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by W. Kramer & (M. Kiesling?)
Uberplay Games - .Feb 2004
2-4 players? / 45 minutes
Theme: Treasure seeking in SunkenCity
Very good family game. High theme.
Components: Beautiful board depicting a square lake with a 9 x 9 grid overlay; forest borders 3 sides of the board, and the ocean shore borders the last side; as well, one side holds the draw pile for "path" tiles (2 squares), the opposite side holds the building "blocks" (1 square) that will be placed on the lake. Each player sits by a corner which is their home space, and each player has their own set of cards, (all sets identical). Cards depict 3 actions: number of builds permitted, Neptune movement, and number of spaces of player movement. Players have mats that have numbered tiles (corresp. to numbered buildings) that represent treasure.
Game: The active player lays down a card on his turn which always has 3 actions which he may execute in any order. Initially the board is blank, so players will need to add paths to the lake to allow movement, and add buildings to the lake to be able to obtain treasure. His build action has a number between 0 and 5(?) which allows construction of one building and the remainder in path tiles; or the entire number in paths. The catch is that the buildings must be placed in a square in a specific area of the lake (a roughly diamond-shape around the center with one building allowed in the exact center of the lake). They may not be placed orthogonally or diagonally, but must be at least 2 spaces from the next closest building. Buildings are numbered and each player is trying to visit all buildings.
The player movement number (2 to 7?) is inverse to the build number. The higher the build number, the lower the player movement number and vice versa. Players may move their pawns orthogonally from path tile/building to path tile/building up to the pawn movement on his card. When landing on a building, the player flips over the corresponding numbered treasure tile on his treasure mat. The tricky part is that the players have a "12" tile, but there is no "12" building. Whichever building is currently in the center square, holds it's own treasure and the "12" automatically. If a player can reach multiple buildings in a turn, he flips all the corresponding tiles. However, these tiles are not yet safe. In order to be safe, the player must return to his home city and "deposit" them by removing them from his treasure mat and placing them on his "safe" space. Of course, a player may choose to press on and obtain many treasures in one go in order to maximize movement point. But that would, of course, infuriate his opponents and make him a target for Neptune! =)
See, Neptune wants the lake left alone and will do everything he can to ruin the players' plans for raising and exploiting the city. Players are allowed to move Neptune on their turn, moving along the path tiles or buildings, with each path tile or building that Neptune leaves removed from the playing field and returned to the sides of the board. Neptune's movement points are determined by a die roll (0-3), with movement restrictions identical to pawns. If Neptune is in the active player's home "grid" (the 4 x 4 squares in a players corner) he does not roll the die, but instead moves Neptune 3 spaces. Neptune can be used to remove useless buildings, to tear down buildings that will benefit others, or, best of all, can pass thru a space with an opponents pawn, which is then sent back to his corner space, and he must flip all his treasures back to the numbered side. As consolation, he receives a special chip that he may use at any one time that allows him extra movement points; that number being equal to the number of face down treasures he has at time of usage. This makes aggression a bad idea early in the game, which helps keep the game from being a runaway leader game.
Impression: The game plays very well and quite quickly as players try and position buildings in such a way as to maximize treasure seeking and make dropoffs easier. The Neptune movement, with its consolation chip award, works extremely well and helps keep leaders or hoarders in check. The movement restrictions for players and the Neptune piece are well chosen, allowing for all kinds of clever play. This is a middleweight game: there is luck in the Neptune die roll, as well as some player chaos, and the 45 minute duration seems to make it an excellent family game. It's "weight" is quite similar to that of Big City. The well-chosen and well integrated theme, as well as lots of interaction and clever (nasty?) play, should appeal to gamers as well. The version I played was very good and I expect it will be very well received.
My thanks to Jeremy Young at Uberplay for allowing me this early playing of Sunken City.
Page 1: Opening article
Page 2: Compares 2 American games with 2 German games
Page 3: The Gold Games: Recommended purchases.
Page 4: 'Jargon', a dictionary of 'gamers' lingo
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