New Kickstarter by Garphill Games: Flee the Scene

The prolific Garphill games has another kickstarter in the works! Check it out: Flee the Scene

Raiders Kickstarter in full swing!

If you didn't already know the Raiders of the North Sea kickstarter is in full swing.  I have already pledged at the $100 level so I can snatch up both a copy of Raiders and Shipwrights.  My extra copy of Shipwrights goes to a friend that got hooked after I introduced him to it.

Meeple Hospital

I'm a sucker for worker placement and because of this disease I recently purchased Agricola: All creatures big and small while already having Agricola and Caverna.  Sadly a couple of the Sheeples were a bit injured and this game seems to need all the sheep it can get.
 
I decided to use a little bit of polymer clay to repair them, the process was super simple and quick, just line up the injured meeple in the middle of two good meeples and then using your sculpting tool or toothpick match the contours of the good meeples.

 Here we have a good meeple and then a repaired meeple and then one waiting for repair.

The sheeple herd is back in action!

Raiders of the North Sea Anticipation Building

If you missed out on the Shipwrights of the North Sea kickstarter from Garphill games Raiders of the North Sea is just around the corner.

Fingers crossed Shem will have similar bundle deals as before allowing you to bundle in previous games as part of your kickstarter pledge.  I already know of a few people hoping to pick up Shipwrights and Raiders as part of a bundle.

Shipwrights of the North Sea: Review

OVERVIEW

Shipwrights of the North Sea is the latest board game by the New Zealand designer Shem Phillips.  Shem ran an fantastic Kickstarter campaign and after some understandable delays Shipwrights is now arriving to backers in large quantities.

In Shipwrights players are Viking tribes vying to build the most imposing fleet of Ships in the North Sea.  You will be not only competing to have the most efficient ship building engine but directly attacking your opponents.

Shipwrights is for 2-5 Players and plays in 50-70 minutes.

COMPONENTS

Shipwrights comes in a box a bit smaller than your standard Ticket to Ride box, made with a card that seems to be slightly thicker and rounder than your average board game box material.

The only other game I have seen with this box construction is Shems previous game Plethora.  I wouldn't mention this at all except for the fact that the box is slightly harder to open compared with your average board game box but this is a minor quibble.

Components wise Shipwrights comes with a large deck of cards, two booklets, an assortment of wooden resources and viking meeples, five player boards and reference boards, a start player marker and a some victory point chits.

All components are of good quality. The boards are a nice thick cardstock and the actual cards themselves are decent if not exceptional.  The resources and viking meeples are quite small but functional and well made.

Some of my resources were stuck together but popped apart easily without leaving a mark indicating they may have not been completely dried before being packed.

The rules are simple and easy to read and the art booklet has a fun guide to pronunciation that our group found ourselves using on our first game.

Artwork is exceptional across all components and really takes this game up a notch.

GAMEPLAY

The main mechanisms of Shipwrights revolves around three card drafts every round and then playing those cards to improve your ship building engine.

The different types of cards are:

-Ships to build.
-Craftsmen whose specific skills are required to build certain ships
-Villagers who provide a short term benefit for you or "take that" for your opponents
-Tools that will make building a ship easier.
-Buildings that usually provide a victory point bonus.

This is where the majority of the interesting decisions are.  Sometimes you will immediately recognize a card that fits your strategy but often you will agonize over multiple cards, especially when you know that if you don't choose an attacking villager it may be used against you by your opponent.

Players then can choose to play the three cards they have drafted, buy goods with workers and gold they already have or finish building ships using the resources, tools and craftsmen then have acquired.  Certain types of cards are limited, you can only have one tool for example so this is a factor that must be taken into account.

Timing is important to these decisions too because at the end of the round your unused workers will produce gold and the workers themselves will slowly replenish.  So if you exhaust your workers on a big purchase too quickly you can be stuck for multiple rounds slowly building back your workers and gold.

The ships you choose to build also provide you with interesting choices, some ships will provide little or no victory points but boost your engine.  Other ships will be worth many victory points but actually reduce your ability to store resources or recruit workers.


THOUGHTS

If it isn't already apparent I want to say right now that I love this game.  I have followed Shems design career from Linwood to Plethora and now to Shipwrights and I can say without reservation that Shem Phillips is a designer that has consistently stepped up his game and in my opinions is now on par with any of the "big boys" you hear about these days.

Shipwrights really takes it to the next level.  Plethora is a fine game but suffers from more downtime and AP than it really should for a game of its type and felt somewhat unpolished.  Shipwrights is a deeper game that feels faster and more polished.  Having 3 drafts going on at the table at once reduces the downtime and once cards have been drafted the turns go very quickly.

There is a level of engine building in Shipwrights that isn't readily apparent from the outside but adds immensely to the game.  It isn't about building the most ships, its about building the right ships and the right buildings at the right time.

Rating: 8 out of 10

If you didn't get this game from the Kickstarter campaign, I highly recommend you go to Garphill Games and order it.  It is very reasonably priced.

Shipwrights of the North Sea Unboxing

Shipwrights of the North Sea is here!  Stay tuned for a review soon.

Roundup: Boardgames by the bay

Hamilton is not exactly board-gaming central but what we do have is Boardgames by the Bay, a great little weekend convention by the fine folks at Seriously Board.  While not Gencon by any stretch of the imagination you can still go and play games with people new and old in a great setting.

I had a great game of Manhattan Project with celebrity board game designer Martin Wallace, got to see some prototypes in action and met many great people.  It was good to see Manifest, the SchilMil game in its final incarnation too.

Seriously Board give away so many games that I don't know how they turn a profit so I always make sure to buy a game from them.

This may be the last year for BGBTB, but there is still one more in November in Auckland so check them out!