Eye on Shipyard

Eye on Shipyard 06/12/2011

_Shipyard review

Shipyard - The box

1. Short presentation

Shipyard is an economic game for 2-4 players, with a duration of approximately 30 minutes / player. The main goal is building, fitting and launching ships. You will win points based on the size of the ship, the upgrades that will be fitted, the crew and how the ship will perform during the pre-launch tests.

2. Components

The components are better than average overall, with the artwork that nicely introduces the player into the atmosphere.

In the first picture we can see from top to bottom the resource tiles (the wagons), the various ship sections that can be bought and assembled, the pre-launch test canals and the action ring surrounding the coins that represent money. All the cardboard tiles are nicely coloured and the artwork is beautiful leading to a very nice-looking ship when it is finished. The meeples from the game have a funny shape (they have hats :D) and the pieces that will represent the ship when it will be tested are also very cute having a “boat” shape. Unfortunately, the coins used in the game are of poor quality, or maybe they just leave this impression because of their very small size. I have immediately replaced them with the metal coins from Dominion: Seaside. Apart from this thing, I am very happy with the artwork and quality of the other tiles.

In the second picture, taken from a different angle we can see one of the places where the ship accessories can be bought or crewmen can be hired. On the right we see part of the section where bonuses can be bought (area surrounded by the victory points track). This large board where all the pieces are laid is made of a pretty thin cardboard which can show some warping. I would have preferred a much thicker cardboard but this would have meant most probably a poorer quality for the other components.

We can also admire the ship parts that can be bought. They also have some “slots” where other upgrades and accessories can be placed: cannons, engines, cranes, etc. The cabins that are present on some tiles influence the type of personnel that can be hired on the ship.

The bonuses section is another implementation of the rondel mechanic. Every tile here offers some bonuses when doing some actions like “every time you hire a crewman you get a captain for free”. In the upper part, near the rondel that we just discussed we can also see a rondel that deals with the raw materials.

Every player has a personal board, his own shipyard where he will build his ships and keep any unused pieces that he has. In this picture we can see a ship that was already completed (ready to be launched) and another ship awaiting to finish construction (yes, the last tile of this ship is misplaced :D).

The last picture shows a detail of a player board allowing us to have a closer view on the ship that is already equipped with some sails (instead of engines), 2 cranes and a member of the crew. The tile that is placed in the center represents a part of a canal where the ship will be tested when it is finished. These are bought in advance by the player and used to get points after finishing a ship. Please ignore the metal coins, as I told you above I have replaced here the cardboard tokens that come with the game.

There are some more pieces: the Government Contracts that bring more points at the end of the game if their conditions are met, the scoring markers, the ship markers used during pre-launch tests, the action tokens (the action track is not fixed, it’s dynamic and different in each game) and a well-structured and nicely-illustrated rulebook.

In short, I love the theme and the artwork, much more than the artwork of Agricola or Le Havre. The wooden components are very nice and thematic but the boards are too thin and they would have deserved a better material, this also being true for the coins that make me prefer (oh no!) the paper money from Monopoly. On the other side, the box is full of hundreds of components, from very small to bigger tiles and the price is justified.

3. Mechanics and gameplay

The main mechanic that is evident immediately after opening the box is the rondel mechanic (also found in Antike, Imperial). It is used in many places: to obtain bonuses, when dealing with raw materials, when buying upgrades or hiring crewmen. Taking as example the rondel from the second picture, on our turn we can move the token one position (from Sails to Cannons) and be able to receive a Cannon. This move is free. If we need to buy Engines we need to pay one Coin to be able to move a step more and if we want a Crane we will need to pay an additional Coin. In all the places where the rondel mechanic is used we have the same rule: we move the token one step for free (and get the selected thing) or we pay additional coins, one per step, getting the upgrade from the space where the token ends its movement.

Another interesting mechanic is Tile Placement as a ship is made of multiple tiles (sections) that can be bought and assembled in the shipyard.

A relatively new thing is the way the action track is built. The actions that can be taken in each turn (upgrading the ship, hiring crew, renting canals for ship tests) are not in predefined positions in each game but are constantly moved by the players creating an interesting engine for motivating the choosing of the most unused actions (not only those that are the most profitable). There are also some bonus coins for those that take actions that are not as popular. Overall this is an interesting and dynamic system.

At the end, after finishing building a ship, the player will be able to test it (and thus gather points) in a succesion of canals that he rented previously. One of the canal tiles can be found in the last picture. O small boat token will represent the passing of the ship through all the tests and in each special place (we have 2 of these in this example, "lantern" and "crane") the ship will receive points based on the number of those objects present on it. Of course, the player can choose the testing tiles during the building of the ship in close relation with the upgrades that he bought and installed on the ship in order to maximize the points that he will receive. The points that can be won by a ship are nicely written on the player boards.

4. Complexity / fun factor

BGG users grade the game difficulty with 3.5 (out of 5) which is true since the game is quite complex. There are a lot of decisions but the satisfaction you get after finishing a ship is very big. There are many choices in each turn due to the action track that is dynamic, due to the rondels’ position that may vary during each turn, due to the many things that have to be considered (bonuses that can be obtained, government contracts that will influence the way you are building your ships, etc.). The size of the ship and the testing canals are chosen by the player, there is no specific phase where everybody gets points for the finished ships, you can finish one anytime you like. It can be longer and fitted with many accessories (but it will take longer to build and you will not be able to build many such ships) or smaller / with less accesories, upgrades or crewmen (but allowing you to build more ships).

Personally I think the effort that is invested in building a nice ship is completely covered by the feeling of fulfillment after finishing the ship and testing it. The built ships can be kept as “trophies” until the end of the game, at the end giving the impression that you really built something cool in your shipyard. This feeling should be known by those that built a nice farm in Agricola or a super-ship in Galaxy Trucker for instance.

5. Recommended in (number of players) / replayability

I have played this game only in 3 or 4 players, but I think the 2 player version is also ok, maybe better due to the fact that there may be less things to consider. In 4 players, the first games will take more than 3-3.5 hours especially if none of the players have played the game previously. After the first game though, the rules will be clear and the play time will decrease considerably.

Because of the many pieces and combinations than can be formed, the replayability is high. What’s more, the government contracts will always drive you in various ways (so that you will be able to get more points at the end of the game) bringing even more replayability.

6. Pros

The beautiful artwork and theme, the cute pieces showing parts of ship, accesories, upgrades, the wooden tokens with personality, the nicely structured rulebook, the satisfaction of building something.

7. Cons

Some pieces are made of a very thin cardboard, the coins are pretty bad and hard to use, the difficulty can be too high for more casual gamers, there may be some downtime especially since there are some Analysis Paralysis-prone players around.

8. Other comments

A game that I have played and I will gladly play every time, it offers a challenge which is not too complex or too simple and is one of the few economic games that I know and really like. I recommend it with all my heart for those that went past the Catan level and want to get deep into a nice (economical) adventure of ship buildinging.

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_Shipyard review

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