SeaFall – Game 1 Review

This is one in a series of posts regarding the Legacy game SeaFall. You can access my other SeaFall posts Here.

This post is my review of playing Game 1 with my Legacy Game Group. I will be keeping the reviews relatively Spoiler free, so that those thinking about purchasing, can get a feel of game play without ruining the story. I will talk openly regarding the components that are available to see upon opening the game for the first time, and will keep things vague regarding the locked content.

The Setup of Game 1

After the preliminaries of the Prologue, we were all excited to get into our first full game. We were all thinking about the different actions we enjoyed, and there were 4 new Milestones for Game 1, with bonus glory available for those concentrating on Exploring, Raiding, Building and amassing wealth through trading and other means, and converting that wealth into treasures. We set up the game and then, as per “The Dream of Empire” card, we read entry 425 in the Captain’s Booke, before our first turn.

The Dream of Empire

Our First Choices

The entry gave some more back story to the game and reminded us that we could now raid each others province, for Gold, Advisors, etc. It also led us to the first opportunity to advance our characters, and make the first permanent changes to our Province, in the game. In Title order, we read our stories, and were each given 3 options by our trusted advisors. They were told as part of the narrative, so the possible game changes/benefits were not clearly spelled out. We made our choices, turned to the appropriate entries, and discovered what our bonuses were.

First changes for the Province
  • Green (Me) – I went into SeaFall with the idea of focusing on Exploring during the game, because I’m not big on the conflict. I choose the entry that mentioned forming an alliance with the Explorers Guild, and I got the Appellation sticker “The Adventurous”, which was placed on my leader. It gave me the option to pay 2 gold to do all 3 Explorers Guild actions during a turn, instead of the usual 2. I felt a little bit deflated, because only 2 actions were available to me in Game 1, as Research had not been added to the game yet. As an aside, my idea to focus on Exploration, led me to a Moanna theme between the Prologue and Game 1, so I called my Province Motunui, my ships were named Maui & Moanna, and my Leader was Tala.
  • Blue – This player was big on Raiding during the Prologue, but none of his choices seemed to indicate a bonus there. He made the best choice he could, which gave him the Appellation “The Persuasive”, which earned him an extra Reputation token each winter. He was happy with the choice, as it essentially gave him extra currency to hire Advisors.
  • Grey – This player choose a middle of the road option, rather than the extremes of Warring or throwing parades and festivals. He ended up with the Appellation “The Vengeful” which allowed him take back one enmity each winter.
  • Purple – This player choose to align with the Builders Guild, and got the Appellation “The Efficient”, which allowed him to Pay 2 gold to do all 3 builders actions in a turn.

Our leaders all had stickers with new abilities, and we were ready to start.

Game 1

Game 1 went much like the Prologue, except that our goal of 11 Glory meant that we had twice as many turns to achieve things, and a variety of Milestones to aim for. We explored more sites, on our 4 known Islands, only 2 of which we had named at that point, Island (in Row) 2 – Spooky Island, and Island 4 – Wachinaua (a name I chose before I began running with my Moanna theme). Most of our explored sites became sources of goods, but we also found the occasional Mine that we could raid for gold; Markets for us to sell a single type of good; and Docks allowing us to buy a single flavour of ship upgrade. We read a lot of Booke entries after each Exploration, and got to imprint a bit of our brand on the game. I, Green, choose the peaceful options when dealing with the Islanders, whilst Blue was more about conquering and colonialism. Grey and Purple were focussing on Merchants and Builders respectively, and we were aided in our various quests by a collection of Advisors.

Advisors

We worked our way through the Advisor deck, giving quite a few of them names, mostly due to resemblance of famous people, or personal acquaintances. The Madman, looked like Ruffnut, from “How to Train Your Dragon” and The Dockmaster was named Mrs Sanguinetti, because of the resemblance to a former teacher of the Grey player. We also named a few people after historical notaries. The Renowned Explorer became Captain Cook, The Wind Master was named Powhatan, and The Carpenter inevitably became Jesus. We also ended up with Rat, Jepeto, Sinbad & Singood. An interesting bunch, that served us well, and helped us complete some Milestones.

Milestones

We focused on Spooky Island (Island 2) as we had explored a lot of the easy sites on Island 1. I was enjoying the Exploration, choosing an entry from the Map in the Booke, and then deciding what to do after the entry. With the help of The Woodsman, who gave me an extra dice when Exploring, and a second extra dice when Exploring an [anchor] site, I Explored the Dangerous 6 Site, without losing my Flagship. I discovered a Mine there, earned some gold, and completed the Island Revealed Milestone, for a decent bump to my Glory. I also received a bonus that would help with Exploration in the future. All in all, it was a good Milestone for me to achieve.

The Purple Province, still unnamed at this point of the Campaign, concentrated on earning, buying goods for discounts, and Building. He built on all available spots in his Province and achieved the Continent Awakens Milestone. He was given some options and chose the bonus that would give extra glory when Building in the future. He was very happy with his choice.

The Blue Province, named Charm, was keen to Raid, and did so frequently. After I had Explored the mine, Blue Raided it, and achieved the Darkness Stirs Milestone. From his choices he went with a bonus that would help with hiring Advisors, and we pulled out the first Box to get unlocked, which was set aside to be opened after the end of the game.

The extra Gold Blue had received in Raiding the mine was enough, so that next turn he could buy another Treasure, and complete the last available Milestone, The Finest Treasures. This allowed him to increase his ability to hire Advisors even further, and put him in a good position moving forward. It also put him over the finish line for Glory, followed by another Raid for good measure, so that he comfortably won the game.

End Game Scores

The Grey Province, unnamed at the time, did not achieve any Milestones, and was thus a little behind the field after Game 1. The standings were:

  • Blue 13
  • Green 8
  • Purple 7
  • Grey 3

The Blue Province choose to Improve a Field as it’s Victory bonus, so it would start the next game with 10 Gold. When upgrading our ships, the other 3 players choose to improve the Sail of their large ship, so it would match their smaller ship and allow them both to move 3 spaces, but I, keeping on brand, increased Explore on my smaller ship, the Moanna. I thought sailing would be a limited benefit, but once I was at an Island, an extra Dice in my Explore Endeavours would be worth more to me.

We then upgraded the Advisors. The Renowned Soldier was given Raid +1, giving him a total of +3. The Dockmaster received Buy Goods +1, so you could now Buy Goods +2, and her ability was to make each good cost 1 gold less. The Foreman, who was christened Benedict (Cumberpatch) was given Upgrade -2 for a total of Upgrade -6. Along with his Build -4, he became a powerful Advisor when using the Builders Guild.

The First Unlock

Box 1

After reassigning Titles and applying permanent Enmity, we opened the first Box with an emblem of a ship on the seas. The very first thing we saw was a card saying, “Read Entry …” which we dutifully did. The very first words of the entry were The Seas Await! We had unlocked the ability to Explore beyond the first 4 rows of the map, into uncharted waters, and what we might find there. We got new Rule stickers, Advisors, Buildings and Upgrades, and new Milestones, including 2 which unlocked the next two boxes. We also got 2 new mini decks to fill up the board spaces under the Treasures and the Damage cards. I was happy to see that one of these was Research cards.

We also unlocked the Rules regarding Raiding another players ships, and the catch up mechanics that essentially award a bonus to players, depending on how many glory they are behind the leader. We had a heap of fun, and couldn’t wait for next week, to get into Game 2.

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