Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
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This is only my second review, and it is of a game that I received free in the recent BGN Game Giveaway.
Or rather it is not a review of the game itself, or of the artwork, but of the quality of the packaging, components, insert and presentation because, by god, these elements deserve a review of their own! With the exception of one small flaw they provide a shining example of how a game should be packaged and presented. All other boardgame designers take heed.
If you want a review of the game itself, please check out the incomparable Mr Vasel's opinion here. I merely quote one paragraph.
Tom Vasel wrote: Components: The box looks like a treasure chest, which is a good analogy of what is inside. A well designed plastic insert holds the plastic ships and the piles of double-sided tokens easily. Each token has a different colored background and shape, and the coins look really good. The dice are wooden (maybe too light?), but the highlight of the game is the gorgeous board and even better-looking cards. Each card is a full piece of art with clear symbols to let you know what they do. The art is cartoonish but very well designed, and you can even line up all eleven cards in a beautiful panorama (if you have space and are bored). The game is a visual delight and should appeal to kids and adults alike.
As it arrives: The game box arrives tightly shrinkwrapped with the top of the box sitting a good half inch higher than it would normally be. This extra half inch is because the insert is designed to hold the game neatly once punched, so the unpunched sprues sit on top of the insert and raise the box lid. Jamaica is not the first game to be presented like this, but this does give an indication of the attention to detail inside.
The box top Image by Davestar2
The tokens are attached to the sprues slightly more robustly than I prefer (I would rather they were attached so lightly that a few fall out as you pick them up), so a little care must be taken when punching them out. This may be because the are in reasonably heavy duty card.
Beneath the sprues are 4 gloriously-coloured, folded rulesheets (English, French, German and Italian) which are printed on high-quality, glossy paper and open out to the size of a broadsheet newspaper. These give a little bit of pirate history and backstory, show the components and set-up and the rules in a quirky flow-chart dressed up as a map. The 3 rulesheets you don't need will fit neatly under the insert.
Beneath this is the board which is brightly printed, thick, flat and has a beautiful dubloon motif on the reverse.
Below this is the insert, of which more later, containing the remaining components.
Remaining components Image by Easterly1
These comprise 6 brightly-coloured and surprisingly weighty resin ships, 3 large wooden dice, a shrinkwrapped pack of pirate action cards and 12 small treasure cards.
The ships are beautiful, but they are also the subject of my one gripe - resin is brittle and housing 6 brittle ships in a ziploc bag in a large compartment is a recipe for disaster. 2 of mine were broken on arrival and needed regluing. This was a shameful oversight considering the insert actually has individual shaped holes for each ship which are used once everything is unpacked and which would have provided more than adequate protection. Alternatively, the designers could have followed the example of Lord of the Rings which packages similar resin figures in a polystyrene case for transport.
Interestingly (to me at any rate), Jamaica continues Rum & Pirates conceit that Fuchsia is a piratey colour.
The pirate cards are strong, brightly coloured (with artwork to match the actions) and an unusual wide landscape shape with nicely rounded edges.
The treasure cards continue the colours and artwork, although they are a more conventional shape and about the size of a Ticket to Ride card.
The dice are, well, dice. They are light but if one has to quibble at the heft of the dice one is really struggling for criticisms.
Finally we come to the insert, and this really does deserve a drum roll and a picture......
The insert Image by UniversalHead
Look at the top of the picture first. The top third of the insert holds the Gunpowder tokens, the Dubloons and the Food tokens. See how each compartment is sized to be full, but not overflowing. What you can't see in this image (but you can in the one further up) is that each compartment has a rounded bottom rather than a square one, so even the last few tokens can easily be swept out of each one with a couple of fingers. No more emptying components into piles on the table! When we play, the box sits by the board and all the tokens are in easy reach. To add to that, the board sits tightly on top of the compartments and the box lid tightly on top of that, there is no requirement for ziploc bags to stop tokens mixing in transit.
In the middle of the insert you see the dice holder (note the big depressions on either side to give even the chubbiest fingers easy purchase on the dice) and the slot for the 6 'holds' (once they are punched out). The remaining holders are for the ships.
Now move down to the lower half of the image. Here you can see that the holds sit above two further compartments.
The first compartment is the perfect size to take the pirate cards. When removed these reveal another, smaller compartment for the treasure cards. Note how the same, single finger hole allows easy removal of first the holds, then the pirate cards, then the treasure cards.
The second compartment contains the compass (indicates who is captain each turn) and below that a smaller compartment for the treasure tokens.
Again, all of this is fitted so perfectly that every item is easy to put in place, easy to remove and yet held in place when the lid is closed.
Conclusions:
1. I have ranted on far too long about the construction of the contents of a board game for anybody's sanity.
2. This is (almost) the acme of how a game should be presented, a masterpiece of design. If all my games were presented like this I could do away with my stack of ziploc bags and elastic bands. Kudos and congratulations to the designers and artists who put this all together.
3. The game doesn't play too badly either.
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Darryl Boone
Canada
Coquitlam
BC
Reading your recent posts has been like dipping my bottom over and over into a bath of the silkiest oils and creams.
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I am very happy with this review. I value good production quality highly and it is good to read such a review from someone with a similar eye. If the production is excellent and the game ain't too shabby either, I'm practically sold.
Thank you very much for your review.
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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A good read, I love stuff like this.
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Patrick Korner
Canada
Coquitlam
British Columbia
Stop poking me! Ow! I mean it! That hurts!
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booned wrote: If the production is excellent and the game ain't too shabby either, I'm practically sold.
Thus far I think everyone I've played this with has loved it. A Pirates game should be fast and freewheeling, and this one delivers in spades.
The one fun fact about the components that wasn't mentioned in the OP here is that each player's set of cards, when laid end to end properly, produces a seamless diorama that wraps around on itself - that is, each card's art matches up with the next one in line, with the last one matching up to the first one again.
And Mathiew Leysenne is a game art genius, so the entire production is flat-out gorgeous.
I can't recommend this game enough. I think the only other time I've said that is Fairy Tale.
pk
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Mark Crocker
United States
Westland
Michigan
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None of this is a news flash to me. I drooled over this one the first time I saw it.
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Betty Egan
Canada
Kingston
Ontario
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Quote: by god, these elements deserve a review of their own!
That's the first thing that came to my mind when I first opened my copy! So thanks for doing one.
I agree with all of your points. My boats were not damaged and seemed very sturdy. I noticed as a point of detail that the boats have a nice "list" to them when standing. My husband (a sailor) noted however that they are listing in the wrong direction according to the billowing of the sails. The Fuchsia ship is a bonus in my eyes (purple and its variations being my fav colours). Another bonus - the game plays 2-6 players.
A beautiful and piratey fun game that my whole family enjoys.
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Jason Miller
Canada
Medicine Hat
Alberta
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Excellent review on what looks like to be an excellent game, at least from a graphic and box design. Now... if only the game was as accessible as this review, I'd be really happy!
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Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
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PatK wrote: The one fun fact about the components that wasn't mentioned in the OP here is that each player's set of cards, when laid end to end properly, produces a seamless diorama that wraps around on itself - that is, each card's art matches up with the next one in line, with the last one matching up to the first one again.
And Mathiew Leysenne is a game art genius, so the entire production is flat-out gorgeous. I agree wholeheartedly. I just felt that, having said I wasn't going to mention the artwork (fabulous though it was), I had already got quite close to doing so and I did not want to detract from the design.
Thanks everyone for the kind words.
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Don Sullivan
United States
Spokane
Washington
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Another nice detail is the dubloon graphic on the back of the rules. When the rules are in the box with this graphic face up, it gives the impression of a treasure chest briming with pirate booty when you open the box. Small detail, but none the less cool.
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Wim Leenaerts
Belgium
Beerse
Antwerp
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Seems to me it resembles "Pirate's Cove" by Days of Wonder an awful lot.
From the ships, to the board, the beautiful cards and even the very nice and practical box.
Did someone else notice this?
Someone here who already played Pirate's Cove and can compare? I won't be buying another pirates game since I already own one, but I am a big fan of pirate themed games...
Although it looks a bit copied from the Days of Wonder game it sure looks BEAUTIFUL! I totally agree with Booned here! Quote: If the production is excellent and the game ain't too shabby either, I'm practically sold.
I wish more designers would produce their games like this!
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Patrick Reynolds
United States
Vermontville
Michigan
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I've played both Pirate's Cove and Jamaica.
The similarities are as follow:
1) Both games cast players as pirates trying to gather treasure.
2) Both games use ships as player avatars and feature a board with a prominant island or islands.
3) Both games have dice.
4) Both games use some form of hidden movement at the start of each round.
Aside from those similarities, these are two completely different games.
In a nutshell, Pirate's Cove is a more complex game and more likely to appeal to gamers. It requires players to deduce their opponents movements and react according to their own best chances for avoiding or engaging in combat depending on the condition of their ship. The combat in Pirate's Cove is also much harsher, costing players whose ships are crippled to basically lose a round of upgrading their ship and collecting gold, treasure and cards.
Jamaica is a light game designed to appeal to non-gamers and families. The combat is fairly harmless (the winner takes the contents of one of the losing ships holds). The toughest decision is when to make a big push to move forward and when to stay back and stock up on the gold, food and gunpowder you'll need to keep making progress.
Both games are fun, and both do a good job of capturing the theme. I'll admit that when looking at Jamaica on the demo table for the first time the first thing that I thought was "that game looks a lot like Pirate's Cove" but I was pleasantly surprised to find a completely different kind of pirate-themed board gaming experience under the hood.
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Dallas Petersen
United States
American Fork
Utah
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I agree with your comments about the fit and finish of Jamaica. From the design of the board, to the cards, to--even--the insert, you can tell this game was a work of not only professionals but true lovers of boardgames. To dismiss this game simply because it doesn't have the strategy or depth of other Eurogames is to miss the beauty of Jamaica.
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Dave Peters
United States
Belmont
California
Powers:Coleridge:Milton: Faith...must be, if anything, a clear-eyed recognition of the patterns and tendencies, to be found in every piece of the world's fabric, which are the lineaments of God.
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PatK wrote: I can't recommend this game enough. I think the only other time I've said that is Fairy Tale.
Heh... I bought Fairy Tale (mostly) on your recommendation. My colleagues and family think it's a load of fun: so, 30 plays later, many thanks!
I'll hope Jamaica does as well!
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Sorry... but did you mean "abject" lesson?
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Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
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sabbath_ wrote: Sorry... but did you mean "abject" lesson? I should hope not, I thought it was very good.
Object lesson.
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Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
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Hmm. I would have sworn that object lesson was the bastardized form of the proper "abject lesson", but this is arguing the opposite:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004917.h...
Never heard the phrase object lesson in my life, it's always been abject. But it's usually used with "failure", of course.
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Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
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UnknownParkerBrother wrote: And it is the opposite way round for me. As you can infer from my response above, I had never heard the phrase with 'abject' in it before.
I would have thought 'object lesson' would be the original phrase - its meaning is reasonably clear, or at least clear with an explanation.
An 'abject lesson', taken at face value, would presumably be a really terrible one, so if the phrase has taken on completely the opposite meaning (as it appears to have done with at least two of you, and I must therefore presume many more), it must surely be because the original was 'object' and the near homophone 'abject' has taken its place.
Isn't language wonderful?
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boltongeordie wrote: sabbath_ wrote: Sorry... but did you mean "abject" lesson? I should hope not, I thought it was very good. Object lesson.
???
Actually I was using THIS definition http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abject
3: expressing or offered in a humble and often ingratiating spirit
Seems like an abject review to me.
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Get up, get up, get up, get down, fall over.
United Kingdom
Bolton
Lancashire
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Miriam Webster wrote: Main Entry: abject
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin abjectus, from past participle of abicere to cast off, from ab- + jacere to throw
Date: 15th century
1: sunk to or existing in a low state or condition (to lowest pitch of abject fortune thou art fallen — John Milton)
2
a: cast down in spirit : servile , spiritless (a man made abject by suffering)
b: showing hopelessness or resignation (abject surrender)
3: expressing or offered in a humble and often ingratiating spirit (abject flattery) (an abject apology)
As MW points out, abject comes from the latin for 'cast off' or 'thrown away' and has come, in all its meanings, to mean low, inferior or humble - and not in a good way.
I wrote "an object lesson", I don't think, and did not mean to suggest, that Jamaica offers an abject (as in humble) lesson to anyone.
sabbath_ wrote: Seems like an abject review to me. If you think the review was abject, well now them would be fighting words. 
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Arvydas Kazlauskas
Latvia
Riga
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Bruno Faidutti compared it to "Pirate's Cove" and says it's better than Jamaica. You can check out the review at his website.
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Posted Wed Mar 26, 2008 11:14 pm
