Dragon Boats of the Four Seas

EvEvanstar4.6

A decent game with a rulebook that really gets in the way of understanding how to play. We also chose to play the game using none of the add-on modules that add take-that effects. Essentially, there are some boats. You want to get your meeples on the boats but to do so you need two specific goods tokens. Goods tokens are gotten by a bidding process where you put a bid marker into a stack next to a box of goods. During resolution, the player at the top of the box can pay money equal to the number of bid markers there, or pass and take a dollar. Then they remove their marker, and the next player down the stack gets the same choice. If you do pay, you get one good from that box. Each boat can sail in one of two directions. The player who chooses to take the rearmost space on the boat get to pick the direction. The player who takes the front-most space gets to jump off the boat first. The two boat destinations have scoring tokens in each space, and you get increasing points for having multiple copies of the same tokens. You also lay your meeples into the spaces that have the tokens and try to build connected chains of spaces for extra points. The components aren't very pretty. They definitely feel like they're from a much older game. There are also a number of rules ambiguities that aren't covered in the rulebook, and haven't been answered on the BGG forums. Overall though, not a bad game. Interesting decisions throughout, and doesn't overstay it's welcome. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ☆ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★☆☆☆ Raw enjoyment