Review: Ahoy

Introduction & Overview

You are smugglers and soldiers on the high seas. Each round, you will roll and place dice to perform actions unique to your faction. Control Regions and deliver Cargo to gain Fame and win the game!

This is the premise of Ahoy, designed by Greg Loring-Albright (Leviathan, Bloc by Bloc: Uprising). It was first published in 2022 by Leder Games in an English edition following a successful crowdfunding campaign. The artwork was handled by Kyle Ferrin (Root, Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile, Vast: The Crystal Caverns).

It is published in Spanish by 2 Tomatoes Games (there is language dependence on player boards and cards). It supports 2 to 4 players, with a recommended minimum age of 14 and an approximate playing time of 45 to 75 minutes. The MSRP is €45. For this review, a copy of the Spanish edition by 2 Tomatoes Games was used, kindly provided by the publisher as a review copy.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom) measuring 30×20×5.8 cm (a rectangular box similar to Root or Pax Pamir), we find the following components:

• 12 Region Tiles (punchboard)
• 4 Player Boards (punchboard)
• 4 Flagships (wooden)
• 10 Bluefin Squadron Patrol Boats (wooden)
• 3 Bluefin Squadron Strongholds (wooden)
• Mollusk Union Pinnace (wooden)
• Mollusk Union Gunboat (wooden)
• 17 Action Dice (5 for the Bluefin Squadron, 4 for the other factions) (resin)
• 11 Wealth Dice (resin)
• 2 Battle Dice (resin)
• 47 Cards (62.5×88 mm):
  • 30 Market Cards
  • 12 Mollusk Union Plan Cards
  • First Player Card
  • 2 Bluefin Squadron Reference Cards
  • 2 Smuggler Reference Cards
• 25 Damage Tokens (punchboard)
• 20 Coins (punchboard)
• 20 Mollusk Union Comrades (wooden)
• Fame Track Board (punchboard)
• 4 Fame Markers (punchboard)
• 4 Smuggler Reward Markers (plastic)
• 4 Smuggler Pledge Tokens (punchboard)
• 4 Player Aids
• Rulebook

How to Play

Ahoy is an asymmetric game in which each player controls a faction aiming to be the first to reach thirty victory points to trigger the end of the game. The game is played across a board of four-space tiles that are revealed as players explore. These tiles display, among other features, islands where players can recruit crew cards. Each faction has a pool of dice rolled at the beginning of each round. Players alternate turns using two of their available dice to take two actions (spending coins to modify their values if desired). The basic actions shared across factions are moving, using tailwinds to teleport to spaces matching the die value, loading cannons, and repairing damage. Beyond that, each faction has its own unique mechanics. The Bluefin Squadron seeks to control the seas by deploying numerous units and taking an extra action. The Mollusk Union has a large supply of comrades to place on islands and a dedicated deck of plan cards. Smugglers focus on transporting cargo from one island to another while also betting on which of the two control factions will dominate specific islands. A shared market of cards represents crew members who can be hired at matching islands—cards that smugglers can also use as cargo.

Key Concepts

Let us start with the Region Tiles. Each tile shows four spaces arranged in a two-by-two grid. One of the four spaces depicts an island belonging to one of six suits (represented by distinct icons and dominant colors). The other three spaces are sea spaces, some of which contain terrain features such as currents, ports, floating shipwrecks, fog (where combat cannot take place), treasure, or sandbars that block movement between adjacent spaces. Each tile has a small central recess for a Wealth Die. This die represents how valuable the region (the tile) is, as two of the factions will score points for controlling it.

Ships navigate across these spaces. Each player controls a flagship, though certain factions, such as the Bluefin Squadron or the Mollusk Union, have access to additional ships. These vessels can be activated using specific actions, and if they enter combat and are defeated, they are removed from the board.

Each faction has a Player Board featuring several action slots with one or more die placement spaces. Some of these spaces require an exact die value or a value within a specified range. The boards are asymmetric; depending on which faction you play, you will find different unique actions alongside a core set of shared actions. The right side of the board outlines faction-specific rules for turns and end-of-round phases. Note that smugglers also feature a reward track that unlocks bonuses as they complete cargo deliveries.

Each faction possesses a set of Action Dice used on their turns to execute actions. Each placed die activates one of the available action spaces on their player board, though dice can occasionally be placed elsewhere. These dice are rolled at the start of each round, setting their initial values.

Throughout the game, players will engage in combat. The defeated player in a battle takes at least one point of damage. If their flagship was involved, this damage represents hull breaches, requiring Damage Tokens to be placed onto empty action slots on their player board; dice cannot be placed on damaged spaces until the ship is repaired. Action spaces with dashed borders can never receive damage tokens.

Die values can be adjusted by spending Coins, which can be acquired by anchoring on spaces displaying coin icons or by winning battles against opponents and looting them. Coins are also used to recruit crew members and serve as the final tiebreaker at the end of the game.

Crew Members are represented by cards associated with specific suits. These cards form a shared market, and players can recruit them as long as their flagship is anchored at an island of a matching suit. Hiring costs are usually paid in coins, though some cards allow dice to be used as payment, providing a new recurring action space once recruited. Smugglers can also pick up these cards as cargo at matching islands (following the same pickup rules) to deliver them to an island matching the suit shown at the bottom of the card.

Special mention must be made of the Mollusk Union, as they possess two unique mechanics. First, Plan Cards, which can be played for special effects at the timings indicated at the top of each card. Second, Comrade Tokens: wooden discs kept in a general supply that the player must first mobilize to their board before deploying them onto islands to establish region control.

Last but not least, players strive to accumulate as many victory points as possible. Points are tracked on the Fame Board, which features a track ranging from 0 to 39. Score markers advance along this track. The 30-point space is highlighted, as the endgame is triggered in the round in which one or more players reach or exceed this threshold. Smugglers also score end-of-game victory points through their delivery pledges, betting on which control faction will hold specific island suits by the end of the game.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Shuffle the region tiles and return one to the box without looking at it. Stack the remaining tiles face down to form a draw pile, reveal the top two, and connect them by a single shared space with the islands positioned on the furthest outer edges.
2. Form a general supply with the Wealth Dice and place one die showing a value of 1 in the recess of each of the two revealed tiles.
3. Create a general supply for coins and damage tokens.
4. Set the battle dice aside.
5. Place the Fame Track board to one side.
6. Take the crew cards, and in games with fewer than 4 players, randomly remove one card of each suit from the game. Shuffle the rest to form a draw deck and reveal the top three cards to create a market display beneath the Fame board.
7. Each player chooses a faction, takes their components, and sets up according to their player board. In a two-player game, you must use the Bluefin Squadron and the Mollusk Union. In three- or four-player games, one or two Smugglers are added.
8. Finally, give the First Player Card to the Bluefin Squadron player.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of Ahoy is played over an indeterminate number of rounds. Each round consists of three phases.

Phase I: Actions

Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, players alternate turns until all of their dice are spent.

On their turn, the active player must use two of their available dice to execute one action with each. In addition, they may resolve any free actions granted by crew cards or faction abilities.

Once a player resolves their two actions using two dice, the turn passes to the player on their left.

The core actions include:

• Sail (any faction): Move your flagship up to two spaces. Each movement step must be to an orthogonally adjacent space. If region tiles remain in the supply, the player can move off the board to reveal the next tile and attach it adjacent to the space they moved from, provided two islands are not placed orthogonally adjacent (any remaining movement points are forfeited upon exploring). If a ship enters a space containing enemy units and either faction has loaded cannons, movement immediately ends and combat begins. Spaces may trigger the following effects:
• Current: Entering a current space immediately moves the ship one space in the indicated direction (which can trigger exploration or combat).
• Port: Anchoring at a port allows you to repair two damage on your ship or move any previously placed die from your board to your loaded cannons slot (the Bluefin Squadron must still match die value restrictions).
• Wreck: Entering a wreck space, even if just passing through, inflicts one damage on your ship (you choose where to place the damage token).
• Island: Anchoring at an island allows you to recruit a crew member from the market by paying the required cost.
• Treasure: Anchoring at a space with coin icons grants you the indicated number of coins from the supply.
• Tailwind (any faction): Teleport your flagship to any board space showing a printed number that matches the value of the die placed.
• Load Cannons (any faction): Place a die in the loaded cannons slot. From this point forward, entering or sharing a space with enemy units triggers combat.
• Repair (any faction): Remove up to two damage tokens from your action spaces.

Resolving Battle: When a ship enters a space containing one or more enemy units, combat must be resolved against all of them, unless it is a fog space (where combat cannot occur). The attacking player (the one who moved) chooses which enemy unit to fight first, resolving battles one by one:

• The attacker chooses whether to fire loaded cannons, reducing their cannon die value by any amount (down to a minimum of 1).
• The defender chooses whether to fire loaded cannons (if available), reducing their cannon die value by any amount (down to a minimum of 1).
• Both players roll their battle die and add the points expended from their cannons.
• The player with the highest total wins the combat (ties go to the attacker). The winner chooses to either deal 2 damage to the defender or deal 1 damage and steal 1 coin (when dealing damage to a flagship, the attacker chooses which open action spaces receive the damage tokens).

Faction Peculiarities:

• Bluefin Squadron:
  • When anchoring, place a patrol boat in the space where your flagship ends its movement.
  • If a patrol boat is defeated in battle, it is returned to your supply instead of taking damage tokens.
  • At the end of your turn, you may replace 2 patrol boats on an island with a stronghold.
  • Strongholds always have loaded cannons, providing a permanent +2 to battle rolls.
  • If a stronghold loses a battle, it is returned to your supply.
  • A stronghold on an island allows you to recruit crew matching that island’s suit from anywhere on the board.
  • You have a fifth action die, meaning you always take the final single-action turn of the round.
  • Unique Actions:
    • Bombard: Remove all comrades from the island where your flagship is located (returning them to the Mollusk Union general supply).
    • Command: Move up to 4 patrol boats 1 space each (they can explore or initiate combat).
    • Deploy: Place 1 patrol boat in the space containing your flagship.
  • When winning a battle against the Mollusk Union, you may choose to remove 1 comrade from the battle space’s island and deal 1 damage to their board instead of normal rewards.
• Mollusk Union:
  • The Union manages a pool of comrades. They start in a general supply and are mobilized to the player board before being deployed onto islands to establish control.
  • At the end of each round, draw two cards from your Plan deck. These cards can be played at the specific timings indicated on them.
  • The Union controls two extra ships: the Pinnace and the Gunboat. The Pinnace moves quickly, while the Gunboat carries loaded cannons (+3 to combat rolls). If either extra ship takes a hit, it is removed from the game. If the Pinnace is at an island, comrades on that island count double for region control.
  • When anchoring at an island, you may either mobilize 2 comrades or deploy 2 mobilized comrades onto that island.
  • Unique Actions:
    • Inspire: Place 1 comrade on up to 4 different islands.
    • Rally: Place 4 mobilized comrades onto the island where your flagship is located.
    • Muster: Mobilize 4 comrades if your flagship is anchored at an island.
• Smugglers:
  • Pick Up Cargo: If your flagship is at an island matching the suit of an available crew card in the market, you may take it as cargo (you can hold up to 2 cargo cards, discarding existing cargo if necessary).
  • Deliver Cargo: If your flagship is at an island matching the destination suit at the bottom of a carried cargo card, you may deliver it:
  • Score 2 victory points.
  • Increase the Wealth Die value of that region by 1.
  • Move your reward marker to an orthogonally adjacent space on your reward grid and claim the bonus. Then slide the black marker under the clear one.
  • Pledge the delivered cargo face down to either the Bluefin Squadron or the Mollusk Union, tucking it beneath the corresponding pledge token.
  • Unique Actions:
    • Full Sail: Move your flagship a number of spaces equal to the die value used.
    • Negotiate: If your flagship is at an island, recruit any number of crew cards ignoring suits and coin costs. You may recruit one additional crew card by removing a Mollusk comrade from that island.
  • Combat: As an alternative battle reward, you may deal 1 damage to your opponent and advance on your reward track (as if you had delivered cargo).

Phase II: Scoring

The Bluefin Squadron and the Mollusk Union score points equal to the Wealth value of each region they control. When determining region control, the Mollusk Union counts 1 control point per comrade on the island and 1 per ship in the region, while the Bluefin Squadron counts 1 control point per patrol boat in the region and 2 points per stronghold or flagship present.

In case of a tie in a region, neither faction scores points.

Smugglers do not score points during this phase.

Phase III: Upkeep

If no player has reached thirty points, resolve the following:

1. In 2-player games, the first player chooses one region to increase its Wealth die by 1. They may also flush the entire crew market and draw three new cards.
2. All players retrieve and reroll their action dice.
3. Pass the First Player Card to the player on the left.

A new round then begins.

Game End

The end of the game is triggered when, at the end of a round, one or more players have reached or exceeded 30 victory points.

If Smugglers are in the game, they reveal their pledged cargo cards assigned to the Bluefin Squadron and Mollusk Union. Each card awards 1 victory point per controlled region matching that card’s island suit.

The player with the most victory points wins. In the case of a tie, the tied player with the most coins wins. If the tie persists, victory is shared.

Personal Opinion

I can’t help it. Whenever I come across a new Leder Games title featuring art by the great Kyle Ferrin, I get excited. It instantly connects me to the wonderful experiences I had with Root (check out its tocho-review here) and the equally enjoyable sessions of Vast: The Crystal Caverns (check out its tocho-review here).

These are games where mechanical asymmetry is the driving force, a trait that also makes them notoriously difficult to bring to the table with newcomers. In games like these, explaining how each player’s individual faction works is simply not enough; you also have to explain the interplay and cross-faction synergies so everyone understands when to pursue their own goals and when to throw a wrench into their opponents’ plans.

The catch is that art isn’t everything. Occasionally you run into letdowns like Fort, where despite an engaging premise, the execution falls short of Leder’s heavier titles and sessions feel rather stale due to the rigid rails players are forced onto.

Now we come to Ahoy, brought to Spanish by 2 Tomatoes Games (whom we thank for the review copy that made this deep dive possible). I had high hopes for this one, as it seemed to be the publisher’s direct answer to a common demand: an accessible, streamlined Root with a tight playtime.

I can tell you upfront that Ahoy delivers on both fronts. It is quick to teach, and its rules overhead—while not negligible—is far less daunting than Cole Wehrle’s masterpiece. Games also resolve within a brisk timeframe, clocking in around an hour at four players. But let us dig deeper.

In Ahoy, each player takes command of one of three available factions. Yes, you read that right: three factions, because one of them is included twice, meaning that in a four-player game, two players will run functionally identical factions.

Much like Root, two main factions act as the central engine of the game, clashing for area control across the board on relatively equal footing. On one side stands the Bluefin Squadron, whose defining strength is seeding the seas with small patrol boats every time their flagship moves. On the other is the Mollusk Union, which lacks brute naval firepower but compensates by inciting comrades on various islands to secure control over regions.

Then we have the Smugglers, operating primarily on a pick-up-and-deliver loop. Their path to victory involves picking up cargo at certain islands and dropping it off at others. Each delivery increases the wealth value of the destination region, raising the stakes—and victory point payouts—for the two battling factions.

As in Root, a sizable portion of the rules is shared across all factions. Movement on the high seas and combat mechanics work the same way regardless of who you control. The core loop revolves around each player’s flagship, represented on their personal board, which features several action spaces with die placement slots.

Every faction rolls four action dice at the start of each round. On a turn, a player uses two dice to execute two actions from their board (alongside bonus actions unlocked by game state or crew cards), allowing each player two turns of two actions per round. The exception is the Bluefin Squadron, who has a fifth die and thus gets a third, standalone turn to take a single final action with their flagship.

Certain actions require specific die values. This is where coins become vital, as spending them lets you alter the die values rolled at the start of the round (or rather, during the upkeep phase).

The shared actions comprise sailing (moving the flagship across spaces), tailwinds (teleporting the ship to numbered spaces matching the die value), loading cannons (which forces combat when encountering rival ships), and repairing (clearing damage tokens that lock up action spaces). Beyond these, each faction features unique actions.

At the start, the play area is very small (just eight spaces), expanding organically through exploration as players sail off the board edges to reveal and attach new tiles. This continues until all tiles are revealed, which tends to happen quite early on.

Combat is dead simple: essentially an opposed die roll between two players. Rolls can be modified through various effects, most notably loaded cannons. Dice assigned to cannon spaces can be reduced in value to add that difference as a flat combat modifier. The highest roll wins, letting the victor choose rewards based on board state and faction rules.

Beyond individual nuances, that is the core of Ahoy. As promised, it provides a Root-like asymmetric dynamic with lower complexity and a shorter runtime. But now for the million-dollar question: does the gameplay experience in Ahoy capture the magic of Root? Sadly, my answer is no.

First and foremost is the action selection mechanism. It introduces a layer of output randomness that frequently breeds frustration. Many faction actions demand exact die faces. If the roll doesn’t go your way, you can kiss that planned action goodbye for the round.

Sure, you can spend coins to tweak die values, but acquiring coins is no walk in the park. It requires “wasting” tempo to anchor on coin spaces. The alternative is fighting and looting coins from rivals, but if players avoid coin spaces, the circular economy stalls out; there simply won’t be enough cash in circulation to justify turning a three into a six.

It feels like lazy design—relying on Lady Luck to decide whether you can execute key actions on a turn, rather than creating tactical board states and incentives that dictate action viability.

The second issue is that the two main dynamic factions—the Bluefin Squadron and the Mollusk Union—are not nearly as mechanically distinct as they first appear. One drops pieces at sea, the other drops pieces on islands. The fundamental difference is that Bluefin patrol boats act as ships that can be attacked (creating board blockades), while Mollusk comrades act as static control markers that are harder to remove once placed.

Consequently, gameplay turns feel repetitive. Players end up doing the same things over and over: moving across the board. The Squadron sails around carpeting the waters with patrol boats to sever transit routes, while the Union hops from island to island to mobilize and drop comrades.

Compound this with the fact that the remaining two factions are literally identical, playing a pure pick-up-and-deliver game. Smugglers only care about sailing to an island, loading cargo, and rushing it to its destination to collect points and track rewards. Left to their own devices, they would never initiate combat, playing very much like the Vagabond in Root. If players ignore them, Smugglers will easily run away with the game.

This brings us to the third issue: balance. Once again, balancing the game state is offloaded entirely onto the players, just like in Root or Vast. The problem is that Ahoy is far too short for players to feel they have enough agency to meaningfully police the table. Moving a single main pawn across an expansive grid just doesn’t offer enough reach.

Reading community forums and reviews, many players argue that with repeated plays and deep experience, table balance stabilizes. However, the investment required to reach that point is higher than it should be. Given that a full game of Root does not take that much longer, Ahoy fails to hold its ground as the streamlined substitute many hoped for.

Returning to the issue of luck, the card market introduces significant volatility. When Smugglers are present, lucky draws can hand them ideal deliveries on a silver platter right where their flagship sits. In fact, the cargo-loading rule feels mechanically clumsy: the only restriction to picking up a card is being at an island matching its suit. A Smuggler might see multiple matching cards pop up at once and cherry-pick the most convenient routes (while discarding less optimal ones, since they can hold two). Again, it feels like an unrefined design choice.

An expansion is currently in development that looks poised to address many of these shortcomings by introducing four brand-new factions. That the expansion brings more factions than the core box itself is telling evidence that the base roster fell short.

Player count scaling also shows weaknesses. The game clearly wants four players so table policing is distributed, as lower player counts feel noticeably flatter. While some recommend it at two players, I find that matchup the least engaging, as it removes the distracting third-party pressure that Smugglers provide.

As for replayability, Ahoy should theoretically mimic Root’s appeal—demanding play after play to master each faction’s tempo and matchups. Instead, after a handful of games, decisions feel largely identical from session to session, with RNG dragging the experience down rather than generating interesting tactical puzzles.

On the production side, there is nothing but praise. The cardboard is thick and sturdy (featuring dual-layered player boards and recessed island tiles that hold dice securely in place), cards are premium-weight with a smooth finish and excellent snap (sleeving is unnecessary since cards are rarely shuffled or held for long), and the custom wooden pieces are charming (the sea-creature ship designs are fantastic). The rulebook structure could use work, however, as resolving specific edge-case questions can be frustrating due to poor information layout.

Visually, Kyle Ferrin’s art is magnificent. It might be his finest work yet, anchored by a deep ocean-blue palette that makes the other tones pop off the board. The box cover is striking, capturing shipboard combat with heavy Pirates of the Caribbean vibes—reminiscent of Davy Jones’s crew of hybrid sea creatures in the second and third films.

And let’s wrap this up. Ahoy ends up being a slight disappointment. While it fulfills its brief on paper, the resulting dynamics are not quite satisfying. The output randomness of the dice rolls works against player agency, narrowing tactical options from turn to turn. On top of that, the asymmetry feels half-baked: two factions play far too similarly in their area-control loops, while the other two are identical pick-up-and-deliver runners that avoid conflict. As with other Leder Games designs, balance rests on player intervention, but the game is too brief for players to consistently correct the table state, leaving a lackluster impression in early plays. It’s a shame, because the setting is charming, the ideas are neat, and it delivers on its promise of short, accessible playtime. Unfortunately, it falls short of greatness. We will see if the expansion manages to elevate it. For all these reasons, I give it a…