by jbethany
Just played this evening in Durham, NC. We used the Pirate Ship, the tiger, and the boulder cards for our session. I found that the Pirate Ship kept our group a little too split up for a lot of chaotic marble action. There were several turns where one player was on one side of the island, another on the opposite side, and then two of us on the ship. I think it could be a little more fun with 5 players since you won't be able to scatter as much as our group did. There are treasures on the ship that you can turn in to immediately play your second action card the end of your turn, and having one of those actually saved me from being a few spaces shy of getting to the helicopter at the end. I was thinking about it later, and I think it would have been cooler for the ship to have been a replacement for one of the two bottom trays, so that you have part of the island that gives way to the wreck, but is still connected. It would keep the action contained in the tighter area and keep the frenetic energy of the cataclysms more exciting every time since (almost) everyone will (almost) always be a legitimate target of them.The boulder was a nice addition. Much more reliable than the marbles, very satisfying to chunk into someone. I tried to use the tiger several times, getting really close once. I really did enjoy that as an added element. Unlike the marbles through Vul-Kar, the tiger really was up to you whether you hit with it or not (and it definitely would pay to practice with it) but the high reward if you do hit keeps you coming back for another try.
We had a father and son (the son was ~4 I think) and man, seeing that kid's face light up when he got to drop a marble or flick one at someone was just great.