"Francis Drake - Game Review." Topic

Club Fantasci takes a look at the worker placement game Francis Drake and lets you know their thoughts on the subject.

""The breeze flows against you as you stare out over the bow of your ship. The seas lap up against the hull, making white, frothy lines as "The Morning Star" cuts through the oncoming waves. "Land Ho!" comes a shout from the crow's nest. "Check for other ships in the area" you shout back. As Captain of the "Morning Star," you can't take any chances of being followed to the bounty or risk a confrontation. You have been out at sea for months and your provisions and ammunition is limited. A few seconds later, the voice shouts down again. "Two ships north-east of us about 2 nautical miles Captain!" Your stomach sinks as you know things will not be easy. Your mind races through all the possible actions you can't take as you decide and start barking orders. "First Mate, take us straight south! Don't stop moving till I tell you! Lookout! Keep an eye on those ships and let me know as soon as they follow!" You start charging up the deck to the wheel to confer with your First Mate. With ships on your tail, what is sure to be soldiers and canons at the fort half a day south that you are heading for. You will be lucky to make it out of this alive."
Review here.
link

Amicalement
Armand

IIRC, in Drake's time ships were steered by a tiller, sometimes connected to a whipstaff, but not by a wheel.

I also doubt that anyone would have referred to 'nautical miles' at that time.

I suppose a Spanish fort in the Caribbean or Central America just might have contained several canons – not to mention the odd bishop…

Honestly… this may be a good game, but if the errors in the blurb…

-Wheels?
-Nautical miles?
-Incomplete sentences?
-Canons? They did NOT have cameras back then!
-Ships spotted at two nautical miles? It must have been raining, foggy, or they had some sort of cloaking device to get so close without being spotted. That's only ~5-6 times extreme gun range On a good day the masts of a hull-down ship can be seen from 20 plus miles away, and a hull-up ship at 12 miles.

…are indicative of the writing and research in the game itself, I will pass.

This is a "Euro" game. They don't bother that much with theme & historical accuracy.

And the cover portrait looks nothing like Francis Drake.