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Nauticus
Authors: Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling
Publisher: Kosmos
Year: 2013


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The rules of Nauticus start in a rather old-fashioned way:  'Die Spieler Schlüpfen in die Rollen von ...', which is very recognizable by the experienced board gamer. The role we get to play in Nauticus is not just a single one: we are supposed to be entrepreneurs who build ships consisting of hulls, masts and sails, buy goods and transport these goods on the newly build ships. The success of the enterprise is measured by the size and number of finished ships and the amount of goods delivered. Of course, this measurement is done by scoring points, and whoever has the most of these will, again maybe old-fashioned but nevertheless very satisfactory, win the game.

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All the enterprise activities in Nauticus are implemented by an action mechanism that is similar to Puerto Rico: on his turn a player chooses an action that includes a bonus; then all the other players may perform the same action, but without the bonus. One round of the game consists of 7 different actions chosen in a clockwise order by the players, and the game consists of 5 (3-4 players) or 4 rounds (2 players). The 8 possible actions are represented by action tiles that at the beginning of each round are placed randomly on the central board, in a circular fashion. The board has pre-printed the bonuses and prices associated with each action. At the beginning of the game each player gets some money and a number of workers that are required to fulfil the actions. Furthermore, each player gets a warehouse to store the parts that cannot or may not be built yet. Finally, each player gets three pass tokens, with on one side a crown symbol, and on the other side a number (1, 2 or 3).

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Four of the eight possible actions are available to buy these parts; these action tiles are indicated by the light-blue colour. Three actions serve to obtain and build ship parts (hull/mast/sail), while one action is available to buy goods. Both ship parts as goods are available in 4 types, each with its own costs. Ships cannot be larger than 4 hull parts. For the purchase common rules are applicable: you need to pay the indicated money, and when you buy one of each, you get one for free. You are allowed to buy more of the same type, but then you need to pay extra. Furthermore a worker needs to be sacrificed for each purchase, and anything you get for free cannot be built or loaded: it needs to be placed in the warehouse. For building the ships there is an additional, important rule: all masts and sails need to be of the same type, with as only exception the crown mast/sail, which can be placed on any ship.

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The four other actions do not cost any money and mainly facilitate the remaining logistics. One action is available to move material from the warehouse to the 'shipyard', so either adding ship parts or transfer goods to a ship -which does not have to be finished, oddly enough.  Another action makes it possible to transport the goods from the ships to some unknown destination. This can only be done from ships that are finished and are completely filled with goods. The delivered goods are placed next to the player’s warehouse until the end of the game when they are scored. What rests are an action to get some money in exchange for workers and a special action to score points for all crowns in a player’s working area. The crowns can be obtained by a special bonus action or also be passing for an action. Each time a player chooses not to perform an action, he can switch a pass token from the number side to the crown side. Any pass tokens indicating a number are counted as penalty points at the end of the round, with a maximum of 6.

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Whenever a player finishes a ship during his turn, he obtains a reward for each ship 'segment' (hull/mast/sail), so with a maximum of 4. These rewards can be workers, crown sails/masts, money, goods or victory points. These rewards can be used immediately, making it possible to finish another ship, obtain another reward that may complete another ship, and so on.

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After 4 or 5 rounds the game ends and the success of the enterprise is measured: finished ships are worth either 2, 8, 20 or 35 victory points. Identical goods score points that increase almost exponentially. All remaining stuff, in both warehouse and shipyard gives some additional victory points. The player who now has the most points may crown himself as CEO of the year!

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As usual, everything is pretty tight again in Nauticus. Money and workers are required for most actions, while also storage room can become tight as well, and the rules command that nothing can be thrown out from this warehouse. It takes a lot of optimizing the logistical planning to finish the selected ships and then also transport some goods with them. The Puerto Rico action mechanism is the nicest part of the game and provides difficult but fun choices in this planning process, but it does not lead to the tactical variety that distinguishes a game like Puerto Rico. There is no real other choice than to build ships, and the tactical choices are to build a lot of small ones,  or a few big ones. The small ones score far less points, but make it easier to deliver more goods

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On the reverse side of the box the action mechanism is being recommended as one that facilitates quick gameplay, since each player performs the same action as the active player. In practice this just isn’t true. First one has to wait what action is chosen by a player, and then one has to decide what to buy or build. A logistical error can be made quite easily, making it impossible to build, buy or deliver in a next turn. To compensate for this, especially in the last round, each player has a special one-time additional action, but this feels a bit like a patch.

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The logistical puzzle exercise makes Nauticus a typical game for experienced gamers. This is no real issue, but even in this category gamers want to have some fun, and this is what this game lacks. Everybody is deeply contemplating his own turns, groaning and moaning, without really needing to pay attention what other players are doing. For the ones who are attracted to this type of game, they should give Nauticus a try, but they should be warned that a game typically takes about 2 hours. What makes the downtime worse is the payment of rewards whenever a ship is finished. Especially when it concerns a larger ship a player needs to consider and think what he wants to get this most out of it. The rest of the players just need to wait for this to finish ...

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The graphical design of Nauticus is not really exuberant and the colouring is a bit dull. And having wooden cubes to represent workers; was there really no better option?
Nauticus gives us the exciting opportunity in our live to take on the role as a CEO of three enterprises, but makes it feel as a dull desktop-job. It’s a pity that a game with a nautical theme turns out to be so dry as dust...
© 2014 Edwin van de Sluis

Nauticus, Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling, Kosmos, 2013 - 2 to 4 players, 12 years and up, 90 minutes


Rather unoriginal theme, boring by its soundness. Confusing symbols and pale graphics.
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