First let me say that the game's concept is good. The idea of assigning dice to actions and to improve attributes is a good one, and initially the game is a lot of fun. That fun quickly turns to frustration for a few reasons:
1) There is no progression. Ships can improve within a chapter but then reset at the end of the chapter meaning none of the improvements carry over to the next one.
2) Each chapter introduces a new enemy with one or more annoying attacks (poison, bleeding, seduction), as well as an environmental effect that works against the player. Coupled with the lack of progression above leads to battles quickly becoming frustrating rather than fun. It really feels like all of the game's systems are working against the player and it often feels unfair and I restarted battles many times until the RNG worked in my favour.

There isn't much of a story, and what little there is is nonsensical at best. The various characters spout gibberish most of the time and there is no coherent narrative. It wouldn't have taken much to weave things together to make a somewhat cohesive plot. Sadly, that wasn't done.

The games art style gets a thumbs up. It's pretty and fits the theme. Unfortunately, the sounds leave a lot to be desired, in particular the cherub which sounds like tires squealing.

Finally, the game is short. I finished it around the 6 hour mark and have no desire to go back and revisit it.

Ultimately, if the concept is appealing it might be worth picking up in a deep sale but be ready for a frustrating experience. I think the best way to sum this up is the comment I made to wife when she asked how it was going. I said, "It's a lot of fun when it's not frustrating the heck out of me."

Phew! After binge-playing for over 6h ours...

✔️Graphics ✔️Music ✔️Audio ✔️Humor
✔️Innovative and unique combat
✔️VERY tactical gameplay
✔️AAA level of polishing and care for details
✔️This Early Access game is higher quality and more 'complete' than most of 'fully released' games I know
✔️Quite elastic in terms of engagement, you can play for 5 minutes or 3h non-stop - you will always get a valid portion of entertainment
✔️Huge variation of enemies, bonuses, skills, ships and unique external factors/events, no two battles are the same
✔️Boardgame/Tabletop vibe all over the place
✔️'Cozy' overall atmosphere (this music and paper-like art style REALLY stimulates imagination and roleplaying)

One of the most enjoyable tactical-strategy games I've played in past year. Took me totally by surprise. And seeing as this is the FIRST game of this developer - I am simply in state of awe. Makes me remember Steam from before Greenlight... Can't believe its labeled as 'Early Access'(maybe by mistake?).

And the game is actually damn hard at times! But in a challenging and rewarding way. So be ready to see your ships sink and w/o b1tch1ng - just go back there and fight! >:D

Money well spent. 😊
UPDATE 13.01.2020
I edited the review as the developer has fixed everything I was complaining about :)
Kudos!

Here be Dragons is a tactical turn based game where you throw dices and decide what to do with them. I would say its more like a puzzle game.

Pros:
- The graphics were really nice and the music is really calming, it created a nice and cozy atmosphere.
- Tactical thinking
- If you take your time and read all the story bubbles you will find a nice, but not too complex story.
- Every battle was unique on its own way.
- Ship and enemy abilities were really creative and well thought out. Sometimes the guys before bossfight put up a tougher fight than the boss itself.
- I liked the initiation system.

Cons:
- I experienced some minor dice glitches (not game greaking, just small ones. )
- The game is really short. This is the main weakness. In my case I just casually played and managed to beat it in 7 hours.
- A sometimes RNG can ruin all your progress and you have to restasrt the battle.

Overall:
Enjoyable, and entertaining experience, but time sure flies by and its over. Its way too short, for this price. I would recommend waiting for a sale to get it, because sadly its not worth its original price unless they decide to expand the game.

They don’t tell you this in history class.

We all know that Christopher Columbus is credited for discovering the Americas on October 12th, 1942. Once Columbus managed to receive funding, after years of trying, he left with 3 boats and 100 men. The trip took way longer than Columbus estimated as the trip turned out to last for 10 weeks before land was spotted. However, what if I told you there was more that was redacted from our history books?

Here Be Dragons brings in a satirical alternate history story that takes place before Christopher Columbus began his voyage. Yeah, the sea was calm when he set sail, but it wasn’t always like that. In fact, there were monsters lurking just beneath the water. How did they get eradicated though? Surely the accounts would have been archived! Well yes but no. Due to the expeditions, known as the Avant Armada, was erased and the only reason you know of it now is an innkeeper that was kind enough to retell the tale.

As of writing, there are currently eight campaigns with 25 scenarios (or battles). Each one puts you in the shoes of the Captain and switches once their voyage is finished. Between each campaign, you’ll check back in with the Innkeeper so you know what was happening during that time.

Here Be Dragons’ battles are an interesting beast. At first the combat is simple enough, but once you progress further into the tutorial, more is added on top. Every turn will have a cherub spit out some dice for you and your enemy to assign. You can only assign one dice to each ship and it can be assigned to an action or used to buff that ship’s defense or attack.

To help you out a bit, you also have Errata. At the start of each turn and after each enemy death, ink bottles will appear in the water for you to pick up. You can use these ink bottles to activate Errata once you have enough. At first you only have the Reroll Errata, but you’ll get more options later on. In addition, if a 1 is assigned that ship (or enemy) will heal while an assigned 6 will increase attack for that turn.

You’ll then go into Salvos, or the attack phase. Damage is based on your attack minus your enemy’s defense. Thankfully, you can have each ship attack the same target so you can do more damage (or actually do damage if attack and shield were equal). This also goes for the enemy as they always team up against the weakest ship.

Lastly, you have the Action phase. If an action has the needed dice they will go off here. Actions can be a heal, let you have an extra Salvos, or do damage to your enemy (which also ignores defense!).

While you will have first picks at dice at the start of each battle, that won’t last. Here Be Dragons implements an initiative system to determine who goes first each phase. Initiative is determined by the sum of your assigned dice values. Whoever has the lowest will go first, unless it’s a tie then it simply switches over. Having initiative can be extremely important as not only will you not have first picks at dice, but you can’t heal a ship before the killing blow if your enemy has an action queued up. To keep track of who will get initiative, it’s visualized with a scale. This makes you decide if the risk of losing initiative is worth it or should you not assign any and take the damage. It also goes the other way as you can leave dice that your enemy can’t assign so they take damage, but they’d get initiative.

After winning each battle, your ships will be repaired and you’ll be able to choose an upgrade per ship in most campaigns.

The look of Here Be Dragons is based on maps that are seemingly resting on tables while text boxes look like they were transcribed on scrolls. The town map shows where all the major players are and where they’re going with the campaign map mapping out the Captain’s route so you know how long it will be. When going into locations, a second scroll is pulled out showing what the building looks like inside in all its glory. Though, the Captains (or any other character that moves around) won’t be depicted. Even the loading screen when loading into a scenario follows the style. However, the best part is during battles. It keeps up with the map style, but brings everything to life as you see your ships and the monsters bobbing up and down, clouds and birds traveling around the map, and each action is animated. The only companion you have out at sea are the sounds of the waves and seagulls.

While Here Be Dragons brings in a unique art style and an interesting combat system that will have you hooked, I wouldn’t necessarily say this is for everyone. You not only have to like turn-based games, but also not mind the dice system. I’m someone that’s more lenient on games that utilize dice (considering that most of them are board games), but I can’t say that I didn’t get a little annoyed sometimes. Nonetheless, Here Be Dragons is a wonderful title that doesn’t really feel like an early access game apart from missing the rest of the story. If you decide to pick this one up, get ready for some difficult battles.

GRADE: F+. It feels like a super long tutorial. and what little strategy there is is completely destroyed by the RNG elements. In fact the best strategy is to restart until you get a starting Dice roll that lets you take your turn, and hurts the enemy and stops them from taking their turn.

"Here There Be Dragons" lures you in with adorable dragons and pixelated charm, but prepare for a quick journey that only leads to disappointment. Where strategy takes a backseat to pure luck. Each battle feels like the same repetitive dance. Even at a discounted price, the lack of depth and reliance on RNG make this a Hard Pass. You're better off steering clear of this underwhelming adventure. Spend your money and your time elsewhere,

Little turn-based strategy featuring satirical humor and graphics that kind of resemble maps of old.

The only available game mode covers 13 campaigns, each consisting of 3-4 missions while each mission is one battle where your ship(s) fight enemy ships or monsters. It will probably take you around 10h to get through, give it or take it. Battles are short, so I would suggest playing 2-3 campaigns a day at the beginning and later 1 a day for an experience where you don't get bored and have a constant daily progress.

The story is a satire of how Columbus discovered America featuring beliefs of that period as well as throwing pop culture references into a tasty stew. Humor is ok, not hilarious but far from forced or misdelivered either. Music fits nicely in the background and sound effects are satisfying.

It's a very tactical game and quite challenging. The missions are made in a way to constantly force you to adjust your approach instead of developing a single tactic to grind through the entire game. Your ships' stats can progress between missions of a single campaign but don't transfer to next one. It's actually logical, as you are leading various characters in different campaigns.

There are stats and actions available for you and the other side and what will be used is decided by allocating dice at the begging of each turn. RNG is a factor, but it seems to me it's done right, as it has helped and hindered me in pretty much equal amount. There are also bottles that are kind of like "fate points" that you collect each turn or when you defeat one enemy and can be used for various actions meant to help you turn things to your favor.

Even though it can be labeled as a modern indie game, it has that "just right" feeling that games from the golden period of gaming had. I, for one, would really like to play a bigger/better/longer Here Be Dragons 2 in the future. So, fingers crossed the devs have such plans.

Bought it at -70% and I'm super happy with the value I got. Since the base price is not high, I would argue that for tactical gamers and those who prefer indie games, this one is a good buy even at full price.

Decent idea, but ZERO replayability. More systems needed. If this game had some progression (a la Darkest Dungeon) and replayability, it would have been great. As it stands, it's a bit meh. It needs more upgrading, more RPG elements...It just needs more. Too light for my tastes.

Refunded.

It's really boring. It's mostly lacking customization. You always have 2 ships and the ships abilities and starting hp is determined by the "campaign" you are currently playing (it's just 3-4 levels in a row each). And after each level you can increase stats of the ships but those don't carry over to other campaigns. If you had a load out you could change each play through then it might actually be more interesting.

The actual gameplay also lacks in depth. You roll dice, asign the dice to your ships skills and that's it. There are some minor stuff like lower dice give you initiative and collecting ink bottles but nothing that takes good strategy or planning. Just hope that the dice are useable by you and not by the enemy and that's the game.

The Asthetic is cool and why I bought the game, but the story is really bad. It makes attempts at humor that fall flat and rely on every character being too stupid to live.

If anything it would probably be a good phone game in how mindless it is. But they sell it here on steam so that's their problem.

I've only played a bit so far and enjoyed my short evening with it. I liked the humor and the art. The tutorial is a tad slow. I'd like to see some quality of life improvements but I guess those will come with time.

Give it a Salvo!

So, know upfront that this isn't a lot of gameplay. Replayability, for me, is completely absent. That being said, I got my money's worth.

What's good: While the game is very mechanically simple it's got the crunchiness of a medium weight strategic board game. In your haste to execute what appears to be a good plan, you'll wipe and realize you should have actually taken a sub-optimal line instead. The enemies, while not particularly varied, mostly feel unique. (my most challenging fight was the snakes that heal to the highest health of snakes at the end of each round) Difficulty feels...okay. With additional refinement it could be both more difficult while also being increasingly fair.

The audio is sharp, sound effects please, voice overs good (but the game would certainly feel more alive if each text box were accompanied by a voice with a personality. The humor left something to be desired.

What's bad: Well, I've already touched on all of it. The game walks a fine line for me, I _almost_ regret the purchase. Why? I feel like a $20 game should have a bit more content. The bones are here, it's got the makings of something great. I'm certain it was difficult to balance but it needs more. More ships and options, for example would be a great start. There is a small portion of the game where you pilot three ships but the addition of the third simply showcases it can be done with respect to balance. I'm not a dice fan, I'm a avid board gamer and while this system gives you the ability to manipulate dice...it's just so RNG. (See: F your plans)

Super easy to recommend on sale. Did I get my return on investment? Sure. It's COVID-19 day..again..and I got 9 hours of entertainment for $20.