Players: 2-4
Time: 2 hours
Difficulty: 5 (of 10)

This game was simultaneously produced in Germany by Kosmos.

The Components

Nautilus is the game that stops me everytime I walk by a Mayfair booth at a gaming convention, due to the general beauty and evocativeness of its components:

• 1 board
• 41 station modules
• Plastic Bits:
  • 60 researchers
  • 12 submarines
  • 80 module markers
• 4 player boards
• Cardboard Bits:
  • 60 discovery tiles
  • 4 special orders
  • 30 victory point markers
  • 1 first player disk
• 1 Ruins of Atlantis Board
• 80 Nemos

Board: The board is a somewhat plain map which shows the depths of the ocean at fourth depths (lagoon, slope, deep sea, and abyss), and in four different shades of blue. It’s printed as a six-panel linen-textured cardboard map. Colored highlights on the board show where discovery tiles should be placed.

Station Modules: These are the first of the really cool looking components in the game. They’re octagonal modules which form an undersea base. They fit onto the board, roughly over 9 board spaces each, and can fit together in a couple of different ways to form some quite varied base designs.

There are two different types of modules: 20 habitation modules and 20 research modules. The first just serve to house researchers, while the second provide various technological innovations, each clearly marked by an icon in the middle of the module, and by that technology's individual color (both of which are also noted on each player board). Overall, these modules are easy to use.

Plastic Bits: These bits are all molded in detailed hard plastic in the four player colors (red, orange, purple, and yellow). Each player gets 15 researchers, 20 module markers, and 12 subs.

The subs are the absolute winners of this set. They look like a combination of walrus and submarine and fit in the squares on the board perfectly. The researchers are little men, and the module markers are just circles that fit are dropped onto the research modules to mark ownership (and actually don't fit that well, since it's easy for them to cover the icon in the module which most clearly marks what it does).

The plastic bits are the second element in the components which really and truly work.

Player Boards: These slightly flimsy boards are printed on cardstock rather than cardboard. Each one lists the players research module levels at left (each marked with color and icon), along with a decription the use of each module. There's an area for discoveries at top right, and then a big overview at bottom right. Because there is so much text on this card, it's not particularly visually appealing, however it is quite useful during gameplay.

Cardboard Bits: All the cardboard in this game is printed full-color on thick, linen-textured stock.

The fronts of the discovery tiles depict the various things you can find underwater, with certain "free" discoveries (treasure chests and undersea currents) helpfully displaying a brown background, to keep them separate. The backs, meanwhile, show one of the three region colors, so you know where the discovery should be placed on the board.

The special orders simply show two of the discoveries, so you know which ones you get bonus points for.

The victory point markers are square bits of cardboard. Each player gets a "0/1" victory point marker, which he places of his research module status, starting at 0 and flipping it to 1 when he has enough modules. There's also a "3" point marker which is given to the current leader. Each of these shows the number large and is color coded with one of the five module types.

Finally, the first marker disk is a large, attractive submarine printed on a disk, which shows you who is currently going first.

Ruins of Atlantis Board: This medium-sized cardboard display has space for the fifteen Atlantis discoveries, along with a space under each discovery for a plastic module marker, to show player ownership. It's a nice visual for who has discovered the most of Atlantis.

Nemos: These are just money, printed in two denominations of 1 and 5 on colored paper. The colors are a bit close in color (light and dark blue) and the money is fairly flimsy, as tends to be the case with printed money in most games.

Box & Tray: The box is a fairly normal square box. The tray is quite nice, with individual spaces for almost all the components.

As I said at the start, Nautilus is a game that tends to stop me whenever I see it set up for play. The pieces are very attractive, sturdy, and generally quite intuitive. They earn a full "5" out of "5" for Style.

The Gameplay

The object of Nautilus is to simultaneously build up a good presence in the underwater city and make great discoveries beneath the waves. Beyond that, I'm going to go slowly, because it's complex (generally, overly so).

Setup: The game starts out with the undersea map being laid in the middle of the table; an octagonal base station module in placed in the center of the lagoon (the shallowest of three ocean depths) and 60 discovery tiles are placed face down in the other three ocean depth levels (the slope, the deep sea, and the abyss), with the position of each type of discovery shown on the board.

Each player takes a color, and gets researchers, submaries, and module markers in that color. In addition, each player gets: a player board, which he'll use to list his technological innovations; a random special order card, which lists two types of discoveries that are more valuable to him; and 45-55 Nemos (cash), depending on the number of players.

Order of Play: Each round is composed of three phases, with each individual phase going in player order. The actions of the phases are:

1. Develop the Underwater City
2. Deploy Researchers
3. Operate Submarines
4. Change First Player

Develop the Underwater City: The object of this phase is to bring new researchers into the underwater base (to laterstaff research modules) and to bring new research modules into the base (which you'll staff to increase the efficiency of your submarines, and also earn victory points). The phase is divided into two parts: buying a module and adding modules. Each player gets to buy and add modules in turn order.

Buying a Module. There are two module types to buy, habitation modules and research modules.

Habitation modules costs between 1-4 Nemos, depending on how many researchers come with them. (You'll almost buy them with the max, which is 3 or 4 depending on number of players.) There are two types of habitation modules, with their main difference being how they hook into the underwater city (either via the orthagonal or diagonal airlocks).

Research modules cost 1 Nemo. They come in 5 types, which correspond to the 5 types of technology: training modules, engineering modules, sonar modules, laboratory modules, and analysis modules.

Up to 4 of each type of module can be built. Each one provides a specific benefit to players once they're activated (which happens in the next phase). Generally, each module gives increased capability when you activate 1 of that module type, then more increased capability and a victory point when you activate 2. Activating 3 or 4 of a module type are only beneficial for achieving additional victory points as the player with the lead in that technology. (And we'll look into activating more in a second.)

Here's what each module does:

Training Module: Increase speed of researchers from 3 to 4 to 5.
Engineering Module: Increase speed of subs from 4 to 5 to 6.
Sonar Module: Increase range of sonar from 4 to 5 to 6.
Laboratory Module: Increase number of discoveries that can be looked at after a scallop or conch discovery, from 0 to 1 to 2.
Analyis Module: Increases value of treasure chests from 2 to 3 to 4.

Adding Modules. You can place any number of modules on the board at once for a single cost equal to the deepest water depth covered by a part of a placed module module (from 1 to 4). Modules are connected up to each other via airlocks, which can either be orthagonal or diagonal.

(There are also a lot of very fiddly rules about when you can hold onto modules and when you can buy them and when you can build them as a result that I'm not even going to try and summarize here. The goal is, I believe, to prevent hoarding of modules that other people might want to use. Why a single, and simpler, purchase-and-place phase wasn't used instead, I don't know.)

Deploy Researchers: Again starting with the first player, each player may now move his researchers. A player gets to move up to two researchers a total sum of between 3 and 5 spaces, depending on level of Training Module.

If a player ever ends his researcher's movement in a research module which he has not already activated, he automatically activates that module. The researcher may no longer move from that space and the player moves a marker up one space on the appropriate technology track on his player board. This may give him more capabilities (as described above) and may increase his victory points (if this is the second of the module type he has activated or if he's passed the previous leader on that module type).

You can activate research modules placed by other players. You just have to pay them 1 Nemo. A module can be activated by 1 researcher per player, all at the same time.

Operate Submarines: Once more starting with the first player, each player may now, in order: launch subs; use sonar; move subs; and make discoveries.

Launch Subs. If there are two researchers in a research module with a blue airlock (that's the orthagonal one) opening on ocean, then you may remove one researcher and place a sub outside the airlock.

Use Sonar. You can use sonar to look at all discovery tiles that are 4-6 spaces (depending on technology level) from one of your subs for a cost of 1 Nemo (and you can do that for each sub).

Move Subs. You can move each sub between 4-6 spaces (depending on technology level). Subs ending their turn next to air locks can also turn back into researchers.

Make Discoveries. If one of your submarines moves on to a discovery tile, its turn ends immediately. The player flips the discovery tile and must take it.

Many tiles are regular discoveries (conches, scallops, krill, sea urchins, and gold), which are worth 0-2 victory points, with some tiles having more value for certain players based on their individual special orders. Conches and scallops, which have a normal value of 0, also allow the players to look at between 0-2 other face-down discovery tiles (depending on technology level), placing them back face-down afterward.

Some tiles are ruins of Atlantis tiles, which the player places on the ruins of Atlantis board, with one of his module markers next to the piece.

Any of the above tiles cost the player when he takes it: 1 Nemo unless it's taken from the Abyss, in which case the cost is 2.

There are also two "free" discoveries:

An underwater current, which allows the player to move any of his subs up to 3 spaces.

A treasure chest which gains the player 2-4 Nemos (depending on technology level).

Change First Player: Finally, the first player marker shifts clockwise.

I list this separately because it's entirely crucial to the gameplay. As we'll see in a second, a player gets extra victory points for research by being the first one to reach a certain technology level. This is hard to do if you're not the first player, because you can build a new module, then have other people come and use it first, but easy to do if you are the first player, because you can build first, then move first, assuring yourself first usage.

Ending the Game: The game has some complex end-game conditions. It ends: on the round all 15 Atlantis tiles are discovered; on the any round when no player builds anything or makes any discoveries; or on the round after the three more valuable Atlantis discoveries are made.

Now the scoring begins.

First each player reveals his special orders. He may then upgrade the value of each discovery tile of that type by 1 for a cost of 1 Nemo per. (Discoveries are usually worth from 0-2 depending on type; each special order lets a player upgrade one of the "0" discovery values and one of the "1" discovery values to the next highest value ["1" or "2"]; for example one special order might increase all conches and krill for that player--if he can pay.)

Then, points are distributed for Atlantis discoveries. Depending on the number of players and the amount of Atlantis that each discovered, each player earns from 1-5 points here.

Totalling the value of the various underwater discoveries, including upgrades and Atlantis points gives a discovery score.

Now each player looks at his research chart. For each of the five types of technology, the player has a score of 0, 1, or 3. It's 0 if he only has 0 or 1 research modules of that type activated. It's 3 if he has 2 or more research modules activated, and either has the most of that type, or is tied but was the first one there. It's 1 if he has 2 or more research modules activated, but not the most (or wasn't the first one there).

Totalling the value of these 5 technologies gives the research score.

Now each player multiplies his research and discovery scores to find his victory points.

The player with the most victory points is the winner.

Relationships to Other Games

Nautilus (2002) is what I'd call a second-generation German game. The designers came into the field through The Settlers of Catan (1995), contributed scenarios to that game, and eventually ended up designing a game of their own.

Nautilus combines together two main types of play (in a somewhat clunky matter, but more on that in a second): building and exploration.

The building element is very simplistic, with only a single resource type being expended (the Nemo), though there's clearly some interaction with a second resource (researchers). You can find this type of simplistic building scattered across various games, including the recent St. Petersburg (2004).

The exploration element is a an arbitrary-exploration model, which means discoveries are determined by flipping up random tiles. Other recent examples of this gameplay (which is used by most exploration games) include Entdecker (2002) and Anno 1503 (2003), though Nautilus offers a particularly low level of player control compared to others (because the sonar sweeps intended to increase a player's ability to decide what he gets actually turn out to be of minimal utility).

The Game Design

As you may have guessed by now, Nautilus is a game that I don't really like. I've actually had a really hard time rating (and thus reviewing) it. I think it has some fundamental game design issues, but the biggest problem for me is that I think it has a very, very narrow audience based on the way the game is designed, and I've been at a bit of loss as to how to represent that. But, I'll get back to this.

First, the good design:

Great Theme: As I've said before, I think the theming of the game is great. It really shines in both the components and the game play.

Nice Map Building: I always appreciate games where you get to build the map as you play, and you do get to do this in Nautilus through the construction of the Underwater City. I'm not sure how many of the decisions in the construction are meaningful, but it's still neat to see the city slowly expand.

And here's what I didn't like:

False Strategy: There's very little opportunity for real strategy in the game, and instead you have systems that imply strategy, but don't actually support it. Choosing which technology to advance implies strategy, but in actuality everyone is making the same decisions to get up to at least the "2" technology level, and there's little room for specialization. Choosing where to place modules in the city implies strategy, but in actuality the only important decisions are about whether researchers and research modules are in proximity, and as often as not you'll probably place them down at the same time. There's not even much strategy in moving your subs. You generally get the closest discoveries, slowly moving toward further ones.

There are tactics in the game, but they're largely obvious.

Futile Chases: The game is full of futile chases. You can never catch up with someone who wants to stay ahead on a certain type of technology and you likewise can never catch up to a sub that's streaming ahead of you (since everyone is going to be at that same max sub speed of "6" to get their victory point). Futile chases aren't a lot of fun.

End Game May Be Anti-Climatic: If you game ends with everyone ceasing exploration and building (as has been the case with both of my playtests), the ending feels very anticlimatic, as things just fizzle out.

Scoring Opaque: Having to multiply together two different victory scores makes the scoring almost totally non-intuitive.

Players Can Severely Disadvantage Selves: This is a game where a first time player can really screw up. The most obvious thing for them to do wrong is not save enough Nemos to increase the value of their special orders, but also the ideas surrounding buying habitats and research modules are opaque enough that a first time player is likely to make bad decisions. No, no game has to be totally open to first time players, but this one seems particularly bad.

Needless Complexity: There's a lot of needless complexity in the game, or what I'd call "fiddly" rules. The scoring is one such, as are the rules I mentioned about whether you can buy or place modules. There's an easily forgotten rule about getting to move a researcher 2 spaces when you make an Atlantis discovery, and another about how you can only sonar into the Abyss if you're in the Abyss. Very few of these add much to the game.

Some Issues with Two Player Game: The game plays OK with two players, but the value of Atlantis is dramatically reduced for a couple of different reasons. This introduces a new element of frustration ("found that stupid Atlantis again!") that could have been avoided through better design.

Bad Complexity / Random Ratio: Finally, I'm just not convinced there's a market for this game. The level of randomness is really high, based largely on the exploration discoveries. In fact, I think it largely determines the winner of the game. That'd be fine if this were a family game (which I think is the intent). However, a lot of the game is really complex, including pretty much everything about how the city works and definitely the scoring. That'd be fine if this were a gamer's game, but it's not due to the randomness and the false strategy. Further, with both of these elements in play, I think the game is only going to appeal to a very narrow demographic.

If I thought the game had a wide audience as either a family or gamer's game I'd rate it on that criteria, and I'd probably give it a "3" out of "5" for Substance. However, I don't think that's the case, and though I'm sure there are some people who will precisely like this game, I think they're a pretty small demographic. Family gamers would do better to play something simpler, like Pirate's Cove and strategic gamers would do better to play something more thoughtful, like (from what I've heard) Entdecker. I don't know a single person who would actually prefer this game to one of the alternatives, so I've only given it a "2" out of "5" for Substance.

Before I close off, I will mention that the first time I played this game the other players and I talked for a while about how to fix the game. Our prime idea centered around increasing strategy by increasing the differentiation of players based on their technological advances. Some ideas that we came up with for this included: paying other players more for using their research modules (e.g., 2 or 3 Nemos); and continally increasing bonuses for every level of technological increase, not just the first two. Another interesting idea we came up with was auctioning off who went first each round (or doing a New England style "auction", where the earlier a player went, the more everything cost). I think these ideas alone could have increase the Substance of Nautilus to "3" for a more strategic player, but as always I rate games based on what's in the box (or on the web site in the FAQ).

Conclusion

Nautilus is a beautifully produced game that I find generally flawed and not the best choice for either a family gamer or a more serious strategist. It's a pity given the gorgeous pieces.

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