Want to play pirates? In Dead Reckoning you play the role of a pirate captain in command of a ship and crew in a game played with a Caribbean themed setting.
Overview
This is a deck-building game. You’ll have a deck of cards representing your crew and each turn you’ll draft a hand. The cards you draw will represent the available crew and actions you can take representing factors like movement, gunnery and diplomacy. You’ll also have options during the game to generate money and cargo (barrels) and upgrade your guns, ship speed and hold capacity.
You progress in the game using the options available each turn to attack other ships as any respectable pirate would, trade, gaining control over island territories through influence, placing buildings and gaining treasure and advancements. Each turn you’ll also have the opportunity to level up a crew member.
The game map starts with a harbour area for the ships and then three sea tiles and this is extended by further tiles. Mostly these sea tiles contain islands, but there are a few plain ocean tiles. Each turn you’ll have the option to set sails and move to explore the tiles and interact with islands and other pirate ships. There is also a ‘saga’ aspect the game introduced via expansion so a storytelling feel is created and game contents are uncovered as you explore and interact with the map. I do like this as for me it improves the way the game is played adding variability and mystery and plays into the theme.
To win
If you want to win and not be some poor scurvy dog, you need to have the most coins. The endgame is triggered when one player achieves four of the game achievements. Then you’ll total up your coins on your ship and gain bonus for island influence, achievements, crew advancements and ship upgrades. The pirate with the most coins wins.
Card sleeves and advancement
There are some excellent mechanics. One of these is with the card sleeves and the way your crew are upgraded. At the end of your turn, any cards you used are discarded, but you keep the rest and draw cards subject to both a draw limit and hand size limit. You may then upgrade one of your crew cards in hand any time before your next turn, which will either mean turning it over or replacing it with an upgraded version and slotting it back into the clear card holder.
Advancements are cards that can be slotted into the holder that add bonus icons like extra sails or guns; you’ll get the option to acquire these through exploration. You won’t get to upgrade all the crew that much during the game so you will need to prioritise advancements based on your strategy and opportunity. It is a nice mechanic and helps ensure no two games are the same, although getting at least one crew member to level four is advisable.
Another nice mechanic is the map tile draw. It adds a randomness to the game map and improves the replayability of the game. In Dead Reckoning exploration is a key aspect of the game and as you explore new tiles are revealed. There is a linked achievement, so it’s worth exploring just for that, but discovering new islands early could give you opportunities to exploit before your opponents.
Ship battles
In Dead Reckoning, ship battles are as thematic as they are a necessity. Players use a cube tower with the attacking player collecting cubes for his/her attack, plus cubes for opponent and dropping them into the tower; then each player gets to use one battle ability.
Then you evaluate where the cubes land. The battle board is divided into zones and a cube touching a zone triggered the result. These can result in getting extra coins or cargo, damage to a ship and bonuses to determining overall battle strength. Winning can lead to meeting the related achievement and it is possible to win the battle and have your ship sink. Don’t worry if you sink, you will lose coins, but you then start with a new ship in harbour. In short, battles are a great way to gain plunder.
Strategy
In any game, having different options to achieve success is often a good sign. It is likely to mean good replayability, but also it supports different strategies, tactics and styles of play.
It should be remembered though that the game is geared towards confrontation. You can do well without it, but inevitably it makes sense to attack at some point, because of the potential for reward, which can lead to achievements or simply plunder. So, it will pay to prepare for battles by gaining gunnery improvements and ship hold space to store booty.
With that in mind, you will need to think about whether to save crew for future turns, ie keeping them in hand, maybe advancing them and having them available in your current hand for your opponents’ turns as well as your next turn.
Whilst you are limited in what crew you can use, it isn’t too onerous. What crew you choose or are dealt with determines what actions you can take and how effective you are to circumstances like being attacked.
It also pays to control islands near the harbour as players will need to return at times to drop off coins and cargo and therefore sail past your bases where you can build guns and forts. You could do well spending much of the game far out at sea, but it is a significant part of the game to build island bases and exploits the resources.
Components
The components are good, especially the tiles and counters and it’s all very colourful and practical and does a good job promoting the theme. The card drafting and improvement process is supported by decent cards, advancement slides and the holding pocket and it’s all easy to use and easy to read. The map is larger enough to give all players a chance to explore and carve out their own island bases, but small enough to encourage or force confrontation.
Summary
This is a fun game with a heavy slice of confrontation. You can win without it, but the game rewards those pirates that put their reputations on the line, yaarrgh! So it pays, literally, if you are proactive and don’t mind a little aggression. I wouldn’t want to put people off playing because of this, but it is a pirate game there is no space for mere explorers and merchants.
In the games I’ve played, it’s been clear you cannot simply turtle and expect a purely peaceful path to success. You have to explore and take risks. The game is very thematic in the way it plays and the aesthetics and is a quick enough game to allow for a quick replay.
