North Star Games Oceans Board Game

Product Information

a b c Thurot, Dan (15 February 2020). "Evolving underwater: Oceans board game review". Ars Technica . Retrieved 15 November 2021. Lurking deep below the surface lie mysteries so bizarre they seem unnatural when first discovered: massive predators, glowing horrors, and beautiful luminescent creatures. These species hardly seem possible in the realm of biology, and yet they turn out to be real. The Deep represents the wonder of scientific discovery, with traits ranging from actual marine biology to the fantastic. Venture into the deep at your own risk! It follows the HL playbook pretty well. One of the things I found funny at the time was how destructible everything is. It might have been a selling point, but when I see chunks of concrete missing... Strategy Beneath the Surface: Oceans is a highly thematic engine builder, where everything is connected and players can create powerful synergistic systems between their own species and other players.

a b c d Niebling, William (26 March 2019). " 'Oceans' joins the 'Evolution' series". ICv2 . Retrieved 15 November 2021. I’m an admirer of the Evolution series, interested in board games with depth and am part-seal myself so you’d think I would have dived straight into Oceans. This unassuming process works in the same way for feeding from other sources, whilst the defensive symbol (yellow shell) reduces the amount of population that another species can take from your species. Each time these levels of the ocean become depopulated an event card is triggered. This changes the game mechanics. Sometimes these are subtle, just making some types of cards more effective. Other times these cards can completely up-end the game, forcing faster ageing of species and changing the way you have to play. Even better the glorious Deep cards that are introduced add massive variety to the game. you can draft one each turn and playing it costs the fish which are your victory points.

Oceans is a strategy game played by 2-4 people. Players create a vibrant web of marine life through millions of years of evolution. The Cambrian Explosion starts when the 1st Ocean zone becomes empty, and continues until the end of the game. Remove the Cambrian Explosion card from the 1st Ocean zone as a reminder that it will never be deactivated. If the Cambrian Explosion begins during a player’s playing cards phase, they may immediately play a second card (Surface or Deep). If it begins afterwards, they may not return to their playing cards phase to play a second card.

The odd production decisions extend to the box. For a game mostly consisting of tokens and cards it is absolutely huge, with a really odd insert. Now you might think that there is room in this insert for expansions. No doubt there will be some, but I bought the version with components for 5-6 players, with extra species boards, tokens, and screens. The tokens are fine but the screens and species boards just have nowhere to go. The rulebooks don’t even sit in the box flat. The production decisions are just baffling. The foundation of the oceanic food chain are billions of one-celled organisms called phytoplankton that capture the sun's energy through photosynthesis. Every other species in the ocean is a predator, each bigger than the next, all the way up to the dreaded Apex Predator. And even bigger than Apex Predators are enormous Whales that gently swim through the ocean scooping up everything in their path. This ecosystem mimics the known world near the surface. Build yourself a thriving merchant fleet, and guide it to economic prosperity. Acquire the most modern steamships on the market and take over the precious ports from your rivals. Build an extensive network of trading posts and coal bunkers to expand the capability of your fleet. Make use of diverse options to carry out lucrative transports and win the prestigious Blue Riband of the North Atlantic. Unlike its predecessor Evolution, in which players execute their turns in shared phases, in Oceans players take individual turns to create species by assembling trait cards. [3] These creatures are released into an aquatic ecosystem where they must obtain food and avoid becoming prey to other creatures. [3] These are represented by boards that can hold nine fish (each fish is a "population token"). During the game, the creature may evolve defenses against predators, and predators may evolve tactics to circumvent those defenses. [3] Up to three trait cards can be used to evolve a species. [4] The ecosystems are represented by one reef board and an ocean board with three zones filled with fish tokens.Finally, you age every species you have by transferring one fish token from each of your species into your score pile. In Oceans, fish is ultimately your scoring fodder. If your species have evolved and survived long enough to eat fish, they “age” on your turn. This means you can move a fish they have each been feeding on into your score pile. But if they can’t grow older, they go extinct!