Hello everyone I'm a board game rookie. Since Dominion brought the "deck building" mechanism into the board game circle, the game has not only sold well, but also the "deck-building game" mechanism has also played a key core role in many well-known games later.
Of course, there will be many designers who want to continue innovating on the shoulders of this giant, and designer John D. Clair has made an interesting attempt - stacking transparent cards.
In the game Mystic Vale, he used what he called the card crafting system Card Crafting System, a general deck to build the game.
Buying new cards will bring new tactical possibilities to the player's deck, but the randomness that comes with it is often criticized by players, compared to other designers who focus on designing the way to control the cards and filter the cards for the player, John D. Clair uses the transparent card stacking method, whenever the player buys a new card, it is a way to insert this card into the original transparent card and merge it into one, in order to change the "effect and strength of the card itself", bringing interesting flavor to the library construction mechanism.
And I think Dead Reckoning is a milestone for him.
In the 13th century, there was a privateer piracy system in Europe, that is, the official acquiescence of the government to pirate plunder, the captain authorized by the privateer can buy weapons, recruit crews, and then legally plunder, and can auction off the proceeds in a fair manner. For their own country, this is called legal privateering, but for other countries, it is complete piracy. Because of the struggle for maritime supremacy among European powers, privateers began to flourish as part of their own maritime military forces, which can be said to be the golden age of pirates.
"Dark Sea Trail" is a work based on this era, the designer will be practiced several times of transparent card production mechanism into it, players through a 12-card system of 12 cycles, play cards, buy cards superimposed action, in order to explore, build, war in the vast and boundless sea, become the most powerful pirate. In the process of construction, players must also balance the balance of cargo, weapons and sails, and preemptively achieve the world-famous nine achievements, while building and racing, is a game with attractive mechanics and themes.
And the actual experience of playing is really quite interesting, just like Tortuga 2199, in essence, the player is playing the skill of card library building, and by interacting on the plate to verify the efficiency of your deck, but with a little bit of 4X game exploration elements and pirate themes, it is so exciting to play.
The transparent card stacking system at the core of the game is also really interesting, the player is always 12 cards, and each round will draw 4 cards to act, so although the randomness of the draw is still there, it will not be diluted and enlarged by the growth of the card library, but the player faces more challenges in the mechanism:
Which card do I want to put to upgrade this card?
That card is mainly used for navigation, so should I add this card for firing?
Will this combination make this new card more useful in the future?
Does this library building decision I make match my strategy?
Will I be able to do this to help me grab the achievements first, or will I be able to go to distant islands to build the capacity to prioritize construction?
This constant card size, but the nature of each card constantly changing with the player's purchase of cards, is a very fascinating place in The Trail of the Dark Sea.
In addition, the game's combat system is also very happy. The Dark Sea Trail fights through a dice rolling system like Tumblin-Dice, the difference is that each ship has a different number of blocks depending on the firepower, so when the two sides of the battle are thrown with different firepower, it is like a bunch of disorganized pirates doing their own thing, and the absurd but serious comedy is full of joy in the battle, which is probably a part that many serious European gamers don't like, but it is very hilarious to me.
Although the core mechanics it uses are very European, I would say that Dark Sea Trail is essentially a very American game; there may be serious strategy players who do not like its high sense of substitution combat system, but the combat is actually only a small part of the game, more like a means of competition for key territory, the essence of the game is still economic, target racing, in essence, it is still testing whether the player's deck building strategy according to the form can really work well, so I personally still like it.
Hey, put on the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack and come and experience this mysterious old game that makes you feel completely fresh in every aspect!
Rookie Verdict: Excellent! In the future, I heard that there will be an expansion of the plot mode!
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