Captain Flip Review

I love me a good push-your-luck game, but a lot of push-your-luck games don't get the balance right. Maybe the reward is too great for too little risk, so it's boring. Or the risk is too high, so you're dissuaded from pushing your luck much at all. Or maybe in the end the winner merely comes down to whoever is luckiest, which doesn't feel good.

When I first heard about Captain Flip, I brushed it off. The name sounded too cheesy and the gameplay seemed weak. And when I heard it was nominated for the Spiel des Jarhes, that didn't budge me from prejudice. But I later realized it was co-designed by Paolo Mori, and that convinced me to give it a try. He's done some cool stuff (see Archeos Society and Caesar! Seize Rome in 20 Minutes) and I wanted to see his take on this genre.

Turns out, Captain Flip is deserving of its SdJ nomination. Here's how it plays, how my experiences with it have gone, why I think it hits the mark as a push-your-luck game, and why I think everyone needs to try playing it at least once. Spoiler: It's a fantastic game with wide appeal!

This review is based on my own personal copy of Captain Flip, which I bought new from Cardhaus. Not a free review copy.

Overview

Captain Flip is about pulling tiles from a bag and placing them on a personal board, where different tiles provide different bonuses and score in different ways. But there's a heavy emphasis on pushing your luck, with lots of little micro-decisions adding up to hopefully maximize your points gained.

Captain Flip is comprised of 72 double-sided tiles, with two different characters featured on either side of any given tile. There are a total of 9 characters, who each appear exactly 16 times across the tiles. All of the tiles are thrown into a draw bag at the start of the game.

On your turn, you draw a random tile from the bag, making sure you only see one side of that tile. If you like what you see, you keep it; otherwise, you can choose to flip to the other side. But if you flip, you're committing to that other side. Don't like the other side? Too bad! You're stuck with it.

Whether you accept the first side or decide to flip, you must now place that tile onto your player board. Everyone has the same player board, which is comprised of five columns of varying heights. You can place your tile in any column, but only the bottom-most available spots in each column are eligible for placement. (Think of it like dropping a piece down in Connect 4.) As a column fills up, tiles can be placed higher in it.

The character tile you place may or may not do something for you when placed. Some characters grant immediate benefits (indicated by a yellow icon), some characters grant end-game scoring (indicated by a gray icon), and some grant both. Here's what the nine characters in Captain Flip each do:

• Gunner: Immediately gain 5 coins. If you have three or more Gunners on your board at the end of the game, you lose.
• Carpenter: As long as there are no Gunners in the same row or column as this character, gain 3 coins at the end of the game.
• Cook: Immediately gain 1 coin for every character tile in the same row as this character, including this character.
• Parrot: Immediately draw and play another tile. Lose 1 coin at the end of the game.
• Monkey: Immediately gain 1 coin, then flip an adjacent character tile and apply that tile's effects as if just played.
• Cartographer: Immediately take possession of the Map token. Whoever has the Map token gains 1 coin at the end of their turn.
• Navigator: Immediately gain 2 coins for every Cartographer tile on your player board.
• Lookout: If there are no character tiles above this character at the end of the game, gain 4 coins.
• Swabby: At the end of the game, gain coins depending on how many columns have at least one Swabby in them: 1 coin if 1 column, 4 coins if 2 columns, 9 coins if 3 columns, 16 coins if 4 columns, and 25 coins if 5 columns.

In Captain Flip, coins are points. Whoever has the most coins after scoring all their tiles is the winner. The game ends when someone fills up their fourth column (out of the five on their board), at which point the round finishes so everyone gets an equal number of turns played.

The only other thing to know is that certain columns grant bonus effects as soon as you fill them, which you can see on the player board. There are four different boards included in Captain Flip, each with their own layouts and bonus mechanisms. (Everyone plays with the same board.)

Setup and Table Footprint

Captain Flip is a quick setup, especially if you keep all the tiles in the draw bag when you pack it away (which seems to be the intended thing to do). Just take out the bag of tiles and the Map token, give each player a matching board, and pour out the coins to create a supply within reach of everyone. That's it! It can be done in 2 minutes.

I also love how Captain Flip doesn't take up much space. The player boards are modestly sized, and that's really all the table space you need apart from the supply of coins. The bag of tiles gets passed from player to player, so I'm not really counting that towards the table footprint. All in all, great!

Learning Curve

The basic action flow of Captain Flip is easy to nail down, even for non-gamers: you pull a tile from the bag, you can flip it if you want, and then it has to go on your board at the bottom-most available spot of a column. Kids and grandparents alike can understand that.

But then you have the nine different character tiles to explain. While maybe not an issue for someone with hobby board game exposure, it could be a turn-off for non-gamers. Fortunately, Captain Flip comes with easy-to-reference player aids that explain it all, and that really saves the game. (It'll probably take a few plays to internalize all of them, unless you're hardcore like that.)

Overall, I think Captain Flip is approachable enough that you could play with pretty much anyone. It looks more complicated than it is, and so it should be easy to pick up once you get past that.

Game Experience

Decision Space

You only have two main decisions to make per turn in Captain Flip, but those decisions are interesting enough to be engaging.

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First, do I flip this tile? You pull one from the bag and see what it is. Sometimes it's exactly what you want, or something that clearly benefits you quite nicely, and the choice to not flip is obvious. And then there are times when you pull from the bag and the tile sucks, offering no real benefits to you and possibly even harming you, so the choice to flip is also obvious.

The most interesting turns are when you pull a tile that's good but not great, meh but not terrible, somewhere in the middle with mild benefits. Choosing to flip here could swing you towards more points, or it could land you with a worse option. And that's when it's exciting. Only you can decide if you're happy with safe-but-mediocre or if you want to push your luck.

What I love about this decision, though, is that the different character tiles have fluid values depending on when they show up. Early on, the Gunner is great because it earns a ton of coins, but every subsequent Gunner brings you one step closer to an auto-loss. Meanwhile, the Lookout is best played at the top of a column, so it's better to pull later in the game. And the Cartographer is great when you don't possess the Map but a dud otherwise.

This means the risk of flipping is always shifting, as the number of "good" and "bad" tiles on any given pull is never the same. The decision to flip is one of risk assessment, and that assessment is what's interesting. Even when a flip or not flip seems "obvious," you can only decide that by assessing what you've pulled against your board and against what could possibly remain in the bag. That keeps it from being a game that plays itself.

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Second, where do I place this tile? Like the first decision, this one's also sometimes obvious and sometimes not obvious. It depends on how far along you are in the game and what tile you've ended up with. The crux is that you're bound by various restrictions that make it hard—but not impossible—to maximize the value of each tile you place.

Sometimes, placement is about setting up future scoring opportunities. A Gunner needs to be put somewhere that won't block out too many spots for any potential Carpenters later. Swabbies need to be spread out across all columns. Lookouts need to be the top-most tile in a column to score, so maybe you fill up a column as far as you can to leave a spot for any potential Lookouts you draw. Same goes for special columns on boards that grant bonus actions when filled, which you might leave open until you want to enact that action (like the one that lets you steal the Map token).

Sometimes, you flip to a totally bad tile that doesn't fit well anywhere. When that happens, you have to figure out where you can place it to minimize damage. You might tuck it away on the side for the time being, hoping to draw a Monkey later that will let you flip that bad tile back over. Or you might abandon it altogether and just use it to set up another tile.

Speaking of Monkeys, this tile introduces a slight memory element to Captain Flip. Whenever you flip a tile out of the bag, you should try to remember what was on the other side. That way, if you later need to place a Monkey, you can know which tiles are worth flipping or not. In fact, if you take it further, you can use Monkeys to flip a particular tile multiple times and reap the benefits. Thought 5 coins from a Gunner was good? Imagine Monkey-flipping it two or three times for 10 or 15 coins!

It all comes down to this: if you want to win Captain Flip, you have to maximize the point value of every tile. Certain tiles can earn you a lot but also earn you nothing, while others are safer with a guaranteed mediocre return. Between the board layout, the columns, and how you place tiles, you have options for scoring big and minimizing losses.

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At first glance, Captain Flip might seem like a mindless game that's just one step up from a slot machine. Maybe the decisions seem so light as to be meaningless, with most choices being obvious and straightforward. Yet while Captain Flip is certainly simple, I don't think it's on rails. You have plenty of "micro factors" to consider on every turn, and there's more to it than you might expect from a game with only two real decisions per turn.

Not to say that this is some deeply strategic game with tons of depth, either. It's absolutely breezy and lightweight. Analysis paralysis doesn't exist here. You just pull from a bag, maybe flip what you got, then place it on your board. You aren't agonizing over your choices, and there will be some obvious choices along the way. I'm just saying, there's enough here to be delightfully engaging despite how it might seem on the surface.

Luck Factor

Yes, Captain Flip is a lucky game. You have to know that going into it. Any game that bills itself as a push-your-luck game is going to be swingy and unpredictable and beyond your full control, so you have to temper your expectations. But that's the draw of games like this, isn't it?

The thing that prevents Captain Flip from being a chaotic mess of random outcomes is that it manages to keep the point swings small while making them feel bigger than they really are. When you flip from an okay tile to a bad tile, or a bad tile to a good tile, the difference is often just a few points—not enough to devastate, not enough to hand you the game. It's the emotional swing of a positive or negative flip that matters more.

Plus, Captain Flip emphasizes luck mitigation. The luck happens to you when you pull from the bag, but you get to decide what to do with your luck. Got a bad tile? Flip it. Is it still bad? Tuck it away somewhere to minimize its impact. Got a good tile? Place it in a way that maximizes its value without stifling your board of future opportunities. Luck happens, but you get to shape it.

And so I'd say that Captain Flip is about 60% luck and 40% strategy. Yes, sometimes you'll lose because you hit a string of bad flips, and sometimes you'll win because every pull was seemingly perfect. Sometimes you draw that third Gunner and bust your whole game. But luck usually evens itself out between everyone, and smart tile placement puts you ahead.

Fun Factor

If there's one reason why I love Captain Flip, it's simply that it's fun. Between the anticipation of drawing from a bag, the thrill of the flip, and the strategic filling of your board and how the tiles interact with each other, it offers a clean yet satisfying blend of enjoyment.

This game holds my attention even when it isn't my turn. I love the communal aspect of watching others pull their tiles, vicariously experiencing their thrills with them. It's fun when you think "Oh, that tile's good, I'd keep it" only for them to flip it over and get something better... or worse.

It's a silly game, I know it is. But it brings out laughter, elation, devastation, jitters, hope, and shock, all in a way that's lighthearted enough for kids but meaningful enough for adults. It hits different emotions in different ways, with a good balance struck between all of them.

Pacing

Captain Flip is snappy. Once you internalize all the character tiles and get used to assessing your player board, the turns zip on by. It's such a fast game that you can replay over and over multiple times in one night, and that's a good thing for push-your-luck games. It makes the luck more palatable.

But that doesn't mean Captain Flip is an empty experience. Turns are meaningful with real decisions, and there's a rising tension that crescendos to a nice climax. With every tile you pull, your player board fills up—and as that board fills up, the difference between good and bad tiles widens. That makes the push-your-luck flipping all the more thrilling, as you hope for increasingly more specific tiles to complete your few remaining spots.

I also like that Captain Flip doesn't have a clear winner. I've often thought I was in the lead only to get spanked upon scoring, and I've had times where I thought I was hopelessly behind only to win at the end. Scoring is quick and easy with the coins, too. A well-paced game with a solid game arc.

Player Interaction

There's no player interaction in Captain Flip, nor should there be. I don't want any interference in a game like this, one where I'm putting together my own board and in control of my own luck.

But there is one thing all players are vying over: the Map token, which switches possession any time someone plays a Cartographer tile. The 1-coin-per-turn generated by the Map token adds up, so it's worth fighting over and not something to ignore. This tiny bit of interaction is nice, actually.

Also, remember how you can trigger bonuses by filling up certain columns on your player board? Well, some column bonuses on some player boards have race conditions with the first person to complete it getting a different bonus than everyone else. Another minor but fun way to interact.

Player Counts

Captain Flip is basically the same experience at all player counts, with a few minor differences as the player count increases: the Map token is more likely to be stolen between your turns, and more tiles are pulled from the bag overall, which gives you more information for playing the odds. For example, if you see 12 Gunners in play, you don't have to worry as much about pulling or flipping to a Gunner when it's your turn.

Those truly are minor things. You pull and place. That's it. Each additional player doesn't add much to the overall playtime, nor is there much downtime to slog through. I like it best at 2 or 3, but would be just as happy to play Captain Flip at all the possible player counts.

Replayability

While Captain Flip is a filler game, it's one that keeps calling to me. Would I play it all night long? Probably not. I might go up to three games or so in any given session before moving on to something else. But then a day or week passes by and I want to play it again. It has that keep-coming-back-to-it quality.

The four different player boards definitely help it from growing too stale, but it's the slot machine gameplay that never gets old. Pull a tile and see what you get. Flip it over and see what you get. Am I just a degenerate gambler at heart? Maybe! But I love that Captain Flip lets me indulge in these emotions without putting my real-life retirement funds at risk.

It's like gorging on a bag of chips, getting sick of it, then craving it again the next day. Just silly fun, plain and simple.

Production Quality

Captain Flip's production is pretty good. It's clear that more thought went into the design, accessibility, and approachability of the components and less attention paid to the component quality. Obviously some corners were shaved to cut costs, but none of it harms gameplay so I'm okay with it.

The player boards look nice, but they're flimsy and feel cheap. I like the art direction and aesthetics taken for Captain Flip, with its whimsical style playing into the luckiness at the game's core. Unfortunately, the player boards are made of cardstock—not cardboard—and that calls attention to its cheapness. They also tend to bend and warp over time if you don't store them in the box carefully.

The cardboard tiles are thick enough and durable. They're the perfect size. It feels good when you reach into the draw bag and fish around for a tile. There's enough room to stir things up, all without feeling like you're going to break a tile because it's too thin. As the main component in the game, it's great that these tiles look and feel great.

The iconography is intuitive, for the most part. The marking of icons as yellow for immediate actions and gray for end-game scoring is very helpful, and the icons themselves are generally clear about what they mean. I also appreciate that the iconography isn't busy, which is nice when your board fills up with tiles. It's clear and doesn't overwhelm.

The coins have unique shapes and look great. PlayPunk could've easily gone with regular circles and no center holes punched out, but they didn't. They went a small step further with irregular round coins with varying shapes for holes. It's a tiny thing, sure, but it does help evoke that pirate theme.

The player aids are super helpful and make the game great. Captain Flip could've been a flop for me and my group if these player aids weren't included. While the game isn't all that complicated, just having this reference made the initial learning curve so much easier and kept the game flowing even when players had questions about what certain characters did.

The Bottom Line

Captain Flip is push-your-luck done right. It's easy enough for a kid to learn, with interesting enough decisions for adults to engage with, all propelled by fast turns, unpredictable tension, and emotional highs and lows. It's lucky, yes, but balanced by just the right amount of strategy. It's one of my weeknight favorites for when I just want to tune out and have fun.

Buy it from:
Amazon • Miniature Market • Noble Knight Games

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