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Buy this game. That is my review for Into The Blue. I can provide more details (and I will below) but I implore you to buy this game for your collection.
Reiner Knizia is one of the most prolific game designers and I have pretty much enjoyed every game of his that I have played. As he releases so many games a few slip through the cracks and this is one of those. Released in 2021 by FunnyFox this is a Push Your Luck, Yahtzee, Area Control game set under the sea where to win you will need to be lucky and make good choices.
Dive, Dive, Dive
What a cover. You are looking at a lovely small box with so many details on the picture from manta rays, octopus, clown fish, coral, sharks, divers, shipwrecks but most important of all Treasure.
Opening the box is even more of a delight as you will find an incredibly well written rule book (also beautifully illustrated), a double layered main board with treasures adorning the sides, six of the loveliest chunky dice, five sets of seashells in glorious player colours and a series of treasure chests and reward points which go into the recesses in the board.
The quality doesn’t stop there as you also have a lovely clear insert to keep all of these components in and on the inside of both the top and bottom of the box you have more gorgeous underwater artwork. One negative point to mention is the fiddly nature of putting the seashells back into the insert when you finish playing but that is just a minor grumble.
For the price you pay for this game you will never find better value for money for the components alone and the fact that the game is also amazing makes this one of the best value games I own.
How Deep Can You Go
To play a game you need to put the treasure chests (face down) in the recess on the bottom of the board and then place the points bonuses (face up) in the relevant spaces along the side (for a 2 to 3 player game you only use one of the secondary bonuses). Then give each player their seashells and you are ready to begin.
The starting player takes all six dice and rolls them. The ultimate aim is to have the numbers 1,2,3,4,5 and the treasure chest across the dice which would enable you to dive to the bottom of the board and collect a treasure chest at random. If you are ever lucky enough to do this you will also have another fresh turn.
When you roll your dice you may choose to reroll some or all of them two more times. You may keep back any dice numbers you are happy with and just reroll a few. Your dives can only go as low as the highest number in sequence so having a 1,2,4 then 5 will only allow you to dive to the number 2 slot. What’s even more frustrating is when you don’t roll a 1 at all (despite rerolling twice more) meaning your dive is completely unsuccessful and you have to pass the dice to the next player and end your turn.
When you have finished rolling your dice (assuming you were not successful in retrieving a treasure chest) you then place your seashells in the one spot of your choosing according to the final results of your dice. So if you had rolled a 1,2,2,3,3,4 you may place 1 sea shell in the 1 position, 2 in the 2, 2 in the 3 or 1 in the 4. The bonus points are higher the lower your dive was so placing 1 shell in the 4 position might be advantageous.
This is where the area control comes in as at the end of the game each area is measured by which player has the most shells and they will receive the highest bonus with the lower bonus going to the player with the second most (in a 4 to 5 player game the player with the 3rd most would also get a bonus). If ever there is a tie you then look at the next stage up to see who has the most in that section and they would win the tie. If the next stage up doesn’t help you look above again until you can resolve the tie. If the tie is still not resolved by level 1 the player with the most unplaced shells wins. If this still doesn’t resolve the tie the player who last took their turn earlier wins.
As previously mentioned if at any point whilst playing you roll a 1,2,3,4,5 and treasure chest you get to claim a treasure chest and then have another go with two rerolls in your back pocket. I have played a few games where one player managed to claim two treasure chests on their turn and in addition leave 2 of their seashells in the number 5 spot. Needless to say they won the game.
The game ends when either all of the treasure chests are claimed (in which case the game ends immediately) or when one player places their last seashell (in which case all other players get one more turn). The winner of the game is the player with the most points.
Am I Feeling Blue
Get this game now. Go. You need Into The Blue in your collection. Reiner Knizia has done it again. He has turned a simple variation of a mechanism we already know and like and turned it into something glorious. The amazing components, the tactile feel of the dice, the shout out load moments, the hilarity when someone busts, these are just some of the reasons why I love this game so much.
I can’t wait to teach this game to new players as it only takes a few minutes to explain all of the rules. So far I have had a 100% success rate in teaching this game and that even includes people who never normally will play a board game with me.
