Iron Pirate: The Swashbuckling Train Race

Iron Pirate - The Swashbuckling Train Race is a worker placement, race against the board, semi co-operative game that plays 2-4 (Solo mode being investigated) in approximately 45-90 minutes.

Gather resources from the sea locked islands by sailing the Njall Sea. But watch out for those pesky pirates looking to steal your hard earned resources. Try your luck at "Liars Dice" in the Tavern and walk away with a handful of coins, or maybe you might lose?

Fancy fighting those pirates? Why not buy yourself a cannon or two to upgrade your ship before blasting them out of the water

Work together to complete the track before Watkins Railway or face losing out on that big contract.....

All this, and more, in Iron Pirate - The Swashbuckling Train Race

On your turn, you must first place a worker (Phase 1) on an available slot (In the first round, this will only be the mainland). Each player places one worker each in turn before repeating again. In round 1, you start with 2 workers each.
Do you try your hand in the tavern to gain coins? Do you go to market to buy resources? Do you upgrade your ship at the shipwright? Do you load your worker onto your ship

Once all workers are placed, any one who has boarded their ship may now sail their ship the relevant number of spaces (after round 1, this will only be 1 space as upgrades do not take effect until the end of the round). Each player who is on a ship will state which number sea region they wish to move to and then activate the pirate deck the required number of times dealing with any action points on the card(s).

Phase 3 is where workers return back to your player boards

Phase 4 is where your ships are upgraded, more pirates are added to the board and the round marker moves along

The game ends after 10 rounds and the player with the most points wins. However, if the board wins, I.E, if you don't complete the railway before the board does, then you are only playing for pride.

—description from the publisher