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16 February is World Whale Day – a whale day to celebrate these majestic leviathan! Maui’s celebration was originally limited to humpback whales, but the day has since expanded to showcase them all. And in our usual style, we can’t let these mammoth mammals be celebrated without playing some games in their honour! So here are 5 games which are whaley awesome (I know, it’s terrible but I couldn’t resist!)
Ecosystem Coral Reef
There are a few versions of Ecosystem now, but Coral Reef is probably my favourite in terms of the artwork. It’s a fast playing, tableau building, close drafting game for 1-6 players which really pops on the table. In the game, you are trying to create a grid of 5 x 4 cards which will produce the most points. Each underwater species has its own scoring criteria, and they either have a spatial or frequency requirement in order to pay out. What’s more, to replicate the Great Barrier Reef from which it takes its inspiration, there’s a hierarchy to respect. You’ll gain bonus points if you can balance predators, producers, and prey in your ecosystem productively.
There’s also a great solo mode where you are building and scoring against the tableau being created by the AI (Mocha). But have no fear – you won’t waste thinking time on their placement – each card they take is positioned according to a prescribed pattern. Your job will be to make sure you counter every advantage they get!
Oceans
Oceans is the whale of this list – the heaviest and deepest of all the suggestions. Part of the original North Star Evolution series of games, it’s a box full of strategic card play and engine building where you are creating and improving marine species to ensure your survival. To do this, you’ll need to add specific traits which will help them fend off (or become!) predators.
As well as balancing the eat-or-be-eaten Apex predator dilemma, you’ll also need to consider whether there is enough to eat from the fishies in the reef, and some of these species have a whaley big appetite! The longer you can keep a species alive and evolving, the more points it will be worth. Ageing like a fine wine, you want to keep them thriving and avoid extinction.
Not only that but the game throws you curve-balls by introducing scenarios which could be good or could be bad. Either way, there will be some unexpected effect. But nothing compares to the Cambrian Explosion which doubles the speed of play and introduce Deep cards which offer over 100 ways to shore up your species.
Oceans is a beautiful looking game that will take you on a journey. With synergies and synchronisation key, this is a great game to take your time to celebrate World Whale Day in style.
Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean is a teeny game in a tiny tin, but don’t let that fool you. It’s a lovely wee fast playing, portable 18 card set collection game for 1 – 2 players that takes less than 10 minutes to play. In the game, you are trying to populate your underwater sanctuary by attracting beautiful aquatic species. But you don’t get a free choice. Each turn, you’ll have to choose between a face up and a face down card selected by your opponent. The one you don’t take is added to their own sanctuary. Then, with the card you have, you need to decide whether you are going to use it for its icons or its scoring criteria (which uses the icons).
With only 6 turns in the whale game, every single decision counts! The artwork is gorgeous, and the Kickstarter edition contains a lovely solo mode with AIs of varying difficulty.
Fish n Flip
Trash! No, not this game! I mean the scourge of the sea! Our oceans are a pool of plastics and other pollutants, and the Fun by Nature range by Coiledspring and Helvetiq is raising awareness in an entertaining and eco-conscious way. A bit like Tetris in gameplay, you will be adding sea dwelling species cards to columns in the hope of making sets which you can then free. Using actions to flip and move cards around, as well as asymmetric special powers, you’ll be looking not only to this turn but planning future moves as the cards remaining in the columns slide down. So far so straightforward. But pollution cards which are drawn from the deck cannot be so easily removed and can cause your columns to fill up too fast!
Work together to free as many species as you can before any column reaches the trawler boat on the surface. With a lovely fast solo mode, and a campaign where you use combinations of special powers, this is a blue-hued, fun, light card based game.
Dive
It’s time to go deep…..whaley whaley deep into the cold, dark ocean. How far you go depends upon how far you are willing to push your luck, however. In Dive, all players simultaneously decide how far they each want to dive, but you need to accurately predict what you are going to encounter at each underwater level. Good (see marvellous manta rays and terrific turtles!) or bad (beware those sneaky sharks!), you can stack appropriate tokens and then go for as long as you have air to spare.
With really unique transparent cards and beautiful components, Dive is a light but intriguing planned movement game that will definitely leave an impression!
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