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OctoDice

underwater research

Octodice  - a dice game based on the board game AquaSphere, you research the deep oceans. Bots are out of order and you must expand laboratories, research crystals, reactivate bots and catch Octopods yourself. Three white dice show action symbols and an octopus, three black dice show numbers on colored backgrounds and an octopus. Nine laboratory tiles are lined up in three rows for the levels 0, 1 and 2.

In each of six rounds with one turn per player you roll those six dice, set aside two per roll and, after three rolls, combine one white action die with a black sector die showing color+number for one action and can implement two actions. Options for actions are crystals for the points on the black die, research with color, laboratory with number for advancing on the tiles, Submarine with color – in combination with bots – and octopods with a supplementary rule. To implement an action you cross it out on your score sheet. Two turns represent a third of the game, twice in such a third you can use any two dice from a roll of another player. After each third there is an scoring for submarines in relation to bots of the same color; if you did not cross out both octopods you lose two points. After the third intermediate scoring and a bonus scoring for crystals and laboratory expansions you add up your points and win with most points.

This is a nice abbreviated version of AquaSphere which is at its best if you know AquaSphere; if not the topic seems a bit forced. Clever mechanism details like using other players’ dice and forced action for octopods make the dilemma of what to do with your turns even more thrilling.

Players: 1-4

Age: 10+

Time: 30+

Designer: Chris Toussaint

Artist: Dennis Lohausen, Andreas Resch, Hans-Georg Schneider

Price: ca. 15 Euro

Publisher: Pegasus Spiele 2015

Web: www.pegasus.de

Genre: Dice placement

Users: With friends

Special: 1 player

Special: Many players

Version: multi

Rules: de en

In-game text: no

Comments:

Based on AquaSphere

Clever mechanism details

Too much to do for six turns

Compares to:

AquaSphere for basic idea and mechanisms

All games with dice placement for actions

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 2

Tactic (turquoise): 2

Strategy (blue): 2

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 0

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 1

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0