What is Port Royal?
Port Royal is a campaign based, tactical, small-scale warband-sized skirmish wargame that is easy and fast to learn and play. Loosely based on the historical events following the 1692 earthquake that devastated the island of Jamaica. In Port Royal, players take control of small companies of pirates, privateers, Native Americans, African Maroons, or local government forces as they battle against opponents for their share of the plunder that litters the ruins of the place. Players will gain loot and experience between games while building infamy and growing in their piratical expertise. But take heed! The ruins are fraught with dangers! Falling buildings, wild animals, desperate civilians, and opposing companies can bring a quick end to members of your company.
-Firelock Games
Introduction Video from Firelock Games
Summary of Port Royal Gameplay Style
Port Royal is a campaign-based, tactical skirmish game with small-scale warbands.
- Gameplay Style: Fast and easy to learn and play.
- Historical Setting: Loosely based on events following the 1692 earthquake that devastated Jamaica and Port Royal.
- Factions: Players control small companies of pirates, privateers, Native Americans, African Maroons, or local government forces.
- Objective: Compete against opponents to claim plunder from the ruins of Port Royal.
- Progression System: Gain loot, experience, and infamy between games to enhance your company.
- Challenges: Navigate dangers such as falling buildings, wild animals, desperate civilians, and rival companies.
High-Level Port Royal Demo Game at Adepticon 2024 by designer Mike Tuñez
What You Need to Play Port Royal
The Port Royal Kickstarter launched the game with several products to jumpstart players on living their best Pirate Life in Port Royal. Here is an Official Port Royal Product Breakdown:
The Port Royal Core Box
Boxed Set Contents:
- Soft-Cover Rulebook
- 6x D10 dice: 4 black and 2 white primary dice
- 12 Multipart hard plastic Sailor Models (See Raise the Black)
- Sprue of fun piracy accessories and 3 additional models for a Spiritual Leader, 18th Century European Commander and a Blackbeard model (Box of Plunder; Raise the Black)
- Punchboard Tokens and Rulers
- Punchboard Terrain Pieces – 30 pieces of ruined buildings/walls
- 2×2 Paper Terrain Mat
- Port Royal Map Poster
Naturally, the core box is the best one-stop place to start for a new player. The 15 multipart models gives you enough to field 2-3 forces at the same time (averaging 5-6 models each) of each of the European Factions. Back this up with enough dice for 2 players to comfortably play (no passing back and forth) along with enough terrain to fill the 2×2 mat immediately out of the box — you’ll be playing Port Royal as soon as you can glue your models together. For players coming over to Port Royal from Blood & Plunder, the Core Box is still a fantastic value – bolstering your forces, giving you some options to build weapon load-outs that may be more uncommon amongst your Blood & Plunder units, and giving you enough terrain to build more of a “downtown” arena as opposed to the more classically open battlefields.
Unboxing by Weasel Wargaming (Thieves Harbor)
Miniatures for Your Crew:
If you want to expand our forces outside of the core box, Firelock sells a number of hard-plastic kits for Sailor, Militia, Soldier or Native American based models. These are a great model/$ value and are multipart kits, allowing you to customize each model’s weapon load out. Originally made for Blood & Plunder – these models are the identical models used for Port Royal! Each boxed set comes with parts to build 12 miniatures giving you enough for 2 more crews..
While the plastic kits allow more customization, you can dive deeper into the Blood & Plunder portion of the store and peruse any number of faction-specific one-piece resin/metal models to give your forces an extra bit of national flavor and style.
Lastly, the Blackbeard vs. Maynard Blood and Plunder 2 Player Starter is a great expansion coming with 24 multipart sailors, as well as unique Blackbeard and Lt. Maynard models and 2 full-size plastic Sloop ships. While ships are just terrain pieces in Port Royal currently, there have been hints at ships playing a larger role in future expansions!
Look for more specific recommendations for models for each character type in every nation in our Faction overview articles (coming soon)!
The Port Royal Player Aid Deck
Benefits of the Player Aid Deck:
- Quick-Ref Cards to replace the need to look at tables in the rulebook
- Quick-Ref Cards to handle scenario setup and random events
- Cards to manage Solo-AI, speeding up solo play
The player aid deck is an accessory to Port Royal that is not necessary to play – or even play effectively. Where this deck of cards excels, however, is preventing you from flipping through your rulebook every few turns to reference Table X or read which event you triggered during gameplay.
One boon with this deck are the scenario cards — aiding players in setting up their game to play, a process that can all too long. Another Firelock game, Oak & Iron, has similar cards to simplify setup and they work beautifully.
Where this deck really shines is the set of solo-play cards. These cards aim to replace rolling on tables to determine what the AI will do and completely streamlines the experience to acceptable levels. A must-have for anyone who expects they will play some solo games or perhaps even try out any of the future Thieves Harbor’s Fan-made player vs. AI campaigns.
Customizable resin Character Sprues
- 1 high-quality resin model with various head and equipment options
- Currently available: Male and female pirates/sailors, Maroon, and Native
These single-character sprues are a new addition to Firelock’s lineup and offer players an avenue for players to add a bit of unique spice to their crew lineup – perfect for your Officer or Commander characters! Each of the 4 currently available character sprues will feature unique head and weapon choices.
Additional Misc. Miniature Add-ons
- Animals
- Fatigue Dice
- 2×2 Neoprene Mat
The Wild Beast models are completely unnecessary to play Port Royal, but bring so much flavor to the table they are hard to resist! Wild Beasts can come into play during a game of Port Royal in the form of Events, which are quite common. Here, a Wild Beast will actually charge a random character and stay on the table, attacking anything nearby with its own stats!
Fatigue dice are a significant upgrade to the cardboard tokens that come in the Core Box used to designate fatigue. Rather than stacking tokens, you can turn the D6 die. These are quite handy to have if you are looking to upgrade the starting components.
The 2×2 Neoprene mat offers a double-sided land-based mat with one side representing the classic “grasslands” of land battles. The other side, however, has broken cobblestone and a mud pattern which is much more suited to a 1600s city, such as Port Royal.
Unofficial Port Royal Game Aid Products
- Fortune Token Replicas
- Custom Activation Tokens
While the list of non-official Port Royal products could be never-ending, some special mentions come from the Blood and Pigment Shop. Here, you can find replica coins from the time period to spice up your fortune game, with Spanish, English, and even Native options. Additionally, they sell Activated Unit Tokens that can be useful to track which characters you have activated.
Where to find Port Royal Players
If you are looking for players in your region here are a few places to start your search:
- There is a “Port Royal by Firelock Games” Facebook Group with over 2000 members
- Firelock Games has added a subsection to their Discord specifically for Port Royal
- FirelockGamesMap.com is a player locator, gaming group and retailer locations map that allows you to find players for Port Royal, Blood & Plunder and all other Firelock Games miniature games. This is a great resource to find nearby players. Make sure to register yourself to help others find you!
Conclusion
Port Royal provides everything players need to dive into a dynamic and engaging skirmish game set in the heart of Port Royal, Jamaica following the great earthquake of 165, whether starting fresh with the Core Box or expanding with additional models and accessories. Player aids like the deck and upgraded components make gameplay smoother, while resources like the Firelock Discord and Firelock Games Map help you connect with the growing community. With plenty of options to customize and expand your forces, Port Royal is ready to bring the Golden Age of Piracy to your tabletop.