Cargo Noir, Coming From Days of Wonder This March

The next game from Days of Wonder is Cargo Noir, designed by Serge Laget, co-designer of Mystery Express and Shadows Over Camelot.  I'll let the official press release fill in the details:

Cargo Noir is a game of illicit trading in which players run "families" who traffic in smuggled goods. The game takes place in the thrilling and evocative setting of 1950's film noir.

Game play in Cargo Noir revolves around a changing set of notorious smuggling ports – Hong Kong, Bombay, Rotterdam, Panama, Tanger, Rio, Cape Town, New York and Macao – that are filled with various types and quantities of contraband. Players dispatch cargo ships loaded with gold to the ports that hold cargo they desire – hoping that it will be enough to snatch the goods away from any opponents. The acquired goods are then stored in the player’s warehouses until enough is accumulated to create valuable combinations to trade away for Victory Spoils.

"Everything in Cargo Noir grew from a core auction mechanism that is simple and trivial to explain - you can only bid up, and the last bidder standing gets the goods," says designer Serge Laget. "After that game development focused on three areas: fine-tuning the balance so there were always multiple paths to victory; making sure the game shines with two players as well as with five; and finding a theme that would be evocative with a feel that is very different from most other auction or trading games – a Sheep for two Woods it ain’t!"

More pictures after the jump: