Mistwind

If that cover doesn't spark interest then you haven't watched enough Ghibli films, honestly the striking art is what drew me to this game. Which is funny because then you look at the board and its very beige. I get that its meant to be a bit more of a cartographer's map of the world that your flying whales are traversing, and it makes it very clear where things are as colorful player pieces pop out in color, but its quite the contrast. Instead, you get see snippets of the vibrant fantasy world through the port card landscapes and the different character cards.

For a while, I was kind of intimidated by all the components but thankfully the game is a lot more straightforward than it looks. Players have action disks that dictate what numbered action slots they can take at the edge of the board, and for 2 of the areas you can only place one action disk. From the first round, the game asks you to make a strategic sacrifice: you have to give up one action disk for the entire round. So you have to gauge, what action(s) you're not going to go for and as players take their turns they're gauging what action disks other players gave up.

Players will be getting resources, gaining character cards, taking Labour actions and utilizing port cards. All while building out their network and sending their transports to pick up goods at various small ports and bringing them to the Territories and Capital Ports. There's a race for the shared goals, 4 of differrent types, as well as ensuring you connect places for your personal network cards or the capital cities and their target goal.

Overall, I'm still impressed with the game. The action selection system is intuitive to grasp and allows for tense decisions on timing when to do things at the risk of losing opportunities elsewhere. Pick-up and Deliver is kind of a rare mechanic in my library, Empyreal: Spells & Steam being one that comes to mind that I really enjoy, so its good to know I have another strong option that fulfills this type of gameplay.