The Exciting Finale to a Pocket Landship Campaign

Find the optimal way forward with a customized vehicle designed to fight against the giant mechs in Pocket Landship.
I found myself missing the campaign from Pocket Landship as soon as I moved on from it right in the middle of it. Who does that?! So I quickly corrected my mistake and gave it the place of honor as soon as my solo table was clear. The idea of playing quickly with just enough decisions drew me right back in, and I was back to yelling, “My sponsors!”
Game Overview
Game Name: Pocket Landship
Publication Year: 2019
Designer: Scott Allen Czysz
Artists: Robert Butler and Dominik Kasprzycki
Publisher: Word Forge Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Simple rules and a straightforward sequence of play allow time to fly right on by. Mechs of all sorts appear on the battlefield, while dice provide the method for determining their actions. It’s easy to understand, yet still provides enough depth to make every 10-20 minute play exciting!
First Play
August 4, 2021
Complexity
2
Latest Play
August 7, 2021
Expansions
0
Setup Time
Almost None
Lifetime Plays
8
Play Time
15 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
20" x 18"
Low Score
N/A
Dicey Decisions
Whereas the enemies always utilize the dice in ascending order to leave nothing up to chance, it’s a different story for the landship itself. Dice may be assigned as desired.
Among the sponsons, hull, and cannon, each die matches up with a different action. Take this hull, for instance.
Any die with a value of 4 or 6 would be useless.. Stuck in the mud or overheated barrels! The other values might be used for repair, defense, or attack. But only 1 die per turn!
Taken together, the elements of the landship provide all sorts of decisions and choices that can even interact.
A Busy Battlefield
Just as the landship may be customized during setup, the enemy deck can be just as varied. I was following through the campaign, yet a random setup is also possible.
Every enemy card has a rating to indicate its difficulty level. The sum of these values is usually around 18-20 for the typical solo game, but can be easily adjusted.
A completely random draw is also a challenge. I particularly despised the mech repair unit here. Horrid!
These cards are exceptionally thick and feature unique artwork for every type of mech. Very nice!
Fighting to the End
As I battled on, it was difficult to keep the sponsons online with so many enemies about. Choosing to repair is helpful, but also means that attacking is given up that turn.
Alas, I had to let the sponsons go! This reduced my pool down to just 2 dice, but my landship was still operational.
It’s the hull and cannon that must be protected at all costs. Lose either of them, and that spells the end of the landship. Not today! Even with 2 dice, I prevailed.
The final enemy was a tricky badger class mech who kept getting lucky, until I finally swept through. Victory!
Art Appreciation
Board game artwork tastes are as varied as the games themselves. There isn’t even a specific style I would say I like above all others, although I’m not a fan of horror.
In general, this cover probably never would have appealed to me. Yet after playing, it’s now one I enjoy seeing!
There’s something so satisfying about earning that final hit against a mech that’s been doing double damage almost every round. Take that, badger or stag!
Although I tend to steer clear of violent settings, I like this one because it’s more strategic than… Bloody?
Session Overview
Play Number: 5-8
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Scenarios 4, 5, and 6 with a Driver Card
Outcome: 3 Wins and 1 Loss
I had another failure along the way, although the final scenario was anything but easy. My landship was on the verge of exploding! Luckily, the dice were kind and I took out all the mechs. It was the mech repair unit that seemed to be fine, until it started repairing everything and making me question my thinking. Success! Just shy of the top tier, yet an excellent outing overall. A wonderful little game!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
7
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
10
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
9
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- The card quality is amazing and extremely thick, making each card quite solid and very difficult to bend.
- Decisions based on dice rolls aren’t that deep, yet assigning each die often means forgoing another good option.
- Only a small area of space is needed to play and coupled with a small box, this is certainly a great travel game.
- Different enemies and landship equipment help add variety and unexpected outcomes to multiple plays.
- Enemies are all represented by mechs so although the theme is war-based, it’s not too violent nor bloody.
- Adjusting the difficulty level is easy and involves simple steps during setup, or even the use of a driver card.
– Cons (Negatives)
- It’s easy to play many times in a row, yet there comes a certain point when the dice rolling feels a bit repetitive.
- The included campaign is excellent, but ends rather quickly and doesn’t give ideas for making another campaign.
- Some of the text can be a little hard to read from far away since the font is pretty tiny on the main cards.
- Each advantage card provides a benefit that works in very specific situations that don’t come up very often.
Victory Conditions
Defeat All the Mech Units
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Complete scenario 1 with driver cards in play.
Complete scenario 2 with driver cards in play.
Complete scenario 3 with driver cards in play.
Complete scenario 4 with driver cards in play.
Complete scenario 5 with driver cards in play.
Complete scenario 6 with driver cards in play.
Continue the Conversation
What are some of your favorite things about Pocket Landship? Do you prefer the campaign or a random setup? I didn’t think I was going to have as much fun as I did! The decisions were interesting and even though this was at the easiest setting with a driver card, I still thought there were some great challenges. Definitely hanging onto this for a long time!
I’ve played the print-and-play, and it generated an interesting narrative, but to me it felt quite random (usually there was an obvious best assignment of the dice). Would you say that shifts with the full game and more plays?
There are definitely elements of randomness and a lot of turns the assignment of dice is quite clear. However, I had some interesting situations where I had to carefully think about doing extra damage or repairing a hull that was a little too close to destruction. I consider it to be a lighter game where you’re not spending a lot of time making decisions, which is what I need sometimes! It won’t work for everyone, yet if you thought the print-and-play version was mostly random and obvious, I don’t think the full game would make a drastic difference for you.