Under the sea is the place to explore and hunt for all types of things to make your collection complete. As a team of underwater explorers you and your friends can build amazing collections but be careful not to help others get ahead of you! Rolling dice, picking up tiles and seeing where your meeples explore all come together to give us a really fun game that we are going to “dive” right in to!
Wreck Raiders is a 1-5 player game from KTBG designed by Tim Brown and Josh Cappel with illustration by Apolline Etienne and graphics by Josh Cappel.
Components:
1 Game board
1 Dice Pool
5 Player Mats
52 Exhibit Cards
39 Aquarium Tiles
84 Treasure Tiles
45 Seashells
30 Divers
5 Crab Markers
6 Dice
1 Reef Board
Setup and Gameplay:
The game is played with all of the seashells placed in the end of the beach part of the board and all the treasures stacked as types. The Aquarium pieces create a market and the dice pool is the lid of the game upside down. Each player has a set number of divers based on player count with their board.
There are four steps to your turn for each player. These include:
1-Take a die from the reef
2-Move a diver and collect rewards
3-Claim one or more exhibits (optional)
4-Buy one aquarium piece (optional)
In Take a Die from the Reef, players will chose one of the dice on the Reef and place it in their personal basket on their player board. If there are none left, all dice are collected and re-rolled into the Dice Pool and then allocate them to the Reef. Dice claimed in a seashell zone gain the specific seashell from the beach to their basket.
The next step, Move a Diver and Collect Rewards lets a player take any one of their divers and move them to a number spot on the main board in a spot on the Wreck or the Beach. You may move your own diver to any spot but you cannot displace your divers and you cannot move from one spot to a different spot in the same wreck/beach. You have option of moving to the wreck or the beach.
When you move to the beach, place a diver in that spot and gain the listed shells. If you displace a diver it goes back to the original player. If you move on to a wreck, you take the space for the number you rolled and take a random treasure from the pile for that wreck. Bumped divers here move to the same numbered beach spot and gain shells. Also important is any diver on either side of yours will gain a random treasure at the wreck and that includes yours or your rivals divers!
In Claim One or More Exhibits, players are able to claim an Exhibit card if they have the matching treasure types in their display. If you match the order exactly as it is on the the card you gain the bonus. The treasures are discarded and the card is kept for victory points. You may do this multiple times in one turn.
The final step you may do on your turn is to Buy an Aquarium Piece if you would like to. If you have the seashell cost to purchase a piece in the market you may do so. You must start an aquarium with the bottom pieces first and then you can add middle pieces as much as you would like and a top piece as well. Each of the bottom and middle pieces score points on them and the top pieces score based on what is in the tank. You may have any number of tanks going at any time and they do not need to be complete to score.
The game ends once you complete a certain number of Exhibit cards, based on player count they are also equal to the number of Divers you have. Scores are totaled off of your Exhibits, your Aquarium pieces and your Vault.
What could be better:
Symbols. I think this game is a straight forward game once you start playing it but there are a lot of “this does that” points to remember especially with the seashells and the treasures and how to score them that can be a bit daunting for new to the game players. Some type of improved understanding or player help card that each player had would be better for explanations throughout the game. I’ve found each time I play this with new players that I need to continue to go over the details quite a bit.
Scoring. I like the scoring and set collections for the Exhibits and the Aquariums but the vault seems off in comparison. It scores easy enough but new to the game players seem to always slip up here on the rows vs unique pieces scoring and how to do that. Again, maybe better visuals would help.
What I liked:
Simplicity of play. Now I’m not saying this is a simple game but it is simple to play. I appreciate games that can be set-up and played fairly easily for new and veteran players. This one is smooth for what it is and is not daunting.
Art. I love the art of the fish tank pieces and honestly wish it was bigger. The treasures and other parts are pretty simple but those Aquarium pieces and the board as a whole really stand out. The colors are vibrant and really jump you right in.
Kid-friendly. From theme to gameplay this one is a great game for the whole family. My son really liked the dice chucking and the meeples. He was able to grasp gameplay well and be competitive through the whole game.
Length of play. I don’t often comment on this, but the game length of play felt just right. It wasn’t quick and done and once the game comes to a close it felt just right. This resounded even through multiple plays with different people playing it. I really appreciate that from a game and this one delivers.
Overall:
Wreck Raiders really delivers. It is everything I want in a game that offers strategy and choice but is still accessible for new or young players. There are many different opportunities to score and try to one up another player while still having to be careful not to help someone else at the same time. I love the variety of gameplay within the game while still being very streamlined turn to turn.
The theme and design is solid and really throws you into the water, the beach and the business of collecting and selling the treasures you reap. This game is a beautiful piece to setup on the table as well-the art and overall look of this really attracted players over to the board as we have played it a few different times. This game is easily in my top 10 of this year in our house! If you get a chance to pick this one up, don’t hesitate to adding it to your collection. Overall I would highly recommend Wreck Raiders as a must-have for your next game night!
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