I love how sand box like this game is with all the different routes you can take from raiding ships, to taking up missions, just being a merchant, and even attacking other players. I always like it when games truly give you options. One of the things that really stands out to me is the component quality, that is just awesome with the modular board and ships that can be adjusted. Of course though, I'm assuming that really jacks up the production value and therefore price of the game as a whole. As always, excellent work on this playthrough Jon.
Hey Jon, great playthrough as always! Just wanted to add a piece of useless trivia in case anyone finds it interesting, the mission you pull at 19:20 is actually a Letter of Marque (pronounced like Mark), which was a license issued by the different governments that allowed private citizens to attack and capture ships flying the flag of an enemy nation for profit, so pretty fitting with the text of the mission overall!
Watching this play through, I found several inspiring mechanics: 1) the simplicity of the dueling. It seems that it doesn’t overwhelm or bog down gameplay. 2) the rondel action of the monsters. 3) the treasure chest vs. risking an artifact by keeping it on your deck to use it.
i disagree i think most of the "cool " stuff is much too fiddly..could have just used the player boards to track ship upgrades this is not a 2hr game...tutorial not withstanding....also the dueling bogs down playtime as well
Hi, Jon! At game end I believe the blue player actually scored 39 points. 10 for the life goal, plus the 5 bonus points, 1 for the gold, 4 for the lost family members, 8 for your defeated ships and 11 for your treasure and mission cards. Closer game. Thanks for the playthrough! Definitely backing this game!
Wow, I can't believe that you are the first person to notice this after over 6,000 views! Thanks for pointing it out, I've added a note to the Klingon subtitles. Glad you enjoyed it :)
While this is certainly a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeve, it was the dueling track more than anything else that made me go "Oh wow, it really is just trying to be Sid Meier's Pirates." Although long lost family is pretty telling too I suppose. The obvious _board game_ comparison, though, is the still excellent Merchants and Marauders. And the thing is, while I don't think this is a bad game I'm not sure I'd play it over that. Merchants and Marauders is not a perfect game by any means, and indeed I have numerous problems with it, but this game doesn't actually fix any of those problems. I guess it's less complex than M&M (though I'm not convinced it is much shorter), but that's actually my main criticism. For a simulation sandbox style game, you want it to be... not so much complex as beefy. I don't want +1 Cannon, I want Grapeshot and Grappling Hooks and all the other ridiculousness that M&M is filled with. So this feels as shallow in comparison. Admittedly a lot of this is personal taste. But I also think M&M does a better job of both a) incorporating risk and b) investing you in other players turns. The last is pretty important for games like this. I'm also not a fan of the way this game makes you take multiple actions to do everything. I assume it's designed to balance out the different approaches you can take, but it ends up doing odd things to the game's pacing. Also, and this is probably another taste thing, but even though the moddable and changeable map is something that delights me in the _abstract_ , for a pirate game it somehow doesn't measure up to sailing as actual historical pirates through a map of the Caribbean.
It's tough for me to say since I never had a chance to play this with other players. It feels like it would be a quick interlude though since it's a pretty simple mini card game.
Cheers for the playthrough, amazing looking components, and I'm not the biggest fan of plastic bits! The goals seem a bit odd though, I bet a lot of games will end like yours did, with the players getting one each, and the VPs basically being a wash.
I'm glad you enjoyed it :) This playthrough is my only time playing the entire game so unfortunately I can't speak to the endgame from more than this one datapoint.
Hello Jon and thank you for another great video! Just wanted to ask you about battles. Obviously a fight lasts much longer than a simple dice roll mechanism and it only involves 2 players (the attacker & someone doing the neutral defender). So, how does that affect the others in a 3-4 player game? They just have to watch and wait for the fight to end?
Correct me if i'm wrong but i think you said "your speed is equal to number of skulls on sails". At 45.25 the player has 4 speed (upgrading to 6) with only the main mast, but it has 5 skullson it. 4 on the sails and 1 on flag at crows nest. So is that a design flaw or was the main mast supposed to symbolise 5? Or should we count only on sails and flags are only flavor?
When attacking Serpent or looking for treasure, do you HAVE to go your full speed or strength? For example, could you move 6 instead of 7 if it means stopping on a white die if you weren't going to reach your goal anyway?
I don't get why gold is in multiples of 100. Why not just have things cost 1, 2, etc instead of 100, 200 and so on? Why add useless zeros for no reason?
Hi - Michal, the game's designer, here. Jon's right (as always :-)), I felt like fighting for 2 or 3 Gold felt pretty shabby. But I think we found an even cooler solution now, with Full Dollars, Half Dollars and Bits - please check them out on the KS page :(www.kickstarter.com/projects/shivermetimbers/shiver-me-timbers) :-)
Great video again! My favourite quote at 1:09:14:
'If we find our lost daughter, that might be nice...'
*selects other treasure*
Hehe, that is pretty funny now that you point it out.
I love how sand box like this game is with all the different routes you can take from raiding ships, to taking up missions, just being a merchant, and even attacking other players. I always like it when games truly give you options. One of the things that really stands out to me is the component quality, that is just awesome with the modular board and ships that can be adjusted. Of course though, I'm assuming that really jacks up the production value and therefore price of the game as a whole. As always, excellent work on this playthrough Jon.
Hey Jon, great playthrough as always! Just wanted to add a piece of useless trivia in case anyone finds it interesting, the mission you pull at 19:20 is actually a Letter of Marque (pronounced like Mark), which was a license issued by the different governments that allowed private citizens to attack and capture ships flying the flag of an enemy nation for profit, so pretty fitting with the text of the mission overall!
Huh, interesting piece of historical knowledge there. Thanks!
Yes, thanks for adding the historic background :-)
Great play through. I just backed the game on kickstarter due to your excellent video. Thanks!
Watching this play through, I found several inspiring mechanics: 1) the simplicity of the dueling. It seems that it doesn’t overwhelm or bog down gameplay. 2) the rondel action of the monsters. 3) the treasure chest vs. risking an artifact by keeping it on your deck to use it.
I absolutely love the ships in this game. Add more sails, more cannons, more cargo bays - so cool. Thank you for the teach and playthrough. :)
i disagree i think most of the "cool " stuff is much too fiddly..could have just used the player boards to track ship upgrades this is not a 2hr game...tutorial not withstanding....also the dueling bogs down playtime as well
Excellent playthrough, thanks Jon. There’s a few exciting mechanics here, I enjoyed the dueling mini game.
Thanks! It's really fun and probably the mechanic I'm most proud of :-)
Hi, Jon! At game end I believe the blue player actually scored 39 points. 10 for the life goal, plus the 5 bonus points, 1 for the gold, 4 for the lost family members, 8 for your defeated ships and 11 for your treasure and mission cards. Closer game. Thanks for the playthrough! Definitely backing this game!
Wow, I can't believe that you are the first person to notice this after over 6,000 views! Thanks for pointing it out, I've added a note to the Klingon subtitles. Glad you enjoyed it :)
Great playthrough Jon, i might get this game now.
Really great Walkthrough of what looks like an Awesome game. Thanks!!!!!
I feel this game would benefit from a nice water playmat! Very nice playthrough Jon!
Yes, we are thinking about adding one as an add-on. Lots of people want a less abstract look....
While this is certainly a game that wears its inspirations on its sleeve, it was the dueling track more than anything else that made me go "Oh wow, it really is just trying to be Sid Meier's Pirates." Although long lost family is pretty telling too I suppose.
The obvious _board game_ comparison, though, is the still excellent Merchants and Marauders. And the thing is, while I don't think this is a bad game I'm not sure I'd play it over that. Merchants and Marauders is not a perfect game by any means, and indeed I have numerous problems with it, but this game doesn't actually fix any of those problems. I guess it's less complex than M&M (though I'm not convinced it is much shorter), but that's actually my main criticism. For a simulation sandbox style game, you want it to be... not so much complex as beefy. I don't want +1 Cannon, I want Grapeshot and Grappling Hooks and all the other ridiculousness that M&M is filled with. So this feels as shallow in comparison.
Admittedly a lot of this is personal taste. But I also think M&M does a better job of both a) incorporating risk and b) investing you in other players turns. The last is pretty important for games like this. I'm also not a fan of the way this game makes you take multiple actions to do everything. I assume it's designed to balance out the different approaches you can take, but it ends up doing odd things to the game's pacing.
Also, and this is probably another taste thing, but even though the moddable and changeable map is something that delights me in the _abstract_ , for a pirate game it somehow doesn't measure up to sailing as actual historical pirates through a map of the Caribbean.
Interesting feedback, I personally have never played Sid Meiers Pirates so I didn't have the context to notice similarities.
Yes, definitely. Sid Meier cost me half of my youth. :-)
Great video
Does the dueling/boarding slow the flow of the game down? Or is it done as quickly as everything else seems to be?
It's tough for me to say since I never had a chance to play this with other players. It feels like it would be a quick interlude though since it's a pretty simple mini card game.
It's not too disruptive, as it takes only a couple of minutes and is pretty interactive. :-)
Cheers for the playthrough, amazing looking components, and I'm not the biggest fan of plastic bits!
The goals seem a bit odd though, I bet a lot of games will end like yours did, with the players getting one each, and the VPs basically being a wash.
I'm glad you enjoyed it :) This playthrough is my only time playing the entire game so unfortunately I can't speak to the endgame from more than this one datapoint.
Hello Jon and thank you for another great video!
Just wanted to ask you about battles. Obviously a fight lasts much longer than a simple dice roll mechanism and it only involves 2 players (the attacker & someone doing the neutral defender). So, how does that affect the others in a 3-4 player game? They just have to watch and wait for the fight to end?
Yes, they wait for the battle to end.
@@GettingGames Oh ok, that's unfortunate. Thank you anyway. Except that is seems a great game!
Correct me if i'm wrong but i think you said "your speed is equal to number of skulls on sails". At 45.25 the player has 4 speed (upgrading to 6) with only the main mast, but it has 5 skullson it. 4 on the sails and 1 on flag at crows nest. So is that a design flaw or was the main mast supposed to symbolise 5? Or should we count only on sails and flags are only flavor?
When attacking Serpent or looking for treasure, do you HAVE to go your full speed or strength? For example, could you move 6 instead of 7 if it means stopping on a white die if you weren't going to reach your goal anyway?
Yeah you must go your full speed or strength.
At 1:48:00, you didn’t take your rum as a reward for defeating that ship.
Good catch! I've added a note to the Klingon subtitles about this.
@@GettingGames Sorry, I missed that, too.
I don't get why gold is in multiples of 100. Why not just have things cost 1, 2, etc instead of 100, 200 and so on? Why add useless zeros for no reason?
I imagine this was done for thematic reasons.
Hi - Michal, the game's designer, here. Jon's right (as always :-)), I felt like fighting for 2 or 3 Gold felt pretty shabby. But I think we found an even cooler solution now, with Full Dollars, Half Dollars and Bits - please check them out on the KS page :(www.kickstarter.com/projects/shivermetimbers/shiver-me-timbers) :-)