Aqua: Biodiversity in the Oceans

• Designers: Dan Halstad and Tristan Halstad
• Publisher: the op Games
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 8+
• Time: 45 minutes
• Played with game provided by publisher

In AQUA, your starting point is a hot spot that gradually becomes surrounded by expanding coral formations. These corals serve as habitats for small marine animals. By fostering biodiverse habitats, you can then create ideal conditions for attracting the largest marine animals.  AQUA plays over 17 rounds. On your turn, you must take a new coral tile from the market and add it to your reef, then you may also attract animals to your ecosystem if you create the correct patterns of coral. At the end of the game, the player who grew the best coral formations and attracted the most large and small sea animals will score the most points and win. AQUA invites you to dive into the beauty and wonder of the ocean, delivering an incredible variety of gameplay experiences for the whole family.

Each player starts with a random hotspot tile and the Ecosystems to be used in your game are placed in a line on the table.  One small animal is placed above each ecosystem; this animal is now the native special for that particular ecosystem. Then the large animals are placed above the ecosystems.  Somewhere else on the table, set up the coral supply and reveal a market of N+1 tiles.  Someone is given the Sea Snail token.

The game is played over 17 rounds, and the player with the Sea Snail token takes the first turn and then play goes clockwise.  To start each round, the Sea Snail holder sets up the coral market by revealing one tile per player and placing it in the market.  When this is done, the Sea Snail token is placed into the market as well.   

Each player turn now has three phases: Grow Coral, Create Habitats and Reefs, Establish Biodiversity.

Grow Coral: Take an available tile from the market and place it in your coral reef so that at least one side from the new tile is adjacent to an existing tile of the same color.  You could also choose to take the Sea Snail tile instead, which defers your turn until all other players have gone. (If no one chooses the Sea Snail, the last player in turn order takes it and then takes their regular turn).

Create Habitats and Reefs:  Habitats are formed when you make a full hexagon of a single color (this will require three different coral tokens).  When you do this, place a small animal of the matching color on top of it.  Reefs are formed when you connect 4+ coral sections of the same color in a contiguous blob.

Establish Biodiversity – now you may attract a Large Animal, which must be placed on top of at least one Small Animal you placed this round. Large animals must rest completely on Small Animals, and each small animal underneath must be of a different type.

The next player then takes their turn going through the same three phases. When all players have taken their turn (remembering that the Snail Token holder goes last), there will be one coral tile left in the market.

photo from publisher

After 17 Rounds the game ends – you will know this also because you will not have Coral tiles left to refill the market.  At this point, the game is scored.  Players score points for:

• Large Animals – score points as shown on Large Animals then discard them
• Small Animals – score points as shown on Small Animals
• Reefs – for each Reef, score points shown on all Small animals adjacent to it
• Ecosystems – score each of the 6 Ecosystem tiles based on the scoring criteria shown on it. Some criteria are local (requiring things to be directly adjacent) while others are global (can be scored anywhere)

The player with the most points wins. Ties broken in favor of earlier turn order in the final round.

My thoughts on the game

Sidekick Games states that they want to make “Generational Games” – The Sidekick Games’ Generational Game philosophy centers around two important criteria:

Enjoyed by all generations
Simply stated the game embodies “fun”, with captivating and intuitive game play that everyone will enjoy. The game is streamlined around this core essence, and then refined through years of relentless development to create endless variability and emergent play patterns that will challenge even the seasoned gamer.

Built to last generations
It must be a high quality product. Illustrations, components and graphic design solutions are carefully chosen to enhance the play experience, not to increase the profit margins. It is a game where you can feel the love and care our team puts into each and every small detail.

I think that this game has the potential to meet both of their criteria.  In general, the game is fun, and fairly easy to play. It is quick, and it looks great on the table.  I would not necessarily say that the play is intuitive due to the rulebook.

There are a few places in the rules which are not written/edited well.  The description of a habitat is very poorly worded, and while there is a clarification on BGG from the designer, the majority of game buyers don’t use BGG regularly, so a lot of people may end up with a more difficult game because they play with incorrect rules.  Our group (as well as two others that I’ve talked to) had a hard time understanding the scoring rules because the terms Small Animal (tile on the board) and Native Small Animal (type of animal above the module) are confusing.   Also, to be a rules lawyer, many of the modules say “For every native Small Animal you have”… but the gameplay would suggest that this would be for every tile matching the one above.  Or at least that’s what I think.  Finally, the rules have a bit of a loophole in the first turn; where the rules tell you not to setup the market (as you’ve done it in game setup) – but then there could be confusion as to where the snail token goes.  Common sense would tell you that the Sea Snail would be returned by the initial start player, but yet, that’s not what a strict reading of the rules would tell you.  In any event, this confusion that we have is indicative of what others will experience, and that’s less than awesome.  The designers have stated on BGG that they will update the rules, but that doesn’t help people who get this rulebook and have no idea what BGG is..  

Components are great. Really thick tiles give the game some heft, and the beautiful art helps with the table presence.  One thing I’d recommend is keeping the stacks of Small Animals off to the side.  Place a single tile above each scoring module so you can see what the Native Small Animal is – but keep the stacks somewhere else so that the information on the scoring module itself isn’t obscured by the towering stacks.  I should also mention that the storage setup is nice; they provide dividers for you to punch and then assemble in the box bottom to give a nice way to keep everything organized.

The turn format is pretty simple and each turn plays quick.  Having played a few games, I’m now in the habit of warning people at the start that the game will likely end before they want it to; and to temper their expectations on how many large animals they will be able to place.  I do like the decision making process around the snail token. If the ideal tile isn’t available to you, it might be worth just going last and taking whatever is left in order to have the  best pick next turn.

photo from publisher

The rulebook offers scenarios with longitudinal achievements/challenges which frankly we haven’t delved into. I’m not looking at a game like Aqua for a legacy or campaign type experience which is what these charts are suggesting (things like scoring targets, gameplay restrictions or achievements, etc) – but it’s there for people who want that sort of thing.  Assuming your game group is stable, you can keep the same player color and mark off the things as you achieve them over 20 to 30 plays.  

For me, the game is a nice one-off experience in the super filler space; a nice game to start or end game night with.  Just make sure that everyone understands the six scoring modules in play and how they work – and we’re to the point now where we just draw six random ones out of the box.   With updated rules this could certainly be considered a gateway game, so I hope that happens in the future.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Lorna: (2 plays) I have only played 2 player games. The tiles are nice and thick cardboard and the insert works. The art is very colorful but I find the art distracts a bit from seeing the small animals. The game is a bit more challenging than it looks, which for me is a good thing. I agree with Dale in that the end game comes up very fast leaving me wishing for an extra turn or two. The forced ending may make AP an issue as people calculate how to maximize their score the last few rounds. Overall it’s a pleasant game in the tile placement genre. 

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale, Steph H, John P, Lorna
• Neutral. 
• Not for me…