Lost Seas

“Ye best start believin’ in ghost stories, Miss Turner. Yer in one.” Ahh, good old Cap’n Barbossa. (Come on now, Pirates of the Caribbean. The first one.) There’s a titanic quantity of tabletop games that feature piracy as the theme. It’s up there with vikings and zombies when it comes to well-trudged settings.

Lost Seas isn’t so much a pirate game, per se, but it does have a nautical, “Raise the anchor!” theme. Here, the aim is to set sail to a series of daring destinations. Leviathons, rocks, shipwrecks, krakens… It’s enough to shiver yer timbers. Will you catch a glimpse of the rumoured beasties? Will you sail past the landmarks that supposedly lie within these fabled Lost Seas? But the real question is: can Lost Seas claim to be a hidden treasure? Or is it one among plenty of fish in among a market drowning in a waterlogged theme?

Board Game Baby Of Kindomino + Sagrada

Tile-drafting, tile-placement and set collection is the target in Lost Seas. It’s a 2-4 player game, and even provides a simple variant for younger players (it suggests 7+ on the box). My first impressions after playing was that this reminded me of another title by Blue Orange Games – Kingdomino. Imagine if Kingdomino had a board game baby with Sagrada, without the dice. Intrigued? Let’s learn a bit more!

There’s two types of tiles in the game – 44 yellow Expedition Tiles, and 65 blue Sea Exploration Tiles. First, each player receives four Expedition Tiles. You place them in a row, your choice. They’re double-sided, so in theory you have eight options to pick between. Then everyone gets another four, and this time they place them in a column, at a right-angle to the row. You can think of it as a border, of sorts, to an empty-right-now 4×4 grid. But not for long…

These Expedition Tiles have targets on them. The goals come in a range of variations, which demand you sail across particular nautical elements. (You’ll find these on the Sea Exploration Tiles.) Each Expedition Tile has a Victory Points reward in the top-left. It goes without saying that the more ambitious the target, the more points it yields.

Batten Down The Expedition Hatches: Now Let’s Draft

Once all players have placed their eight Expedition Tiles, the tile-drafting begins. You reveal five Sea Exploration tiles, into a public flop. On these tiles sit an array of the nautical elements. There’s six different objects, and there’s an even distribution of them across all 65 tiles. Players take it in turns to draft one tile from the five, in turn order. Upon drafting, they place it somewhere in among their 4×4 grid.

Once placed it cannot move, so you have to pick with care. In an ideal scenario, you’ll look to draft a Sea Exploration tile that syncs (not sinks!) up with two Expeditions. Depending on where you place it, you’ll want it to score for both the X and Y axis of your outer yellow tiles. Think of those Expedition Tiles like the longitude or latitude co-ordinates of a ye olde treasure map. At the point in which they meet, lies the Sea Exploration Tile. And on it, the matching nautical elements that the map promised! (Or what it stated wasn’t present, in some cases.)

Once everyone’s drafted a tile, it’s guaranteed that one remains – the fifth tile not picked. That remains, and another four tiles join the flop. First player moves clockwise, and the next round of drafting begins. This continues for 16 turns, with players obliged to draft one tile per turn, until their 4×4 grid is complete. Even if none of the tiles available suit your needs, you always have to place one.

“Hang on,” I hear you say, with one finger wagging at me, brow creased. “There’s always a flop of five tiles, regardless of player count? And you said it’s guaranteed that one tile always remains?

That doesn’t add up for a two-, or three-player count!” You’re a clever-clogs, and thinking faster than I can explain. There’s a neat player-count scaling trick that sees to that.

In a two-player game, the first player drafts a tile as usual. Then they draft a second tile, but not to keep. They remove this one from the game all together, sending it down to Davy Jones’ locker. Then the second player picks one tile to keep, and one to discard. Thus, leaving one tile from among the five. Then turn order switches, another four tiles join that unwanted one, to make a new flop of five tiles. And play continues…

Hate Draarrrrrrfting Could Leave Ye Salty

For a three-player game, it’s similar. The first player drafts one tile, and then removes a second. Then the second and third player pick one tile as per usual, which leaves a solitary fifth tile. In this regard, it mimics an extra player (or two) drafting tiles that the other players cannot take. There is a strong element of hate-drafting here, though. The first player can see what the other players’ Expeditions are, and thus remove the tile that best-suited them.

For competitive players that love pulling the rug out from under their rivals, they’ll get a kick out of this! If you feel awkward about confrontation, then this aspect might make you cringe. You could always shuffle the remaining tiles from the flop and remove one blind, at random, if you’re not keen on this part.

The variables in Lost Seas, with regards to table tension in player count differs, especially at two players. In theory, each turn, the player going second gets a pleasant boost. They’re left with three tiles to pick between (after the first player drafted one, and removed a second). This second player can relax to a degree, because they get to draft one, bin one, and keep one for the next round. And because they’ll become the first player next turn, they go into that round with prior knowledge. They could then draft the tile they opted to put forward for that round.

(There’s going to be four other tiles to pick between, too. But if two perfect tiles come up among the three, they can guarantee drafting both of them. This luxury doesn’t occur in any three- or four-player counts; the last player gets left with a choice of two tiles, not three.)

There’s a ‘Young Mapmaker’ game mode, too. This is a mode where you don’t play with the yellow border tiles. Instead, players aim to build a 4×4 map as per usual, but with some simpler rules. Players always get three tiles to pick from on their turn (there’s no hate-drafting). At the end of the game, players check whichever nautical element is most-common in each row/column. They score one point per element of that kind in that row/column. This is a fabulous introduction to pattern-building and set collection.

The Maths Bit

There’s an even distribution of the six nautical elements across all the Exploration tiles. The important thing to note is that each element’s present at least once on 18 of the 65 tiles. And across all 65 tiles, there’s 24 of each element. Many tiles have more than one element on them – in fact, it’s the minority (12/65) that have only a single element on them. (Two tiles of each of the six elements.) The same ratio applies (12/65) for three matching elements on a tile, for the six element types. There’s six tiles with two of the same element on them.

35 of the 65 tiles have more than one element on them, but they’re non-matching elements. 14/35 have three elements on them, and 8/14 feature all three different elements. 6/14 have two-and-one elements on them. 21 out of the 35 have two different elements on them. Now, all 65 tiles get revealed and play a part in every game of Lost Seas. However, you’d need Dustin Hoffman Rainman-levels of card-counting skills to keep up with what’s in the game and what’s still to come. (Especially when players discard tiles out of the game and they get put back in the box.)

You’ll need some form of memory though, because across the 16 rounds, every tile gets used in Lost Seas. It’s down to you in the latter few rounds to gamble (or deduce) to whether you can draft the tiles you need from those remaining.

Arrrrrrrrt On The Tiles

Lost Seas is all about its tiles. The inevitable comparison is Carcassonne, both in size and thickness of card stock. They even come pre-punched, sitting in two trenches in the box. As a result, you can start playing straight out of the box, the second you lift the lid. Marine Joumard’s illustrations are delightful. They evoke ancient sea maps of old. You know the kind. Where exaggerated monsters, jutting rocks, and lonesome sandbars dominate the shoreline.

The yellow Expedition Tiles provide the marine elements inside circular portholes. It’s as if you’re viewing the objects from within the safety of your cabin, on board the vessel. If there’s a specific stated quantity of said element required for that row/column, it’s also stated within a circle. It’s a ‘wheel’ of rope; again, presenting more shipshape props. This is 100% iconography, but it’s simple enough to understand.

The points up for grabs sits in the tile’s top-right corner on a banner. These tiles are double-sided; one face being points on a white banner. A different demand’s on the reverse, on a black banner. The white-side is the easier of the two, with extra points up for grabs with a harder Expedition. It has a feather symbol next to the number. Is this representative of a quill, being an entry in the captain’s log of what wonders they witnessed?

The Exploration tiles have the marine elements on a blue backdrop, cartoon waves running along their bases. A faint square grid sits on the background, looking every inch the nautical chart. On the reverse is a recognisable-at-a-glance compass rose, points for the eight principle winds. Adding to the ambience is a marvellous First Player Token: a chunky circular compass of its own. This brown disc has the eight arms laser-cut into it, which is a pleasant detail.

Bring Me That Horizon – Final Thoughts

Co-designer Johan Benvenuto is perhaps best-known for his series of Cortex games. (A brain-busting party game involving mini offerings in the form of quick-thinking and reactions.) Lost Seas is a polar opposite experience to Cortex; this is a straight-up voyage in classic tile-placement.

I said earlier that Lost Seas reminded me of ‘Kingdomino-meets-Sagrada’. The Kingdomino part is, of course, mirrored with drafting tiles from a flop to make your own square grid. Both have set-collection in mind. That’s where that parallel ends, though. Lost Seas presents, to my mind, a greater challenge than Kingdomino. Here you’re spinning eight plates, straight from the get-go. Every tile you draft, in all 16 rounds, needs to meet two of those eight criteria given the x and y axis.

Of course, you can take a tile where it doesn’t meet one of those objectives. You always have to draft a tile, even if it doesn’t match the Expedition Tiles’ demands. In the first half of the game, you’ll feel relaxed about where you place your tiles. But be blasé at your peril. It’s all to easy to leave yourself with way too specific a tile in the final third of the game to complete your targets. This is the Sagrada vibe, for me.

In Sagrada, over the course of 10 rounds (and 20 dice) in a 4×5 grid, the final few rounds can be super-squeaky. Because unless you get, say, a purple 6 and a red 2 in the last round, you’re not finishing your window. And that could mean you failing any number of objectives. Rounds 12-16 in Lost Seas share this tension, and it’s great! You might find that trying to maximise all eight of those Expeditions proves too much. When I treated one of them as a lost cause from the start, it allowed me to focus on 7/8 with comfort. But it did dent my pride, somewhat!

Overall, Lost Seas is a triumph. Being able to decide how simple or complex you want your grid’s goals to be is great. This caters for all kinds of gamer, as well as providing nigh-endless replayability. As I stated earlier: if you enjoy the likes of Azul, Sagrada, Kingdomino, and Planet (another Blue Orange title), you’ll find a lot to love, here.

The hate-drafting in lower-player counts can get competitive. You’re removing tiles out of spite, alone. However, this aspect does at least inject some interaction into the mix. Without it, the game can become a pure multiplayer-solitaire experience.

Lost Seas isn’t going to be the most-pirate-y game in your collection with regards to theme. The set collection takes precedence. I would have loved it if there were consequences to drafting certain tiles (other than lost points opportunities). But as it stands, I can stretch my imagination towards a cartographer inking in this map. If you like thinky, satisfying puzzles, Lost Seas will tug at your hearrrrrrtstrings…