The Shores Of Tripoli Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review The Shores of Tripoli, a two-player, asymmetrical game published by Fort Circle Games. In The Shores of Tripoli, one player takes on the role of the US Navy, while the other opposes them as the pirates.

If it looks like a GMT game, and it plays like a GMT game, maybe it’s a GMT game? I’m kidding of course, but that’s the first thought that arises upon cracking open The Shores of Tripoli, the first release from new publisher Fort Circle Games. Shores of Tripoli is a 1-2 player asymmetrical card-driven war game by Kevin Bertram that tells the story of the Barbary Wars, a conflict between the fledgling United States (and ally Sweden) and Barbary states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers. One player takes on the role of the US navy, while the other plays as the Tripolitan pirates.

It claims a 45-60 minute playtime, which is actually fairly accurate. And that is part of the appeal of this game. It can be set up and played, reset for a rematch, and played a second time, all in the span of probably 90 minutes to 2 hours, especially once the fairly straightforward teach is out of the way.

Fans of GMT games such as Twilight Struggle, Here I Stand, the newer Red Flag Over Paris, and even streamlined versions of those card-driven games, such as Capstone’s Watergate, should feel very familiar with the main mechanic of Shores of Tripoli. Discard a card for a generic action, or play it for the more powerful event, and potentially remove the card from the game. The US player’s generic action adds more ships or moves existing ships, while the Tripolitan player’s generic actions include reinforcing harbors or going on pirating raids. The game is played over a series of years (1801-1806), split into 4 seasons. Each season