I've the feeling I'm lacking some pirate themed games in my collection. Maybe I should challenge my inner swashbuckler, shank my mate and plunder his copy along with half of his collection.
Agree with everything you've said about the game. When we play we always choose the longer game option, but still manage to get a game finished in just over an hour. For us it's the best social deduction game we have and it's pretty much consigned Avalon, Werewolf etc to the bin.
I feel each role has a pretty even chance at winning. Despite the Sailors having the numbers advantage, the Pirates and the Cultists have the advantage of collaboration due to them knowing exactly who's on their team for the entire game, while the Sailors have to try to do the best with the hand they're dealt and must use deduction throughout the game to find out who's on their side. The added fact that there's 3 players each round who have some influence over where the ship goes, adds the extra layer of secrecy for the Pirates and Cultists, if both the Captain and First mate are pirates, and the Navigator is a Sailor, they could both give a pirate card, and easily blame the Navigator when the Pirate card is chosen. The Cultists, despite having the hardest winning conditions, has the advantage that their goal is right down the center, and the Pirates and Sailors are going to be fighting over which way to go, early on, which most likely will balance each other out. Also, there's the fact that a Sailor will likely choose the Cultist's card over a Pirate, and same for the Pirates with Sailor cards, leading to a pretty straightforward early game for the Cult Leader, as they build up their following, and sew seeds of deception among the sailors, to have an easier end game. It is completely possible for the Pirates to have no chance at winning if the Cult Leader turns all the Pirates into cultists, but at that point, the pirates would be trying to help the cultists, and those players would win if the Cultists win, so it's not like any player(s) can lose the game before it's over. It's actually possible for no one to win, however the conditions are so unlikely that it's almost impossible. Two conditions must be met: 1. Either all Sailors, or all Pirates are gone by either being converted to Cultists, and/or being thrown overboard on the Kraken tile(s), there is also a one time option for the navigator to thrown themself overboard. (it's only possible for both pirates AND sailors to be wiped out in 5, 6 or 7 player games) 2. The ship must then go to the winning location of the team with no players left (this will most likely happen 1 tile away from this base) by either all chooseable cards for the Captain and First Mate being for that location, the Captain and First Mate choose that location over the other option, or the Navigator chooses the location instead of the Cultists.
It's possible in a nine player game that the cultist will convert all three pirates, and at the end,, if they get some real bad cards, everyone will throw themselves overboard as the navigator, leaving two left, and with a bit more luck (or unluck), have the random last card be a pirate and the pirates victory will be shared by the zero remaining players on the pirate team
This sort of seems like The Resistance (or the Avalon version) but with more meat on the bones, a lot more complexity and a board for an over-arching end-game goal. It looks fun, a lot less fluff and more real game.
Had 4 play throughs of this. One of my favorite games. Problems: In longer games with less players, it’s easier to figure out who is who. I’ve never seen pirates win, especially if a pirate is converted to a cultist. There are only a few roles per turn, I felt there could have been a little more involvement of the other players.
This game's a blast, really love it ! I just had to print and stick French translation on the cards because, as everyone is aware of, French can't speak English (let alone German)
I don't care and you probably don't care, but there's a spot of something on either your lens or camera sensor. Just noting in case it is an easy one to wipe off or something.
Do this cancel the other? Seems like they are very different games. FtK is more of a board game while BotC seems to be a perfect event game. I think both could fit in ones shelf. 👌🏻
@@BoardGameBollocks I agree with your argument about the price. It’s way too high for what it is even if the production quality is top notch, the amount of roles and thus the different scripts. However, I rather play this than mafia/werewolf because of the moderating isn’t as lame and the fact that people are still in the game after they died, albeit somewhat crippled. This makes it more fun for everyone involved. Werewolf could end up boring for people who dies randomly the first night, especially in a large group.
That looks awesome! Are there any ways to change the role apart from becoming a hentai lover? Is there something worth mentioning in the deluxe edition?
On this phone your audio is fine, on my TV your bass levels are vibrating the fuck out of my sound bar. Fine for other RU-vidrs. Can you look into that please mate? Otherwise, great content. Cheers!
Congratulations on your always honest and no bs review. I'll just like to add my two cents on your cons: 1) to solve the problem with people being aware of the cultist converting or distributing guns in a retangular table. Just ask to everyone to stand up and stick their arms towards the center of the table. It works here just perfect. 2) I'll challenge your 'statistics' and say that in my case, eight games under my belt, the pirates tend to win more (4 pirates / 2 sailors/ 2 cultists).
@@BoardGameBollocks With enough games, the factions' win ratios should balance out somewhere around 30% each - with some variance depending on your most common player number and your players' expertise on how to win with each faction. Btw: The cult leader should always try to secretly help the team that is currently in a worse position (aka bring the ship back towards the center of the board). If you continue to have very high win rates for a single faction you might be misplaying one of the rules. For example, the rule that all navigated cards must stay on the table in front of the captain, under whom it was played, is important to make it difficult for the sailors to find enough blue cards to get to Bluewater Bay. If you forgot that rule and all those cards kept coming back after reshuffling, the sailors would win much more often.
That’s the answer I get most often. If I feel the game is unbalanced then you’re playing g it wrong. Well I can assure you I’m not as the games is simple enough for my 6 year old to understand.
I feel like the game is always gonna be balanced because of the cult, which will try and help the losing team. And you're probably doing something wrong if a faction is winning too much (or playing at a bad player count). For example, the first few games I played the cultist won a lot, because mostly the sailors would prefer the cult rather then the pirates, and the pirates would prefer the cult rather than the sailors, and we thought yellow cards weren't that bad, but after a few games, we realized how powerful yellow cards were and that all teams are against all others, and now the win rate is pretty balanced
"Best social deduction game we played in a long time..." You never played Blood on the Clocktower did you? Thats really something innovative in the genre and worth every penny. Instead of Feed the Kraken you can simply play Secret Hitler. Does the same thing in less time and without the fidliness. Nice review anyway!
Expensive version of werewolf that I couldn’t afford. Plus the KS campaign was a car crash. Secret Hitler is completely different to Feed the Kraken…not sure why you’re saying it’s exactly the same.
Bought it in retail, so no idea about the Kickstarter. The game is worth it beacuse it is totally packed with content. For twice the price of FtK you get ten times more content. Saying it is the same as Werewolf is simply not true. It plays very different. The deduction aspect is extremely rich. FtK compared to SH on the other hand plays exactly the same. They share the same core mechanics of choosing and electing a leadership team which passes red/blue cards. Same deduction by blaming other players "I gave you blue". "No, you gave me red.". Don't get me wrong FtK is fun but feels more like a filler/warmup game. Game sessions feel the same very fast. For that reason I prefer the simpler SH "version" of it. In BotC you can play hundreds and hundreds of games and still every session is different and motivating. It is just on another level. I am a fan of that genre and BotC is just a wet dream for social deduction enthusiasts.
Price performance my friend. FtK is boring after 10 games. BotC is still fascinating after 84 logged plays. That is actually bonkers. I would sell 10 games for this gem. Calling it a "party game" simply tells me you have no idea what this game feels like. You can play it for free online, there is a great community. Just try it and get addicted ;-)
You’re only saying that because you got mugged into parting with over £100 for an over produced copy of werewolf…trying g to defend your ridiculous purchase isn’t a new thing in the board game industry. Did you come here just to be an arse?
