Introduction: UNDER THE SEA A NEW WORLD AWAITS. Welcome to New Discoveries, the first expansion to the wildly popular game, Underwater Cities. Inside, you will discover several new components which will offer new ways to play and new strategies to explore. It is a Must-Have if you own the original game! As overcrowded metropolises spread across the earth, humanity has realized it is time to establish a new home on the ocean floor. Kelp farms can provide food. Desalination plants can provide water. And laboratories can provide the technology needed to build a network of underwater cities. Players direct the founding of their own underwater nations. They collect resources to build cities, a transportation network, and the facilities necessary to support life under the sea. Everything is accomplished by playing cards to choose various actions. If the card matches the action, the player also gains a benefit from the card. At times, the action may be so important that the player will choose it even with a non-matching card. At other times, the benefit of the card may be so good that any action is acceptable as long as the card matches it. Balancing these choices is the key to building an underwater habitat in which humanity can thrive. Underwater Cities is a game for 1-4 players and takes about 30-45 minutes per player. The players represent the most powerful brains in the world, brains nominated due to the overpopulation of Earth to establish the best and most livable underwater areas possible. Note: Underwater Cities base game required to play this expansion. |
Features: NEW CARDS - 52 cards will add new options to every deck. NEW ASSISTANTS - New assistants, each with its own special ability, will make every underwater nation unique. STARTING RESOURCE TILES - Starting resource tiles allow players to start the game with construction already underway, which speeds up the game by one round. NEW PLAYER BOARDS - New player boards are used with new game variants. This expansion also includes the original player boards reprinted with upgraded quality. NEW METROPOLISES - The green metropolises offer new benefits. They are used differently in different variants of the game, adding new strategic dimensions. MUSEUM - At the bottom of the sea, you will make new discoveries which will earn your nation prestige as you help build the international museum. How to play: PLAY ORDER: Players take turns choosing actions. They play in the order depicted on the play-order track, and this order does not change during the round. A TURN: You always start your turn with 3 cards. On your turn, you play one card and simultaneously choose one of the available action slots. That is, you choose a slot that no one else has chosen this round. (There is also a special slot, explained later, that is always available.) You place one of your action tiles on the slot to indicate that you have chosen it. This makes the slot occupied and not available for the rest of the round If the color of the card you played matches the color of the slot you chose, you also get to perform the card’s effect. If the color does not match, you just take the action and discard the card with no effect – you assigned some personnel to the job, but it was not their area of expertise, so they just did the job without accomplishing any additional tasks. At the end of your turn, you always draw 1 card. It’s also possible to draw additional cards as part of an action or card effect. If you end up with more than 3 cards, you will have to discard down to 3. You may discard any time before you take your next turn. A ROUND: Players continue until each has taken 3 turns. As cards are played, slots will be occupied, making them unavailable for those who play later in the round. The number of available slots will diminish. When everyone has taken 3 turns, it is the end of the round. The end of the round is described in detail on page. THE ERA MARKER: At the end of each round, the era marker advances one space along the era track. When it reaches a Production space, there is a Production phase. PRODUCTION: During Production, your underwater network will produce various resources. At the end of Production, each of your connected cities will consume 1 kelp. Details are on page. AN ERA: An era consists of 4 rounds in Era I and 3 in Era II and Era III. The end of each Production phase marks the end of an era. New cards will come into play, as explained on page. The game has a different deck of cards for each era. At the end of Era III, the game is done. FINAL SCORING: At the end of the game, players score various aspects of their underwater network, and the player with the most points wins. Underwater Cities: New Discoveries Expansion Includes: 8 Double-sided Layered Player Boards 1 Double-sided Museum Board 8 Personal Assistant Cards 6 Starting Resource Tiles 18 Era I Cards 15 Era II Cards 11 Era III Cards 5 Three-credit Special Cards 3 One-credit Special Cards 10 Green Metropolis Tiles 10 Farm Tokens 10 Desalination Plant Tokens 10 Laboratory Tokens 20 Discovery Tokens |
Specifications: Publisher: Rio Grande Games Release Date: 2019 Genre: Board Game Ages: 14+ Play Time: 120 minutes Players: 1-4 |