Deep Sea Adventure

Risky Business

I don’t know if your group of friends is the same as mine but somehow I don’t think buying an old submarine is one of our goals. But here in the champions of tiny box games, Oink Games presents Deep Sea Adventure and this is the story line we are presented with. In the Teal-tinged box ‘game board ‘is ready to adapt to any surface you might find yourself on.

Deep Sea Adventure is a risk-taking game, where you and your friends have to share the same oxygen supply. I suppose that’s what you get when you buy an old rusty submarine! Up to 6 players take turns rolling the two dice and dive deeper and deeper for treasure. Each of the ruin chips has points ranging from 0 to 15 points for the level 4 chips. However, there is a twist! Every time you pick up a piece of treasure you pick up means you move one space less than your roll. Each time your turn comes around the oxygen level decreases.

One of the best mechanics of this game is the method of jumping over other players. It means the game scales well. If you encounter another player you do not count the space they occupy. You simply dive deeper! Deep Sea Adventure is also a reactionary game, if one person picks up then everyone else almost always follows.

You Didn’t Say “I Am Turning Around”

In Deep Sea Adventure, once you have dipped your toes in the water you then have to decide when to return to the surface. This is one of the best player interactions when someone forgets to say the line. It’s a bit like Uno but in this case, if you do not say you are coming back then diving deeper is where you will go.

The game is played over 3 rounds which is great for new players who will almost always finish with no points in the first round. Players begin to understand that sometimes making it back with one or two lower-scoring pieces can be better than that temping level 4. When I have played it with different groups, everyone always wants to play another game. It is extremely addictive to see how many points you can get!

As treasure is picked up their slots are replaced with blank chips. These are removed at the end of each line meaning the better points get closer each round. Another good feature is that when a round comes to an end and players haven’t made It back to the surface the treasure sinks to the bottom in a big pile. If a player is brave enough they can pick up a pile of up to three treasures for the price of 1. This means the oxygen only moves 1 space each turn as well only one movement is lost.

We All Live In A Teal Submarine

Whoever was the one to buy the submarine in my group would never hear the end of it. But in Deep Sea Adventure, everything works perfectly. Gameplay is tight and competitive especially as people play more and more games. The hidden scoring on each of the level chips means you do quite know how many points others have on each round. The use of the dice with only faces with 1, 2 & 3 means that with one treasure you’ll not be able to move. In my experience, most people want just one more piece.

The main problem with this game can be if you have a risk-averse person. This can make it seem as if they aren’t trying. Often they settle for one piece of treasure while everyone

scrambles for better scores. Often in the game, people do not score points until the final round so scoring a few points the other two isn’t a bad tactic. I have found most people want to play a risky strategy and bring lots of joy to the group.

Another issue that I have just touched on is that sometimes people can score zero points. This is more of an issue if you have children or people who aren’t into board games. it can be frustrating as it is hard to gauge how fast the oxygen falls. However, I think as people learn it they get used to this feature of the game.

Stick Deep Sea Adventure in your bag, and take it to friends’ houses, it is a good gateway game. Most people tend to remember the novel concept and enjoyable playing time. For the price and convince I would highly recommend Deep Sea Adventure. You can be a seasoned gamer or a newcomer I think it deserves the tiny spot on your shelf and may you not turn back!

Welcome To The Submarine Comrades

You and your fellow divers are heading under the sea on a hunt for treasure to find the greatest riches. Whilst you are all competing rivals on the surface, none of you can afford to make the trip on your own, so everyone has pooled together their resources for this dive. It still isn’t a grand total though, so between you all there’s just the one rickety submarine and enough air to dive three times before you’ll have to resurface. You’ll need to balance bringing up the lost treasures to your sub, as only treasures that reach the submarine can be returned to the surface, along with managing the shared air supply, whether that’s to save up enough to dive down the depths yourself, or to slowly cut off air to the others and force them to drop all their treasures while you gather the easy pickings. Push your luck for the greatest rewards, if you work together with your fellow divers then you all stand to come back rich, but there can only be one winner, so it might come down to whoever decides to blink first.

Launch Preparations

To set up Deep Sea Adventure, start by placing the submarine board in the centre of the players, the air marker goes at maximum (25) and each player takes a diver meeple. Sort out all the chips by type, blank chips (with an x across them) go to one side for the time being, the remaining chips will be sorted by Level, indicated by the number of dots on the front. Shuffle each Level before laying them out in a single line to create a trail in descending order, with the Level 1’s closest to the submarine, then Levels 2 and 3 before finally finishing with the Level 4 chips. These can be laid out in any pattern you like as long as it has one single continuous line from start to finish. Decide on a starting player, either the player who has most recently been in the ocean, otherwise you can take a roll off to decide.

Treasure Hunting

The game takes place over three dives, throughout each dive the players all take turns in clockwise order beginning with the starting player, until all divers have returned to the submarine, either willingly after choosing to head back or when being forced to at the end of the round after the Oxygen runs out.

A player’s turn takes 4 steps: Reduce air; Choose direction; Move; Search.

1) Reduce air

To begin with the players won’t be using up any of the valuable air supply. However, once players start to pick up treasure then the extra weight will cause them to slowly use up the air supply. During this step reduce the air counter by 1 space for every chip the current player is holding. If the air counter reaches 0 then the current player finishes their turn, after this any divers who are not back on the submarine drop all the treasure as they swim back up – covered later.

2) Decide whether to continue or turn back

Once the air has been reduced if it needs to be, the current player decides whether to continue the dive down or to turn around and head back to the submarine. A player can only turn around once per dive, so once they start heading back up to the submarine they must continue that way for the remainder of the dive. Turn the player’s meeple around to mark they are heading up. All players must leave the submarine every dive, so this step will be skipped in the first round. Declaring to turn around must be done before the dice are rolled to see where the diver moves, if a player does not, whether they change their mind or just forget, it’s too late and they must continue moving away from the sub, sorry but that’s the rules.

3) Roll and move

Now it’s time to move your diver, roll the dice, total the pips and move your diver that many chip spaces in the direction that you’re facing, simple enough but just a few things to note. Firstly, you cannot share spaces with another diver, so if you would land on their space you instead hop over to the next available spot, but this does not use any extra movement so do not count their spot as part of your move. Secondly, any treasures you have found will reduce how far you can move due to their weight, after you roll the dice subtract one from your total for each treasure chip you are carrying, if you reach 0 or lower then your diver will not move this round and remain on the same spot, although you can still perform any treasure actions available if you wish.

If your diver reaches the last chip space on the track, or the farthest you can reach if blocked by other divers, then you must stop on that space. Next turn if there is no option to dive any further down then you must turn around in step 2 and proceed back to the submarine. If you move onto the submarine then you are safe and will get to keep your treasure, you now sit out of the round and stop using air while the rest of the divers finish the dive, you may secretly look at the underside of any treasure chips you brought back with you, then keep them to one side, they are safe and cannot be lost and will contribute to your final total, and these chips remain on the submarine so will not cause you to reduce air or move less steps on future dives.

4) Searching

Once you have moved your diver, or not depending on how many treasures you’re carrying, then you have the option to do a treasure action and search your space, but you can always opt to do nothing. If you are stood on a treasure chip you may pick it up, if you do so place it in front of you without looking at the underside, then place a blank chip under your diver. There is no treasure remaining on that space to be found but it will still take a movement to use the space.

If your diver is standing on a blank chip instead, then your treasure action would alternatively be to leave one chip on the spot, in this case you would place the selected chip under your diver, and the blank chip will go back to the store.

A reminder that for every chip you carry the air reduces by one at the start of your turn and your diver will move one space less.

Once you have completed these four steps then, provided there is air remaining, play will pass to the next player in turn order who is not on the submarine. The round concludes when all players have reached the submarine or the air runs out. If the air runs out then all divers who have not yet reached the submarine will drop all their treasure as they swim back. Starting with the player closest to the submarine any dropped treasures will be stacked at the bottom of the trail on the next available space. During this step any treasures dropped will be stacked up on the same space, up to a maximum of 3 per space, then stacking on the next space down until it contains 3 and so on. The player dropping their treasure can decide how to spread them out if they will be placed on different spaces. Continue with each player further away from the submarine dropping any carried treasures until the diver the furthest away is the last player to return to the submarine.

In future dives if a player manages to collect one of these chip stacks, then they only count as one chip for the purpose of reducing air or losing move spaces, but the player will get the full value of all 3 chips if they can bring it back. Before beginning the next dive remove any blank chips from the trail, then move the chips closer together to close up the gaps, this will make the trail shorter for the following rounds. The next dive can now begin, with the last player to return to the submarine being the start player for the round (This will be the player who was furthest away from the submarine if not all players returned to the submarine).

Richie Rich

Once all three dives are completed there is no air remaining to continue so the submarine will return to the surface. At this point each player can reveal any chips they managed to safely bring back to the sub over the three dives, some of these may turn out to be worthless and be worth 0 points at the end, whilst some deeper finds could be worth up to 15 points. The player with the highest total walks away the winner, if any players are drawn on points, then whoever has the most highest Level chips wins, otherwise it is a draw and they share the victory.

HAPPY DIVING