Cargo Noir Board GamePublisher: Days of Wonder
Release Date: March 2011
MSRP: $50.00
Number of Players: 2 to 5
Playing Time: 30 to 90 mins.
Product #: DOW-8201
Age Rating: 8+
ICv2 Rating: 2.5 Stars out of 5
Days of Wonder has presented another lavishly illustrated “Euro-style” game, titled Cargo Noir. This is a bidding and set-collection game set against a backdrop of Film Noir style imagery, which pits “families” of black market smugglers competing to acquire the most extravagant luxuries. The final result is a lightweight game suitable as an entry-level bidding game.
Summary: Each player begins the game with six empty warehouses, a small fund of gold coins, and a trio of cargo ships. These ships are sent to various ports around the world to bid on the contraband available there. The goal of this bidding is to collect sets of goods that can then be exchanged for a variety of luxury items running from a tiny villa all the way to your own personal principality.
A player’s turn is divided into three simple phases: First he resolves any bids he already has on the board, then spends any sets of goods that he chooses (discarded unused goods that don’t fit in his warehouses), and finally sending his ships out again with new bids.
Since bids are placed at the end of a turn, and not resolved until the beginning of the next turn, bidding in Cargo Noir is a rather slow-paced affair. This is not a high-pressure auction. While this bidding mechanic is not new or unique to Cargo Noir, it is different from most bidding games on the market. It fits seamlessly into the rest of the game mechanic, and promotes player interaction and competition for resources. But, it also acts as a deterrent to long-term planning: Since you cannot accurately predict which bids will win (and therefore which resources you will collect), it is impossible to plan your moves in advance. Sadly, this slows down the game considerably.
There is no hidden information in Cargo Noir. Everything is in the open and known to all players. A significant amount of math is required to calculate the value of each set of goods, and to determine exactly which purchasing options are available. Those players who tend towards “analysis paralysis” may tend to get bogged down sorting through the information and trying to maximize their moves. The only random element in the game is the goods tiles drawn for each port, making luck a relatively small factor in the game.
Originality: Bidding style games have been around for a long time, and Cargo Noir is a fine addition to the genre, but the themes and mechanics are all things that have been seen before. These elements are put together well, but not in a revolutionary way. Players looking for a completely new type of bidding game are likely to be disappointed.
Presentation: Like all Days of Wonder games, Cargo Noir is beautiful. The artwork is excellent and evocative of the theme. There is ample humor in the art if you take the time to look for it. The little plastic cargo ships are very cute and fun, and a small horde of nice plastic coins add a delightful tactile element to the game and help speed play by making it very easy to compare bidding stacks.
However, the actual material quality could have been better. I was very disappointed to find that many of the boards in my copy were warped straight out of the box. The player cards feel flimsy to me, and I worry that they will easily be bent during play. In short, the plastic components are perfect, but the cardboard components are not, as one might expect from a game manufactured in China. Also, the components tray was a good attempt, but it is not adequate for the components in the game, and we struggled to get everything to fit back in the box after the tiles were punched out.
Quality: In the right group, Cargo Noir is a delightful, light bidding game with a good dose of humor and a minimal luck component. It is a fine introduction to the concepts of bidding and set collection. It has a good level of player interaction, and offers a variety of tactical and strategic options. Groups that tend to analyze their play heavily may find that the game is much longer than it should be, and those seeking a deeply strategic game that rewards long term planning will likely find the game too limited and lightweight.
Marketability: Cargo Noir has a suggested retail price of $50.00. The game is not heavy, either in play or weight, but there are a lot of components in the box, making the price tag fair. Days of Wonder has a strong reputation for producing quality games of this type, which will lead to a lot of gamers at least picking it up to see what the game is about. The box back is well designed, with a large illustration of the components and all of the information that one would want to find on a game box.
Overall: Cargo Noir is a worthy attempt by a worthy game publisher. It is slightly marred by some quirky features that prevent it from being suitable for all audiences. While it should be a quick, light, 45 minute game, some groups will find that game play bogs down as players try to analyze their options. It has a reasonable retail price for what you find in the box. Fans of Days of Wonder and the Euro-style games that they produce will find a well-balanced game with great artwork and good gameplay.
--William Niebling