Smugglers Wanted...

Cornish Smuggler
I recently backed Cornish Smuggler on KickStarter. My wife came across the game purely by accident as the designer's brother lives in the same village as us. Being an avid game I was keen to offer my support.

If you have never heard of KickStarter it is a website designed to promote crowd funding for ideas and products. Companies place their idea on to the website, give an overview and request financial backing from any interested parties. Board Games have become a very popular submission on KickStarter and allow small companies and independents the opportunity to create their game and bring it to market. Using more traditional routes (submitting to publishers) can take a long time and often prevent games from being made if they are deemed to risky or not commercial enough.

If you want to know more about the game, visit the KickStarter page here or visit the designer's website Grublin Games.


I was drawn in to the game due to the theme; what's not to like about smuggling along the Cornish Isles! The designer, Henry Jasper, seems to have captured the essence in a board game and the accompanying artwork really compliments the game and theme..





Examples of Art

I do urge anybody reading this to take a look and consider lending your support. Board Games are quite niche now and it is not often that we get great games produced by independent designers as the cost can be quite prohibitive.

Playtesting

I was also luck enough to be accepted as a playtester for the game and was provided with a Print and Play copy of the game (basically, all the files in digital format). I painstakingly printed and cut out the map and associated cards... probably close to 100! It took the best part of a whole evening, but it was worth it.

Below is my experience of the game and a mini review.


Play Test and Session Report
3 Player game

Wortsenawl - Chris

Dakeeps - Stephen

Neutral - A.I.

The game lasted approximately 2 hours, 3-4 turns, but was not completed.

Please note, the game was played on a pre-production, print ‘n’ play, version of the game (using rules V#9.3.7)

Below follows a detailed session report of the game, review and general commentary and questions raised. As a caveat, it was recognised by both players while reading the rules, that this version has a placeholder on pages 22 and 23 for examples of plays and these would have likely proved invaluable in our understanding of the rules.

I will place questions throughout the report as and when applicable, but there will be an appendix at the end which refers to these questions and any others that have been raised, but do not have an obvious home throughout.

I am also not going to focus on the finer detail of the rules, as these can be viewed either on the Kickstarter homepage, BoardGameGeek.com or by watching this video.

Game Setup and Rules

I had a very brief pre-read of the rules, but decided not to over familiarise myself with the rules because I wanted both myself and Stephen to approach the game as a new players (as we would any other game) and to see how we fared both playing and understanding the rules.

Playing a ‘Print n Play’ version of the game we had a great deal of improvisation to undertake. This is an important point to make and will be explained in more detail at the end. For now, hearty (seems an appropriate word) thanks go to:

Magic the Gathering for the cards backs, goods tokens and ships.

Invasion for providing gold (plain wooden cubes) and INFluence (coloured cubes)

Dragon Hunt for network counters

An assortment of glass tokens (customs) and large wooden tokens (reputation) were also used.

Why Include an A.I. Player?

Before moving on to the review proper, I will explain the decision to have a 3^rd A.I. player. Initially we were going to play a 2 player game (myself vs Stephen), but decided that in order to get a better feel for some of the mechanics and strategy it would be a good idea to introduce player 3. We both played the A.I. player and simply had it take the most obvious decision at any given point; almost like a beginner, not thinking too far ahead and without too much strategy (the latter being easy, as neither of us had a clue what we were doing!). It worked surprisingly well and did not slow the game down too much. What it did mean was that we both could not take for granted the next turn as good were bought from under our noses, customs were alerted earlier than they would otherwise be and characters were taken that would have benefitted us both greatly.

The Start... or setup*

We had the neutral player start as Player 1, his first network counter was placed in ‘Mousehole’. I chose ‘The Isles of Scilly’ and Dakeeps chose St. Levan.; immediately regretted the placement, but elected to keep the counter there to see what affect it had on his game.

My choice was because the character I selected at the start providing a bonus for selling in the Isles of Scilly (and it is also free from the attentions of customs). I am not speaking of the other players’ character selection (each player draws two characters and selects one to keep), because there was no immediate benefit from the abilities. For the same reason, I am not speaking of the chosen storehouses (used for hiding goods; each player selects one at the start of the game).

Diagram of starting board. Green markers are customs (St Ives and Penzance at game setup). Network counters in Mousehole (P1), Isles of Scilly (P2) and Penzance (P3).

Ships were then selected by each player and this caused a little discussion. Ships (or rather their holds) are each a different layout, so not all goods and goods combinations will fit into all ships. The player needs to be a little cautious when purchasing goods in order to maximise the transport capability.

We had a few questions around this aspect of the game:

Q1: All ships are marked starting ships, which implies there are ships that can be gained throughout play, though there is no reference to this anywhere. Perhaps this is a hangover from previous iterations.

Q2: In the rules, P12, there is reference to a ship called ‘The Lady Grace’. This ship is not in the PnP version of the game, though starting ship #205 has the same layout. Again, perhaps a hangover.

Q3: It was also noted that while ship holds have a different layout, they also have a different number of hold spaces / available hold spaces. The ships vary in size from 15-24, with available hold space from 12-16 space. Why then would a player elect to take a smaller ship?

Finally, we each placed our ships. Each player elected to place their ship on a merchant square (where goods are bought from).  This is a valid move (as pointed out in the rulebook, p4) and I cannot fathom any reason why this would not be the default opening move of every player, every game.

*Setup order is selection of Ship; Storehouse; Character; Starting location of Network counter; ship space. We followed this pattern, but I did not record my review in this order.

Turn 1

 Each player starts with REPuation equal to the reputation of their network as denoted by their chosen character cards, 10 x INFluence and 10 x Gold.

Reputation, Gold and Influence are used to perform Actions throughout the turn. Each player takes 1 Action and then the games moves in clockwise order until everyone has passed or no further actions can be taken.

The first turn is (it appeared to us) typically the longest. At later stages of the game, it seemed that player’s actions are restricted either by lack of INFluence, REPutation, Gold or a mixture of these.

The first turn broke down as follows (approximation).

A.I. used their actions to buy a good size 5, buy a character to increase their network (5 gold) and then moved until it reached land and then Land its goods at Mousehole, selling them at the mid range.

Chris used 7 Gold and three actions to buy a 2, 2 and 3 size shapes. The last gold was used to by a character(network in Sennen) which provided benefits for selling in a size 2 town. The rest of the turn was used to move to the Isles of Scilly and land the 2 size 2 goods.

Stephen used his actions to purchase a size 2 and a size 4 good.He then proceeded to move toward the mainland, landing goods at St Levan.

At the end of the turn we had bought 6 of the 16 good shapes, had spent all our gold and only I (Chris) had retained any influence.

Our impression was that it was going to be a short game. No goods had yet been sold though, although each player was moving into a position to do this. However, we were very aware that each of us had pretty much exhausted all our INFluence and Gold.

Turn 2

We started collecting our new INFluence based on the total reputation. Stephen appeared at a disadvantage now, having no INFluence or gold carried over and only 3 reputation from his starting character , converting to 3 INFluence for this turn. Furthermore, the starting position of Stephen’s network in St Levan meant his goods could be landed, but not sold.

A.I. and Chris had both increased their network and therefore, their INFluence.

Chris became the first player. Both goods were sold for low and mid prices, additional gold and INFluence was gained by motivating the characters in network. A loan was also taken at this point to fund more goods being bought. Also, having about 6 more INF than the next nearest player meant I had freedom to make a lot of choices after all other players had finished. This was used to move back to a merchant and buy another two good shapes.

A.I. Started by selling his size 5 good to get some gold, then moved back toward the nearest merchant ship (I cannot remember the amount of gold/REP that was gained in the transaction). Following my lead, he also took a loan to buy another character and more goods. Some of the loan was also used to buy an additional character to increase his network.

Stephen was out of gold and had only a small amount of INFluence so moved his landed goods and network to a place where he could sell. He then too took out a loan, before moving back towards the merchant ships.

Many questions were raised during this round:

Q4. Can you re-position goods in your hold at any point?

Q5. Getting loans is simply an action, or does it cost INFluence/REPutation? (It probably should).

Q6. REPutation gained from characters, is this immediate or only at the start of the following turn?

Q7. There were also questions raised over motivation (using abilities) of characters.  The rules state you have to pay their motivation cost. This confused us for a while, wondering if that was the gold cost on the card. We thought that could not be right (AI was trying to motivate a card to gain 1 INF or Gold of each player, but the card cost if this was the rule would have been 5 gold).

In the end, we resorted to checking every secret card. Only 2 seemed to have a cost and only one of them explicitly stated the motivation cost of the card. This should perhaps be made clearer, that cards are free to motivate (once per turn) unless there is a cost to motivate printed on the card.

Turn 3

This was to be the final turn as we ran out of time. I think it was clear that I was probably going to win, (though Stephen may disagree and put that down to my ego), having enough gold to pay off my loan from the sale of goods and enough left over to continue purchasing more. Having also the largest network, I was also gaining 11 INFluence a round, a great deal more than Stephen, and a little more than the A.I. But I also had three items in my ship (3, 4 and 5)

Stephen, I think, was running behind as in the previous turn he had taken the drastic measure of using REPutation where he had run out of influence.

A.I. Not sure really, though integral to our game, I didn’t pay enough attention to the final position.

I think turn three left only 2 or 3 goods shapes on merchants, but we still only had 2 additional customs on the board, so we were still pretty much free to land goods where we pleased on the board.

End Game. Only 1 additional customs marker, though turn 4 would have provided at least one more. As you can also see, there are only two goods shapes left.

I am on the left, with large gold circles being 5 gold and small cubes 1. Enough to pay of the loan it is sitting on, plus note the filled hold. My ship is currently in Sennan with no customs nearby. No INF to carry over, but the black circles represent 11 REP.

A.I. is in Mousehole, but his items are not in the picture.

Stephen is the red ship. He has 10 gold, enough to pay off his loan, but only 1 INF left and 2 REP.

Questions raised:

Q8. When a Custom’s officer is moved from the track to the board, where is it placed? I would make the assumption that the player with the least gold decides (as per customs movement) or at the position where the goods were sold?

My final conclusion

The game moves at a good pace due to the mechanic that sees each player take a single action moving clockwise round the table (with each turn lasting until no further actions can be taken or each player has passed).

There a plenty of actions available to each player, which gives the impression that many different strategies could be employed to gain victory. However, further plays are definitely necessary to see how well each strategy works.

Obviously the first turn seems much longer than the rest due to the starting INFluence and gold, but it felt necessary in order to allow for each play to buy gold and increase their network so that they have a chance to sell it again.

We didn’t experience much threat from customs and by the end of the game we had only just got a third custom’s marker on the board. This couple with the fact it appears that the player with the least gold can place custom’s markers anywhere on the board, it seems highly plausible that new placed counters are put too far away as to make any difference to the game. It would be perhaps be good to see the customs track move forward once each turn (or something similar).

Is picking up goods and selling them to the Isles of Scilly not a viable option? Yes, it is a size 2 town, but there are plenty of size 2 and 3 goods, plus no attention from customs. Granted, you wont make a tonne of money, but you might be able to force the end game before anyone else does either. This is to be explored in another game.

I also don’t think it is scalable to 5 players without additional goods shapes being made available, either by larger merchant ships, or by additional merchant ships being added.

Due to the fact we had only 2 goods cubes left to be purchased as the start of turn 4 we felt It would also be nice to see some way of the merchant ship being restocked, for example through events. How many turn on average do 3-4 player games last in your experience?

At the end of the game, we both agreed with had a really enjoyable time and that we looked forward to another game, but equally, we struggled to see how a large network could be created, or indeed why you would need one.

With regard to the secret cards, they didn’t play a part in our game at all. Obviously, with this being our first game it is not clear whether this is generally the case, or just the way our game panned out. The only card that did get used was me using it because I could, not because I needed to.

There has been discussion about the card size and amount of text. Neither I or Stephen found this to be a problem. The font size / type was clear and easy to read.

I absolutely love the artwork and it really adds to thematic feel of the game.

There were some rules issues, but for the most part they are clear and bar a few exceptions we could find the answer to our questions relatively easily.

Finally, I spoke about the Print ‘n’ Play at the start and said it was important. When we had finished, we both agreed that the game was strong enough that it did not matter that we were playing on a paper map, with pieces cobbled together from other games. In fact, we never gave it a second thought which I think is testament to how good a game it felt like we were playing.

Comments from Stephen/Dakeeps:

“I guess my main ideas after play were that we (or I?) didn't quite get the point of the game. Is this a game about landing, then selling the goods asap; or is landing the goods only an early stage? But then, as you said, how do you get the money rolling in to gain the later network advantage?

“I can see this game getting runaway winners. Making the right decision in the first few actions could decide your fate later - in fact I see other people talking about some players winning while the others just look on, unable to take any more actions.

“Maybe there could be an extra action during your turn, where you can trade reputation for influence?

“Overall, I came away thinking that I'd had a good game, and wanted to play more. I won't fully understand a game like this until I've had a few goes. Definitely looking forward to the Example of Play area being filled out - I think that might tell me a lot more about the game than the rules do.

“Next time we test a game, I'd like to have a copy of the rules before the session - help me get an idea about it. There's stuff I've read tonight that I didn't realise. You may well have said things early on during our game, but it didn't sink it (things like the object of the game, and the essence of building a network - on page 5)”

Summary of question / concerns / clarifications / suggestions (Q1-Q8 taken from main body)

Q1: All ships are marked starting ships, which implies there are ships that can be gained throughout play, though there is no reference to this anywhere. Perhaps this is a hangover from previous iterations.

Q2: In the rules, P12, there is reference to a ship called ‘The Lady Grace’. This ship is not in the PnP version of the game, though starting ship #205 has the same layout. Again, perhaps a hangover.

Q3: It was also noted that while ship holds have a different layout, they also have a different number of hold spaces / available hold spaces. The ships vary in size from 15-24, with available hold space from 12-16 space. Why then would a player elect to take a smaller ship?

Q4: Can you re-position goods in your hold at any point?

Q5: Getting loans is simply an action, or does it cost INFluence/REPutation? (It probably should).

Q6: REPutation gained from characters, is this immediate or only at the start of the following turn? If immediate, it could lead to a turn extension using REP for such actions as hiring additional characters (note I am referring to REPutation collection, not INFluence gained from REPutation).

Q7: There were also questions raised over motivation (using abilities) of characters.  The rules state you have to pay their motivation cost. This confused us for a while, wondering if that was the gold cost on the card. We thought that could not be right (AI was trying to motivate a card to gain 1 INF or Gold of each player, but the card cost if this was the rule would have been 5 gold).

Q8: When a customs office is moved from the track to the board, where is it placed? I would make the assumption that the player with the least gold decides (as per customs movement) or at the position where the goods were sold?

Q9: Throughout the rulebook it refers to resources. Is this merely interchangeable with INFluence? Regardless, a little confusing and consistent terminology would be helpful.

Q10: In the rules under Customs movement (p13) it refers to customs already being on a space where you landed goods, if so, players should move the next nearest counter toward the space (assuming detection of landing). Does this scenario assume the customs marker already present has been bribed? This is not clear. If they haven’t been bribed, why would goods be on the same space as the customs officer?

Q11: Perhaps I missed this in the rule book, but have checked. How do you utilise a storehouse? Are goods at that location automatically assumed to be in the storehouse, or is that an action and if so what cost?

Q12: Are network counters placed immediately upon hiring someone, or part of the turn upkeep?

Q13. I have not seen an answer to the often asked question about game ending upon the last good being bought (does this mean from a merchant, or bought from (sold by) a player?