Matagot MTGISLE001 Treasure Island, Mixed Colours

Product Information

We could create all kinds of arbitrary lines in the sand to shower praise on games, like “favorite worker placement game that also includes dice and multiple tech trees.” The fun, laughter and banter is aplenty in Treasure Island and we all look forward to replaying this again and again, taking on different roles and characters all who have special unique abilities and actions. In Treasure Island, the board game, one player takes the role of Long John Silver. Their goal is to hide a treasure chest on the island. While the rest of the table of treasure hunters search relentlessly for it. This is a rare chance to obtain this classic board game in great condition and with all of the original treasure and playing pieces.

The US version of the game was called Trade Winds and used slightly different rules and board additions. The winning condition was not changed, gathering treasure worth 20 points at the players home port. Final Score: 4.5 Stars – A thematic romp in search of buried treasure that both highly entertaining and very accessible. The lone caveat to that is that I’m not sure its full 5 players is going to be consistently good. It drags just a bit too much for me at that count, not giving any one player quite enough to engage with, relative to the whole.I mentioned that it leaves me wanting more, and I think that’s a takeaway that plenty of games could learn from. I don’t know that Treasure Island is the best deductive game, or one-vs-many game, or best pirate game. It won’t be for some, despite the merits I listed above. Treasure Island initially looks quite opulent, and in many ways it is. However, the map itself is very dense with various elements that could be important. This is fine in and of itself, but becomes a bit of an issue when it’s hard to see everything or make sense of it all, especially when the elements often apply to clues.

There’s a secret compartment housing some of the components. This is a fantastic and playful addition to Treasure Island. Although it’s not great for holding or organising components mind you. But it does allow the theme to leak out of the play area and into the box. The funny thing about Treasure Island is that during play everyone forgets it’s a free-for-all. Instead, in most of my plays, the player’s first priority was wanting Long John Silver to lose rather than win themselves. Thankfully, as Long John Silver, you’re provided with the tools to create havoc regardless of if they’ve teamed up or not. The more interesting problem is the X mark on your small map, and how you translate it to the larger map. It kind of creates a grey area for Long John Silver. Where they have to decide how lenient they’re going to be with their X. I always play: if it’s close enough, it’s good enough. But anyone with a competitive streak could easily turn Treasure Island from a fun activity to the dinner scene from Donnie Darko. Tactility– You’ll literally have a map that looks like it belongs to a deranged conspiracy theorist by the end, and will have physically traversed it with marker lines, your character token, compass lines and more. It’s a wonderful application of the tactile thrill that board games are so good at creating. Production Values & ComponentsThere’s a similar component in Treasure Island: the cardboard treasure chest. Each time a pirate performs a search, Long John Silver gives that pirate the chest with a token inside. It could be a hint, the actual treasure, or more likely, nothing at all. This 45-minute game (expect to play longer but don’t worry, it’s worth it) starts out with a one player choosing to be the incarceratedLong John Silver, with everyone else taking on the role of one of his mutinous pirate crew. As pirate players you race to be the first, using your exclusive knowledge from hints given you by your Captain and hoping that trusting him was the right move to make, you draw out in plain sight of everyone else where you think the treasure is hidden, whilst working out on your own private map your next few goes to come. Rivalry and mistrust is in the air, you cannot trust another fellow pirate and you need to figure out when is the best time to you your one off actions and other abilities. Not Quite Co-op, But Sort Of?– It almost feels collaborative at times, despite being explicitly adversarial. Players will usually start to talk among themselves about the public clues, openly theorizing about which could be true and where the treasure might be. Sound weird? It’s not. In nature, there are species of birds that are individually less likely to be caught by a predator if they’re silent, but if they all make noise when they see a predator, the group’s collective survival chances increase, so natural selection favored it in many species. In Treasure Island, maybe your theory helps another player find the treasure, but your collective theorizing increases the likelihood that it will be found at all. An odd analogy, I’ll admit, but I like it. I also like the phenomenon at the table that the analogy speaks to, since it’s an incredibly unique dynamic in board games.

Deduction– Not only are you using private and public clues, but you’re watching the actions of other players to determine what they may know from their own individual clues. You can’t fully trust any action, but you also can’t fully discount any action. It’s a delicious mix of calculated deduction and nervous second-guessing. Cat & Mouse– The sense of adventure as a treasure seeker is palpable, both the excitement and frustration. As Silver, it’s just as fun watching the players try to decode your clues (or lies). You’ll feel the twinge of terror as someone walks right past your treasure, and the smug relief when they guess incorrectly at its location. Not to mention the novelty of using rulers, compasses, protractors, and various other tools to mark your journey on the map. Treasure Island is an exploration and deduction game for 2-5 players that takes about 45 minutes to play. Treasure Island plays best with 4 players. Gameplay Overview: One player takes on the role of Long John silver who has hidden his treasure somewhere on the island before being imprisoned. Through a series of clues which may be true, somewhat true or downright pirate lies, Long John directs the other players around the island in search of his treasure.

The game has been revised over the years. A major revision in 1958 saw the playing area change to a folding board with a square cut out for a plastic tray insert as Treasure Island. The island shrank to 4 x 4 squares and the playing area to 24 x 24 squares. However, the 1958 continued to be a 6 player game. Important changes in the late 1960s-1970s saw the number of players fall from 6 to 4. The playing area shrank from 24x24 squares to 20x20 squares, ports were relocated or lost, and treasure available was reduced to 5 of each type. Interaction is strong throughout the game and down time between your go is almost non-existent, with everyone studying each other's moves for the revealing of clues and possible hints of where to search next. Treasure Island by Matagot Games is a one vs many bluffing and misdirection game of hidden treasure and pirate hide and seek. All the while, Silver is counting down the days to his escape on the 17th or 19th (depending on player count) day/turn, and praying that no one will find his treasure before the finally dramatic race for the finish, when Long John Silver gets the opportunity to hightail it to the hidden location and hopefully be the first to find TREASURE!