It's also very humorous to see the leaders play extremely defensively due to the paranoia of being blasted by their opponents, only to discover that had they just played regular actions they could easily have claimed the victory. It's these sudden and unexpected surprises which make the game so entertaining to play. Play ends as soon as one player successfully maneuvers his pawn to the appropriate village on the opposite side of the river. As mentioned, it is quite common to have several players in position to win, so watching the turn order and planning accordingly can be critical. I find the game to require careful planning, but one must also realize that the best laid plans can and will likely go astray due to the actions played by your opponents.
Proceedings can be quite chaotic, but in a fun sort of way.
Being able to guess the actions your opponents are likely to take and plan your actions accordingly is a crucial skill in this game. Having played the game with various numbers of players, I can state flatly that playing with only two players is NOT the way to play. With only two players, the game is quite dull and lacks the unexpected excitement which occurs with the variety of actions being performed by numerous opponents. No, I strongly urge only playing the game with four or more players. With these numbers, Dragon Delta is a fun and entertaining game of planning and chaos.