Cartagena (2000)
My students hosted International Tabletop Day last year at our school. Families and members of my local gaming group came to learn games and enjoy the celebration. One of my club friends brought with them Cartagena and introduced it to one of my students who had come to play games (but wasn't a club member). I was intrigued.So when I started to teach our unit on argumentative writing, I had the students develop a skin of a game that would focus on teaching players about a topic they were passionate about. When I asked my students what games they wanted to skin, that student said he wanted to skin Cartagena so that it would focus on the Civil Rights marches of the 1960s in Alabama. Oh my! It was an incredibly intriguing game. And when he said he wanted to skin it, I knew I needed to buy it.
Cartagena is set during 1672 and focuses on a jailbreak led by pirates from the famous Cartagena, Spain. Players must navigate their pirates through the tunnel to the ship and escape before they are
caught. The game has a set collection format that allows you to move your pirates along the path. It is all about strategy and timing.
While Cartagena is considered to be something of a filler game, I know I always get a little worked up about halfway through when I realize I'm probably not going to make it. So it's a little more intense. But strategizing yourself against the others is what makes it more intense. There are variants in the box, such as Jamaica and Tortuga. Tons of replay ability and worth finding for your own collection.
Interesting. I have a husband who loves history and a brother with a fondness for pirates... sounds like I might need to look around for this. Your student's retheme also sounds like it'd be worth owning. What a great idea for a project!
ReplyDeleteWe were at a board game party where a lot of different games were played, but the highlight of the evening (and the one we decided to make note of for the December challenge), was Condottiere. Ours is the pre-Fantasy Flight version from Euro Games, so the cards are an unusual size, but it's still one of my favorites.