Everything on board ?!

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Everything on board ?!
Game data
author Carlo A. Rossi
graphic Michael Menzel
publishing company GermanyGermany Germany : Abacusspiele , United States : Z-Man Games , Netherlands : White Goblin Games
United StatesUnited States 
NetherlandsNetherlands 
Publishing year 2018
Art Collecting game
Teammates 2 to 4
Duration 30 minutes
Age from 7 years

Everything on board ?! is a family game by the Italian game designer Carlo A. Rossi . The game for two to four players, ages seven and up, takes around 30 minutes per round. It is in 2016 at Abacusspiele in German as well as Anchors Aweigh! in English and as Alles aan boord ?! published in Dutch. The game is about collecting items of equipment for a boat trip, which can later be exchanged for goods and money.

Theme and equipment

The aim of the game is to assemble items of equipment for a trip by ship that can later be exchanged for goods and for money and treasure chests using cards. The players try to earn as much money as possible in this way, the richest player after two rounds wins the game. The way it is played is partly reminiscent of the cooperative children's game The Mysterious Forest, also developed by Rossi and released in 2016 .

In addition to the instructions, the contents of the game box consist of:

  • four ship panels with privacy screens and storage areas for equipment and goods,
  • 84 equipment tokens,
  • 52 adventure cards, including 20 discovery cards, 8 trading cards, 12 pirate cards and 12 mission cards,
  • 64 goods bags, 16 each in four colors (light blue, white, purple and orange),
  • four parrot tiles,
  • Money, including 24 coins with a value of 1 and 12 coins with a value of 5, and
  • 18 treasure chests with the value of 10.

Style of play

At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a ship board and places it in front of them. The pieces of equipment are mixed up and poured into the middle of the table as a disordered heap. All goods, coins, parrots and treasure chests come separately from each other next to the play area. The adventure cards are sorted by type, shuffled and placed face down.

Phases during a game round
  • Preparation with adventure deck
  • Phase loading
  • Phase trip
  • Billing

The game is played in two rounds, each with three phases:

  1. In the first phase, the ships are loaded with equipment and first goods,
  2. in the second phase the journey takes place by playing through the adventure deck, and
  3. In the last phase, the goods picked up are settled in cash and cash in treasure chests.

At the beginning of each round, a set of 5 discovery cards, 3 pirate and mission cards and 2 trading cards each is drawn, shuffled and then laid out face down in a circle around the pile of equipment. At the command “Everything on board!”, The other players turn the cards and then start loading the ships at the same time. In doing so, they take items of equipment from the pile in the middle of the table, one by one and with just one hand, that they may need on the later trip. Covered tiles can be turned over. All equipment is placed on the storage spaces on and below deck, and players also choose two goods each, which they also place below deck. In addition to the equipment required on the adventure cards, players can also take additional storage spaces for goods on the ship. As soon as a player has occupied all of his places, he shouts “Cast off!” And collects all adventure cards on display, shuffles them and places them face down in front of him; all other players can still pack their ship before the travel phase starts.

In the travel phase, the player who has the adventure deck in front of him reveals the various adventure cards one after the other. All four types are treated differently:

  • the green discovery cards are turned over directly and all players can exchange the depicted equipment for goods or money.
  • the blue trading cards are also directly revealed and all players can exchange the goods shown for other goods.
  • before the black pirate cards are revealed, all players are asked whether they want to run into the pirates or flee; only then is the card revealed. All players who agree to an encounter must hand in and exchange the specified equipment; if they cannot, they must either hand in 2 coins or a commodity.
  • The red order cards are only placed face down under the pile of cards and only played when all other cards have been played. Players can exchange the specified goods for cash if they have them on the ship.

All goods cards that the players receive during the travel phase must be placed on free spaces in the ship or as storage tiles, otherwise the players must discard goods or equipment. At the end of the round, all items of equipment still in the ship must be returned and all goods still available must be exchanged for 1 money. 10 money at a time must be exchanged for a treasure chest, which is placed on a free space in the ship and blocks it for the second round. Finally, the player with the least money receives a parrot, which can be used as a joker for any piece of equipment in the next round.

The game ends after the second round has been settled. The winner is the player with the most money; in the event of a tie, the players involved win together.

variants

Several variants can be introduced to vary the level of difficulty:

  1. the monkeys are used as a handicap and placed in the ship for the stronger players as a blockade of a storage area.
  2. the card sets can be varied as desired to increase the level of difficulty or to obtain a more random composition.
  3. the tiles with starfish cannot be used as tab tiles.
  4. the monkeys can be used as jokers.

Expenses and reception

The game Everything on board ?! was developed by Carlo A. Rossi and is parallel to the Nuremberg Toy Fair 2018 at Abacusspiele in German as well as Anchors Aweigh! at Z-Man Games in English and as Alles aan boord ?! published by White Goblin Games in Dutch. The graphic design of the game comes from Michael Menzel .

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g game instructions Everything on board ?!
  2. ↑ Versions of Everything on Board ?! in the board game database BoardGameGeek (English); accessed on June 18, 2017.

Web links