More about Ahoy

⚓ Ahoy is the most recent title from Leder Games , that is in a really similar vein with Root. A 2-4 player asymmetric area control game, where every faction has their own rules and mechanics (well, in the case of Ahoy the 2 Smugglers are the same). We have written about Ahoy before, but now having played Root and Ahoy back-to-back recently, I can’t help but compare the two.

Ahoy has many good things going for it:
🗺️ A modular archipelago made up of tiles that get explored and placed as the game goes on, so every game has a different layout.
🎲 A fun dice allocation action selection system.
🃏 Crew cards that give you special abilities that also help to make subsequent games feel different, as you will recruit from a big pool of cards.

Thinking about the aspects of Ahoy I feel like it’s a really great combination, but somehow when we play I am not that engaged or excited about it. Though it does work better at 2p than Root out of the box (but keep in mind only 2 factions are playable), I do have a lot more fun playing Root. I think there are two main factors for this:

1️⃣ You only get points for controlling regions at the end of the round. There is no other mechanic to eke out points, and this makes the race for 30 points a bit dull for me. It’s also not easy to come back if you start falling behind, though you can make some unexpected plays. I love how in Root you can play a Dominance card that changes the win condition for you - I would love something like this here too.

2️⃣ The dice combat is way too swingy. The action selection and vying for area control is really tactical and fun, but you have no control in combat. You just roll a D6 each to see who rolled the bigger value. You can aid your roll with cannon dice, but you have to spend those before rolling so you might just end up wasting it. In Root the combat is also quite random, but it favors the attacker and the spread of the dice is also smaller.

I still have to say Ahoy is a good game, and if you are into area control you should definitely take a closer look! The 2p aspect is good and both factions are fun to play. If I had to choose between Root or Ahoy, it’d have to be Root though.