SPIEL '18 Preview: Atlandice, or Rolling on the Waves

With so many games hitting the shore every week, it's easy to overlook or be surprised by new releases — even when you know they're coming.

At FIJ 2018 in Cannes in late February 2018, we recorded an overview of Atlandice with representatives from Ludonaute, a game that I thought was debuting at SPIEL '18 in October. Admittedly our overview video was something of a teaser given that company co-owner Cedric Lefebvre showed only the back of the box and not the components themselves, but at that point, the components most likely existed only in a primitive form and some publishers prefer not to display prototypes to keep possibly false or misleading images from being spread.

Given my expectation, I was surprised to find copies of Atlandice for sale at Gen Con 2018 in the Asmodee booth. This design by Scott Huntington and Shaun Graham had not even appeared on BGG's Gen Con 2018 Preview, despite me receiving info directly from Asmodee as to what they'd have available at the show. I get it — sometimes games arrive at warehouses earlier than anticipated, and sometimes you want to spring a surprise release or two on fans, but in general you want to throw up a flag and make folks look at what you've got or else they'll sail on by with their sights locked on the horizon.

That said, Ludonaute will indeed debut the title in Europe at SPIEL '18, and I've played the game three times on a copy borrowed from the BGG Library, so let's take a look. The city of Atlandice has five chambers and a black market, with access to these areas controlled by dice-driven gates. At the start of a round, the active player rolls the dice, places the dice next to their matching rooms, then players take turns drafting two dice, claiming one (or possibly two) item from that room, then carrying out the effect of the room: possibly moving an item from one room to another, messing with a die value, collecting an extra item, etc. Once players have claimed their dice, a single die will remain in one area of the city — and the "clock" value in this area advances the doom clock 1-3 spaces.

When all the items in a room have been claimed, whoever has the most items from this room — weapons from the armory, books from the library, etc. — receives three points, which is represented by one of the floors from this room. Whoever has the secondmost items from this room receives one point. In general, removing a floor changes the special effect of a room and changes the "clock" value. Players then return this item to the room to represent them trying to saving items from the next floor. When all three floors have been scored, that part of the city has been demolished and that item can't be claimed again. The flood waters are rising...

We emptied the black market, then dumped everything to run away...

As the doom clock moves, a secondary scoring for a type of item or all items might take place, giving players another way to score and a reason to take this item over that from a room in order to manipulate the clock. When time runs out, every type of item scores one final time.

I played twice with three players and once with two, and the two-player game adds a neutral player that each player must draft a die for once a round. This gives you an additional opportunity to get in the face of your opponent, with the neutral player possibly scooping them for a majority, thereby giving you an outlet for points that would otherwise fall in the hands of the enemy. After all, as much as you might want to save artifacts from your dying culture, there's no way you're going to let someone else hog the credit for doing so...