Welcome to Aquatica!
Get ready to embark on an epic undersea adventure as we dive into the majestic realm of Aquatica. In this captivating game, you’ll step into the shoes of mighty ocean kings, striving to bring glory and riches to your watery kingdom. With every move you make, you’ll be in a fierce race against other players to dominate the sea and claim your place as the strongest ruler!
Let’s Get Started: Setup
Before we dive in, let’s set up the game. Start by placing the game board in the middle of the playing area. Shuffle the character cards and place them on the lowest row of the board. Then, draw the top six cards from the deck and fill the character’s row with them. Next, shuffle the location cards and place them in the middle of the board. Once again, use the top six cards to fill the row. Finally, gather all the colorful miniature game pieces and place them beside the board – they’re ready to make a splash!
Okay, let’s get started! First, I need to place my board in front of me and pick a symbol to represent myself in the game. Once I’ve chosen my symbol, I’ll collect the mantas and character cards that have my symbol on them. Oh, and by the way, the player who most recently went for a swim in the sea gets to go first.
Now that we’re all set up, let’s talk about gameplay. The first player will receive the first king card, the second player gets the second king card, and so on. In later games, players can choose to draft kings differently, but for now, we’ll stick with this rule. Each player will gather their character cards and king cards to form their hand. Just make sure your mantas are facing up so you can see their effects. And with that, we’re ready to start!
GAMEPLAY
When we start playing, we take turns in a clockwise direction. Each of us has to do one main action and some extra actions during our turn. You can choose the order in which you do these actions. After you finish your turn, the next player starts their turn.
For your main action, you can play a character card from your hand and do the actions specified on the card. You have to do all the actions on the card that you can. But if you can’t do any of them, you can skip those actions. After you finish the card’s actions, put it in the discard pile and then you can do your additional actions.
When playing, I can choose to do more than just the basic actions in the game. I have the option to flip mantas, which means I can do the action on the manta and then flip it to the tired side. There is also another extra action called exploiting depths, and I can find it on the left side of the cards. By doing these additional actions, I can get certain benefits, like earning prosperity points. The faster I complete my goals on the board, the more points I can earn.
Once I complete a goal, I place my manta on the first available space. I can’t complete that same goal again. The points I earn depend on where I place my mantas. If I’m fast at completing goals, I can earn more points.
END OF THE GAME
Hey there! Let me tell you how the game comes to an end. There are three possible ways. First, it ends when a player completes all four of their goals. Second, it ends when the location deck runs out of cards. And finally, it ends when the ocean character deck runs out too. Once the game ends, it’s time to tally up your prosperity points.
Now, how do you earn those points? Well, you get one point for each character card you have. And you also earn points based on the goal track. But here’s the catch, you only get points for the locations in your scoring pile. Once everyone has tallied their prosperity points, we can determine the winner. The person with the most points is declared the champion!
By the way, I’m Ellie! I live in Northeast Tennessee and I’m excited to be a part of this amazing community. I love all kinds of animals, fantasy books, and spending time outdoors. I’m lucky to have a husband who adores me and two adorable fur babies. Looking forward to getting to know everyone!