I can’t help but draw some parallels between “Atlantis Rising” (the board game) and the “Stargate: Atlantis” (the television series). I mean, you’ve got a massive city with branches protruding from a central hub and Ancients / Atheniens who run the place. It certainly helped to attract me to this title, in addition to the fact that it’s a co-op experience like “Pandemic” and more on-point, “Forbidden Island” (where tiles sink into the depths). At its heart however, this is a worker placement game. Special thanks to Elf Creek Games & their PR company for sending a copy.
1-7 Players, Ages 12+, Average Play Time = 1-2 Hours
—
Components
The game consists of 37 Island Board Tiles, a Cosmic Gate Board, 20 Cosmic Gate Tiles, 1 Power Core Tile, 10 Councilor Player Boards, 1 Wrath of the Gods Track & Counter, 6 Mystic Barriers & Plastic Stands, 2 D6 Dice, 67 Misfortune Cards, 33 Library Cards, Player Meeples & Markers of different colors, 8 Volunteer Meeples, 1 Automaton Meeple, 1 Hologram Meeple, various resource gems/bars, and a Starting Player Marker.
You can see what that all looks like on Page 3 of the Rulebook:
https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/209664/atlantis-rising-rulebook-2nd-printing
—
Setup Overview
There are two pages of setup instructions so I’ll opt to give you the hi-lites.
Atlantis has a central hub and 6 branches. Each branch is a different economic part of Atlantis…one branch might produce ore, gold, or crystals while another branch might allow you to recruit more workers to use on future turns. Each branch consists of many tiles and it’s important to put them in order from least to most powerful, with the most powerful being on the outer edges (to be flooded / flipped over first).
Players receive a councilor board, each having its own unique ability. It’s recommended that one player always be the Artificer for your first few games. Players each get two followers, a leader, and a player token of their chosen color as well as two mystic energy.
Players also select 9 component tiles (there are more than 9, so you’ll have varying setups depending on your preferred difficulty). Players will have to construct these 9 tiles during the game using resources so that they can win. Each constructed tile grants some kind of bonus or ability.
There’s a main deck of helpful library cards and you’ll shuffle in 4 random artifact (powerful/helpful cards) to said deck. Like other games of this nature, there’s a bad deck of cards that you’ll seed appropriately with different misfortunes depending on the chosen difficulty. This deck will continuously sink tiles until there’s nothing left of Atlantis…which spells game over.
There’s a bit more so check out page 4 of the rulebook linked above for specifics. There are also special setup rules for 1, 2, and 3 players so don’t miss them!
(For artistic comparison)
Gameplay Overview
The game is played over a series of rounds with each round separated into four phases.
1. Place Atlanteans – In this phase, players will coordinate and decide where best to place their meeples. Most tiles support a limited number of meeples.
2. Suffer Misfortunes – Each player will draw and resolve a misfortunes card (that changes depending on player count). Some misfortunes flood tiles while others are special and really ruin your day. If meeples are present on a now-flooded tile, they’ll go back to their respective players and won’t be used (unless an ability states otherwise). Flooding a tile from a completely submerged branch forces players to sink two from other branches. Once the central core goes (the last tile above water), the players all lose.
3. Take Actions – In whatever order players want, they’ll resolve their meeples by taking actions at their respective locations. Most actions involve rolling a dice check. Succeeding this dice check allows the meeples present to perform the action there. The checks get harder and the resource reward gets less the closer to the core the tile is. Other tiles don’t involve a check and just allow you to take the action, like converting ore into Atlantium, for example. Ideally, players will be collecting resources to build Cosmic Gate Components to win the game.
Mystic Energy is a special resource that can be spent to add pips to a rolled die, keep additional library cards after drawing, place barrier to protect tiles from flooding, and unflood a flooded tile.
4. Endure the Wrath of the Gods – The Wrath of the Gods is a special tracker with numbers on it. The number increases from a minimum 0 to a maximum of 3, with the tracker increasing each turn. During this phase, players freely choose a number of tiles to flood based on the current number marked by the tracker. This tracker does not reverse and will stay on 3 once there.
(Component tiles have unique abilities when built)
—
Game End
Victory – Players must build their 9 chosen components and lastly the Power Core. To build the power core, each player must place their leader on the same build space and contribute at least one resource or mystic energy toward the building cost. When the power core is built, the players immediately win.
Failure – Atlantis sinks before the players can achieve the above.
Note: Please refer to the rulebook for more detailed rule explanations.
—
Review
My first impressions of this game, purely from a component standpoint, was that it was cumbersome. With my poor eyesight and my wrist tendonitis, it took a while to identify tiles and then setup the branches the way they were supposed to be. The default rules are for 4-7 players, so there’s also some additional setup for 1, 2, and 3 player games. Solo utilizes both a hologram and an automaton meeple, both of which have special rules and restrictions. The hologram uses a randomly drawn councilor from the box every round, so its special ability is constantly changing. Compared to “Forbidden Island”, there’s a lot more to keep track of here and it’s much more of a table hog than I was expecting.
Despite the initial bad taste in my mouth, I came to recognize that the game has a lot of positives going for it. For one, and this is HUGE in my book, difficulty can be adjusted. There are rules in the rulebook for making the game easier or harder, though you CAN go beyond that and make up your own rules like I tend to do. For example, I opted to draw one less misfortune card every round to give us more breathing room. That’s not in the rulebook, but you can modify things to that extent if your imagination lets you think outside of the box.
Now back to something that bothered me…the dice. As mentioned above, in some cases you’ll roll dice to see if you succeed in your dice check. Failing typically means you miss out on taking that action. I’m personally not a fan of RNG mechanics like this. Due to no fault if your own and no matter how much you plan, dice can screw you. Some people are okay with that. I’m not. Before the hate mail comes pouring in, yes, you can add pips to a die result with mystic energy (only certain branches) and yes, you can roll 1 additional die for each additional Atlantean placed on that same space. While there is mitigation in some cases, you won’t always succeed in what you’re attempting to do. This is important to note as it sets expectations that players need to understand before buying into this game.
I suppose I have a love-hate relationship with this title. On one hand, I love how customizable setup is (different components have different abilities) and I love that I can fine-tune the difficulty until I find a sweet spot I’m comfortable with. The latter especially helps when the dice unexpectedly turn against you and that’s why I’m able to overlook the whole RNG thing. I know some folks who follow rulebooks TO THE LETTER and don’t deviate EVER…it’s these folks I’m worried about especially if they get frustrated easily. That said, the game itself is gorgeous and the quality is certainly there.
“Atlantis Rising” is cumbersome to setup and learn but once you’re there, you’ll get sucked into the strategy of it. You’ll be playing the odds regularly to see what you can get away with, mainly by placing meeples on tiles that could potentially flood. You’ll enjoy your experience a lot more (as I did) if you home-brew things that bother you. For me, my experience in home-brewing was this game’s saving grace. Otherwise, I probably would have been too frustrated by the RNG. For a much easier experience and to keep home-brewing to a minimum, try removing the Wrath of Gods tracker altogether.
Box Quote: If you liked the “Forbidden Island” theme and want a heck of a lot more oomph, try “Atlantis Rising.”
—
Score: 7/10 (Good)
—