Talaia
Card game · Talaia

How to play

The rules of Talaia at a glance

A trick-taking game where every trick moves the market. Learn it in five minutes, play it in forty. 3–5 players · 40 min · 10+ · 85 cards

Talaia cards fanned out: one from each island, a corsair, the Fire and the Smoke
Play the trickfollow the island that was led
Light the watchtowerwhoever is void may choose trumps
Move the marketevery trick pushes a price up or down
Sell at the Llotjacash in what your goods are worth
An Ibiza trick: the 6, the 9, the 2 and the 4; the 9 wins
The trick

Follow suit

Four islands, twelve cards each.

  • The leader picks the island and everyone else must follow.
  • The highest card takes the trick.
  • Low cards rarely win, but they push the price hard.
A Mallorca trick where a Menorca 5, having lit the watchtower, beats the 11
The watchtower

Fire on the watchtower!

No round starts with trumps.

  • The first player who can't follow suit may light the watchtower.
  • Their island becomes trumps until the end of the round.
  • But whoever lights it has to answer for it…
The Fire card on top of the cheese product card: Menorca is trumps
Trumps

Everyone can see it

The Fire sits on top of the lit island's goods.

  • Trumps win plenty of tricks…
  • …but the militia eats the supplies: the price drops.
  • Lighting a rival's island is a fine attack.
A Formentera trick with two corsairs; one boards and wins
The corsairs

Board her, or plunder

Four Barbary rais lurk off the coast.

  • They can always be played, even when you could follow suit.
  • Boarding, they take the trick; plundering, they sink prices.
  • If the militia stops them, they score for whoever repels them.
The Smoke card and its back, Smoke spent
The smoke signal

Turn a trick around

Two Smoke cards for the whole game.

  • Call «Smoke!» and your island wins the trick.
  • No trumps, no corsairs: everything goes overboard.
  • Once spent, it's gone.
The four price tracks with their product cards: olive oil at 3, cheese at 1, salt at 5 and dried fish at 2
The market

Prices from 0 to 6

Olive oil, cheese, salt and dried fish.

  • Each commodity has a track and a product card that marks its price.
  • They all start at 2.
  • Winning a trick raises its island's price; trumps and corsairs bring it down.
A warehouse: one card face down and two goods face up
The Llotja

Keep, wait, sell

The last card of each round is never played.

  • It goes to your warehouse, ready to sell.
  • At the Llotja you secretly choose what to sell, at the going price.
  • Sell too much and the price falls; wait, and you might get rich.
Talaia box
Four rounds

How to win

One card fewer every round: the deck shrinks.

  • Points for tricks won.
  • Points for corsairs repelled.
  • And, above all, points for selling well at the Llotja.
  • After four rounds, the highest score wins.

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Talaia is a prototype. Ask for the rules or set up a playtest.

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