Cardboard Corner: Review of Mare Balticum

What is it about claymation? The Nightmare Before Christmas, Shaun the Sheep, Wallace & Grommit, Pat & Mat, Primus music videos, Coraline, the California Raisins (the California Raisins!)—there is a fascination watching these productions that resonates somewhere within us regardless whether we like the content or not. Like a puppet show or pantomime, I think it’s because the mind is constantly aware that we are witnessing a production—a presentation whose nuts and bolts are partially leftover on screen yet can't help but attract the eye. It’s a good thing then that Mare Balticum has subtly good gameplay to draw the eye away from the superb claymation art.

Mare Balticum is a 2-5 player strategy game where players control fishing fleets on the Baltic Sea, trying to collect the most valuable haul of fish. It's presented as family-weight, is simple to understand, but has depth. Players have three actions on their turn: catch one of the five types of fish in the spaces their boats are located, move a ship to richer waters, or store fish at a port. All fish harvested from the board are afterwards replenished by drawing new fish from a bag, a bag that likewise contains six clock tokens. When a clock token is drawn, players must assign a multiplier value (3x, 2x, 1x, or 0) to the type of fish they think they will have the most tokens in storage at the end of the game. When the sixth clock token is drawn, the game ends, players count their fish, use the multipliers per fish type, and add up their score. The player with the most points, wins. Play time amounts to approximately 15-20 minutes per player.)

Mare Balticum is a game both children and adults can enjoy together.  While too complex for very young children, my five-year old grasped the rules to fish, but not multipliers and how to win. He nevertheless had fun fishing, and after randomly assigning multipliers, his score was at least respectable. Seven- to eight-years old and onward seems the better age range—at least when basic multiplication is doable. Though I have not played with adults only, I can easily imagine the game to be tactical, even competitive, though still straight-forward. Movement efficiency, harvesting fish out from under your opponent’s nose, correctly estimating multipliers—these and other skills play a role in victory. The game does have an advanced mode which adds another layer of depth, but we have not played it.

As hinted in the intro, Mare Balticum’s art is beautifully done in clay. While everything is 2D on the board and tokens, the games gives a 3D feeling—the texture of claymation. From the small fish tokens to the forests and sea on the board, the player gets the same impression while playing as they do watching Shaun the Sheep or Pat & Mat. Even the small clock tokens, rulebook, and art on the player boards are lovingly done in clay.  If anything, a great deal of love and attention when into the aesthetics.

The drawbacks to Mare Balticum are highly subjective and dependent on preference (and potentially the wallet). The one indisputable dependency is the game’s availability. Out of print, it may be difficult to track down a copy, and when you do, it might be expensive.

There are thousands and thousands of games on the market today, but a minority feel like they are labors of love. Mare Balticum feels like a labor of love. From the simple but well thought-out gameplay to the fantastic art, the games is a complete package, cover to rulebook, that should be of interest to families looking for a fun, short, and tactical game. Wholly appropriate for children (but not too young), it’s a game parents can spend a highly pleasant hour with their children—and then watch some claymation.