Port Royal

[Hounk]

This is a game, I got familiar with at yucata.de. It is a light and fast engine building card game with "push your luck" mechanism, which does not determine game play a lot and leaves decent decisions to make. I really enjoyed it so far at Yucata, although I suspect 2 draw backs with the online implementation, compared to the regular game:

1) For live games there it is much easier to set up 2 player games then anything else, that's why I played mostly 2 players. However, I think, the game should really shine at bigger player counts. (It goes up to 5.)
2) Much of the thrill of the game should be the turning of everybody's cards, and this is not implemented well. You just see all available cards, once a "discovery phase" is finished. (Oddly, unless you are constantly click the refresh button F5.)  Also, table reaction to certain draws should add to the atmosphere of the game.

I was somehow confirmed in my suspicions by video reviews like from "Hunter & Cron" or "John Gets Games", so I finally bought it last week at my FLGS and hope to bring it to the table soon.




Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=2810.0

[SRBO]

I can tell you, I love it. You really need to take good decisions and play tactical.
There are so many ways and you need to find yours..

We always play with the rule that you need 1 expedition and a minimum of 12 (or was it 14?  ) points.
I can only say, play the game. its a lot of fun!

[Hounk]

"John Gets Games" also points out as a minor negative point, that he much prefers the variant, making expeditions obligatory, since otherwise in his opinion nobody would take expeditions. From my experiences at yucata, I still would doubt that to be true. Sure, expeditions are rather taken late, because other staff provide powerful skills for your engine. But to finish up, they are a quick and cheap way to boost your points. And the later in the game, the less likely you will profit from the skills.

Pointwise, it is always 12 to trigger the end of the game. But after that, the rounds are continued until the turn, when the start player would be active again. Therefore, points can surpass 12 by quite an amount.