A pirate's life for you?
Arrr, the age-old question. Dividing families, friends, and netizens since the early 2000's...
If you answered 'Pirates', then Dead Reckoning, by John D. Clair, may be the board game experience you are looking for.
Published by AEG (2022), Dead Reckoning is a '4X' (Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate) tabletop board game for 1-4 players. Each player takes the role of a ship captain. Over multiple rounds (and a few hours), players will...
- ...travel the high seas, discovering islands (explore)
- ...take control of different islands, and wrestle for control of islands owned by others (expand)
- ...produce goods on islands they own to fund their activities (exploit)
- ...fight other ships, winning plunder and fame (exterminate)
Along the way, you will develop the abilities of your crew and upgrade your ship, moulding both in support of your chosen strategy. More on that below.
In this first (long) look at the game, I overview a few key mechanisms and components in the base game, and share my thoughts after playing a couple of 4-player games.
Are you 'Pirate-curious' about a strategy game with interesting decisions to make each turn, a strong pirate theme, deck building, and a 'sandbox' feel of freedom? Read on.
Play this if you:
+...like strategy and planning.
+...are looking for a 'sandbox-y' game, with varying viable approaches to play.
+...like the satisfaction that comes from upgrading a hand of cards over time.
+...enjoy resource gathering.
+...are happy with light, low-stakes conflict between players.
+...don't mind a lot of randomness in combat.
Avoid if you:
+...suffer from strong 'analysis paralysis' (there are lots of options to consider).
+...live for deterministic combat, where luck plays little or no part.
+...prefer short games. (<2 hours)
+...dislike any kind of player v. player conflict.
+...love pvp, and expect to easily eliminate enemies and for them to suffer heavy consequences for defeat.
+...want a pirate game that delivers a 'swashbuckling story'.
Playing the game.
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| Nearing the end of game. |
How you win
Your objective is to have the most victory points (indicated by coins) at the end of the game. Coins are counted from those you have in your treasure chest (physical coins), resources you control, and upgrades you have purchased (more on those below). Endgame takes the form of a final round, triggered once one player has garnered four 'achievements' (from a varied pool of nine.)
Over the course of the game, which achievements you go for can influence the way you craft and level up your crew. Some focus on aggression (sinking ships and winning battles), others commerce (reaching 30 coins), and yet others territory (exploration, island ownership, buildings etc.)
You have time to pursue a mix of strategies based on those achievements. Want the more combat oriented achievements? Upgrade your ship with more cannons, seek out enhancements ('Advancements') for your crew that add combat abilities, and level up those crew that bring more punch to the fight (e.g. the Gunner.) If area control is more your jam - holding islands, building on them and generating resources - you will need to upgrade your purser and buccaneer to help you do this most efficiently!
What you do each round
Every round, players will be using abilities from their hand of crew cards to put their strategy into action. With the exception of movement and exploring an ocean tile, actions can be taken more than once. These include:
- Movement (based on how many sails icons you have on your ship and hand), including exploring an ocean tile.
- Playing a card from your hand, or the ability on cards. This can include attacking other ships, developing your islands with buildings, producing gold and barrels, expanding your influence on islands, and more.
- Buying an advancement card or resolving an encounter in your space.
- Loading, unloading and otherwise managing barrels and money on your ship.
For example, you could:
- Load your ship with barrels in your port (barrels are your currency).
- Set sail (giving you a certain amount of movement points).
- Sail out to sea, for example move one space (1 movement point) to an unexplored ocean tile.
- Explore that ocean tile, revealing an island and an 'advancement' card you can buy to upgrade your hand.
- Buy that card (paying the cost in barrels from your ship.)
- Sail one further tile out to sea, and stop (you can only explore/ reveal one tile per round.)
Once your actions are complete in the 'main phase' above, and you have decided whether to go into 'Pirate mode', you'll move into the clean-up phase, where you'll upgrade the cards in your hand using one of the best mechanics in the game.
Card crafting
This mechanic is probably the biggest U.S.P (unique selling point) for Dead Reckoning. Designed by John D. Clair and refined over previous games such as Mystic Vale (2016) and Edge of Darkness (2019), it brings a really enjoyable twist to deckbuilding and levelling up.
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A captain, with only a basic action (at bottom)
and no advancements sleeved. |
Throughout the game, you will have the ability to buy 'Advancements' from the board. Instead of being new cards that you place in your tableau, these are clear plastic cards that slot into the sleeves that make up your crew. Effectively, you are adding new action abilities to each crew member, with every card having space for three advancements (top, middle, and bottom.)
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Level 4 Captain with 3 advancements, showing
a wide variety of abilities. |
At the start of the game, your crew each have basic actions they can take (in the image above, this level 1 captain can 'set 1 sail'). By adding 'advancements', you build the abilities of each. A major part of the game is to keep an eye out for advancements that come into play on explored islands, buying those that might support your strategy, slotting them into the appropriate crew member's sleeve, and building on their abilities or directing them in a new direction. Abilities are indicated using icons and a simple formulae system. So important are advancements that even on another player's turn, we would pay close attention to each reveal, looking to see if the new advancement was a good fit for our hand.
Advancements are organized into 4 levels/ decks and revealed each time a new ocean tile is explored. Each time a player purchases one they are replenished from a thick deck of that same level. Higher level cards (4 being the highest) are revealed on islands furthest away from your home port, requiring more resources to get, and often more barrels to buy.
If the game only offered these advancements as a way to improve your crew, it would still be interesting, but the icing on the progression cake is the other major card-crafting mechanic at work...
Levelling up cards
Every turn, you will make a decision about which one crew card from your newly drawn hand of (usually six) cards you will level up to improve their actions. You remove the card from its sleeve and either rotate it or flip it over, giving it a new or improved basic action, in addition to any enhancements that you have sleeved on it.
In the image below, you can see both the level 1 action that this captain can take, and at right, the level 2 action that the captain will have if you level up the card (by rotating it). If you had levelled up to 2, then the info for the level 3 ability would be displayed.
Gravity-based battle
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| Battle ship and battle board. Notice the icons! |
Naturally player versus player combat plays a part in a game where everyone competes for resources. Opportunities for combat and 'exterminating' an enemy come about regularly thanks to some achievements being based around conflict. You also have NPC merchant ships in the game (in the form of enhancement cards) that can be traded with OR attacked (for likely better rewards than the goods the merchant has.)
However, for a pirate game, combat is integrated in a way that makes it possible to avoid combat (or not pursue it as a strategy). To initiate combat with a player on your own turn, you need to play a pirate icon from your hand (and these aren't on every crew card). You can also put your ship into pirate mode at the end of your turn (indicated by a chunky marker). This means that other players who stop (not move through) on your part of the ocean must join battle with you.
In D.R. how combat is conducted and resolved seems to be the part of the game that most splits opinion among players.
When combat occurs, each side musters cubes based on how many cannon icons they have represented on their ship or cards in their hand (if fighting an NPC merchant, their card will dictate how many cubes they get). Then, the attacking player drops all the cubes (including those of their enemy) into the cube tower. These then spill out onto the dual layer battle board, which is divided into different sections. Each section has different iconography, indicating rewards, damage taken to your ship, or battle strength (which will ultimately decide the victor).
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| The active player drops the cubes for both combatants |
After the drop, players will redrop any cubes (with extra cubes!) that fall into 'Exploding cube' spaces, and players can use any 'battle abilities' that are on their cards. These might add extra cubes or have another effect.
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| Calculating the victor |
The image above shows the aftermath of a battle between green and yellow and is a good illustration of how it might go!
- An initial drop took place combining all the dice represented by cannon icons on ships.
- Along the way, the green player got a cube in the 'exploding cubes' section (in the middle), so they will have dropped that dice and an additional dice.
- Both players have reviewed/ played any 'Battle abilities' on their cards. This might be 'drop two more cubes', or 'move any one cube to an adjacent section'.
- Many cubes have fallen on spaces offering barrels, gold, or a combination of both. So yellow and green have won lots of plunder which they keep (if it fits on their ship or can be placed on the adjacent island they control.)
- The green player has done two damage to the yellow player (the 'fire' icons.)
- After all drops are done, the winner is determined. The yellow player has won, because they have more 'crowns' from their drop (a total of 6 vs. 4). (Damage does not count towards a win.) The winner will take any coins from their opponent's ship, and get a point towards the 'Legendary' and 'Terror of the Sea' achievements.
- By default, the loser (green) takes one damage (it can take 5 before it sinks). If sunk by another player, they get your gold (or 5 gold if you didn't have any on your ship). Your ship then reappears in port (pirate insurance?) on their next turn, with any plunder gained, and you take your next turn as normal.
A few key points:
There are lots of spaces that provide plunder. Even if you lose the combat, your cubes might allow you to pick up barrels and gold.
It isn't easy to sink a ship in one battle. You need to do five damage. (The loser is then valuable to other attacks by other players on their turns though!)
The green player had more cubes than yellow (11 v. 8) and did more damage, but still 'lost' the battle.
Whether this system of combat will appeal is going to be very dependent on what type of gamer you are. It is very random! There will be times when you completely outgun your opponent and have many more cubes and battle abilities than them, but their ONE cube ends up in a 'Battle strength' slot, giving them the victory. You might have similar amounts of cubes, yet theirs give them lots of barrels, gold, and ship damage to inflict on you, and you come off less well.
It is all in how the cubes fall.
Considering the theme of the game, is this a problem?
Personally, I enjoyed it! I like that it was quite low stakes and there is no player elimination, and I was still excited to see how the cubes would fall. Even if I lose I might come out of the battle with barrels and gold and (unless I'm already damaged) likely sail away. I enjoyed the 'cube dropping' and the battle tower is a nice centrepiece to the game. I also (personally) find it easy to rationalize away that 'Lucky hit' my opponent got to win the battle. Perhaps their single cannonball struck the powder magazine on my ship?
For players who do want to take a more piratical route, does this make that strategy toothless? I don't think so. Upgrading your ship and enhancing your cards with a focus on combat is still worthwhile, as all those added cubes increase the chance that you will overpower your enemy. Taking the 'Legendary' achievement requires wins in battle, not sunk enemies, and the 'Terror of the Seas' achievement is for sinking just one ship. Even if you don't win, you'll have many more cubes that might give you barrels and/ or gold (if you can carry those barrels in your hold mind you...)
Finally, the lack of really serious consequences allows less aggressive players to not worry too much about taking on another player or being engaged in combat. You'll always have a chance to win.
In summary, gathering around the tower was a fun experience - where will those cubes end up?
Cubes ahoy!
I've talked a lot about cube combat and card crafting because these two elements were most interesting to me. However, there are other mechanics that play a major part in the game. You'll likely need to integrate several strategies to help you win achievements and victory points. One of these is area control.
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In this early part of a game, six ocean tiles (at right)
remain unexplored. |
As you 'explore' the ocean tiles, you'll discover islands that you will need to control in order to 'exploit' resources (barrels and gold). These can only be produced by the player who controls the island.
Control is gained by the player who adds enough 'influence' (cubes) to the island by playing abilities on their crew cards. A good example would be the buccaneer, who has basic abilities that do this. If you have more cubes on an island than another player and over half of the number of cubes required for control, the island becomes yours. You then add a 'permanent' cube in your colour, which can never be removed by an opponent, and counts towards future control checks. As control moves back and forth, you will add a permanent cube each time you gain (or regain) control.
Once control is gained, you can 'produce' resources using the crew ability of the same name or an advancement (the purser has an ability that does this). The amount of gold and barrels you receive will differ from island to island, modified by 'open ocean' tiles that buff islands next to them. Islands that cost more influence to control may produce more resources, and some have other benefits, such as increasing your hand size. While you control an island, other players can neither produce there, nor they load (steal!) your resources from the island to their own ship, even if at the island. Instead, they'd need to first wrestle control of the island from you but adding their own influence cubes, knocking yours off.
To prevent this, you can either stay at the island and put your ship in pirate mode - forcing an interloper to fight you first or, build up your defences. Forts (that must be destroyed first) and garrisons (add defensive cannons to the island) both dissuade attacks. Other players will have to fight and destroy these if they want to add their own cubes. Outposts will increase production on the island. All these buildings will count for victory points at the end of the game.
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Each player controls islands here.
Yellow, purple, and green have 3, blue has 1.
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Through a combination of exploring tiles, gaining and managing your own islands and capturing control of islands from others, you'll 'expand' your territories and the resources you need to put towards your plans. There are also achievements that directly reflect these activities, including:
- Builder: build 5 or more buildings.
- Settler: Have 6 or more permanent cubes across islands.
- Capitalist: Have 30 gold.
- Master merchant: Separately return 12 barrels to the supply at once.
As players level up their crew and purchase and insert advancements, players who have invested in abilities that focus on influence will move around the board, wrestling control of islands.
Components and storage
Everything in its place and a place for everything
I really like a game where storage has been well thought out, and D.R. does this well. On the inside of the box lid is a visual guide to how everything fits together. Player pieces are all divided and stored in the treasure chests, enhancement cards sit in numbered tuckboxes. The battle ship tower has a box, cards and sleeves too. Great!
Aside from their ship player board, all player components fit into a small (appropriately coloured) treasure chest. This includes cubes, ship miniature, pirate mode marker, and achievement markers, making it easy to dole out player pieces at the start of the game. Once players have their pieces out this box doubles as their treasure chest for gold storage.
The only niggle here is that the treasure chest lid closes inside the box (rather than the lid flap snapping closed via a magnet) and this makes it difficult to get your pieces back into the box and easily close it. I can see the chest lid getting battered and damages over multiple plays without a bit of care.
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Player treasure chest/ storage and the pieces it stores.
In game, your gold will go in the chest. |
Other components also have their own boxes, with treasure, building meeples, and barrels all safely stored without the use of any plastic baggies.
Tower troubles
In my limited interaction with the game so far, I've found the components are good quality and support the gameplay and theme well. The centrepiece of attention for most players will be the battle ship cube tower. In use on the table it works well and after assembly feels like it will be usable for some time with very careful care, but there are two annoying issues.
The first big pain is putting it together and storing it. You'll find instructions in the box on putting it together, but I had to watch a YouTube video to see the best way to do it. Even then, there were a few tense moments during assembly. It does have its own box that stores it neatly away, but the assembled ship barely fits. I felt much more comfortable snipping off a few millimetres of the prow to better enable putting it away and using it, rather than the prow getting bent and damages over time.
Secondly the cardboard tray into which cubes fall feels a bit fragile. The walls can be disassembled for storage (and lie flat) but I'm not sure if the folds will last. Only time will tell.
Player pieces (of eight?)
In play, as well as your treasure chest, you will see the following before you:- Your ship board, divided into different zones that you can upgrade over time with better hold spaces, more sails, more cannons etc. There are cutouts for a cube to indicate how much speed you create each turn by setting your sails.
- Your dock tile. This is functionally exactly the same as the port space on the gameboard, but sits next to you so you don't have to constantly reach over to the main board to store your barrels (an excellent idea!)
- Your cubes (used to indicate how much control you have of an island, and dropped into the tower in a battle.)
- Your achievement markers, placed on the game board as the game progresses to show which achievements you have...achieved.
- Your pirate marker. In the printing I have this is a weighty disk that will be placed with or under your ship miniature on the board to show that you are in 'pirate mode'.
- Your hand of twelve crew cards in their sleeves.
I've mentioned the 'card-crafting' system above. I'm happy to report that the cards themselves are of high quality, as are the enhancements that you will put into the sleeves. The game also comes with extra sleeves, which is a nice touch. They might become necessary as you will constantly be inserting and removing cards from the sleeves and some might get damaged or split.
Something to note about the card crafting system is that your cards will need cleaning after a few games and normal use. The clear enhancements easily pick up fingerprints and smudges through handling, and these become noticeable after a couple of games. I felt I had to wipe them down with a microfiber cloth as a courtesy to future players.
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| Cleaning enhancement cards with a microfiber cloth. |
Final thoughts.
I'll keep it simple...
...I really enjoy Dead Reckoning.
I like the 'card-crafting', enhancements, cube tower combat system, and freedom of choice. The game is long (several hours your first few plays), but your turn is full of decisions and strategic choices to make. I never felt bored on other player's turns (I was watching their moves, scanning the new enhancements, and planning). As you level up your crew and add advancements you feel a strong sense of satisfaction and increasingly capable of winning achievements.
As a 'pirate game' it may not stand up if you are looking for a story-based game, or a game that focuses on combat, however you will find that memorable movements still abound.
I'm very aware that with a game of this type it is difficult to cover all elements in a blog post like this, but I hope I've given you an idea of some of the mechanisms at play! Will I remain as keen on D.R. with a few further plays? Not sure, but I certainly look forward to more plays.
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