Ahoy Components Overview and Impressions

I’m not sure why I’m shocked at this point, but it seems that every box I get from Leder Games is better than the last. That could be recency bias I suppose, but yet I’m blown away time and time again. This go around it’s all about sailing the high seas and trying to become as famous as possible. Let’s take a look at the components in Ahoy, and why yet again this is proof that Leder Games is one of the top publishers currently working in the board game space!

Ahoy has a ton of great components, but it’s the artwork that instantly draws me into the game. Kyle Ferrin does the Artwork for almost all (all?) of Leder Games titles, and his unique style is apparent – listen, you can spot a Leder title from a mile away, I guarantee it! 

Production wise I have almost no issues with what’s in the box. The player boards are dual layered and have unique art depending on the faction you choose. The backside of each player board outlines what each faction gets to start the game, and also has setup instructions for that faction. Honestly, this is something I wish more games did – why not use that player board backside real estate for something useful?!

There are a decent number of cardboard components in Ahoy, but all of it is made of nice thick cardboard that will hold up over dozens and dozens of plays. I found this cardboard a bit thicker than I’ve seen in other games recently, but again that comes as no surprise. Even the sea map titles, also dual layered by the way, have a nice “heft” to them that makes them great to use. When you imagine that likely Leder Games could have used cards to build out the sea and not offered a dual layered insert on each, it’s nice to see them NOT do that.

For the record, I would not have batted an eye if they had gone with cards for the central sea…

The game also comes with a bunch of different color dice. Having not played the game personally – other staff are working on the review – I’m not entirely sure what they do, but there are two different sizes of die, one of which slots into the central sea boards, and the others that will slot into the player boards.

There are also a number of wooden components that each player will be using. Here is where I think the production may dip just a bit. I’m never a fan of games where I need to apply stickers to wooden components, and unfortunately that is something you’ll need to do here. For many this might not be a problem, but I just hate having to spend time doing this and ultimately not aligning them correctly because I just suck at putting on stickers. Don’t let me near your LEGO sets, folks….

The game also has a bunch of cards you will use turn-to-turn. The card quality is more than adequate, and mimics the quality Leder uses in their other games. It’s the art here that will turn heads in my opinion – it is absolutely gorgeous! I also love that this game comes with a little plastic insert to hold all the pieces in place. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it is 2025, every board game should have some type of insert to hold components!

Overall, this is Leder Games quality stuff here which means it’s going to be better than average. While I’m not a huge fan of putting stickers on wooden pieces, it’s a minor annoyance in what is otherwise a fantastic production.