Ahoy Game

Players sail their flagship, explore and populate regions, seek fame and fortune, engage in battle, smuggle and deliver goods to various islands encountered on the high seas. Ahoy is an asymmetrical game in which players take on the roles of the Bluefin Squadron, The Mollusk Union or Smuggler – sharing a set of common actions but each with unique abilities and actions that help define their gameplay and scoring criteria. This game unfolds over several rounds until someone reaches 30 “fame” points on the main scoreboard, after which players total all round-end and game-end points. The player with the most fame points wins the game!

Highlights of this game are:

1. Each player’s faction has its own board, which has categories of dice placement spaces. At the beginning of each round, players roll their dice, which determine numbered options for that round to place in corresponding dice areas that define actions they use that round.
2. All players may sail, catch a tailwind, load cannons and repair damage taken during the game. The sailing map begins with two tiles and as players explore further lands, the map expands throughout the game.
3. Players position tiles adjacent to each other that contain an island and wreckage with optional areas of currents, harbors, fog and sandbars on some of them. Each of these areas have opportunities, limitations or penalties that occur when a player’s flagship anchors there.
4. As players move their flagships throughout the map, the Blue Fin Squadron and Mollusk Union continue to populate the map with representatives of their factions that score for area control along with their round-end flagship location. When factions have loaded cannons and occupy the same space, battles ensue with rewards for the winner and penalties for the loser.
5. For the Blue Fin Squadron and the Mollusk Union, fame points are gained at the end of each round for the number of tiled areas that make up the sailing map segments that they control. These player factions are thus playing an area control game.
6. The smuggler faction gains fame points during the round as they pick up and deliver cargo to different islands. As each cargo is delivered, the smuggler places these cargo cards under a “pledge” marker for either the Blue Fin or Mollusk faction which is a “bet” on that faction to control areas with islands matching one of six “suits” (such as fish, compass, sword, parrot, palm tree or skull) at the end of the game. The smuggler’s game mechanic is largely pick up and deliver, with wagering rather than area control.
7. Once any faction reaches 30 points at the end of a round, game-end points are added to the smuggler’s fame and the faction with the most points wins.

With the variety of actions, combinations of tiles for the layout of the sailing map and the opportunity afforded by interactions between factions in vying for area control and battling for rewards/penalties faced during battles, this strategic game is easy to learn, quick to play, and interesting enough to intrigue! For 2-4 players with a 45 to 75-minute playtime.