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Pirates, Fantasy and electronics

World of Yo-Ho

War of the Orchids

Pirate fantasy on the high seas using App and smartphone; you have barely unpacked board, ships, four red and four blue figurines and the summary cards and must already make a decision – shall we play with one phone per player or only one phone and the cardboard ships?`

Of course we are all owners of a smartphone, albeit of different makes, and start downloading the Apps on our phones, which takes some time, as of course each of the the phones works differently, but finally all press their „ready“ buttons and select their captains (Parrot, Walrus, Shark or Pelican) and Ships (Whale, Jellyfish, Turtle and Swordfish) and the starting values for their ships. All captains come with a rather  big disadvantageous characteristics, the ships on the other hand provide an advantageous characteristics, which makes for interesting combinations. You can than choose missions -maximum three at any given time – and already shop for some equipment.

As we all use a phone, the figurines for ship and captain are placed on the phone - which mixed success as to adhesion duration – and we get used to the fact that our phones now work as playing pieces – ships – and are moved across the board. When the phone is on the board the display shows the part of the board covered by the phone; when you pick up the phone, an interface shows information on the game situation and/or action options.

Players decide on the number of points necessary for winning. The App then takes control of the game, determines who begins and whose turn it is and names the options for the two actions that each player can do in his turn.

Options for actions are Movement – always orthogonally onto an adjacent case; Attack – can happen when two ships are on adjacent cases on the High Seas, none of them can be anchoring in the harbor; Special Actions for missions and events; Repairs on the High Seas depending on the captain’s abilities; Sailing into Harbor with the choices of Barracks for acquiring missions; Tavern for a ranking of players based on the booty they own, Shipyard for replenishing the Resistance value of the ship, which costs money, and Market to sell or buy combat equipment or to buy equipment for the captain or ship parts.

When leaving the harbor you can pay tax; if you do not pay, visitors arriving later might acquire information on the actions that you implemented while in the harbor.

Snails are the money in the game, you earn it with completed missions and use it to acquire equipment.

The App looks after the scoring, too. At the end of each round it sums the booty and ends the game as soon as one player has achieved the winning condition, that is, the pre-set number of points. If you manage to be first to do this by completing missions, winning battles against other ships or defeating sea monsters, you win.

So far so thrilling, or somehow not – it is fun in any case to shunt the phones back and forth on the board; however, the App does not always do what you want, at least not for us, we shunt the phone to the left, the App thinks that we sailed upwards, and so maybe you had to complete a circle to arrive where you want to go; this was not really an enticement to keep playing, but of course we kept playing because we are all inquisitive and also embodying booty-hungry pirates in this game! So we concentrated on the missions, which sometimes need to be completed within a given number of turns. A nice detail mechanism there is the possibility that the App can assign another player to take revenge on you in case you failed a mission.

Graphic design of the game and the App including the background music and information are well programmed and attractive, all fits the topic very harmoniously, especially the battles against ships and sea monsters – you first choose your weapons and then the battles happen on the displays – very, very nice. The handling allover is sometimes a bit tedious, the figurine markers for captain and ships did not stick to the phones really well and you always had to put them back if you wanted them for flair! In the one-phone version of the game the handling is also a bit tedious, you move cardboard ships across the board and hand on the phone. A positive feature is the selection offered at the start of the game, you can choose a standard or narrative game and can also add the tutorial, that explains each action option when if first appears in the game.

Our unanimous verdict was „nice“, but in the long run not enticing enough for experienced players, because there are games that implement the game with more tactic and more planning and where „handling mistakes“ are more easily repaired than in the App.

However, the game must be credited with one big positive fact: With the use of smartphones as playing pieces and the direct movement of the phones as playing pieces including the „see-through“ effect the games provides the most atmospheric and plausible use of smartphones in a game board so far and adds a considerable fun element with the graphics of the app with showing the the board on the display and the really well-done combat sequences, in which ships and weapons move  between phones in a very nice simulation.

Dagmar de Cassan

Players: 2-4

Age: 14+

Time: 90+

Designer: Étienne Mineur and Team

Artist: Ferdinand Dervieux, Étienne Mineur

Price: ca. 60 Euro

Publisher: Volumique / Iello 2016

Web: www.amigo-spiele.de

Genre: Fantasy, pirates, App 

Users: With friends

Version: de

Rules: de en fr it

In-game text: no

Comments:

Attractive components

Topic nicely implemented

Handling a bit tedious

Most attractive use of smartphones in a game

Cannot be played without App

Compares to:

Alchemist, Eye Know, Captain Black and other hybrid games

Other editions:

Apps available in several languages

My rating: 4

Dagmar de Cassan:

The cute use of the smartphone as a playing piece is fun, despite the sometimes glitch-prone App, all in all the game has potential to develop!

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 2

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 1