Board Game Arena

I self-admittedly perform most poorly on board 7 so I may be biased in this opinion. To me however, board 7 feels the most prone to bad luck based on opening rolls as 2nd player. Most players start on the bottom left castle and if your opening roll is poor and the 1st player's roll is fairly decent you can be at a major disadvantage in the game more than any other boards IMO. Does this seem accurate?

It is probably the most hated board, several top players listed it as their least favorite one in a private conversation. I really like it because it is very tricky to play, and you can easily lose to yourself if you are not careful. Opening is hard for the second player if there are only 2 ships on the board. Here, the first player can take 1 ship and a mine (which is very strong because opens the middle) and still force the second player to put their ship first.
On the bright side map is building heavy which is quite good for the second player in turn order, you just need to prioritize finishing the middle to not get blocked by the one who leads with ships(you gave up extra points for security). Also, last 2 waters are on the opposite end of the map, so you can win the turn order if you place 4th ship last and your opponent didn't develop the map fast enough.
As the most prone to bad luck I would list the 2nd map.

I must be one of the top players ra1ro mentioned, haha. I totally agree with you, this is the worst board for the second player, when there is no ship in the black market, and the first player takes ship and mine, but you can't get another ship and the castle at the same time, please RIP yourself.

Apart from this situation, it's great, multiple ways to get high scores,lots of route development.