Dark Seas Review

I’ve come to terms with the fact that board games are a lot like cookies. I mean, there’s really not a lot of spectacular innovation in the modern confectionary wafer industry. Sure, one can experiment with combinations of ingredients to create a slightly different recipe. Still, a sugar cookie is a sugar cookie. Dark Seas doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before. But at 8 oz. dice rolling, 2 c. tile laying, 1/2 lbs. tile activation, 3 tbsp. resource conversion, and a pinch of player interaction, the design manages to whip up an interesting mix of mechanics – all frosted with a sugary pirate theme.

Pirate-y flavor aside, Dark Seas is first and foremost about managing a hand of hexagonal “plunder” tiles and creates some fun and tough choices in the process. As you might expect from a tile-laying game you place tiles to create a bespoke board. In this case it’s your personal tropical paradise, a haven from the royal navy. You’ll be moving your cute and chunky tokens representing a captain and ship about it. However, as you create your island you must also decide whether or not you’d like to cash in tiles for another benefit, if possible. Placed or discarded, individual tiles provide resources like doubloons, treasure, points, extra tiles or pirate crew members. Do you discard these for the one-time benefit? Or add them to your island to activate on an ongoing basis?

Dark Seas isn’t just a freeform Dominos-style tile-laying design, though. What differentiates this one from its counterparts is that dice dictate what you can expend and/or activate. The game lasts twelve rounds. At the beginning of each, players alternate rolling four custom dice. When it’s your turn to roll, you’re afforded one mulligan, if you wish, but then all captains are bound to those results for that round. Everyone resolves phases concurrently, except in a few rare moments where an action may affect a succeeding opponent, in which case you simply follow player order.

Rounds consist of four phases which move quickly thanks to simultaneous play. In the rather oddly named Scheming phase you can discard a plunder tile from your hand for its listed benefit – as long its color matches a die result. If there are multiple dice of that color, you multiply the reward. Next you may move your captain figurine one space on your island, either to your central island hex for some goodies, or an adjacent port hex. The ports are also color-coded. Your captain’s location is important because in the next phase, your boat may circumnavigate the island in a clock-wise direction. However, you can only keep sailing as long as the next port’s color matches a die result or if your captain is stationed there. Otherwise, you’ll have to lay anchor until the next turn. Each time you enter a port hex, you may active one or both of the tiles it’s connected to, if present. In the final stage, you get to add a new plunder tile to your island. You can only have a maximum of twelve, two each associated with the six ports. If you want to place a thirteenth tile, you’ll need to replace one already down.

This all works very well. Dark Seas smoothly integrates its varied mechanics and is enjoyable to play. There are plenty of decisions to balance. What dice do you re-roll when you’re the active player – do you optimize what helps you most or try to screw over your opponents? What tiles do you cash in as opposed to adding to your island? What’s the best way to use your captain and ship to maximize tile activation? All of these choices are smart, meaningful and give players some command over game play. Obviously luck plays a role, but in a good way, injecting fun unpredictability while never having you completely at its mercy.

You also feel in control at most times because there are plenty of means to earn points. In that regard, you will usually have a couple of options in case the dice don’t roll your way. Or at least you don’t always come away with nothing. You can still be opportunistic with less favorable results. There are points for collecting booty, hoarding gold and mostly trying to stuff your island with infamous pirate bands – the more the better. Also, any time you earn a pirate you may spend a doubloon to turn him into a “dread” pirate for extra points. Alas, that sounds more ominous that it actually is and indeed you don’t really feel much like a pirate while doing any of these things.

Which brings the one glaring caveat to surface. The theme is merely fluff. The artwork is cute and very well done. The terminology sounds appropriate. And the rule book meets its quote of “ye’s” and even a “scurvy” or two. But all of that is completely moot to the tile-laying/activation and resource collection/conversion. The most egregious thematic omission is the minimal player interaction. While there are a few tiles that stir up some mischief, a buccaneering game requires them in bountifulness. I’ll be honest – I was first attracted to this one precisely because of its theme, as I suspect many others will be. And while Dark Seas is a good game, it’s not a good pirate game. So ye be warned, if’n it’s a pirate’s life ye be lookin’ fer.

If you like smart tension created by a blend of luck and player choices, this quick-moving tile-activation Euro might prove a steal. While I can’t stay up-to-date on the hundreds of new games released every year, the dice-rolling and tile-laying combination in Dark Seas feels mostly innovative. Again, the individual mechanics are not particularly original, but at least it amounts to more than tossing cashews into grandma’s oatmeal raison cookies. With the state of the hobby today, that’s a winning recipe in my cookbook.