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Oltre Mare is a trading card game by Emanele Ornella, recently published in a new edition by Rio Grande Games and Amigo.
Players: 2-5
Time: 60-90 minutes
Difficulty: 3 (of 10)
The Components
Though mainly a card game, Oltre Mare comes with several components:
- 99 cards
- 1 game board
- 5 ships
- 5 player aids
- Cardboard Bits:
- 1 start player tile
- 40 prestige tiles
- 32 harbor bonus markers
- 5 minus markers
- 5 wooden cubes
Cards: Printed full-color on medium-heavy card stock. 98 of the cards are "ware cards" which contain a vast array of information, including: a goods type with count and value, along with a background color that matches the goods type; hand and card play limits; and four different action symbols. Some cards also feature a harbor name, only used for setup. Overall the iconography is clear and the cards do a great job of containing a huge amount of information without appearing crowded or confusing.
My only minor complaint is that the goods pictures are a bit small, leaving the cards without a good central focus, but that's probably an unavoidable loss because of how much other info there is on the cards. Beyond that, however, the style of the cards is elegant and period appropriate.
The 99th (Venice) card is mixed into the deck to tell you when to do half-time scoring.
Gameboard: A two-panel gameboard depicting many of the cities the Mediterranean. It's an elegant two-toned map (blue and beige) that nicely sets the tone for the game.
Ships: A set of five-ships constructed from a thin but stiff plastic stock. They're a pain to put together, but look pretty good afterward. The only deficit is that the color matching is poor. The player colors on the ships are very muted, dull colors, so the black player gets a purple ship, the red ship looks more brown, etc.
Player Aids: Cardstock player aids, each helpfully bordered in the five player colors. They depict everything you'd want to know about the game, including goods values, action results, and harbor bonus markers.
Cardboard Bits: Additional bits are produced as thick, linen-textured cardboard, again printed in fairly muted colors, matching the ships and board. We have a large square first player tile, rectangular prestige tiles and square minus markers, which are all simple and utilitarian.
The circular harbor markers are notable because there are six different types, and each one has a unique icon fairly clearly reminding players of what it does.
Wooden Cubes: A set of five wooden cubes in the player colors (blue, black, green, yellow red), used to mark scores. As already mentioned they're poor color matches for the ships.
Rulebook: A six page rulebook with lots of illustrations and examples. A summary of the harbor bonus tiles on the last page provided exactly the reference we needed in game.
Oltre Mare was originally produced as an indie game about a year ago. That edition came with tidlywink pieces, a microscopic board, and a box that came apart if you breathed on it hard. It was decidely underproduced, and I was thrilled when I heard that there was a new edition out in 2005.
Though I prefer the new edition of the game, I think it also missed the mark, just in the other direction. What should have been a high-end card game, running at $30 or so, including some additional components, ended up being a huge $40 game, that's a little too big and too expensive. It's a shame, as I don't think we're going to be seeing the midsize edition now.
In any case, Oltre Mare is good looking, easy to use, and has good quality components. The price is a bit high and although good looking I though the muted look to the game cost it a little something in beauty. Still, I let it eke in a "5" out of "5" for Style.
The Gameplay
The object of Oltre Mare is to cleverly trade and manage cards to collect the best, and thus most valuable, sets.
Setup: Each player takes a cube, ship, and player aid in his color. The harbor markers are randomized and placed on the board at the various harbors along the sea routes.
The ware cards are shuffled, and then each player draws from the deck until he picks a card with a harbor name on it. He then places his ship on that harbor (discarding the harbor marker there).The player then places the ware card he drew in front of him as the start of his "freight stack".
The ware deck is then reshuffled (other than the 2-5 cards that players kept) and the Venice card is placed halfway down, to mark the mid-game scoring.
Each player starts off with 11 ducats (points).
Order of Play: On his turn a player:
- Checks Hand Limit
- Trades
- Plays Cards
- Takes Actions
- Stacks Cards
Check Hand Limit: Every ware card has a hand limit on it. It's between three and six. This is the maximum number of cards you can have in your hand.
The top card on your freight stack (initially, your starting card) determines your current hand limit. At the start of your turn you check that card, and if you're over you must discard the excess cards by putting them in your pirate stack. This is a bad thing because those pirate cards can eventually be worth negative points.
Trade: A player may then freely trade with the other players. He'll do so in order to collect nice sets and/or improve the actions on his cards and/or the number of cards he'll be able to play on his next turn.
To further encourage trading any player who trades with the active player gets a prestige tile. These may be worth points at mid-game and end-game.
During the trade phase you can also buy cards at a cost of 3 ducats (points) each, to a maximum of four. These can be purchased from your pirate deck or the main draw deck.
Play Cards: Each ware card has a play requirement on it. This is a number of cards that you must play on your turn, exactly, no more and no less. It varies from one to four. (The play requirement and the hand limit always add up to seven, offering one of the tradeoffs of the game.)
On your turn you must play exactly as many ware cards as shown in the top card in your freight stack. This might have forced a card purchase earlier in the turn. These ware cards will be added to your freight stack, eventually resulting in points for you, but first you must take appropriate actions as shown on the cards you played.
Take Actions: Every card has two symbols on it, drawn from a set of four: ducats, pirates, cards, and sails. After you've played your cards, you then take actions based upon the number of each symbol you played.
Ducats give you points. You get 1, 3, or 6 points, depending on if you played 1, 2, or 3+ wares cards with ducat actions on them.
Pirates get you additional cards for your pirate deck. You get 1, 3, or 6.
Cards give you additional cards for your hand. You get 1, 3, or 6.
Sails let you move your ship on the board, exactly 1, 2, 3, or 4 spaces, depending on how many wares cards you played with sail actions on them.
Sailing is the only point where the board is actually used. There's a network of cities on the board, connected by lines (sea routes). When you move your ship you'll move to a new harbor the appropriate number of spaces away, and if it has a harbor marker you get to collect it. Harbor markers do various good things, including: giving you ducats for moving your ship; avoiding pirate actions; giving you more ducats than usual with the ducat action; giving you ducats for having a high hand limit; and letting you pay less when you're purchasing cards. When you get a harbor marker you get to continue using its power until you move again. Afterward, they still may be worth points at the end game.
Stack Cards: At the end of your turn you place the cards you played in your freight stack, in an order of your picking. When you're choosing an order you usually want to keep cards of the same sort together, because cards become more valuable the more of them you have. In addition you have to be careful about what's on top since it'll control your hand limit and how many cards you must play on your next turn.
Mid-Game Scoring: When the Venice card is reached, mid-game scoring occurs.
First, players get points for their prestige markers, which they earned for trading with active players. The player with the most gets 6 points, second gets 3, and third gets 1. Players then return their prestige markers.
Second, players earn points for all the wares that they've added to their freight deck, except for the set that's currently on the top. A set of freight cards is worth a variable amount depending on what type of ware it is and how many there are. This is all clearly depicted on the card. For example scrolls are worth 1/4/8, depending on if you have 1, 2, or 3+ cards in the set, while wheat is worth 1/2/4/7/12, depending on if you have 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5+ cards.
End-Game Scoring: A second and final scoring round occurs at the end of the round after the last card is drawn from the deck.
First, prestige scoring occurs as before. Second, players score the rest of the cards in their freight deck.
Third, players get bonuses for the total count of harbor markers that they collected. Players get 6/3/1 points, depending on if they came in first, second, or third on the total count of harbors.
Fourth, players lose a point for each card in their pirate deck. (A good reason to buy the cards from there if you can!)
The player with the most points wins.
Relationships to Other Games
This is the second edition of Oltre Mare. As already mentioned the original edition was smaller with lower quality components. It also had a lot of subtle differences, including: some variations in sea routes, scoring, and ware values. Overall this new edition is nicer and it looks like the game systems are more finely tuned.
Oltre Mare is a trading and set-collection game. It is very similar in feel to German classic Bohnanza, because both games center their set collection around very tight and constrained hand management. Despite this similarity in feel, each game is unique enough to really distinguish itself. Overall, Oltre Mare is the more serious gamer's game, with more tactical depth, while Bohnanza is a little lighter.
The Game Design
Oltre Mare is a solid trading game with all the elements that really help such a game to distinguish itself. Goods are worth various amounts to various people, and trading is further encouraged through the prestige points and the tight hand and play limits. As with any trading game if you have a perfect hand you might not want to trade, but thanks to the prestige even that's not a given: you might buy an extra card solely to have trading stock.
There's a lot of tactics in the game, as you're simultaneously trying to make good sets of cards, to avoid pirates, to move to beneficial board locations, and to ensure that you can play enough cards on your next turn. These tradeoffs are meaningful, interesting, and offer hard choices.
I only have one complaint about the game, which is the length. I've played it three times, and each time it felt like it overstayed its welcome by just a bit. I don't think the repetitiveness of the actions can quite sustain the 60-90 minute game length. However it should be noted that I feel much the same about Bohnanza, at least in the American edition.
If Oltre Mare were the first game of this sort I would have quickly given it a "5" out of "5" for Substance, but now, even with its distinctive gameplay it must be admitted that it's a bit similar to Bohnanza. The facts that it's not as innovative and that it's a little long have left me giving it a high "4" out of "5" instead: very good.
Conclusion
Oltre Mare, the hit trading card game of last year, is now out in a new, more nicely produced mass-market edition. It's actually a bit overproduced, but at least this box won't crumble. The game itself is a fun, thoughtful, and tactical card trading and set collection game that feels somewhat similar to Bohnanza but offers up more thoughtful and tactical play.
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