1565 The Siege of Malta (Spanish)

“1565: The Siege of Malta” is an asymmetric and tactical non-collectible card game that focuses on a crucial year for the hegemony of the Mediterranean. Each player, as an Ottoman or a Christian, must gather troops and resources to overcome the different obstacles on their way to the siege, and once there, engage the enemy.

Based on a tactical game concept and quick, there is no need for players to build their own deck of cards, each player simply takes their faction's deck of cards, shuffles it and starts playing.

“Relive the greatest siege of the history. A decades-long period of harassment reaches its terrible and bloody climax.
The formidable Army of Suleiman the Magnificent with some 30 thousand men, falls on the 500 besieged Knights of Saint John and the conscripted Maltese population, with the explicit purpose of annihilating them, and changing the course of history forever…”

- In Spanish.
- Game for 2 players in competitive mode.
- Solo game, with exclusive rulebook.
- Epic battles with 30-40 minute matches.
- For players 10 years and older.
- Can be combined with 1066:The Battle of Hastings, to generate different battles such as Normans vs Ottomans.
- Its components include more than 100 unique and spectacular illustrations. As an example, all the illustrations on this page are from the game.
- The 140+ cards provide excellent replayability.
- Cards with historical notes provide an immersive experience.

“1565:The Siege of Malta” is an asymmetric and tactical non-collectible card game that focuses on a crucial year for the hegemony of the Mediterranean. Each player, as an Ottoman or a Christian, must gather troops and resources to overcome the different obstacles on their way to the siege, and once there, engage the enemy.

Based on a tactical game concept and fast, it is not necessary for the players to build their deck of cards, each player simply takes the deck of cards of his faction, shuffles it and begins to play.

The game is played through rounds of 4 phases each in which players play their cards and build their armies by deploying unit, character, tactic or accessory cards and playing event cards.

The game phases are:

- Preparation Phase: in this phase they check if the victory conditions have been met, and they draw new cards from their deck or discard the excess cards in their hand.
- Deployment Phase: in In this phase, players alternate performing one of the following actions: play a card, execute a action, sacrifice a card or pass. This phase ends when both players pass.
- Front Phase: this phase is where the combat takes place if the battle has started. The players compare the values of the cards they have assigned for each front and depending on the result, damage is assigned to each front.
- Objective Phase: this phase only takes place before the battle. During this phase, each player tries to fulfill the objective that is active at that moment.

Each player has a series of objective cards that their leader must fulfill in order to reach their final objective, which is none other than he laid siege to key fortresses on the island of Malta. In this way, players must first prepare for battle through character cards and units that are deployed on the battlefield.

Once the last objective is revealed, the battle begins and the The main objectives of the player will be to destroy the enemy units or the leader of his opponent. For this, the combat takes place on a battlefield divided into 3 fronts: San Telmo, Senglea and Birgu.

Each front represents the confrontation of approximately 2000 men from each side. Players will need to deal 10 damage to the enemy in a section to defeat them, which is the equivalent of dealing 1000-1500 kills to your enemy. The first player who manages to defeat his opponent on 2 fronts, or who manages to kill the enemy leader will be the winner of the game.

It is possible to play alone since a regulation is included with an AI that has of various difficulty levels for the enemy player. All the cards can be used in the solo game mode, even some of them have specific effects for the solo game.

The history of the Order of the Knights Hospitallers of Saint John dates back to the year 1084, when it was born for charitable purposes, founding hospitals in its city of origin in Jerusalem next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and spreading to Palestine, Syria and Europe. The Order begins to change its purpose until it becomes a military force, in a continuous fight against Islam. Once control of Jerusalem was lost by the Christians before Saladin, the order had to change its headquarters over the years, going from Rhodes where they settled in 1310 to ending up in Malta in 1530 when Charles I gave them the island to establish their headquarters there. Thus the Order begins to take on the name of the Order of Malta, continuing its religious struggle at sea.

For some time, the Order made plans to reconquer Rhodes, but soon settled in Malta, taking advantage of its strategic location successfully attacking the Turkish ships, especially when, from 1540, the Barbary corsairs began to operate in the waters of the western Mediterranean, frequently attacking Christian lands, such as the Balearic Islands, a land given by the Order's Grand Masters, and where many knights came from.

The corsair Turgut Reis, also known as Dragut, was beginning to become a threat to the Christians, and after his attack on Pollensa in 1550, he gathered 10,000 men to attack Malta in 1551. After these incursions, the Order reinforces the Fort of San Angel, and builds two new forts in just over 6 months, the San Miguel, and the Fort of San Telmo. The continuous threat of Dragut, leads Philip II to organize a naval expedition, which the Order joined, beginning a warlike escalation between the Spanish and the Ottomans for control of the Mediterranean. The Spanish expedition of 1560 ends in a major defeat for the Spanish Armada at the Battle of Djerba. The Ottomans then made a great strategic mistake by not trying to take advantage of their victory to attack Malta, having the Spanish fleet decimated. This error allows the Spanish fleet to rebuild and the Knights of the Order to be reinforced.

Meanwhile, the Order, under the command of Jean Parisot de Valette, continues to attack non-Christian ships, capturing some 3,000 Muslim or Jewish slaves. Thus, in the middle of 1564, the Order captures several important characters such as the governor of Cairo, that of Alexandria and the former tutor of the sister of Suleiman the Magnificent. This gives the Ottomans an excuse to organize an expedition to stop the Order's ongoing attacks.

Jean Parisot de Valette, Grand Master of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of Saint John (illustration of the game).

The Ottoman fleet left Constantinople in March 1565, arriving in Malta on May 18. Suleiman was wrong to divide the command between Piali Pasha and Mustafa Pasha and to order both to obey Dragut when he arrived from Tripoli. While Mustafá, commander of the land forces, wanted the forts of San Ángel and San Miguel by land, Piali wanted to attack the Fort of San Telmo first, and thus have an anchorage for his fleet. The Piali criterion prevailed, since the Ottomans were convinced that San Telmo would not resist more than 2-3 days.

Thus began the Great Siege of Malta, considered one of the military sieges most important in history. The Christian troops totaled about 6,000 men, including the Knights Hospitallers themselves, Spanish and Italian soldiers, and the recruited Maltese population. For their part, the Ottomans had appeared on the island with some 30,000 men including sepoys (the Ottoman equivalent of Christian knights), janissaries and corsairs.

The attack of the sepoys (game illustration) .

Will you finally put an end to the Christian corsairs, whatever the cost, leaving control of the Mediterranean at the mercy of Suleiman the Magnificent?

Or will you defend the island to the ultimate consequences, preventing the Italian and Spanish coasts from being at the mercy of attacks by Ottoman corsairs?