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Game Info
Year
2026
Collection
Your Tier
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Description
Build your Roman colony in the Mediterranean, trade and engage with the Great Harbor of Carthage, construct mighty trading ships to trade with the cities along the Mediterranean, and fight the Cilician pirates in this dice drafting, worker placement game for 2-4 players!
In The Great Harbor, you play as a powerful Roman governor of a Mediterranean colony. The game is played over multiple rounds where players will draft dice from a common dice pool, and will use those dice as workers to place them on the tiles of the Great Harbor to play the corresponding actions. In order to place a die on a certain slot, the die must match the color of the slot of the tile. The die power (ranging from 1 to 6) will determine the strength of your action on that tile. Once someone places a die on a slot, that slot is taken, and no other dice may be placed there until the end of the round.
The actions that can be played include: gaining resources that are important for shipbuilding, scheduling workers to work on building the ships, increasing your colony capacity to dock ships and population, sending your ships to trade along the Mediterranean and be on the lookout for pirates, hire special workers and diplomats and more.
The game ends after six rounds after which victory points from the constructed ships, buildings, senate influence, and objectives are then calculated, and the player with the most points is the winner of the game and proclaimed the most powerful governor of the Mediterranean!
—description from the publisher
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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 5
This page: 5
Sentiment:
pos 3 ·
mix 0 ·
neu 1 ·
neg 0
Showing 1–5 of 5
Video 6Hbes0LW9ME
Tantrum House Analysis at 4:25 sentiment: neutral
video_pk 86067 · mention_pk 282594
Click to watch at 4:25 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
neutral
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
- Powerful Roman governor
- Mediterranean Colony
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Area Control — Victory points from constructed ships, buildings, Senate influence, and objectives.
- Dice Drafting — Players will draft Dice from a common dice pool.
- Worker Placement — Use dice as workers to place them on tiles to play corresponding actions.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- Thieves Market is an eye cut you steal game
- energy Empire uses worker placement table building and Resource Management mechanics
- Mares is a large Euro game and is probably my favorite of the Stefan Feld City collection
- Formaggio is a standalone expansion for Forage
- Widget's Workshop features an Innovative blend of card crafting and set collection within a real world spatial game environment
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video yh_e_3Ay9UE
Hungry Gamer Review at 0:09 sentiment: positive
video_pk 86038 · mention_pk 285492
Click to watch at 0:09 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Clever dice drafting and player order determination.
- Satisfying mechanic of splitting dice pips for dual benefits.
- Constant interesting choices with multiple viable strategies.
- High replayability due to variable tile setup and orientation.
- Enjoyable as a light tableau builder and dice placement game.
- Unique twist on resource management with dice placement between tiles.
Cons
- Thematically dry.
- Predictable gameplay arc despite varied choices.
- Unexciting pirate combat.
- Core gameplay is fundamentally resource management with one main twist.
Thematic elements
- harbor
Comparison games
- Lunar Rush
- Guildmaster
- Merchant's Cove
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- contract fulfillment — Implied through ship missions and resource trading.
- Dice Drafting — Players draft dice from a bag, with the number of pips influencing player order and available actions.
- Dice Placement — Dice are placed on board locations, often splitting their pips to activate different effects on adjacent tiles.
- Resource Management — Acquiring and spending resources like wood, rope, and luxury goods is central to gameplay.
- Tableau Building — Players build buildings and house people on their player boards to gain abilities and points.
- Trading — Players can trade resources at ports based on ship cargo during a trade phase.
- Worker Placement — Workers (colonists) are used to gather resources and perform actions.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- The Great Harbor designed by Matel denardis with art by Daniel kunha published by Arona games and I do apologize if I mispronounced any of those names
- The way that you're doing the draft of the dice and then how depending on the sum of the Pips on your dice then determines the player order I really think is clever.
- There's constant interesting choices in this game because you're never quite sure what it is that you should do first.
- Thematically it's dry which is ironic because it's a harbor.
- At its core this is really just a resource management game with one really cool unique twist to it and that is those piles the way they're laid out and putting the die in between them lets you activate both sides based on the Pips and you're splitting the Pips that I think is what makes this game fresh.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video -qLrRJOrvgo
Rahdo Runs Through Top List at 39:13 sentiment: positive
video_pk 85854 · mention_pk 284620
Click to watch at 39:13 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Dice worker placement is fantastic
- Next level brilliant worker placement
- Modular board changes up the game
- Intertwined actions like collecting steel and building ships
- Adore it
- Great game
Cons
- Swinginess of the push your luck game is so huge and so debilitating
- Pirate attacks can send ships home with nothing, especially after pushing luck hard
Thematic elements
- Building ships and engaging in mercantile trade in the Mediterranean
- Ancient city of Carthage
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- dice worker placement — Players draft dice and use their value (pips) and color to take actions on a modular board.
- Engine Building — Building housing, recruiting population, and upgrading ships to improve actions and trade.
- Modular Board — The worker placement board is created by assembling tiles.
- Push Your Luck — A mini-game where ships sail further into dangerous waters, with risks of pirate attacks and losing all gains.
- Resource Management — Collecting resources like steel to build ships and housing to increase population.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- We've pretty much gone almost bankrupt moving all the way from the United States to Ireland and we got to start rebuilding our savings.
- This game will beat you up and spit you out mercilessly.
- It is such a mechanical thinky crunchy game, but so much of it is trying to make sure that you recognize what somebody else values.
- There is no worse feeling in all the board games than playing House of Fedo, moving to a zone, um, and then getting I'm going to get I'm going to get a bonus and oh no, the bonuses that are available to me right now, I can't afford, so I get no bonus.
- This is like the ultimate example of a game that I think is better played online on Board Game Arena than it is in real life because of this.
- Honestly, this is my single biggest issue with the game. The the swinginess of that push your luck game is so huge and so debilitating.
- This game is phenomenal. It is the number two best game that Jen and I played this month.
- So this is my go-to um, you know, area battle game. If anybody ever comes to my house and wants to play it, they're going to be playing Six Sjuns with me because it's brilliant and it is our game of the month.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video JHLKj3nyqZY
Meeple University Game Preview
video_pk 70520 · mention_pk 167529
Pros
none
Cons
none
Thematic elements
none
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Mechanics unknown.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- the game is of medium to heavy complexity just enough to make your brain melt a little
- the game goes for six rounds with two turns
- two to four players
- Voyage phase where you send your ships on a trade Mission into pirate infested waters
- There are rewards if you work hard
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video JHLKj3nyqZY
Meeple University Game Preview at 0:46 sentiment: positive
video_pk 70520 · mention_pk 287122
Click to watch at 0:46 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
- Mechanics combine dice drafting, worker placement, and engine building for depth and interaction
- varied building and ship options provide power and endgame prestige
- clear thematic flavor around Roman governance and maritime trade
- pirate encounters introduce risk-reward tradeoffs during voyages
Cons
- described as medium to heavy complexity, which may be challenging for some players
- potential for rough turns or bad die luck affecting progress
- edge spaces are less flexible and can block future dice, increasing player tension
Thematic elements
- governance and economic development with naval trade and piracy
- Roman Empire port city on the Mediterranean Sea
- narrative-driven, roleplay tone describing the Governor's actions
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- building and ship construction — build buildings from gained cards or from your board; construct ships with stats and assign colonists to improve ships.
- Deck Building — build buildings from gained cards or from your board; construct ships with stats and assign colonists to improve ships.
- Dice Drafting — start of each turn players roll two dice per player plus one; players draft one die in turn; the player with the lowest total places first and gains resources.
- Engine Building — resources and cards on your board enable stronger actions and contribute to endgame prestige.
- pirate voyage phase — send ships on trade missions; pirate cards determine enemy strength; if attack power matches or exceeds pirate strength you win and gain rewards; otherwise you take damage and retreat.
- Resource Management — gather resources like wood and metal, recruit people and colonists, gain prestige and coins for endgame victory.
- Resource management and scoring — gather resources like wood and metal, recruit people and colonists, gain prestige and coins for endgame victory.
- Worker Placement — dice act as worker tokens placed on spaces to gain resources and trigger actions; some spaces block future dice.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
- the game is of medium to heavy complexity just enough to make your brain melt a little
- the game goes for six rounds with two turns
- two to four players
- Voyage phase where you send your ships on a trade Mission into pirate infested waters
- There are rewards if you work hard
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Transcript Navigation
Showing 1–5 of 5