We got our hands on the new game CallMeCaptain and give our personal assessment of the game. So if you're a seasoned sailor or new to the water and looking for a game with maritime content, CallMeCaptain might be for you!
Disclaimer
This review covers products made available to us by the manufacturer. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely our own, based on our personal experience with the product. Our relationship with the manufacturer has in no way influenced our opinion or rating of the product. We have no financial gain from this review, including through affiliate links or similar.
About the game
CallMeCaptain can be categorized as a board/card game and is designed to help players remember the rules of the sea and control sail and power boats in a fun and interactive way.
The goal is simple: Plot the correct route to the harbor by applying different sailing rules.
The game basically requires no knowledge of sailing, as in any other game you can simply read the enclosed rules. However, it is a great advantage to know the usual sailing rules, as you do not have to familiarize yourself with windward and leeward, starboard and port etc. for the first time.
The game consists of a pile of nautical charts divided into different difficulty levels. You must then try to plot a course from the green boat on the map to the harbor, where there are obstacles such as buoys and other ships on the course.
According to the rules of the game, there is only one correct route, and this route is drawn in a rulebook where you can check if you have solved the route correctly. The player with the most correctly executed routes wins the game.
Our experience
We took CallMeCaptain on a boat trip and jumped into the cabin to try it out. We initially tried to play without reading the rules - not something we recommend.
Navigation In-Real-Life, on chartplotters or charts is not exactly the same as playing CallMeCaptain 🙂
As a result, we didn't complete the first challenges "correctly", even though we started with the easier green and blue categories. At least not according to the game's rulebook. After a closer reading of the rules, the rest of the game went quite well.
We took turns drawing the route, where we continuously discussed which route to take. You can definitely spend many hours doing that. Especially when several players are involved and you don't necessarily follow the same chain of command as you would when you're actually sailing, where the skipper makes the decisions.
The varying levels of difficulty suited being constantly challenged as we quickly mastered the blue and green levels and then moved on to the more challenging playing cards. As the difficulty level increased, so did the engagement.
There's no doubt that CallMeCaptain offers hours of fun, whether you're an experienced sailor or a novice.
Conclusion
Overall, it ends with a clear recommendation from here.
Although the game doesn't, in our opinion, replicate how sailing and navigation works in the real world, it's definitely a game we'll be pulling out more than once.
CallMeCaptain is perfect as a gift idea for the seasoned or upcoming sailor and costs 349 DKK. It is possible to get a 10% discount on https://call-me-captain.com/ with the discount code "SAILZOO".
Written by
Martin Molt Ipsen day 27. July 2023
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