Shipyard

Play

Rondel = my favourite game mechanic ever.

The depth of this game is in the scoring system and, in particular, building you ships to suit your Government contracts which, for me, turns the game from a tactical one into a strategic one. Two reservations. 1) It's just a little long for us to fit it comfortably into our 3hr game night. 2) It's a bit multi-player solitaire.

Only two plays so far but it's a very good game.

So dry. Not much interactivity. Several aspects seem imbalanced to me, such as the relative value of the action selections.

So many rondels. A little gimmicky but also makes the game incredibly restrictive (in a good way) and tactical. A lot of the time you will be forced into Plan B as your opponents will unintentionally block your intended action, or a more efficient path opens up. There are so many different things you need to collect in order to make a boat and there will be several turns of performing actions that score you nothing, so it is immensely satisfying to finally complete construction and send it off on a cruise that triggers multiple scorings.

I'm not sure I like the hidden objectives as it is too hard to tell what other players are going for and you end up ignoring other player's boards. Additionally, some of the conditions seem a lot easier to achieve than others which lead to some pretty huge swings at the end of game scoring.