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Rating: 8/10 after 20+ plays
by Thorsten Gimmler
art Andreas Steiner
published 2002 by Kosmos / Rio Grande
players: 2
duration: 45 mins.
type: middleweight card game
PACE: MEDIUM. Players have 3 to 6 actions per turn, and will be trying to play combinations of cards to move their raven and/or remake the path so that it is helpful for one's own raven, and not so pleasant for one's opponent. Since the majority of the cards simply have one terrain type on them, it is a matter of deciding what order to play them in, and how to use the "Odin" (action cards) to compliment your hand of terrain cards.
COMPLEXITY: LOW. Lay out a series of cards, place ravens at one end. In order to get onto the square with a grassland picture on it, you must play a grassland card from your hand. Easyy as pie. Sounds boring?
LUCK: MEDIUM.
TENSION: MEDIUM.
CONFRONTATION: LOW.
INTERACTION: MEDIUM.
VISUALS: EXCELLENT.
THEME: MEDIUM.
PLAYER SCALING: unknown.
GAMER APPEAL: YES.
CASUAL GAMER APPEAL: PROBABLY NOT.
RATING: 8/10 after 1 PLAY
- Sail the Sea in your ship, shipping and selling goods, staving off pirates, planning carefull for the voyage ahead...all the while thinking this game feels an awful lot like Bohnanza. As in Bohnanza, there are commodities whose numbers vary, and whose value accumulates at different rates, but, like Bohnanza, staying with a good for a longer period of time is always better than switching goods all the time. To get these goods in sets, you simply play them from your hand, and build your scoring deck. The problem is that when you play cards, they will nto only go into your deck, but they will also dictate how many commodities you can hold in your hand, how much gold you secure this turn, how many pirates you encounter, how many free cards you get, how far you ship moves, and how many goods you will get to ship next turn. Oh! and there is a trading mechanic that involves bonus points, and chits that given special actions and award bonus points. You'll know this game is your style of game if you made it through these last couple sentences and are more excited than confused.
My 2 cents: I really enjoy my first playing. I admit that my strategy of piling up military bonus points didn't work (I needed to ship more often), but every turn I thoroughly enjoyed the game and the process of managing my hand effecitively. The cards have seven different attributes (two of which have an iverse relationship) and planning effecitively really felt rewarded. The incredibly small package was also a nice change too, since the game board itself is only one small (but well thought) part of the game (not to mention that it helps keep the price point down.) I wish I had a copy, because I don't get to play this as often as I want to. Let's hope for an American publisher!