Yup - guilty I left the table.. Would've had more fun smashing my head into the toilet cistern , which i almost did..

Theres a million better ways to waste an hour then to play this..

I've only played it once, but I rather enjoyed it.

Two things really struck me:

Firstly, it's quite interesting choosing a colour to dictate which ships move forward. Obviously, you want to steer your ships to the right port, but you also want to try and steer the other player's ships the wrong way. You also need to try and guess which colour remaining players will choose, to try and predict the final position each round.

The second thing I remembered was that the Shipping Cards allow great dollops of "take that", and you should always be aware of what players holding these cards can do - in fact it's possibly a good idea to push someone ahead of you to set them up as targets for Shipping Card play.

[edit: spelling]

Just a little correction here....
There are many ways to gain victory points, but to end the game only victory points from fulfilled assignements are counted.

Other ways to gain victory points:
Each product card is worth 1 VP and there are two different shipping card types with one or two victory points.

To add my first impression....

I was walking by at games fair Essen and at first sight I wasn't caught by the game. Since my wife and I had some time, we sat down to play it on the second day.

1. With this game you need to know your opponents. Are they the destructive type of player that try to slow others down or the contructive ones that try to get their ships into the right harbor as fast as possible.

2. Getting product cards is particular frustrating.
The harbours only award you with a product card, if you unload there the appropriate resource (raw material). Other resources are unloaded too, but not rewarded. You can't get from each starting field to any harbour. This is important, if you need a specific product card and need to place your shipp and load it. With other shipps blocking your way and the movement being in the hand of the other players most of the time. If you need the red or blue (or grey) product cards (longest way from start field to harbour), other players will always put paid to the plans.

3. There are only three fields to gain shipping cards. They are marked with an anchor. It is very difficult to be there at the end of the movement (if you are not the last one to move the shipps). Shipping cards are very powerfull, since you can switch the resources between two shipps (even from other players), or set back a ship (own or opponents). Each player can only have three shippcards. If a player has already three cards, he has to play a shipp card before he can get a new one. You keep shippcards with victory points secret, but it will decrease the choice for better ones with an effect on the game. If you play them, they will be set in front of you open for every one.

4. Now with the trading........
Some players first slow down others, just to be active on the trade market..... and you will have to trade, since there are two different products for each resource you can bring into an harbour. At the games fair this wasn't really happening... Each player has three assignement cards and the little rule change of the games fair did more or less prevent trading (the top product card was open, so everyone knew where to go to fulfill an assignement)

5. Assignements
Each player can fulfill only one assignement per round. So better not follow the tip in the rules to wait fulfilling an assignement if you have the right combination of products (except there is a better assignement with more victory points that you could fulfill the next turn... well if the others let your shipp go into the right harbour).

This game can be endless until someone will gain the 12 victory points. If you are good in rating other people, you might have the best chances to win. The only issue is, since everybody knows exactly what the shipps have loaded it is always possible to send a shipp into the wrong harbour..... well except you have the right shipp card to switch resources or move your shipp back. This makes shipp cards very powerfull. the lucky one to have some shipp cards will either stop other players completely or will be able to set his shipps on the right channel to the appropriate harbour.

I absolutely agree.... you will need the right group of players to play it and have fun. I think for a group with many destructive players this will not be the game.

Greetings,

Carsten Freining