Three ways to own Lying Pirates, and one clear answer for each kind of buyer. Buy the Base Game at €40 if you are new or testing the waters. Buy the Deluxe BIG BOX at €125 if you want the full premium experience in one box. Buy Cities of Greed at €30 only as an expansion for a Base Game you already own.
Key takeaways
| Edition | Price | What’s inside | Best for | Components |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base Game | €40 | The full bluffing-and-racing game: modular map, 71 Action cards, 50 Crew dice, ships, cups, coins | New players, or testing the waters | Retail-grade |
| Cities of Greed | €30 | Expansion only: City Cards, Influence Cards, Mayor die. Needs the Base Game | Owners who want a deeper game | Matches your set |
| Deluxe BIG BOX | €125 | Base Game plus Cities of Greed plus bamboo cups, metal coins, card sleeves | Hosts who want the complete premium edition | Premium, upgraded |
Table of contents
- The 30-second answer
- Lying Pirates Base Game (€40)
- Cities of Greed Expansion (€30)
- Lying Pirates Deluxe BIG BOX (€125)
- The math: buying separately vs the BIG BOX
- The upgrade path
- Our honest recommendation
- Compare the editions
The 30-second answer
If you have 30 seconds and a checkout tab open, here it is.
- New to Lying Pirates, or buying a gift, or just want to try it? Get the Base Game at €40. It is the whole game. You lose nothing on rules or replayability.
- Already sure you want the full experience? Get the Deluxe BIG BOX at €125. It is the Base Game plus the Cities of Greed expansion plus every component upgraded, in one box.
- Already own the Base Game and want more depth? Add Cities of Greed at €30. It needs a base game to play, so only buy it on its own if you already have one.
That is the decision for most people. The rest of this post is for the buyers who want to know exactly what is in each box and why the BIG BOX costs what it costs.
Lying Pirates Base Game (€40)
The Base Game is the complete game. Not a demo, not a stripped version. Everything that makes Lying Pirates the game it is lives in this box. It is the retail edition we added by popular demand, and it is the right entry point for most new players.
It is a 2 to 6 player bluffing dice game for age 14+, about 40 to 60 minutes per play. You captain a wooden ship racing around a modular map. Each round runs three phases: bid on hidden dice across everyone’s cups, sail and battle for a tile effect, then play Action cards to sabotage your rivals. First ship to lap the map back to the Base tile wins. If two arrive together, it ends in a Final Battle. We hold a 7.3 rating on BoardGameGeek across more than 500 reviews, with about 16,000 games sold worldwide.
Here is what comes in the Base Game box, straight from the rulebook component list:
- 1 Map and 1 Map extension
- 25 Tiles, plus a Tile Legend booklet
- 1 Dice board
- 71 Action cards and 13 Variant Cards
- 50 Crew dice plus 3 Special Crew dice (Pirate King die, Mermaid die, Cursed Die)
- 3 Action dice (Sail, Pirate, Treasure) and 6 Battle dice
- 6 Wooden ships, 6 Cups, 6 Captain coasters, 6 Coins
- 6 Cheat Sheets, 1 Starting Captain Token, 1 Rulebook
Who it is for: first-time buyers, gift-givers, and anyone who wants to learn the game before deciding how deep to go. The bluffing core teaches in about 90 seconds because most adults already know the Liar’s Dice family, the centuries-old bluffing game our bidding mechanic comes from.
Cities of Greed Expansion (€30)
Cities of Greed is an expansion, not a standalone game. It needs the Base Game (or the BIG BOX, which already includes it) to play. Launched through our 2025 Gamefound campaign, it adds a new layer on top of the piracy.
What it brings to the table:
- City Cards. A territory layer. The map stops being only a racetrack and starts being something captains fight to control.
- Influence Cards. A political-pressure layer. New ways to lean on the table beyond bluffing and battling.
- The Mayor die. The controlled-chaos lever that ties the new systems together.
The expansion comes as a single multilingual box, for the same 2 to 6 players, age 14+. The short version: the Base Game is a bluffing race, and Cities of Greed turns it into a bluffing race with a fight for power layered through it.
Who it is for: Base Game owners who have played enough nights to want more decisions and more pressure. If your group has worn a groove into the base game and wants the next gear, this is it. If you do not own the Base Game yet, do not buy this on its own. Look at the math in the next section first.
Lying Pirates Deluxe BIG BOX (€125)
The BIG BOX is the complete premium edition, and it is our flagship. Lying Pirates was born as a premium Kickstarter Deluxe in 2022, and the BIG BOX is the direct descendant of that origin. It bundles three things into one box:
- The complete Base Game.
- The Cities of Greed expansion, mixed in.
- Every component upgraded. Bamboo cups instead of standard cups. Metal coins instead of cardboard. Card sleeves to protect the deck through hundreds of plays. Premium presentation throughout.
Because it carries the expansion content, the BIG BOX plays a little longer and deeper than the Base Game on its own, about 60 to 75 minutes per game for the same 2 to 6 players, age 14+. The components are the difference you feel in your hands. Bamboo cups shake and slam with a weight that cardboard never matches. Metal coins stack and slide like real money. It is built to be the centerpiece on a game-night table.
Who it is for: hosts, collectors, and anyone who already knows they love this kind of game and wants the best version of it from the start. If you have read this far and you are not the testing-the-waters type, this is almost certainly your box.
The math: buying separately vs the BIG BOX
This is the question every honest buyer asks, so let us do the arithmetic out loud.
| Path | What you get | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Base Game plus Cities of Greed | All the game content, retail-grade components | €70 |
| Deluxe BIG BOX | The same content, plus bamboo cups, metal coins, sleeves | €125 |
Buying the Base Game and Cities of Greed separately gets you all of the game content for €70. The BIG BOX is €125 for that same content plus the premium component upgrade. So the premium materials cost roughly €55 on top.
Here is the honest framing, no spin:
- If you only care about playing the game, Base plus Cities of Greed at €70 is the cheaper path to the full content. You will not miss a single rule or card.
- If you want the premium materials, the bamboo cups and metal coins and sleeves, the BIG BOX is the value play. Buying those upgrades piecemeal later costs more and matches less cleanly than getting them in the box from day one.
Neither answer is wrong. It depends entirely on whether tactile components matter to you. Some players genuinely do not care, and we respect that. Some players care a lot, and the BIG BOX was built for them.
The content costs €70 either way. The €55 difference is the cups, the coins, and the sleeves. Decide how much those are worth to your table, and you have your answer.
The upgrade path
One of the nicer things about owning Lying Pirates is that you are never stuck with your first decision. There are three sensible routes.
Start with the Base Game, add Cities of Greed later. This is the low-commitment path. Spend €40, learn the game, and if your group falls for it, add the €30 expansion when you are ready for more depth. You end at €70 of content, on your own timeline.
Jump straight to the BIG BOX. If you already know your taste, skip the staging and get the complete premium edition for €125. Everything, in one box, upgraded.
Upgrade your components after the fact. If you started with the Base Game and later decide you want the premium materials, the Lying Pirates Upgrade Box is available separately for exactly this. It lets Base Game owners move up to the deluxe components without re-buying the whole game.
The point is that no first purchase is a dead end. The cheapest entry, the Base Game, keeps every door open.
Our honest recommendation
We designed this game, so take the EEAT moment for what it is, but we will be straight with you. About 16,000 copies of Lying Pirates have sold worldwide, and we hold a 7.3 on BoardGameGeek across more than 500 reviews. Of those 16,000 copies, fewer than 2,000 are Base Games. The clear majority of our customers buy the BIG BOX or a Deluxe edition.
That tells you something real about who buys this game. People who find Lying Pirates tend to want the full, premium version of it. That is not us upselling. That is the sales mix, and it has been consistent since the Kickstarter days.
So our honest recommendation splits cleanly:
- If you are genuinely unsure, or buying for someone else, start with the Base Game. It is the whole game, it is the lowest-risk way in, and the door to everything else stays open.
- If you already know this is your kind of game, buy the BIG BOX. It is what most of our customers end up with anyway, and starting there saves you the piecemeal route.
- Only buy Cities of Greed on its own if you already own a base game. Otherwise the BIG BOX is the better deal.
If you want help deciding whether this style of game suits your group at all, our guide to what kind of board gamer are you is a better starting point than any product page. And if the premium-components question is the thing you are stuck on, 9 premium board games worth the price makes the case for when deluxe materials actually earn their keep.
🦜 Polly squawks: Most captains who try the Base Game come back for the cups and the coins eventually. If you already suspect that is you, save yourself the second trip to the harbor and grab the BIG BOX.
Compare the editions
Three editions, three buyers. Pick the one that matches you.
Base Game
The complete game, retail edition. The lowest-risk way in. 2 to 6 players, 40 to 60 minutes.
€40 inc VAT
Deluxe BIG BOX
Base Game plus Cities of Greed plus bamboo cups, metal coins, sleeves. The complete premium edition.
€125 inc VAT
Cities of Greed
Expansion. Adds City Cards, Influence Cards, and the Mayor die. Base Game required.
€30 inc VAT