One of the joys of doing a newsletter like this is coming across games that deserve far more exposure than they have received. Granted, the exposure some deserve is of the Ancient Greek variety … left to die on some rocky hillside. But others, such as the previously reviewed Lords of the Sierra Madre and Plague, are at the other end of the spectrum, as is this not-really-new item from Vernon Rood, Distant Seas, a game of the Merchant Marine. This rather nicely produced item is an economic game covering commercial shipping in three different eras: Sail, Steamship and Modern. Think of it as a cousin of one of those Mayfair rail games, with no rails and a lot more venom. The game comes boxed, with a colorful map that could - and should - make better use of the space available. Delineation of movement areas could also have been a bit clearer, although it's not really a problem. The elongated counters are simple but sturdy, and the cargo cards resemble property cards from Monopoly. The rules book is Well Done 3rd World. The only components that could use help are the Ballast and Bullion "slips"; there's got to be a better method for using these.After a while we simply ignored both of them, choosing to keep track of our "banks" by pencil. DS is a deceptively simple game, and for the first two or three turns it seems a rather silly waste of time. We - there were four of us - chose the Steamship Era game, in which the players start with Large Sailships and, eventually, graduate (through purchase) to Tankers, Refrigerated Cargo and other biggies. The trading up aspect of your shipping line is part of the strategy, although the fact that there is any strategy is not overly apparent at the beginning. Each player starts with one Large Sailship. There are piles of Cargo cards, one pile for each continent, laying there face up so you can see what the top card - and cargo - is. The object is to pick up the cargo at the port listed - usually first come, first loaded - and bring it to the destination given, for which you get paid. So … that's fun? Well, not immediately, as there are only a few ships, and there's always a cargo somewhere. Sure, the "Fortune" cards - the game's Random Events - keep things vaguely honest, but we were just about to pack it in and ship this one to Dust Bin Heaven when we started buying additional ships … which you have to do because the later cargos cannot be carried by the sailships! All of a sudden there were lots of ships, and too few cargos, which is where the Bidding Rule started to come in for heavy play. (Bidding is actually an Optional Rule; ignore the option … and use it. It is the heart of the game.) When a cargo is claimed for pick-up by one player, any other player within reach can "bid" to pick it up instead. But this is a form of bidding where the Lowest bid wins; the player who will carry the cargo for the cheapest price gets it. So now, everybody is starting to cutthroat everyone else, forcing them into lower and lower bids. Do you bid low to keep the cargo away from the other players? Or do you let them slit each other's financial wrists while you pick up a lesser - but full-priced - cargo? By the middle of the game, with all four of us trading in ships, trying to build tankers (great oil cargos to be had) and screaming every time a typhoon sank our ship outside of Yokohama, we knew we had found a fun game. The "Sail" era version introduces some rather tortuous movement rules, most having to do with wind patterns, and this skews the focus of the game a bit to movement, rather than financial wizardry. There are also several subtleties in play that do not become apparent until about 4-5 turns in, but this is part of the fun. Distant Seas is a top-flight game for multi-players gatherings … and I'll bet it makes a damn good competition item, too. Some of the rules do need some clarification, although none are resistant to easily installed House Rules. Someone ought to tell ole Verne, though, that rolling two dice to get a '2', '3', '11' or '12' is the same as rolling one die and getting a '6'. And the method of determining your Worth, particularly the use of Ballast Points, is somewhat obscure. None of this detracts from the fact that this is the only game I know that lets you know whether you're a Cunard, an Onassis … or a Steinbrenner. CAPSULE COMMENTS Graphic Presentation: Sturdy and acceptable. Playability: Good. Easy to learn and fast-playing. Games run about 3 hours. Rules say it can be played solitaire, but that doesn't seem much fun. Replayability: High, as there is much shuffling and randomness. Creativity: Not bad! Seems familiar, but is more subtle than one initially thinks. Historicity: Only in a general sense. Comparisons: Far more interactive - and fun - than the glut of RR games around. Overall: Good, vicious fun. from DISTANT SEAS PUB. CO. One 22"x33" map; 80 counters; 168 Cargo Manifest Cards; 24 Fortune Cards; 140 markers; Rules Book. Boxed. Distant Seas, 9557 Fern Hollow Way, Gaithersburg MD 20879. $30?? Back to Berg's Review of Games Vol. II # 12 Table of Contents Back to Berg's Review of Games List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Richard Berg This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com