Rum and Bones Review

Rum and Bones review

Rum and bones is a pirate themed MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) type boardgame by cool mini or not designed by Michael Shinall. Initially a Kickstarter project (what cool mini or not game isn't) it has now been release and is available to buy to non-Kickstarter backers in stores for a couple of months now.  

Still even though it has been out for a while I was surprised at how little a footprint the game has online, there are barely any forums for it (besides the official one which is pretty dead and the BGG one which is also quiet), no blogs that I could see and doesn’t even have a sub Reddit.  Most of the posts for it online are people asking about rules that to their credit the CMON guys and developers of the game plus the few people that seem to play it answer pretty fast.

Boardgame Geek Rum and Bones Forums

Cool Mini or Not Rum and Bones forums

Onto the review, I was one of the people who was able to get in on the Kickstarter so I have the expansions and as such I have a decent overall grasp of the other elements of the game however this review initially will just be of the main box set.

The average Kickstarter Haul, most of these expansions will be released in shops later

First look, General feel + Theme 

Let's face it, we all know CMON have high production values, most have probably all seen Zombicide and know how good the tiles look and how nice the models are.  Well they don’t disappoint here either, it has its usual tightly packaged layers of models then a few sheets of very thick well printed cardboard tiles and tokens.  The ships look beautiful, the rulebook is pretty and clear (though misses a few rules that could definitely do with an errata/FAQ and need searching out on the internet for most players). 

The models are clearly high quality, I have not painted one yet but I’ve seen painted versions (an image of one below) and they look amazing, my only gripe with them would be the small bases you have to put on the heroes can sometimes be a pain to get back off again if you don’t grip the miniature, which can result for some models who have say a peg leg to get detached from their base (and no-one wants that).

As for the theme, its pirates, what’s not to love, you even get pirate ninjas of a sort (the Chinese style monk type ones as apposed to the classic all in black Japanese ones.  Though I'm hopeful CMON will do a Japanese faction that does bring actual ninjas).  One thing I will say is try and get hold of some of the plastic coins if you can they are much better than the cardboard ones the game comes with.

How it plays

As described above, Rum and bones is without a doubt a MOBA game. If you have never heard of these before or played one, you have 2 forces, one at either side of the screen, in between are several lanes to run down with objectives along the way, in addition to the heroes you control to try and push to the other side of the screen there are little 'creeps' or minions that run along the lanes and fight each other when they meet. 

In these MOBA PC games they are controlled by the computer and really have no brain other than to move and fight and provide a little bit of support.  Basically Rum and Bones plays a bit like that, you have 2 boats and basic crew members that spawn constantly and try and run/fight their way across in a pre determined path to the other boat, meeting the opposing players crew members along the way fighting as they go. All this happens while your heroes do the majority of the work fighting around them.

The premise of the game is then to destroy objectives on the opposing players ship totalling 6 victory points (each one is worth 2) along the way you will fight the opposing team, be fired upon by their cannon and shoot your own, get buffs from killing their objectives and be attached by the occasional sea monster and the mighty kraken.

There are also what they call tide cards, which is basically like a pile of instants/sorceries from magic the gathering that do things like counter their cards, buff your creatures, heal them or other general shenanigans like teleporting your guys around the board.

That's basically it, there’s not much else to it.  Don’t take that as a bad thing, this is very much an action game but there is quite a bit of strategy and planning involved once you get into it.  Do you push down your lane with your crew members, or do you go it alone? you could even group together with the other heroes but that might leave an objective vulnerable to counter attack.  Do you attack the objectives or do you try and kill the enemy heroes, its all the choices you have to make in rum and bones.

The battle system is also very simple, you roll dice, they take hits depending on what you roll, there’s no complicated armour or cover saves or any of that Warhammer nonsense, its basic attack and die stuff.  The game can be quite swingy however, kill a few enemy heroes and they take a full turn before you can put new ones down leaving you very vulnerable, however in the event the enemy cannot capitalise on this, when they come back it could easily swing back the other way (and often does, I have lots 2 guys in one turn but still won the game).  This is a good thing, shows really unless it is near the end of the game you can still recover from a brutal beating and don’t need to rage quit.

The game is 2-6 players however that really does mean its 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3, you really can’t do a free for all thing without completely changing the way the game plays.

The Heroes

Being the central point of the game the heroes deserve a mention, all have beautifully designed miniatures and cards to go with them that are printed well on the classic thin card sheets that Zombicide has been using for years for its own characters.  You have 2 factions in the core box, the normal pirates (Wellsport Brotherhood) and the undead pirates (Bone Devils), basically its the undead crew led by Barbossa from Pirates of the Caribbean vs Captain jack sparrow and his human crew from the same movies (I really hope to see a squid from the seas crew that is basically Davey Jones crew in a future expansion).

The crew members themselves all have classes and you must field 5 members all members of one of the available classes (Captain, gunner, swashbuckler, Brute and gunner).  I did run into some problems here, some of the characters are clearly stronger than others to a point where there will be a couple you will hate and never use (unless you are one of those players who just uses everyone because its more fun) but if you are trying to cheese it up, its very likely you will only use certain ones or completely remove weaker ones to replace with expansion mercenaries/replacements.

The balance on most seems fair, however on others is way off, luckily in the basic box set that isnt the case and the 2 teams you get are pretty balanced.  So as a stand alone box set its a solid mixture of people (even if there will end up being at least 1 on each side you end up never using).

Yaar it be Captain Dan's Fluff card!

I do want to touch again on the rules, there are some gaps here and there of things you certainly have to go searching for, I've personally had quite a few questions, some which were unclear and answered by the developers/community and others were just me not being able to find it in the rulebook, which to me can be a failing for the book itself since it should be clearer.  The rulebook is tiny and half of it is art and backstory on the heroes, which is nice.  However I would have rather a more comprehensive rule set than that fluff stuff but that’s just me.

I also think its worth mentioning how long the game takes, it can be very long especially if you don’t focus on the objectives and attack players, turning it into a never-ending skirmish, I have had games last 40 mins and some that have lasted 3+ hours easily.

There is also another slight issue that has been debated quite a bit in forums and that’s the bonus that you can quite often get from going first being a little strong, I don’t personally see it myself, I think there is scope for an alpha strike but it does mean committing to a risky swing across to the other boat (called rigging) that can mean you falling in the water and being vulnerable the following turn (though you do just get back out of the water without needed to roll or anything).  

A pro painted Miss Mags that definitely wasn't done by me but shows the model's potential

The first player also gets access to the tide cards first since you draw them at the end of your go so are available for while the second player is having his first go, on occasion this can mean the second player gets pegged back into defending for quite a long time but again the game is so swingy this often goes back the other way eventually.

Conclusion 

To sum up, I really like this game, from the theme to the components to the way it plays, its good solid fun that my game has taken to like a Kraken to water.  Despite its minor flaws that are usually resolved online quickly or with a tiny bit of house ruling (but then its a CMON game so what’s new).  

I guess as a TLDR: Its good piraty player vs player fun with lovely miniatures and smooth gameplay. 
The game will get a bit stale after a while if you don’t get any expansions though that is quite clear, since just like PC games of the same type, the best thing about it tends to be the huge roster of characters to try and play with.

Overall I give it 8/10