It looks great and makes for a fun, small diversion. You pretty much can't win without starting from the top or bottom, but the neutrals on the top decks add some strategy, and as long as you understand that as a small board it's more subject to luck than usual, there's no problem with it. A bad couple of rolls early will "sink" your game - on to the next one.
HOWEVER.
1. Two colors are nearly identical (black and dark gray). This is really, really bad.
2. This board has 17 starting territories. That makes the starting positions kinda unfair for three players (6 6 5), kinda unfair for four players (4 4 4 5), very unfair for five players (4 4 3 3 3). The difference between starting with 4 territories vs 3 territories on this board is pretty huge - particularly if your seat is near the end of turn order.
I like this board. I wish there was a way to keep the edges from being more powerful than the centres, but the use of stairs does allow for choke points.
If you get bad luck, sorry it's not going to work out for you.
All in all though, great theme, tight gameplay, and alright balance. Don't look for a lot of back and forth on this one.
...and it's fun.
looks fantastic! this is a nice simple board, nice concept, smooth play. My problem is that is that it seems very difficult to win from the middle of the ship, so far i've only seen victories from the top or bottom. But it's still an average board for beginners and a nice simple board for anyone!
Simple fun. With tiny troop allotments, miniscule card values, and a very constrained map, the game can only take so long. Think if it as a concentrated strategy.
HOWEVER.
1. Two colors are nearly identical (black and dark gray). This is really, really bad.
2. This board has 17 starting territories. That makes the starting positions kinda unfair for three players (6 6 5), kinda unfair for four players (4 4 4 5), very unfair for five players (4 4 3 3 3). The difference between starting with 4 territories vs 3 territories on this board is pretty huge - particularly if your seat is near the end of turn order.
So it's a 6 for me.