Episode 43 - Ahoy

In this episode, we take to the high seas as mariner ocean creatures.  We're vying for control of the local islands as the Bluefin Squadron and Mollusk Union or bootlegging our way to the top as true pirate smugglers.  This asymmetrical dice rolling and area control game offers a Root-lite experience that's easy to learn and difficult to master.  Listen to find out who the most seaworthy player is and why scissors and pocket watches are piratey.

Game Info:
1-4 Players
90-120 Minute Playtime
Ages 13+

Board Game Geek Entry

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Transcript

Jake: 0:13

Hi, and welcome. I'm Jake.

Rachel Cutler: 0:16

I'm Rachel. And we'd be bored.

Jake: 0:23

Perfect. The Podcast where each episode we take a close look at a tabletop game and discuss our personal experiences with said game. To help answer the question, Well, this year our boredom,

Rachel Cutler: 0:34

Aye That's right. We look at the mechanics, the complexity and the replayability in a game to see if it's the perfect alternative to Oh, no leveling and classic. Wow. And you can't get a mount until to level 40. So you're running around, and like, have to travel to what Stranglethorn Vale and just be walking everywhere. Because Gosh, why can't I have a mount yet?

Jake: 1:02

I mean, yep.

Rachel Cutler: 1:05

That's not the case anymore, though, obviously.

Jake: 1:07

No, it's not. It's not the case anymore. I have thoughts, and we'll talk about it later. I'm sure it's Check us out on streaming. And we'll talk about well, okay.

Rachel Cutler: 1:19

Yeah, we've been playing a lot of World of Warcraft lately.

Jake: 1:21

Yes, we have. But before we get started, speaking of streaming, we do stream every Wednesday nights, we stream five to seven Pacific time, depending on basically if I'm not working or not. We post on our social media when we'll be streaming that day. So check that out. And you can find us at twitch.tv/snowboard Podcast. I am also getting back to streaming regularly. You can find me streaming lots of retro games and indie games at twitch.tv/naughty. Doc 541. That's naugHT. Why do c541 All right.

Rachel Cutler: 1:57

So what game are we talking about today?

Jake: 2:00

Crisis?

Rachel Cutler: 2:02

No, I wouldn't introduce crisis. This was a pirate theme.

Jake: 2:06

We could I mean,

Rachel Cutler: 2:08

but I wouldn't. Today we're talking about Ahoy.

Jake: 2:12

Ahoy. Ahoy hoy. Ahoy matey it for anybody who knows me in real life. I say a Hawaii and ironically a lot.

Rachel Cutler: 2:20

That's true. Actually. That's kind of how he greets people.

Jake: 2:24

It's true. ahoy hoy

Rachel Cutler: 2:25

. So this is a game by leader games. I have been corrected. I previously in our root episode sub letter games, leader games. They are the creators of root. Yes. Tell us about

Jake: 2:39

it was designed by Greg Loring Albright, and released not yet. So full disclosure at the time of the recording of this episode. It has not been released. Officially. They were selling copies of it at Gen Con. And the guys at the leder games booth. Were so gracious to give us a copy full disclosure, they gave us a copy of this game to review. So this is our review episode of Ahoy.

Rachel Cutler: 3:11

Ahoy.

Jake: 3:12

We wanted to do it right now. Because we were told that it was going to be released this month while we were at GenCon. So we're hoping that's still the case. And we're hoping that we can, you know, get some hype for this game. Because while them giving us a game does not affect our review. We are actually pretty happy with this game so far. We'd like to also thank them for the opportunity to get the review copy.

Rachel Cutler: 3:37

Yeah, absolutely. That was really cool. Actually, we stopped by him said, Hey, we're the we're so bored podcast. And they were like, Oh my gosh, we recognize you from the root episode that you did, which made me a little nervous initially, like, oh, we were kind of mean about how their rulebook is the same.

Jake: 3:56

And then I talk crap about how their their factions really only feel like you can play them one way.

Rachel Cutler: 4:03

I don't think that's talking crap. I mean, that that is a true statement. I think intentional? Yeah, I think it's intentional. I think it is. Yeah, so they recognize this. And they were like, Oh, hey, we have this damaged copy of the game. Since you're like an audio only medium, it doesn't matter that the box is damaged. So here, take this and you can do a review.

Jake: 4:23

Oh, yeah. And if you guys are listening, literally just the box was damaged. No components are damaged at all. So

Rachel Cutler: 4:30

yes, it turned out beautifully. But I also wanted to say that this game is currently available for pre order on the leader games website. It is going for $40 from and that's something we talked about later, but it is available for preorder. It says that it's going to be releasing sometime in q4. We're hoping that that is sooner rather than later.

Jake: 4:52

Yeah, like I said, we were told during Gen Con it would be released this month. So we hope that's still the case. If not, maybe you can go get your pre order ready so that when it comes out hopefully before, I hope before Christmas, you'll have it. Yeah. Because as you'll see, we like this game. Why is this a Halloween game? Why is this in our Halloween series?

Rachel Cutler: 5:13

I feel like it fits pretty well. Obviously pirate is a great costume.

Jake: 5:17

Yes. Also anthropomorphic animals always remind me of Halloween for some reason. Don't ask me why

Rachel Cutler: 5:24

we will be playing this on stream tomorrow, actually. And you better believe we will be dressed up as pirates.

Jake: 5:31

Wait we were playing this one on stream? Yeah, I thought we were playing the other pirate game. What other pirate game? I don't know.

Rachel Cutler: 5:38

What other pirate game do we have?

Jake: 5:42

We have two other pirate games. Well, we have one. What are pirate?

Rachel Cutler: 5:47

Can you name them?

Jake: 5:48

Yes, we did tiny epic pirates as an episode. And then I feel like Forbidden Island could arguably be or Lost Ruins of Arnak could arguably be pirate themed.

Rachel Cutler: 6:01

No, no, no, no, no. Last Ruins of Arnak is Indiana Jones.

Jake: 6:08

There are pirates in Indiana Jones. Now there are well, I mean, we could get really technical on what a pirate is. And I'm sure we could argue that there are pirates in Indiana Jones. I digress. Let's go ahead and talk aboutAhoy.

Rachel Cutler: 6:26

We're playing this game on stream tomorrow. Join us for some fun. Yes. So this is a game where you are trying to get the most points by either smuggling cargo between islands or controlling wealthy islands depending on what faction you play. The map consists of tiles like C tiles that are divided into four quadrants, one of those quadrants will contain an island, the tiles get shuffled at the beginning. And then you remove one and place it in the box. So you should have 11 left that are making up the stack. And then you set up the game by placing the top two tiles so that the islands are as far away from each other as possible. And you have only like one little quadrant of each island kind of connected and touching. So you don't actually have to lay them, like completely matching up if that makes sense. Like, I don't know, think of betrayal where you have to make the doors line up or something. It's not like that it's the open ocean. You can kind of line these up and lay them out in any way, even having only one quadrant touching.

Jake: 7:41

Yes. So they are squared tiles divided into four quadrants, but you don't have to line up the larger squares.

Rachel Cutler: 7:48

So like I said, each of these tiles contains an island and Each island has a suit on it that is depicted. And this determines what kind of crew or loot can be picked up at that location. The suits are yellow crossed, cutlasses, which legitimately I thought were scissors at the beginning of this got made fun of green palm trees, orange compasses,

Jake: 8:14

so the orange compass, I legitimately thought it was a pocket watch. It looks like a pocket watch.

Rachel Cutler: 8:21

Scissors and pocket watches that makes total sense for pirate culture, right? Purple fishbones, a blue parrot or a Red Skull.

Jake: 8:31

I just want to say that this is not in any way infringing on Disney's intellectual property for Captain America. This is a legitimate red colored skull icon. Oh, gosh, I didn't even think of that. They're very litigious. I just want to get ahead of that. Sure. Okay, because Disney's gonna come sue us. That's right. They might for all this internet money. Yep. That we make so much. Yeah.

Rachel Cutler: 8:57

Those are the suits, that is associated with, like I said, the crew and the loot that you can get. So you have to have the island matching, you know, the crew that you want to hire or matching the loot that you're picking up that's like where you get those specific things. And then on you know, this C tile, you will also have a wealth die. So there's actually like a little indent spot on the tile where you can place a small little dye, these always start at the value one, and then the value will increase depending on how many players you have. If you have smugglers the value increases when they deliver cargo to that island. Or if you don't have smugglers if you're only playing with two people, then the value is increased at the end of the round by the person who has the first player card. Yes. And then lastly kind of describing these tiles there are different types of terrain that you can find on them. So there are strong currents which are just kind of little wavy arrows, and that automatically pushes you or your boat in the direction of those arrows. There is a harbor, which is just like a big anchor symbol. And if you choose to stop there and anchor that will allow you to repair to damage to your action slots, which we'll talk about in a second. Or you can take an already placed action die and put it on your cannons, which again, we'll talk about that in a second. There's fog, simply you can't do battle where there's fog. It's like a safe zone. There are sandbars. So these are just like little sand color things that kind of appear between two of the quadrants. And that is a like a block, you have to navigate your ship around that you can't go through that. There is wreckage, which just looks like a bunch of trash in the ocean, you take one damage when you move there. But if you stop there, there's always treasure. So one or two gold that you can fish out of the ocean, that you get automatically for stopping there. And then the last terrain symbol is just a dice with, you know, various values in the corner. And those are locations that you can use your tailwind action at talk about that more in a second.

Jake: 11:19

Yes, there is a fame track off to the side, which is its own separate board. This is just how you keep track of basically your victory points famous your victory points. The end of the game is triggered when somebody reaches 30. However, there are ways to get victory points after the game is over. Depending on what faction you are. Under that fame tracker, there is a market of cards. The cards represent both crew members and cargo, depending on which again faction that you are, if you are the smuggler faction, you can use them for either one, but you can only use them for one, these cards, you have to pick which one it's going to be when you pick it up. Right, right, you have to decide if you're purchasing the crew member. Or if you're picking up the cargo to smuggle crew members can be hired with gold or an action die depending on what their cost is. And once you hire them, they have this ongoing effect. Depending on what they are, for example, being you no longer have to move in the same direction as a strong current. That's the salty dog, or the sailor dog or old dog or something like that. Okay, it's the salty dog. I know it's a dog picture, I remember that much. Okay, but the cargo can be picked up by smugglers, as I said earlier and delivered to the specific type of island that is on the bottom of the card. So for example, these cards are suited at the top left and the bottom right. For the top left, that's where the crew members have to be purchased at. And they have to be picked up as cargo at on the bottom right, that's where the cargo is delivered. So those will always be different suits. And now we're gonna get to the How To Play. So after you've rolled your dice, you will go around the table and place to action die at a time on various actions you will take to die and choose one to two different actions that you would like to use those die on for your turn, put those dice into those slots, and those become your your completed action. Some of those slots will show specific numbers on that that exact number is required to use that action.

Rachel Cutler: 13:30

If you've played dead of winter, this is very reminiscent of that and the action die that you have.

Jake: 13:36

Yes. Now if you don't have a number that you need, you can actually adjust the number on the dial up or down by one by paying gold per number that you are trying to change. For example, if I have a four and I need a five, I pay one gold that four becomes a five or vice versa if I need or if I have a five and I need a four. I can pay one gold to bring it down. I have a three and I need a five and just pay two.

Rachel Cutler: 14:03

But you cannot change it from six to one which doesn't roll over like that. Yeah, yeah, we know Jake's upset. It would cost you five gold to change your six to a one ridiculous.

Jake: 14:17

I can understand the other way. No, I can't I don't like it. No what. So some of the common actions that we have are sailing. I mean, this is a pirate game. You're on boats, you're going to be sailing. This is moving your flagship one to two spaces. You cannot move through sandbars. Now when you are done moving, you're what's called anchored that's stopping that move action. It's done while you're moving. If you decide to move off of a tile so that there is no longer ocean beneath you. You are now exploring a new tile. You pull a tile off of the stack of ocean tiles, flip it over and you are able to set that down onto the map. So it now becomes a new section of the map any way that you like as long as two islands are not touching each other. Once you have explored you immediately anchor and then you place a wealth die on that newly explored tile at one. So the next action we kind of mentioned earlier was tailwind. So tailwind is to teleport to a space with the number matching the number on the action values. So most of these map tiles will have a tailwind slot. So it will show a dice value on there. So if I have a three and I want to teleport to that map tile with a three, I can take three die put it in my tail one slot and I immediately teleport to that location. It makes getting around interesting. Let's put it that way.

Rachel Cutler: 15:50

I mean, it allows you to ignore you know any ships that you would cross any sandbars that you would across any like anything in between it literally is a teleport

Jake: 15:58

Yes, cannons, this is my next favorite action. Battles happen immediately when a player enters another player space and at least one of them has their cannons loaded. battle takes place with all enemy units in this space where this is the case. So if there are three people there and one person walks in with cannons loaded, everybody does battle. The person whose turn it is is the attacker.

Rachel Cutler: 16:23

I have a little bit of a gripe with that. It doesn't make sense to me that okay, I don't have my cannons loaded. You do have your cannons loaded. I move into your space. You attack me you should be the attacker.

Jake: 16:38

I mean, yes. I thought your gripe was going to be battle shouldn't happen because you moved and I'm like, Well, you've got gold, I want that gold. I'm gonna take that goal.

Rachel Cutler: 16:49

It makes sense the battle happens but you should be the attacker if only one of you has the cannons loaded. Like it's the one who has the cannons loaded. That would be the attacker I would think. I don't know. But anyway, continue.

Jake: 17:04

Okay. So the steps of battle are choose a defender if there are multiple units, the attacker may reduce the number on the die in their cannon slot to give a bonus to a battle roll. For example, if I had previously put a five die into my cannons, I can reduce that all the way down to a one to give me a plus four to my battle roll, which we'll talk about in a moment, the attacker does have to do this first, then the defender can do the same if they have cannons loaded as well. So they get to see what they have to defend against. Then they get to make their choice. Each player rolls a single battle die, which is just a six sided die. You add your bonuses to the roll to determine the winner, the person with the highest roll wins, obviously. And the winner chooses a victory option on their board. Typically, it's to do damage steal gold, there are a couple other options depending on what faction you're playing. And then the attacker is automatically anchored after battle. Repairs is another action that I believe all factions have. This is a slot to put dice into to repair damaged slots on your ship during battle it when you lose your adult damage. And those damage tokens will actually take up slots in your ship. For things like tailwind for things like cannons for things like sailing, they will actually take up slots so that you are no longer able to do that until you repair.

Rachel Cutler: 18:30

But it's also it's worth noting that when you lose in battle, the winner gets to choose where that damage goes. They get to choose one of your action slots to block.

Jake: 18:43

I really liked that rule.

Rachel Cutler: 18:45

Yeah, there are some other actions that are unique to each faction. Everything that Jake just listed is available to everybody. We'll talk about the unique faction stuff at the end when we're done explaining the rules. But each faction gets to turns it around. Because everybody has four dice except for the Bluefin Squadron, which has a fifth dice. That gives them the ability to basically take the last turn every time and have one final action that they can do. That's the round where everybody places all their dice. And then at the end of the round, we calculate in score control for the Bluefin Squadron and the mollusk union. So the smugglers don't care about controlling the islands they just care about delivering cargo. But for the other two factions, you will calculate control based on the units that they have in that region. You'll gain fame or victory points equal to the wealth die in that region. And then you'll do the cleanup phase. Preparing for the next round I guess. You take your your action dice back you check and see if the game is over. If anybody's reached at least 30 fame, you adjust if there's only two players. So this is the point when the person would the first player card would go and adjust the wealth die on one of the islands because you don't have any smugglers. And then, assuming the game's not over you reroll your dice, and you pass the first player card to the person, you know, clockwise. Yeah. So that's basically the game. And now we're going to talk a little bit about each individual faction and kind of what they have that's special to them.

Jake: 20:29

Yeah, the first faction that we want to talk about is the Bluefin squadron. This is the faction that will always go first. Yeah. And they will always end each round because they have one extra action dive in all the other factions. So the blueprint squadron will place a patrol unit. After every sale or tailwind action. They count as a plus one when calculating Island control. Two patrols on the same island at the end of their turn can be converted into strongholds, which I'll talk about later, because I have some i have some thoughts about this? These strongholds actually prevent other players from hiring crew and picking up and delivering cargo to the island. You are limited to three strongholds. These strongholds will always have their cannons loaded, meaning if any ship comes into that place, they automatically attack. Regardless of whether or not that ship has cannons. They get a plus two to battle roll. They can recruit crew as if your flagship was on that island. And they count for a plus two on island control. The Bluefin squadrons unique actions are bombard which removes all of the mollusk Union's comrades which is their, their presence basically, from the island and your flagships region. Order is another action that you can take which will move up to four patrols one space each, and deploy which allows you to place one patrol on or adjacent to your flagship.

Rachel Cutler: 22:01

Okay, next we have the mollusc union. OP please nerf!

Jake: 22:05

Yeah, yeah, they are actually

Rachel Cutler: 22:09

they're represented by mollusks, snails, or oysters, or something along those lines. And yeah, they have comrades. So you can collect comrades on islands, even where there are strongholds. And that essentially counts as your presence like Jake was saying they add to your control of the region. However, before you can place comrades, you need to have them ready or get them ready. And so that basically just means that there's two different actions, one to ready them, and one to actually place them. The other unique thing about the mollusk union is that they have plans. The plans are a unique set of what

Jake: 22:49

I was just shaking my head at their plans. They are OP.

Rachel Cutler: 22:54

Yeah, so the plans are a unique deck of cards, that you get to draw two cards from every turn. And these contain all kinds of cool things that you can do basically, for free. Like you can choose to ignore battle or you can teleport to a tailwind spot without actually using an action dice for tailwind. Within this deck, there are two extra ships that you can gain there is the gunship and the cutter. Both of these require action dice to move and cannot be repaired. So if you manage to damage them and like damage all of their slots, then that kills the ship. And it's out of the game. And they both count as plus one control in a region. Now the gun ship always has its cannons loaded that kind of makes sense based on the name. And the cutter never has its cannons loaded. So it will not quote unquote initiate battle, like as it can still get into battle if someone else has their cannons loaded. But the other cool thing about the cutter is that it actually doubles the control that your comrades contribute to the island in the region that the cutter is in. Again, op pleased. Yeah, unique actions that the mollusk union has is inspire. So this allows you to place one comrade on up to four different islands you have to pull them from your ready comrades, a symbol which allows you to place for comrades on the island in the region where your flagship is, again, you have to have them actually ready first, and then rally moves for comrades from the supply into that ready spots.

Jake: 24:40

Well, I have thoughts on the mollusk union as well. We'll get there the final factions because you can't have multiple of them in the same game. Or the smugglers you can have up to two or you can have none or you can have one

Rachel Cutler: 24:56

hmm those are the options.

Jake: 24:58

Those are the three options for the amount of smugglers you can have in a game currently. So, as we kind of mentioned earlier, they can pick up cargo from an island instead of hiring a worker from the, the market pool that is available, they can actually if they are at the matching suit on the top left of the card, pick that up and deliver it to the island matching this suit the bottom right, they can carry up to two of these cargo cards at a time. If they ever have more than two they need to discard down to to basically the tossing it overboard. Now, when you deliver cargo as a smuggler, you immediately gain to fame, you increase the wealth die of that region by one, and you get a reward. Now the reward is kind of interesting, because the smuggler faction has this kind of grid on their faction board with different reward bonuses. And you're moving these two cubes around to figure out what you want and how you're getting them. So you'll move the white cube to an adjacent reward and collected and you move the black cube to where the white cube was previously. So you can't go back to that the next time. And you will just continue to go around and around, they start in the very center of that matrix. And after they deliver their cargo, they now need to pledge that cargo they can either pledge to the Bluefin squadron or the mollusk Union. At the end of the game, they will gain one fame for each cargo pledge to the faction that controls the type of island it was picked up at. Yeah, this is how they can actually gain victory points after the game is over. Their unique actions are full sail, which allows you to move your ship up to the number of spaces as the value of your action die. And they have negotiate. They can recruit crew members for free and regardless of the type of island, they can recruit an additional crew by removing one comrade.

Rachel Cutler: 26:53

Yeah, that's not something that any of the smugglers did in our game, but it is not an option.

Jake: 26:59

That's it. That's the faction. So we could go ahead. Yeah, talk about our experiences now.

Rachel Cutler: 27:05

Yep, that's the game. So start us out. Tell us all your thoughts.

Jake: 27:10

My thoughts are the most union is way overpowered, especially in a four player game, when the smugglers are not taking that action and getting rid of one of your comrades. Nobody did that. And especially when two of the three other opponents decide they're gonna gang up on the Bluefin Squadron, and then ignore the other smuggler, who then just does all this crazy work. And win like, by a ton.

Rachel Cutler: 27:42

He didn't even win the game, though. No, he didn't. But he triggered it. No, no, he did. No, he didn't I did. Okay. So basically, what Jake is alluding to is we played this game with my sister and her husband. The two of them were the smugglers, Jake was the Bluefin Squadron and I was the mollusk union. And most union has an incredible ability to spread out and just have control of all these spaces. And I think the Bluefin Squadron is supposed to have that ability, because you're placing your patrols and all of that. It's just the mollusk union can spread it feels like much easier and yes, quicker.

Jake: 28:26

Because the mollusk union has a way to spread to anywhere, anywhere it wants to. You don't need to have your flagship in that location.

Rachel Cutler: 28:34

Like literally just any of the four islands just place a comrade

Jake: 28:39

who are you comrade question?

Rachel Cutler: 28:41

So yeah, a little OP, I can see where this tried to be balanced. And you know, maybe we're not playing at peak ability yet. You know, it might be the Bluefin squadron just takes a little bit more. I don't know. Finesse?

Jake: 29:01

Yeah, I don't know, because I thought I was doing okay in the beginning. But I found out very quickly, what I wanted to mention about the strongholds is, you cannot put them out too soon. If you put them out too soon. Smugglers don't come to the islands and they don't, because they are worth so much control. If the smugglers don't have an opportunity to raise the wealth value, then you're gonna get one for that, that island at the end of the round. You're not going to get twos and threes and fours. It's just you won't get it. So that was my big mistake because I put out like two or three strongholds immediately. And that didn't help me.

Rachel Cutler: 29:39

Yeah. The other thing that I noticed was that you didn't really use your bombard action.

Jake: 29:44

Oh I tried to I tried to thing is

Rachel Cutler: 29:50

think you wanted to use it once?

Jake: 29:52

Yes, I wanted to use it once and it would have been devastating because you have like eight things on one island,

Rachel Cutler: 29:59

but One of my plan cards wasn't evacuation, which allows me to take all of my comrades from one single Island and basically just spread them out to all the other islands.

Jake: 30:09

But I could have done it. Okay, I did what you did in games, where I didn't read close enough. I didn't read the I don't have to be at the island. Yeah, you just have to be in the region, just in the region. I could have. I could have made it. I could have done it, but I didn't. So

Rachel Cutler: 30:28

yeah, you didn't use bombard like at all for the rest of the game. That was like the one time you were planning on using it. And we also played a game where it was just me and Jake. So we didn't have any smugglers. And in that one, I was the Bluefin squadron. And I was basically running around just like bombarding every island that he appeared on or, you know, attempting to control his population with bombard Yeah. And so you didn't spend a lot of energy on doing that?

Jake: 30:53

No, I didn't. I spent a lot of energy trying to spread patrols and spread strongholds, which I thought was the the way to go. And apparently, I'm wrong. So

Rachel Cutler: 31:03

I think it's a balance, honestly. I think the way that the Bluefin Squadron is meant to be played is you're supposed to sail around a bunch. Everywhere you stop, you place a patrol. And so you kind of strategically choose where you're going and placing these patrols so that you don't have to spend too much time, like moving them on your own like as a separate action, right? And then you can also like as you're moving around, make use of that bombard action. So I think you have to do a little bit of both. And I think that's where, you know, what I'm saying is like, it requires a little bit more of that finesse, whereas the smallest union just feels very like ham fisted. I can just come through here and kind of bulldoze my way to victory.

Jake: 31:49

Yeah, the mollusk union is amazing, though. I do feel like they are not as balanced, though. They have a lot more going on for him.

Rachel Cutler: 31:59

Yeah, I did want to compare this game to root which was done by the people at the leader games booth. It's made by different people, or there's different people listed as like the the creators, but it has very similar. Like, you can tell that it's from the same people that did root, it has a lot of the same types of things going on. And so I think it's really easy to compare the mollusk union to a little bit of both the woodland Alliance and the vagabond. It's the Vagabond with the way that it has its own unique deck, but the woodland alliance with the way that things kind of just pop up. Yeah, I would agree with that. Yeah, and I think the Bluefin squadron really plays a lot like the Marquis de cat. There's, you know, a little bit less going on in terms of like, needing to manage workshops and all this other stuff. But if you enjoy route, or if route like seems like a fun game, but maybe it's just a little too heavy for you. I feel like this is a great game to get started with. It has a lot of that same vibe with it. But I feel like it's a little easier to get into a little simpler to get into.

Jake: 33:16

I would agree with that route. I feel like is definitely heavier. In this game is and I think honestly, I have more fun with route.

Rachel Cutler: 33:25

Yeah, I mean, I don't know with both games, you really can't play with two people. It's not fun with two people. Right? You really need at least three. Probably best at four.

Jake: 33:36

Yeah, I agree. I think like route, this is better with more people. Three to four is I think the sweet spot route can be up to six. We talked about it. I don't know how that's gonna work. But yeah, I would definitely say play this with at least three. Yeah, that's my experience playing thus far.

Rachel Cutler: 33:55

Yeah, I've had a pretty good time with it. I've had a lot of fun. Neither of us have had an opportunity to play the smugglers yet. That seems like fun. And also a lot like root, like, they kind of have their own thing going on. They don't care about the control of the islands really, like there's a little bit of like bedding going on with them, like dedicating or pledging their cargo to one of the unions, and that can get them points at the end. But other than that, they don't really care what's going on between the other two factions. So don't I kind of like that, that like, Oh, hey, we're just going off and doing our thing.

Jake: 34:28

I kind of wanted to be a smuggler in the last game. We let your sister and her husband decide. So next time, that's fine.

Rachel Cutler: 34:39

The last thing that I want to say about this game is that it is the game that tiny epic pirates wanted to be

Jake: 34:48

yes, I totally agree with that. I feel like if you mixed this with tiny epic pirates, it would be incredible.

Rachel Cutler: 34:55

Honestly, I think this is great the way it is. I mean, I guess are you talking about the ability toplay with two people

Jake: 35:01

in tiny epic pirates. You're all smugglers. Right? You all have the opportunity for the cargo. That would be something that could also be very interesting.

Rachel Cutler: 35:11

Okay. But yeah, so I mean, we did an episode previously, a long time ago at this point over a year ago. Yeah. On tiny epic pirates. And we had a lot of complaints about it about the way that the combat works. It doesn't feel like it's sufficiently like detrimental it like there's no, there's no issues with getting into combat. But in this game, you can feel it, right. Because when you lose combat, your action slots are removed, you don't have the ability to use them. And so like this fixed that problem, and, you know, stands out as far and ahead, the superior pirate game, agreed 100%. All right. Why don't you tell us about all the crazy expansions that they've got going on?

Jake: 36:02

Oh, yeah, they have a ton of no expansions right now. They have none. Because as I said earlier, this game has not even been officially released yet. That being said, I do feel like this could be another root situation where they have a lot of different expansions that are available or will be available in the future. I can definitely see that.

Rachel Cutler: 36:23

Honestly, I hope that that's what they do. Yeah, I hope. So. I think that there is a lot of potential of like different things that they can introduce that way. And again, it kind of plays into this, like lighter version of route that it's trying to be.

Jake: 36:38

Yeah, I hope that they do that. So as of right now, as we said, no expansion is currently available, I would be willing to bet money, there will be some awesome expansions in the future with new factions, and new crew cards being added. Yeah, hope to see that in the future. Board Game Geek ratings. Once again, keep in mind, this game has not been released yet. It has been rated at a 7.3 of a whopping 91 ratings.

Rachel Cutler: 37:08

Nine one Yeah.

Jake: 37:09

Nine, one less than 100. And we haven't even put ours in there yet. So

Rachel Cutler: 37:15

what would you rate this game?

Jake: 37:16

I think I would probably rate this as seven.

Rachel Cutler: 37:19

Okay, I was thinking an eight.

Jake: 37:22

I would say a seven.

Rachel Cutler: 37:23

Okay, what's your reason?

Jake: 37:25

It has some balance issues. That's all.

Rachel Cutler: 37:28

Oh, that's true. That's true. Actually, that's a good point. If they come out with an expansion that fixes the balance issues with the mollusc union.

Jake: 37:34

Oh, yeah, I would say any? Yeah. Okay. Because you're playing as the Bluefin Squadron and having two of the three opponents just ganging up on you. Not fun. Not super fun.

Rachel Cutler: 37:49

Okay, so it's on to our rating section, then it is. So first we have easy versus difficult. This is how difficult is it to read the rulebook? How often do you have to go back and consult the rule book, et cetera? You know, basically, how easy is it to play the game? definite improvement, amazing. And from Root. Again, I know that there, there was a different designer for this game. So I'm sorry to keep comparing you to another game. But the rulebook is way better, it's easy to read, it makes sense. There was some stuff that I felt was a little out of order, but like that might just be a personal preference kind of thing. Like, you know, typically you have the end game scoring stuff on the last page, but it's in the middle, because of like, they describe how you go about playing the game and doing the round. And then they go into a lot more detail after that. of okay, well, these are what all the actions are, these are what each of the factions do, yada yada. And so, you know, in our explanation of it, I kind of moved things around to a way that made a little bit more sense to me. But that doesn't mean that it's done badly or poorly. Right. Overall, I think I'm gonna give this a four on easy versus typical.

Jake: 39:12

I think that's fair. I was gonna say probably a four or five. It's not nearly as difficult as route. Yeah, it feels like also, the way that the faction boards are written is more intuitive than the faction boards in route. So you can pick up the faction board and look it over. And I don't know if that's because we have experience with this type of game now, or if that is just how it's written, but I do feel it is better.

Rachel Cutler: 39:40

No, I think you're right, because like everything is actually fully written out on these faction boards. There is no interpretation of like symbols and pictures and stuff that you have to figure out. So yeah, I agree. Okay. All right. Next we have simple versus complex. So , if that's a little confusing in comparison to easy versus difficult, we like to use chess as an example. Chess is an easy game to pick up. There's only so many pieces. And each piece only has so many moves

Jake: 40:12

chess we can.

Rachel Cutler: 40:15

But it's an incredibly complex game in terms of the amount of strategy that you can bring to it. That's why there are chess world masters, and not Tic Tac Toe World Masters. Right?

Jake: 40:27

Not Yahtzee World Masters. There are Tic Tac Toe World Masters. Yeah. But I'm, I don't know, I said that very confidently. But I can't guarantee that.

Rachel Cutler: 40:38

That's not true. So yeah, this is about the level of strategy that you can bring to the game. I feel like there is definitely a little bit of strategy that definitely goes into the Bluefin Squadron, right? It doesn't feel like okay, there's really only one way to play this. And that's how it needs to be done. Now, with that said, there's probably an optimal way to play the Bluefin squadron. Yeah, but you can definitely kind of focus on different things. Like I was saying earlier, you could bombard and spend a lot of focus on that, or you could spend a lot of focus on like building up strongholds and moving around patrols and using that,

Jake: 41:20

what we didn't talk about what the bombard is, there's only one slot for it, though. So you always get it one round. If the game only lasts six, seven rounds, I literally only have six, seven opportunities to do it. That's true. And if there are four or five islands, how do I choose? You know? Hmm, yeah, there is definitely strategy to this game definite strategy.

Rachel Cutler: 41:45

Yeah. And I mean, I think the same can be said with the other factions. So you know, the mollusk union can choose where they're placing their comrades, and the smugglers can choose, you know, what kind of cargo they're picking up? Or, you know, there's always the choice between, oh, do I hire this guy as a crew member for the effect? Or do I pick it up for cargo? Right? That's kind of a decision that you always have to make as a smuggler? Right? Yeah. I wouldn't say an immense amount of strategy. It is a lighter game. I think I'm also going to give this I'm gonna give this a five.

Jake: 42:20

Five a whole five. Huh? Huh, what are you giving it? I was gonna give it five or six? Yeah, I was actually gonna say six.

Rachel Cutler: 42:28

I was debating four. And I was like, I think four is a little too low or? Yeah,

Jake: 42:33

really? You think four huh?

Rachel Cutler: 42:35

No, I said five.

Jake: 42:37

I mean, but you were debating four

Rachel Cutler: 42:39

i was debating and I decided on five.

Jake: 42:41

Okay. All right. I'm gonna say six. Okay, that's fair. Maybe because we haven't figured it out yet. But I think there is something more to this, that we're missing something I think. Okay, that's what I think. And the last reading that we like to use is wrote versus random. What mechanics changed during each game play to make a unique experience. There's a couple things, you have the market deck that is shuffled each game, you also have the tiles that you are playing with, one of them is removed for each game. So you will never get the well, more than likely won't get all of the same tiles as a previous game. And I mean, then you've got dice rolling for your battles. And that's pretty much it.

Rachel Cutler: 43:27

And the action dice. That's the big one.

Jake: 43:30

And the action dice.

Rachel Cutler: 43:32

Yeah. So I think that's the big one that kind of steps this up from being like No, not really random to Oh, yeah, this is a decently random game, it is pretty random. But I do like that they have added a mechanic where you can kind of get control of that, or, you know, you can offset your bad luck a little bit by paying gold to adjust your dice. Oh, I like that a lot. Hmm, that makes a big difference. Because, you know, depending on what faction you are like, the mollusk Union, and the Bluefin squadron both have actions that require a very specific number, and only that number works. It's not that number or higher. Right? You have to have a four you have to have a one. So that ability really makes a big difference.

Jake: 44:20

I agree. I think that that is awesome that they put that in, because it's super frustrating when you want to do an action and there's no sorry, you rolled a crappy hand this time. You can't do what you want to or need to.

Rachel Cutler: 44:33

Yeah, but that said, I think I'm still gonna give this a five on the random scale.

Jake: 44:37

Okay, still a five. I don't think I'm gonna give it a five, four. I was debating between four or five actually. I'm gonna give it a for 4.5 Okay, 4.5 That's it. Okay. It's time to ask the question, Rachel. Would you rather play ahoy over leveling a fresh new character and wild classic so that you can raid in Wrath of the Lich King.

Rachel Cutler: 45:08

Yeah, I would rather do that because you know what I boosted my character

Jake: 45:14

You convinced me to boost and so now I'm a shamefully boosted character as well

Rachel Cutler: 45:19

Oh don't be ashamed.

Jake: 45:20

I'm ashamed.

Rachel Cutler: 45:23

Yes. Oh boy. sounds way better, especially if you can get more than two people. It's a great time.

Jake: 45:29

I'm ashamed. I boosted

Rachel Cutler: 45:32

Don't be ashamed.

Jake: 45:33

I'm ashamed. It's okay though. I actually enjoy your leveling. I don't know, they still think I'm an alcoholic as well. So anyways, that's that's another another topic for another day.

Rachel Cutler: 45:45

Anyway, this game,

Jake: 45:47

you would much rather play this game

Rachel Cutler: 45:49

I already said that.

Jake: 45:50

Yeah, kind of figured that. But that's it. That is a holy. Thank you all so much for listening. And once again, thank you to leader games. For the review, copy. We really appreciate that. Hopefully, you guys are still fans of us. Hope you don't hate us after this. And I mean, we like your games.

Rachel Cutler: 46:11

I think we were nicer this time.

Jake: 46:13

I feel like we were nicer. And I wanted to mention that. So I was told that whoever we talked to at the booth was actually the creator of root and he recognized us. If that's the case, I'm super sorry, one that I didn't recognize. And two that was so critical.

Rachel Cutler: 46:31

Yeah, we were talking to Cole.

Jake: 46:33

I don't think it was there. But I do feel bad. Like putting, it's like, you know, people on the internet are mean, and they are mean because they don't have to see who they're being mean to. And then when you see who you're mean to you're like, Oh, I was mean. So anyways, sorry.

Rachel Cutler: 46:50

I think we give fair and honest reviews. I don't think we were unfair about our review of root. Maybe that's why they liked us is because we gave them a fair and honest review.

Jake: 47:02

It's possible. Or maybe they're masochists?

Rachel Cutler: 47:06

Sure, let's go with that.

Jake: 47:07

Okay, masochism for the win. But once again, thank you all so much for listening. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram at so bored podcast, that's s o b o ar D podcast. We'd love to hear about your experience with this game or if you're excited for it to come out or when when you get your copy, let us know. You'll also be able to find pictures and short stories of other games we've played recently and interact with us all things tabletop gaming. You can also email us at We are so bored@gmail.com That's W E ar e s OB o ARD at Gmail. And make sure you subscribe so you'll receive notifications when our new episodes are available, which will be weekly this month. And leave us a rating so that we can grow our audience and help other people who are interested in board games find our podcast. You can also now rate on Spotify. So that would also be super helpful.

Rachel Cutler: 48:01

Super duper. We'd also like to thank and T podcast management for editing this episode. I know I make your life difficult. Thank you so much for doing a great job. They are professional podcast editors and can be found at a n t dash podcast management.com. Also thank you to our artists Michel Mims. He's accepting commissions so you can go and check him out at m i m SCOSARA. On Instagram, or at his website Michel Mims. M I see h e l m i m s.ca r r d.co.

Jake: 48:43

Once again, we are streaming on Twitch once a week, Wednesday evenings. Join us tomorrow for this game as we dress up as pirates. I mean, one of us will be dressed up as a pirate. No we both will.

Rachel Cutler: 48:56

we both have pirate costumes.

Jake: 48:58

We both have pirate costumes. But yes, we stream on Twitch every Wednesday night at some time in the evening. We let everybody know on social media when that's going to be but you can find us at twitch.tv/so Bored podcast that's sob o ARD podcast like everywhere else. And I'm also streaming on Twitch semi regularly at twitch.tv/naughty Doc 541. That's NAU gh t y d OC. BI for one. I like to do a lot of retro and indie stuff. And that's it folks. I don't think we have anything else.

Rachel Cutler: 49:32

Thank you again for listening and we will see you next time. Bye bye