Aquatica

Aquatica comes from the company behind Smart Phone and an indie designer who, from what I have seen, seems to have real passion — make a note of the upcoming Astrum, too. But this game has no needless bells and whistles: it is a clean, lean design that does exactly what it needs to do.

Players begin with the same deck, four basic submarines with roughly comparable abilities, and one different King card each. That card is the game’s lightly asymmetric touch, and it is generally powerful without ever feeling as though it creates a balance issue. This is not quite a deck builder: there is no draw-and-reshuffle cycle. Once a card is played, it is played, except for the one card that does not go to the discard pile and lets you retrieve cards — something that reminded me of skip or reorganize turns in worker-placement games.

Using cards and submarines, you build up your production of money or military strength in order to claim territories from the board. You then explore and score them, while everyone races for the same shared objectives and tries to reach them first. Exploring territories is the freshest mechanism here, giving the game the extra spark it needs without weighing it down.

I really liked it as a game that fits neatly into an evening: good with two, and, I think, perfect with three. I would not play it with more than that. It is exactly enough, honest and pleasantly tight. I will be bringing it back to the table soon.