# Dead Reckoning

Dead Reckoning is a board game for 1–4 players. It plays in 90–150 minutes and is meant for ages 14 and up. Ludoya players call it best with 3. It is rated 8.4 out of 10 by 19 Ludoya reviewers. The cheapest copy in stock is $82.16 (United States).

- **Players:** 1–4 (best with 3)
- **Playing time:** 90–150 minutes
- **Minimum age:** 14+
- **Complexity:** 3.4 out of 5
- **Year published:** 2022
- **Categories:** Fighting, Territory Building, Exploration, Pirates
- **Mechanics:** Area Movement, Area Majority / Influence, Scenario / Mission / Campaign Game, Deck, Bag, and Pool Building, Layering, Modular Board, Cube Tower
- **Ludoya rating:** 8.4 out of 10, from 19 reviews
- **Owned by:** 37 Ludoya players
- **Plays logged on Ludoya:** 103
- **Unique players:** 109

**Designers:** John D. Clair

**Artists:** Ian O'Toole

## Expansions

- [Dead Reckoning: Deep Legends](https://www.ludoya.com/games/dead-reckoning-deep-legends)
- [Dead Reckoning: Sea Dogs Expansion](https://www.ludoya.com/games/dead-reckoning-sea-dogs-expansion)
- [Dead Reckoning: Salt & Thunder](https://www.ludoya.com/games/dead-reckoning-salt-and-thunder)
- [Dead Reckoning: Letters of Marque](https://www.ludoya.com/games/dead-reckoning-letters-of-marque)
- [Dead Reckoning: Sea Dogs Expansion 2](https://www.ludoya.com/games/dead-reckoning-sea-dogs-expansion-2)
- [Dead Reckoning: Port of Call](https://www.ludoya.com/games/dead-reckoning-port-of-call)
- [Dead Reckoning: Sea Dogs Expansion 3](https://www.ludoya.com/games/dead-reckoning-sea-dogs-expansion-3)

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## Rules questions

### How far can I move my ship when I set Sails — and what happens if I stop on an unexplored Ocean board?

You set Sails once before moving and move one Ocean board per Sail (move the sail cube left for each board); you may move orthogonally only. If you stop on an unexplored board you must explore it (flip it) and you may not explore more than one Ocean board in the same turn (Deckhand Rulebook, pp. 8–9).

### Do unused Sails carry over to my next turn or do I lose them?

Unused Sails do not carry over — during Cleanup you set your Sail track to 0 and cannot keep unspent Sails for the next turn (Deckhand Rulebook, pp. 8, 12).

### Can I buy an Advancement while I'm in Pirate mode, or only in Mercantile mode?

You may buy or resolve an Advancement if your Ship is at the same location as that Advancement and you can pay its cost; Pirate vs Mercantile mode affects interactions with other players but does not prevent you from buying advances at your location (Deckhand Rulebook, pp. 10, 12).

### What's the exact order for resolving a ship battle — what do we do first and last?

Resolve battles in this order: 1) take Battle cubes, 2) drop Battle cubes, 3) resolve Battle abilities, 4) resolve the Battle ship (exploding shots/plunder/damage), and 5) determine the outcome; exploding shots are resolved first when processing the Battle ship (Deckhand Rulebook, pp. 17–19).

### What happens if I run out of cubes (crew/cannon) during play or a battle?

If you need cubes but have none available you may remove that many of your non‑permanent cubes from any islands and use them, provided doing so does not change control of an island (Deckhand Rulebook, pp. 14, 17).

### When I place Influence on an island, how do I take control and what are permanent cubes?

You control an island when you have more cubes there than any other player (counting permanent cubes) and you have more cubes than the number of empty slots; when you take control you immediately place an extra permanent cube in the island’s permanent area, which counts toward control but can never be removed (Deckhand Rulebook, p. 16).

## Links

- [This page](https://www.ludoya.com/games/dead-reckoning-2)
- [Dead Reckoning in the Ludoya app](https://app.ludoya.com/g/dead-reckoning-2)
- [BoardGameGeek entry](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/276182)

_Data from Ludoya, updated 2026-09-24. Ratings, ownership and play counts are Ludoya's own._