You could make the valid argument that there’s too much to keep track of for a game of this weight, but I make the case that should be consider a strength of Dead Men Tell No Tales. Disclaimer: This game was provided by the publisher, but my reviews are always 100% honest and all photos and opinions are my own! However, this is by no means an entry-level option as play feels intermediate rather than beginner, so don’t expect any cabin kids to go it alone. If you are unfamiliar with the base game, DMTNT is a co-operative game where you take on the role of pirates attempting to loot treasure from The Skelit’s Revenge. They might also lose if a tile can't be placed, too many treasures are lost, too many pirates are killed over the course of the game, or a pirate is killed after all the treasure has been looted.

Unique systems for tracking fire, enemy movement and a player's fatigue all combine into an interesting and unique cooperative gaming experience. Eliminate a Deckhand- Similar to fighting fires, the active player can remove a Deckhand token from their current room for each action point they spend. One game that immediately came to mind was Flash Point: Fire Rescue, which has similar fire-spreading and fire-fighting mechanics but, in my group’s opinion, is a better all-around experience.

Unfortunately, the light in the doorways that indicates where doorways are uses the same color palette as the fire illustrations. The instruction book gleefully states there is only one way to win this seafaring co-op, yet multiple ways to lose. Unique systems for tracking fire, enemy movement, and a player’s fatigue all combine into an interesting and unique cooperative gaming experience. The Kraken models are beautifully detailed and incredible quality, even unpainted, they have a great table presence. When doing this action the player will take a tile off the deck and add it to the ship so that all doors connect or have the ability to connect to doorways from prior tiles.

It gets its own blazing fire die, then a token is added to that, revealing other problems the tile contains: either a skeleton guarding tools; a guard protecting treasure; or a trap door that deckhands can spring from. There are two types of wooden pieces in this game, the player’s wooden meeples which look like pirates, and the deck hands which are adorable little skulls. As part of this step, a token is drawn from the bag to determine what is inside the new room, be it Skeleton Crew, Trapdoor, or Guard/Treasure token.The guards and skeletons are the main obstacles in the game — the thing that keeps players from achieving their goals.

Increase Your Battle Strength- Pirates can increase their combat strength by one point for each action token spent on this action. From the inferno on the ship tiles to the well drawn pirate cards, I found the artwork to be both thematic and engaging. There is nothing that can stop that in the game, but you know your gaming group better than anyone, so if this is a regular problem within your group, be forewarned. Trapped – If players ever need to place a new Room Tile but there aren’t any available doors to connect it to, they are considered trapped and lose the game.If and when winning becomes plain sailing, there’s the option to increase how much treasure is needed to win. With all those demands on a player’s actions, it really made me enjoy how there are quite a few ways to lose. A variety of things can happen from these cards, including spawning deck hands and increasing the fire level. During the game, players will use an action point system to move around the ship, fight deckhands and guards, loot treasure, and battle the raging inferno.