PLAYED FOR YOU

X Marks the Spot

A cross of ghost ships

Sometimes you find games in unexpected places at Essen Fair! Not that I am surprised at finding games at Essen Fair! But in the middle of role playing accessories a Johnny-Depp look-alike pirate was offering a game in which you need to form a cross with your pirate icons in a display.

You are randomly assigned a pirate plus his symbol and are dealt four cards; those cards are like Dominoes pieces, they show to halves and either two different or two identical symbols.

In your turn you draw cards to hold six and can then play two cards one after the other; placed cards must touch another card at a border or edge. You can also put cards down on other cards; Ghost Ship icons are jokers, a Kraken is a “dead” symbol and must be covered with a Ghost Ship or destroyed with a Cannon. Open water can be placed over any other symbol and can be covered in turn with any symbol. There are also action cards - Cannons destroy an uncovered card. New Heading allows you to swap a card in the display with one from your hand; Parlay allows negotiating for cards and Plunder gives you a card from another player’s hand or from the discard pile. If you do not like your hand you can discard it and draw new cards. If you form an X from five symbols, you mark the middle one with a Doubloon, this symbol is now protected, but the others are not. You can use an unprotected symbol for the formation of several crosses. If you are first to have three Doubloons in the display you win.

X Marks the Spot is well-made, nice, prettily illustrated and offers just enough challenge to entice you into another game! Dominoes reloaded!

Players: 2-4

Age: 10+

Time: 45+

Designer: Mike Richie

Art: Nigel Sade

Price: not named

Publisher: Rather Dashing Games 2011

Web: ratherdashinggames.com

Genre: Placement game

Users: For families

Version: en

Rules: en

In-game text: no

Comments:

Interesting version of Dominoes

Pretty illustrations

Difficult to acquire

Compares to:

Dominoes and variants

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 1

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0