Crossing Oceans

I left Crossing Oceans in shrink for a while because I had already played Transatlantic enough to expect only marginal differences. The differences are marginal, but usefully so: Gerdts still has his rondel, and this version takes the familiar frame and makes it noticeably tidier on the table.

At its centre is Gerdts's characteristic rondel-driven action selection. Crossing Oceans does not attempt to rewrite Transatlantic; it compresses it, removing a little friction without disturbing its identity. It is Transatlantic in different workwear, not a new profession.

The more meaningful improvement is the handling of trading outposts, which I found neater, and the scoring. Points now develop in a much smoother, more trackable way; in the later rounds you can probably affect them too, so the player interaction sits where it ought to, rather than disappearing into a final calculation.

We played two games back to back, which is usually the most reliable test of whether a system wants another outing. Crossing Oceans sits comfortably in the “play it whenever” category: satisfying, but not something that demands emotional preparation on a Tuesday after work.

If you do not own Transatlantic, buy Crossing Oceans without hesitation; if you do, the older game still serves perfectly well, because these changes are not as fundamental as they were in Skymines.