Ahoy

The moment I started playing Ahoy, my first thought was this was Root at sea! However Ahoy is by a different designer. It is from the same publisher Leder Games though, and development was done by the same team which developed Root. What these two games have in common is how different the factions are. However the gameplay is very different. Ahoy is for 2 to 4 players. 

The play area is formed using square tiles, each having four spaces. The play area starts with just two tiles, but you can explore off the edges and expand the map. Every tile has a blue die, which shows its point value. This is how the Bluefin Squadron and the Mollusk Union score points. They compete for dominance at every tile and whoever is stronger scores points at the end of the round. The game is played until someone reaches 30 points. You compare points to see who wins. Tiles start with a point value of 1, but this point value can increase during the game, making some tiles more valuable than others. 

Every tile has exactly one island. Islands are where you get to recruit crew. They are also where Smugglers, the other faction type, pick up and deliver goods. With 2 players, you only play the Bluefin Squadron and the Mollusk Union. With more players the 3rd and 4th players will be independent Smugglers. In addition to scoring points for completed smuggling tasks, Smugglers also secretly bid on which of the two major powers will eventually control each island type. The Smugglers will score points for correct predictions. 

Every player has his own flagship. Your player board represents your flagship. The Bluefin Squadron  is blue, and the Mollusk Union yellow. Every round you roll four dice, and on your turn you place two dice on spaces on your player board to execute actions. The type and number of actions are limited by the spaces available on your player board. Some of the spaces only allow dice of specific values, some have no such restriction. During battle you may take damage, and it comes in the form of some of these spaces being temporarily disabled. You need to do repairs to reinstate them. It is possible to modify your die rolls, but you'll need to pay, and money is not easy to come by. 

These are crew members you can recruit. You need to be at islands with the corresponding icons to recruit them. Usually you need to pay an onboarding bonus (money). Sometimes you pay by using up one die. Crew members give you all sorts of powers. Some help you fight more effectively, some help you sail better, some help you make money. These crew cards can be treated as goods by the Smugglers. The cards specify where they can be picked up (top) and where they need to be delivered (bottom). 

One advantage the Bluefin Squadron has over others is they have 5 dice instead of 4. That means they get to perform one more action every round. Every time they sail, they may deploy a patrol (those dorsal fins in the screenshot above). Patrols have a strength of 1 which contribute to controlling a tile. They can be used to explore new tiles and immediately take control of these new tiles because they are the only units there. The Mollusk Union doesn't have patrols, but they can deploy comrades on islands. Comrades cannot fight or move, but they help to control tiles. Unlike the Bluefin Squadron, the Mollusk Union has cards. This means they always have something up their sleeve which the Squadron doesn't know. 

There are many different features on the tiles. Currents force ships to move an extra step. Fogs prevent battle. Wrecks cause damage, but you can usually get money from them. Ports offer free repairs. Some spaces show a die with a specific value. One action type is to sail by tailwind. If you use a die for this, you get to sail (well, teleport) directly to a space with that specific die value. 

The Smuggler's player board is different from the others, and they have a second, smaller player board. Whenever they make a delivery, they move the white cube to an adjacent space and claim the benefit on that space. The Smuggler has one unique action - Full Sail. When placing a die on the Full Sail space, they can move as many steps as the pips on the die. This can be very powerful. The normal Sail action only allows moving up to two steps. 

I have done both a two-player game and a three-player game. The two-player game is pretty good, because there are already significant differences between the Bluefin Squadron and the Mollusk Union. The game shines when you have at least a third player, because this is when even more layers come into play. With three players, tiles which receive deliveries from the Smuggler increase in value. While the two major powers clash, they must pay attention to what the Smuggler is doing. The Smuggler doesn't compete for dominance, but I think both the major powers sometimes need to make life harder for the Smuggler, even though they don't appear threatening. In the three-player game I played, I was the Bluefin Squadron, Han the Mollusk Union and Jon the Smuggler. Jon's points lagged behind Han and I, so I didn't pay him much attention and focused on fighting Han. I didn't do well and lost many battles. I didn't have money to recruit crew. What I had underestimated was the points Jon would get by predicting eventual island control correctly. When we did final scoring, he overtook both of us and won. Lesson learnt - never underestimate the underdog! Or I should say he wasn't the underdog and I never realised so. 

There is some luck in the battles. The basic mechanism is both parties rolling one die each to compare strength. To improve your odds, you can load cannons. This needs to be done before you engage in battle. It does cost you one action to load cannons, so it can be tough decision if you don't intend to attack but you are just worried whether others will attack you. If you have a loaded cannon, when battle is joined you can spend some of your cannonballs to increase your strength. It just may turn the battle in your favour. In case of ties in battle, the attacker wins. Aggression is rewarded. 

The fun in Ahoy is how different the factions are. You must know your own strengths and utilise them well. You must also understand your opponents' abilities and how to counter them. So far I have only played the Bluefin Squadron. I really enjoy spamming the seas with my patrols, sending them out to explore new tiles and then score points with them. Due to the uniqueness of the factions, learning the game does take a bit more effort, but it is very much worth it. I consider this a heavy game. It is not as heavy as Root, and the various mechanisms when considered separately are quite simple. When put together they make a complex and interesting game. 

The Mollusk Union has cards which allow them to deploy two smaller ships.