Ahoy

Today's review is of the 2022 release, Ahoy. For 2-4 players, it takes 45-75 minutes.

Overview

Vie for fame on the high seas! In this asymmetric game, your goal is to gather fame through either area control (if you're the Bluefin Squadron or Mollusk Union) or pickup and deliver (if you are one of the smuggler factions). 

game in progress; image from here

After setup, the first round begins. Players take various actions (some involving dice, some not) on their turns. Each player, in clockwise order from the first player, takes two actions involving dice placement (plus any other actions they can/choose). Die are placed on each player's unique board, giving them abilities to sail (move around the map), place resources, load their cannons, and more! Moving around the map can trigger other things, including

- exploring (revealing and placing new tiles when you move off the known map)

- battling (when your ship lands in a tile with an enemy ship)

You may also recruit crew, repair your ship, and other things.

Players take turns until nobody has remaining die to activate. At the end of each round, fame is tallied (through area control or other means, depending on your faction). If one player exceeds 30 fame, the game is over, and the highest total wins! 

The Good Time Society has a nice game overview video.

Review

This is from the makers of Root, and is essentially a simplified version of that asymmetric experience. It was . . . decent. Clearly a lot of board game expertise went into the design of this. That said, I wasn't a huge fan. I am realizing that asymmetric games, even simple ones, aren't my favorite. They require a degree of mental energy to learn both your and others' factions well—the differing actions and strategies—and I'm not willing to expend that much time on something I won't play often. It's not bad, but I suspect there are more fun pirate-themed games out there.

Rating: B