Francis Drake

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. andreashun

   this looks like a neat exploration, trading game. like this kind of game, like good components. need this

2. 7 out of 10

   ajewo

   Pirate themed, tense worker placement game where players first competitively shop crew, weapons, and provisions on a one-way street to then attack Spanish colonies and ships. Unlike most worker placement games, Francis Drake is competitive but not cut-throat and still feels like a euro game. + Great components + Artwork + Thematic (pirates, historical) + Balanced gameplay: no king making or team building, reset after each round + Race game in the first dock phase ("shopping in Plymouth") - first come first serve (order of goods is randomized each round) + Secret deployment / worker placement: press-your-luck and bluffing (ghost ship) in the second phase (sailing) + 4 different sailing zones where only some players can distribute their workers (depending on collected provisions) + Trading goods used for end-game set collection + Players who pass early get victory points + Characters let players manipulate the strength of the Spanish or peek: depending on what players get in the first phase, the strategies change a lot for the second phase + End round bonus give players a reason to diversify + Box insert # Rules are okay, a bit lengthy # Tense, high interaction but indirect: first come, first serve + hidden unit deployment # Quite hard to teach (mechanics are easy, but all the different shopping cards plus why they are needed is a lot for beginners, however, after the first round everyone will know how everything works) - Does not scale well: best with 5 players (and 6 with expansion) - because everything gets tighter (resources, places) - No real sense of progression between rounds / no engine building (round reset) - Replayability and setup variability: each game feels quite the same - Second phase is fiddly (a lot of components on the board, book keeping, reset after each round) Variant: The two expansions can be used to spice up each round: * Voyage #1: No expansion * Voyage #2: Spain's Revenge * Voyage #3: Montezuma's Legacy Related games: * Egizia (worker placement, tile picking as one way street, very dry, engine building: most collected resources and special abilities are permanent) * Great Western Trail (players move one worker one a path and activate locations, thematic, deck building, engine building) * Tokaido

3. 8 out of 10

   aandjso

   Never will play another 3-p(we did use the light blue tiles) game! Felt not like a pirate game but a soft version Tokaido, you can buy or do whatever you like! Must be at least 4-p.