Francis Drake: Great game and components
I purchased Francis Drake about a month ago at BGG Con. I first played it back in May and have been thinking about it ever since. The game was out of my budget on Amazon, but I got a good deal on it at the Eagle/Gryphon Games booth in Dallas.
The game is a great medium-heavy euro, but, in all honesty, it’s the components that totally sold it for me. It has plastic ships, wood tokens, cardboard treasure chests and glass beads.
Let’s take a look at all the component goodness …
First off, the box is substantial. You totally get your money’s worth for this game. Upon opening the box, you’ll immediately see a cutout on one sideof the box so you can easily remove the game and player boards. In most games, you’d have to pull the edge aside to slip your finger underneath to remove the board.
When you remove the game board, you’ll see the box comes with plastic dividers and a cover that securely holds all your game pieces so that things aren’t shuffling around or getting mixed up in the box. It’s the little things like that me go, Oooh, that’s a really nice touch.
Francis Drake takes place over 3 rounds, with each round having 2 phases. Each round consists of a Provisioning Phase and a Sailing Phase. During the Provisioning Phase, players take turns going down Plymouth Street to collect resources before sailing.
Plymouth Street contains 18 locations where you can collect guns, crew, supplies or trade goods; upgrade your frigate or receive a title (which gives bonuses during the Sailing Phase). Players in turn order place a disc at a location for resources. Each player’s movement must be farther along the street than his or her previous movement. Once a player passes a location, he or she cannot return to it.
When players decide they have collected enough resources for voyage, they move their boat to the Outward Dock to get ready to sail. When all the players reach the Outward Dock, the Sailing Phase then begins.
Players then sail out to attack towns, forts and galleons. Players in turn order place wood tokens facedown at various locations on the map. Each token has a number 1 to 4. Once all discs are placed, they are flipped over. The player who placed the higher number disc gets to resolve the attack first. Only two successful attacks are allowed at each destination. Winning the first attack gives you the location’s gem, which you sock away inside your treasure chest. (This is probably my favorite part of the game where you hear the clink, clink of your bounty). These treasures stay hidden until the end.
Players’ ships can only sail as far as their supplies go. Each fort or town has a required number of guns and/or crew to successfully be defeated. When attacking a galleon, your ship needs to have been upgraded to a galleon as well as having the number of guns required. When getting commodities, you exchange your trade-good cubes for them.
Successful attacks give you victory points, and attacks of each type give you extra victory points during each round. After each round, you lose all your resources except for commodities. For Rounds 2 and 3, you shuffle and deal out the Plymouth Street locations and repeat the process again. At the end of the 3 rounds, you add up your victory points and calculate gem and commodities points as well. The player with the highest points wins.
Francis Drake requires a large table to play because the game board is ginormous. Players also get their own tableau for their resources, and there’s also a giant tableau to keep the resources separated. But don’t let its largeness deter you from picking it up. The components are fantastic and well made, game play takes about 1.5 to 2 hours, and when you’re done playing, components pack up nice and neatly into its well thought-out box.
Anybody else play Francis Drake before?