Broadsides and Boarding Parties

Broadsides and Boarding Parties is a two-player naval combat board game in which a Spanish galleon faces a pirate ship in a duel on the open sea. Originally released as The Citadel in 1982, it was republished by Milton Bradley in 1984 as part of the company's Gamemaster series, which added plastic ship models, cannons, and more detailed playing pieces to match the production values of companion titles in that series. Players alternate maneuvering their vessels and firing cannons at each other, aiming to sink the opposing ship before their own is destroyed. If the two ships come into contact, a player may instead launch a boarding party in an attempt to capture the enemy vessel outright, adding a second path to victory alongside cannon fire. A typical game lasts about an hour, and while it shares the Gamemaster series' emphasis on accessible rules and dramatic components, it leans more heavily on dice-driven chance than its stablemates.