More Scoundrels in the Bay

Last week we covered the basics of 🏴‍☠️ Fortunes of Scoundrel Bay by Chilifox Games and I mentioned that it has some pretty unique elements. 🙃

First off: Movement. ⛵ As you sail through the main board, you’ll have access to different locations. For the most part it’s a one-way trip - you usually can’t revisit spots you’ve already passed, though harbors have multiple entry points and some beaches can be accessed from two sides, which is definitely worth remembering. 😉 

Most actions scale with the number of pirate meeples you have at the location, and some effects let you push already-placed meeples around - you have to strike a good balance! Pirates score differently at game end depending on where they are, and they can even perish at beaches, so keep that in mind. 

The game has an interesting flow. 👉You’re constantly sending out pirates, so you need to recruit more, but if you recruit too many, you might not be able to feed them all. You can’t pick up already placed meeples and it’s totally possible to run out “early” - leaving you short-handed when you reach those juicier action spots towards the end of the track. ☝️ On top of that, actions also need the flags of four different colors, so you need to plan in advance. 

The game’s pace depends on the players to some extent, as only 1 of 3 actions moves you forward and “advances the game”. You don’t want to use up all your pirates early, and monsters might be all slain too by your rivals if you are slow, so camping at one spot isn’t the best strategy. 

💭The more we play the more we enjoy this game and the more nuances we discover. 🤩 First playthrough you are fumbling through. By the second time we had a much better idea how many meeples we had, and how long the track (or the game) itself is, and how to better “ration” our pirates. 💪 There are some additional modules which are great once you’ve got the basics down (some goals and asymmetric powers). 😉

The only thing I can’t get warm with is that fighting a monster involves rolling a die where you can roll a critical miss. 😭 That’s a strange choice for a euro experience, but at least you can mitigate it!