card of the round is a corsair, at the Llotja you place it on the goods you want to sink: their price drops 2.
Corsair
A market that rises and falls
Each commodity has a price track from 0 to 6 and a product card that covers it from the right: the last number left showing is the price. They all start at 2. After each trick you look at the winning card and the price moves according to this table.
| Who wins the trick | Effect on the price of its island |
|---|---|
| A card from 1 to 3 · ▲▲▲ | Up 3 |
| A card from 4 to 7 · ▲▲ | Up 2 |
| A card from 8 to 12 · ▲ | Up 1 |
| A trump | Down 1 (Requisition) |
| Corsairs present and no trump wins | Each island present drops 1 per corsair (sack) |
At the end of each round
The round ends when everyone has one card left, which goes face down into their warehouse. Letters of marque are revealed, and each player secretly chooses which warehouse cards to sell: each one fetches the current price of its goods, whether it is a 1 or a 12. Then supply moves the prices: every commodity of which at least one card was sold drops 1, and those nobody sold rise 1. Whatever you don't sell stays face up for another round.
A shrinking deck. Sold cards leave the game and each round one card fewer is dealt to each player: from 13 down to 10 with three or four players, and from 10 down to 7 with five. At the fourth Llotja everything must be sold, and whoever has the most points wins.
A game of Talaia
Nothing but cards: the four tracks laid out horizontally in the middle of the table, each island's product on its track, the Fire ready to be lit, and each player's tricks face down and in order, in case someone claims a revoke at the end of the round.
