SURVIVE: ESCAPE FROM ATLANTIS (2019)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2-4	45 mins	Julian Courtland-Smith	Stronghold Games

In this game, you and your opponents are desperately trying to get off the sinking island and make it to dry land.

This is done by getting into boats and hauling ass across the water to one of the four corners of the board. Sounds simple, right.

Well, those waters aren’t empty. You’ll find whales trying to capsize your boats, sharks trying to eat you, and sea serpents doing it all.

And to make matters worse, those creatures of the deep are not a game-controlled mechanic with random movement. Nor do they have predictable rules.

They are controlled by your opponents!

SURVIVE: ESCAPE FROM ATLANTIS is pure ‘take that’. While you do everything you can to get as many of your 10 meeples to safety, every other person will use the end of their turn to put them in danger.

Your score comes from the different hidden values of the meeples. You can look at them at the start, and do your best to memorize where the high numbers are, but once the carnage starts, it’s just about saving as many as you can.

There is a little mitigation to the sea creatures with dice being rolled to determine which of the three gets to move.

Being ‘take that’, this obviously won’t be a game for everyone. You have to know going in that people will be out to get you. But you’ll be doing the same, targeting that meeple who was one hex away from seeing their loved ones again.

So your turn consists of moving meeples and/or boats, removing sections of island (which can give you bonuses), and then rolling that creature dice.

I’ve had a lot of fun with this one, across different gaming groups. It’s simple to teach, easy to play, and as cutthroat as your group wants to make it. It’ll have you yelling and laughing in equal measure.