Dead Reckoning Review: A Brilliant Pirate Adventure Far Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts

Dead Reckoning (1-4 Players) is a 4x pirate card crafting adventure you shouldn't miss. All players start with the same deck, but are given the opportunity to buy upgrades for and level up these cards, allowing them to create their own playstyle driven by a unique deck of actions! Maybe you'll become the stereotypical pirate attacking everything in sight, or perhaps being a humble merchant is more your thing? All routes are worth exploring...but just make sure you end up with the most treasure at the end of the game! This has been one of the best board games we've played in 2022 so far, so check out our review to see what makes it so special to us.
0:00 - Intro
1:24 - Brief Overview
3:57 - Bad Cardboard
5:02 - Not Enough Components
8:13 - Dead Turns
9:17 - Why This Game Is Brilliant
11:06 - Great For New Players
11:56 - Different Playstyles
13:01 - Battleship Fun
14:00 - How Will You Play?
14:41 - Player Count
15:25 - Doggos & Final Thoughts
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[@trevorgerman3118]

I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to watch board game reviews that are sometimes critical of games (whether it be mechanics or quality or theme etc). I appreciate those reviews, like this one, that show the good and the bad of a game. Thank you for the balanced review. :)

[@trevorgerman3118]

One quick question - Dead Reckoning vs Libertalia. If I was to pick up a pirate themed board game primarily for my wife and I, which would you suggest?

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Thank you so much for the lovely comment, it means a lot to us! I think we’d say whilst Libertalia is still fun at 2 players it does shine a lot more with more, so if it’ll mostly be you and your wife then go for Dead Reckoning - although both are really different in style so also depends if you like lighter or heavier, as Libertalia is almost bordering on party style game…

[@inoutsoccer11]

Thanks for the overview! I had not heard of this one until it hit the bgg hotlist. Definitely will have to keep my eyes open for it at the FLGS.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Hope you get a copy!

[@draphsor]

It was KS only so your FLGS will only get it if they backed for it. It will be coming back to KS for a reprint this summer.

[@dougradcliffe1466]

I can't believe they skimped on tokens after the disaster of skimping on tokens in Edge of Darkness was. Unreal.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Yea we've only just been hearing about that!

[@St_M_]

I really like this one as well and am kicking myself for only backing the base game. Super looking forward to the upcoming KS later this year.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Yea, doesn't make it better that everyone and their dog who has the Saga content is saying how good it is...

[@draphsor]

The saga content is outstanding.

[@andrewww3389]

This is my favorite game to come out in the past year or so. I'm a huge pirate fan and this is already my favorite pirate game. I agree with the ship quality. I would love to be able to get some sort of deluxe wooden ship in the future. But other than that the components are fantastic. I've played this several times and have never come close to running out of barrels, that's odd. Everything in the game is purchased with barrels so no one in our games had a chance to carry over many from previous turns.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! We're really looking forward to the saga content! Regarding the barrels, think it just comes down to how you play the game in that given game. We've had 4 player games where it hasn't been a problem, and 2 player games where we are on the edge of running out.

[@wbaccus]

12:34 - When you sink another player's ship, you don't get everything that was on it, you get 5 coins from that player. If there are 5 on the ship, they come from there, if there are not, all 5 coins come from their treasure box.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

The rules we have say they do! If they have 5 or more, they lose everything on their ship to the supply, BUT, if another player was the one who sunk them, they get all the coins rather than it going to the supply. As in the rules (quoted) "If you have five or more coin on your ship, immediately lose all coin on your ship to the supply" and "if another player was the cause of your ship sinking, they gain all the coin you lost (instead of it going to the supply)"

[@VanBradford]

@@BoardOfItReviews That's correct. Maybe the misunderstanding was with the barrels, as those remain untouched?

[@olebrommm]

The 30 cubes are there to keep a game balance of sorts.so not 1 person can controll all islands.it was discussed in bgg.but the barrels i agree.good i got the painted barrels but you could count the dark once as 5 abd not 3 as it say

[@BoardOfItReviews]

I just find it a weird one though. With limited or unlimited cubes, somebody could just as easily 'control all islands' because it depends on the actions of the other players more than how many cubes. But, I'm happy to accept there must be some gameplay benefit as they've tested it far more than us! Then, either way, why get players to use that as the action/achievement tracker? Somebody else also said that about the barrels and counting them as 5! But I guess the main issue is that a 5 doesn't fit on your ship, which means you could only use ones and then the same issue occurs if everyone is ferrying barrels on their ship.

[@olebrommm]

@@BoardOfItReviews i totaly agree tho. the cubes are strange. and the barrels even tho they say its not a cost issue. its just a irritation.i did ad teh deluxe barrels and i probably haver enough when i also use the old once. but dam they look ugly with the deluxe once.. i have to play it a few times before i see how it all plays out

[@guymccann8390]

I have played 2 two player games and a 4 player game thus far. I agree that having more lower denominations would be fantastic, I don't really see the point of the 30's outside of physically counting out at the end, we just tally and calculate. The cubes, I feel was designed to provide a counterpoint to island control: If you want to control all the islands, you're gonna be subpar on the cannons. In each of our games, we never even came close to using all the cubes and barrels. Probably just a different style of play between us. As for the dead turns, I think that's a feature you'll have in any deck builder where you can't cull your deck. For me, the lack of upgrading your ship until late game unless you focus early on the Bosun was a wee frustrating. Agree with all your positives and this game is fantastic!

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Thanks for watching! I get the thing with the Bosun. Getting to level 3 before you can upgrade is defo a long wait! Agree with the 30's too. I never get games that have 10 different scoring aspects yet think you'll still use the coins to tally up at the end. Scythe did the same thing when an expansion added 50's. We're totally fine with the cubes being a counterbalance, it was more that then why tell us to use those to mark things, particularly as when you need to mark the most things you have the least cubes. With the barrels I think it's all on playstyles if it becomes an issue. We had a four player game and it was okay, but then in a two player when both of us have level four crew members and comboing advancements it became a real issue!

[@16431421]

Okay I’ve never heard the phrase Ameritrash before but I’m ready to throw hands.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Hahaha don't hurt us! It's a common board game phrase we promise!

[@16431421]

@@BoardOfItReviews lol I looked it up after you said it, I’m just peeved someone came up with it in the first place XD.

[@tah27891]

The box to store your Battle ship tower isnt too small. There's a piece of cardboard in the storage box to keep the box from being destroyed during shipping. You have to take that out and the ship fits fine.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Of course, but if you remove it then the storage box will quite easily be squished by other boxes and components depending how its stored. Plus, we took it out and checked and it still wasn't so much extra space it made a difference.

[@tah27891]

@@BoardOfItReviews id be interested in seeing how you have it stored. I honestly don't have that issue. Not arguing your point, just genuinely confused lol

[@BoardOfItReviews]

@@tah27891 You could be completely right, I honestly don't know, but I don't get why send that box with cardboard in it if it isn't to protect the ship, as they could have just had it come flattened. From my point of view the box for the ship is made of very thin material that will easily cave if you put pressure on it, so it's reinforced with the cardboard to prevent all the other heavy components from pushing down on the ship in storage or transit. But yea, I'm not saying it will 100% happen, but all the components weigh like 4 kg and if you're throwing the box around going to a game night or something I can see the ship getting a bit smooshed without the reinforcement because it certainly won't hold under pressure.

[@darling0223]

A shame the Kickstarter doesn't ship to Thailand, seems like such a fun game...

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Hopefully the reprint does!

[@spaztekwarrior]

I had to watch this three times before coming to the conclusion that the negatives regarding dead turns and the components is enough to prevent me from getting the game… despite your otherwise glowing review. :) Thanks for the review though! I am sure it is otherwise a pretty decent game.

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Thanks for watching! Sorry to hear you won't be getting it :(.

[@spaztekwarrior]

Tonnes of other games to choose from:) BTW your video was another very well explained and presented upload :)

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Thank you, as always! 😊

[@deborahpate3238]

Wow, seems like another one I need to save up for. Thanks for reviewing some lesser known games so thoroughly, it's really helpful, and I'm sick of hearing about Ark Nova :)

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Hahaha us too! Although maybe we wouldn't be so annoyed if we could actually get a copy... Glad you're enjoying the reviews! We're all about sharing the games we enjoy playing as much as the new hotness, so it's nice to see people are enjoying it.

[@windyhillbomber]

The pitiful production quality puts me off. It’s just not good enough in the current market of quality board game production. Imagine how great this game would be if made by Eagle Gryphon, for example

[@BoardOfItReviews]

Not sure we'd agree there! Besides the poor quality cardboard of the battleship, and perhaps the blandness of the coins, everything else seems pretty decent to us. I mean, an Eagle Gryphon production of this would be incredible, but I'm also not sure I'd want to pay the the price it would cost. What didn't you like about the production?

[@chronosone]

There are ship construction videos out now. Two great tips are to pinch tabs slightly with needle nose pliers before slotting. Also put rear deck on back of ship piece before trying to slide under rear sail.