Captains of the Gulf

Captains of the Gulf had passed me by at first, and after finally getting it to the table, I can see why. You have your own fishing boat — your baby — and send it out to make an honest living from the sea. There is something pleasingly concrete about being a small captain chasing the next haul, even if the game never makes much noise about it.

On a turn, you move your boat around a rondel, fish, and sell the catch to build your livelihood. The rondel is interesting, but dry and tight: it restricts you, demands careful handling, and does not give away an advantage cheaply. The interesting decision is how to squeeze your next move until the route itself yields a little extra.

Its best idea is the re-seeding of the sea, which gives life to what might otherwise be a simple cycle of catching and selling. Player interaction is not a shouting match across the table; the pressure comes from the shared seascape and from finding value within the rondel's limits. Then the rulebook arrives: actively unfriendly to the reader, with examples that are technically correct and remarkably unhelpful when the difficult cases appear. Rulebook grade: resit required.

It is not a bad game, and it is worth two or three plays, especially if somebody who knows it explains it. But however good its sea may be, I cannot quite see anyone falling in love with it.