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| My wife loves pirates. But the game was actually simple and enjoyable and the cards had lots of flavor text. Fun game with a lot of interesting mechanisms, many of which seem to have been taken from other good games:
- auction mechanism, #rounds in game, special action (aka designer special power): Age of Steam
- special power also dictates turn order: Canal Mania
- card drafting: lots of games! Some good ideas that just don't work. The theme is a bit wonky, of course. I seen it suggested that maybe the lower cards should have the higher yardage, that sounded feasible to make decisions tougher when I first seen it but after playing I'm not so sure it would work right since a pair of 3's will beat a King. Fruit is just too valuable in front of you to want to 1) use an action, 2) burn those points and 3) likely be setting up the person after you for a move. The voting at the end to see if you can recognize your starting sentence based solely on the final drawing, as well as rewarding funny entries, makes Scribblish into an actual game, rather than just an activity. Why does the score track go to 92? I like how portable this game is - you can take it camping or travelling. Winning and losing doesn't matter in this type of game to me, it's all about having fun. You have to wait for your opponents to complete their turns, as well as all the cards, which are screaming to be read throughout the game. Too light for me to personally rate it above average though, and I would only really play this even occasionally with someone else who was enthusiastic about it because I like many standard, non-themed 2 player card games such as Canasta more than this. Flippin' ridiculous. My board was BADLY warped however, I did not see this complaint anywhere else though so maybe I got unlucky. I enjoy the auction, and its a pretty important part of the game....but it also has some drawbacks. Another note is that once a ship returns to a haven, you lose it. It's gone. So every ship is an investment. I have to wait until the new batch of Auction Cards flips before I can really start to consider things. Theme: I don't know what the theme would be? I feel like the majority of this design is wanting me to play strategically, but then the auction card element kind of imposes a strong tactical element. |
| Poker and football! However, I'd be willing to try again with the advanced rules. Still think Gridiron is my favorite, but this can be no. Especially the latter was a bit too random for my taste. It might also suffer from a group that does not play aggressively enough. I enjoy this much more than tallying #s. There should be a random fruit placed on the board for every 2 players rounded up EVERY turn....the game would feel much better then. Red and Green Hats - A fiddly handling of the felt "hats" and little consequences for the scoring make this a superfluous addition. Overall impression: It's not the worst game I've ever played, but the theme alone is plainly disgusting, along with the graphics. As I said, it will certainly need more plays to know for sure. Oh, and the game is really not like poker at all just because you can make poker hands, maybe a little and a little bluff but completely different game, mechanic-wise more like Football using a WAR resolution. Setup: Just take a slip of paper and roll it into a scroll. Once you load your ship with silver (capacity depending on current ship's cargo size), you bring it back to your Haven (which can change at the play of a card). The game felt very stop and go with more stop than go. "Oh wait, I can't do that as I don't have the right city card...shoot, there is no city card that I need in the city card display." Game text should be at the top of the text box and in a larger more normal font. You're either drawing, writing, or trying to stop laughing. It's gone. The biggest negative to me is that this leaves me with not that much to think about during the down time. Do you fill your huge warship to capacity, risking odds it will survive your opponents attempts to sink it and steal your silver? This multiplies the playing time (at least the way our group plays). This game also divides you up into two factions, the red bucaneers and the black pirates. I'd like to play again, but I doubt there will be much enthusiasm in the local group. Only red can attack red battle sites, play red ship improvements, and vice versa. This provides a bit of control causing you to divvy up your own resources and feels like you're controlling two characters. Some players in our group wouldn't play because they don't like 18xx....and others who did were disappointed when I started explaining it. |
| Sounds cool/fun. The feeling is that it could catch very well the tension of a football game with 2 players. Also, you need to recognize that this game is not about relative prices and gains but about absolute gains. The power hands are uncommon, but possible if you draw for them. But all of these are easily ignored for actual gameplay. First, the lower the card - the less useful and reward if it wins. Though, making low pairs are a good way to beat the single high cards. As it stands, there are several directions you can go in what you are choosing to do. I still think 5 is really the maximum number of players for this game. |
| Nice swashbuckling game, bringing a lot of atmosphere to the gaming table. It totally breaks the game...DON'T DO IT!!! Still think Gridiron is my favorite, but this can be no. Can't see playing this without at least six players but think it would be best with eight. Holy cow, where is the control? No doubt that was a spoof too that stopped being funny very quickly, particularly on a small table. I'm sending a pirate out that way. EDIT: Another play today showed that offense is indeed possible. |
